A Wild West Night at the Smithsonian - outlaw - young gun - Billy the Kid

Chapter 8

Billy snapped the chamber of his gun back into place. With his pistol reloaded all they could do now was catch their breath and wait. It made Anna feel like a sitting duck and put a rock in the pit of her stomach.

Sure enough a minute or two later and the doors were punched open, making a loud slamming sound that caused Anna to flinch. Billy scooted closer to her as the group rushed inside and looked around for them.

"You sure you saw them come in here?" Capone asked.

"Oui." Napoleon responded before shouting orders to his men in French.

The sound of footsteps moving carefully about filled the air, along with the slight clanging of the Streltsy's metal armor as they moved. Anna's heart was pounding again and Billy wrapped his left arm around her and pulled her close. She used her hand to cover her nose and mouth to try and muffle the sound of her breathing as she rested her head against his chest. After a very long dragged out minute she couldn't take the anticipation or the waiting anymore. She craned her head upward and saw the red puff of one of the French troop's hats. He was just two rows behind them. Anna didn't move a muscle and neither did Billy, if she didn't know any better, she'd think sunrise had come and Billy had become a statue again he was so still.

Then the bayonet of the man's gun slid between the seats, not the slit beside Billy's head, but the next one over. Tears stung Anna's eyes and she bit her lip hard knowing she wasn't a quiet crier. As if the current situation wasn't scary enough her mind decided to drift into everything she'd ever read on Napoleon, Al Capone and Ivan the Terrible.

Ivan was known to be paranoid and mentally unstable, a result of most of his reign taking place during wartime. His skeleton even showed signs of mercury poisoning, which didn't improve things at all. After St. Basil's Cathedral was completed Ivan was so pleased he had gouged out the eyes of the architect so he could 'never design something so beautiful for anyone else', he'd killed his own son in a fit of rage and beat his daughter-in-law until she miscarried because he hadn't liked what she'd been wearing. And of course there was the Massacre of Novgorod where Ivan had up to 27,000 people executed brutally.

Napoleon had reinstated slavery in France, allowed his soldiers to kill masses of people in gruesome ways, and kidnapped a potential heir to the French throne and had him executed. It is also debated that Napoleon was the first one to kill people in masses by using gas chambers and sulfur dioxide.

Al Capone was of course the mobster mafia boss with a horrible temper who would eventually get the nickname 'Scarface'. He'd ordered the Valentine's Day massacre, which was small when you took into account he'd ordered over 200 murders in his time as a crime boss and became the first public enemy no.1.

The idea of being trapped in a room with any one of those men was scary enough, but all three who were also working for a homicidal Pharaoh desperate for revenge and world domination nearly gave her a heart attack.

By some luck the bayonet slid back and the French man turned and continued down the aisle. Billy shifted ever so slightly, keeping his eyes on their nearest threat. With his Thunderer still in his right hand he slid it through the slit between the seats by his head. His thumb moved to the hammer and pulled it slowly back so it didn't make a sound. Anna wasn't sure what his plan was, shooting one of them when there were another dozen or more around seemed mad. But then again Billy did have more experience with being in situations where he was outnumbered and somehow managed to escape unharmed every time. With no better idea she left him to his devices, even though they terrified her.

His finger moved to the trigger.

"Hey!"

They froze.