Chapter 21

After the picture faded, I should have respawned, but everything remained dark. My HUD came up when I wanted it to, but I could not see anything else. Working through the logic, I opened my inventory from my HUD and pulled out the lantern.

It blazed to life and brought my immediate area into focus.

I expanded the map to try and nail down where I was. It was somewhere deep in the woods, but when I zoomed out enough I could see that I was only about a mile from the train tracks. That must have been where I died.

Sammy#0421: I’m back. Did you already cash it in?

D0C70RC007: We’re sitting outside the place waiting to talk to the chicken guy.

Sammy#0421: Do it. If he offers you another job, politely decline until we have more time.

Panda_Bear_Polka: What? You don’t want us to punch him and take his fancy suit?

Sammy#0421: I really can’t tell if you’re kidding. Don’t punch him, please.

I whistled and waited for Horse and the Mission Complete notifications.

When the job was done, I received a whopping $250, half of a gold bar, and enough experience to put me past level 10.

You have mail waiting for you at the post office or camp lockbox.

It was going to have to wait. My pocket watch told me it was just after sunset. The boys and I would have tonight to get armed, get to Easter, and hopefully organize them into a slightly better defense than they’ve been.

I plotted a course to Hardy, which turned out to be the closest fast travel to where I had resurrected. Then I summoned Horse.

“Look who finally decided to show up,” he snorted when he arrived. If it wasn’t for my lantern, I would never have seen him coming.

“Can you navigate through this?” I asked.

“Does a bear place bets on which dumb hunter won’t make it home?”

I just stared at him blankly.

“Yes,” he snorted. “The answer is yet. Geeze, why are you such a noob?”

“Excuse me,” I said. “Probably because I am a noob.”

“Really? I feel like this is your hundredth death or something.” I swung up onto his back.

“Shut up and get us out of here. I need to send a message.”

“Oh? And who’s the lucky boy?”

“Ed from the Gladiat0rz,” I answered. “I'm going to try and recruit him.”

Fast Traveling from Hardy to the camp was an entertaining experience. Normally when I sat on the bench it would put me at the similar bench in the destination town. Since this was a trip to my camp, it put me at the camp table.

This wouldn’t have been a problem, except that Bear and Coot were sitting at the table when I appeared seemingly from nowhere.

Bear screamed.

Coot screamed.

Joan screamed.

I screamed.

Horse screamed.

I glared at Horse. “You’re not helping,” I shouted.

“Everyone else was doing it!” he said. “You never let me join in anything fun.”

When everyone had finally calmed down, I grabbed a bowl from Joan and started eating. The lanterns provided a lot of light and I could see most of the camp clearly enough.

“The boys tell me this is it. You’re gonna stand between an army and a town just to make a point?”

I shook my head. “No. I’m going to stand between an army and a town so that not everyone’s birth into this new life is as traumatic as mine was.” I mimed placing a gun to my head and blowing my brains out. “That’s hardly the welcome wagon that people should be greeted with after already dealing with the trauma of realizing that they died.”

“All fine and dandy,” Joan added another scoop of the stew to my bowl, “until you die, the entire gang still kills everyone, and then you’ve let down an entire city of folks.”

I jabbed my spoon in her direction. “Easter is not what I would call a city. And I’ve already thought of that.”

“Oh?” Coot and Bear asked at the same time.

“Sure she has,” Horse answered for me. “She’ll do what she always does. She’ll die, come back, try again, rinse, repeat. I’ll get shot in the ass. It’ll be fun. You should come with us.”

“Shut up, you,” Joan shouted at him and surprised me. I hadn’t realized she could hear him. I was going to have to ask her about that. She returned her attention to me. “That isn’t your plan, is it?”

“Nope,” I finished my bowl and handed it back to her. My health was glowing gold and would for a while now. “We’re going to get the town to fight back and we’re going to win.”

I got into my chat and sent my second message since I had been resurrected.

“That’s not a plan,” Coot said. “That’s a mission statement.”

“You’re right,” I agreed. “So, here’s the plan.” I pulled out the manual. That same manual that I hadn’t been reading until recently, and I slapped it down on the table. “Did you know that the game rules don’t get suspended just because you start a raid?”

“What?” Bear asked.

“The game rules,” I held my hands wide to encompass everything around us. “Our entire world does not stop existing just because RadicalLoser started a raid. Shops still sell. Bars still serve. Cows still shit.”

“So?” Joan crossed her arms. “That doesn’t change anything.”

“Wrong,” I stood up and shoved my hands into my pockets. “It changes everything. Larry and his Paynes attack a town, kill the defenseless, and reap the rewards. The sheriff can’t do anything, because he’s outnumbered. The defenders could, but there’s no point in it. It’s easier to defend Aberdine with its high rooftops where you can earn the same reward for less effort.” I smiled. “But what if it wasn’t about defending Easter? What if Larry had to worry about a fight on two fronts?”

“You’re talking riddles,” Bear said. “Spit it out.”

A chat message popped up and I opened it. It had directions and a message.

RadicalLarry19: We could arrange that. Meet me here.

“No time,” I said. “We’ve got to get somewhere. I’ll explain on the way.”

I whistled and the Pink Flamingos rode into the night.

There was a railroad bridge outside of McClintock Ranch that passed over a deep gorge. It was beautiful and obviously the reason that someone would have added it to the game. On one side you could see everywhere south of McClintock for miles. On the other side, a beautiful waterfall fell from a cliff face and continued down the river through the gorge.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

I turned on the broadcast button.

This was where Larry had wanted to meet me. Well, kind of. When I had reached out to Larry, I more or less knew where he would want to meet. The area was close to where I had guessed their camp had to be and the train tracks made it secluded enough that I couldn’t ambush him if I wanted to.

That was part of my plan, though. I didn’t want to ambush him.

Location picked, and by Larry, I only had one more thing to do before I could meet with him.

D0C70RC007 is now Leader of the Gang Pink Flamingos.

Sammy#0421 has left the Gang Pink Flamingos.

“Are you sure about this?” Coot wasn’t happy with any of this plan.

“Nope, not at all, but if I’m wrong, you can just invite me back in. That’s easy as pie and we don’t lose anything for it.”

He continued to shake his head but didn’t say anything.

“You guys know your role, get. I’ve got someone to meet.” I said.

They rode off into the darkness and I got down from Horse and started onto the bridge.

“Be careful,” Horse said. He huffed and shook his head. “Me no likey heights.”

“No likey?” I asked. “What decade are you even from?”

“I also no likey back story,” he snorted.

“Whatever.”

The entirety of the plan had been laid out for the boys on the ride here. The goal of my meeting was to take Larry off the board for the morning’s fight and also put a hitch in the giddyup for the entire Colossal Paynes.

Coot was worried for nothing. If I was wrong and this didn’t play out as I hoped it would, we wouldn’t be any worse off. Larry already hated us and it's not like death had a permanent cost. We would be back at square one, trying to figure out how to make Easter a safe-haven, but that wasn’t very far from where we already were.

When I reached the halfway point, I stopped and eyed my surroundings. Mostly, I eyed the lack of them. I could go back toward Horse, or I could go forward toward Larry and his crew. It didn’t get more direct than that.

Larry and his posse showed up only a minute or so after I reached the middle. That annoyed me a little. I had hoped he would come alone.

Make a plan and EveNet laughs, or whatever the saying is.

I watched him get down from his horse and stomp down the bridge toward me. He stopped about twenty feet from me and I relaxed.

Not dead yet.

“Alright, I’m here,” Larry said. “Speak your piece.”

“I’m tired of dying,” I said. “I’m good at killing and I’m smart.”

“So?” Larry spit.

“I want to join the Colossals.”

He snickered. “Can’t be too smart going to the only person you’ve pissed off more than Satan himself and asking for help.”

“I don’t want help,” I crossed my arms. “And you know that I don’t need it. But you need someone smarter than whoever has been doing your mission plans.”

“How’s that?” he looked annoyed.

“You had my gang of three surrounded by what? Twenty men?” I smirked and raised a finger. “Sorry, you had only me surrounded by twenty men. All you had to do was kill a little old woman and all of your group couldn’t do even that much.”

He snarled as he drew his pistol and thrust it in my direction.

“I can rectify that if you like.”

My hands went up but my smile never dropped.

“Look,” I said, “I’m not trying to get killed. Just the opposite. Consider that my application. Whoever planned your attack on me and mine was smart. I’d beaten you before and surrounding me with overwhelming force was a smart move.” I shrugged and lowered my hands. “A lazy move, but a smart one.”

“Oh,” Larry lowered his pistol slowly and eyed me, “and what would you have done?”

My arms crossed again, I answered. “You didn’t need me alive to take the mission from me. Why didn’t you set the house on fire?” I snapped my fingers. “Or, what you should have done was have your men surround the house with moonshine. Then light it as I tried to escape.”

He nodded. “Simple, but you’re right. Tom thought bodies were enough.” Larry smiled. “For anyone else, they would have been.”

“So? Can I join the Paynes?”

He frowned as his brow furrowed. He wasn’t dumb even though he liked to play the ‘oafish brute.’ I would do well to remember that when dealing with him.

“What about the codger and the mountain man? They ain’t gonna like it that their boss up and left. I don’t think I want them on the team. They seem soft and not overly intelligent.”

Coot would have eaten that right up.

I nodded. “They are. I told them to fuck off and left the gang already. They’re dealing with the confusion but they won’t come after me.”

“How do I know this ain’t some kind of ambush or trick?” See? What did I tell you? Smarter than he looked.

“You know it isn’t because I can’t kill you if I’m in your gang. Friendly fire. You’re safe as a bug in a rug. If I’m going to try and hurt you, it’ll have to be now or never.”

I spread my hands and tilted my head, as if I was listening for his death.

“I guess it's never,” I said. “So, can I join up?”

He stared at me without moving, without even blinking, for what felt like forever.

Finally, a message popped up in my HUD.

You have been invited to join the Colossal Paynes. Do you accept?

I thought the yes as loudly and quickly as I could.

Sammy#0421 is now a member of the Gang Colossal Paynes.

Larry finally broke the silence. “Welcome to the gang. Let’s get back to camp.”

I nodded and started behind him as he turned and left the way he had come.

Then I drew my Farmer’s Pistol and let auto-aim do the rest.

I wasn’t lying that I couldn’t kill him or anyone in his gang now that I was part of it. The gangs had Friendly Fire turned off, so nothing I could do would kill Larry.

But physics was still physics, and explosions had two components to them. The first was fire and death.

The second was the force of the blast.

Auto-aim found the Aged Dynamite that I had ridden ahead and placed in several places along Larry’s end of the bridge.

A shout went up and Larry spun, drawing his pistol. He fired three times at me and hit me in the face with each one.

And sure, my head jerked with each hit, but I didn’t die.

My gun went off.

The dynamite exploded. Then the next one. Then the next one.

The look on Larry’s face was priceless. It was a mix of both surprise and rage. Flames erupted all around him as his feet lifted from the tracks and arced him out and over nothing.

Well, not exactly nothing. He had a river, more of a stream really, about two-hundred feet below him.

A gang-only notification went across my HUD.

RadicalLarry19 has died from a great fall.

I wasn’t exactly sure how many people Larry had brought with him, but I ran through the dissipating cloud of smoke and fire with both of my pistols up.

It was a waste of effort, though. By the time I got to them, Bear had already tied them up and tossed them over the cliff edge to join their boss.

That was kind of funny. Their boss. My boss, too, for now.

The notifications for both of them read the same thing. My only real concern at this point was whether or not they had had the wherewithal to message anyone back at their base before hitting the stones and water below.

You have been invited to join the Pink Flamingos. Do you accept?

I waved it out of my face to dismiss it and yelled up to where Coot was hiding.

“Not yet,” I flashed him a smile as he came out from behind some rocks with a frown on his face. “The Colossal Paynes have a reputation to live up to.”

I sent the boys back to camp. They wouldn’t go at first and then I explained what I needed to do. Bear loved the plan. Coot appreciated it for its deviousness, but otherwise thought we could be spending our time better. I agreed with him and gave him the role of getting back to Easter and mobilizing them.

“Get them guns and get them positioned. The fight is coming sooner rather than later.” Horse arrived then, and I jumped up onto him. “Especially after what I just did.”

“I won’t be able to invite you back into the gang if the raid has already started,” Coot said. “It will make us wait until it's over. You won’t be part of it if you don’t accept in time.”

I nodded. “If I’m not already back, send me the invite anyway. I’ll accept it.”

“Unless you’re dead,” Bear said.

“Who cares?” I finally demanded. “Levels and experience are great but the mission is about keeping Easter safe. This isn’t a one and done. We make a stand today, and then we have to hold that stand. Nobody takes it. You know what you signed up for.” I was annoyed, but not heartless. “Look. If this doesn’t go the way I’m hoping it will, or if you just don’t enjoy this crusade as much anymore, I encourage you to own your retirement and do something else. Mine is going to be spent defending noobs, but I respect that that’s not everyone’s choice.”

Coot and Bear were silent for a while before finally nodding.

“Thank you,” Coot said.

“Yeah,” Bear added. “Thanks, but we don’t want to quit, we’re just worried about you. We’re here, boss. Don’t sweat it. Just try and stay alive.”

I smiled. It was nice to have such polite and nice boys on the team.