If you have been following the Busted Gulch story here at the Storytellers Saloon then you know Ruechari has been selected for a special destiny...yet to be revealed. Having grown up in the KitKat Nation. Chief DamagedGoods was the only father she h...
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Quantrill led a group of two hundred plus men across the plains, made up of confederate militia and of course his Raiders.
Quantrill shouted out his orders as they rode in hard and fast. "Divide and conquer, Gentlemen! Its do or die time! Anderson, you got the left! Jesse you flank the right! And I'll go right up the middle!"
They got Carob Bob through. Jesse wondered if Frank had made it too.
"You heard the Captain! Let's go you Bushwhackers!" Jesse hollered, before leading the charge. Shots were fired. Who shot first was hard to tell, but the opposition was going down in heap, in a hurry.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Reaper was fast becoming irritated and exasperated. His Master had seen fit to raise even more of the West's worst to accompany him to Plainsway. The army continued to grow.
But even, to spite the guards surrounding him, he had a satisfied grin. He could feel other forces closing in. From the north, from the south; he could feel large gatherings closing in quickly.
From the east and west, wolves and vampires, the largest gathering in front of them, awaiting them at Plainsway.
James Miller and Zip Wyatt pulled up alongside Reaper, one on each side.
Reaper smiled.
"Now you don't have any running intentions, now do you?" They planned on sticking close to Reaper. It would not bode well for them to show up empty-handed and the directive was clear. 'Bring Reaper and the girl to the old Indian burial grounds.'
Reaper looked at the nearing dust storms coming from the north and the south.
"Well if I did, now would be the time."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Quantrill's raiders had them on the run. There was so much confusion, and even though they were outnumbered, Quantrill's men used every guerrilla tactic in their arsenal to shore up the odds of survival. They did take a major hit thought. Their numbers dropped nearly in half, and then there was a second wave that seemed to come up from the very ground.
Anderson and Quantrill regrouped in front of the newcomers. "Where's Jesse, Bill? Did he make it through?"
Bloody Bill Anderson just shrugged. "Too hard to tell, it's chaos Captain, and their numbers are growing I don't know if we'll survive this next wave."
"Stand strong, Lieutenant! We are no longer looking out for ourselves. We just need to buy Bob time to get to Plainsway and with luck, to his daughter."
Anderson nodded. "To the very end!" he shouted, circling his men for another assault.
Jesse was lost in the masses. More were coming in fast, from where he could not tell. He knew there was no way he was going to make it out alive (well in a manner of speaking) and suddenly a shot whizzed past his head he turned to see his nemesis, Robert Ford.
"This must be my lucky day. I get to kill you not once but twice in this lifetime. Don't get no better than that."
"Tryin' to shoot me in the back again, you dirty little coward!" Jesse shouted at Ford. "Today the tables will turn!"
"You of all people should know there's no honor among thieves," Ford hollered back, dodging a bullet to his right but then a shotgun blast tore Ford open wide. He looked down at his chest in disbelief, right before he disappeared forever.
Jesse had seen O'Kelly and laughed. "You're right about that Ford, but today, as before, you picked the wrong side."
Jesse found Quantrill. "Where the hell do they keep coming from?!"
Quantrill looked worried. It was bedlam and by his quick count they were down to maybe fifty or so riders mostly made up of the best of the Raiders. "I won't lie to you Jesse, it would take a miracle for us to survive."
Just then they hear a war cry to the south and thousands of Indian warriors were about to come barreling down upon them. Chief DamagedGoods appeared before them. "Get your men out, an move on to town. My warriors will not know the difference between you and the others. There will be none left standing. Go! Go now!"
They didn't need to be told twice. They gathered what was left of their men and rode on.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Zip Wyatt turned to the south.
"What was that?"
"That?" Reaper started to laugh. "That is your destiny."
He urged his horse on faster.
An arrow pierced Zip Wyatt's heart and suddenly he fell from his horse to the ground. The horse disappeared.
Reaper summoned all the power he could, transposing new strength into his horse. The horse found new life, pulling ahead of the riders following it.
More gunshots and arrows flew through the air. There were screams and yells and cuss words.
Reaper could sense death behind him. Not the mortal death of man, but the finality of the soul as it is removed from the Earth. The mortal soul was already dead for most of them. Now they were losing their eternal soul and any chance of redemption.
