by R. L. Wolf
The ship wasn't an armored ship, and several of the rounds went through the wall. The ship was now venting atmosphere. He shut the hatch. That corridor wouldn't be accessible until they fixed the holes.
Another ladder led upward, and he took that and ran along several more corridors. The deck looked like crew quarters
“All I’m doing is running around now. I need a better plan.”
He was just finished setting up another corridor to shoot holes in when a voice came out of an intercom on the wall.
"Intruder, this is the Captain, I think maybe you are here to rescue my hostages, yes, of course you are. Surrender or I will start shooting them."
Austin opened fire on the wall and shut the hatch to that corridor. There was an intercom next to him, and he pushed the button.
"Go ahead and shoot them,” said Austin. “I'm here for revenge, not rescue. The fewer hostages you have when the Gunslingers get here, the less they have to bother with the moral dilemma of whether to save the hostages or not."
Austin didn't wait for an answer. He sprinted to a ladder and climbed to the next deck, then ran across to the other side of the ship. The Raiders could probably tell which intercom he had talked from and wanted to be somewhere they wouldn't look.
"Coward, you cannot hide long, I will skin you alive when I find you," said the Captain over the intercom.
Austin opened a door and looked inside. He recognized the controls in this room. They had just had a chapter on this room in class. He wouldn't mess with this room. The crew probably had more experience in zero gravity than he did and shutting down the magnetic floor plates would be a bad idea. He closed the door and looked for something else to destroy.
He tried another door, opened it, and was looking at a galley. The cook saw him, turned pale, and grabbed a butcher knife in his shaking hand. Austin fired at the opposite wall three times and slammed the door shut.
"No lunch for Raiders today."
Austin pushed the button on another intercom.
"Make you a deal, Captain, let the hostages go, and I won't kill you."
The Captain didn't answer.
"As you wish, Captain, I'm coming for you."
Austin followed the empty corridors towards the Bridge. Most of the crew were outside on salvage operations, and those left were having a difficult time getting to the bridge with all the decompressed corridors. He stepped through the hatch to the Bridge, but the Captain had had enough sense to watch the door and was waiting. Colt and the others were bound and gagged on the floor, facing away from the door. The Captain's eyes widened, staring in horror as Austin walked through the door.
"Looks like a draw, Captain, I activated twelve distress beacons in your spacesuit locker. It’s only a matter of time before the Gunslingers get here.”
The Captain took a step back, and opened fire, emptying his revolver until the hammer was falling on spent chambers. Austin felt the rounds hit, lifted his revolver, and fired twice before falling to the deck. The Captain crumpled and fell on the ground, next to Garth.
"What's happening?” asked Colt.
Garth rolled over and saw the figure in a spacesuit lying on the ground next to the hatch, and the revolver in its hand.
"I think its Austin, that's his revolver," said Garth.
"The Captain has a boot knife," said Wes. "Can you reach it?"
Garth scooted towards the Captain's body until he was able to reach the knife, and cut himself loose. He cut Colt free next. Colt ran over to Austin.
"I think he's been shot," said Colt, gently rolling Austin over onto his back... and... Colt stared into the faceplate. "How? This can't be..."
Toran rushed over next and knelt down next to Austin. "The Ocean God preserve us," whispered Toran.
Garth and Wes ran over next. Wes's eyes widened, and he fell to his knees, weeping. Garth knelt and looked into the faceplate. Austin's face was the ashen pallor of death and covered in frost.
Garth's planet, though they had technology, lived close to nature and the ancient ways of his ancestors. It was easier for him to accept the impossibility of what they were looking at. Garth lifted Austin's arm.
"Here, where the radio was," said Garth. "His suit was ripped open. He died instantly of decompression."
"But... how?" whispered Colt. "How did he get here?"
Toran pressed the control panel on the front of the spacesuit.
"It says here his life signs ceased five hours ago," said Toran, his voice shaking.
"It’s not possible," said Colt, barely breathing the words.
"Some things are not meant to be questioned," said Garth. "He hunts with the Father now."
Wes looked up at Colt, his eyes full of accusation. "You murdered him, and still he came back to save us."
The ship rocked from an explosion, and then gunfire could be heard from the lower decks. The Gunslingers had arrived.
Colt and the team walked slowly, solemnly carrying the casket through the forest. The long procession of students and teachers following behind. One of the students in the procession played a slow tune on a flute as they walked. The hollow sound of the wooden flute echoed through the trees with a deep sadness. The forest parted, and the boys carried the casket onto an open field of tall grass and wildflowers. They walked among the many tombstones until they reached a freshly dug gravesite and laid the casket gently on the ground.
The Marshal took a place next to the tombstone and bowed his head before speaking.
"We come to lay our fallen brother to rest. He has finished The Long Walk. May he know peace in the Land of the Ancestors."
Colt and his team took up the ropes the casket rested on and lifted the casket over the grave, and slowly began to lower it.
"Prepare to render honors," shouted Deputy Hargrath, the Senior Camp Deputy.
The seventy-five student Deputy-Merits lifted their rifles.
"Fire!" The sound rolled across the mountain forest.
"Fire!" Tears flowed down the faces of the students.
"Fire!" The Casket rested at the bottom of the grave.
The Marshal walked around the grave to Colt and held out a rolled up gun belt, and a deputy's rifle.
"You must carry these with you until one worthy of them is found." Colt took Austin's gun belt and held it tight against his chest. He looked down at the one word inscribed on the tombstone.
'GUNSLINGER'
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Dustin Lance Blackjack
Jack shoved his way through the crowd of Merits to see the bulletin board. He only managed a few moments at the front of the crowd to check the new posting, and then someone shoved him back, but that had been enough to see what he wanted to see.
The serving line was empty, as it always was. He wandered over to the serving table to see if there was any food today. The Outcast Prison Camp only got quarter rations every other day. The cook was sitting on a broken chair picking at his nails, and looked up at the boy standing in front of the serving table hopefully.
"You know there ain't nothing, Jack," said the Cook.
"I got a Vid-chit to trade."
"How long?”
"Thirty minutes."
"One orange," said the Cook.
"Two," countered Jack.
The Cook retrieved two oranges from under the serving table and held them out. Jack handed the Cook the Vid-chit and took his prizes. He hid the oranges under his shirt and headed over to a table where a boy was sitting with his head down.
"Hey, Tyler," said Jack.
Tyler looked up, and Jack handed him one of the oranges.
"Hurry, eat it before anyone sees," said Jack.
The two boys devoured their oranges. Tyler put the peels in his pocket for later.
"You going try for that posting?” asked Tyler.
"Yeah, my six months are up at midnight," answered Jack.
Tyler put his head back down on the table.
"I can read a map too, Jack," said Tyler. "It's at
Camp 26, and that's almost two-hundred miles away."
"I can make it," said Jack.
"Are you going to dig up our Gunslingers gun and take it?” asked Tyler.
"I have to," said Jack. "I can't make it there without it."
"What about me?" sniffled Tyler. "I only got six more months on my sentence. I might make it."
"I know," said Jack. "I promise, I'll beg on my knees to my new Gunslinger to let me bring the gun back and bury it under the rock for your Death Walk."
"You promise, Jack?"
"I promise."
"This is it," said Tyler, looking up, his eyes wet. "We aren't a team anymore."
"We haven't been a team since our Gunslinger died on the Long Walk," said Jack, "but we are brothers, forever."
"You ever think maybe those other two that got executed were the lucky ones?” asked Tyler.
"Don't ever think like that," said Jack. "We stayed at his side and fought, we didn't run like them. We get a second chance after we serve our sentence for losing our Gunslinger."
"If those stupid dogs had bit me instead of you, it would be me going now," said Tyler.
"I know, it's not fair that you got an extra six months just because you weren't injured, but don't do this to yourself, please, just survive this."
"Thanks for sticking with me these last six months, Jack, I think I can make it on my own now."
"Goodbye, brother," said Jack.
"Get out of here," said Tyler.
Jack left the Dining Cabin and headed down the hill. He didn't own anything, and there was nothing to pack. He would have to survive with whatever he could find. Jack calculated the distance at a constant walk on perfect terrain, it would take six days, but he knew that would be impossible. He could probably do it in nine or ten days, and he had one advantage, his fallen Gunslinger's gun was hidden nearby.
Jack was just passing an unused building when the Camp Deputy stepped out from behind the building and stopped Jack. The Camp Deputy was the meanest bastard anyone could ever meet. The Camp Deputy was serving a twenty-year sentence for failing his own Gunslinger. All the Deputies guarding the camp were inmates the same as the Merits. Merits and Deputies alike, convicted of the worst crime possible, they had lived after their Gunslingers had died.
"You can't leave the Camp until midnight," said the Deputy.
"I know," replied Jack.
"I like you, Jack," said the Deputy. "I'm going to let you go early, and I'm going to help you."
The Deputy threw a field pack on the ground at Jack's feet. Jack looked at the field pack and seriously doubted this bastard's sincerity.
"Take it," said the Deputy. "It will help you survive."
"Thanks," said Jack, picking up the field pack, and walking past the Deputy.
Jack walked around the bend in the road and stopped to check that the Deputy couldn't see him. Jack knelt down, opened the field pack, and started stuffing as much as he could into his pockets and down his boots. Jack found a hunting knife, and an emergency shelter, those went down Jack's boots as well.
The big treasure was the food paste tubes. Jack checked the seals, looking for any signs of tampering. He shoved those inside his coat. Once Jack had everything of value he could carry, he brushed some snow back from the ground and refilled the field pack with pine needles, and a rock for weight.
Jack picked up the field pack and walked the rest of the way to the border of the Camp. A line of rocks marked the border. Stepping over the rocks before your release date was an automatic death sentence. Jack stopped just before the border and sat down on a rock. He dropped the field pack next to him.
It didn't take long. Jack heard the boots crunching in the snow and knew it was the Camp Deputy's little gang of bully deputies. Jack heard the hammer pulled back on a gun.
"So, you're not satisfied with starving and beating us," said Jack. "Now you honor the memory of your Gunslingers with the outright murder of a helpless Merit."
The crack of the shot didn't come, but one of the Deputies came and whispered in Jack's ear. "You're very clever, Jack," said the Deputy, picking up the field pack. "But not clever enough, I'll be taking this, you will die out there."
Jack listened to the crunching of footsteps as the Deputies left, and then pulled out one of the food paste tubes from under his shirt and enjoyed his first real meal in six months. He finished the meal, and knelt next to the rock and dug at the frozen ground until he uncovered a sack. Jack opened the sack and lifted out his Gunslingers gun he had hidden six months earlier. Jack lovingly caressed the gun.
"I'm so sorry I couldn't save you."
Jack stood and held the gun up to the sky.
"I tried, I really did," cried Jack. Tears were flowing down his face. "I know you are watching me from the Land of the Ancestors. I've done good, haven't I? I helped as many Merits survive as I could in this horrible prison camp."
Jack looked at the moon nearing the midnight position in the heavens.
"May I take your gun?” asked Jack.
Jack watched the empty sky. A Golden Eagle flew out from the mountains and circled overhead. The eagle screeched and flew off in the direction Jack knew he needed to go to find his new Gunslinger.
Jack tucked the gun into his waistband and followed the eagle south along the mountain range.
Colt and Cora walked along the path together holding hands. The snow was starting to melt in the mountains. Winter would be over soon.
"Garret's team left yesterday," said Cora.
"I saw Sam and Levi's team heading out this morning," replied Colt.
"Our first year is almost over, everyone is heading to Phase two," said Colt.
"I feel bad for Rebecca's team, they got here last and will be alone," said Cora.
"It will only be for a couple of months," replied Colt. "They stagger our arrival and departure on purpose."
"Are you scared I'll find someone new?” asked Cora.
"Don't be silly, I... you know... I... umm... and...”
"If you say it just once, I'll never make you say it again."
Colt turned bright red and wished he could jump down a hole and hide.
"I love you," muttered Colt.
"I love you too," said Cora. "Now we said it, we don't have to say it ever again, we just know." Cora stopped and looked at a Merit standing off by himself in the woods, just staring out into the forest. "That's the fourth Merit I've seen standing out in the woods staring at nothing," said Cora.
"Let's ask what they are doing," said Colt.
Colt and Cora walked through the snow to where the Merit was standing, it was Aaron from Duke's team.
"Hey, Aaron," said Colt. "Whatcha doing?"
Aaron didn't turn around but just kept staring out into the woods.
"No disrespect, Gunslingers," said Aaron, his tail wrapped around his waist in the posture of a Daemi patiently waiting for something. "This is not a matter for you. Go back to your cabins now. We'll let you know when it's time."
"Hey, he asked you a question," said Cora. "You want to answer correctly."
Aaron turned around and looked at the two Gunslingers, his tail dropping to an aggressive posture. The expression on Aaron's face made Colt and Cora take a step back.
"I said go back to your cabins, Gunslingers," said Aaron. "We love you, but don't make us drag you there."
Two other Merits from different teams walked over and stood next to Aaron. Colt and Cora took another step back. The expressions on their faces left no doubt they would go through with their threat.
"We should go to the Marshal," said Cora.
"There isn't anything that happens the Marshal doesn't know about," said Colt. "Whatever is happening, he already knows. We should go to our cabins and check on our Merits."
Colt and Cora split up and headed back to their cabins. Colt walked along the path to his cabin and passed Toran standing near the river looking across. Toran looked at Colt and shook his head.
“Go to the c
abin, Colt,” whispered Toran.
Colt left him be and continued towards the cabin. Garth was watching the other side of the cabin from the woods, and Wes was standing on the roof of the porch.
Colt looked up at Wes. "Will you tell me what's happening?"
"There's still twenty miles to go, you should just go to bed, we'll wake you when we need you."
"Wes?” asked Colt.
"I'm already mad at you, don't push me," said Wes. "This is Deputy business, for now, you don't get to ask."
"I'm sorry about what happened, he was my friend too, but you know I did the right thing," said Colt."
"Go inside or I'll call Garth over here."
"You wouldn't," said Colt, surprised.
"I'm pretty mad at you. I might."
Colt went inside but didn't go to bed. He sat on the couch facing the fire and watched the flames. He fell asleep at some point and slept through the night. The sound of talking on the porch woke him just as the first rays of the sun were starting to come through the trees.
"We should wake Colt now," said Garth's voice. "Gideon sent a runner, said he's two miles out."
"I can't believe he made it," replied Toran. "How does he look?"
"Bad," replied Garth. "Zane said he walked right past where Gideon was hiding, and that he would be surprised if he even made it the last two miles."
"Are we going through with the ritual?” asked Wes. "It's cruel."
"Deputy Hargrath says yes," replied Garth. "We can't give him any breaks or his soul won't be purged."
Colt opened the door and stepped out on the porch with the others.
"Guys, I'm not stupid," said Colt. "I can put the pieces together. My replacement Merit is coming off the Long Walk, isn't he?"
“He’s not a Merit, and it’s not the Long Walk,” said Wes. “Some call it the Walk of the Dead, and some call it the Death Walk. The point is, he’s dead to us, and the whole world. He just didn’t have the sense to die with his Gunslinger. Now he’s trying to walk back from the land of the dead. He’s the worst kind of criminal.”
“What?” asked Colt, confused.
Garth put his hand on Colt's shoulder, and the expression on Garth's face made Colt try to take a step back. Garth held his grip and didn't let Colt move. Garth shook Colt's shoulder to make sure he was paying attention.