Buddy wakes and gasps at Catori. "FFfff... -cof-
Catori moves to him and hushes him quietly, not sure what's going on outside. "I'm here..." she says, "Your Flower..." even though she was still stinging from his feverish babble referring to the white woman.
Buddy shook, "Fff...fire water..." he clawed at his chest and vest, pulling out the flask. "Mmmmmagnesssssiummmm sssssulfffffate... in the rrrrocks.." he pats the craggy cave walls and floor.
"pppoooor the liquor... douusssse the ssssstone... llllllight it... and dd ddd duck..."
Catori's eyes widened. Of course! "What about you?" she asked. She helped him to his feet and to move to safety. Taking the flask she doused the wall. Now all she needed was fire. She dug in Buddy's pockets making him squirm a little. She pulled out the matches. Taking one she mimcked what she had seen a white man do she struck the match and threw it on the doused wall before ducking and covering buddy with her body making sure he would not get hurt.
( 😄 remember, Buddy is the MacGyver of the Old West... just never got to use much of that jibba-jabba before... 😂 )
a few things happened then, once the firewater was ignited:
the wall sparked and popped and crackled a moment, brilliant blue flame
Catori looked up from sprawling to protect Buddy, just in time for the great explosion. shards of stone and heat seared her sweet round brown face, and she screamed, as...
the wall exploded bringing down much more of the ceiling into the main room, and....
... the ground also gave way beneath Catori and her patient, Buddy...
the hapless couple were caught in a moment of freefall, then sent tumbling down a steep and craggy slope, before splashing hard and heavy into the rapidly flowing current of an underground river.
Buddy was delirious with fever, and shock and confusion, but still somehow pleased to be breathing, even if every other breath was a gulp of dirty river water.
Catori was struck blind, seeing only brilliant flashes of white and red, her head pounding, her face stinging as bad as her heart hurt, while the river raged and washed them away...
Luis wasn't sure what had happened, but he knew it couldn't have been good, judging from the explosion. He swore, looking back and forth from the cave and the soldiers. The officer approached them, handgun pointed in their direction, and ordered them to be thrown in the cart. Several soldiers did so, taking their weapons, and tied their horses to the back of the cart.
((Just so you know, to the outside world, the roof of the cave suddenly dropped, sunk in completely, basically sealing the whole cave (lots of rubble also conveniently plugged up the hole in the ground that buddy and Catori fell into, if anyone decides to dig out the old mine (which, by the way, the CUR folks just still might do...) so, to anyone who knew they were in there, it would appear Buddy and Catori are now dead, so they won't be lying when they tell the soldiers that there's nobody who can help them now... 🙂 well nobody except Lily, who also cant know Buddy and Catori still live... ) (( oh and sorry, I try to stay out of it and let other things happen, but dammit, stuff just comes together!! you guys set it up, and I knock it down, or something. I love this story!! ))
Meanwhile, back in town...
Deputy Steve enters the Sheriff's office, and immediately notices the ropes and chair where Lily had been secured. He smiled and collected the ropes, then moved to the door, nodding as he opened it and spoke to someone outside.
"She's escaped... just as you'd expected she might..."
In stepped Sheriff Sanders, followed by 4 scruffy but seriously tough-looking steely-eyed stone-faced bounty hunter types. The Sheriff seemed somehow saddened, while Steven still smiled wide.
"That cuts it..." the Sheriff decided. "She wants to live the life of a savage, a rootless scoundrel, a scourge of the lands... so be it!"
"Is the word given, Father?" Steven wondered, forcing the older Sanders man to speak the words.
"It is..." sheriff frowned. "If Sunia returns home, she will face firing squad, as a member of Buddy Reno's Renegades... spread the word..."
Steve Sanders left the office, only too happy to be the bearer of bad news regarding his half-sister...
The underground river flows and twists and winds its way along the foothills, skirting the valley above, and finally empties as a waterfall erupting from a canyon wall. The waterfall feeds a deep pond and slow moving stream at the bottom of the shallow canyon, its a good 30 foot drop from the falls to the pond, and its that drop which Buddy and Catori are greeted by to end their river rapid rush...
AAAAAAAAHAHAHHHHHHHAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! =SPALAAAASH!=
Fighting against the slow-moving pond and stream current is easy enough, and the tattered and torn twosome make it to shore. Buddy is deathly ill with fever and chill, and Catori is badly bruised and blind, but at least, they are alive... for now...