Chapter 23

The thing about reading a manual when your new existence is blessed with complete recall is that you have to know what you need to want to go back to that page in your mind and remember exactly that one piece of important information.

The thing that I didn’t know I needed to remember and for some reason hadn’t stuck in the forefront of my mind was that I could clearly see where every member of my gang was if I expanded my map.

And they could see me.

I was almost to the pass when suddenly I was surrounded. I couldn’t see them, but they were there on my map. That was why they stopped. They were trying to decide what I was doing.

You have been removed from the Colossal Paynes.

Oh, and Larry was alive again.

The good news for this scenario was that Jim, which is what Horse had named the guy tied up on his back, was still alive and still within range of the other members of the Colossal Paynes. While I was still wanted, so were they, and now I could leave and lose the law while they stayed in their wanted level.

Larry wasn’t who greeted me when we stopped.

TommyGunZZZ rode into the clearing. When I looked I could see the other Paynes just peeking out from behind their different covers.

“You dumb bitch,” Tommy said. “You could have had a good family with us and you blew it. For what? NPC’s? How stupid are you?”

“You’re in for it now,” Jim said.

“Shut up, Jim,” Horse and I said for at least the hundredth time since capturing him.

“Who the fuck is that?” Tommy asked.

I held up my finger. “First of all, I already have a family. Second of all, I didn’t do this just for the NPC’s. I am doing it for the noobs. On your first day, weren’t you confused? Lost? In mourning for the loss of your old life? And how did you process all of that?”

Tommy wasn’t used to being in charge without Larry, it would seem. So he just frowned as I continued talking.

“Or did some asshole in a gang show up and shoot you in the head before you could even dry off from the bath?” I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. You don’t deserve a reason from me. As for this guy,” I took the reins and smacked Jim. “Say hi, Jim.”

“My name isn’t Jim,” he shouted. To be fair, he had said this many times already.

“Shut up, Jim,” Horse and I said again.

“Jim here is some sort of law officer.” I let out a slow sigh. “You guys notice that you’re wanted, yet? Well, they were hunting me as a violent member of both society and of the Colossal Paynes. Now they are hunting you. Jim was kind enough to invite his friends along.”

“You bet your ass I was,” Jim smirked. I didn’t like that.

I hit him with the reins again. “This isn’t your moment, Jim.”

Tommy was growing visibly angrier. “You brought the law down on us?”

Sammy#0421: You can send the invite, but I’m still wanted. Probably won’t be a problem once the raid starts. They won’t be able to get to us in the town with these assholes outside of it.

Panda_Bear_Polka: These assholes? Are you with them now?

Sammy#0421: Don’t worry about it. My part is done. Get ready to defend the town.

“Now,” I said to Horse. He bucked and Jim hit the ground. While he did that, I pulled Bear’s tonic out and drank it.

To the crowd, I said, “You can go to Easter, have your Raid, but you’ll be doing it with the law coming after you. Or you can turn around and try again another day.”

Larry showed up then, sliding in on his horse.

“They’ll be hunting you, too.” He hopped down and aimed his sawed-off shotgun at my chest. “Well, not if we kill you I guess.”

“How is that sporting?” I countered. “If you’re going to start the raid, wouldn’t it be more fun with competition?”

“Nope. We just want the money and experience.” He shrugged. “If we wanted competition or a challenge, we’d raid Saint Emile.”

My map flashed red to the west and east of me. Jim’s friends had just spawned in.

“Well, if you’re the cowards that I think you are, then go ahead and shoot me and do the raid tomorrow when you’re no longer wanted. Otherwise, I’ll see you in Easter.”

For a moment, nothing was happening and the world seemed to freeze.

Then Larry shot Jim.

Horse jerked but otherwise we didn’t move. We had both talked about this happening. Jim had heard us, so it was likely that he wasn’t surprised by the turn of events either.

Larry turned to walk away and stopped only to touch Tommy’s shoulder.

“Kill her and the horse.”

I had shot Tommy dead before Larry had finished the sentence. We turned to ride away as everyone started firing. Horse and I both got hit, but my health stayed in the magical yellow from Bear’s tonic.

“I’ve been shot, again,” Horse shouted as we headed up the pass toward Easter.

“Get cover,” I shouted to him while looking at the map.

They were here.

The law was there in droves. A force of ten coming from the direction of Easter and down the pass toward the Colossals and another force of ten coming from down the river and to the west. Bullets started flying but none of them were aimed at Horse or me. He slammed his body against the rock wall of the pass as they rode by firing at the gang.

Horse had hit the wall hard enough that when he pulled away to take off, I could see a bloodstain from where my leg had hit it.

“That’s what you get for getting me shot,” Horse said when I mentioned it.

Fine. He had a point.

The law was still after me, but the greater prize was the gang. We rode all the way to Easter with barely any issues.

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

You bet your ass I do.

Stolen story; please report.

I could now stop using the generic chat window and return to the gang chat, which was much nicer in that it was a different shade of blue that stood out against the other notifications I was receiving.

I jumped off of Horse as we came into Easter. I dug around in my bag and grabbed the sweets and almost choked him with them.

“Get out of here. This fight isn’t for you, buddy.”

“You want to dismiss me or have me hide somewhere in case you need me?” He looked upset, counter to his usual kind of upset anyway.

“What? Are you saying you want to help?” I raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t want to get killed off and go to that nothing void again until the raid is over, but if I can help the team out, yes, I want to help.”

I hugged Horse around the neck. “I just don’t know what you could do that won’t get you killed at this point. Thank you so much, though. Whether this works or not, you’ve earned a spa day.”

He turned to leave and stopped. “You’re not the worst rider. Easter doesn’t deserve you.”

I almost teared up. Instead, I smacked him lightly on the rump and watched him take off towards the woods north of town.

I saw Coot up on the roof and sent both boys a message that the raid would start soon. Instead of replying in chat, Coot pointed out toward the pass and shouted.

“Sooner than you think. Get in position.”

I had done a lot of thinking about where I wanted to be during this fight and the main position that I wanted, especially after the Aberdine slaughter, was to be on the roof of the Sheriff’s office.

Aberdine buildings were straight and tall. A lot like modern buildings back in the real world, but not nearly that tall. In Easter, the buildings were more traditionally of the old west. No ladders to get on slanted rooftops, but one look at the sheriff’s office and then a glance back at the hotel and I realized they all had subtle ways to get on top of them.

I climbed the stairs on the outside of the building and stopped when they turned into the door.

A raid is starting in the town of Easter. Are you defending?

I selected yes and then jumped straight up. There was an awning over the door into the second floor. I grabbed it, pulled myself up onto my stomach and rolled onto the roof.

Then I drew my rifle and waited.

From where I was standing, I could see people all over the town. They were scared but they had guns and cover. Even Hubert was standing on the porch to the hotel with a small pistol. Marcy and Henrik were across the street hiding behind some new construction going up next to the saloon. Underneath me, I could see the sheriff, who I still hadn’t had the pleasure to meet yet, and Clarence from the post office.

No matter how nervous they looked, they were there. That’s more than they’d ever done before.

There were also a number of other players there that I didn’t recognize, but I had expected that as well. They were why we were doing this. The level ones who had just spawned in. The people who had just found out that they were ghosts. The people who had to come to terms with the idea that a better, more real version of them got to continue on in some version of the afterlife that had their loved ones in it.

Instead of this new version of them that had been barred from ever seeing those loved ones again and were instead sent to this bloody hellscape.

I wish you were next to me, Tyler, I thought. Maybe it was a prayer. I don’t know. Just to see you. Just to know that I was doing something you thought was worth, well, anything.

My eyes started to water and I had to force that feeling down. Sorry, hubby, but your ghost will have to wait for when this town doesn’t need me.

Those poor souls down there were in for a surprise, but hopefully a good one.

That was when I saw Bear step out of the gunsmith with Adeline. They were laughing and handing out boxes of ammunition to anyone they saw.

“Get cover,” I shouted to them. “Here they come.”

As if on cue, Coot’s Volcanic Pistol roared.

I brought up my rifle and looked through the scope. Sure enough, there were the Colossals. I couldn’t see RadicalLarry19, but I made out Freya and a few of the others I didn’t know the names of. Flashes of red on my minimap told me that they were coming from the other direction as well. That’s why I had picked this spot.

I swung around and brought up my rifle. There they were. They weren’t an army, but they were more people than I thought were actually in the Paynes. Some were on horses, some were just running. They were spaced out, probably to stop us from using a stick of dynamite to end the entire raid.

More red on the minimap and I could see folks running up from the post office.

How many people were in the Colossal Paynes? I should have done a headcount while I was in the gang. It didn’t matter. We had our jobs.

I checked my messages one more time. Nothing new. That was … unfortunate.

My rifle felt good in my hands. I raised it and took aim through the scope and gently tugged up.

Headshot.

I aimed from the lead runners and riders, shooting the horses of the riders first so they’d trip up the rest.

They hit the town like a wave. I was firing nonstop trying to keep the crowd thinned out. The group on the ground were already getting overwhelmed, but this was already a better show than the last time I had seen a raid in Easter.

Reloading.

As I reloaded, which was mostly automatic, I looked at my map. I was lucky that I did.

The Paynes had caught onto my trick with the roof and one was climbing up behind me.

My gun wasn’t reloaded yet, so I grabbed my pistol and brought it up.

That was a dumb move. As I lowered the rifle with my left hand and tried to quick draw my pistol up, the toothless Colossal closed the gap and swiped my arm aside. He had a hatchet. What was with this game and hatchets? Were they more prevalent in the old west? I didn’t buy that.

The hatchet missed my face by a hair as I leaned back and kicked out and up. The slanted roof was to my advantage as my foot caught toothless on the chin and he rocked back, dropping the hatchet and rolling off the roof. He missed the stairs, hitting the railing and falling to the ground dead. I rolled over to see someone coming up the backside of the roof. I hadn’t even realized there was a way up from there. I fired and missed as he came in running laterally to me before cutting in toward me and up the incline. He tackled me around the waste, drew his pistol and placed it under my chin.

Somewhere in the tackle, I had lost my weapons, but the hatchet was still right there. I picked it up and swung wildly, hitting him in the side of the head. The heat of adrenaline was coursing through my veins as I tore it from his head, got to my feet and found my weapons. I slid the hatchet into my inventory.

Time to readjust. With the folks getting overwhelmed in the streets, I was going to cover them while keeping an eye on anyone approaching the roof.

Adeline and Bear had their backs together as they fended off attackers. A quick glance at Coot showed me that he had his own issues. Two men had gotten onto his roof and he was grappling with one while the other was moving in for the kill.

Aim, tug up, fire.

The head of the one behind Coot exploded, which surprised his friend. Coot pulled a knife and shoved it into the neck of the other man before flashing me a thumbs up. Then he turned and shot another one trying to climb on his roof before dropping flat and using the roof as cover again.

I spun and started picking off people around Adeline and Bear.

Where had Larry found these folks? How did he collect so many?

And then I got it.

This was why he hit Easter all the time. He was recruiting and the more people he recruited, the easier it was to do the next raid and recruit more.

That was also a good thing for the Flamingos. When Coot, Bear, and I had been fighting to gain every level and just to survive, whether literally or to get money to buy supplies, we were learning how to compete in this bloody and violent environment.

That wasn’t the situation for everyone in the Colossals. They had either been recruited early and had most everything done for them or they had been the ones doing the recruiting. Their plan was great if it went unchallenged, but against a group of people who had to learn everything the hard way, they were weak.

Of course, that didn’t account for the vast numbers they were overwhelming us with.

That was when I saw the wagon.

Coming down the road and aimed almost directly at Bear and Adeline was an armored wagon. I hadn’t seen anything like this before. It was a cast-iron box on wheels being pulled by a team of horses. It had a metal seat at the top that was almost entirely enclosed in more of the same metal. A small window allowed for a gatling gun to be fired out of it.

Oh, and the top swiveled.

I fired continuously trying to shoot through that small window and hit the gunner. When that failed I tried shooting at the open seat for the driver, except he had a metal overhang that mostly covered him.

Then I fired on the horses. I hated doing it, but at the same time, Horse wasn’t wrong.

Ride with the bad, die with the bad.

The horses went down and under the wagon and it came to a very sudden stop about twenty feet from Bear and Adeline. They stood there staring at it.

Waiting.

A small part of me hoped that the wagon was done, but I wasn’t that stupid.

The rifle swung around and landed on my back, held in place by a small leather strap and weird game physics. I took four running steps and leaped.

I was in the air above the street and falling.