The Devils Backbone

The Get Away

Cap let out a whistle as he spotted Pardon arriving a bit late through the chaos of the confused horses now trapped and running a muck in the front yards.

Cap was quick to mount "we'll get you, the rest of your things. Now go!" Benny called as Jon rushed to open the gates for them.

Cap gave the two men a tip of his hat "thanks Benny, Jon! Be seein ya!" Cap called as he lead Chyna through the gates, pushing the horses to go as fast as they could. "Benny! You're really gonna be in it for this!" The Sheriff shouted.

Chyna winced at a dull pain in her stomach, hands latched in the horses hair she was to afraid to let one hand go. "You alright?" Cap asked as side by side they entered the thick woods, "I think I pulled something trying to get up here." She said with a faint chuckle. "I c'ain't lie, I don't much like horses." She added with a sigh.

Cap smiled "all this an' that's what on your mind?" He asked. "Shamed to say it, but I'm used to runnin already." She said. Cap gave a nod, "which way we headed?" He asked. Chyna slowed down her horse as the trees had become to close together to gallop about. "This way, I think." Chyna said taking lead.

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"You aren't scared now are you Cotton?" Huck asked as the two boys walked through the long dark tunnel.

"No, I ain't been afraid of the dark  on a long time. My daddy used to say the things hidding in the dark are more afraid of me...thats why theys there. Nobody looks in the dark much." Cotton murmured, his mind wasn't concerned about the tunnel, he was more concerned about why they had to leave in such a hurry.

Sometimes - most times, he wished things would just slow down. All he wanted was a nice bowl of soup and to play a round of chess.

"How much further?" Cotton asked.

Huck shrugged "not sure, this tunnel seems longer each time I come on down here." He said.

"I sure hate how things are going, I'm gonna miss having people who don't find me tiresome." Huck said with a dry chuckle. "Jon and Benny don't seem to mind ya." Cotton said.

Huck rubbed the back of his neck "I...yeah they're good to me. Real good I guess. I mean, you, Chyna and Cap are good people. You guys got a feeling about you that makes things feel homey. Been at the estate for a few years now since Benny took me in, and I've always been on the outside looking in. With you all around I wasn't the only one." Huck murmured.

"What happened to your family?" Cotton asked.

Huck fell silent, the tunnel echoed with their footsteps.

"My Dad was...older than my Mom. He' was an older man by the time I was twelve. He was mean too, always real mad over nothing at all. Didn't  like me much at all neither but boy did I think he was  something." Huck said breaking the silence.

"He had scars everywhere, he was slave to a man who grew tobacco and corn, he also sold slaves. Dad use to say he trained men to be big and strong and smart so he could sell them for a bunch of money. Dad also said if they took a long time to return from the cornfields the guy would get nervous, paranoid he would send dogs in to retrieve anyone left. My dad got bit a few times." Huck said.

Cotton grimaced "dog bites ain't fun, I seen'd Chyna get her legs et'up." Cotton said.

"The man was known to do worse, called it tough love for his darky children... but all that made dad mean. And my mom was a tough woman too. She was real young when she had me too. She couldn't hear or speak but she knew how to read and write really well. She could scrap as Dad used to say...some days they'd fight like boxing men and she'd put me in the crawl space under the house." Huck explained.