Dawn was beginning to break through the branches of the Canadian pines. As sunlight poured over Rowan's face, he stirred. As his body rolled over, his leg unintentionally landed into the low burning fire pit.
As he settled, the small bur extremely hot embers began to burn through his denim pant leg. Rowan's eyes flung open when he felt the heat through his pants.
"Whoa!" He shouted as he threw off his duster, his hat falling off, and he began rolling and patting flames out. Once the flames were out, he surveyed the damage and groaned, dropping his body into a laying position.
Zoë herself groaned as she woke up from Rowan's shouting. She pulled her Roving Trader hat off and glanced over at the flat body of Rowan.
"What are you doing?" She asked groggily.
Rowan sat up and stared at his partner.
"What? I was on fire here Zoë. But I'm sorry I disturbed your beauty sleep." Rowan said sarcastically. Zoë merely groaned again, and laid back down, too tired for this.
"Since you're up, could you make the coffee and bologna please?" Zoë asked beneath her hat.
Rowan grunted as he pulled out a coffeepot from his pack.
"Yes your majesty." Rowan said keeping his sarcasm. He stood up and headed for a small stream that they had set camp next to. He passed the horses and stroked Autumn's head as he passed.
After kneeling down he was about to dip the pot into the stream when he stopped himself. The water was changing from clear as glass to murky red.
It was blood.
Rowan shot up and tossed the pot away as he pulled his LeMat revolver. As he pulled the hammer back on the weapon he turned to the source of the blood. A horse, a Gray Lady, was wheezing in a the center of the stream. Blood was flowing from several holes in her side.
"Zoë! Get over here!" Rowan shouted as he bolted over to the horse's side and as he knelt down to the head and gently lifted it into his lap. Zoë was wide awake as she ran like a lunatic over the rise, her .308 rifle in her hands. She saw the situation and quickly joined Rowan and the wounded horse.
"Hi sweetheart." Rowan said as he stroked the animal's face, trying to get it to relax. "If you can understand me, I'd like you to blink once for the answer no, and twice for yes. Can you do that?" He asked.
After a moment, there were two blinks.
"Okay. Who shot you, was it bandits?" Rowan asked.
One blink.
"Peg soldiers?"
One blink.
"The Regulators?" He asked dully.
Two blinks.
Rowan sighed when she answered him. He was afraid of this. This horse belonged to a Peg soldier. Though Regulators wouldn't dare try to harm a Gray Lady, accidents often happened.
"Were trying to get away from the fight, and got shot by accident?" It was Zoë who asked.
Two blinks.
That made sense. She probably panicked when her owner was shot off, and got caught in a crossfire. The adrenaline probably carried her the distance before collapsing.
Rowan looked around and then back at the horse.
"Was Winnipeg trying to go around Moosomin? To get to Regina faster?"
Two blinks.
"How big was the force you were with? Small?" Zoë asked.
One blink.
"Large? Very Large?" Rowan asked.
Two blinks.
Before either of them could ask another question, the horse stopped breathing and was gone.
Rowan sighed as he gently set the horse's head down and stood.
"Looks like the bear is going to have to wait. Right now, we got an unspecified number of Pegs moving round behind our guys in Moosomin." RJ said.
"Yep. And I think I know where they're going to have to go." Zoë said as she motioned Rowan to follow her as she headed back to her pack and quickly scrounged out a map. In this map, it showed most of Saskatchewan and Manitoba provinces. After a moment of searching, she pointed on a small unpaved road about 20 miles to the northeast.
"If the Pegs ran into trouble, they'll have to go through here. West Bend, near Bankend. It's small and out of the way. But it' the perfect place to sneak men, horses and material around our guys patrolling road on Highway 15." She said pointing out the locations on the map.
"Out of the way is right. That's some twenty miles from here." Rowan said.
"Yep. So we'll have to hurry." Zoë said as she began packing up her gear quickly. Rowan began doing so as well, quickly grabbing the coffeepot he threw away and slipping his duster on.
Once he had gathered everything up, Rowan took hold of his massive Jacoby rifle, cocked it so that it was now ready to fire. Zoë did the same thing as she rotated the safety on her rifle so it was off and se also was ready to fire.
Rowan slipped the saddle blanket on Aurora so the saddle itself wouldn't chafe her side. After tightening up the saddle but made sure it wasn't hurting her, he hopped on.
"Alright girl. We'll be going hard and fast. Think you can handle it?" Rowan asked stroking her side.
"Naturally." She said confidently.
"Okay." Rowan said as he pulled the reigns and soon both horses were on the move.
Time seemed to go by extremely quick. With both riders reaching West Bend within the hour.
Rowan at first thought there would have been a town there, but then again, that map Zoë had showed locations that were two centuries old. It wasn't surprising that what ever was there, nature had whipped it off the map.
There was however a small deer trail that ran southwest to northeast. If anyone was going to come through, it would be here.
Of course as Rowan tied the horses up at the bottom of the rise, he questioned if Zoë might have been off. Even being off by a few feet, the Pegs would walk right by them and they never would know.
"Zoë. Are you positive that those guys will come through here?" Rowan asked.
"Oh yeah. There's a ferry crossing to the north of here, but it's under Regulator control, and they can't head south because not only would they need to get past us, but they'll have to go through Algonquin lands. And they're our allies." Zoë said sounding confident about her guess.
"Right. If you're sure, then I'm sure." Rowan said as he took hold of both his long guns, he took count of what he had. He had his Jacoby which would be used for precision; his shotgun, which he would either use up close or to drop a group of them; his LeMat revolver with nine .357 magnum and one 12 gauge as his up close and last resort weapon; finally he had a machete, and a combat knife.
He felt confident on what he had.
Rowan motioned for Zoë to take up a position behind a dead log. The log was set on a small ridge almost behind the trail. Rowan would be on her left and he would pour fire down on the enemy from behind the trees and boulders that lined the rise.
As he rotated the wheel of his revolver, he could here the distant nickering of horses, and the clatter of equipment from up the road.
"I'll be damned." Rowan muttered as he hurried over to a large oak that overlooked the road.
Once Rowan was right behind the tree he glanced around it and saw them. Peg Soldiers.
They all wore crimson red armor with a lighter red for helmets, shirts, and pants, with black gloves and boots. They didn't seem to follow the same philosophy as the Regulators, as they were armed with rifles, SMG's shotguns, automatics and every different trooper seemed to have a different handgun, whether it'd be an autoloader handgun, or a revolver.
They were marching rank and file with an officer on a horse leading the way. He could tell it was an officer because the armor seemed to be better maintained than the regular trooper, plus there were some gold ornaments on the lapels of the coat he wore over his armor.
In the center of these columns were three horse drawn carts. Two were open and seemed to be carrying supplies, with an enclosed wagon in the center.
It was here that Rowan noticed someone that was out of place within the sea of red. A single man, clad in leather armor behind the first open wagon. His hands were bound by a rope tied to the end.
After giving a quick glance at the number, he was surprised to find how small it actually was. He had guess there were only around thirty of them. This was still an intimidating amount of manpower, but nowhere near enough to seize Regina.
That didn't matter as Rowan ducked back behind the tree and slowly cocked the hammer back on his Jacoby. As he slowly slid around the oak tree, he leveled the rifle on the lead officer on horseback.
Finally as Rowan was nearly falling face forward, he depressed the trigger. The rifle cracked as the sound of a massive explosion filled the air, and the officer was thrown clean off his horse. The frightened animal galloped off as the Pegs began frantically searching around where the shot came from.
From behind her log, Zoë fired once, followed quickly by another shot by Rowan and both the officer on horseback bringing up the rear and perhaps a sergeant toppled to the ground.
Unfortunately somebody noticed the muzzle flash from Zoë by mere chance.
"They're behind us! Up on the ridge!" He shouted and just as Zoë took cover several Pegs opened fire, rounds impacting on the rocks, trees around her and the log as her only shield as she laid prone against it.
As they began reloading their weapons, Rowan had moved from his spot and took cover behind a pile of rocks and as he slipped a .52 caliber flat-nosed bullet into the chamber, he stood and fired. The round buried itself into a soldier's head. He stood there for a moment before falling backwards.
This took the heat off of Zoë, and they began firing at him now.
Zoë took another opportunity and fired, causing a soldier to slam against the same wagon the prisoner was tied to as he fell to the ground. Rowan quickly moved to another spot and slipped another round into the breech. Once he took cover behind pine tree, he aimed at a soldier who frantically was trying to slip a magazine into his weapon. Rowan fired and the bullet buried itself into the man's stomach, he screamed as he fell back, his comrades returning fire with extreme prejudice.
Rowan moved yet again, and Zoë, after reloading, began sending metal hatred into the sea of red. Zoë put three men down as she then began fumbling with the bolt as it had jammed.
Rowan darted from one tree to another, and as he did so, fired a shot that dug into the driver of the enclosed wagon. He groaned before he fell back into his wagon, causing the horses to neigh in fright.
By now, after seeing so many of their friends being gunned down by the unknown assailants, many of the Pegs began running either back down the road, or even taking their chances in the woods opposite of Rowan. Others however stood their ground as they continued to fire with everything they had on them.
Unfortunately for RJ, he was running out of ammo, and had already cleaned out both his Jacoby and shotgun and was now down to a single shell of 12 gauge, and only three of his LeMat.
Not knowing why, he slid the revolver into his belt and pulled out both his machete and knife.
Zoë had managed to get her weapon un-jammed and after firing another round, sending the yelling Peg to the ground, the men around him leveled up at her. It was then Rowan jumped out from his cover, and began hollering like a nutcase. This suicidal move worked however as it got the attention of the few Peg soldiers and they fired at the tree Rowan took cover behind. This prompted another round from Zoë and another man down.
Then with unbelieving eyes, Zoë saw Rowan bolt from the trees and down to the now frightened group of Peg soldiers. She saw a soldier taking cover behind the wagon. As he leveled his lever action rifle at RJ, the prisoner jumped up and shoved the rifle away, causing it to discharge skyward. After he managed to get the rifle away from the prisoner, the soldier jammed the wooden stock of the weapon into the man's stomach.
Rowan charged at the first pair of Pegs that was in front of him. One main brought his brush gun back like a club and swung hard. Rowan deflected it with the machete, and after knocking the weapon away, RJ retaliated with a quick slash from his knife across the Peg's neck. As he gasped for air, blood spilling down his hands, he collapsed back, and Rowan jammed the machete into the back of the second Peg.
As the soldier by the wagon leveled his weapon at Rowan again, the prisoner began trying to wrestle it away.
Another Peg charged at Rowan, swinging an axe. Rowan ducked and knocked the weapon away with his machete. He then quickly followed up with a upward slash across the chest, then down. Rowan then gave a vicious slash across the hamstring. The Peg screamed as he dropped to his knees, and again when Rowan gave the finishing blow with a slash across the chest with the machete.
Zoë fired again, sending yet another Peg down to the ground screaming in agony. Then herself taking cover when they began firing.
As one began reloading his weapon, he looked up just in time see Rowan charging at him full bore. He had just enough time to shout in surprise as Rowan tackled him and knocked him clean off his feet.
Rowan didn't stop as he grabbed the .308 rifle in the Peg's hands and angled it away just as he fired. The round struck a younger soldier in the chest and he screamed as he fell into a small water filled ditch.
Zoë watched horrified as Rowan began hacking the two other soldiers to pieces with disturbing speed and ferocity. She actually stared, frozen as to what was happening before her. It was like Rowan had now become a machine, a killing machine that nothing could stand against.
And yet, this ferocious style of fighting, seemed vaguely familiar to her.
Once Rowan had finished a quick slash across a soldier's face, dropping him instantly, he hurtled the machete into the chest of another.
It was then Rowan saw the prisoner. The same gunman that he had been struggling with, now was standing behind him, with a knife to his throat. At the same time two more soldiers ran past the wagon, with the first trying to reload the single shot shotgun in his hands.
Rowan didn't waste anytime as he charged forward and as he grabbed the shotgun with his left. With his right hand, RJ took hold of his LeMat and swung the solid steel weapon hard against the chin of the soldier. Rowan then used the stock of the weapon to knock the weapon out of the second man's hands and then slammed the stock into the man's head. RJ then tossed the weapon around, took hold of the grip of the shotgun, and as the downed man raised his hand out of instinct, Rowan fired. The buckshot at that range literally obliterated the hand and buried into the man's skull.
Tossing the weapon aside, Rowan trained his LeMat up at the final soldier. The man gritted his teeth as he tried to hold onto the prisoner.
For what seemed like a century, everyone stood there, hardly moving.
Even though he put up a brave face, the Peg soldier was nothing short of terrified. Of Rowan.
Mostly the look Rowan had in his eyes.
The world seemed to shake as Rowan fired, and the bullet buried itself into the Peg's skull. The body let out some indistinctive and guttural groans. The young man who was held hostage by the soldier gasped as he managed to pull the knife, still clenched in the lifeless hand, away from his neck.
As he panted, he noticed one Peg soldier was still alive. The soldier whose weapon was stolen from him and had been pistol whipped. He got to his feet and began to run.
"Get him!" The prisoner shouted, pointing to the fleeing Peg.
Rowan spun around and aimed his LeMat again, and a massive flash erupted from the shotgun barrel.
The Peg screamed as pellets buried into his back and he fell flat forward and disappeared into a small drop. The sound of water splashing indicated that the body fell into a small pool.
Then there was silence.
For some reason Rowan was shaking. He did a excellent job hiding it, as he stared at the trail of corpses he had left behind. Never had he consciously killed this many men at one time. Even stranger was the fact that it had felt so...natural to RJ.
"Rowan!" Zoe shouted as she left her position behind the log and began making her way down the slope and over to the shaken man.
"Hey. Are you okay?" She asked, putting her hand on his shoulder. She could feel it shaking as Rowan began panting.
RJ didn't answer her at first. He still was in shock at what had just happened. He felt like it was almost a dream, a nightmare, and wondered if he would wake up.
"Yeah." He said slowly.
"Not to disturb the moment, but either of you want to untie me hands?" The prisoner asked, a distinctive accent that Zoe had not heard before. She patted Rowan on the shoulder, and hurried over and after pulling her knife out, quickly cut the bonds on the prisoner.
"Alright. Now care to entertain us as to who you are?" Zoe asked, keeping the knife close.
"Well, me name is Desmond McGloans. Lads call me Dez." He said as he massaged his hands and then turned to the wagon. As he reached in, he pulled out a gray duster and slipped it on.
"You a Regulator?" Zoe asked.
"Aye. Been that way for nearly two years." Dez said as he stretched his arms. "I was part of the group of Weyburn scouts that ran into these filthy buggers. Unfortunately most of me friends got killed in the process, but they took a lot of bastards with them." He knelt down and picked up 10mm handgun and an assault carbine.
"We'll confirm that with Topper." Zoe said as she eyed Dez with suspicion.
"Fair enough." Desmond said and strapped the rifle to his back, and slipped the 10mm into his belt.
Zoe Wheeler then glanced back at Rowan, seeing as he was still standing there. The sun broke through the trees and seemed to illuminate him on the spot.
"Rowan." She said firmly, and this was enough to shake him out of shock. "You ready to start collecting?" She asked, referring to the fingers off the dead Peg soldiers.
"Yeah." He said and headed over and grabbed his bladed weapons.
His vision blurred. His breathing slowed.
The water was cold around him.
It was then he glanced up from the ditch he had fallen into. A lone figure stood above him. His face was shrouded in shadow, hidden by the wide brimmed hat he wore. It looked like the figure was staring down at him.
Then he turned on the spot, appeared to walk one or two steps, then slowly faded away.
This was the last image the young Peg private saw before he blacked out.