In an America that might have been, two war orphans from a divided nation, one in the north and one in the south, meet across a vast battlefield, striking out to forge a future together in the west. It's 1892, the fourth and bloodiest year of the Ci...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Deke pushed his way under the sagging envelope and climbed up on the ship's deck. There was blood all over and up above he could hear cursing. He saw two women tangled up against the railing, one trying to stand up.
"The ship's on fire!" he yelled.
"I know!" said the shorter one, who was now standing. She started trying to rouse the other. "Come on Charity!"
"You shot him," Charity said, in a failing voice.
"It wasn't like I meant to! They practically insisted on it!" Kay said, with a tinge of panic. Then she yelled to Deke, "She's about to faint and I could use some help!" She pulled the taller woman up until she was sitting upright, but she was plainly having trouble.
Deke climbed the ladder, pushing the envelope cloth up to make way.
"Come on!" Kay said.
Deke grabbed Charity's hand and together they pulled her to her feet then laid her over the edge of the stairs. He held her shoulders as he climbed down while Kay held Charity's feet, but he slipped and fell and Charity fell on top of him.
Kay scrambled down and rolled Charity off and pulled Deke to his feet.
Deke thanked her and then asked, "Why'd you crash?"
"I'll tell you outside. We need to go. We're going to burn up!"
Together they carried Charity out from under the airship envelope out into the sunshine. Kay could see the ripple of heat in the air above the airship envelope as gas met air and caught fire.
Then Kay turned and ran back towards the burning airship.
"What are you doing!" Deke yelled, following.
"I need my money back," she said. "It's just about all we have and we've got a long way to go."
Deke ran after her, grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her around. He could see determination in her eyes lit by the fiery shine of the airship. "I'll go look. Just stay here," he said carefully in the voice he used with Ned on his bad days.
Kay thought for a second and then nodded. "It's in the captain's right pocket. He's on the lower deck somewhere."
Deke nodded, ran to the airship, and then climbed carefully back under the sagging airship envelope, pushing his way up on deck. There was lots of blood but no captain. He was about to go check the cabin when it occurred to him that when they hit everything must have slid forward. As he started sliding forward himself, he noticed that the deck was sticky. The varnish on the wood peeled up and stuck to his boots like something had dissolved it.
He had no time to think about that though because, about halfway past a big copper drum with a hole in it, he saw a pair of boots. When he lifted away the canvas, there was a man with a brimless leather hat on that buckled under his chin, and goggles too. The hat was fur lined, which was about the damnedest thing he'd ever seen someone wear. He was about to pull it off to look at it when he remembered his situation and that there were flames right above his head. Besides, the side of the man's face was badly burned. He had died curled up, gut shot by the smell, and Deke had to pull hard to roll him over. There in his pocket, right where she said, was a wad of money. He pulled it out and stuffed it in his pocket and then worked his way back out.
