Riders on the Storm

by Rob Blackwell

  When she looked up, Jacob was gaping at her, apparently noticing her small cache of weapons. Or maybe he’d just been getting a look at her ankles. Men were highly distractible that way.

  “Aren’t the knives a little much?” he asked.

  “Not if I end up needing them,” she said. “This isn’t the first time I’ve faced these things.”

  He gave her a doubtful look. “I’m still not convinced you’re not crazy.”

  “Oh, I’m crazy, all right. But that doesn’t change the fact that something awful is headed our way. It’s probably already here.”

  The wind picked up speed outside, causing the shutters on the window to rattle. With that and the pounding rain from above, it was getting hard to speak without shouting.

  Jules looked at her companions.

  “All right, boys, listen up,” she said, raising her voice to be heard. “For those of you who ain’t seen these creatures, these next few minutes are liable to be the scariest of your lives. What’s coming has red eyes, claws that can tear your flesh off and teeth that are sharper than knives. When God crafted the ugly stick, he hit these bastards with it first.

  “It’s all right if you panic when you see ‘em. It’s fine with me if you mess your britches too. God knows I’ve seen men do it before. There’s no shame in it. What there is shame in is standing there doing nothing, your brain frozen while these nightmares fly toward us.”

  “Fly? Did you say these things can fly?” Jacob asked.

  “A couple things to know, if you have any power of thought left. The first is that your guns are loaded with silver bullets. They travel a bit slower than regular slugs, so be mindful. That means their accuracy across long distances is worse than a drunk at a shooting range. If you can stand it, wait ‘til they’re close. Got it?”

  She wasn’t sure if they’d even heard her. The rain had become louder and the claps of thunder came steady now. Jules felt her heart racing, and the same anxiety that normally plagued her ahead of any big fight. She abruptly remembered one more thing she had to warn them against.

  “Don’t let the things bite you!” she shouted. “Their bite is worse than any poison—and it works twice as fast. And it won’t just kill ya, either. It’ll do something worse, turn you into the very abomination you’re so afraid of. If one does bite you, take it from me. You put the gun to your head and pull the trigger. It’s far better—”

  There was a loud thump on the roof, noticeable even above the driving rain. Another came a moment later, and then another. At least three creatures had landed on top of the bank.

  Jules held her revolvers in front of her. Twelve shots. That’s all she had. And God knew how many of these monsters had come with the tempest.

  There were several more thumps on the ceiling. By now Jules and her companions were all looking up. There was the sound of shattering glass, followed by a large crash against one of the shuttered windows.

  “Oh my God,” Jacob said.

  A rhythmic pounding started from the front door. It could almost be mistaken for a knock, but Jules knew it was one of those things throwing itself against the wood. They would do that when they sensed prey nearby. Nothing would stop them, including any sense of self-preservation.

  There was a large boom nearby, and Jules didn’t know if it was thunder from a nearby lightning strike or another creature outside. The whole building shook as a result.

  “Oh God,” Jacob said again, his voice plaintive and scared. “We’re all gonna die.”

  There was another crash against the shutters. Jules looked to her right, where Luke appeared relatively calm. His face was tight, the rifle held in two hands in front of him, at the ready. He wouldn’t freeze up on her.

  “We’re all gonna die, aren’t we?” Jacob repeated.

  She glanced at him. “Well, you probably will.”

  “What?”

  The shutter on one of the windows broke, and a clawed hand burst through. It was covered in jet black scales and the claws appeared razor sharp, like talons on an eagle. Clayton raised his gun and shot, but the bullet went wide, splintering the wood nearby.

  “Don’t fire yet!” Jules shouted, but Clayton fired again anyway, this time even more off the mark. Two silver bullets wasted. She tried not to think how much money that was.

  The clawed hand continued its work, oblivious to the shots fired at it. It scratched at the wood, ripping apart the shutter. A few moments later, the hole was wide enough that the thing managed to get its head through.

  “Holy mother of God,” Jacob said beside her.

  But God never made this creation. Jules would have bet her life on that. It looked like a human head that had been caught in a vice. The thing’s face was narrow and long, with bright red eyes. The ears were pointed and its skin was completely black, covered in some kind of scales that made it look reptilian. It was like a cross between a human and a bat, with a crocodile’s skin strapped over it.

  It stopped for a second to look at them, staring with its glowing red eyes before issuing an inhuman cry, high-pitched and piercing. She would never get used to these things. A month back, when they’d shown up and the train job had gone horribly awry, she’d barely survived.

  “What is that thing?” Harland called out.

  The creature in question reached another hand through and began to push itself through. Beside her, Luke raised his rifle to his shoulder and fired. Jules had been about to protest, worried about wasting more ammo, but the creature’s head exploded in a shower of black blood and gore.

  “Nice shot,” she said. Luke grunted while reloading.

  “They’re called Vipers,” Luke said.

  Jules raised an eyebrow. She hadn’t known they had a name.

  Another appeared in the hole left by the first, pushing its dead body to the ground as a third smashed its way through another window. The front door collapsed inward at the same moment, battered by several nightmares outside. At least four rushed inside, their red eyes resting on their quarry.

  Gunshots rang out as some of the men began to fire, but Jules waited. She felt the familiar thrill of battle, and it steadied her nerves and eased her fears. She’d described it to Miranda once as if the world itself slowed down, but that was only part of it. Her view narrowed too, as if she were just seeing targets. The pounding rain and the fierce wind of the storm that howled outside almost seemed to fade away. It was just her and the creatures around her.

  The Vipers by the front door ripped apart the table blocking them. Two fell from her companions’ shots, but at least a half dozen surged in from outside to take their place. There was no strategy to their efforts. All of them simply raced forward.

  More gunshots, and a few more Vipers went down, but they kept coming. Jules waited until one was about to plow into Clayton before she picked it off with a clean head shot. It collapsed on the floor by the man’s feet. She tagged another that was leaping in the air toward Seth, its dead body slamming into the boy and knocking him back.

  Ten bullets left.

  She glanced down the line. Of her six companions, all but four appeared to be following her advice, waiting until the creatures drew close. As she’d feared, one—Harland—was simply staring at them, his gun pointed pointlessly forward. Ogdon, meanwhile, was firing his gun, but he’d long since run out of bullets. Jules couldn’t hear the click of the empty chamber over the racket of the storm, but she could tell the weapon was no longer firing.

  She shot another two monsters headed toward them and kicked the sack of ammunition by her feet over in his direction.

  “Ogdon!” she shouted. “Get some more am—”

  “Overhead!” Luke shouted.

  Jules jerked her head up to see more than a dozen monsters scuttling across the ceiling. She wasn’t sure how they could do that, and at that moment didn’t care. The first was almost directly above her. She fired, hitting it in the head, as Luke brought down another nearby.

  Seven bullets.

 
; “Jacob, you aim up. The rest of you keep firing below.”

  She picked off two more, catching one directly in its red eye and another in the mouth when it stopped to shriek at her. But for each one that fell, another kept coming. It was like fighting off an unending wave.

  A scream yanked her attention from the ceiling to see Harland with two monsters on top of him. Next to him, Clayton was backing away, but managed to shoot one off the top. The other was biting Harland’s neck, sending out a spurt of blood.

  “Clear a path!” she shouted, and the men between her and Harland jumped back, pressing their bodies against the wall. She shot the creature first, taking its head clean off. She caught one look on Harland’s face. He’d gone pale, his hand pressed to his neck, but he looked frantic and scared. She could see the gash in his throat where blood flowed. Jules shot him directly between the eyes.

  Three bullets.

  A Viper dropped from the ceiling directly onto Ogdon, who panicked. It was understandable, but he ran forward while trying to shake the thing off and collided with a line of multiple other creatures. Jules lost track of him as the creatures surrounded him. There was no way she could shoot them all off, and going by his screams, it was almost certainly too late even if she could.

  The impromptu feast had a fortunate side effect in distracting the oncoming monsters, many of whom rushed to pile on. She saw Clayton and Seth kneeling at her ammo sack, reloading. She was about to do the same, using the extras in her pockets, when she glanced toward the ceiling to see a Viper leaping toward her. She dove to her right, knocking Luke over in the process, as the thing landed where she’d been.

  It clawed at her foot, grabbing her and trying to yank her toward it. Jules didn’t panic, but brought one of her guns around and shot the thing in the face. She looked up to see two more drop from the ceiling.

  She rolled away, losing track of everything but these two Vipers, which slammed into the ground beside her. They both attacked, one jumping toward her face before she could bring her gun around while the other dove for her feet.

  She used the only weapon she had available, head-butting the first Viper in the face as it opened its mouth to bite her. The blow seemed to daze it, forcing it back. She kicked the other one, hearing a satisfying crunch as her foot collided with its head.

  She managed to bring her gun up and shoot the one who’d gone for her head before turning her revolver on the one by her feet. She hit them both as a third monster loomed above her. She got her gun up in time and fired… only to hear a dry click. She was out of bullets.

  The monster jumped at her, but she rolled again, the floor now slick with both red and black blood. She dropped her revolvers reluctantly. She needed both hands free.

  As she rolled, Jules yanked one of the knives from her ankle holster. The monster pursued her, leaping into the air toward her. She brought up the knife, catching the thing in the face as it landed. She watched the red glow fade from its eyes.

  She attempted to rip the knife free, but it was buried too deep in the thing’s skull and she didn’t have time to wrestle with it. Jules pushed the creature off of her and scrambled to her feet, trying to get her bearings. She spotted a Viper on top of Luke, reached into her other ankle holster, and sent the knife sailing through the air. It flew straight into the creature’s head. The Viper fell off Luke, who looked up at her in wonder.

  It was satisfying, but it was her last weapon to use against the Vipers and she was likely to be attacked before Luke could toss it back.

  “You should have saved that knife for yourself, Jules,” her father’s voice said in her head. He was probably right, but would it have made any difference?

  When she looked up, however, the monsters had not overrun the bank. Some were still feasting on the remains of Ogdon, and several more scuttled backward. They were retreating.

  She couldn’t understand why until she noticed the sunlight streaming through the windows. She realized that the rain had stopped and the wind was dying down some. The storm was almost past.

  The remaining creatures fled through the front door, leaving one behind as it tore at the rancher’s arm. When it looked up to see its companions were gone, it wore an almost comical expression of dismay—although Jules didn’t know if Vipers really had emotions or she was just imagining it.

  The remaining Viper scrambled toward the front door and jumped into the air, clearly intending to take flight toward the retreating storm. But the sunlight outside reached it just as it arced into the sky—and the creature caught fire on the spot, burning to ash within seconds.

  Jules slumped to the floor, her battle-lust fading.

  She knew she should get up and start moving, but she also needed to rest for a moment. Against all odds, they’d survived. She allowed herself to close her eyes for a moment.

  Then she felt a pistol push into the back of her skull.

  Chapter Four

  “Most everyone is familiar with the legend of Billy the Kid, the famous nickname given to William H. Bonney. But, in fact, there were several outlaws given the moniker ‘the Kid’ over the years. The most notorious long predated Bonney, beginning his career as a renegade around 1860 in the Dakota Territory. He’s credited with a string of bank robberies throughout the area, but what makes him truly remarkable is that his identity remains a mystery to this day. In every recorded instance of his appearance, ‘the Kid’ wore a bandanna on his face, fueling wild theories about who he might have been.”

  — Stephen Kaper, “Legends of the Old West,” 2015

  Jules didn’t need to turn around to know who was holding the gun.

  “Jacob, if this is about how to split the mo—”

  “I don’t care about the money!” he yelled in her ear. “Look at him!”

  She turned to see what he was talking about. In her exhaustion, she’d barely taken stock of what happened to her companions. The crumpled body of Ogdon lay on the floor. Nearby was Harland with a bullet hole in his skull. Clayton appeared to have survived intact. He was breathing hard, leaning up against a wall, while Luke was getting to his feet. Jacob, meanwhile, was angry. Seth lay twitching on the floor, his face bright red. Jacob’s eyes darted between him and Jules.

  Seth was alive, but he didn’t look good. His face was pale. His eyes stared at the ceiling, and he breathed in shallow gasps. Conscious of Jacob’s gun still trained on her, and of her own weapons lying empty on the floor, Jules stood up and walked to Seth. The cause of his distress was obvious. Three bright red gashes were on his chest, visible through his torn shirt.

  “He wasn’t bit!” Jacob said behind her. “I saw. He wasn’t bit.”

  But he had been scratched, and Jules guessed that was mostly the same. She snapped her fingers above Seth’s face, but he didn’t look at her. His eyes were clouded over with a white film, and one of his legs started to spasm. Jules turned to Jacob.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “Do something!”

  She shook her head. “There’s only one thing I can do, and that’s end his suffering.”

  “No!” Jacob said, waving the gun at her. “No, there has to be something else!”

  Seth’s arm began twitching. The poison was rapidly taking effect.

  “Jacob, you have to listen to me. If we don’t end this right here and now, your brother is going to finish transforming, and we’re going to have another fight on our hands. I’ve seen this before. Do you understand?”

  Jacob took a step forward, waving the gun in front of her face. She was tempted to bat it away, but she sensed Jacob would fire at the least provocation. “He’s my brother! I’m not killing him.”

  Jules took a deep breath. “He’s dead already. But there’s something new setting up shop in his body.”

  “He’s not dead!” Jacob yelled, spittle hitting Jules.

  Below them, Seth’s entire body was now spasming. She glanced down to see the white film fading from his eyes, replaced by the color red. He was turning into a V
iper, and they didn’t have much time left.

  “You shoot me, there will be nobody to stop your brother when he comes for you.”

  Strictly speaking, this was untrue. Luke and Clayton could help. But they’d both backed away and she thought it best not to mention them. Luke appeared distracted, and Jules realized why—he was searching for more ammo. They must have run through most of what they had. Clayton just appeared stunned. He wasn’t going to be of use to anyone.

  “This is your fault!” Jacob roared. “You did this! If you hadn’t been here—”

  Seth’s body stopped twitching. His hands had changed shape. His fingers had grown into long, sharp claws. The skin around his wound had turned from bright red to a dark black, and was beginning to look like scales.

  “Look at him!” Jules yelled. “Kill him now, Jacob! That’s not your brother anymore!”

  Jacob looked down, and his eyes widened. The color drained from his face.

  “Seth?” he asked.

  They were going to die. Clayton was still staring stupidly at them, and Luke was focused on the floor, likely trying to find a spare bullet that might have fallen out of someone’s hand in the fight. Jules could see one of her knives at Luke’s feet, but if he tried to throw it at Seth, Jacob was liable to start shooting.

  The only one still armed was Jacob, but he lacked the willpower to do what he must. The way he was staring at the monster his brother had become made that clear. The creature stirred beneath them. Seth’s breathing became a low rasp, almost a hissing sound.

  Jules was so absorbed by what was happening at her feet that she almost didn’t see the flurry of movement beyond Jacob. She looked up just in time to see what had once been Ogdon—who had been still the entire time—suddenly leap to his feet.

  “Jacob, behind you!” she shouted.