#8: The Earth Opened Before Them

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(later in the day)

Everyone was well rested. The stock was all watered. All the water barrels were topped off. Time to hit the trail again. The extended break was over. The new wagon that was pulled by that big buffalo was now being pulled by a spare yoke of oxen belonging to one of the Mormon Families. The woman and the baby were riding in it but one of the young men were driving. One of the wives was with them, helping with the baby.

The big black man and his huge animal were at the front of the train. Strangest thing anyone ever saw. A buffalo soldier riding on a buffalo.

"Time's a wasting men. Get them animals hitched back to the wagons. We got a way's to go yet before dark."
... hollered the First Sergeant.

Shortly the harness animals were hooked back to their vehicles, gun carriages included, and the caravan began to move
.
.............and the earth seemed to open up before them. They were suddenly walking down a spiraling vortex of light, a chromatic tunnel...they had to walk quickly in order to avoid falling ...for some reason they were unable to go the other way. The horses were walking faster and faster...the wagons were rolling forward , pushing
the teams.

"You men pull the brakes on those wagons."
shouted First Sergeant Halsey
." keep the drag heavy or the wagons will run over the horses."

Everyone was up to a brisk walk now...they were moving regardless of whether they wanted to move or not...it was walk swiftly or fall down. That meant likely being trampled by the animals or run over by a wagon. A few men had tried to stop and that's exactly what had happened. They hadn’t exactly got run over or trampled. No one had died but it had been a near run thing. It had been rather difficult for them to regain their feet. The horses seemed to be enjoying the experience.

Their speed was slowly but steadily increasing. It looked like they were passing across a rainbow bridge...and they were reaching the downhill part of the rainbow’s arc. Everyone on foot was jogging now. The horses were walking quickly, the cattle had, under protest, increased their pace..

"Everyone get in a wagon or on a horse...we're not slowing down any."
shouted the Captain.

"I've never seen anything like this...have you."
The Captain asked the First Sergeant conversationally.

"No sir, I can't say that I have"
replied the Sgt. Halsey...equally calm. They might have been commenting on the weather.

The caravans speed gradually increased until they were going as fast as a man could run. No one had any breath for talking other than to say a few prayers.

The speed continued to increase. The Captain hoped that it didn't increase too much more. The oxen were moving just about as fast as they could go. Some of those older oxen hadn’t run this fast in years. If anyone stumbled it was going to get ugly.

His hopes were realized...they leveled out at max speed for the oxen. Surely they couldn’t last long.

Suddenly there was a bright flash of light and they burst forth upon a new world.

Next :Episode
#9: Think o f the Children…
Previous Episode
#7: “You tend to your Rat killing and I’ll tend to mine”…
First Episode
# 1 : In the beginning…

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@everittdmickey
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