Chapter 24

When the digital adrenaline is pumping, you don’t think about what you’re doing.

I landed on a man who was raising his pistol to the back of Adeline’s head. For what should have been a life ending fall, I received no damage. If this had been Aberdine, I know I would have hit several things and died before colliding with the gunman.

Lucky for me, this wasn’t Aberdine.

He grappled with me, trying to bring his gun around to aim at me on his back. It was useless and I was able to put my pistol to his head and give him his hour of rest.

“What are you doing, Sammy?” Adeline demanded while Bear seemed to finally notice the gun on the wagon spinning toward them.

“Get down,” he shouted before diving into each of us.

Bullets sprayed where he had been standing and tracked us as we all ran into the sheriff’s office and dove to the floor.

The gun wasn’t aiming at its own people, and they pressed the advantage, following us. The three of us laid on the floor firing at anyone dumb enough to come through that door behind us. We were racking up the experience, but at this pace and with these numbers, we weren’t going to be surviving much longer unless something changed.

“I don’t know where the dynamite is,” I shouted over the roar of bullets peppering the building. “Is it near the wagon?”

Bear shook his head. “We put it closer to where we were standing,” he shouted. “ We figured to use it when they got too close.”

I hit the ground in frustration and checked my inventory. There were still three sticks of dynamite in there.

“We need a distraction.” I nodded to Bear. “Got any more tonics?”

He shook his head.

D0C70RC007: Where’d you guys go? Still alive? Wagon is making it hot out here.

Sammy#0421: Pinned down in the sheriff’s. Working on a plan. Stay safe.

D0C70RC007: Going into the hotel. Going to take refuge in a room until things calm down a bit. Feels like they are aiming for the Flamingos.

They probably were, I realized. I went and made this personal for them. Now it wasn’t just a matter of winning the raid, they wanted to make us feel the hurt.

I peered out the door and across the street. I saw one of the townsfolk go down in a flurry of bullets on the porch to the gunsmith. To Adeline’s shop.

“Is your shop unlocked?” I asked her.

“Now isn’t the time to upgrade your guns,” she said and her eyes glazed over just a little as if it was a recorded thing she had to say during raids.

“No, I don’t want to buy anything,” I explained. “If I ran across, could I dive in there for cover?”

Adeline shook her head. “Only I can get in.”

I nodded, half-expecting that to be her answer. “Can you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Run into the street, get the wagon’s attention, not get killed and dive into your store for protection?” I explained. “If you’re the only one who can open that door, you’ll be safe in there if you keep your head down.”

“What about the town?” she asked.

“The town is fucked if we can’t stop that wagon.”

She took a moment to think about it. During that time, Bear and I killed four more people trying to get in through the door.

D0C70RC007: Room I’m in has a window. Killed that Tommy fella. They know where I am.

Sammy#0421: Hang in there, we’re dealing with the wagon and then we’ll come for you.

“We will?” Bear asked.

“Will what?” Adeline was confused.

“Will you, is what he meant to say,” I eyed Bear. “Will you distract the wagon?”

She shook her head, waffling between options, realizing she didn’t have many, and then got to her feet, nodding. “Yes, alright, I’ll do it.”

“Get close to the door,” I said. I inched in behind her so that we were both still covered and directly next to the door. “When I say go, you head straight for your store. When the gun starts shooting at you, I’ll run out and directly at it with a stick of dynamite.

“This sounds like a plan I would have made,” Bear said.

“Not helping,” I shouted. To Adeline, I asked, “Are you ready?”

Adeline nodded.

“Go!” I pushed on her back lightly, but she was already moving.

The problem with this plan was that the wagon wasn’t going to be the only thing shooting at her or me. Adeline was halfway across the street with two new kills to her name before the gatling gun noticed her.

That was when I dove out the door and stayed close to the building. I ran hard and fast. We couldn’t afford for this to not work, so I needed to put the dynamite as close to the wagon as possible.

“Hey bitch!” I heard a voice call from past the wagon as I came around the corner of the sheriff’s office. Freya_Trippin was running at me with a bow in her hand. An arrow whizzed by my head.

Damn. She wasn’t going to just let me blow up the wagon. I didn’t have time for this.

My tactics changed as I angled toward the front of the wagon. It had come down the same hill that Freya was running down, so this would put a big iron wall directly between us until she caught up. I let my body slam into the side, just under the cockpit, or driver’s seat, or whatever the spot the wagon-driver was sitting in.

And he was still sitting there and shooting at anything he saw moving which, for some reason, hadn’t included me. I reached up and placed my pistol under his head and ignored the shower of blood that rained down around me. Then I pulled out the dynamite and placed it right in his dead lap.

The notification asking for my mental assistance in lighting it popped up.

An arrow hit me in the hip. I grunted in pain and fell away from the wagon. The notification disappeared as I was suddenly too far to light it. Having put it in his lap, I couldn’t see it to aim at it.

Freya was suddenly above me. I pulled out my pistol, she kicked it away. I reached for the second one, and she stomped on my wrist. The wagon continued to fire but I was in no danger from it because I was too close. In a minute, Freya would have more people coming up behind her and I would be dead.

Fuck that.

She was still on my wrist as I used my other hand to yank out the arrow and then I slammed it into her calf. Freya howled in pain and backed off of my hand. I didn’t bother looking at my health and figured this was going to be my last stand. My death was going to cost her something.

I hurt everywhere as I climbed to my feet and then tackled her.

It was our third date when Tyler felt comfortable enough to drone on about football. He loved the sport and as someone who loved sports, he was obsessed with the mechanics of it. Specifically, on that third date, he was telling me why tackling someone was an art. You couldn’t just hit anyone because people were top heavy. As soon as you slammed your mass into someone who was expecting it nothing was going to happen the way you planned on it happening. They can plant their feet or control your momentum. Tyler had said that if you go low, though, and hook your arms around the back of their legs, you could lift as you were running and they would lose their control. Your momentum would drive you both to the ground.

Thanks again, Tyler. She hit the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Thud.

My punches hit her face before I realized I had decided to punch her. I was thinking of grabbing my knife and finishing her, but my fists were powered by rage. Rage at her, at her gang, at dying, at Tyler dying, at Winnie not knowing I was still out here, at a world that thought Coot couldn’t be an attractive and intelligent person, at a game that continued that thought process, and at this dumb skank for calling me a bitch.

A bullet whizzed over my head and clinked the side of the wagon. That snapped me out of my fury. When I looked down, Freya was a mess. Suddenly, her head sagged to the side and I got the player kill notification.

Well, fuck. I just beat a woman to death. That was… new.

I didn’t have any time to think about it. I got to my feet and limped up to the wagon. A bullet hit me in the back. I risked a glance at my health and could see that I was in major trouble.

It was under 10%.

I limped closer and the query popped up asking if I wanted to light the fuse.

Damn straight.

When the fuse was lit, I dropped to my ass right next to the wagon. It was nighty-night time. I hoped we were going to win. Probably not, but maybe they will think twice before trying again next time.

Gun shots, the sizzle of the fuse, and the smell of blood were all that my senses picked up as I closed my eyes.

Then there was a pinch on my shoulder and I was getting yanked away from the wagon and dragged at considerable speed.

I opened my eyes and Horse had me in his teeth.

“Get up,” he mumbled through the cloth of my jacket. When I looked back at the wagon, it exploded and I was far enough away that I didn’t even feel the heat.

Horse let me go and I used him and the saddle to drag myself to my feet.

“I dismissed you.”

“I ignored you.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Get me to Bear,” I said, pointing at the sheriff’s office as I climbed slowly onto the saddle. Horse was inside the building in seconds. Bear was surprised at first, but then he saw me bleeding out all over Horse.

“Help her out before she stains me,” he said. Only I could hear him, but it was funny and I coughed up blood laughing.

I fell off of Horse and rolled onto my back. A timer started counting down from twenty.

“What’s the timer?”

“You’re bleeding out,” Bear ran up to me and went down on his knees before fumbling around in his satchel. “You’re going to die when that timer hits zero.”

I must have been getting delirious, because I found that funny. “Wait, you mean they are giving me an exact countdown to when I die? I can pose this time.” I tried to roll over to shove my ass in the air but moving was difficult and Bear pushed me back down.

Ass-in-the-air would have been a hilarious old-timey photo. I never claimed to have class.

Bear pulled something from his bag. It looked like a small patch of paper, or like a saline packet for one of those nasal rinses, but without the branding on it. He tore it and poured it on me.

White powder dusted me and the ground around me and then disappeared.

And, I shit you not, I was suddenly on my feet. My health was at 75% and I felt a lot better than I had a moment ago.

“What? That doesn’t make any sense.”

Bear shrugged. “It’s a video game. Anyone can do it. If you see a gang member down, that is.”

Responsibility to my team snapped me back into the moment. “We need to get to Coot. Did Adeline make it?”

Bear nodded. “She’s hurt, but I gave her some meat before you met up with us. She’s locked in her shop.” He pointed out the window and I saw Adeline wave, a bullet hit the wall near the window, and then she ducked back down. “She’s safe.”

Sammy#0421: How are my Flamingos doing? Are you still flocking around?

D0C70RC007: !!!!*#$%^&*

“That’s probably not good,” I looked at Horse. “Can you get us to the hotel?”

“Did I just shit on the floor?” he asked as the smell hit me. “Get on.”

I hopped on up and checked my holsters. Even though Freya had kicked my guns away, both pistols were still there. When they ended up back in their holsters, I had no idea.

Bear placed his hands on Horse’s ass and used them to help him hop up and behind me on the saddle. We ducked as he burst through the door of the sheriff’s office and out onto the road.

I had both of those pistols out and aimed to the front while Bear was using his guns to mow down anyone he saw on the sides. Horse was in a full gallop as bullets whizzed by us.

We were halfway to the hotel when Horse was hit. He staggered, shouted something about knowing this was going to happen, and continued on until another shot knocked him and us over.

Horse landed on his side and Bear and I rolled and got up.

“Horse!” I ran to him but as I did he struggled to try and get to his feet.

Your horse has been wounded.

Almost to him, bullets peppered the ground next to me. Bear grabbed me by the arm to try and pull me back toward some boxes that could be used for cover. To our right, and back toward where the wagon’s corpse still smoldered, a large group of men were coming around the corner.

“Go,” Horse shouted. “I’ll be back after the raid. Just get out of here.” My eyes met his and I could see the man that was inside that fiery beast. “You have to win this.”

I nodded and turned to Bear. “Shoot the dynamite.”

Bear drew his Carcano Rifle and crouched, placing his elbow on his knee and taking aim. The first shot set off the stick he was aiming at. Everyone that I could see went flying, but then Bear shot again. The bullet hit the dirt about five feet in front of the explosion. At first nothing happened. Then there was a loud whoosh of noise as the ground lit up and the entire intersection was covered in flames.

“Moonshine,” Bear explained as he stood up and we resumed our run to the hotel. “We put it at the ends of each street, just out of reach of the dynamite, just in case we needed to cover our backs.”

The hotel was packed. It looked like anyone who wasn’t currently behind a wall of fire on the other end of town had crammed into that single hotel.

Your horse has died. You will have to wait until the raid is over to summon him again.

I cringed at that and whispered an apology to my dead friend.

“Shoot out the window,” I said to Bear. I pulled out a stick of dynamite and lit it. He fired on the window with his shotgun and I tossed the dynamite in. Everyone inside tried to dive back, but crashed into the people behind them, the people on the porch turned and started firing on us. Bear and I dove into the alley and I looked for where Coot had climbed up and onto the roof.

The explosion went off and I got a lot of experience from that.

There was a stack of crates clearly designed, as they do in games, for climbing up. We scaled those, swung our legs up onto a second floor balcony that overlooked the road and ducked down to see if we could see through the windows. The people from the porch were already following us. I couldn’t see much behind the windowed door, but Bear and I rushed through anyway.

The room we entered was opened to the hall, and we could see people pushing and shoving. All of them were players. I had no idea where Hubert was. If I saw the hotel manager, I would lend him a hand, but I was only there for Coot.

The sound of gunfire was constant and it made it hard to communicate with Bear.

Panda_Bear_Polka: What do we do? Dynamite?

Sammy#0421: I’ve got one stick left. You?

Panda_Bear_Polka: None. Coot and I used all ours all over the town.

I nodded, lit my last stick and threw it into the hall.

The explosion shook the building, but the video game seemed adamant about not destroying structures too much, so the walls remained standing. A lot more player kill notifications popped up and I peeked my head around the corner.

There were still some coming up the stairs, but everyone in the hall was dead. At the end of what I assumed were the bodies from the explosion was a pile of bodies directly in front of one of the hotel rooms.

“That you, Coot?” I shouted.

“Yep,” he shouted back. “Me and the manager are holding up in here.”

“We’re coming,” I said. “Then we’re ending this.”

The guys on the stairs were carrying hatchets and machetes. I wasn’t too excited about that, but at this point there wasn’t much they could have sent my way that would have surprised me.

I drew my double-barreled shotgun and stepped out of the room. I held off on shooting until they looked at me. When they did, I was only going to have a moment.

One shot, and the first two guys at the top of the stairs flew back, slamming into the men behind them.

By the time I had the next shot ready to fire, Bear was quick firing into the stairs, clearing it out. I never needed the second shot.

Coot and Hubert were huddled up the corner of a room. It was the first room just past the stairs and we had to step over the mound of corpses just to get in.

The old codger looked worn out, but he was in one piece.

“How’s your health?” I asked.

“Decent,” was the only answer he gave.

“How are you doing, Hubert?”

Hubert Clark was smiling widely.

“I am doing absolutely wonderful. Do you know how many times those assholes have stabbed me, burned me, shot me, or thrown a hatchet into my face?” His eyes closed and he made a ‘chef’s kiss’ motion with his hand. “Payback has been sweet.”

“Gotta hurry up, boss,” Bear said. “Something’s happening outside.”

“What do you mean?” I asked and moved to the window that Coot had referenced before. From the window, I could see the town from the end where I had entered at the beginning of the raid. Bodies writhed in a fire in the streets, a few townsfolk milled about, looking for someone to shoot. I was hard pressed to find anyone from the Colossal Paynes who was still alive.

“I don’t see anything,” I said. Just then, I got my answer.

Out toward the main street, I heard a voice shouting.

“Flamingos,” the voice of RadicalLarry19 roared, “get your asses out here and end this.”

I helped Coot and Hubert to their feet and we all treaded lightly as we made our way over more corpses and down the stairs into the lobby of the hotel. Through the smoldering debris and broken windows, I saw a man in metal armor. I brought up my HUD and, sure enough, it was Larry. He had armored up.

“This isn’t done,” he shouted. “The rest of my cowards might be running, but,” a bullet clinked against his armor from behind and he turned to stare through the helmet at Henrik, standing over the body of Marcy, as he held a pistol aimed at Larry. Larry twisted and fired his sawed-off. Henrik’s head exploded.

“As I was saying,” Larry turned back toward the hotel and continued, “this fight isn’t over until I cancel the raid or you kill the last Colossal Payne in town.” He spread his arms and looked around. “Well, I ain’t canceling the raid.”

“Didn’t you kill someone in armor like that just yesterday?” Coot asked.

I shook my head. “Not without dynamite. Oh, and I died too.”

“He still takes damage when you shoot him,” Bear said. He was slurping peaches from a can. I stole a bite and saw my health go up a hair. “The armor doesn’t block damage, it just mitigates it.” He frowned. “It mitigates a lot of it, but if we hit him with everything we got, aim mostly for the head, we should be able to bring him down.”

“Go out loud,” I said. “That’s what you’re saying?”

Bear nodded.

All three of us began reloading our weapons.

“I’m waiting,” Larry shouted.

“Shut up, you asshole,” I shouted back. I stepped forward and kicked open what remained of the hotel door and leveled my shotgun. “Get the fuck out of our town.”

Both barrels at once knocked him back on his ass. That gave Coot and Bear a chance to step out and fan out. Then we opened fire.

I swung the shotgun back onto my back and in the same motion brought out my pistols. Auto-aim tugged and I tugged back and we gave him everything we got, spreading out and making him have to pick which one of us he was going to shoot.

Once Larry was on his feet, he swung up his sawed-off shotgun and fired.

Panda_Bear_Polka has been killed by RadicalLarry19.

I’m not entirely sure what happened next. Coot was suddenly enraged.

He literally roared before running at the armored leader of the Colossal Paynes.

Friendly-fire was on and that meant that I couldn’t hurt Coot even if I was trying to, but I still stopped shooting. Mostly, I was confused but I also didn’t want to waste any bullets.

He slammed into Larry and tackled him to the ground, much as I had to Freya. Then he was punching him over and over, hitting his helmet with his bare fists. Blood sprayed everywhere, and it wasn’t until the fourth punch when I realized that it was coming from Coot’s hands.

Figuring he was going to die anyway, I opened fire again.

Something, either all of the punches and bullets or sheer luck, knocked Larry’s helmet off. At the same time, Larry managed to dig a knife from either his satchel or from the ground and thrust it up and into Coot’s chin.

D0C70RC007 has been killed by RadicalLarry19.

“No!” I shouted and ran at him as he tossed Coot’s still form off.

As I got to him, he leaped at me. His body hit me around the waste and the sheer mass of it knocked the wind from me as I slammed into the ground.

“Now,” he spit as he spoke, “I am going to beat you to death. Next time, maybe you’ll remember that Easter belongs to me.”

And he punched me. Over and over again. When he got tired of my face, he hit me in the chest. I gasped in pain and watched as my health dropped.

This couldn’t be it. I couldn’t let this be it. He straddled my chest. I tried to slap at him and knock him off of me, and I wheezed as he hit me in the chest again.

“I remember that night,” he leaned in and whispered to me. “I remember you hiding in the washroom. You were a good shot. That was the real reason that I agreed to let you into the Paynes, but today and all of this, you should be proud. Today was the day you almost stopped a raid by a gang of forty-eight people.” He let out a laugh. “You three idiots almost killed all of us. I can’t fucking believe that.”

I never heard the shot, but blood was suddenly oozing out of Larry’s cheek.

“What?” was all he said as a lasso went around his chest, a horse rode by us, and he was gone.

Rolling over, I forced myself up while digging in my satchel for my last hunk of meat.

Jemmy was suddenly by my side and helping me up.

“About fucking time,” I coughed up blood over the meat. “I was beginning to think Ed was ignoring my messages.”

“We were deep in the woods and unprepared for the weather,” Jemmy explained. “Snow and blizzard conditions. We had to wait for some of us to respawn.”

My wounds healed up and I watched as my health filled. I walked with Jemmy as she took me to where Ed and Kenny were aiming their weapons at the tied up RadicalLarry19.

I kicked him in the face.

“I remember that night, too,” I said as I knelt down beside him. “I had just been told that I was dead. That everyone I cared about was gone. That I wouldn’t even get the sweet touch of an afterlife with-” I choked up. “I remember it.” I nodded toward the Gladiat0rz surrounding us. “I told them I wanted to make Easter safe for new arrivals. I told them that I wanted to stop a bully and look at how they turned out. The entire town fought you. Two gangs banded together to,” I jabbed my gun against his forehead, pressing harder with every word, “put-you-down. We’re done taking shit from you, asshole. Yeah,” I smiled, “I remember that night and I remember your words to me.”

His face was red with rage as I leaned in and whispered.

“Welcome to Wicked West.”

I pulled the trigger.