Three Times Dead Read Online Free

amputated your left leg below the knee.”
    I stared at him, waiting for him to tell me that they had put it back on again, but he didn’t say anything. Tearing my eyes away from his, I looked down the length of the bed. There was my right foot, making a tent of the sheet. Where the left foot should have been was nothing, the sheet dropped away at about mid calf.
    I looked over at my mother. The tears were running down her face.
    “It was just an accident,” I said. I wasn’t sure why I said that.
    With that she howled and ran from the room.
    I looked over at Mark and said, “It’s not true, is it? You’re just joking with me, eh?”
    “I’m sorry, Bevan, I’m telling you the truth.”
    I closed my eyes and let the darkness take me away. It was better than trying to deal with the news that Mark had just delivered.
     
     

Chapter 3
     
    Haki held the patu tight in one hand and the musket in the other as he crept along the ridge, his eyes on the blue-coated soldiers just a short distance away. Behind him the warriors were holding out in the pa but it was only a matter of time before they were overrun. Desperate, he turned and ran.
    The bullets whipped through the air around him, one gouging the skin of his arm but he ignored it as he leapt into the pa, where he was protected by the embankment but trapped at the same time. The warriors were reloading their muskets as fast as they could but still they could not shoot as quickly as the soldiers.
    “Te Huirama is dead,” he heard a man say.
    “We must flee,” another replied. “Across Whangamerino.”
    Haki looked down the slope to the stream running in the valley below. Many would be dead before they reached the bottom. He quickly reloaded his musket.
    “Together!” he cried before climbing out of the pit and running down the slope, closely followed by the rest of the men. With a roar, the soldiers rose up and followed them, shooting wildly, some of their bullets going wide, but some hitting the warriors as they ran.
    A soldier on horseback was leading the charge. Haki turned, aimed and fired. He missed. The man raised his sword as he charged forward and Haki raised his arm to ward off the blow, screaming in defiance as the blade flashed down. Haki stepped back, his foot sinking deep into the soft ground of the marsh and he lost his balance. Arms flailing, he fell as the blade slashed the side of his face, pain exploding through his skull, but he was alive when he hit the ground. The landing was soft but the horse, unnerved, reared above him, hooves thumping heavily around him as he rolled away, avoiding their devastating impact. The man on the horse shouted as he struggled to control the animal. Haki raised himself into a crouch and looked towards the river. He could make it.
    He picked up the musket he had dropped as he fell and, still in a crouch, splashed between the clumps of grass that grew around the muddy pathways of the swamp. The horseman behind him now had the horse under control and would soon be after him.
    He did not look back but focused on the ground ahead of him, treacherous because of the mud and deep pools that lay in wait. There were canoes in the river and men swimming out to them. If he could make it there, he would be able to get away.
    The thump of the horse’s hooves grew louder behind him. The man was shouting. Haki saw the clear water beyond the marsh.
    He ducked as he felt the horse come up behind him, swerving away at the last minute and the horseman missed his mark. In the river, the men in the canoes saw Haki and shouted encouragement.
    Ignoring the pain and the warm blood that ran down the side of his face, he surged forward, splashing through the shallow water at the river’s edge and striking out for the nearest canoe, his musket still in one hand, the patu in the other, hardly feeling the icy cold of the water.
    Hands grabbed him as he reached the side of the canoe, and they pulled him in.
    “Well done, brother,” Matiu said