Paco Valdez
CX
You step from the darkness into the light and look to the horizon where a cloud of dust seems to be growing in size as the herd of Vigilantes approach in the distance. Gus always said Annie has the eyes of a hawk, but even a blind man could have spotted the approaching masses.
"I'm gonna take the other side of the ass before they are close enough to take note," Annie says from beside you. "Hopefully they'll just ride on past, but I somehow doubt that's what'll happen." You nod to her and she walks past you to make her way down the trail to go up the other path.
You pull out your pistols and double check that the chambers are full while crouching down behind a boulder and preparing to wait.
You're not waiting long before you can hear them galloping towards you, the many hooves hitting the earth coming to your ears like the thunder preceding a storm of death. This is it, You think. It ends here today at Dewars Pass. If only you hadn't slept with that bitch! Gus wouldn't be dying in the cave and you and Anne wouldn't have to worry about dying in the upcoming battle. Shit, you could be rolling in the money you lifted from that bank back in Fullton.
There is no more time for reflection, you realize when you start to hear the men talking amongst themselves. They make crude jokes about what Paco will do with your head. Then you hear the one voice that you have been dreading for days now. Paco Valdez rides among them. You risk a peek over the boulder and see him riding tall at the head of the group, something dragging from the back of his horse. Eighteen riders surround the leader of the Vigilantes, every one of them armed to their teeth.
You duck down before anyone can spot you and hope that Annie has taken note of the same thing. Paco Valdez rides with them. "Take off the head and the body will fall," Gus used to tell you and her. It was something he'd learned in his Calvary days.
You strain your ears to hear what is being said below where the horses have stopped moving. "You guys check this ridge, and you check that one," you hear someone order. You wonder briefly if it was Valdez or one of his goons.
You don't dwell on it for long before you hear the fall of heavy boots approaching your position. "He could be holed up in any of these damn caves," One of them comments. Good, you think, They think it's just me they're up against.
You continue to lay low when you see the trio walk past you towards the caver wherein Gus lies dying. Two of the men are big, broad shouldered guys that look like they don't really need the guns in their hands. The third man is short and scrawny, but moves with a smooth grace that tells you he is the one to watch out for.
You have only twelve bullets, so you have to be careful not to waste any. You take aim and fire at the little guy, plugging a bullet into his back. The other two spin around, drawing their weapons slow and clumsy. You make short work of them, a bullet in each of there heads.
You don't have to worry about them anymore, you realize, but the rest of the men undoubtedly heard the gunshots. This is confirmed by shouting below and the sound of several horses making their way up the ridge towards your position. You can see the men who went to the other side, where Annie is supposed to be, turning around and heading back towards you.
Where the hell is Annie, you wonder, thoughts of betrayal clouding your mind. You push such thoughts aside. Thoughts are a hindrance in battle.
Men are approaching, on horseback this time. You're not sure how many there are, you can only hear them as you duck back down behind the boulder. You will have to be even quicker this time, you realize. It won't take them long to discover your position.
When you hear the horses trotting up beside your boulder a gunshot rings out from the other side of the pass and one of the Vigilantes tumbles down from his horse to land a few feet from you, his dead eyes staring up at you. Thank God for Annie, and curse you for doubting her. She was just waiting for a shot.
"Where the fuck did that come from?" One of them demands. You can hear the horses turning restless circles and feel the tense confusion among the men. Annie shoots again and takes another down. "Over there," One of them says.
With their attention diverted, you quickly fill the three empty chambers with bullets and step out from behind the boulder with guns blazing. There are seven of them still aback their horses and you take three of them down before they even note your position.
The other four turn on you with mace n their eyes. You duck back behind your boulder quickly as the bullets hit the dirt at your feet and the boulder that was at your back.
Then the firing stops and you can hear them dismounting. They are circling the boulder, two per side. The chill of death's approach runs down your spine.
Suddenly there is a shotgun blast from the mouth of the cave and one of the men coming around on your left falls.
"Fuck!" You hear one of them say, How many are there!?"
You can hear the men on the right continuing around that side, the one on the left turning back, and the sound of someone reloading from the cave. You can hear more Vigilantes heading up the ridge to join their men. You try to do the math on how many can possibly coming for reinforcements but Annie puts a kink into that by firing another round which you can only assume takes another one out.
You follow the man on the left who has foolishly turned his back on you and press the barrel to the back of his head. BLAM! His blood paints the ground a dirty read littered with brain matter.
Gus leans against the cave wall, his shotgun loaded and ready to fire again. You can't help but smile. He's always been a tough old bastard.
That's when you remember the other two coming around the other side of the boulder and spin around with your guns at the ready. You can barely make out the barrel of a gun, the rest of it and the person holding it concealed by the rock. You stand there and wait, but they don't move. You soon understand why.
Five men on horseback gallop onto the ridge, passing through the mass of riderless mounts and Vigilante corpses. One of them immediately fires on Gus, hitting him in the knee. Gus hollers out in pain and drops to the ground. A rifle shot from the other ridge sounds, but the bullet lands harmlessly in the stone wall beside the riders.
"He's on the other side of this rock, circle around." One of the men says. You have no choice but to rush him and hope that you catch him off guard. And you do. You are suddenly before him in three quick steps and you blast a hole in his chest. He falls back into the arms of the other man, who somehow shrugs him off and fires at you, the bullet nicking your neck. You feel the warm trickle of blood flow down your neck as you fire upon this man and drop him with a bullet to the head.
You run on to see four men mounted on horseback and one in the process of dismounting. Gus is propped up on an elbow and fires one last shot, taking another man down.
"Why wont you just die, old man," A rough looking Vigilante says, turning to fire four bullets into Gus's body. You answer this affront by firing three into him.
It isn't until you are staring at the four surviving outlaws that you realize you are down to three bullets. Unless you have a magic bullet, your chances of survival have been seriously reduced.
The Vigilantes look at you with hungry eyes in between the passing bodies of frantic horses. You note the tensed arms and know which ones are ready to pull the triggers. You dive into a sideways roll as they open fire. The bullets kick clouds of dirt up where you stood only moments before. You feel a pain in your foot and realize that one of the bullets punctured your boot.
You fire back with two shots as you continue your roll, making your way back to the boulder. The first shot drops a Vigilante and the second drops a passing horse.
With the horse blocking your view, you scramble to the back of the boulder, dropping new bullets into the chambers as you go. You try to load the chambers efficiently, but the tension cannot be avoided and you drop more than a couple of your bullets to the ground. You hear foot falls approaching you from around the boulder and know that there is no time to fully load your six-shooters. You will have to make due with the four bullets in your left hand revolver and the last one that was in your right. You snap the chambers closed with a flick of your wrist and step back and to the left on a foot flaring with pain.
The Vigilantes are in your sight and evidently prepared for your move. You fire on them as they fire on you trails of gun smoke shooting out of the iron cannons in both parties' hands. A bullet to your shoulder spins you around as your assailants fall to the ground. Another bullet to tears into your side, but you do not fall.
You look around at the ensuing carnage. Few horses remain in the area, only the bodies of the dead and dying. Gus lies still in an expanding pool of blood at the base of the cavern wall.
You check your side to find the wound was caused by a bullet which only grazed you. It stings, but you'll be all right. Your shoulder, on the other hand, needs to be looked into. You won't easily forget what a shoulder wound can do considering what happened to Gus.
Applying as little pressure as you can, you make your way over to the nearest ledge with a heavy limp. A lone man sits on atop a horse. It is Paco Valdez.
He stares up at you. "You have survived this encounter, but there will be others, young man. You will not be so lucky the next time we meet."
He turns his horse around and drops the object he had been dragging behind his mount, spurring his horse away as quickly as he can manage.
A rifle shot sounds from across the pass, and the man known as Paco Valdez falls from his saddle in a crumpled heap to the ground. That Annie has always been a buck shot. Eyes of an eagle, Gus would say if he were here. Eyes of an eagle.
Annie joins you shortly and the two of you bury Gus just outside of the mouth of the cave. You bury him with his shotgun. He would have wanted it that way.
"We should get a pretty penny for Paco's body." Annie tells you. "Last poster I saw said 10 grand."
Five thousand apiece. You can retire on that and live comfortably for years. And you won't have to worry about watching for Paco Valdez over your shoulder.
You help Annie tie Valdez's body to the back of her horse and the two of you ride off in to the sunset, heading for the nearest town.
Without their leader, the Vigilantes fall apart over the next few months until they are little more than legend. What was it that Gus used to say, you wonder thinking back on it all, "Cut off the head and the body will fall"
That is the tale of Paco Valdez.
You step from the darkness into the light and look to the horizon where a cloud of dust seems to be growing in size as the herd of Vigilantes approach in the distance. Gus always said Annie has the eyes of a hawk, but even a blind man could have spotted the approaching masses.
"I'm gonna take the other side of the ass before they are close enough to take note," Annie says from beside you. "Hopefully they'll just ride on past, but I somehow doubt that's what'll happen." You nod to her and she walks past you to make her way down the trail to go up the other path.
You pull out your pistols and double check that the chambers are full while crouching down behind a boulder and preparing to wait.
You're not waiting long before you can hear them galloping towards you, the many hooves hitting the earth coming to your ears like the thunder preceding a storm of death. This is it, You think. It ends here today at Dewars Pass. If only you hadn't slept with that bitch! Gus wouldn't be dying in the cave and you and Anne wouldn't have to worry about dying in the upcoming battle. Shit, you could be rolling in the money you lifted from that bank back in Fullton.
There is no more time for reflection, you realize when you start to hear the men talking amongst themselves. They make crude jokes about what Paco will do with your head. Then you hear the one voice that you have been dreading for days now. Paco Valdez rides among them. You risk a peek over the boulder and see him riding tall at the head of the group, something dragging from the back of his horse. Eighteen riders surround the leader of the Vigilantes, every one of them armed to their teeth.
You duck down before anyone can spot you and hope that Annie has taken note of the same thing. Paco Valdez rides with them. "Take off the head and the body will fall," Gus used to tell you and her. It was something he'd learned in his Calvary days.
You strain your ears to hear what is being said below where the horses have stopped moving. "You guys check this ridge, and you check that one," you hear someone order. You wonder briefly if it was Valdez or one of his goons.
You don't dwell on it for long before you hear the fall of heavy boots approaching your position. "He could be holed up in any of these damn caves," One of them comments. Good, you think, They think it's just me they're up against.
You continue to lay low when you see the trio walk past you towards the caver wherein Gus lies dying. Two of the men are big, broad shouldered guys that look like they don't really need the guns in their hands. The third man is short and scrawny, but moves with a smooth grace that tells you he is the one to watch out for.
You have only twelve bullets, so you have to be careful not to waste any. You take aim and fire at the little guy, plugging a bullet into his back. The other two spin around, drawing their weapons slow and clumsy. You make short work of them, a bullet in each of there heads.
You don't have to worry about them anymore, you realize, but the rest of the men undoubtedly heard the gunshots. This is confirmed by shouting below and the sound of several horses making their way up the ridge towards your position. You can see the men who went to the other side, where Annie is supposed to be, turning around and heading back towards you.
Where the hell is Annie, you wonder, thoughts of betrayal clouding your mind. You push such thoughts aside. Thoughts are a hindrance in battle.
Men are approaching, on horseback this time. You're not sure how many there are, you can only hear them as you duck back down behind the boulder. You will have to be even quicker this time, you realize. It won't take them long to discover your position.
When you hear the horses trotting up beside your boulder a gunshot rings out from the other side of the pass and one of the Vigilantes tumbles down from his horse to land a few feet from you, his dead eyes staring up at you. Thank God for Annie, and curse you for doubting her. She was just waiting for a shot.
"Where the fuck did that come from?" One of them demands. You can hear the horses turning restless circles and feel the tense confusion among the men. Annie shoots again and takes another down. "Over there," One of them says.
With their attention diverted, you quickly fill the three empty chambers with bullets and step out from behind the boulder with guns blazing. There are seven of them still aback their horses and you take three of them down before they even note your position.
The other four turn on you with mace n their eyes. You duck back behind your boulder quickly as the bullets hit the dirt at your feet and the boulder that was at your back.
Then the firing stops and you can hear them dismounting. They are circling the boulder, two per side. The chill of death's approach runs down your spine.
Suddenly there is a shotgun blast from the mouth of the cave and one of the men coming around on your left falls.
"Fuck!" You hear one of them say, How many are there!?"
You can hear the men on the right continuing around that side, the one on the left turning back, and the sound of someone reloading from the cave. You can hear more Vigilantes heading up the ridge to join their men. You try to do the math on how many can possibly coming for reinforcements but Annie puts a kink into that by firing another round which you can only assume takes another one out.
You follow the man on the left who has foolishly turned his back on you and press the barrel to the back of his head. BLAM! His blood paints the ground a dirty read littered with brain matter.
Gus leans against the cave wall, his shotgun loaded and ready to fire again. You can't help but smile. He's always been a tough old bastard.
That's when you remember the other two coming around the other side of the boulder and spin around with your guns at the ready. You can barely make out the barrel of a gun, the rest of it and the person holding it concealed by the rock. You stand there and wait, but they don't move. You soon understand why.
Five men on horseback gallop onto the ridge, passing through the mass of riderless mounts and Vigilante corpses. One of them immediately fires on Gus, hitting him in the knee. Gus hollers out in pain and drops to the ground. A rifle shot from the other ridge sounds, but the bullet lands harmlessly in the stone wall beside the riders.
"He's on the other side of this rock, circle around." One of the men says. You have no choice but to rush him and hope that you catch him off guard. And you do. You are suddenly before him in three quick steps and you blast a hole in his chest. He falls back into the arms of the other man, who somehow shrugs him off and fires at you, the bullet nicking your neck. You feel the warm trickle of blood flow down your neck as you fire upon this man and drop him with a bullet to the head.
You run on to see four men mounted on horseback and one in the process of dismounting. Gus is propped up on an elbow and fires one last shot, taking another man down.
"Why wont you just die, old man," A rough looking Vigilante says, turning to fire four bullets into Gus's body. You answer this affront by firing three into him.
It isn't until you are staring at the four surviving outlaws that you realize you are down to three bullets. Unless you have a magic bullet, your chances of survival have been seriously reduced.
The Vigilantes look at you with hungry eyes in between the passing bodies of frantic horses. You note the tensed arms and know which ones are ready to pull the triggers. You dive into a sideways roll as they open fire. The bullets kick clouds of dirt up where you stood only moments before. You feel a pain in your foot and realize that one of the bullets punctured your boot.
You fire back with two shots as you continue your roll, making your way back to the boulder. The first shot drops a Vigilante and the second drops a passing horse.
With the horse blocking your view, you scramble to the back of the boulder, dropping new bullets into the chambers as you go. You try to load the chambers efficiently, but the tension cannot be avoided and you drop more than a couple of your bullets to the ground. You hear foot falls approaching you from around the boulder and know that there is no time to fully load your six-shooters. You will have to make due with the four bullets in your left hand revolver and the last one that was in your right. You snap the chambers closed with a flick of your wrist and step back and to the left on a foot flaring with pain.
The Vigilantes are in your sight and evidently prepared for your move. You fire on them as they fire on you trails of gun smoke shooting out of the iron cannons in both parties' hands. A bullet to your shoulder spins you around as your assailants fall to the ground. Another bullet to tears into your side, but you do not fall.
You look around at the ensuing carnage. Few horses remain in the area, only the bodies of the dead and dying. Gus lies still in an expanding pool of blood at the base of the cavern wall.
You check your side to find the wound was caused by a bullet which only grazed you. It stings, but you'll be all right. Your shoulder, on the other hand, needs to be looked into. You won't easily forget what a shoulder wound can do considering what happened to Gus.
Applying as little pressure as you can, you make your way over to the nearest ledge with a heavy limp. A lone man sits on atop a horse. It is Paco Valdez.
He stares up at you. "You have survived this encounter, but there will be others, young man. You will not be so lucky the next time we meet."
He turns his horse around and drops the object he had been dragging behind his mount, spurring his horse away as quickly as he can manage.
A rifle shot sounds from across the pass, and the man known as Paco Valdez falls from his saddle in a crumpled heap to the ground. That Annie has always been a buck shot. Eyes of an eagle, Gus would say if he were here. Eyes of an eagle.
Annie joins you shortly and the two of you bury Gus just outside of the mouth of the cave. You bury him with his shotgun. He would have wanted it that way.
"We should get a pretty penny for Paco's body." Annie tells you. "Last poster I saw said 10 grand."
Five thousand apiece. You can retire on that and live comfortably for years. And you won't have to worry about watching for Paco Valdez over your shoulder.
You help Annie tie Valdez's body to the back of her horse and the two of you ride off in to the sunset, heading for the nearest town.
Without their leader, the Vigilantes fall apart over the next few months until they are little more than legend. What was it that Gus used to say, you wonder thinking back on it all, "Cut off the head and the body will fall"
That is the tale of Paco Valdez.
