“Ooh!” Cassidy exclaimed. “Grenades! I don't remember grenades being in this. This day is getting better already.” She then latched the case closed, grabbed the tube, and ran for the door but stopped short. She put the case on the ground and opened the small cabinet by the couch, pulling out one of Jebediah's bottles of medicine. She took a big swig. “Uuuhhhhh...ggghhhrRRRLL!” she ejaculated, shaking her head and tongue. She shoved the cork back in the bottle and returned it to the cabinet. She then ran outside making hacking-horking noises.
---
Jebediah stayed low as he ran through the park. The haze of the growing fire filling the air. The sound of gunfire continued unabated in the train yard ahead. As he neared the yard, he came upon a wounded man leaning up against the gazebo where the band had played. He was in visible pain and holding an abdominal wound. Jebediah knelt beside him.
“What's the situation?” Jebediah asked.
The man grunted as he straightened himself a bit. “The Marshal called everyone in. We've got ten men but we're not doing much against those things. Our bullets don't do shit.” Jebediah stood up slightly and looked toward the train yard as the sound of yelling briefly increased. He came back down to continue listening. “The Marshal's first men were all killed up by the beer hall across from the hotel. Five good men.”
“How many of the machines?” asked Jebediah.
“Just three. Each one has a few men in it. They've all gut guns like I've never seen.”
“Are they all in the yard?”
“I think so. They followed the Marshal in there.”
Jebediah looked toward the rail yard again before putting his hand on the wounded man's shoulder. “Try to get to the hotel. I have people there.” The man nodded. Jebediah went to move when the wounded man grabbed his shoulder.
“Wait! You're going in there?!” he asked in shock.
Jebediah looked the man in the eye with a determined gaze. “Yes.”
The man looked into Jebediah's unflinching eyes, accepting Jebediah's choice. “Alright. I hope God likes you.”
Jebediah smiled. “I hope so, too.”
---
Jebediah slammed his back up against the side of the building. He peered around the corner to see the sorting yard filled with rows of freight cars. He looked back and forth. On a small grassy area abutting the rail tracks lay a bloodied, motionless body. A riderless horse ran by, the saddle on its side. Smoke was starting to obscure visibility in many directions. He left the cover of the building and began inching his way toward the tracks. Suddenly, bursting out from between two cars came two men, running at full tilt. A third man came running out only to be cut down by a stream of bullets from behind. He fell to the dirt, curled up slightly, and stopped moving. The remaining two men ran for cover behind a two-story building abutting the tracks. Jebediah ran across the clearing from his cover to meet them.
“Where's the Marshal?” asked Jebediah.
“Don't know. We've all been split up. Don't know where anyone is,” one of the men responded, gasping for air. Jebediah peered around the corner of the house again as shots rang out periodically. As he watched, a stream of bullets shot through a freight car, followed by a small explosion which blew the wall out. Flying through the newly-formed hole, turning mid-air and firing a volley from his dual revolvers, was Marshal Stoudenmire. He was covered in dust, grit, and blood as he hurried to his feet and ran toward Jebediah's hiding place. From the end of the row of freight cars roared another attack car, turning hard, kicking up rocks and dirt, and charging toward the Marshal.
“Get inside the building!” yelled Stoudenmire as he ran. The attack car opened up a hail of death, just missing, explosions of dust following Stoudenmire's foot steps as he reached the safety of the building. Stoudenmire ran to the far edge of the building, stopped, and looked around the edge. “Go!” he said, turning to Jebediah and the two men. “Into that door!” The two men, followed by Jebediah, ran inside a door, with Stoudenmire behind them. “Center of the building. It'll give us the most cover,” said Stoudenmire.
The four reached the middle-most room, an office filled with filing cabinets. “This is stupid!” yelled Stoudenmire. “We're not doing anything! We may as well be flies! Do you have any ideas mister State Department?”
“Do you have any other weapons? Anything?” asked Jebediah.
“No! This is it! We don't even have any dynamite!” Stoudenmire turned to one of the men, a short, stocky, blonde in a bowler hat. “Billy. Who's out there?”
“The Richards boys are still alive. David's back in the park. Tom and Carson are still somewhere. I don't know about anyone else.”
Stoudenmire gritted his teeth. “Fuck!” He stared off, angry, breathing heavily. The low burble of one of the attack cars rolling by attracted his attention. “Gimme' that,” he said to Billy, the stocky blonde, motioning for his shotgun. “Loaded?”
“Yessir. Fully,” replied Billy.
Stoudenmire opened the office door and walked across the small hallway, going up some stairs to the second floor. He walked into another small office, a window open with breeze wafting in. He looked out the window, then put one leg out, and the other, staying low on the roof.
Jebediah was on the first floor, following the sound of Stoudenmire's footfalls. He eventually got to a window and looked out, just in time to make eye-contact with the gunner of the attack car, his eyes peering through the glass circles in his metal mask. The two stared at each other for a moment, neither able to muster the wherewithal to act.
STOMP! Stoudenmire fell onto the roof of the attack car, towering over the man in the gunner's seat, smoke and sunlight beaming behind him. He cocked the shotgun and pointed it square into the gunner's face. “Get out of my town,” he said, firing. The gunner's helmet prevented penetration but his head was knocked back as though he had been kicked by a horse, his body flopping over backwards. The attack car accelerated hard, causing Stoudenmire to fall back. He steadied himself on the turret, bobbing left and right as the car turned. Stoudenmire was able to cock the shotgun twice more, firing into the roof.
The car roared wildly into the empty marketplace, smashing through stands and displays. It turned hard to the left, until it was driving directly toward a line of freight cars. The car skidded, slamming into the side of a car, sending Stoudenmire flying from the roof, through the open door of the freight car, and smashing through the wooden door on the other side. He landed on the tracks in between the two rows of cars.
Stoudenmire lay there, motionless. At the end of the freight car row, the attack car rumbled around, moving slowly, deliberately, like a predator. Another man had taken the previous gunner's place, a bald man with leathery skin and an utterly impressive moustache, wearing goggles. He kept the gun trained on Stoudenmire, who was beginning to stir. He groaned and rolled over, attempting to get up. He hadn't so much as lifted his head when he looked up, seeing the car parked near him, the deadly turret aimed square at him. The gunner spun up the gun as Stoudenmire exhaled, closing his eyes.
“Marshal!” yelled Cassidy's voice. Stoudenmire's eyes opened widely again and he looked behind him, at the end of the row of cars near the roundhouse. There, standing in beams of sunlight piercing through the freight cars, stood Cassidy, the missile-launching tube steadied on her shoulder, her eye peering through a sight on the top of the tube. “Stay down!” she yelled.
She pulled the trigger. A BOOMF of smoke and fire ejected from the rear as the missile streaked through the air, slamming into a freight car near the attack car, blowing it to bits. As wood and wreckage rained down on the attack car and Stoudenmire, the car reversed hard, accelerating away as quickly as possible. The gunner looked behind them.
“Go go go go!” yelled the gunner.
Cassidy dropped another missile into the front of the launcher. “Shit. Fucking aim. Gotta' redesign these.” She brought the launcher back up to her shoulder and got the attack car in her sight. “Too late,” she said with a smile,
pulling the trigger.
The second missile streaked through the air, slamming directly into the front of the attack car, causing it to explode in grand fashion. Stoudenmire looked up from the cover of his arms just in time to see a wheel bounce by. He rose to his feet and began to stumble hurriedly toward Cassidy. A small secondary explosion from the car caused him to stop and turn around.
Cassidy held the launcher to her side. “That's—”
BOOM!
The car disintegrated in a massive explosion, blowing over both adjacent rows of freight cars and spraying a rain of fire over everything in the vicinity. Stoudenmire was lifted off the ground and thrown backwards while Cassidy was knocked back five feet.
Cassidy rolled around on the ground in a daze, trying to get her bearings. She managed to lift her head. The sound of the world was distant and quiet. “Son of a... bitch,” Cassidy said to herself as she unsteadily rose to her feet. She slung her launcher over her shoulder, picked up her ammunition case, and stumbled toward Stoudenmire. She reached him and, grabbing his collar with her free hand, dragged him back a few dozen feet where the train cars were still mostly upright and took cover between two of them. She checked Stoudenmire's body for injuries.
“Cassidy!” came a loud whisper, barely penetrating the sensory haze in which Cassidy found herself. “Cassidy! Are you here?!”
Cassidy peered out from between the train cars to see Jebediah and the two other men carefully wandering the devastation, the burning town behind them. She waved them over. Jebediah and the men held tight against the rail cars as they talked.
“The Marshal,” said Cassidy, obviously dazed. “I don't know... I...”
Jebediah leaned down to inspect Stoudenmire. “He's not dead,” he said. “We need to get him out of here.”
“Where?” asked Billy.
Jebediah looked around, deciding. “Let's go down and turn right by that big building there, onto the main road. Take him down to the hotel. Do not stop!” The two men nodded. They lifted up Stoudenmire and carried him away. Jebediah turned to Cassidy, who was leaning up against the freight car for stability. “What the hell did you do?”
“I don't know,” Cassidy replied. “It wasn't me. I hit 'em with a rocket grenade, but something else went off, too. Took out the whole damned yard.”
“Good god,” said Jebediah. “What are those things carrying?” Cassidy tried to stand on her own but fell against the rail car again. Jebediah moved quickly to help brace her. “You ok?”
“I... I,” Cassidy stumbled in her speech. “my brain is all muddled. Having a hard time thinking straight.”
Jebediah looked about, concerned. “We can't just stay here.”
Cassidy shook her head. “I can't... walk yet.”
“Can I use that grenade gun of yours?”
“No... the sight's... the aim is all off. You have to know how to shoot it. You couldn't hit a barn with it.”
“An effective weapon,” replied Jebediah sarcastically.
Jebediah stood there, contemplating his next move. He squinted as a figure appeared in his vision, out from the smoke and haze. Coming into view, it was Mr. Caesar, his gun drawn and ready. Jebediah exhaled and moved to pull his gun but was too slow. Mr. Caesar raised his revolver and fired a single shot into Jebediah's head, splattering blood and brain all over Cassidy. She flinched and shook at the sensation of the blood on her face and fumbled to draw her gun from her vest, but was unable to get it aimed in time. Mr. Caesar pulled the trigger, firing a shot directly into Cassidy's chest.
“AHHHH!!” Cassidy yelled, her eyes wide and dilated, her complexion pale white. Jebediah jumped.
“What?!” he asked. Cassidy looked around in a panic, putting her hand on his hand, slapping around awkwardly looking for a wound. Jebediah looked puzzled as she distorted his face with her pressing.
“N... nothing,” replied Cassidy. “I'm feeling, uh, quite a, uh, quite a bit better now. I feel the need to run... run very fast.”
As the two stood there, Gideon emerged from the haze. “Cassidy!” he yelled.
“AHH!” Cassidy screamed, whipping out her revolver and firing. Luckily, Jebediah managed to deflect her arm up, shooting into the sky and missing Gideon. Gideon froze in his tracks.
“It's ok! It's o...k!” yelled Jebediah.
“What did I do?!” asked Gideon, his feelings hurt.
“Nothing. You didn't do anything. Cassidy took a blow to the head and she's feeling a bit foggy. That's all.”
“We need to get out of here,” said Gideon. “The cars at the end of this line are on fire and it's traveling up toward you. The building right next to the tracks has also caught. Half this town is on fire!”
“Is the hotel?” asked Jebediah.
“No,” replied Gideon. “Everything on that side of the park is fine. They've got a fire wagon on main street that's trying its best, and people are bring carts full of water over from the river.”
“We had... nevermind,” said Jebediah. “No use talking about it now. Let's get to the hotel. Can we go through the park?”
“Yes. The trees went out. The park's fine... sort of. I mean, I don't think it's going to be a park anymore, but it looks better than the buildings.”
“Through the park, then,” replied Jebediah. “You ready?” he asked, turning to Cassidy.
Cassidy was still breathing heavily. She nodded. “Yeah. As ready as I'll ever be.”
The three ran past the burning house to their right and the burning rail yard, coming into the clearing between buildings. The small group of buildings to their left was untouched, but the large hotel behind them and the whorehouse ahead were all ablaze. “I don't hear anymore shooting,” said Cassidy.
“I noticed that,” said Jebediah. “The smoke should give us cover, though.”
As they reached burning park, it became clear that the trees were still very much on fire. Getting up between the burning gazebo and the alligator garden, Cassidy noticed that some of the bushes down in the garden were on fire. She stopped, followed by Jebediah and Gideon when they realized what she was doing.
“What?” asked Gideon.
“The alligators!” replied Cassidy.
“What?!” yelled both of them.
“The alligators! Their little garden is on fire! They'll die!”
“Who cares?!” yelled Gideon.
“No, we, we,” Cassidy stuttered as she holstered her guns. “We can't let them die!” Cassidy ran over to the garden and vaulted over the wall. Gideon sighed in annoyance and looked to Jebediah, who shrugged. They both followed her. Gideon shimmied over the wall and dropped down into the garden while Jebediah maintained watch. “You get that one!” Cassidy yelled, pointing to an alligator near Gideon.
“Get it?! What the hell do you mean by get it!?”
“Pick it up!” Cassidy yelled back. Gideon turned and looked at the alligator with a look of confused fear.
“Ennnnhhhhhhh,” Gideon whined out as he slowly inched toward the alligator, which growled at him as he got closer. He made an awkward attempt at grabbing the animal and it snapped defensively at him. “Cassidy!” he yelled, turning to her.
Cassidy already had her alligator in an embrace and was stepping up onto and then over the low wall with Jebediah holding onto her vest to give her support. “Just pick it up!” Gideon looked at her with annoyed shock at the ease with which she picked up her charge. After a couple of false starts, Gideon vaulted over the alligator and reached down, giving it a bear-hug of sorts and lifting it off the ground.
“Ahhhhhh!!!! Damnit! Stop moving!” Gideon yelled at the squirming lizard. “Oh god, it's peeing on me!” Gideon ran over to the same spot that Cassidy had exited and performed the same maneuver to get out of the garden, with Jebediah providing support. As he stepped over and started to run toward the hotel, his hand slipped and fell inside the edge of the alligator's mouth, who clamped down on it. “Ahhh!! It's got my hand! It's got my hand!!” he yelled as he ran alongsid
e Cassidy.
“Stop messing around! Just get the goddamned thing to safety!”
“Safety?! The whole fucking town's on fire!” Cassidy didn't respond. “Grrrr! Whole damn thing's on fire and I'm busy saving some dinosaur,” Gideon complained to himself.
As they ran across the street separating the park from the as yet un-scorched hotel, the car with the gawky man rolled into view. Through a clearing in the smoke, he watched perplexed as Cassidy and Gideon ran inside with two visibly irate alligators in their arms. “Was that them?” asked someone in the car.
“I don't know!” replied the gawky man.
---
“Put them behind the bar!” Cassidy yelled as they ran into the bar. The bartender popped up from behind the car and widened her eyes to dinner plates in surprise as Cassidy and Gideon came running around with the two big lizards. She lobbed herself over the bar to get away from the alligators.
“What are those doing in here?!” she demanded.
“We couldn't let them die!” Cassidy replied.
“What's this we? You couldn't let them die!” replied Gideon as he dropped his gator behind the bar.
“Build a wall with chairs,” said Cassidy, grabbing a chair. “It will keep them in.”
“Are you sure you don't want to go find some nice plants to make them feel more at home?” replied Gideon.
“Just do it!”
Gideon rolled his eyes in annoyance as he grabbed some chairs.
“One of the attack carts is rolling up!” yelled Jebediah, looking out the window.
“My rockets!” yelled Cassidy.
“What?!” screamed Gideon, in a panic.
“I forgot my rockets by the alligator garden!”
Cassidy St. Claire and The Fountain of Youth Parts I, II, & III Page 40