The moment Eric fell, an uncomfortable silence came. The air itself felt heavy. No one knew what to say, or how to feel, or if this was some sort of shared delusion. While some considered this a good and necessary outcome, others saw it as just another step toward the edge of the cliff. Now, their town was dealing with a plague, had no mayor, and had no sheriff. They were being told monsters were approaching, but if you looked around, it looked almost like they’d already come and gone. You couldn’t look in any direction without seeing a body on the ground, either dead from sickness or a bullet.
Kuros lowered the gun slowly, his face a mural of pain. Some might’ve expected him to look triumphant, even heroic, but that was not the man in front of me. This was reality. He did not feel good about what he’d done, and I knew that praising him for it would be the wrong thing to do.
“We don’t have much time,” he said, his voice nearly a whisper. “The fight’s far from over.”
I nodded, forcing myself to swallow the adrenaline of the situation that just unfolded. “You’re right. Help me get loose from these shackles.”
He picked up a set of keys off one of the dead deputies, undoing my bindings. The crowd slowly gathered back around, still as desperate as before but patiently waiting for someone else to speak first.
Kuros turned to address them.
“Everyone… I know you’re scared. You’re confused. Whole town’s gone to pieces and you don’t know if you can ever put them back together again, but I just want to tell you… I believe Taylor, and I believe Nate. I reckon they’re tellin’ us the truth about the virus, and the machines. But… we ain’t cowards, and we ain’t folk who die easily. If there’s anyone who can survive without PanTech, and fight off these machines comin’, it’s all of you. Even Sheriff Eric believed that, misguided as he was. When all this is over, we’ll give the man a proper funeral. I ain’t going to speak ill of the dead. But for now, the dead have enough company. We don’t need any more of our people joinin’ their ranks.”
A man stepped forward.
“How can we beat a machine that was able to kill those PanTech soldiers? We ain’t nothing like them. We ain’t got any of that fancy armor, or training, or weapons.”
“We can,” I said. “We have something they didn’t. Something that means a lot when facing these machines. I know their weaknesses. I’ve fought them before. Many times before. I’ve hunted them in the wilds with my team. I’ve turned them into scrap and studied them. If you know the right place to hit, or to cut, they are far from invincible. I can teach our defenders these things and we can fare better than even Adversity Management.”
Did I believe my own words?
I didn’t even know the answer to that.
“What about all these people dyin’ from sickness?” a woman asked.
“As soon as this machine threat is dealt with, I will retrieve my supplies and get to work vaccinating everyone in town against this virus. I can’t promise this will help those who are already sick but… I’ll try. I’ll try anything to help you. It’s the whole reason I came here. I wanted to get ahead of the virus and save as many as possible. But we can’t vaccinate people while machines are ripping the town apart. They have to be stopped first.”
“Tell us how we can help,” a man said, patting the rifle slung over his shoulder. He was looking to Kuros.
“Well… I reckon we need to split between taking care of the sick and preparing to fight. Let’s have the women and older children helping the sick, and any able-bodied man gather outside the old gun store.” Kuros paused briefly, looking to me. “But use your own judgment. If you’re a lady with a mean streak and firearm experience, feel free to join us at the gun store. Same for you fellers who ain’t done much shootin’ but more experienced takin’ care of the sick. Help out the doc. Go where you’re most effective. Alright folks, hurry and do what you need to do, get this place cleared out, and we’ll all meet in front of the gun store and the doc’s clinic within the hour!”
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Perhaps I’d changed his perspective a bit on those stereotypes.
As the crowd began to disperse, a man came riding in from a distance. As he got closer, I recognized him. A rifle slung over his shoulder with a large scope attached.
“Need a rifleman?” he asked, smiling.
“Unbelievable shooting,” Kuros said. “You really saved us.”
“Aw, that weren’t nothin’,” he said, wiping his nose and blushing slightly. Unlike Kuros, he appeared to be completely unbothered by what he’d done, even though he’d just killed several men himself. “You two are the brains behind this. What’s the plan for the defenders?”
“Reckon we could use some of our spools of rope on their legs, bein’ they’re like spiders?” Kuros asked, looking at me.
“Very good idea. I’m not sure the rope will hold up to the strain, but its worth a try. We’ve used similar tactics with strong metal cable. Sometimes you can tighten the circle and disable them temporarily, or make them vulnerable to attack. In our case, we’ll have to play things by ear to see how much tension the rope can handle. If we can’t pull them down, we can at least slow their advance.”
My body finally accepted the reality that it was safe to breathe, and I pulled in a deep breath. When I did, a sharp pain hit me, and I nearly doubled over.
“Taylor…” Kuros asked, putting a hand on my shoulder. “You alright?”
“Fine,” I lied, forcing myself to stand up straight again. “I need to go speak to the doc and bring him up to speed on caring for patients with the virus. Not that there’s anything much different from any other kind of sickness, but he should know what to expect with the upcoming vaccinations.”
“Glad to hear you’re optimistic,” Clarence said, looking to Kuros with concern.
I wasn’t going to pretend they hadn’t noticed me struggling to take a deep breath just now, but all the same I wasn’t able to draw even more attention to it. Like all the other things troubling this town, it was lower priority, and I would deal with it when the machines and the virus were no longer the biggest thing in front of me.
***
After a brief conversation with the doctor, I returned to find Kuros surrounded by several men, arguing loudly. I sighed, hoping this kind of bickering would be over with by now.
“I’m tellin’ you, Kuros, we should be saddlin’ up every horse in this town and ridin’ as far away as we can. Ain’t no reason to fight these monsters if we can avoid the fight.”
Clarence threw up his arms in frustration. “Ride where? To where? We ain’t got some prebuilt town we can just ride into and leave this one behind. We’ve got farms here, people that can’t be easily moved. For the love of… half the town is dyin’ sick.”
Kuros, although calmer, backed him up.
“He’s right. If we try to run in our state, we’re just gonna be killed for sure without ever havin’ the chance to put up a fight. At least like this we can give ourselves a chance. Look, you ain’t gotta fight if you don’t want to. If you pick up your family and head out of here, ain’t nobody gonna shoot you in the back. They ain’t even gonna think ill of you. But… we sure could use your gun in the fight.”
The man stood quiet for a moment, looking down at his feet. His eyes welled with tears he was clearly fighting to hold in with all his might. “I just…”
Kuros put a hand on his shoulder. “I know, friend… you ain’t gotta say it. I know.”
“I’ll fight,” he said, putting his hand on Kuros’s shoulder too, gripping it tightly. “I’m scared half to death, but I’ll fight to my last breath.”
“We’re all terrified,” Clarence said, showing a rare moment of vulnerability. “I like to laugh at it, personally. Kuros here, he mopes.”
Kuros flashed a grin.
“Thank you,” he said, releasing the man and turning to me. “You’ve got the doc up to speed?”
I nodded. “Yeah, and it looks like you all have been busy too. What are those men working on up on the saloon’s roof?”
“Yeah, about that,” Clarence said. “I’m havin’ them fix me up a little shooter’s perch with that PanTech rifle the sheriff had lyin’ around. Reckon you could show me how to use it?”
“That’s… smart. And yes, I’ll show you how to use it. Mounting it to the roof is probably the only way you’re firing that thing without a full suit, but even heavy lumber won’t last forever. Shoot carefully. I’ll go show you right n—”
We were interrupted by the heavy hooves of an approaching rider, stopping in front of Kuros.
“They’re real alright!” he said, his horse swaying and breathing heavily after a hard ride. “Three of the things. Moving strangely slow, but definitely this way. They’ll be here by morning.”
It was finally upon us. The inevitable.
“Let’s give you a crash course with that rifle,” I said, motioning for Clarence to follow.