The day was sunny, the wind blew. Nathan Jackson
turned on his horse as he sat beside Ezra Standish. JD Dunne was to Ezra's
right. Buck Wilmington stood beside the Sioux Chief as they talked to the
men before they headed out to make sure the Ghosts were gone.
"What the hell is that?" Nathan asked. Ezra turned
also.
"It's the cannon," he said just before it fired. The three men hopped off
their horses and ran toward the village.
"Another couple of rounds and they'll be in range,"
Nathan said as he and Ezra sat crouched behind a rock.
+ + + + + + +
Chris Larabee noticed the destruction begin as he
ran out of the cave. He ran to the cliff's edge and watched in horror as
he saw the men running anxiously around gathering kids and villagers.
+ + + + + + +
"Here they come!" Nathan yelled as he and Ezra raced
for some kids that had fallen while scurrying away.
"Everybody!! Into the bluffs!" Ezra yelled as he
and Nathan ran and grabbed some kids. Ezra had scooped a small child into
his arms and set him down again when he regained his footing and allowed
the child to grasp Rain's hand as they headed for cover.
"That cannon will tear these adobes apart!" Ezra
said also, running to where Rain's father was trying to get his organ.
"Come with me!" Vin Tanner said as he grabbed Rain's
hand and pulled her in the opposite direction of where she was going.
"Go! There!" Ezra yelled pointing to the bluff's,
he continued towards Rain's father yelling, "Leave it! Leave it!"
"Leave it!" was all the man clad in black got out
as he slid to the ground as the cannon hit where the older man had been.
He looked up to see that he was dead.
Rain looked over from where she had stopped with
Vin and began to sob.
"Father?" she said shakily. "No, God! Not my dad!
No!" She fell to the ground, her heart broken.
"We got to go!" Vin said as he and Ezra raced over
to Rain and hauled her to her feet and led her to the bluffs.
"Come on, come on," Ezra said as he met with the
Indian chief, making sure Rain was safe with Vin.
"Down! Down! Everybody down!" he yelled as everyone
crowded into the area they had designated basically safe from the cannon
fire.
"What the hell happened to Chris?!" JD yelled.
"I don't know!" Ezra said, pulling his gun.
+ + + + + + +
Chris slowly walked his horse further up the cliff.
The gambler took a swig from his silver flask, tuning in his saddle, watching
the village.
"Then there's a third kind," he whispered.
+ + + + + + +
Buck shielded the boy's body with his, a piece of
shrapnel embedding itself into his leg, as he fell over urging the boy
forward. He slowly got up and headed for the rest of the group, able to
miss being hit with anything else.
"We got two options, we can ride up after that gun . . ."
Ezra began.
"That's no option that's suicide!" JD said.
"Or? What's the other option?" Josiah asked.
"We raise a white flag," Ezra said.
"Or three, we could mount up and ride the hell out
of here!" JD said.
"Go then! With my last breath I will fight these
men!" Rain said.
"Them's Rebs up there! That makes it my fight!"
Vin said.
"Hell I'm not going anywhere, I haven't shot anyone
yet," Josiah said reloading his guns.
"They'll see us coming up that trail before we get
five paces, and that gun is gonna tear us to pieces!" JD said as he ducked
again as another cannon ball hit.
"There's got to be another way up there!" Ezra yelled.
"There is, we can climb," Imalla said as he came
forward. The men nodded and headed up the cliff.
"You remember why we're doing this?" Ezra asked
Nathan as they began climbing.
"Does it matter?" Nathan returned.
"Guess not."
"My hands are shaking so bad JD, I can barely hang
on," Josiah said.
"Good," he said.
"Good?" Josiah asked.
"Yeah good, means your juices are flowing, fear
keeps ya sharp, kid," JD said.
"Hey, JD?"
"Yeah?"
"You're full of crap" Josiah said. JD laughed.
"You're just figuring that out now?" he asked.
Ezra turned the corner after he and the others had
gotten up the cliff, he watched in horror as Imalla was shot down, the
Indian instantly dead. Ezra looked up as the Rebs turned the corner.
"I'll take that five dollars now," Nathan said behind
Ezra.
+ + + + + + +
Chris rode for a few more yards before he stopped
and thought. He made his decision and turned his mount around spurring
it back towards the camp.
+ + + + + + +
Ezra listened to Anderson ramble as his hands were
shackled. He noticed the other men were also shackled. As the men stopped
paying attention to the men, he slowly began to push the shackle over his
hand.
+ + + + + + +
"And soon your death," Nathan had been saying as
he listened to the captain ramble. Ezra continued pushing the shackle down
his hand.
"About time. They'll be raising the flag soon,"
the new captain said as a man stumbled back toward him.
"Wouldn't want to miss this," Chris said as he raised
his gun at the man. "Nobody move, or he's dead." The men all looked in
shock as they saw Chris appear.
"I leave you boys alone for five minutes and look
what happens," Chris said trying to joke with the men. Ezra watched him
as he continued removing the shackle, painfully over his hand.
"You'll only get one shot before we take you," the
Southern man said.
"Then you best discuss amongst yourselves which
one of you is going to die," Chris said, training his gun on different
men.
"Pick 'em yourself," the other man retorted, laughing.
"The rest of us will tear you apart." "Well I guess I will just have to
take all of us," Chris said, he then aimed his gun at the gunpowder keg.
"Why that powder keg's empty mister," the man said
as everyone else drew their guns.
"Big mistake sonny boy, you shouldn't have tried
that," he said as he trained his gun on Chris.
"I know, can't imagine what came over me," Chris
said before he snapped the derringer in his sleeve into his hand and shot
the laughing man. Ezra at that exact moment had extracted his hand from
the shackle and grabbed a nearby gun , as well as using one of the Rebs
as a shield and he and Chris managed to take some men out, with Nathan's
help, before all of the others realized they had no chance.
Ezra grabbed the keys and unlocked himself then
the other men as Chris handed gun belts to the men.
"Anderson's a mad dog," the Reb said.
"We know what to do with mad dogs," Ezra said as
he released Buck. He got up as Chris did and touched the man's chest with
his finger lightly, his steely green gaze meeting Chris's blue-green one.
"Don't ever run out on me again," he said. Chris
said nothing, but he tipped his hat in acknowledgment as the men headed
down the hill, dust flying around them . . . .
+ + + + + + +
Chris and the others snapped awake in their own beds.
The blonde gunslinger shook his head, not understanding where that dream
had come from. None of the men did. It was as though they had switched
bodies and were in different positions than who they were. Chris rubbed
his eyes, a motion mirrored by the other men in their rooms, and laid back
down allowing sleep and dreams to overcome them again.
The End
