Chapter 17 – Don’t Look Back

August 8th, 1865

Wichita, KS

Wild Card burst in and saw them around the corpse of FreeLander. He panicked on sight. “We need to go now!” He demanded. He herded them out, yelling, "We gotta get to the train!"

The ground shook and the church began to break apart. Peyton looked back as Marshall skirted through the door in front of him. He looked for Wild Card, but what he saw was something entirely different. The red glowed off of Peyton's face as Wild Card ran by him, pulling him out of the room. "DON'T LOOK DIRECTLY AT IT!" he yelled.

Luckily, Peyton was distracted by the onslaught of bullets coming at them from the main room in the church. They fired their guns at the scrambling Black Pawnee and settled as Marshall tended to Ira, Will, and Emma. "The bullet has gone through, Ira. If we patch it now you'll be okay."

Peyton and Wild Card Cass lifted up there guns and began clearing out the rest of the gang members. Peyton could not get over what he saw. He looked back as Marshall wrapped Ira's shoulder. The door to the back room appeared to be melting as the red glowed brighter behind it. The door sweat and bulged. Wild Card pleaded with them to get a move on.

The roof's cracks spread and collapsed on top of them from the inside-out and the rest of the Black Pawnee retreated out of the front doors. Marshall grabbed Peyton by the shoulder, and he was thrown back into reality.

"Go!" barked Marshall's voice over the madness. Peyton looked at the front door of the church and there was the last untouched structure surrounding… Royal, the dog, as he faced them barking. Peyton ran by Marshall and helped Ira through the church, under the falling debris as they caught up with Wild Card and Emma carrying Will.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Marshall, the last one standing inside the church, still upon the altar, knelt before Kid Colt on the ground. His lifeless body lay with the rest of the dead. He took off the necklace Lady MacPherson gave to her son and put it in the kid's hand. He put the hand over his still heart. Marshall looked up. The walls of the church were breached with open night sky. He could see the stars slowly being eaten by the storm clouds. Marshall begged for forgiveness. To him…this was the personification of guilt for all the mistakes in his life; culminating in poor Jimmy MacPherson's death. He was a brainless leader, a coward in hiding. And he got this kid killed because of it.

He could feel the heat on the back of his neck. The doors cracked behind him. Marshall turned around as he got up. The door to the back had sweltered and stretched to capacity. It broke in an awful shatter, and out of it spawned a hellish portal. The doors burst like a womb giving birth and fire poured out everywhere. The benches and the altar lit up in flames and it quickly spread to the walls. Marshall ran for the front doors, where Peyton and Ira were waiting for him outside with his horse. Marshall navigated through the fire and crumbling debris but could not escape the urge to look back.

And just before he was out, Marshall saw a body rise from the dead in the cursed fire. He could not believe what he saw. His eyes burned and his pupils turned a pale red. The skin around his eyes swelled up as if boiled and then settled in scars. Marshall's sight collapsed under such an unbelievable sight. For there was no man he feared more in this world, not even his father. And now he knew why.

Marshall fell and Wild Card caught him, turning around on his horse, and yelling, "GO!" Peyton led them out as they rode down the street. Emma used Kid Colt's horse, Wild Card took Marshall's reigns, and Ira had Will on his horse. The posse fled Wichita in all haste for the Union Railroad base. Luckily, they did not run into any fleeing Black Pawnee.

"I'm starting to get my vision back," Marshall spoke up.

The swelling around Marshall's eyes was now gone, along with the red shade in his pupils. All that remained were the scars.

"Good. Good..." Wild Card gave phony relief before he continued, "Do me a favor, Slick?" Marshall looked over at Wild Card Cass cooperatively. "Don't tell the others what you saw" Wild Card stared at Marshall who knew exactly what he was talking about, "Just not yet."

END OF SAGA FOUR