Hellbillies (A GUNS OF SENECA 6 excerpt)

The following is an except from GUNS OF SENECA 6, a sci-fi western now available on Amazon.  This chapter introduces Little Willy Harpe, the leader of the Harpe gang, as he discovers a weapon of alien terror. 

6.  Hellbillies

“Where’s my brother?”

            Hank Raddiger backed away from the small black box sitting at Little Willy Harpe’s feet.  The box rattled, and Hank swallowed hard.  “He took off with that lady who was piloting the Medical Transport.  The one with the real pretty hair.” 

            Little Willy smirked .  “Damn, Elijah.  Always was a ladies’ man.  How about you, Hank?  You a ladies’ man?”

            “Naw,” Hank snorted. 

            Little Willy looked down at the box and ran his hand over its smooth lid affectionately.  “You will be.  They’ll come running to you like dogs to the heel of their master, if that’s what you want.” 

            “Who wouldn’t?”

            Willy grinned.  “The pleasures of the spirit dwarf the pleasures of the flesh, my friend.  Do you know what’s in this box?” 

Hank shook his head no, and Little Willy tapped his fingers on its shining surface.  “Guess.”     

            “I know it ain’t medical supplies,” Hank said.  He picked at the dried blood stuck under his fingernails.  “I know them soldiers hidden in that ship was armed to the teeth, and they fought like the dickens to protect it.” 

            “That they did,” Willy smiled.  He licked the file-sharpened tips of his teeth, playing with strings of meat that dangled from them.  There was a small finger bone on the ground within his reach.  He picked it up and stuck its tip into his mouth, digging out the loose strands.  “You get enough to eat?” 

            “I sure did,” Hank said.  He rubbed his stomach and said, “Stuffed.”

            Willy shook his head.  “I been watching you, Hank.  You still don’t fully indulge in the spoils of war.” 

            Hank dropped his gaze to the ground.  “A few were still squirming when you started biting into them.  I cooked up a little of what I found lying around, like you said.  You told me I could start off slow.”

            “Yes, I recall,” Willy said.  He tossed the finger bone into a pile of scattered ribs, femurs, and pelvises.  All of them had been stripped of meat and thoroughly cleaned.  Willy got down on his hands and knees and pressed the side of his face against the box.  He smiled as he rubbed himself on it like a cat.  He whispered and cooed and pressed his lips against the lid, leaving it smeared.

            “Well, we gonna open it, or should I keep guessing?”         

            “Not yet,” Willy whispered.  He got to his feet and tucked the box under his arm.  “I reckon I’m still hungry.”

 They stepped out of the ship onto the moon’s surface, avoiding the bodies of soldiers and members of their own gang littering the ground.  Only an hour earlier, all of those men had been engaged in fierce combat.  Only Little Willy Harpe and Hank Raddiger remained.  Willy scratched himself and looked around at the scattered bodies, peering through the swirls of black soot and smoke.  “What a godawful mess.  See any that’s moving?”