A Bloody Bloody Mess In The Wild Wild West

by Justin Bienvenue

  “Alright dad. I’ll go check with the town folk, see if they know anything,” Emerson says back. Emerson then makes his way over to the center of town where there is a gathering of some sort. He showed several people a wanted poster of Javier Jones from when he was in Mexico and asked them if they have seen him in town. They all claimed that they have not seen him or don’t say a word.

  “Well, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes,” a voice comes from out of the crowd of people and near Emerson. The man wears a thin brim hat with a long tan coat and jeans with a flashy belt buckle along with silver spurs and black boots. He has light brownish, reddish hair and a small goatee.

  “Well, I’ll be!” Emerson says to the man. “What are you doing here Clive?” Emerson gives the man a handshake. “I’m out here doing my same ole Emerson. You know, looking for a woman.” Clive says to him.

  “You have any luck or you get shot down like always?” Emerson asks him while laughing. “Well there was this one fine looking blonde over in the hotel but turns out she’s married to the owner of the place,” Clive says back to him.

  “Just your luck, eh Clive?” Emerson says. “Yeah, always my luck,” he says back. “So what are you doing in town?” he asks Emerson. “Oh, well me and my dad are asking the people in town if they know of Javier Jones,” he says.

  “Hmm, anybody tell you anything? I know I’ve been up here a few times and I haven’t seen him around but I did when I was on my way in here the other day. He gave me the ugliest grin you’ve ever seen,” Clive says to him.

  “Nah. They all either shake their hands or tell me no or don’t say nothing at all. I figure if they have seen em they’re as spooked as our towns folk.”

  “Where’s your dad now?” Clive asks him. “He’s over by the sheriff’s office asking him if he’s seen Jones. You know, from one sheriff to another,” Emerson tells him.

  “Yeah, I’m surprised your dad isn’t the sheriff of this town too. But then again, they love their independence and no right to county,” Clive says to him.

  “You got that right but looks like the people here are doing a lot better than us,” Emerson says. It is then that Calvin Shaw walks out of the station and walks over to the crowd where Emerson and Clive are talking.

  “Ah, Clive Halloway. I should have known you’d be here. How ya doin?” Calvin says to him reaching out his hand.

  “Nice to see you, Sheriff Shaw, and you know me, always looking for a good catch here. God knows our town ain’t got much for lookers,” he says with a laugh.

  “Yeah that is true,” Calvin says. “Well, I asked their sheriff if he knows of Jones and he said himself he met Jones over by the Mississippi river but he seemed like a genuine fella. Can you believe that? Saying Jones is a genuine fella? I asked him if he was sure we were talkin about the same guy and he said sure as day that was the guy. He also said Jones ain’t been into town, so clearly he’s taking the other route in. What about you Emerson, you get anything out of the town’s people?” Calvin asks his son.

  “Nope, they all either shake their hands or tell me no and just walk off. Clive says they know something but aren’t letting up but either way I think it’s a dead end.” Emerson says back.

  “Well with that in mind, I’d say we are done here. I’d love to stick around but being here any longer makes me regret living in Toomswood,” Calvin says.

  “Well since I ain’t found me a woman here today, I guess I’ll ride back into town with you guys,” Clive says to them.

  “Say, Clive, when we get back to town, you can always try Miss Molly Hatcher. I know she’s been lookin your way a while now.” Molly Hatcher was a heavy set red-haired saloon girl who always fancied the rich and good-looking men in Toomswood, especially Clive

  Halloway.

  “Oh no Emerson, now I have nothing against the woman. In fact, I was kind enough to buy her a drink the other night but then she just keep on me. I just ain’t into her is all,” Clive says back with a sad smirk on his face.

  “It only takes one drink,” Emerson says with a chuckle. “Besides where else you gonna find a woman as well endowed?” Emerson asked, again cracking up in laughter.

  “Oh shut up, Emerson.” With that Clive kicks him in the shin. “Enough about Miss Molly Hatcher okay? Let’s get back into town.” The three men then get onto their horses and start riding back to Toomswood. Without their notice, a man over near the Edgeville Hotel had been eyeing them since they got into town and would keep doing so from a distance into Toomswood.

  As they ride, the stranger keeps his distance. The stranger dressed in mixed black and red clothing on a black horse. He makes sure to ride just so far that he doesn’t lose sight of them. But then he starts back up so that he avoids suspicion.

  When they make their way back into town, they notice there’s a duel going in front of the saloon.

  “Oh great, another goddamn fight,” Calvin says. Shaw then approaches the men to see if he can figure out why they have decided to duel. “Now gentlemen, I leave town for not even an hour and I come back to this? Just what in the heck brought this on? Hmm?” Calvin asks the men. “He...stole

  my....er..cow…no wait…he insulted my cow. Yeah he…insulted my cow, that’s it,” the man says to Shaw, clearly drunk and slurring his words.

  “I didn’t insult your cow. I insulted your bull, you idiot. You don’t even have cows,” the other man says back.

  “You…you shut up! I’m gonna get you…you dirty…no good…” “Enough already, dammit!” Calvin says. “Now, if I’m to believe that you’re standing here in the center of town about to duel over the insult of a cow, then I’d say you’re both idiots. Now keep your pistols in their holsters and head back home. That’s an order!” Shaw says.

  Both men look down and turn away and start heading back to the saloon. “I said back home, not the saloon,” Shaw yells to them. Just as they turn to face Shaw, the stranger who was following Emerson, Calvin and Clive makes his way into town and rides in hard on his horse.

  Emerson Shaw was born in Texas. He stands around six feet tall with short brown hair and hazel eyes which are always shadowed by brown or tan thin brim Stetsons. He has a light outlining of a beard but usually never lets it grow out. His mother died when he was young of typhoid fever. After she passed, he and his father moved up to Mississippi and his father soon became the sheriff of Toomswood. The Shaw’s are all about the law. Emerson was raised with the same morals that his father was raised by. Stick to your guns in what you believe, uphold the law and only go outside the lines when you truly have to. This is worthy of mentioning given the circumstances

  surrounding the current situation Emerson is now faced with.

  He faces this challenge with his best friend from childhood, Clive Halloway. As a boy, the hardest part of Emerson Shaw’s life was dealing with the loss of his mother. It would soon become something else just as hard that would leave a lingering effect on ole Emerson.

  The stranger dressed in black rides into town but gallops past the current scuffle and down the path further into town. Sheriff Shaw and Emerson take the two men who were about to duel to jail but just before they do, one of the men puts up a fight and hits the Sheriff, knocking him to the ground.

  “I ain’t goin anywhere sheriff. I didn’t do a damn thing.” The sheriff grabs him and the gun is locked in both men’s hands. A shot is fired into the air between their scuffle. Emerson then grabs the man off his father and hits him with the back of his gun, knocking him out. The other man is cuffed and told to sit down.

  “Now both of you idiots would have been fine had you listened to me the first time. Now you’re for sure going to jail where you’ll sleep off your drunken state and you’re stayin a bit longer since you decided to fight me,” Sheriff Shaw says to the men.

  As both men are picked up off the ground, the stranger in black rides back into the center of town as he makes his way toward the group. He draws his pistol and fires four shots, shooting Sheriff Shaw and on
e of the drunken men. They both fall to the ground.

  “DAD!” Emerson runs over to his father and looks over at the stranger but his back is turned and he’s too far away. The stranger stops at the entrance for a slight pause, then gallops out of town and rides away. Emerson goes to draw his gun but by the time he can, the stranger is long gone. Sheriff Shaw and the drunk man lay on the ground. Shaw lays bleeding to death while the drunk man lays dead as the bullet went right through his head.

  “Dad, you’re gonna be okay.” Sheriff Shaw took three bullets, two piercing his chest and one piercing his right shoulder. The last bullet grazed his shoulder but went through the head of the drunken man.

  “Dad, please stay with me…” Emerson says to his father, holding him as he lays dying. “Emerson . . . I don’t think I’m gonna make it…” he says to his son.

  “You’re gonna be fine. Just hang in there!” Emerson says back. “That man in black, he…he was following us from Edgeville,” Calvin says to his son.

  “He was following us and you didn’t say anything?! Why?” Emerson asks him. “We…were looking for Jones…I was gonna wait till he got here but I had this

  scuffle…didn’t think he was gonna...”

  Calvin stops talking to groan in pain. He tries to speak again but he stops breathing and dies in Emerson’s arms.

  “DAD! No!” People look on and Emerson lies in the center of town holding his dead father. Clive goes over to console him.

  “Emerson…I’m sorry…we’ll get the son of bitch who did this,” he says to him.

  “Why didn’t you shoot him Clive, huh?! He was right there and he could have been stopped!” Emerson says with rage in his voice.

  “Man, it all happened so fast…no one knew he was gonna draw! I was just coming out of the saloon as it happened. Did you get a look at him?” Clive asks him.

  “No…Er…not really. He was wearing all black but I didn’t get a good look at his face, it all happened so fast. I’d have shot him dead right there but . . .” Emerson looks down in shame. “I’m gonna get him. I swear to god I’m gonna find him.” Emerson picks up his father and lies him on the deck of the saloon. I’ll get who did this to you dad, I promise. He then gets on his horse.

  “Emerson, you can’t go looking for him. He may not even be in Edgeville anymore. He could be anywhere. He wouldn’t make it that obvious,” Clive says.

  “Well Edgeville is where he came from and that’s where I’ll look,” Emerson says back. It is then that Javier Jones makes his way from an alley to the commotion in the center of town. Emerson sees him and gets off his horse. He grabs Jones and pins him to a wall. “What do you know about my dad dying? Huh, Jones?!”

  “What the hell…I don’t know anything dammit. I’ve been sleeping in the damn alley…had a bit too much last night and just woke up,” he says.

  “You’re lying!” Emerson says back. “Dammit Shaw, if I wanted to shoot your daddy I’d have done it myself and believe me there were times I wanted to. But I didn’t and I am not behind any of this shit. I don’t know who did it now so get your goddamn hands off me!”

  “We went into Edgeville asking about you and a man in black was following us. We came back here and he shows back up and then shoots my father dead. A bit of a coincidence don’t you think?” Emerson asks him.

  “Well you just done said it then. A coincidence is all it is cause I don’t know any man in black and yeah, I was in Edgeville this mornin’ for some supplies, but I swear to you I don’t know any man in black and I didn’t know you and the sheriff were looking for me.” Emerson looks at him and let’s go of him.

  “Now I will say I ain't sorry your dad’s dead…the man was a pain in my ass since I got here” Jones says as he spits on the ground and gives Emerson a grin.

  “You son of a…”

  “Emerson! Enough!” Clive says. “He didn’t do it.” “Looks like you got yourself an outlaw to catch boys and it ain’t me,” Jones says again as he laughs. Jones walks into the saloon but not before Emerson says, “Jones! Don’t leave town. You hear me?”

  “Not that I have to listen to you boy but just to show you I didn’t have nothin to do with your daddy’s death, I’ll stay. I’ll be in the saloon and if I aint there when you get back then I’m in my room…ooh and best of luck in gettin who done it.”

  Jones walks into the saloon. Emerson then tells the people of the town to take care of his father’s body and he and Clive go into Edgeville to find the killer. The stranger in black makes his way back to Toomswood, avoiding confrontation from Emerson and Clive by going in another route. Not the normal path taken to get from Edgeville to

  Toomswood. This time, he wears a bandana to cover his face but is still dressed in black.

  The people were about take the Sheriff’s body to a more appropriate place but before they do, the stranger rides back into town. He throws a rope with a noose at the end of it and it attaches around the head of Shaw. The stranger pulls the rope, tightening it around Shaw’s neck and rides away, dragging Sheriff Shaw’s body along with him. He passes through Edgeville but doesn’t stop. He continues further out of the state, still dragging Shaw’s lifeless body.

  As he comes to the border, he stops and meets up with someone. “It’s done,” he says to the man. “Sheriff Calvin Shaw is dead.” He proved his point by showing him the Sheriff’s body.

  “Well then, I guess you were the right man for the job,” the other man says back to him. “Yeah, but why did you want him dead anyway? You don’t hold any affiliation to him or the town.”

  “Oh, but my brother does. I sent him to Toomswood to make good on the oil purchase I got from the Texan a few weeks back.”

  “You mean you are Javier Jones’ brother?” the man asks him.

  “Indeed I am my friend… Indeed I am.” When Emerson and Clive got to Edgeville, no one knew of any such person riding in. They were unaware that the stranger had made his way to the other side of town, completely avoiding the center of Edgeville. Though they searched everywhere, they knew they would never find the mysterious man in black. When they got back to town, the townspeople told Emerson and Clive what had happened to Sheriff Shaw while they were gone.

  Emerson was enraged but knew there wasn’t much he could do. All he could do was grieve. He told everyone that he would avenge his father’s death and Clive told him that they would when the time was right. But until then, as long as Javier Jones was around no one was safe and there was no time to let emotions get in the way.

  Chapter 7 The Roundup

  The town was quiet. A bit too quiet. On a normal night, there’s howling, drunks in the street, some sort of fighting and just

  nonsensical parading of some sort going on. But then again, this was not a normal night. Emerson and Clive have been searching around both in and out of town, warning people of the possibility that Javier Jones was starting some kind of war upon the town given the recent events they were told about by Sheriff Henry Dugan.

  “Clive, please tell me we have at least twenty people so far,” Emerson says. “Eighteen I’m afraid and mostly from town here. Seems like we can’t easily persuade Edgeville folk to help the fight,” Clive says back.

  “Well, I don’t blame em. I mean even if they are connected to Jones, nobody wants to go up against him except us,” Emerson says.

  “Yeah, but we need to get more people and I mean fast!” Clive adds. “If Jones really is planning a war, his resources are endless. Captain Wallace told me last night he saw Jones going over to Elmsworth cemetery digging up graves.”

  “That’s against the law. Why didn’t you mention this to me before?” Emerson asks with concern in his voice.

  “Emerson, come on. You know it’s gonna take more than some grave robbing charge to hold or stop the man. Besides, you didn’t let me finish. The bodies were rising out of the ground. He must have marched outta there with at least one hundred and fifty men,” Clive says.

  “But wait, Dugan told me about t
his mysterious guy who told Jones he was going to give him undead civil war soldiers along with the ability to shoot and kill anyone and make them undead as well. I heard no mention of digging up bodies though,” Emerson says.

  “Yeah, but isn’t Elmsworth a big civil war cemetery? Site of one of the battlegrounds… that would mean he would take a lot more then one hundred and fifty men outta there,” Clive adds.

  “Well we got to stop sitting here wondering about what we are up against when we already know. Let’s just try to get our own men to fight for us and the town,” Emerson says. “In fact, let’s go over to Mason’s Ranch and ask Mason and his workers if they’ll join the fight. Then we can head over to the other side of Edgeville, you know the part of town that isn’t surrounded by the rich folk.”

  “Yeah good thinking,” Clive says back. “By the way, what’s the Sheriff doing? He out

  recruiting too?”

  “Yeah, last I talked to him. He said he was going to ask the remaining people in town that we didn’t get to yet,” Emerson says. Emerson and Clive make their way over to Mason’s Ranch about a half a mile on the side of town to see if they can gather up some more people. While they are heading there, Henry Dugan makes his way over to his office. He goes to check on the jailbirds currently occupying the cells, mainly the drunks and those who start scuffles. As he makes his way in however, he notices a massacre.

  The three men who were in jail lay face down on the floor while puddles of blood leak from their bodies. Dugan goes over to one of them and turns him over and almost vomits. The man’s face is nothing but bloody bone with skin dangling and his eyes picked out. Bite marks covered his body and his ripped clothes were drenched in blood. The walls covered with blood splatter also clearly indicated foul play was taken to an extreme.

  Dugan looks on in shock only to be interrupted by the sound of spurs jingling their way into the room.

  “Sheriff Dugan, I meant to tell ya, me and my boys made a bit of a mess in your jail cell here. So sorry.” Javier Jones says as he laughs. “You did this you sick son of a bitch!? What in god’s name have you done?” Dugan asks, clearly shaken.