1861/07/13 Apache Attack
Scene Apache Attack
Characters Mercy Kitty Adolph Charlotte
Place In front of the Church
Date July 13th Mid Morning
Scene Theme

Mid morning, right as the sun is getting close to 'luncheon time' a loud trilling sound is heard as a pack of about seven Natives ride into town, angery and screaming as they stop infront of the church. Speaking in a rather broken english. "CHEROKEE LADY you have heap big prize on your head, come out so we can collect!" one says as the others dismount and begin to advance twoards the church.

The sound of a Boomstick, very distinctive at to who's it is, is heard after the front door of the church opens up, sending the head apache onto the ground in a heap. Mercy stands there with one hand holding her gun as she aims it at the next one. "I'd take your dead and leave heathens, tell the Navajo if they want me, to come and get me themselves." She says as a dark scowl forms over her face.

Has Kitty Morton ever heard a shotgun go off in close range before? Likely not. She's making her way from the boarding house toward the Doctor's office, no doubt, or perhaps somewhere else. She never really says much of anything to anyone. One minute there's quiet and she walks peacefully in her navy skirt and pink blouse, with a straw hat pinned to her hair and a brown satchel across her body. Then next — BAM! Kitty starts out of her daydream, wide-eyed as she looks back over her shoulder to see the indians. And she just stares. Because while it's unlikely a rich Charleston belle has ever heard a shotgun, it's sure she's never seen or met an Indian.

It's not a sound anyone in the town ever really wants to hear, but Adolph… well, he's been here long enough as to almost be used to it by now. Find cover, especially in some sort of locked building, if possible. At the first piercing cry he's moving into a brisk trot for the church, only to get there and find the Church the very place under assault. He backtracks a step, then pivots hard to his right and darts around a corner of the building, pressing his back up against the wall and listening carefully, keeping his knees bent and eyes peeled toward the street, biting his lower lip to see Miss Morton standing there dumbfounded. "M—miss Morton," he tries to call out and whisper at the same time, not to be heard by the natives, but also to get her to take notice and maybe some cover.

There's not just the sound of a shotgun ringing out into the open air of Grimwood. There's also a shrill outcry. A piercing scream that spells out a mixture of fear and horror. There's more than just one person who has never heard a shotgun go off or seen an Indian, and that other someone is Charlotte, who stands at the church door behind Sister Mercy with a look so wide-eyed that she might have seen a ghost. The color has drained completely from her face, and her eyes are stuck on the morbid sight of the native that's been gunned down in the street. Charlotte's hand braces against the frame of doors leading inside, and currently provide her with the only thing that's keeping her on her feet. It hasn't quite yet occurred to her that she'd made a horrible mistake by showing up in that doorway, with the only thing between herself and a pack of angry Navajo being the good Sister. The same Sister that's left one of their number dead in the dust.

Two of the Indians dash to try and circle around Kitty, mostly for leverage, while the other four slowly advance on the church with bows drawn. They seam to be talking in their apache language as the four fan out infront of Mercy. "Put the fire stick down cherokee, and your friends can go free." One says as he aims the nocked arrow right at Mercy.

She is a surgeon with a shotgun, and when she spots two of them run twoards Kitty, she loads another round and fires one barrel, then the other, leaving two more dead apache's at Kitty's feet, while not getting any of the pellets on the Nurse. "Charlotte, behind the alter is another shotgun, please bring it to me." She says as she reloads and aims it at the Indian. "By god's will, you all will die if you do not leave this town, I will send all of you heathens to meet the devil in person."

Kitty does hear Adolf — her eyes flit toward him. And she takes a few steps toward him, but then the Indians. She seemes clever enough not to look at the young man again, lest his position be given away. She stands tall, puffs up her chest. But the screams of that shotgun — that's too much, and she flinches, falling backwards after the second one knocks the second man from his horse. So there she is, butt in the dirt, staring for a few moments. And then? She moves to all fours, crawling madly toward the nearest downed man. She reaches him, and pushes his shoulder hard, really shoves him, to try and turn him over. To check for life. To see if it can be preserved, perhaps.

Adolph draws up one shoulder toward his ear, an eye squinting shut at the pair of natives who surround the nurse, his fingertips gripping the side of the church in a rising upswell of fear. Then the second blast from the shotgun makes him jitter near clear from his skin, and when he looks again the nurse is standing on her own, once more, or at least only among the dead. Heart racing, he hesitates, hesiatates, then, against all better judgement, he darts out from behind the corner of the building, skidding through the dust to a knee to try to help the town's nurse up and away from the middle of the shooting. Except that she's trying to treat the downed man, which would be touching if Adolph weren't already so freaked out. He resists the urge to look aside and see what the other natives are up to. Why upset himself any further? Maybe if he doesn't look at them they won't actually exist. He just stares pleadingly at Kitty to give him her hands so he can help her up and get back somewhere semi-safe.

Grab the other shotgun? She can barely grab her wits. The discharge of two more shots makes her jump, eyes squeezing shut and body flinching away from the noise as if it will bring some harm to her. It's enough that she stumbles backwards farther inside, no longer resting in the doorway but within the first few steps that one would take into the church proper. Her arms are curled up in front of her, as if they can deflect any harm from her way, and rather than doing the Sister's bidding, Charlotte instead is frozen to the spot. Fear roots her in place, and it's that fear that sends her tongue running rather than her feet, her lips moving fast together as she churns out a prayer instead of finding a shotgun.

Three of the seven are dead, and that crazy ass nun catholic cherokee lady has another round. The four Indians advance on her, any she doesnt shoot will eather arrow, or tomahawk he crazy lady. One stray arrow flies wide and right at adolph, because fate.

Mercy doesn't need to turn around to know that she wont get her second shotgun, she shouldent blame Charlotte for freaking out, at least the woman prays, so there's one positive. She fires two more shots, killing two of the indians, before the last two come upan her. That turns into a flail of arms and blades. The butt of her shotgun crashes against one Indian;s nose, sending him to the ground, dead. and the last is send sprawling when the rest of the shotgun is cracked against his head, leaing the gun in peices, but, the threat done. thats when she notices her previous wound is open, as well as her forearm cut open, and an arrow stick in her midsection, but she still stands wit hthe broken shotgun in her hand. "That last one isnt dead, someone get the marshal."

Adolph is trying not to panic as Kitty gets herself together. He'd just grab her and go, but that would be… well, both unseemly and potentially beyond his physical capacity. He's not the most muscular of gentlemen, with a slender, delicate build, and so he needs at least some cooperation, which he finally finds in the way of Kitty's hands in his hands. He digs his heels in against the dust of the street, beginning to pull her up and toward cover, when a sudden forceful THWAK of an arrow sends him pitching precipitously sideways into the street, letting Kitty fall once more. His body tenses, he makes some sort of pained noise mid-fall before he faceplants in the dust, falling limp with an arrow in the back of his ribs, rising up all sideways from just beside his underarm, pointing at the sky.
Kitty has partially disconnected.

Kitty is indeed moving with Adolph. She sees the man before her dead, and looks over to see the other staring lifelessly at her where he's left bloodied in the street. No hope there. So the young blonde man recieves her hands and she lets him start to haul her up … just before he goes down again. This time, Kitty lets out a cry of shock, surprise, and dismay. When Adolph goes down, she tumbles with him, having been relying on him as an anchor for her own rising. But the shock doesn't last long. "Stay still!" Kitty cries out in her southern belle's drawl. Her fingers go to the fabric of his shirt where the arrow peirced, and she moves to rip it open to see the full extent of the damage. "Stay still," she says, somewhat more calmly, more temperately. Her back is to the rest of the carnage now.

The louder scuffling taking place in front of her forces her eyes to open, and that gives her a front row seat to the brawl between the Sister and the remaining Indians. It's a visceral enough experience that it takes up all of her consciousness. The shock of the violenc leaves her staring, dumbfounded, at the reality of what's taking place in front of her. It deafens her almost as much as it blinds her, leaving her oblivious to anything taking place beyond its sphere of influence. By the time its over, more bodies lay on the ground, and Charlotte is staring at the nun who has been further injured. A trembling hand ilfts and points out towards her, to the arrow that's lodged in her. The world around her starts to feel a little less real, and her head feels suddenly very, very light. "Your.. your waist.." Charlotte sounds breathless when she tries to convey the message to Mercy. Trying to get a breath feels far more labored than it should. But her vision is going dark, too, and it's not got anything to do with the sun setting. No. All this violence is just a little too much for a girl fresh out on the frontier. She doesn't truly realize the reason why the ground seems rushing up at her, but the blackness that takes her doesn't give her time to figure it out. Charlotte spills to the floor, feinting from the pure overload of such savage actions.

Mercy looks to the now passed out girl and gives a sigh. "Whatever you were running from back home, better be more of a terror then life here little miss." She mumbles as she looks down at the arrow, and pushes it all the way through, luckly missing her vitals, before snapping the end off and removing adi arrow. She then stumbles into the church and get's her personal med kit and begins to wrap her wounds, much like a field medic would, before getting the salts and attempting to wake charlotte up. Not showing any real pain, though the blood loss is another problem she is facing.

Staying still is not going to be a problem. Except for the quick, shallow heaving of his chest in an effort to take in enough air to fuel his panic-rushed pulse, Adolph's not going anywhere. The pain is unbearable. (For someone who's never been shot at before.) His lips are parted and dry with rushing breath, and his eyes roll to one side, straining to look to the nurse in sheer terror. This must be what happens when you touch girls, mustn't it? No wonder Adolph is shy around them.

Adolph's shirt will tear under Kitty's yank, not all the way but enough to expose the wound and the arrow plugged into the flesh. A surprisingly little amount of blood, there. For a few moments, Kitty's hazel eyes flit over the wound and the flesh around it. "Okay, okay," she whispers, reaching around herself quickly to pull the satchel up and unclasp the top. Only then does she look to Adolph and give him a little smile. "It's quite alright," she assures him. "You'll be just fine in a moment." Out comes a small bottle with a cork, which she pops open. She looks down at Adolph again. "Take a grib on my leg or skirt, if you please. Squeeze as it hurts … this will hurt for a moment and then everything will be alright again." And then? SPLASH!

Mercy frowns as the smelling salts arent working, and she instead picks up the gril into her arms and carries her over to where Kitty and Adolph are at. "Ah, the heathens got him good." She says as she lays the girl against her while watching Kitty. "We have a fainter here as well, my smelling salts arent waking her, if she doesnt rouse in five minutes, I'm going to dunk her."

It doesn't seem quite alright. Adolph's dry lips grab at the air and he tries to make words, his eyes watering slightly as he wonders whether that's just the sort of thing you tell someone who's about to die. He won't touch her leg, but his fingers crawl in the dirt and find her skirt, resting on its hem, trembling in anticipation. This is going to hurt. How much, he doesn't know, and he doesn't figure it out until sometime after he hears a terrible hollering sob rise up from somewhere nearby. Oh, wait. That. That'd be him.

"Not so good as all that," Kitty corrects Mercy as she works. Once the area is clean, Kitty removes a small blade from her satchel and unsheathes it. "Mr. Oconnell had a far worse cut than this when he came to see me. Hmm?" At that, she turns to loom at Mercy and the uncontious woman. "Take her to my…to Dr. Yin. He can look to her, and the stitching youve likely pulled." The task at hand takes precedence. Kitty turns to Adolph and smiles apologetically. "This will hurt more," she says honestly. "So hold tight. After this we will have the arrow out. Ready?" And she begins to slide the knife along the inside of the wound to lengthen it. She is cutting his wound. But if he is still, she can pull the arrow out with little additional pain.

Mercy nods at Kitty, and lifts Charlotte up once more, watching her cut the wound. She nods and is doubly glad there is an expert such as her in this town. "We really need to toughen up the men folk." She says as she walks with charlottte in her arms to the Dr.'s office, before returning after telling the doctor that Charlotte is more in need then herself. Kneeling back down near Kitty she mumbles. "I'll need a new shotgun…"

Adolph's feaures twist when the nurse announces the worst is yet to come. Is he ready? No. And he even shakes his head a little bit to inicate as much. Not ready at all. But at least all the noises he has left in him is a little bit of a gargle followed by a strained wheezing for air when the wound is cut further. He's in too much pain to even be embarrassed about being in pain, and any sense of keeping a stiff upper lip has fled the scene long ago. To top it off, his nose is running, making him really look like he's about five.

"I'm afraid I cannot help you with that," Kitty says apologetically to Mercy. "Has Dr. Yin finished with your stitches already?" And then the arrow slides free, and Kitty lifts it up in front of her eyes, admiringly. "Ah, well then." She says, but then there's a frown as she looks over the arrowhead. And then? Why she draws it near and licks it of course, just a touch to the tongue. She purses her lips a few times, then shakes her head. "Doesn't taste like anything but stone and bloody," she tells them both, before handing the arrow off to Mercy. Now, however, Adolph's wound is bleeding freely, and so a cloth damp with alcohol is placed against the wound. "Can you find your feet, sir? Best thing for you now is a few stitches of your own. But the worst is passed, I promise, and if you keep the wound clean … so is the danger."

Mercy blinks. "No, I'm not going to get worked on until everyone else is back to saftey, besides, it's just a few cuts, and I already removed my own arrow." She says as she pats her midsection, which she has wrapped up. "That and honestly, I'd prefer the doctor to work on Charlotte, or at least, get her awake."

Adolph isn't sure what Kitty's even doing, and he's starting to feel a little woozy, which is at least better than being in agonizing pain. The soaked cloth hurts, but in the light of the earlier pain it's all starting to numb out. His feet? He has them, he's sure. One boot scoots faintly along in the dirt in a token effort.

"Did she hit her head on the way down? Here, lean on me," Kitty says, first to Mercy and then to Adolph, stepping close to allow him to put his weight on her while one had presses teh cloth to his side still. "If not, the best thing is to let her rest and relax, so she's not in quite such a tizzy. It'll make her waking much easier. And if I've seen to this one, that means you can go right on to Dr. Yin himself now and see yourself too." Kitty speaks to Mercy but her eyes are on Adolph. "Small steps, sir. We'll see you right, quick enough."

Mercy looks to kitty and gives a frown. "I don't care for a man to be poking around my body." She says with a stoic tone, as if that's simply the end of that argument.

Adolph twists one leg to the side, pushing up with his knee and then fully leaning on Kitty in order to haul himself up to his feet, swaying a little while doing so, head drooping forward and hanging like the crown of a flower with a broken stem. A few tears trace the trails of tears already loosed, but at least he's not making any horrible noises anymore. He's not making any noises, in fact.

"Ah," Kitty says in a moment of understanding. "Very well. If you'll come along, I can see to you after …. I'm so sorry," the auburned-haired woman says to Adolph. "I don't believe we have ever been properly introduced, though I heard you use my name. I am Kitty Morton, sir, Dr. Yin's nurse. And I promise you that everything will be quite alright now," she speaks calmly and easily and even gives the man a smile. See? All is well!

Adolph knows who Kitty is. The thought winds about inside his head that wonders why she doesn't know who he is, but it gets lost somewhere between here and any real sense of disappointment or insecurity. There are lots of things that cease to matter much when you've had an arrow in you. The inside of his mouth feels kind of like crumpled up ledger-paper, so he just bobs his head in vague acknowledgement of her assurances and glances to Sister Mercy at her chiding him, lower lip drawing into his mouth in a mark of being successfully told off.

"It's my fault, Sister. Not his," Kitty states with unequivocal certainty. "It was his bravery in trying to assist me that found him in the position he is now." She walks slowly and easily, making sure each step is measured and careful, with Adolph to get him into the Physician's office down the way. "In truth I'd never seen an Indian before. Hardly like men, weren't they? Their hair and all so very wild as it was…"

Mercy shakes her head. "it's not their looks that should have you worried, it's their mannor. Those particular Indians were Apache, even to my mother's tribe of the cherokee, Apache are bloodthirsty and their loyalty only extends to their own tribe." She says with a very bad taste in her mouth.
Charlotte has connected.

Adolph stares at the ground. Hey, look at that ground down there. Awesome. He only looks back up to heed the Sister on her lesson about the local indigenous population. His lips work a little bit, he moistens them enough to feel somewhat comfortable making noise. "Why were they trying to hurt you, Sister?"…

FADE TO BLACK

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