Chapter Track: "The Gravel Road" – James Newton Howard, The Village soundtrack


The thunderous hoof beats were all that Maddie heard as her horse barreled down the road across Hennigan's Stead. The wind ripped at her face, hair, and clothes, as if trying to pull her back to the safety of the ranch. She furiously refused to go back, not while he was still there. Not after what he's done, she thought. Her mind was in an endless circle of turmoil; she couldn't even think in complete sentences, much less comprehend the gravity of the truth she had been so blind to. The world was nothing but a blur as her rocky mountain mare galloped across the land.

He lied to my face all these months… He LIED to me! She bit down on her lip so hard she swore she tasted blood. Her face contorted into a hateful grimace as she rode on. She didn't pay attention to the path before her or the travelers she passed. She wriggled in the saddle, livid. Her hand itched to grab her pistol from its holster and start shooting. Why did I not see this?! Why did I fall for him?! I KNEW I should've never let myself trust that man. I swore to myself I'd never fall prey to a man, much less be treated like my mother was, and yet here I am betrayed and heartbroken!

Gypsy began to slow into a tired lope as she made her way through the dark and dreary swamplands of Thieves Landing. People dove out of the way in the criminal-infested town; Maddie didn't care as she kicked her horse back up to speed.

"HYAH! LET'S GO!" The mare obeyed, out of pure adrenaline and anxiety over her rider's insatiable rage. The black beauty ascended the trail leading up to the Great Plains. Maddie reined her toward Tall Trees and kicked her hard, not giving her mount a chance to slow as she changed direction and followed the path that would lead her to Bearclaw Camp.

When I'm done with this Jackson Randall fellow, I'll deal with Jack, she thought, just not now, not after what he's done. She gripped the reins tighter and her scowl deepened. I just need to…shoot SOMETHING! I need to get away from all this, from everything he's ever said to me, from everything he's ever done and lied about.

Gypsy galloped down the road, heaving herself forward and panting loudly. Her sides had become slick with sweat and her gait, usually smooth and effortless, was now bumpy and lethargic. As Bearclaw Camp came into Maddie's view three hundred yards ahead, she abruptly turned her exhausted mount off the road and urged her up the steep incline. Her horse's hooves slipped often on the rock, but Maddie kicked the mare onward and upward. At last, as they topped the rise, she loped her horse forward, just barely in sight of the camp. Maddie looked over and down at her quarry, and already she could see the gang hideout was teeming with criminals. She did a quick headcount and grew increasingly worried when she counted twenty-five.

No matter, she reasoned, giving herself a reassuring nod of self-confidence. She urged her horse up another rise in the land east of the camp. When she was far enough away, far from the sight of whom she was about to kill down below, she stopped her horse and dismounted twenty yards away from the edge. Sweat dripped off her rocky mountain mare; Gypsy held her head low and her tail hung motionless as she stood panting, her legs quivering slightly. Maddie looked her horse over and felt a pang of guilt; she hadn't realized how hard she'd pushed her, and now she felt incredibly sorry for her best friend. She gave the mare a reassuring pat on the neck and grimaced at the white foam that covered her coat.

"I am sorry, hon," she whispered.

The mare was too tired to care for her apology as she stood trying to catch her breath and rest.

"When this is all over, I'll give you a proper rest," she vowed as she reached over her shoulder and unslung her Carcano rifle. She drew back the bolt, her hands shaking from the adrenaline and the anger that refused to leave. She crouched as she approached the edge of the rise, the gun held at the ready. Her pride beckoned her to carry out the hunt, but her instinct told her something was wrong.

She shook her head and bit down on her lip as she laid down on her stomach and pressed the butt of the rifle to her right shoulder. No, she thought. None of that now. Don't you dare start havin' doubts. You can do this. You've done this far too many times to recall: it's just another bounty hunt. You can do this. You can do this without him.

Her hands quivered as she looked through the scope and surveyed the camp below. She was surprised at how unsteady her hands were, but on the other hand, she hadn't slept hardly at all after his confession. She had hastily dug through her stack of bounties and found the most rewarding one; she'd skimmed half-mindedly through the file before donning her usual attire. She would've succeeded in sneaking off unnoticed were it not for Bonnie's keen eye and insight. Her friend knew something was wrong when she caught her saddling her horse at dawn.

It's HIS fault I'm this way, she reasoned. Her grip on the rifle tightened. It's HIS fault I went off like that. Without thinking, she set her sights on the first man she saw and moved her index finger through the trigger guard.

The minute I get back, Jack is dead.

She pulled the trigger.

A deafening boom cracked through the silence of Tall Trees. The man below cried out and fell dead in his tracks, making the others around him flinch and draw their guns. Everything was then set in motion; panic spread across the camp as men whipped their heads about looking for the person responsible.

Maddie reloaded and fired, reloaded and fired. Her aim was deadly, her focus clear-cut, and her warmongering rage was molded to her benefit as she sought revenge on those who weren't at fault. All the promises and compromises she'd made with Jack during their bounty hunts together were instantly forgotten; her brutality returned in full force, gleefully unleashed and washing over her like a much-needed bath long overdue. She took down man after man, enjoying the sound of their screams and the sight of blood as it spurted out of their bodies. She cackled at their panicked looks and the way they scurried off for cover behind the many dilapidated cabins. She laughed maniacally when their puny pistols and revolvers fired at her but never met their aim. She felt blindly invincible and glorious in that moment.

Before she knew it, they were rushing her.

Despite the fact she fell ten men, more rushed out from behind and within the cabins. Now that they'd pinpointed her location, they all fired up at her collectively, using a storm of bullets to stop her from killing again as they scurried up the side of the hill towards her. Maddie slung her Carcano back over her shoulder and switched to her Henry repeater. As they grew closer, she snuck a peak at her horse, who'd spooked and had galloped away the second gunshots fired. She wouldn't make it to her horse in time to escape, so she turned and ran, her gun in her hands.

Using the trees as cover, she paused every ten feet and fired at the oncoming army of men. Five times she did this, and while she was successful, on the sixth attempt, a bullet tore through her left calf. Another ripped through her right bicep. She screamed and fell to her hands and knees.

They were upon her before she could rise to her feet. Maddie wasn't much of a match for the three men who forced her up to her feet and drug her back down to the camp. The rest of the gang stood waiting for her, all of them various shades of disgusting and cruel men who looked upon her like she was no more than a scrap of meat for them to defile and consume. Maddie fought the whole way down, but still her captors drug her on, until they came to the center of the clearing before the cabins. The gang around her and her captors formed a circle and began to close around them as they neared the man who ran it all.

Her jaw dropped at the sight of the man who stood before her with his arms crossed and a rather uninviting scowl upon his face. Despite her previous bravery, the sight of such a behemoth of a criminal made her knees grow weak. She stumbled to a halt before the man as he came swaggering up to her.

"Madeline Ross," he murmured in a deep, scratchy baritone. Jackson Randall stood well over six feet tall, looking more like a bear than a man, with his massive bulk, protruding body hair, and broad shoulders. His attire was various shades of brown and black: he wore a dark-brown duster that made Maddie think of the fur on a grizzly, as well as a black Stetson hat, a chocolate-colored shirt and vest, and brown leather chaps over his pants. His spurs tinked an ominous rhythm as he came to stand before her. He looked and smelt like he hadn't bathed in weeks.

He looked her over with a hungry expression in his large, coal-black eyes and shook his head in wonder, his long unkempt hair, beard, and mustache waving from the movement. "My, my, look at you, little miss! So many stories revolve around such a beautiful girl. Your reputation does indeed proceed you: not a single man I've spoken to hasn't heard or seen of your beauty." His eyes slowly looked her down and back up again. His expression hardened. "And you sure as hell are a Ross: just like your uncle Edgar, you have a knack for bringin' in a lot of my close friends. I must say I'm rather surprised and disappointed in seein' you here all by your lonesome, 'specially without your grungy suitor to help you out. Kinda stupid, don't you think, Miss Ross? I would've thought you'd be smarter than that." He lifted a bear-like claw of a hand and caressed the side of her face with the back of it as he smiled lasciviously at her. "You're outnumbered, little girl, and now you're gonna pay for your ignorance."

She shied away from his horrid touch, only to lunge forward and spit in his face. "Just try it and see what happens! I'll have you know you're not the first dirty fuck I've dealt with, and you certainly won't be the last!"

He backhanded her across the face before grabbing her jaw with one hand, forcing her to look into his dark eyes. "That's where you're wrong, sweetheart. See, when I'm done with you, you'll be the sorest bitch in all the land. No one will find your body, and all that will be left of you on this earth is the stories that people will tell in your memory, of how you were fucked senseless and killed by the very man you tried to arrest." He roughly let her face go and wiped the spit off his face. He nodded to the men who held her at bay and commanded, "Throw her down."

Maddie shook and jerked about as her captors forced her down to the ground. She screamed with outrage, thrashing her body about as she fought the hardest battle she'd ever come to face. She would've taken a duel in the rain or a shoot-out in the dark than face the horror she was about to endure. She grew blind with hatred and fear as Randall stood over her unbuckling his belt. All around her, Randall's men laughed.

Suddenly, Jackson was on top of her, one massive hands gripping her wrists and keeping her pinned to the ground while the other reached down and unbuckled her belt. His fingers clawed at the front of her pants, ripping them and her undergarments down to her knees and exposing her groin. Maddie bellowed with a mixture of insatiable rage and terror as she brought up her legs and pushed him up and off her long enough for her to rip her right hand out from under his left. She punched Jackson in the face as hard as she could and kicked him in the groin; he fell backwards off her with a wail of agony, and two of his men stepped up to restrain her once again.

"NO!" she roared as she rose to her knees. Knowing she didn't have enough time to pull her pants back up and defend herself at the same time, she reached down her left leg for the hilt of her hunting knife. She unsheathed it and brought it up with a wild swing and a fearsome war-cry. Her knife slashed open the nearest man, slicing open his gut and causing him to howl in excruciation and bleed profusely. He stumbled back a step and allowed the other criminal to rush her, but Maddie brought the knife back around and slashed again, this time making a fatal mark as she cut open the man's neck. Hot blood spurted out of his jugular vein, staining her clothes and face and the ground between them.

"Get the bitch! Beat the shit out of her!"

Randall's orders bellowed loud and clear as he stumbled to his feet, and more men rushed forward to take the place of their fallen comrades. Maddie was just about to rise to her feet when she felt something cold and hard smash against the back of her head. She cried out and fell forward, catching herself from falling on her face by her hands and elbows, but then she was being pulled back up by her long braid. She screamed as someone pulled her up to her feet by just her hair, and before she could react with as much hostility, a man's fist collided against the side of her face. It was a thunderous series of punches and slaps and kicks from there on; Maddie didn't have time to react, much less think, as she was being slowly beaten to death. All she knew was pain for several long minutes that ticked on like hours.

"You think you're better than us men? Think again, bitch!"

"Who gave you the right to hunt us down?! You think you're somethin' else, don't you?!"

"Who do you think you are?!"

When at last Randall called his men off, she fell forward into a crumpled mess. Blood stained her swollen, bruised face, and she could barely see as the malevolent leader strode back up to her. Her body shouted at her to move, to fight back, to do something, but she was completely spent and covered in bruises of varying degrees of severity. All around them, his men formed an arena and watched on like they would some sort of demented duel.

"Now, my little bitch…Now is when I take you," Randall growled with a sickening smile and punched her face so hard she fell onto her back. Before she could fight, he was on top of her again, and this time, he had her pinned down not only by the wrists, but by his massive body weight. He reached down between her legs and his and tugged her pants down to her ankles.

She screamed so loud her voice grew hoarse as a stabbing pain erupted between her legs and inside of her. The man's pelvis thrust forward, bashing against hers, and he moaned as he penetrated her. Despite her concussion and the beating she'd received moments ago, there was no other pain than what she felt now that she could ever remember being so violent and unbearable. Hot tears trickled down the sides of her face and soaked the grass as he began to have his way with her. All around her, laughter stabbed and molested the crisp air of Tall Trees. The wind began to howl, and it blew through the foliage all around them and stirred the trees above, whipping their branches about; Mother Nature shrieked for wrath in unison with her as she sobbed and screamed in agony, shame, and anger.

Like a thunderclap, the boom of a powerful gunshot split through the air.

Blood splattered as Jackson Randall was thrown off her by the force of the bullet; he crumpled to the ground beside her with half his face blown off. Maddie rolled over onto her side, dazed, covered with Jackson's blood and carnage, and still in so much pain she barely could comprehend what just happened. She blinked as she looked into the man's cold, dead eyes. Blood quickly seeped out of the eviscerated fragments of what was left of his skull; the red puddle was growing, creeping toward her, and she somehow found the strength to scoot away from the dead man.

Footfalls and gunshots sounded all around her, and combined with the incoherent cries of men, both of life-ending pain and surprise, it all became the symphony of death. Maddie struggled to rise to her elbows and knees, but she fell back onto her side when her head swam with pain and her vision became enshrouded by a black veil. The pain between her legs was unbearable; she looked down at herself and gasped as the streaks of blood across her inner thighs. Helpless and paralyzed by her excruciation, she lay on her side in the fetal position, only half-aware of the battle that was commencing around her.

"Kill him! Kill the bastard!"

"How many are there?! What the fuck's goin' on?!"

"I see him! There! There he is! Th—"

"Hey, you son of a bitch! Who do you think you—"

There were two last loud gunshots…and then, silence.

Hasty footfalls, faint at first but quickly becoming louder, approached her. Someone screamed her name, and before she knew it, someone was cradling her in their arms.

"Oh, dear God, MADELINE!"

The sunlight encased her rescuer in a silhouette. Maddie strained her eyes, and she gave a faint gasp as he came into focus. Jack was staring down at her with tears streaming down his face. He looked her over frantically, his mouth dropping open in horror.

"J-Jack?" she stuttered, her eyes fluttering. "You…you came for me…?"

"Oh, my God, are you…Did they…Oh, God, I'm so sorry, Madeline! Oh, God!"

His blood-and-dirt-stained face held clean streaks where his tears had trickled down his cheeks. He held her close to him, embracing her for a moment, before he gingerly pulled her pants back up.

The next instant, she was in his arms and being carried somewhere. All she saw was the pale blue sky and the canopy of the tall red oaks. The roar of a river flowing nearby reached her ears. A loud whistle sounded, and the whinny of a horse and two sets of galloping hooves approached. She felt herself being lifted on top of a saddle. Beneath her, the palomino stallion blew loudly. The sunlight caught in his pearl mane and momentarily held her spellbound.

"Hold on, Maddie," Jack said as he mounted up behind her. His left arm wrapped itself around her waist and held her close to him. "We'll be home safe soon."

"J-Jack, wait…The bounty…He…We gotta…gotta get him."

"He's dead, Maddie, and everyone else with him. I shot them all down." She felt him spur the horse forward. "Hyah!"

Before it all went dark, she saw the world around her become one incoherent blur of color. The wind howled in her ears as she flew across the land to sanctuary, wherever that was. She breathed in Jack's musty, leathery scent, listened to his heavy breathing and the thunder beneath them, and felt the warm, strong embrace of her savior as he gripped her tightly.