Chapter 4: The Good, The bad and the ugly.
The next few days passed quickly. They rode at a steady pace, talking little. Leo had his radio on to break the silence of the trail. They had used to argue about the radio on their trips, Arcade disliking it due to the same five songs being played again and again. He didn't mind it too much this time though, it was sort of nostalgic.
The selection hadn't changed much over three years. The classic, "Ain't that a kick in the head," came on and Arcade caught Leo humming snatches of it.
The desert was harsh, but beautiful. The sunrise and sunset were majestic, and the clear night skies equally so. At night they camped by the fire, by day they rode their steeds. It was a simple life, with meals made of gecko steaks and maize and with to drink.
Arcade had to admit that he enjoyed it. It bright back the memories of traveling with him before. Of course they had the whole gang then. Arcade missed them; Raul's sarcastic humor, Cass' stories of the wasteland, even Boone's stoic silence. Still, this was pretty close to old times. Of course, it was nice to have the horses this time around.
On the third day of traveling, they encountered something of an adventure.
They were coming over a hill and the sun had begun to slowly fall in the east. Arcade was again reminded that he had forgotten a hat and sunglasses, as he seemed to be every few minutes on this trip. They stopped their horses and looked out over the flat desert before them, scattered with burned out houses and bombed out towns.
Far in the distance was a line of buildings, just visible on the horizon.
"Is that Elko?" Arcade asked, using his hand as a sun visor.
"Yep," Leo said. "Looks like its grown a bit over the years. It's no New Vegas, but it's no Goodsprings either."
They just sat for a moment, giving their horses a moment to rest. Leo was frowning behind his glasses as he looked at the city. The sight should have been encouraging, hopeful. Instead it only gave him a chill down his spine and a feeling of foreboding.
Arcade gave him a curious glance. "Everything alright?" his friend asked.
Leo shook his head as if the clear it. "It's nothing," he said. "Just... Nothing."
Arcade was about to pursue the subject but was interrupted by a blood-chilling scream. The two men turned to see the source, Leo putting a hand to his gun.
At the base of the bill was a battered building made of rusty sheet metal. It appeared to be some sort of ranch, withs several Brahmin inside a fence. A large group of horsemen were surrounding the house, and two were dragging a woman from the house.
As they threw her onto the back of a horse, a man with greying hair burst from the house, shotgun in hand. Shouting obscenities he fired off both barrels, killing one of the horseman. A man with a large, black hat turned and fired his gun, and the man keeled over. An old woman, sobbing, ran out from the house and held tightly to the man, cursing the gunman between her tears as they rode off.
"Yah!" Leo shouted, digging his heels into Raven's flanks. Arcade followed suit, and the pair were charging headlong down the hill. The woman looked up, confused, as they passed the house. Arcade threw his medical kit as he passed, causing it to land next to her on the porch.
The bandits, as they assumed they were, we're a fair ways ahead of them. Arcade counted at least fifteen of them.
"why can we never have a fight that's in our favor?" he grumbled to himself. He forced his horse to catch up to Leo.
"What the plan?" he asked.
"We need to thin their ranks," Leo shouted back over the noise of the galloping horses, "Get them out of the plains!"
Leo pointed to a collection of building nearby, an unoccupied, prewar ghost town.
"How, exactly, do we do that?" Arcade asked.
"I'm working on it!" Leo shouted. He forced Raven to speed up and Ignis followed suit.
"Let's let 'em know we're here," Leo said, drawing his gun. He took careful aim and fired off a round. One of the horses stumbled, hit and the leg, and tripped. It crushed it's rider to death as it fell on him, giving him time only for a brief scream.
The riders looked back and saw the two men giving chase. Arcade, careful not to his his own horse, began firing off plasma. It was slow moving, but would cause some chaos in their ranks.
The pair were gaining on them, but we're now under fire themselves. They ducked low, hearing the lead zip by them by inches. Thankfully, it's hard to shoot from the back of a horse, so it was mostly a matter of luck if they were hit or not and, as he had proven by cheating death at least twice, the courier was very lucky.
In the chaos, Leo didn't notice the figure on top of a nearby hill. The man, sitting on a horse, was aiming as lever action rifle. The shot went unnoticed in the midst of all the others, and Leo assumed the man that fell must have been hit by one of his shots.
The figure took another shot, causing another horse to tumble, leaving its rider in the dust. Slinging the rifle over his back, the rider took off to get ahead of them. The man had to act quickly, for he had a very narrow window to enact his plan.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••
The chase was still proceeding, and the ghost town was drawing ever closer. Arcade and Leonardo had pulled back a ways, but still followed.
"This is hopeless!" Arcade shouted at him, ducking as he saw a raider fire his gun. "We can't win, Leo!"
Leo was silent, the gears of his mind turning, desperate for some answer. He couldn't leave the girl to her fate, but he couldn't catch, let alone fight off, all of her captors.
Suddenly the sound of hooves was doubled, than tripled. The loud thumping had become a deafening roar. The two men's eyes widened as a huge cloud of dust came around a hill in front of them. It was ahead of horses, dozens of them, all at full gallop. They seemed to form a moving wall, forcing the bandits to turn to avoid running into them. The bandits were now running toward the town , the great mass of horses joining them. They were force to move with them, due to cofusion and their own horses instincts.
"What the-" Leo began, but did not finish.
"Deus ex machina," Arcade muttered. "I suggest we take advantage of... Of whatever is happening."
"Right," Leo agreed, "Circle around to the town and meet them there."
Arcade nodded and sped off at an angle, while Lwo urged his horse to greater speeds.
It was now that Leonardo noticed the man. He wore a poncho and sombrero, looking like an old Mexican cowboy. As he ran toward to chaos of the horses and bandits, he curled up and leaned sideways like a trickshow rider, hiding behind his horse. He vanished into the fray, lost amoung the horses.
Leo saw as he maneuvered his horse between to rather ditracted bandits. He pulled himself up and drew the pair of revolvers in his belt. Pointing one at the head of the man on his right, and one at the man at his left, he pulled the triggers.
He proceeded to become a whirlwind of lead; firing both magnums he dished out death to everyone around him, dropping a fair number. Leo joined him, pulling up alongside a bandit and shooting him in the chest. Seeing some of the bandits escaping, Leo pulled a granade from his belt and threw it, landing it right in front of them. One of the men died in the explosion, and the other two turned back.
They were in the city streets now. Most of the herd of horses had managed to gt away from the fight, leaving the bandits and a few crazed steeds. Most of the bandits had fallen, some by gunshot and some by being trampled to death. There were six left, though only four were on horseback, the other two having lost ther mounts.
One of the men on foot were dropped by the mysterious rider, who then leaped off his horse and took cover in an alley to reload. Leo, also out of bullets, put his gun in his holster and drew the sword he had attached to the saddlebags. He ran by the second man on the ground and caught him with a slash of the deadly blade, sending dark red blood running across the ground.
Three of the men on horseback charged toward Leo, two with guns and one with a long spear. It was at this point that Arcade stepped in. Two bolts of bright green plasma hit the gunmen, killing them instantly. The third kept charging and Leo sped toward him as well. They looked like to knights in a duel, sword verses lance.
When they met, Leo parried the spear and angled his sword toward the man's neck, allowing the momentum of his horse the drive it through his throat. He saw the man's horrified expression for the briefest of moments before he passed him, ripping the sword out as he did.
Leo turned and looked around. Arcade, at the other end of the street, nodded at him. They turned to the last man to finish the job.
"Hold up!" the bandit shouted. It was the one with the dark hat, and he was using the girl as a human shield, a gun to her head.
"Put down your weapons!" he shouted, "Or her pretty face will get a bullet through it!"
Groaning in frustration, Arcade holstered his pistol. Leo put his sword in its scabbard and spread his arms to show he was unarmed.
"Give it up mate," Leo said, "Can't ya tell you've lost?"
The man laughed, rather crazily. "Your a good shot, yours and your friends. But those bozos were just some thugs I hired. I've got friends," he said tapping the barrel of the gun against his hostage's temple, causing her to flinch. "Powerful friends. If you try to hurt me, they'l kill ya."
Leo was stuck. He couldn't move or the girl would die. It struck him how young she was, maybe sixteen? She was terrified, sobbing quietly and shaking like a leaf.
Before he could do anything a gunshot rang out. The man staggered back, grabbing at his throat while the girl fell to the ground and curled up Ito a ball. Not waiting for an explanation, Leo jumped off his horse and ran toward the man. As he did, he saw the poncho clad stranger with a smoking gun leaning out of an alley. He wore a mask, so he couldn't see his face.
The bandit tried to reach for his gun, but Leo ran his sword through his arm, pinning it to the earth and getting a gurgled scream in pain.
"Start talking'" he ordered. "Who are your 'friends'? Answer me!"
The bandit gurgled, the bullet having torn through his throat. He managed to say, "Yer... Yer all dead. They'll... End... You.."
"Who?" Leo demanded, but the corpse had no answers to give. He rose, leaving his sword in the earth for a moment. He turned to the girl, who was still curled up in a ball, and crouched down next to her. He gently touched her shoulder, but she flinched from him.
"Hey lass," he said gently, "I'm a friend. You're safe now."
She looked up slowly, still shaking. "Who... Who are you?" She asked, her southern drawl stammering.
"Lars," he answered, "Leonardo Lars. Are you hurt, miss...?"
"Grace," she said. "Grace Rivers. No, just bruised a bit. I'm lucky you turned up when you did though. Thank you, Mr. Lars."
"Call me Leo," he said, offering his hand. She took it and he helped her to her feet. She caught sight of the corpses in the street and shuddered.
Leo led her away from the mess and sat her down on a porch. He retrieved a bottle of water and gave it to her, which she downed with frightening speed.
"Easy there, lass," he said, chuckling, "Don't drown yourself!" He left her to recover and told arcade to check a nasty cut on her arm. Then went to speak with the masked man, who was leaning against the wall.
"Thanks for the help, stranger," Leo said. "What's your name?"
"Aw, come on boss," said a familiar, hoarse voice, "Don't tell me you forgot me already!"
The man removed his mask and revealed his face. Ghoulification was a nasty process and left many ghouls looking the same, but Leonardo would recognize this particular ghoul anywhere. The familiar grin, eyes and the small mustache that had somehow survived his transformation.
"Raul?" Leo asked.
"Yeah, you forgot me," the ghoul said. "That's alright though, I'll fill you in on all our memorable adventures together."
"Raul!" Leo said again embracing his friend. Hugging a ghoul wasn't a pleasant experience, but Leo was too happy to think about that.
"Whoa there, boss!" Raul said. "It's good to see you too, but we don't want to make a scene."
"Sorry," Leo said, smiling. "I thought you We're in Loss Angeles?"
"And I thought you had left the wasteland," Raul countered. "But we can swap stories later, boss. We should think about getting that girl home."
"Right, good point," Leo said. They mounted their horses and Leo helped Grace onto the back of his. They headed back to the farmhouse, Raul leading the way.
Yep, everyone's favorite sarcastic, Hispanic ghoul is back! Raul is probably my favorite companion, personality wise. I think things will start getting interesting now that we have more than just Arcade to talk too.
Thanks for the support thus far. Leave a fave, rating or follow the story if you want to continue supporting it.- Pendragon