CHAPTER 7 – THE WAR AIN'T OVER EVERYWHERE
AUGUST 1865
OWENSBORO, KY
"Everybody, hands up! No quick moves. Ain’t nobody got to die!" said the man in the confederate captain’s suit. He waved his gun at the bank teller as his men looted all the hostages and cash boxes. "The vault fools! Go for what's in the damn vault.” He pointed with his gun.
"Sorry, sir" one said as he scurried back.
"Ya'll support Yankees here?" mocked the confederate captain, "Surrendered to the north has Kentucky?"
Unbeknownst to them, Ira, Marshall, Peyton, and Kid Colt rode into town, as chaos erupted inside the bank.
"I'll teach ya'll a lesson in loyalty!"
Striding by, they heard shouting from inside the bank. Kid Colt looked over, being the closest one to the building, and gauged everyone's reaction. Shots began to ring out one after another. Kid Colt and Marshall immediately got off their horses and sprang for the front doors.
Ira moved his horse into a sprint around back, while Peyton looked around to see if any lawmen were gathering; using his outlaw empathies to assess the situation. When the coast was clear he rode over to a low roof, stood on his horse, and jumped onto it. He crawled up and onto the second story roof where there were windows.
Peyton could hear Marshall negotiating through the front doors. Ira was quietly trying to bust the lock on the back door. Peyton moved up to an open window and slipped in unnoticed. Inside the crazed captain held a woman teller by the throat in front of him. Up above, next to the window there was a conjoining rafter across the ceiling. Peyton quietly climbed onto it.
The captain’s men ran in and out of the vault, gathering up all the money and hostages before him in the lobby.
"That's it." Peyton heard Kid Colt say, "I'm goin' in!"
The front doors were kicked open and they all opened fire. Peyton watched like a guardian angel from above as the captain and his gang unloaded their ammunition on Marshall and Kid Colt.
Peyton snapped his lasso around the rafter and slid down. He grabbed the female hostage and lunged out of the way as the back door popped open and Ira fired his modified rifle. The shot tore Peyton and the Captain apart. Marshall and Kid Colt rushed in to cover Peyton evacuating the hostages and started putting down the Captain's men. Some men fled and others screamed out, "Orders, sir!?"
"Regroup men!" called out the Captain of the fallen Confederate Army.
"Regroup at the rally point!" he said as he threw himself out of the bank through a tall window. The money they had put in the bags was left on the bank floor scattered like the men planning to steal it all away.
"Who the hell was that?" Kid Colt called out while trying to catch his breath.
"Captain Jack Bennett" identified Ira, "They called him Captain Cut-throat Bennett, him and another rebel captain would gut out towns, from soldiers to women and children, and rob them clean. The other one's name was...Kildare...I think."
Peyton's heart sank and his skin chilled. The names Ira had just listed were all too familiar.
"I guess now that the war is over," Ira went on, "they've taken to rebel terrorism."
"The war ain't over for everybody, Ace."
"Apparently."
"What do you suppose he meant by rally point?" inquired Marshall.
"It means there's no way their finished with their attack on this town," suggested Peyton, careful not to reveal his affiliations.
"What else is there to do in a one horse town for a bunch of rebels?" wondered Kid Colt.
"There's a union base around these parts," remembered Ira.
"Now Ira, you're not seriously thinkin' about goin' there?" Peyton asked, forebodingly.
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Ira heard Peyton’s words and snapped out of it. He was still playing the solider. He looked at the rest of his company, none of which eager to be found, and changed his mind. "It's out of our hands now, we should make for the Mississippi, before it gets too late.”
Peyton’s face immediately destressed. Ira still felt uncomfortable around the self-proclaimed ex-outlaw. Were they really supposed to just assume the worst about him and then forget about it? Forgive all previous sins? The soldier in Ira knew that would never be possible.
They all turned their horses and continued on their way west.
Only one of them immediately felt a deep tug in his guilt and felt obligated to warn the army base. As the group left the town, Ira tore off. In a moment’s decision, Marshall swallowed his fears and took off after him. When Kid Colt asked, "Should we go with them?"
Peyton answered, "Don’t worry, son. They'll be back."
“Seems yellah.”
“Listen Kid, they told me what you did back in Mount Hope, from one murderer to another, lay low as long as you can before your next kill, or the law will never stop looking for you. Can you trust on me that?”
“I’d argue with ya, mister but I’m pretty sure we’re traveling here with a bunch of bullet magnets. Look at’em go!”
Peyton had no desire to have a brush with the law, let alone the army, but Kid Colt was insistent. Peyton recalled similar behavior when he was a young gunslinger. Fresh out of the orphanage, a man that takes what he wants with his gun, and answers to no one.
Being around Kid Colt made Peyton feel like he was young again. He enjoyed the company and the tribute. Quade briefly considered taking the kid under his wing, but what then would he tell him? What could Colt learn from Peyton that would not render anything but heartache and regret? All of his friends were either gone or dead, and Maggie… Nothing but sad stories, his legacy was a tragic legend; one almost not worthy of retelling, but a lesson to behold, nonetheless.
October 1850
Wichita, KS
Peyton
"So, here's the plan," Peyton directed from the head of a round table, "Keats Brothers, you start the mornin’ off with a bang, misdirect the marshals. Ticonderoga and Stacks take the door and the vault. Maggie, Slaughterhouse, and I will control the lobby and the hostages. If anything happens, we drop everything and come back here. Whatever anyone can get, bring back here and we will split the shares evenly."
Everyone shook their heads in phony agreement. Peyton knew that it would never come to that. Morning broke, and the Keats brothers, Randall, and River, blew up a Wichita saloon. They fired off rounds with the marshals before getting on their horses and leading them out of town.
This gave the rest of the team plenty of time. Maggie was already inside the bank, waiting in line. Charlie and Peyton entered in style. Charlie was still on his horse. He shot the security guard in the chest with his shotgun. Peyton pointed his brand new Schofield revolver at Maggie, who was acting her heart out, crying hysterically. Peyton pretended to hold her hostage to get the tellers to do his bidding. Ticonderoga and Rotten Johnny Stacks were already in the vault, loading their horses with treasures and bills.
A whistle from outside and they saw a platoon of soldiers passing through the town. Charlie Slater got everyone to quiet down as Blackheart Quade watched them pass by from the curtained window. Maggie saw Ticonderoga and Johnny leave with the loaded horses and smiled.
She yelled for the soldiers, "IN HERE! ROBBERS!" and Peyton's heart stopped for a brief moment.
He checked out the situation. The vault was empty, Johnny and the Iroquois were gone, and the soldiers were approaching the bank. And there was Maggie, laughing as she made a run for it. Peyton mounted the horse that Charlie had rode in on and charged out the back door of the bank, picking up Maggie, and riding after Stacks and Ticonderoga.
Charlie took a deep breath. He loaded his revolvers holding them up, so they were right by his face. He heard the hammers on the weapons click into place. Then he ran out of the front doors of the bank throwing his guns around like a madman, screaming in the streets of Wichita as he confronted the army battalion all on his own.
When Peyton and Maggie returned to their hideout Peyton told her to be careful. Peyton got inside and found Johnny pinned up against the wall by a tomahawk. He quickly pulled him off.
“Ah!” cried out Johnny, “Gentle.”
"What happened?" he asked.
"We got back," Johnny told them, "And the Keats boys were waitin' for us. After me and Ticonderoga killed'em he left me for dead on that blasted wall."
"How long ago did he leave?"
"Not long. You can catch'em, boss!"
Maggie tended to Johnny's wounds and Peyton rode off after the Iroquois called Ticonderoga. He caught up to the thief after nearly riding his steed into the ground.
Peyton shot his rifle at him but did not try to kill him. Finally, he hit his horse in the ass and brought it down. Ticonderoga crashed to the ground hard, breaking the fall with his shoulder. Peyton got close enough to cover Ticonderoga writhing on the floor with his shadow.
“It’s over.”
Peyton got off his horse to help his fellow outlaw up.
Ticonderoga turned around and shot Peyton in the stomach. When Peyton fell to the ground before Ticonderoga, utterly betrayed, he revealed to the brash Iroquois the bright sun. Ticonderoga recovered his sight to see Charlie Slater, on horseback, bearing down on him with a blood stained face. Slater trampled Ticonderoga and left him there on the ground with a broken body, as he did not waste any time saving his brother in arms, Peyton.
The two got back to the hide-out where Maggie was with Johnny. Johnny was still bleeding. Peyton's gunshot was fatal. Charlie was in a blood trance and had his own wounds. Maggie looked at her boys and could not stop crying. Options were running out. Unless they went into a town to get treated, they would not survive the night. They could not go to Wichita after the job they had just pulled. If Peyton wasn’t bleeding out he would know what to do. And that’s when their leader spoke up.
“We have no choice,” he forced the words out, “Make for Dodge.”