Chapter 17

“-me could have a bad romance,” Coot belted out as we crossed into Hardy.

“Coot,” my voice was firm, “if I ever put you in control of the music again, shoot me.”

Bear snickered, but he’d been in his menus the entire ride. He was blessed with a limited enough attention span that I was the only one of the crew, aside from Coot himself, who had to put up with the old man’s singing every Lady Gaga song he had in his memory.

Coot’s grin told me how aware he was of his effect on my psyche. I shot him a glare before taking in the sights.

The line on our maps took us through Hardy and to a large enough plantation to see the house as a grayed out block on our maps. We still had another twenty-minute ride, but I needed to scope out the town first. I didn’t like how close this fight was likely to take place to the populated area. If Foghorn was right, we were walking into a stronghold prepared for a large-scale assault. Our only advantages were that of surprise and our smaller numbers. Our lower quantity was only going to be an advantage for moving around the place, once they made us, it wouldn’t be in our favor any more.

Hardy wasn’t much. Actually, it felt a lot like Easter because of its size, but if Easter had been plopped down in the Great Plains, versus the mountains where Easter was actually located. Unlike Easter, there was only one two story building. It looked like a restaurant or something. If I had more time, it would be nice to sit down and have a decent meal. Joan was great, but change was always appreciated.

There was a post office/train station, a sheriff’s office, and a gunsmith. There weren’t nearly as many businesses as Easter had, but Bear said that had everything to do with proximity.

“We’re only an afternoon’s ride from Saint Emile,” he explained. “Any business owners that can afford to, prefer to have their stores there. More people go through Saint Emile than Hardy.”

I grumbled that maybe they’d have more reason to go through Hardy if there were more shops, but neither of my team seemed to hear me.

After a final check to see if anyone wanted to stop for any reason, we left Hardy at a decent trot. We were close enough that it was easy to see each of us growing more anxious.

We stopped about a hundred yards from where the area was marked on our maps. I checked my pocket watch, which I had moved from my bag to my britches, and saw that the ride only took us about eleven minutes from Hardy.

“We communicate using the chat,” I explained. “We only hold the advantage as long as they don’t know how many of us there are.”

“I don’t do too well with sneaking,” Bear said.

“Then get good, really quick,” I said to him. “We need to set dynamite, all that we have, around the perimeter. Only the front side. The idea is to lure as many toward you and those spots as we can and then set it off. One bullet, ten kills is the best way to do this.”

“What about you?” Coot asked. His nervous look confirmed something I had been worrying about since the raid in Easter. He was scared. He ran away and died the first time. I was hoping that this time we could avoid the running and the dying.

“Anita should be in the house,” I said. “Once you get them hating on you, I am going to try and get into the house from the back. Once inside, maybe I can get her to tell her men to stand down.”

“If you get that far,” Coot said.

I nodded. “If I get that far. If I don’t, get your horses and ride in different directions. Split them up. You might be able to buy yourself some time.” I pointed at both of them. “When you’re not on your horses, you are going to need to crouch. All the time if you have to. We need them to not know where you are for this to work.”

I sent a quick message to Bear explaining that he needed to watch Coot. We couldn’t have Coot running off just because he was scared, but I told him to try and talk to him, don’t just hover. I didn’t want to force Coot into being better at the battle stuff so much as I wanted his confidence in himself to grow.

That didn’t mean Bear was the best tool for that job, just the only tool that I had at the moment.

As I circled around the space surrounding the plantation, I was crouched as I activated the broadcast button. Then, so I wouldn’t fixate on the wrong things, I hid the view window. It was about time to start the show.

Coot had established a simple clock description that they could use in the chat to figure out the numbers. The road leading up to the house, and the one that they were still on, was 12 o’clock, with the house being the center of the clock. As they approached, they broke from the road, tied their horses, and split up with Coot going left of the house and Bear and me going right. I broke from Bear soon so that I could sneak around the back. My plan was to see what kind of forces they had at the back of the house, report it to the gang, and then sneak into the house. I felt like the back of the house would have more gaps in security and hoped that I wasn’t about to figure out how wrong I was.

The house looked dilapidated, to be completely honest. It was huge and built like you would expect a plantation house to be, with the white walls, pillars around the front porch, and small balconies scattered around the second floor. Where normally you could view the wealth exuding from the exterior, that wasn’t the case here. The white walls were stained with dust and in some places there were holes that could stand a visit from a basic carpenter.

A fresh coat of paint would have done wonders for the entire place. Or, at least that’s what I thought until I saw that most of the windows were gone as well. In Anita Keller’s desire to be less an heiress and more a crime boss, she’d let the place go.

When Bear and I split off, Coot was already reporting numbers.

D0C70RC007: 3 men by a wagon. 1 o’clock. Look bored. Got close enough to steal a stick of dynamite from a crate. Left the crate. Going to hit it when you give the word.

A little while later, another message came through.

D0C70RC007: Put dynamite at 3 o’clock. Moving slow. Found a moonshine bottle. Pouring that between the two. Can probably set both off with one shot.

D0C70RC007: Almost seen. There’s a man patrolling with a shotgun. I’m watching on my minimap. Looks like he’s circling the house.

Panda_Bear_Polka: Place 2 dynamite. Weird. They have dynamite everywhere. Don’t know if it's the game or if they are preparing for their robbery. If I see any moonshine, I’ll connect them.

Sammy#0421: Keep as much of the dynamite toward the front. We’ll use it as a distraction to pull the people from the back.

That was about when the area behind the house came into view. There were two more wagons without horses with three men each on them. Two men sat in chairs on the back porch holding their shotguns in the crook of their arms. I also noticed that each wagon had at least one bright red crate of dynamite. It would be nice to steal some before we started this, but I just didn’t see how.

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I looked up to see if anyone was on the one large balcony over the back porch. Instead of people, I saw the multiple cylinders of a gatling gun. That could be a problem. Especially if they had more than one.

In my inventory, I had eight sticks of Aged Dynamite. Our inventories limited how many we could have to eight. I figured that was so we couldn’t just spam throw them in some odd display of too much power. Either way, everyone in our gang started this raid with eight sticks. The goal was to plant as many of them as possible before we kicked this thing off.

Well, that was Coot and Bear’s plan. Mine was a little different. I had one stick for the signal and something special planned for the rest.

D0C70RC007: Mine are all planted. I’m aiming at the nearest one. Should be a chain reaction. 1 o’clock to 3 o’clock will go off.

Panda_Bear_Polka: I’ve got two people with rifles at 10 o’clock. Nobody else. My sticks are planted from 12 o'clock to 10 o’clock. Ready when you are, Sammy.

Sammy#0421: When you hear the signal, start yours off. They are gonna head your direction. It’ll clear the back. I’ve got 6 back here with 2 more covering the porch. I’m hoping they all run your way. Stay down. If they spot you go through a window, but stay in the rooms off the main hall. Main hall won’t be safe.

Panda_Bear_Polka: First it's sneaking, now it's diving through windows. You sure are testing my agility today, boss.

Sammy#0421: Let’s hope you’re up to the task.

I knew what I wanted to do to trigger the signal, but the problem was how to do it without alerting the eight men near the back that I was there.

My original plan had been to toss a stick of the Aged Dynamite up onto the back balcony and take out that machine gun. The single explosion would shock everyone, but the resulting ten or so explosions from the front would draw them there. That was the idea anyway.

And the more I thought about it, the dumber that idea became. To get the dynamite up to the balcony, I was going to need to throw it and a lit stick of dynamite was going to give away my position.

My second plan, that only just popped into my head, was that I could use my new bolt action rifle and hit the dynamite near one of the wagons. That would have the same effect and kill at least three of the men, but then the third plan popped into my head.

I could test Coot’s resolve.

He had the hair-brained idea to step out in front of that barn and die as part of our first mission, but he had also been stuck in the woods for who-knew-how-long. Since then, I had only seen him take a backseat in the harder events.

I toyed around with that idea long enough that they started messaging me in the chat. I decided against it only because I didn’t want to alienate my friend just to see if he was willing to kill people in a video game. Especially when it wasn’t necessary. There would be less dangerous times to feel him out later.

Besides, three dead men were three less to fight later.

I drew my bolt action rifle and lifted it to my eye. The scope filled my perception. It was a low-end scope with barely any magnification, but anything was better than the iron sights that it came with. For the closer fights, I could adjust my hold on the rifle to look under the scope and use the sights.

I pulled the trigger.

The wagon furthest from me exploded.

The notifications rolled in that each of those men had died. I barely acknowledged them as I instead focused on the remaining members of Anita’s gang.

The guys on the porch and the other wagon ran toward the wagon with their guns all raised. When I looked up to check on the balcony, I saw someone was now manning the machine gun, but they obviously didn’t know where the shot had come from.

Fire and debris were still falling when Bear and Coot set off their explosions.

Whoever had the gatling gun wasn’t moving, but the rest all ran to the front. I was surprised they did, to be honest. The first explosion meant that someone was obviously back here. The second explosion should have implied that they were surrounded. If I was Anita, the standing orders would have been to fall back to the house.

That bothered me and I wasn’t entirely sure why. Were they idiots? Possibly. Did they know something we didn’t? Highly likely.

Sammy#0421: I’m moving in. Stay hidden for as long as you can.

D0C70RC007: Too late. Bear is in the thick of it. They spotted him and are focused on him.

Sammy#0421: WTF Bear? Stay alive. Don’t retreat to the house yet. Not until I clear it.

Panda_Bear_Polka: Tld u! Cant snek.

Damn it! This was going to be impossible with the three of us. If Bear died, Coot and I would barely make it out of here.

Sammy#0421: If he goes down, the plan is the same. Get on your horse and go south, Coot. I’ll go north. We’ll spread them out and try to finish them that way.

Nobody responded, but I hadn’t expected them to. Gunfire roared while the pieces of wagons continued to rain down all over the place. When the gatling gun was turned in the direction of the remains of the far wagon, I ran for the back door while remaining crouched.

That was when my piece of the plan started. I peeked my head around the corner of the open door and looked inside. It was a long hall that looked as dilapidated as the rest of the place. It crossed through several large rooms, but from what I could see, no one had stayed in the house. A quick glance at my map confirmed that Anita, the person on the gun, and two others were upstairs.

Assuming no one was crouching. Don’t forget that again.

The first stick of dynamite I placed on the inside of the door frame. I moved quickly through the plantation house, putting two more in what I hoped was the blast radius of each other. I wanted these to set each other off.

Of course, if someone saw what I was doing, they could shoot one of the sticks and take me out, but I was hopeful that wasn’t about to happen.

Two more sticks took me to the front of the house. I checked each room quickly as I passed them, but the explosions had ruined any interest that Anita’s gang had in hiding inside. They wanted Bear, and by the sounds of the gunshots, they were already onto Coot as well.

A thud came from behind me and I spun with my rifle and almost shot Bear.

“Damn you!” I hissed. “I didn’t give the all-clear.”

“It was now or never, boss.” Bear shrugged.

I pointed at a stick of dynamite in front of the room he had just jumped into. I was still in the hall, but Bear had jumped into some sparsely furnished dining room. He was already up with his back against the wall and bullets were peppering the window he had just come through.

“Hey,” I whisper-yelled. “See that?” I was pointing to a stick of dynamite I had just placed on the wall across from the door to the room he was in. “If they get in, wait until you can see them, then shoot it.”

Bear nodded but the bullets hitting the wood near his head was distracting enough that I didn’t expect anything else.

Before I climbed the stairs, I slung my bolt action rifle over my shoulder and drew one of my Farmer’s Pistols. Halfway up, I placed a final piece of dynamite on a step. From there, if it exploded, it should cause the one near the room Bear was in to go off. At least, that was the plan.

Upstairs of the plantation house was worse off than the rest of the place. Walls had entire sections blown out from some previous battle and the plaster was falling in more places than it wasn’t. The boards were creaking and it was obvious that someone was coming up the stairs and into a potential ambush, but I wasn’t about to stop crouching just yet.

Coot sent me a quick message saying that he had been hit, had eaten a piece of jerky and was now sneaking around to the side of the house to catch the remaining gunmen unaware.

So far, so good, but I wasn’t dumb enough to think we had this in the bag. In video game terms, we hadn’t even made it to the boss yet.

My minimap still showed the one person with the gatling gun, although I couldn’t imagine they were doing anything exciting with me and Bear in here and Coot out front. That shooter was directly across from where the stairs ended. If I came up and they turned around, it would be down to whoever drew first.

There was a room to the right of the steps that had three red teardrops in it. They weren’t moving and I was running through scenarios on why that would be. The only thing that I could come up with was that Anita was in there, and those were her guards.

To the left, in a room that I could see had holes through most of the walls, was the final red teardrop. I crouch-walked to the top of the steps and peered through the hole. There was a man with a damned hatchet.

Why did he have a hatchet? Why was he hanging out in a room entirely by himself? He was the decoy. That was the best conclusion that I could come up with. If I had to guess, the hatchet was probably the quickest way to one-shot kill someone that he had available. They expected me to search the rooms, or maybe they thought I would think the person alone was Anita and rush in there.

Either way, that wasn’t how that played out.