Swift Creek (The Drifter Book 1)

by Thomas Hall

  “The door at the end,” Jareth said from the front door.

  Kade didn’t look back.

  He put out a hand and touched the door, expecting to feel something like an omen. He didn’t feel anything except the cold metal handle.

  Kade stepped into the room.

  There was a table in the middle of the room. A white sheet lay on top of it and underneath the bumpy landscapes of a human woman.

  His legs felt as if they were made from lead. He couldn’t move his arms.

  “This is what you wanted to see,” Jareth said. “Go ahead and look.”

  “Is this a joke?” Kade said.

  “She was my friend,” Jareth said. “This isn’t something I’d joke about.”

  Kade found that he could move, but he almost wished he couldn’t. As if it had a mind of its own, his arm went out, to the sheet. The linin had been recently cleaned and there was a stiffness to it.

  Kade lifted the sheet and found Madeline.

  She lay on the table with her eyes closed. Her expression blank and emotionless.

  He felt tears in his eyes and refused to turn and show them to Jareth.

  “Travis did this?” Kade said.

  “To get to you.”

  “No,” Kade said.

  “That’s what he said. Looks pretty clear to me.”

  Kade shook his head. He didn’t want this to be on him, he didn’t want this to be something he could have avoided. But it was. He could have prevented her death if he’d refused to get involved.

  “He did this because I killed his brother?” Kade said.

  Jareth nodded. Kade wanted to turn around and punch him in the face, but he didn’t. He was aware enough to know that doing so would be taking out his anger on the wrong person.

  He let the sheet drop back over Madeline’s face and then turned away. He walked past Jareth without another word.

  CHAPTER 13

  THE TOWN WAS ROTTEN. HE COULD SEE IT now in a way that he hadn’t been able to before. It was too broken to save.

  Kade walked away from the undertaker and heard the door close behind him. He didn’t turn back, didn’t want to see the look on Jareth’s face.

  “Heck!” he called.

  The horse was somewhere close by. He could hear her. Kade wanted to be angry but he didn’t have anyone to be angry with... except Travis.

  “Where are you going?” Jareth said. He put a hand on Kade’s arm and turned him around so they were facing.

  Kade clenched his fist as he turned and swung at Jareth but the other man dodged it easily.

  “Where are you going?” Jareth repeated.

  “Away!” Kade said. He pulled his arm away but Jareth held tight. “Let go of me.”

  “You’re acting crazy,” he said.

  “I’m not acting anything,” Kade said. The anger was bubbling up in him, he felt as if he was going to go crazy. No one could handle this much fury without exploding.

  “Yes you are,” Jareth said. He took hold of Kade’s other arm as well. “If you don’t shut up then someone will hear you.”

  “And?”

  “If he finds out you’re here, he won’t stop at anything.”

  “Travis?” Kade said.

  “Travis,” Jareth confirmed.

  He couldn’t save Swift Creek. The place was a cesspit, rotten to the core. He couldn’t bring Madeline back. But there was one thing he could still do. He could still get revenge.

  Kade let his body sag a little and felt Jareth release his grip.

  “Did you love her?” Kade said.

  “Who? Madeline?”

  Kade nodded.

  “She never loved me back,” he said. “She wasn’t capable of it. Not after everything that happened to her.”

  Kade wanted to ask, wanted to feel as if there was still someone there to get to know, but it was all in his head. Madeline was gone, it didn’t matter how much he knew about her now, he couldn’t bring her back.

  “Will you fight with me?” Kade said. “For her?”

  To his credit, Jareth didn’t answer at once. He looked at Kade, as if he was trying to get the measure of the man. Then he closed his eyes, took a deep breath and nodded. “Aye Drifter, I’ll fight with you.”

  When he opened his eyes again Kade had his hand out, offering a promise that he didn’t make lightly. If they were going to do this, then they would do it as brothers; two gun slingers against the might of Travis’ army. It wouldn’t be easy, but it would be the right thing to do.

  Jareth took Kade’s hand and shook it.

  “Then it’s agreed,” Kade said.

  “Name your time and place,” Jareth said.

  “It’s now or never,” Kade said. “And we both know where we’ll find him. Unless that’s a problem for you?”

  “No problem. If you can’t trust me Kade, you need to rethink your business.”

  “True enough,” Kade said. He paused to look the other man in the eye and then he took his hand back. “True enough gun slinger.”

  CHAPTER 14

  THE BROTHEL AND THE CASINO APPEARED BEFORE THEM in the distance. There seemed to be more guards at the front than there had been.

  Kade drew his revolver and checked that it was loaded. Out the corner of his eye he saw Jareth doing the same thing.

  “Are you ready?” Kade said.

  “As I’ll get,” Jareth replied.

  They rode the rest of the way in silence.

  Three of the guards came towards them. They were carrying large machine guns, but didn’t raise them immediately. It was a mistake that cost them their lives in short order. Two shots from Kade and one from Jareth. The three men fell to the ground, dead before they hit it.

  The other four guards learned from the mistake. They spread apart to make it more difficult to hit them. They started shooting before Kade had replaced the two spent bullets in his gun.

  Kade jumped down from Heck and sent her running for cover. He took shelter at the corner of a building and Jareth fell in beside him. They shot at the four men and missed twice. It took six shots to kill them all.

  He glanced over at Jareth who was reloading his gun. “Not bad,” Kade said.

  “That was the easy part,” Jareth said. “Wait until we get inside.”

  Kade nodded. He knew how this was going to go. He’d been in enough shootouts. “You ready?”

  “Let’s go,” Jareth said. He surprised Kade by taking the lead. Kade followed him towards the brothel and they stopped at the door.

  “On three,” Kade said.

  Jareth nodded.

  “You go right, I go left.”

  “Just count,” Jareth said.

  “One… two… three…”

  He kicked the door and it flew open. They moved in before it could swing back and hit them in their faces.

  It was dark inside. He could hear movement and see the vague outlines of people moving around.

  For a moment, nothing happened.

  Then gunfire rained down on them and Kade jumped to the ground for cover. He could hear the bullets pebble the wall behind him and rolled until he hit something hard enough to offer protection.

  No one spoke. No one shouted at him or demanded anything from him. It seemed they were past that. Travis knew how dangerous he was and his momentary advantage was gone.

  Kade thought back to the brief time he’d spent with Travis. All this could have been avoided if he’d shot the man there and then. If he’d ignored Madeline’s plea, then she would still be alive.

  He looked up and squeezed off three shots. Judging by the sound of screaming, two of them hit. He couldn’t tell whether they had been killing shots, but it was better than nothing.

  Kade replaced the spent cartridges. He heard more shots, but couldn’t tell whether they were from Jareth or one of the people he was trying to kill.

  He reached out and discovered that he was hiding behind an overturned table. It was heavy and thick and would give him protection from a
ll but the most powerful weapons. He relaxed a little and tried to work out a plan.

  There were an unknown number of people shooting at him. That was one of the first things he needed to fix. Once he could see the room he could work out what to do next.

  He ducked down as a series of shots came in his direction. They hit the table and the wall behind him and he wondered if the enemy had a way of seeing him in the dark. He’d heard of old world technology that allowed people to see without light, but he’d never come across it. Such an advantage might be all Travis’ men needed to kill him.

  Kade dreaded to think what would happen if they caught him alive.

  He needed fire.

  He felt around and found a rag on the ground. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a book of matches and almost dropped his tobacco pouch in the process. He fumbled with the box until he got one out, struck it and touched it to the cloth.

  The flame took and he almost dropped the thing in his sudden desire not to burn his hand off. It gave him light, too much light after the darkness.

  Kade pulled a table leg off and managed to wrap the cloth around it so that he could hold it without serious injury. He took it in his left hand and held his revolver in his right. He’d solved his first problem, now to deal with the rest.

  He held up the flaming torch and Travis’ men shot at it, the bullets made the fire twitch and flicker but didn’t put it out. While they focused on that, Kade could look over the top and see exactly what he was dealing with.

  It was disheartening.

  There were at least twenty men. Several of them were removing masks from their faces. They all had large machine guns and plenty of ammunition. It would be hard work to kill them all, but not impossible.

  Jareth was to his right. He’d found shelter behind another table.

  “I don’t want to kill you,” Kade said. He waited for the guns to fire in the direction of his voice, but it didn’t happen. The room remained silent. “I’m here for Travis. Hand him over and you’ll leave with your lives.”

  “That’s not going to happen Drifter,” said a voice. It wasn’t Travis, that was all Kade knew.

  “Lay down your weapons and leave,” Jareth called out. “This is your only warning.”

  A gun went off and the brief ceasefire ended.

  Kade ducked back behind the table. With his next movement, he sprung up and killed four men before his gun clicked dry.

  While he reloaded, they shot at him. They were on target but unable to hit him through the thick table. When he looked down he saw splinters forming at his side, but it was holding up as well as he had expected.

  The edges of the room were still cloaked in shadow. If Kade was going to improve his accuracy, then he needed to find a way of changing that.

  He looked up and over without taking a shot.

  The ground was wet but he couldn’t tell with what. If he tried his plan and it failed, then they would be in darkness again and there were no more rags to use. But the torch was drawing attention to him and trying to keep it aloft was contributing to his lack of accuracy.

  Kade threw the torch as hard as he could and watched the flame arc through the air.

  A few of Travis’ men shot at it but once they realised that he wasn’t rushing towards them, they stopped.

  Kade held his breath and watched as the torch hit the ground.

  The reaction was so sudden that he wondered whether the puddle had been gasoline.

  The brightness of the fire scorched his eyes and he had to turn away. A crackle of gunfire exploded across the room and then he felt the heat of the fire as it spread across the puddle.

  The room erupted into chaos.

  The gunfight became what it should have been all along and chaos ensued.

  “Jareth!” he shouted. Kade started to move with no idea whether Jareth could hear him, or whether he was still alive. “With me.”

  Kade crouched as he moved around the outskirts of the room. He took shots as he went and saw the silhouettes of unknown men falling to the ground.

  The remaining men fell in quick succession. For all their advantages, they hadn’t been in a gunfight like this one before. The fire made them panic, while Kade remained calm. As the final few fell down, he became aware that Jareth was still with him, killing his fair share of Travis’ men.

  The room fell silent and both men reloaded their weapons before turning to one another.

  “That the lot of them?” Jareth said.

  Kade looked around. The fire had spread. He could feel the heat from it crisping his skin and hear the crackle as it took pieces of furniture to feed itself.

  “Where’s Travis?” Jareth said.

  “Not here,” Kade said.

  “What?”

  “You didn’t think he’d show up for this did you?”

  “Then why are we here?”

  Kade pulled the door to his left and a young girl screamed.

  Kade reached in, grabbed the young girls bare arm amd pulled her out. She refused to look at him. “Get the others and get outside. You don’t have long before the fire brings this place down.”

  She looked at him as if she thought it was a trick.

  “Do it now!” Kade shouted.

  “Where do we go now?” Jareth said as they watched the girl flee.

  “To find him,” Kade said.

  “Where are we going to find him?”

  “We’ll ask around.”

  Jareth said nothing for a moment. Then: “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

  “You can stay here if you want.”

  Kade didn’t wait for Jareth to answer. He put his gun back in his belt and walked towards the door. When he swung it open, he was pleased to discover, Jareth was standing behind him to catch it.

  The bullet nearly took his head off. It imbedded itself in the burning building less than an inch to his right.

  Kade pulled out his gun and took in the scene, ready to open fire as soon as he understood what was going on.

  “Drop your weapon,” a booming voice said.

  Kade found the man who was speaking. “Sherrif?”

  “Drop your guns and put your hands in the air,” the Sheriff said. He had more than a dozen men with him.

  “You don’t understand,” Kade said.

  “Oh I understand,” the Sherrif said. “You come into my town, kill my people and burn down my buildings. You’re lucky I don’t put a bullet in your head right now.” There was no alcohol slur to his words now.

  “Did Travis tell you to say that?” Kade said.

  He heard the click of a gun cocking and prepared to dive to the ground. If he could help it then he didn’t want to get into a shooting match with men of the law. He didn’t intend to be waylaid while they dealt with this like civilised men, however.

  “Drop your weapons,” the Sheriff said. “This is your last warning.”

  Kade turned in time to see Jareth do as the Sheriff asked. He held onto his own gun all the tighter. If he had to go on alone then so be it. He wasn’t going to let Madeline down again.

  “Kade...” Jareth said.

  Kade didn’t even turn to look at him. This wasn’t the end, this couldn’t be the end. But twenty armed men, with nowhere to hide, was too many even for him.

  With great reluctance, Kade let his revolver drop to the ground and raised his hands.

  For a moment, no one moved.

  “What now?” Kade said.

  “You’ll come with us,” the Sheriff said. “We’ve got law and order in my town, and you’ll have a trial.”

  He turned to look at Jareth. He knew it wasn’t his fault, but a part of him found it difficult to ignore the nagging feeling that it had to be somebody’s.

  “Lead the way Sheriff,” Kade said. “You won’t have any trouble from me.”

  The Sheriff grunted. “This way then.”

  Kade stepped away from the brothel and Jareth followed him. The Sheriff turned away but there were always a
t least three men with guns aimed at each of them. Even unarmed, it seemed, they were still considered a threat.

  The Sheriff and his men marched them through Swift Creek. There were buildings all around them and Travis’ men might be behind any of the windows. All it would take was for one of them to shoot now and it would all be over. He didn’t believe that any of the deputies would put themselves between him and a bullet.

  But no shot came.

  The town was silent as they approached the old Sheriff’s office.

  The floor creaked as they followed the Sheriff inside. There was no one else in the cells, which at least meant he wasn’t going to get stabbed to death with a rusty shiv.

  “In there,” the Sheriff said. He pointed to Kade and then the cell on the left.

  Kade nodded. The Sheriff told Jareth to get into the cell next to him.

  “Now what?” Kade said, as the door closed behind him.

  The Sheriff walked to his desk and sat down. He put his feet up and pulled the seal off a fresh bottle of whiskey. “Now you sit in there and think about what you’ve done. There’ll be a trial and you can plea your case to any who’d hear it. If you ask me though… you’ll be swinging within a week.”

  The Sheriff turned to his deputies who were standing by the door. “I can take it from here, you go on back home.”

  “But Sheriff,” the man said. “Our orders—“

  “I know what your orders are,” the old man spat. “I’m still the law in this town. You get home now. And tell the others to clear off as well. I don’t want them attracting attention here.”

  The men looked at one another, then back at Kade and Jareth. After a moment, they turned away and did as the Sheriff had told them. The door banged closed and then the three of them were alone.

  Kade watched the Sheriff lick his finger and then turn the page of a magazine. It was old and looked as if it might fall apart in his hands. The old man swung back another mouthful of whiskey.

  “What do we do?” Jareth whispered.

  “No talking!” the Sheriff said.

  Kade shrugged. What could they do now, except wait for a trial? They were bound to get a guilty verdict and then be for the drop. It wasn’t the end that he’d ever expected for himself, but he supposed it made as much sense as any other.