Authors: R.J McCabe
Then suddenly, without command, Wrath made his way towards the undead Apache rearing up as he reached him. The hooves clipped the underside of the creatures jaw and it fell onto its back before, again without command, the horse began to trample on the downed figure, hooves cracking down onto the skull. One hoof after another smashed down onto the head until Bill heard a sickening sound which reminded him of the cracking of an egg. He didn't have to look down to know the creatures head had been caved in.
He turned and looked at Jack to see the man was now no more than fifteen feet away from the tent. It occurred to Bill that the horse on which he sat was more capable of looking after itself than he had given it credit for and with that dismounted Wrath and ran after Jack.
28
Ken and the rest of the men hand their hands more than full with the mixture of the undead and the hostile Apaches. Bullets were being used but not to great effect as many of the men were scared out of their wits and were shooting in all directions, sometimes at nothing more than shadows. He had organised the men so that one man was looking in every direction. His way of thinking had been that nothing could sneak up on them unseen. They had lost four men since entering the camp, all to the arrows of the Apaches.
They shifted forward through the village which was now utter bedlam. Some of the Apaches paid them no mind, seemingly more concerned with other matters and many of them had led their women and children down to the horses, sending them away from the village. Ken was having trouble understanding his role in the nights events. He had thought he would be with Bill and the sheriff would tell him what was to be done, but the Sheriff had gone with Jack and now it was the deputy that was leading the majority of men through the camp. The Samurai and Trent were not with them and wasn’t sure at which point they had left the group.
Something caught Ken’s eye and he turned to see Ed Hamilton carrying a kicking Apache woman into a tent. The other two men followed, whooping and clapping. Following them were two small Apache children, neither one older than the age of five, Ken thought. The children were obviously scared and upset that their mother had been taken from them.
Ken felt panicked, he knew that some poor woman, Apache or not, was about to be raped at the hands of those evil bastards. They were meant to have been there helping the men put an end to all of the shit that had been going on but instead, were using it as an excuse to indulge in their sick activities. Ken tried to push the image of what those men would be doing from his head and concentrate on keeping the men with him alive.
That was until Gina’s face entered his mind. Ken began to imagine, what if it had been her they had carried into that tent and then something dawned on him. He realised that the three men must have been heading to Sundown and Ken thought that once this night was over and if all of those men survived, they would soon be in town and a whole lot closer to his daughter and the girls that worked with her. That was when Ken made up his mind.
Ken Murphy decided that the men he was with were big and ugly enough to go on without him and he left the group. He moved through a number of tents before he found the tent in which he had see the Hamilton’s enter. As he approached he saw that the two children were still outside the tent, both crying inconsolably.
Ken had almost reached the tent when he saw the scrawniest of the brothers, Dick, walk out and begin to shout at the children to shut up. The children, of course, did not stop crying and Dick struck the older of the two across the face. The child, fell backwards onto the ground and held the side of her face. The younger of the two children began to cry even louder. Ken was expecting to see Dick strike the boy in the same way but instead saw the man take his gun out from its holster. He then placed the gun against the child’s head and Ken knew that the man would kill the child unless he could stop him.
‘You piece of shit’ Ken shouted and this got the man’s attention.
Dick Hamilton turned to see Ken running towards him. Dick’s face turned to look of confusion for a moment and that soon turned to recognition and a grin began to appear revealing brown uneven teeth. Ken moved quicker than either he, or Dick Hamilton, had expected and was upon the man in seconds. Dick lifted his gun, the grin disappearing from his face when he realised Ken wasn't there to be part of their little party but he had realised that too late and before he knew it, Ken’s own pistol was raised and the end of the barrel met with Dick’s eyeball. That was when Ken pulled the trigger, shooting Dick at point blank range in his right eye and Ken saw red mush fly from the back of the man’s head and the now one eyed man stood for a few seconds, a look of total shock on his face before falling backwards onto the floor.
Both of the children had stopped crying and Ken tried to encourage this by placing a finger to his lips and making a shhh sound. The younger of the two children smiled at Ken. The deputy looked towards the older child to see if she was sharing the same sentiment and for a moment he thought she was but the girls eyes widened with an unmistakable look of fear on her small face. Ken realised she wasn't looking at him, but just behind him.
He turned slowly to see Abe Hamilton standing there. The man’s appearance was a mixture of his two brothers mixed in with a certain ratty look. He was standing there chewing tobacco. He looked at Ken and gave a kind of grin, seemingly not noticing the body of his brother lying on the floor but that didn't last long as seconds later Abe’s eyes flicked down to Dick and then back to Ken.
The deputy, for a split second, didn't know what to do and then he lashed out hitting Abe square on the jaw. The man fell like a downed tree onto the muddy ground not making a sound as he did so, he was out cold.
Ken was breathing heavy and looked down at the children before turning his eyes to the tent. He slowly lifted the tents flap that covered the entrance and stepped inside.
What greeted Ken was the sight of Ed Hamilton on his knees, britches down and kneeling in front of the woman he had taken into the tent. The Apache woman was on her back, the side of her face swollen and her right eye almost closed due to bruising. She seemed conscious but only just. Ed Hamilton was reaching into his long johns in an effort to remove his penis so that he could take full advantage of the Apache woman. Ken, who had replaced his pistol when looking at the children, slowly took the weapon from its holster and began to raise it towards the back of Ed Hamilton’s skull. The big bellied man was now muttering things to the woman in front of him concerning what he was about to do to her.
Ken could see the man’s shoulder moving and guessed that it was due to the fact he was playing with himself. Ed stopped when Ken clicked back the trigger of his pistol. He heard Ed Hamilton make a dry swallowing sound before speaking.
‘Hey, take it easy now. I just came in here to help this poor woman, I don’t mean you fella’s any harm.’
Ken realised that Ed thought he was an Apache and decided he would let him know who was about to kill him but before he could speak, he felt a searing pain shooting through his head. Ken dropped the gun and put both hands to the back of his skull, his vision was blurring and his legs were turning to jelly. He turned around to see Abe Hamilton standing just inside the tent, one hand holding his sore jaw.
Kens hands were exploring the back of his head until they reached something. His thought process was failing and he couldn't quite figure out what had happened. Abe Hamilton then started laughing, ‘It’s a knife you idiot, I put it in your head for punchin' me in the fuckin' jaw. I think you broke it you piece of shit.’
Ken fell to his knees and then found himself face first in the dirt. His body seemed to be doin' what it wanted and not what he was trying to command it to do. He heard Abe laughing and then from the corner of his eye he saw Ed Hamilton stand up, tucking his penis back into his long johns.
‘Fuck me Abe, that was a close one.’ Ed said and then joined in the laughing. He then dropped to one knee and bent to look Ken in the eye.
‘Looks like you’re fading there you old bastard. I can tell by the look in your eyes. You know, it’s the same look I saw in the eyes of your friend, that Sheriff Watts just before I blew his pisser off. Yep, you are dying alright. night asshole.’
Kens felt another surge of pain in his head as Ed gave the handle of the knife a smack. That was when Ken faded out.
29
Jack had almost reached Chief Eskadi’s tent and the Apaches that were guarding it. A couple of them became aware of him and began to run towards the oncoming cowboy, one holding a knife held above his head. It was a naive move on their part as Jack simply drew his gun and shot the first man in the chest. The second man stopped and raised his bow, firing an arrow which flew over Jack’s shoulder but Bill, who was close behind, wasn’t so lucky and the arrow thudded into his upper arm. Bill cried out and broke the arrow off, his arm took on a numb feeling but Bill knew the wound wasn’t life threatening. Jack meanwhile, had shot the arrow firing Apache and had continued to move forward until he was just feet away from the tent.
A tall thin Apache whose chest was painted with red and black appeared and raised a rifle towards Jack. Blackwater stopped and stood completely still, he knew that raising his own weapon would be pointless as he wouldn't beat the Apache to the trigger. Time seemed to freeze as Bill closed in on Jack, he looked towards the rifle wielding Apache, knowing that Jack was just seconds from death.
Then, from the left hand side of the tent came a horse with a man riding on its back. The horse was moving at pace and Bill looked up to see the rider was Trent. In the blink of an eye Trent had passed the Apache with the rifle and for just a few seconds the rifle was still raised but the big difference being now was that there was no longer a head on the Apaches shoulders. Trent had decapitated the man as he rode past and never even came to a standstill. He had just rode off back into the chaos.
Jack stood for a moment breathing hard. ‘Son of a bitch, almost had me there’ he muttered, before continuing to move forward towards the tent of Eskadi.
Another Apache appeared, drew and aimed a pistol at Jack but Bill was quicker and shot the man in the side of the face. Teeth, cheek and blood hit the side of the tent and the man dropped to the floor. Bill then noticed that Jack had reached the entrance and turned to look at Bill, a smile of satisfaction reaching his lips and then he stepped inside.
Bill was only seconds behind when he felt something pull on the back of his shirt. Then he was being dragged backwards with an insane amount of force. He flew through the air before his back hit the side wall of another tent, which collapsed under his weight and he hit the ground.
It took Bill a second to clear his head and then he saw, standing before him, the big undead Apache he had seen in the town, Eskadi’s son. It was grinning at him with a mouth that seemed much too large and it’s eyes glowed.
The thing roared before running at Bill and the Sheriff knew he didn't have enough energy left to fight the thing off. Bill half heartedly reached down for his remaining pistol, as the one he had been holding he’d lost during his short flight into the tent. The creature was almost upon him when it was hit from the side, the force knocking the big Apache off his feet.
Bill looked to see Joel standing there, his chest moving up and down as if taking deep breaths but Bill didn't understand how Joel could be breathing, considering he was the walking dead. Joel’s head and upper body had changed shape a little, seeming a little more lumped and heavy. He payed no attention to Bill and seemed totally focused on his undead nemesis. The two things were soon facing each other, drool spilling from both of their mouths as they circled and then, with what seemed like a synchronised roar, the two things ran towards each other and clashed.