He took more careful aim, but then he decided not to shoot and instead he checked the gun finding that only two more bullets had been loaded. He threw the chamber closed and moved back to Wickham’s body to claim his cartridge belt, but then a loud crack sounded behind him making him turn around.
Hoyt had returned. He was standing on the edge of the clearing with a branch brandished before him as a cudgel. As the branch appeared to be Hoyt’s only weapon, Jesmond raised his gun, but with only two bullets and with Hoyt standing thirty yards away, he decided to wait until he was sure of his shot.
He stayed his hand and edged a pace toward Wickham’s body, but that encouraged Hoyt to hurl the branch at him. Jesmond still moved on, expecting that the branch would fall short, but it swirled through the air toward him making him hurry back toward Bodie’s body.
The branch missed him by several feet, but it still slammed to the ground between him and Wickham. Hoyt then picked up another branch. Jesmond reckoned he could make his way around the obstacle in a matter of moments, but the harm a well-aimed hunk of wood could inflict on him would be as bad as taking a bullet.
So, in a sudden decision, Jesmond raised up Bodie’s body and with it clutched to his side he moved on past the fire. When he reached the edge of the clearing, Hoyt had moved on and he was now stomping past Wickham’s body.
Then Jesmond slipped into the trees. He shuffled on for a dozen paces before he had to stop to get a better grip of Bodie’s chest and he used the opportunity to check behind him again.
Hoyt was no longer visible making Jesmond wince. Then, with a shiver, he moved on toward the darker terrain ahead.
Chapter Fifteen
JESMOND FIGURED THAT if he could reach the darkness beyond the circle of brightness cast by the firelight and brands he could go to ground, but the light stretched for farther than he expected. Worse, Bodie’s trailing feet kept getting caught up in the undergrowth so Jesmond’s progress was torturous.
Every few paces he stopped, but he failed to spot where the big man had gone to ground. He hadn’t heard gunfire while Hoyt had been away from the clearing chasing after Cresswell, but he assumed Hoyt had dealt with his treacherous colleague.
As he had only two bullets, Jesmond resolved to hold his fire until he was sure of hitting his target. When he reached a large tree he slipped around it into the darkness and sat Bodie down with his back resting against the trunk.
Then he stood quietly. He waited for several minutes and his patience was rewarded when a scuffling noise could be heard to his left, which he presumed was Hoyt pushing through the undergrowth.
He turned in that direction and waited. Whether by design or not, numerous trees were to his left affording Hoyt plenty of cover so even though he heard rustling and twigs crack, he detected no movement.
The sounds came closer giving Jesmond the impression Hoyt was only yards away. All was still to either side so he waited with his gun thrust forward. Then something moved around ten paces ahead, Jesmond discerning it as just a change in the light level between two trees.
The movement came again, this time closer and quicker. Then something whistled by overhead making Jesmond duck down. At first he thought it had been a night bird, but when a crash sounded behind him, he turned around.
A branch had clattered against a tree trunk, presumably after Hoyt had thrown it at him. He turned back while straightening up to find Hoyt looming up over him with a massive bough held in both hands.
Hoyt swung the bough at Jesmond’s body and with only moments to react Jesmond fired, hammering a shot into Hoyt’s chest from only feet away. The gunshot didn’t slow the progress of the bough so Jesmond dropped down.
Trailing twigs ripped across his shoulders before he hit the ground on his side, a massive crack sounding a moment later as the bough hit the trunk and broke in two. As another flurry of twigs and leaves cascaded down on him, Jesmond raised his head to find Hoyt’s form blocking out the light.
Then his opponent bent over to pick up one of the broken halves. Hoyt came up with the bough held aloft ready to dash it down on Jesmond’s supine form. With only moments to act, Jesmond fired his last bullet aiming at the center of the big man’s chest.
Again the bullet appeared to have no effect on Hoyt and in amazement, Jesmond scrambled away backward along the ground. He covered several yards without Hoyt acting, which made him raise his head.
Hoyt was standing rigidly having not moved since he’d been shot the second time. Then the bough fell from Hoyt’s fingers. Hoyt swayed and then dropped to his knees with a thud before toppling over to the side with an even louder thud.
When Hoyt’s huge form stayed where it had fallen, Jesmond sighed with relief and then fast-crawled back to Bodie. He holstered his gun and thrust his hands under Bodie’s armpits. Then he dragged him away from Hoyt’s body.
When he reached the next tree, he drew Bodie’s body up to a standing position. As he had done before, he clutched him to his chest and moved on back to the clearing. When he returned to the edge of the trees, he heard nothing other than the crackling fire.
As he had emerged near to Marshal Dobson’s body, he left Bodie’s body a dozen paces in from the edge of the trees and moved on, aiming to reload using Dobson’s cartridge belt. He had covered half the distance when a twig snapped to his side.
He stopped and turned, half-expecting that Hoyt would be coming after him again, but nobody was there. With a shiver he chided himself for being spooked and he resolved to move on quickly from this place once he had enough firepower to protect himself no matter what happened next. He turned back to the marshal and set off.
“That’s far enough, Jesmond,” Cresswell said from somewhere to his right.
Jesmond stopped. “So you got away from Hoyt, then, Cresswell.”
“I was better at going to ground than you were, and I gather from the gunfire that Hoyt went after you instead.”
“He did, but thankfully I was better at taking him on than you were.”
Cresswell snorted. “We both showed what we’re best at doing tonight.”
Jesmond turned to the right to find Cresswell moving into the clearing. As he’d expected, Cresswell held a gun on him.
“We did and that means I have no quarrel with you no more. You double-crossed us, but I reckon what happened here tonight more than repaid you for that.”
“Marshal Dobson paid for dragging me into this situation,” Cresswell said when he stopped behind Bodie’s body. “The rest paid for what they’ve been doing here. Now it’s your turn.”
Jesmond shrugged. “I did nothing other than what I had to do to survive.”
“Perhaps you did, but nothing can change the fact that you ate human flesh.”
“I should remind you that you did, too.”
“I didn’t know what I was eating!”
Jesmond spread his hands. “Neither did I.”
“Not the first time you didn’t, but you sure knew what you were putting in your mouth the second time, and I saw the look on your face.” Cresswell gestured angrily at him with his free hand. “You enjoyed it.”
“I didn’t. I tried to hide my disgust because Wickham would have killed me, and even then it must have been obvious I was struggling to keep the food down.”
“Not to me it wasn’t. You kept something down that would have made any normal man vomit.”
Jesmond snorted a laugh. “Actually, the taste wasn’t that bad.”
“The taste doesn’t matter! It’s what you were eating that matters and you enjoyed it.” Cresswell rolled his shoulders, Jesmond’s attempt at levity clearly making his anger escalate. “Wickham gave me the same choice and I refused, so I can’t let any man live who can do what you did.”
“You have to believe that if I’d had a gun, I’d have refused, too, and then shot Wickham to hell.”
Cresswell narrowed his eyes. “Now you do have a gun. So go for it whenever you choose.”
Jesmond’s lips twitched w
ith a smile before he firmed his jaw. Clearly Cresswell hadn’t realized that he’d used up his last two bullets when he’d killed Hoyt. Jesmond raised his right hand to move it away from his holstered gun and show he wasn’t going to draw just yet.
Then, seeking to maintain the illusion that he had a loaded gun and he was waiting for the best moment to use it, he kicked at the chain dangling against his leg and then stalked a pace to the side. In response, Cresswell edged away from Bodie’s body to stand on firm ground where he set his feet wide apart and aimed at Jesmond’s chest.
So Jesmond stepped back a pace as if he was seeking clear ground to make his stand before electing to move on toward Dobson’s body. When he reached the body, he tugged on the chain confirming that he was at the limit of its reach and then lowered his head. Dobson had dropped his gun and it lay on the ground a foot from his right hand.
“You did well to defeat the marshal,” he said.
“He was slow to draw,” Cresswell said. “He seemed to be enjoying the feast too much to care about the danger he was in, much like you.”
Cresswell lowered his gun arm slightly and hunched forward. So, figuring Cresswell wouldn’t accept any more delays, Jesmond turned his head to either side trying to give the impression he was committing the scene to memory before his inevitable end.
Then he dropped to one knee. At the first attempt his hand closed on Dobson’s gun. As he snapped his hand up, Cresswell fired and the lead scythed into the ground a few inches from Jesmond’s knee, his unexpected action clearly surprising him.
Jesmond took aim in a moment and fired. His shot sliced high into Cresswell’s chest making him stand up straight. Then Cresswell loosed off a second shot that whistled high over Jesmond’s head.
Jesmond’s second low shot made Cresswell go down on his knees before a third shot to the neck dropped him. Jesmond shuffled closer to Dobson’s body and reloaded before moving on to stand over Cresswell, but by the time he reached him the man was still.
Jesmond kicked Cresswell over on to his side, receiving no response, so he moved back to Bodie’s body. He thought about various ways of shooting through the chain before deciding to make use of a large and angular boulder that protruded from the ground a dozen yards into the trees.
Walking backward, he dragged Bodie across the clearing and then to the rock where he lay him down beside it. He looped the chain around two protuberances on the boulder and stretched it out.
Then he sought a position where he could fire at the metal without risking being on the receiving end of a ricochet. That required him to step back five paces to stand beside a tree. He raised his gun, chose a link and then fired.
The shot made a link kick, but it didn’t break so he side-stepped a pace away from the tree. In his new position, something moved beyond the rock making him narrow his eyes.
Then, to his horror, Hoyt stomped into view, looming up from out of the darkness behind the rock. In three massive strides Hoyt rounded the rock, and then he was upon him. Jesmond fired, his shot hammering into Hoyt’s body at close quarters, but it didn’t slow Hoyt down as he grabbed Jesmond’s chain just below his chin and yanked him up off the ground.
Hoyt swirled Jesmond around, the metal band biting into his neck, and hurled him away. Jesmond turned once and then slammed chest first into the rock. Jesmond folded over the boulder.
His chin hit stone blasting all the air out of his chest and making him taste blood. His whole body went numb and even though he couldn’t feel his fingers, he was sure he’d dropped his gun.
Feeling like a bug crushed under a boot he floundered until a heavy hand slapped down on his back and peeled him away from the rock. Then Hoyt twisted him around to face him and slammed him back against the boulder.
Hoyt stood before him and then reached down to gather up a loop of chain, which he swished back and forth twice. Hoyt rumbled a laugh deep in the back of his throat. Then he jerked back the loop ready to crash it down on Jesmond’s head with a blow that would surely kill him.
As the loop came hurtling forward, Jesmond’s legs folded from under him, his movement coming more from weakness than design, and the chain whistled past his head and clattered into the rock sending shards flying. Jesmond landed on his side and then tumbled over an object on the ground.
As the firelight didn’t penetrate the low ground, when he came to rest it took him a moment to work out that he’d fallen over Bodie’s body. Hoyt turned one way and then the other, seemingly struggling to work out where he’d gone.
Then Hoyt slammed the chain down again, but it missed Jesmond and thudded into Bodie’s chest, an error that let Jesmond note that for the first time his opponent was moving awkwardly. Hoyt moved to swing the chain down a third time before checking his action when he appeared to notice his mistake.
Again, Hoyt moved stiffly and he hadn’t swung his arm freely, thankfully showing that the repeated gunshots were slowing him down. The brief lull let Jesmond gather his senses and he leaped in the direction he figured that Hoyt would struggle most to reach.
That took him toward his opponent and with a scrambling crawl he slipped along the ground between Hoyt’s legs. Metal thudded into the ground behind him before he reached clear space beyond Hoyt.
Then he rolled and twisted around to kneel facing Hoyt, who took several seconds to lumber around on the spot. Jesmond decided to move to Hoyt’s left as he was having trouble swinging his arm that way, so he rested his weight on his back foot ready to jump aside.
Then something glinted on the ground in the darkness to Hoyt’s right. He checked his movement and, as the chain came swinging down, he jumped to the side toward what he hoped was the gun and then flattened himself to the ground.
The chain sliced down a foot away from Jesmond’s outstretched hand and sent up a huge gout of dirt. Then Jesmond used elbows and knees to crawl along the ground while keeping low.
The glint was no longer visible, but he heard his opponent moving around to stand over him and metal creaked as Hoyt swung the chain from side to side. Jesmond’s breath came in harsh bursts as he struggled to work out which way to roll to avoid Hoyt’s next blow, but then the metal object again gleamed and it was lying two feet before his face.
He slapped a grateful hand on the gun and then twisted around to lie on his back. Hoyt loomed over him and planted a foot on either side of Jesmond’s hips to get into a position where he could dash the chain down on his head with a blow that couldn’t miss.
Jesmond fired up at Hoyt. The shot didn’t appear to have any effect and Hoyt still sent the chain swinging back as he prepared for the decisive blow. Then the chain came hurtling down toward him.
Jesmond thundered another shot into Hoyt’s chest and then he kept on blasting away, no longer taking care to aim. Even when the chain hit him making him twist aside, he still kept twitching his finger.
Only when the gun stopped firing did he register that he had been hit only lightly on the chest, as if the chain had been dropped on him. Even better, Hoyt was no longer standing over him.
He turned his head as Hoyt toppled over sideways and then slammed to the ground where he tipped over to lie on his chest. This time Jesmond took no chances and he crawled along to Hoyt and repaid him by whipping a coil of chain down on his back.
The blow gathered no response so he dashed the coil down on the back of his head, again without receiving a response. Then he kneeled on Hoyt’s back and wrapped the chain around his neck. He drew back and strained with all his might.
He grunted and cursed, his breath wheezing in and out of his lungs in ragged bursts until, by degrees, he calmed down enough to accept that this time he had killed Hoyt. Then he flopped down to lie with his back resting against Hoyt’s body.
As he felt too weary to move on, for a while he enjoyed the quiet and the cool night breeze. Then he pushed away from the body and crawled back toward Bodie’s body. He didn’t get far. After a couple of yards the chain yanked back on his neck making him swirl
around fearing that Hoyt was about to attack him again, but the big man hadn’t moved, which was the problem.
Hoyt had collapsed over the chain and pinned it to the ground, which meant that even with all his tormentors dead, Jesmond wasn’t going anywhere for a while. Jesmond laughed and, liking the sound, he laughed again.
Chapter Sixteen
FIRST LIGHT BROUGHT no further problems for Jesmond. Last night it had taken him several hours to free himself. He had been unable to lift Hoyt’s massive body off the chain and he couldn’t move far enough to reach anything that might help him.
In the end he had resorted to clawing away the dirt beneath Hoyt’s body until he could free enough of the chain to let him move farther away. Then he had found a branch that he’d used to lever the body over to completely free the chain.
After that, he’d been too exhausted to do anything other than sit with his back resting against the boulder beside Bodie. He had stayed awake for what remained of the night, the many surprises during the previous evening convincing him to stay where he was and wait until it was light.
He had heard no suspicious sounds, but that hadn’t let him relax. When the light was strong enough, he got up. All was still with Hoyt’s body lying hunched over, but he still checked it was cold.
Then, while supporting Bodie’s body by holding him around the chest, he moved back to the clearing. As before, Bodie’s feet became caught up in the undergrowth, so his progress was slow.
As it was also noisy, he stopped frequently to listen and check that he hadn’t alerted anyone even though he was sure that nobody was left alive to confront him again. Despite his concern he encountered no problems, and when he reached the clearing he confirmed that he had triumphed over Wickham and the others.
The bodies were all lying in the same positions as they had been in last night. He still moved around them and checked each person was dead before he let himself plan ahead. First, he turned his thoughts to freeing himself from his burden, and he decided to use the quickest method.
Endsville Page 9