Nat Turner and Will planned in the darkness. They would find the others. They would try to gather those still alive. Nat Turner would rescue his brother Hark.
Will’s breathing was ragged. “Hark made himself a target so the others could get away.” As Will described the encounter, Nat Turner realized it was the first time he had heard the man’s voice. “Hark was like a bear! Like a bull!”
They would wait for darkness and then they would find the others. They would attempt to rescue Hark.
When darkness came again, they left the cave to search. They flagged down one of the Cheroenhaka Nottoway freemen, one of the Artis brothers riding on the road. “It’s not safe for a black man to be out,” he told them. “Not even for a freeman.” But he promised to gather the others he could find—Berry Newsom, the Hathcock brothers. He told them to wait until the next night and then they would meet.
Nat and Will scrounged for berries and wild corn on their way back to the cave. It was hard waiting, both of them tormented with worry for the others. Nat fought imagining what the captors might do to Hark. He did not want to sleep; he might dream of Hark suffering, or of Sallie and the others. But sleep captured him and he dreamed of Cherry in the moonlight.
When they were not sleeping, Nat and Will sat in silence, occasionally whispering. They would meet with the Artis brothers and the others. They would get horses from the freemen and this time they would have weapons.
But when darkness came, the roads were already thick with whites carrying torches and rifles. From their hiding place, Nat and Will saw the flickering lights of passing torches and heard the crack of firing guns.
They heard the faraway screams of captive men, women, and children. It was over. The revolt was over.