Welcome To Red Cloud

Chapter Ten - Hoods In The Wood

"This is not the way things are supposed to be done, Snake Chu."

I spoke through gritted teeth, my legs wobbling as I clambered for the very edge of the pit. Snake had a hold of my legs, my boots planted on her shoulders, but she was wobbling something godawful under my weight. No matter how many times I'd suggested doing things the other way around, she'd fed me the same line that she was muttering now.

"No white man touch my legs, sucka. No way, no how."

She gave a sudden lurch, but everything seemed steadier after that. I gained purchase on a thick root sticking out of the muddy wall, and it was enough to heave myself up so that my head peeped out over the very edge of the bear trap. Even on Snake Chu's broad shoulders, we still weren't quite tall enough to get out. I sighed, heaving out another breath as I tried to pull on the root and get high enough to see out fully.

"Maybe I jump?"

"What?" My legs buckled, and I struggled to right them. "No! God no. Stay still, will you? I'm trying here."

We'd been scrambling for a fair while, and it was still too dark to see even the edge of sunrise giving the woods a gleam. So when I beheld the sight of the trees around us, nothing looked especially amiss. Black limbs rose and fell in the shadows, their thick trunks jostling to and fro in the night breeze. Until someone gave a grunt nearby. I took in a gasp of air, ready to shout for aid, but the grunt was followed by the heavy patter of feet, and then I realised that the black shapes ahead of me weren't trees, but moving figures.

"What ha-"

I kicked Snake Chu, wobbling and gripping the root again for dear life. I waved a hand down at her, not daring to shush, and I got some hisses in reply. She didn't speak again, and I studied the darkness hard for more details on the group of black shapes passing us by. They were some twelve feet or so off the path of the trap, heading in the direction we'd been going before we'd fallen in. Robed from head to toe in thick, black cloaks, each one wore a hood that stopped me seeing their faces. The grunt had been mannish, and that figure grunted again as he heaved something against his shoulder.

They were carrying the cross. The cross we'd seen the coachman burning on not an hour before. I counted the figures, unsure if there were six or seven, but I was certain that the middle three were hauling the rough-hewn logs that were tethered into a crucifix. I saw no sign of the body, though perhaps it had all burned away by now. There was only a procession of silent figures, marching with heavy, matched rhythms as they took their grim spectacle away. The one leading gave another huff of breath, and suddenly the direction of the march changed. Not quite towards us, but certainly coming nearer.

"Down!" I whispered desperately to Snake Chu, ducking my head. "Down! Down now!"

She was only part-way into her crouch before I jumped for it, hoping that the mud had caked the thud of my landing. I jumped up and spun to cover Snake's mouth at once, pinning her against the muddy wall of the pit. She jostled against me, her dark eyes wide, but after a moment the sound of the marching reached us. As her eyes rolled up to the source of the sound, I gently took my hand from her lips. We waited a long while in the dark, both looking and listening for the group's approach.

It was long after they had echoed into the distance that I was prepared to sit down again. I sat opposite Snake Chu now across the circle of the pit, each of us glancing up to a different vantage as the sky gently shifted from pure black to deep purple. Morning was slow to break, and I had no notion of when or how often Trapper Russell might come to look in on his traps. My stomach gave an awesome growl, and I rubbed at my sleep-deprived face to wake it from the numb staring I'd been doing across the way.