"Wyatt" Gene Starwind and his men camp out by a running stream at the dead of night. Gene stares into the fire while Fred Luo crouches him, shaking his head. "I am a man without fear, Gene. I literally do not care if I live or die. But even I cannot fight human instincts. Someone suddenly starts shooting at me, I duck. But you... what in the hell were you thinking about?" Fred wondered.
"I do not know. It all happened so quick. If I had a chance to think about it I guess I probably would have been scared but... but swear to father, Fred, I just do not know." Gene explained. At the other end of the campsite, Shimi and Ikee Katchin sit together discussing over Gene's survival. "Hey Shimi, you ever seen anything like that before?" Ikee asked.
"Never even heard of anything like this." Shimi answered. Katchin nods. Both look shaken to the very core of their beings. "I just thought of something I never thought about before." Katchin pauses, looking at shimi. "I do not want to go to hell."
Gene sits by the campfire, sipping coffee. Shimi and Ikee Katchin approach. Katchin drops a wad of wong on Gene's bedroll as he looks up in surprise. "We talked it over. We decided we do not need the wong. Took out 25 wong each, though. Federal Marshalman's fee. Is that all right?"
"Of Course..." Gene said.
"One thing. If we come through this alive, can we keep the badges?" Gene nods, picks up the wong and quietly moves off toward the stream by himself. Moments later, Swanzo McMasters approaches. "Where is Gene?"
"Down at the creek. Walking on stream again." Fred answered.
Marx crouches by the fire at the Kei Pirate campsite at dusk with the other Kei Pirates, his face displayed as a deeply shadowed mask as two of the metallic springs shootout stand before him. "We hit him half a thousand times but he just kept on coming, walked right up to Ron McDougal with that 12 gauge castor shotgun and blew him up!" the first Kei Pirate explained.
"Ron McDougal? He killed Ron McDougal?" Marx starts making strange little inarticulate sounds, inhaling and exhaling like an animal, eyes swimming in panic...
"He did not just kill him, he burned him to a crisp! I mean all the way in half like a watermelon! then he turned around with that "Peacemaker" and tore up ten of our men before we got out of there. But it was his face, you should have seen his face." the second Kei Pirate said.
"He is just a man." Marx said.
"You did not see his face." Marx looks up at them, suddenly dead calm.
"You see my face, do you not?" Out of nowhere, he draws and fires two so quickly they sound like one. The Metallic Springs survivors drop with bullets through their brains. The others jump, transfixed by the insane brutality of what their fellow pirate has just done. Marx draws himself up. "By order of Harry McDougal, everybody get this through your heads. "Wyatt" Gene Starwind dies. Harry is running the organization now and He is telling you, Starwind dies. His men too. They all die. Understand? We are going to kill them. For what they did to Ron McDougal we are going to ride them into the ground and slaughter them like deers. Because this is the time where we get woolly." Marx announced.
Later. Most of the other Kei Pirates are asleep or talking among as Terry turns to Leo whispering. "What do you think? I did not think Ron McDougal could be killed. I am telling you this whole damn thing has gone sourpussed. We got hands dropping like bees and Marx and Harry are flat out of their minds. I mean, hell Leo, you feel like riding against "Wyatt" Gene Starwind?"
"Hell no." Leo responded.
"Then let us cut out before we are screwed."
"Right with you, Terry." The two agreed with one another and stole away toward the stallions.
Marx faces the slimbag Sheriff Clyde, grim, intent, while he sputters holding up a Hayphong newspaper. "Are you insane?! It is front page news all over the nation. It is getting way out of hand, Marx. If things do not settle down soon--"
"You heard me, Clyde." Marx interrupted.
"Marx, you do not understand--"
"No," Marx glares at the slimball sheriff, his eyes burning, implacable. "You do not understand.
The second in command of the Kei Pirates rides up with Clyde and dismounts. "Terry and Leo cowardly ran out. Six, seven others, too." a third Kei Pirate said.
"I do not give a damn. Separate the rice from the chaff." Ringo said as Clyde looks worried as Harry McDougal and the other Kei Pirates gather around. Just then Tobigiera rides up. "What the hell are you doing here, Tob?" Clyde asked.
"Ron McDougal was my friend. I would like to come with you, sir." he answered.
"Sure thing, why the hell not?" Marx slaps the tough looking deputy on the back and turns to Harry and their men. His unaccustomed humor was troubled. "I told you it was time to kick some ass. Now gather around, everyone, gather around and raise your right hands." Harry McDougal announced.
Now it has come to full circle as Marx rides across the Hayphongian desert at the head of his and Harry's men 50 strong, armed to the death, full of fight--and all wearing Sheriff Badges, a posse of outlaws, with the slimeball Clyde bringing up the rear...
Gene and his men watch from the desert plateau as far out on the horizon, as the Kei Pirate Posse rides out of the rising sun, drawing closer to their enemy. "That is Marx with Harry McDougal out front. And there is that scumbag Clyde. Must be 50 of them..." Swanzo looks into his sightscope and sees the badges on their vests. "What the hell... they are wearing Marshal badges." The all exchange looks of disbelief. "Mounts are getting jaded. We are going to have to find a place to rest them up." Gene said. Suddenly looking very sick, Fred Luo sways dizzily in the saddle. Gene dismounts, reaching for him. The rest of his men do the same. "Fred..."
"Do not touch me, god damn it! Just do not touch me! Come on..." Fred said as he turns his horse, as if to ride on, then faints dead away, coughing out blood. "Grab him." They all catch him, easing him to the ground.
Gene's posse rides over the hill overlooking the ranch house keeping Fred Luo in the saddle. Leilong and three of his hands ride out to them. "Horses are pretty well jagged up and we got a sick man with us." Gene explained.
"You can put him up at my ranch if you want." Leilong said. Gene nods as he motions down the hill toward his house...
Fred Luo lies in bed, semi-conscious, white as a sheet, drenched in burning sweat. The others look on, worried. I am no doctor but he looks really bad." Leilong shakes his head, his face ceased with worry. Gene sits down next to Fred. Swanzo motions to the others and file out, leaving Gene alone with Luo.
Terry and Leo ride up and stop on the top of a hill overlooking a mountain crossroads somewhere in the brightstones. "What is it going to be, Leo?"
"I do not care. Gunsmoke, Blue Heaven, as long as we are out of territory." Leo answered. Suddenly a stagecoach comes into view, making it's winding way through the crossroads below. Terry points out. "Just what we need. Traveling wong." he grinned. They spur their stallions down the hill drawing their castor rifles...
The Kei Pirate posse is camped in a draw up in the brightstones. They look up as the stage rolls up and stops. Shouting and commotion as Clyde and Tobigiera approach and confer with the driver, then Clyde turns to Marx. "A robbery. four men striked them up and gunned down a passenger. One of them rode a Italian saddle, the other had a brown stallion. Terry and Leo." Clyde opens the door revealing to see the tragedian lying inside cradled in Valeria Marcus' arms, surrounded by others in the troupe. Reclined at full length, head back, he looks like the dying Caesar, even more tragic than in life. Tobigiera gasps. "Oh, hell..."
"We were headed for a booking in Gunsmoke. They tried to take my necklace. He cursed them for cowardice and gunned them down. He may have been vain and a poet but he was better than the rest of you. And gentler and braver. I do not understand any of this, I only know it is hideous. You are all hideous, and he was kind, he tried to put something into your hideous hell and you killed him for it. Anyway the ones who did it are heading north. Not that you give a damn." Valeria explained. Marx shrugs as his soft face suddenly turns resolute. Tobigiera goes to his stallion and mounts. "Where are you going? Get back here, Tob!" Clyde ordered. The deputy straightens his collar up, turning to Clyde. "I am sorry, sir, but we got to have some law and order." and he rides off alone into the brightstones as the slimeball sheriff sputters. "Let him go. Who gives a damn?" Marx said.
The stagecoach stops out front on Leilong's ranch. The driver waters the stallions and the troupe mill around silently while Gene and Leilong walk out. "We had a holdup. Came here to water their horses before pushing on." Seeing each other, Gene and Valeria freeze. Gene approaches to her and gives his regards. "I am terribly sorry about your friend. And I am sorry about calling you a..."
"I forgave you the moment you said it." Valeria interrupted.
"You did. Well... thank you." The driver jumps back onto the stage, motioning to the troupe. "I have to go, Gene."
"Wait! Valeria!" She stops as Gene falters. "Bye.." There was so much he wanted to say to her, but could not deny it to his posse. He opens the coach door for her. Valeria gets in and it pulls out with a crack of the driver's whip. She and Gene hold each other's gaze as the stage recedes into the distance. "Damn... Damn!" Ikee Katchin steps up next to his leader, looking at him. "See how she breezed out of here. Like she had wings like an angel from heaven. Funny thing but I cannot remember how she looked. I can remember parts of her clear as a crazy diamond in the sky, her mouth, her walk, her beauty, how she shutted her eyes when she laughed, little bits and pieces, but not the complete package. I cannot put it together for some reason." Gene explained to Katchin.
"Damn, you are really --"
"A crazy diamond. I am falling in love with every second of her life. Hell, I will probably love her when I am ashes." Gene admitted.
A cold camp in the night hollows of a mountain. Wrapped in blankets, Terry and Leo sip cold coffee, shivering like hell. "No fire tonight, partner. Too many Kei Pirates out." Leo grunts. Suddenly they both jump up hearing footsteps from behind. "Who is that?" The rider steps down from the shadows, revealed as the former deputy Tobigiera, Castor shotgun at his shoulder, squinting through the darkness. "It is deputy Tobigiera." The two relax and lower their castor rifles, heavings sighs of belief. "Sissy man! Thank Hazanko, we was afraid--"
"I have a warrant for your arrest."
"What? You got to be kidding. Look just get the hell out of this war before you get hurt." Terry said.
"I Do not want to kill you but I will if I have to. I am warning you."
"No, we are warning you, sissy man!" Leo steps forward menancingly.
"Do not try it!" Tobigiera tensed.
"Sissy man, just go to hell!" Leo raises his castor pistol. Tobigiera recoils in fright, stumbling backward in the darkness, and his castor rifle fires. Leo drops like a stone, a look of utter belief on his dying face. Terry looks at him in shock then turns to Sheriff Tobigiera, raises his castor gun and snarls. Tobigiera fires again. Terry grabs his midsection, dropping his gun and falling to his knees. He looks up at Tobigiera who shrugs timidly. Terry falls over, dead. the sheriff stares at the bodies, hardly believing it himself....
Dawn arises on the front porch of Leilong's ranch as "Wyatt" Gene Starwind and his men listen to Leilong. "...brought them in draped over their saddles. Tobigiera. Sissy man. He done it. So I guess the law has finally arrived in southwest Hayphong." Gene shakes his head, hardly comprehending what he started...
The Kei Pirates have camped on a mountaintop overlooking Leilong's ranch in the valley of death below. A messenger rides up with a letter for Sheriff Clyde as Marx paces, studying the set up with Harry McDougal. "Leilong has got around 19 or 25 hands. We could take them right enough but it might be a hell of a mess. Keep the place bottled up for now, see if we can figure a way to flush them." Marx explained. Clyde suddenly steps up, beside himself, holding up his message. "This is too much! It is completely out of hand! The Governor is talking about asking President 'O Malley to send in the army! Listen Marx, you have got to get this over with and you have got to do it now. One way or another." Clyde said.
Gene stands on the porch of Leilong's ranch at dusk, looking through the front door to the bedroom where Fred Luo lies unconscious while Leilong and the others look on. "We should get moving." Gene said.
"Fred is just in no good condition." Shimi said.
"Do not have to bother about that. Take a vote. Kei Pirates or not, you can stay here as long as you want." Leilong said. "Anyway maybe you done enough. I mean you whittled them down considerable, now there is talk of sending the army in my ranch. Ask me, you done enough."
"Leilong sir.* The ranch hand rides up and points. *Rider coming in under a white surrendering flag." They look up as the third Kei Pirate rides up with a white hankerchief with a few bloodstains on it.
"I have a message. Marx wants Swanzo McMasters to come over to our camp for a moment."
"He did not figure on all the stench this is causing. It might be he is looking to strike a bargain. If so, he probably figures he needs somebody like me who talks his language. Could be we got him." Swanzo said.
"I do not like it." Gene thoughted.
"Might as well hear him out. Anyways, what choice do we have?" Swanzo mounts his stallion, whispering. "But no matter what happens, see it through to the end. If you do not I will curse the day I ever laid eyes on you." Before Gene could give him an answer, Swanzo rides off with the Kei Pirate...
Swanzo McMasters rides up with the third Kei Pirate. Riding through camp, all his former comrades flare at him with pure hatred. Only Marx smiles, stepping up as Swanzo dismounts. "Well hello, Swanz."
"You wanted to talk?"
"Yes, kind of wanted to see if you would join back up with us."
"Is that what you got me up here for? A proposition to join the Kei Pirates again?"
"You are a Kei Pirate, you are a blood brother to the flesh. Come back with us, no hard feelings."
"Forget it, Marx."
"Is there not anything I can say that will change your mind? You are going to stay with your new friends?"
"At least they do not scare or torture women."
"All you are the boss, Swanz." Harry McDougal smiled. "One thing, though." He moves closer to the traitor, pointing his castor shotgun to Swanzo's cheekbone. "How are you going to get back to them?"
The third Kei Pirate rides back up to the ranch house, dumps a large something in front, and gallops back to just within earshot as Gene and his men run up. The object is revealed as a human corpse and though they could not see what was done to it, the expressions on their faces are plain enough. "Why could they not have just killed him?" Ikee Katchin wondered. "Marx and Harry McDougal wanted to be sure they got your attention, Marshal Starwind. He wants a straight-up fight, just you and them, settle this thing once and for all. You win, we quit the territory. Marx and Harry wins, your comrades get safe conduct to the Blue Heaven line. Sundown today in the death valley at the mouth of the Hayphong Canyon. Ride out with your escort, we will meet you." The third Kei Pirate announced.
"You tell Marx and Harry... just tell them I will be there!!" Gene shouted out as the third pirate departs.
"Gene, are you insane?" Shimi asked.
"I made a promise." Gene answered.
"Gene, listen, you cannot beat them. You are good and heaven knows you got the courage, but you are not in Marx and Harry McDougal's class. Hell, he is the best that has ever been. Except maybe for Vash The Stampede." Ikee said.
"He is right, Gene. They could put nine into your temple before you could even get one or three into him."
"But I would do it, I should get that one into him. So help me, I would."
"All right Gene, maybe you can. But you got to die to do it." Katchin said. "Understand? You got to die!"
It is dusk and the last rays of the sun come through the window of Leilong's Ranch, falling on the bed where Fred Luo lies, awake but looking like shit. Gene sits next to him, Twilight Suzuka sits next to Fred on the other side. "What makes a man like Marx, Fred? What makes him do the things he does?"
"A man like Marx has got an empty hole right through the middle of him and no matter what he does he can not ever fill it. He cannot kill enough or rob enough or inflict enough pain to ever fill it. And it drives him insane. Stalkraving insane." Fred explained.
"So what does he want?" Gene asked.
"What does he want? He wants vengeance."
"Vengeance? Vengeance for what?" Fred looks at him, a look of purest sadness in his sunken eyes."
"For being alive." Fred answered as Gene looks down again and it was a long time before he spoke. "Remember how I said it all happened so fast with Ron McDougal I did not have time to think about it? Well I have had plenty of time to think about all of this. I spent most of my life since I was born not knowing what I wanted out of life, just chasing my tail. But now, for the first time I know exactly what I want. And who. And that is the damnable misery of it all." Gene paused, looking at his friend. "I cannot defeat him, can I?" Fred Luo shakes his head. Gene nods then stands, getting ready to exit.
"No, wait, I will go with you..." Fred struggles to sit up, sweating and trembling, Suzuka tries to stop him and he finally falls back down, almost passing out. Gene puts a hand on his stomach, while Suzuka puts a hand on his forehead. "I am sorry. I am sorry, Gene, Suzuka. Damn, I am so sorry."
"That is all right, Fred. Do not worry." Suzuka said as Fred points to Gene's marshal badge. He takes it off, pressing it onto his hand. Fred Luo smiles then passes out as Gene and Suzuka exit the room.
It is late, almost sunset at the ranch. Gene steps onto the porch where Leilong and the others await. He glances back into the house, looking at the unconscious Fred Luo through the open bedroom door. "Do not worry. They want him they will have to go over us first." Gene nods gratefully, offering his hand. Leilong takes it, abashed. Gene mounts up with Twilight Suzuka, Shimi and Ikee Katchin. They ride off at a slow gallop. Four figures against the twilight sky....
Marx awaits atop the hill with Harry McDougal and the third Kei Pirate watching as Gene's group rides out. "Only four. They left somebody behind. Let us go take a look." The Kei Pirates ride up as Leilong steps up with several other hands.
"What are you doing here?"
"Who is in there?"
"It is Luo. He is very sick. Imagine he is dying." Leilong answered as Marx squints through the front door of the house to the open bedroom where Fred Luo lies unconscious, chest heaving, sweating. "Drag his ass out here, let us have a look."
"I looked the other way when you did a lot of foul things but I am not letting you torment a dying man. Not as long as he is under my roof. I draw the line here." Leilong said as he and his men look resolute. Marx smiles, nodding.
"All right, Leilong. I will be back in about two hours. We will see how brave you are then."
"I will be here." Marx and his men ride off. At the crossroads they stop, Harry peeling off. "As soon as I am through with "Wyatt" Gene Starwind, swarm down with the rest of the Kei Pirates and finish off Ikee Katchin and Shimi." And they gallop off in opposite directions as four Kei Pirates, Marx's seconds, ride up to where Gene and his men stand dismounted, waiting. One pointing to a thicket nearby. "He is waiting for you by the large oak, half a mile up that trail." he said.
Down the south road, Sheriff Clyde and the other Kei Pirates wait at the road above the canyon. 65 strong, mounted and ready. Harry rides up, full of anticipation. "Prepare yourselves. As soon as Marx is finished with Gene we are going to take care of the rest." Harry said.
"Are we not giving them safe conduct?" Clyde wondered.
"Sure we are. On their journey into hell!" Harry McDougal answered.
Sunset approaches the Hayphongian Canyon. Marx's seconds wait nearby as Gene whispers to his men. "They are not giving you any safe conduct. As soon as the castor shooting begins kick west for the Blue Heaven line. Well..." Gene shakes hands with Ikee Katchin who now turns away with emotion, hiding his face. Gene turns to Shimi. "Gene, I... I do not have the words." Shimi said.
"I know. Me neither." Gene pats Shimi's shoulder and walks off alone into the thicket, hearing the only sound of musical clinking and chiming of his spurs....
A beautiful sunset yellow and red shines down the thicket. Making his way down the trail, Gene looks up at the sky as a flock of wild geese fly over overhead, oblivious to the human drama below. Gene stops, drinking it all in, as if trying to grab all he can in the time being. He suddenly closes his eyes, falling to his knees, trembling in fear for the first time in his life, clasping his hands. "Father, this is the final battle. We worked it out in my mind every which way and I know there is no way I am coming through this alive. You have preserved me this far so I only ask for one last favor: just let us live long enough to take down the Kei Pirates. It will be finished and there is an amen to it." Gene stands back up, his fear gone, replaced by calm, his face luminous, almost angelic as he walks on, spurs still chiming in.
A clearing by the creek of the corral with a cluster of smaller oaks. Marx leans against a tree, sipping from a hip flask, smoking a slim cheroot as he hears the chiming spurs approach. Marx looks up as the shadowy tall silhouette of his nemesis emerging from the shadows of the thicket. Marx smiled. "Well, I did not think you had it in you." He setted himself up. "Shall we?"
"I will be your huckleberry." Marx stiffens as the silhouette steps into the waning light. revealing himself as Fred Luo, pale and drawn, looking like the grim reaper himself, but awake and ready just the same as he sees his shock. "Why Marx, you look like somebody just walked over your grave. I was not quite as sick as I made out."
"My fight is not with you, Luo. It is with Gene."
"I beg to differ. We started a fight we never got to finish. Play for flesh and blood, remember?"
"I was kidding about that."
"I was not." For the final time, the cheshire cat smile comes over Fred Luo's face as he pins on Gene's badge. "And this time it is legal." Marx nods, his hook replaced by a growing malice. As they set themselves, once again their eyes began to blaze, boring into each other, their concentrated rage focusing on one another, about to reach into critical mass.... "All right, lunger. Let us do it." Marx said.
"Say when." A long tense moment then both grunt in unison. Blurred movement, the flash of a gunshot. Fred Luo slaps his gun back in it's holster as Marx stumbles, a bullet hole in the side of his head....
Back in the thicket, "Wyatt" Gene Starwind hears the gunshot and starts running to the scenery... Blood coursing from the hole in his head, frenzied messages flickering all through his shattered brain, going only on pure hatred, Marx stumbles and jerks, struggling to raise his castor pistol. Fred dances in front of him, urging him on. "Come on! Come on!" But finally Marx falls over into the creek next to the oak tree, his castor pistol firing into the air harmlessly. Fred Luo looks down at him, shaking his head. "Oh Marx. You are no daisy, no daisy at all." Just then Gene appears, looking at Fred in total shock. "What happened?" Gene wondered. Fred looked at him like he is a fool then points to the decapitated Marx. "Poor soul, he was so high-strung. Afraid the strain was more than he could bear." Fred answered until suddenly they hear stallions crashing through the brush toward them. "Let us go! My stallion is over here."
"I do not know. It all happened so quick. If I had a chance to think about it I guess I probably would have been scared but... but swear to father, Fred, I just do not know." Gene explained. At the other end of the campsite, Shimi and Ikee Katchin sit together discussing over Gene's survival. "Hey Shimi, you ever seen anything like that before?" Ikee asked.
"Never even heard of anything like this." Shimi answered. Katchin nods. Both look shaken to the very core of their beings. "I just thought of something I never thought about before." Katchin pauses, looking at shimi. "I do not want to go to hell."
Gene sits by the campfire, sipping coffee. Shimi and Ikee Katchin approach. Katchin drops a wad of wong on Gene's bedroll as he looks up in surprise. "We talked it over. We decided we do not need the wong. Took out 25 wong each, though. Federal Marshalman's fee. Is that all right?"
"Of Course..." Gene said.
"One thing. If we come through this alive, can we keep the badges?" Gene nods, picks up the wong and quietly moves off toward the stream by himself. Moments later, Swanzo McMasters approaches. "Where is Gene?"
"Down at the creek. Walking on stream again." Fred answered.
Marx crouches by the fire at the Kei Pirate campsite at dusk with the other Kei Pirates, his face displayed as a deeply shadowed mask as two of the metallic springs shootout stand before him. "We hit him half a thousand times but he just kept on coming, walked right up to Ron McDougal with that 12 gauge castor shotgun and blew him up!" the first Kei Pirate explained.
"Ron McDougal? He killed Ron McDougal?" Marx starts making strange little inarticulate sounds, inhaling and exhaling like an animal, eyes swimming in panic...
"He did not just kill him, he burned him to a crisp! I mean all the way in half like a watermelon! then he turned around with that "Peacemaker" and tore up ten of our men before we got out of there. But it was his face, you should have seen his face." the second Kei Pirate said.
"He is just a man." Marx said.
"You did not see his face." Marx looks up at them, suddenly dead calm.
"You see my face, do you not?" Out of nowhere, he draws and fires two so quickly they sound like one. The Metallic Springs survivors drop with bullets through their brains. The others jump, transfixed by the insane brutality of what their fellow pirate has just done. Marx draws himself up. "By order of Harry McDougal, everybody get this through your heads. "Wyatt" Gene Starwind dies. Harry is running the organization now and He is telling you, Starwind dies. His men too. They all die. Understand? We are going to kill them. For what they did to Ron McDougal we are going to ride them into the ground and slaughter them like deers. Because this is the time where we get woolly." Marx announced.
Later. Most of the other Kei Pirates are asleep or talking among as Terry turns to Leo whispering. "What do you think? I did not think Ron McDougal could be killed. I am telling you this whole damn thing has gone sourpussed. We got hands dropping like bees and Marx and Harry are flat out of their minds. I mean, hell Leo, you feel like riding against "Wyatt" Gene Starwind?"
"Hell no." Leo responded.
"Then let us cut out before we are screwed."
"Right with you, Terry." The two agreed with one another and stole away toward the stallions.
Marx faces the slimbag Sheriff Clyde, grim, intent, while he sputters holding up a Hayphong newspaper. "Are you insane?! It is front page news all over the nation. It is getting way out of hand, Marx. If things do not settle down soon--"
"You heard me, Clyde." Marx interrupted.
"Marx, you do not understand--"
"No," Marx glares at the slimball sheriff, his eyes burning, implacable. "You do not understand.
The second in command of the Kei Pirates rides up with Clyde and dismounts. "Terry and Leo cowardly ran out. Six, seven others, too." a third Kei Pirate said.
"I do not give a damn. Separate the rice from the chaff." Ringo said as Clyde looks worried as Harry McDougal and the other Kei Pirates gather around. Just then Tobigiera rides up. "What the hell are you doing here, Tob?" Clyde asked.
"Ron McDougal was my friend. I would like to come with you, sir." he answered.
"Sure thing, why the hell not?" Marx slaps the tough looking deputy on the back and turns to Harry and their men. His unaccustomed humor was troubled. "I told you it was time to kick some ass. Now gather around, everyone, gather around and raise your right hands." Harry McDougal announced.
Now it has come to full circle as Marx rides across the Hayphongian desert at the head of his and Harry's men 50 strong, armed to the death, full of fight--and all wearing Sheriff Badges, a posse of outlaws, with the slimeball Clyde bringing up the rear...
Gene and his men watch from the desert plateau as far out on the horizon, as the Kei Pirate Posse rides out of the rising sun, drawing closer to their enemy. "That is Marx with Harry McDougal out front. And there is that scumbag Clyde. Must be 50 of them..." Swanzo looks into his sightscope and sees the badges on their vests. "What the hell... they are wearing Marshal badges." The all exchange looks of disbelief. "Mounts are getting jaded. We are going to have to find a place to rest them up." Gene said. Suddenly looking very sick, Fred Luo sways dizzily in the saddle. Gene dismounts, reaching for him. The rest of his men do the same. "Fred..."
"Do not touch me, god damn it! Just do not touch me! Come on..." Fred said as he turns his horse, as if to ride on, then faints dead away, coughing out blood. "Grab him." They all catch him, easing him to the ground.
Gene's posse rides over the hill overlooking the ranch house keeping Fred Luo in the saddle. Leilong and three of his hands ride out to them. "Horses are pretty well jagged up and we got a sick man with us." Gene explained.
"You can put him up at my ranch if you want." Leilong said. Gene nods as he motions down the hill toward his house...
Fred Luo lies in bed, semi-conscious, white as a sheet, drenched in burning sweat. The others look on, worried. I am no doctor but he looks really bad." Leilong shakes his head, his face ceased with worry. Gene sits down next to Fred. Swanzo motions to the others and file out, leaving Gene alone with Luo.
Terry and Leo ride up and stop on the top of a hill overlooking a mountain crossroads somewhere in the brightstones. "What is it going to be, Leo?"
"I do not care. Gunsmoke, Blue Heaven, as long as we are out of territory." Leo answered. Suddenly a stagecoach comes into view, making it's winding way through the crossroads below. Terry points out. "Just what we need. Traveling wong." he grinned. They spur their stallions down the hill drawing their castor rifles...
The Kei Pirate posse is camped in a draw up in the brightstones. They look up as the stage rolls up and stops. Shouting and commotion as Clyde and Tobigiera approach and confer with the driver, then Clyde turns to Marx. "A robbery. four men striked them up and gunned down a passenger. One of them rode a Italian saddle, the other had a brown stallion. Terry and Leo." Clyde opens the door revealing to see the tragedian lying inside cradled in Valeria Marcus' arms, surrounded by others in the troupe. Reclined at full length, head back, he looks like the dying Caesar, even more tragic than in life. Tobigiera gasps. "Oh, hell..."
"We were headed for a booking in Gunsmoke. They tried to take my necklace. He cursed them for cowardice and gunned them down. He may have been vain and a poet but he was better than the rest of you. And gentler and braver. I do not understand any of this, I only know it is hideous. You are all hideous, and he was kind, he tried to put something into your hideous hell and you killed him for it. Anyway the ones who did it are heading north. Not that you give a damn." Valeria explained. Marx shrugs as his soft face suddenly turns resolute. Tobigiera goes to his stallion and mounts. "Where are you going? Get back here, Tob!" Clyde ordered. The deputy straightens his collar up, turning to Clyde. "I am sorry, sir, but we got to have some law and order." and he rides off alone into the brightstones as the slimeball sheriff sputters. "Let him go. Who gives a damn?" Marx said.
The stagecoach stops out front on Leilong's ranch. The driver waters the stallions and the troupe mill around silently while Gene and Leilong walk out. "We had a holdup. Came here to water their horses before pushing on." Seeing each other, Gene and Valeria freeze. Gene approaches to her and gives his regards. "I am terribly sorry about your friend. And I am sorry about calling you a..."
"I forgave you the moment you said it." Valeria interrupted.
"You did. Well... thank you." The driver jumps back onto the stage, motioning to the troupe. "I have to go, Gene."
"Wait! Valeria!" She stops as Gene falters. "Bye.." There was so much he wanted to say to her, but could not deny it to his posse. He opens the coach door for her. Valeria gets in and it pulls out with a crack of the driver's whip. She and Gene hold each other's gaze as the stage recedes into the distance. "Damn... Damn!" Ikee Katchin steps up next to his leader, looking at him. "See how she breezed out of here. Like she had wings like an angel from heaven. Funny thing but I cannot remember how she looked. I can remember parts of her clear as a crazy diamond in the sky, her mouth, her walk, her beauty, how she shutted her eyes when she laughed, little bits and pieces, but not the complete package. I cannot put it together for some reason." Gene explained to Katchin.
"Damn, you are really --"
"A crazy diamond. I am falling in love with every second of her life. Hell, I will probably love her when I am ashes." Gene admitted.
A cold camp in the night hollows of a mountain. Wrapped in blankets, Terry and Leo sip cold coffee, shivering like hell. "No fire tonight, partner. Too many Kei Pirates out." Leo grunts. Suddenly they both jump up hearing footsteps from behind. "Who is that?" The rider steps down from the shadows, revealed as the former deputy Tobigiera, Castor shotgun at his shoulder, squinting through the darkness. "It is deputy Tobigiera." The two relax and lower their castor rifles, heavings sighs of belief. "Sissy man! Thank Hazanko, we was afraid--"
"I have a warrant for your arrest."
"What? You got to be kidding. Look just get the hell out of this war before you get hurt." Terry said.
"I Do not want to kill you but I will if I have to. I am warning you."
"No, we are warning you, sissy man!" Leo steps forward menancingly.
"Do not try it!" Tobigiera tensed.
"Sissy man, just go to hell!" Leo raises his castor pistol. Tobigiera recoils in fright, stumbling backward in the darkness, and his castor rifle fires. Leo drops like a stone, a look of utter belief on his dying face. Terry looks at him in shock then turns to Sheriff Tobigiera, raises his castor gun and snarls. Tobigiera fires again. Terry grabs his midsection, dropping his gun and falling to his knees. He looks up at Tobigiera who shrugs timidly. Terry falls over, dead. the sheriff stares at the bodies, hardly believing it himself....
Dawn arises on the front porch of Leilong's ranch as "Wyatt" Gene Starwind and his men listen to Leilong. "...brought them in draped over their saddles. Tobigiera. Sissy man. He done it. So I guess the law has finally arrived in southwest Hayphong." Gene shakes his head, hardly comprehending what he started...
The Kei Pirates have camped on a mountaintop overlooking Leilong's ranch in the valley of death below. A messenger rides up with a letter for Sheriff Clyde as Marx paces, studying the set up with Harry McDougal. "Leilong has got around 19 or 25 hands. We could take them right enough but it might be a hell of a mess. Keep the place bottled up for now, see if we can figure a way to flush them." Marx explained. Clyde suddenly steps up, beside himself, holding up his message. "This is too much! It is completely out of hand! The Governor is talking about asking President 'O Malley to send in the army! Listen Marx, you have got to get this over with and you have got to do it now. One way or another." Clyde said.
Gene stands on the porch of Leilong's ranch at dusk, looking through the front door to the bedroom where Fred Luo lies unconscious while Leilong and the others look on. "We should get moving." Gene said.
"Fred is just in no good condition." Shimi said.
"Do not have to bother about that. Take a vote. Kei Pirates or not, you can stay here as long as you want." Leilong said. "Anyway maybe you done enough. I mean you whittled them down considerable, now there is talk of sending the army in my ranch. Ask me, you done enough."
"Leilong sir.* The ranch hand rides up and points. *Rider coming in under a white surrendering flag." They look up as the third Kei Pirate rides up with a white hankerchief with a few bloodstains on it.
"I have a message. Marx wants Swanzo McMasters to come over to our camp for a moment."
"He did not figure on all the stench this is causing. It might be he is looking to strike a bargain. If so, he probably figures he needs somebody like me who talks his language. Could be we got him." Swanzo said.
"I do not like it." Gene thoughted.
"Might as well hear him out. Anyways, what choice do we have?" Swanzo mounts his stallion, whispering. "But no matter what happens, see it through to the end. If you do not I will curse the day I ever laid eyes on you." Before Gene could give him an answer, Swanzo rides off with the Kei Pirate...
Swanzo McMasters rides up with the third Kei Pirate. Riding through camp, all his former comrades flare at him with pure hatred. Only Marx smiles, stepping up as Swanzo dismounts. "Well hello, Swanz."
"You wanted to talk?"
"Yes, kind of wanted to see if you would join back up with us."
"Is that what you got me up here for? A proposition to join the Kei Pirates again?"
"You are a Kei Pirate, you are a blood brother to the flesh. Come back with us, no hard feelings."
"Forget it, Marx."
"Is there not anything I can say that will change your mind? You are going to stay with your new friends?"
"At least they do not scare or torture women."
"All you are the boss, Swanz." Harry McDougal smiled. "One thing, though." He moves closer to the traitor, pointing his castor shotgun to Swanzo's cheekbone. "How are you going to get back to them?"
The third Kei Pirate rides back up to the ranch house, dumps a large something in front, and gallops back to just within earshot as Gene and his men run up. The object is revealed as a human corpse and though they could not see what was done to it, the expressions on their faces are plain enough. "Why could they not have just killed him?" Ikee Katchin wondered. "Marx and Harry McDougal wanted to be sure they got your attention, Marshal Starwind. He wants a straight-up fight, just you and them, settle this thing once and for all. You win, we quit the territory. Marx and Harry wins, your comrades get safe conduct to the Blue Heaven line. Sundown today in the death valley at the mouth of the Hayphong Canyon. Ride out with your escort, we will meet you." The third Kei Pirate announced.
"You tell Marx and Harry... just tell them I will be there!!" Gene shouted out as the third pirate departs.
"Gene, are you insane?" Shimi asked.
"I made a promise." Gene answered.
"Gene, listen, you cannot beat them. You are good and heaven knows you got the courage, but you are not in Marx and Harry McDougal's class. Hell, he is the best that has ever been. Except maybe for Vash The Stampede." Ikee said.
"He is right, Gene. They could put nine into your temple before you could even get one or three into him."
"But I would do it, I should get that one into him. So help me, I would."
"All right Gene, maybe you can. But you got to die to do it." Katchin said. "Understand? You got to die!"
It is dusk and the last rays of the sun come through the window of Leilong's Ranch, falling on the bed where Fred Luo lies, awake but looking like shit. Gene sits next to him, Twilight Suzuka sits next to Fred on the other side. "What makes a man like Marx, Fred? What makes him do the things he does?"
"A man like Marx has got an empty hole right through the middle of him and no matter what he does he can not ever fill it. He cannot kill enough or rob enough or inflict enough pain to ever fill it. And it drives him insane. Stalkraving insane." Fred explained.
"So what does he want?" Gene asked.
"What does he want? He wants vengeance."
"Vengeance? Vengeance for what?" Fred looks at him, a look of purest sadness in his sunken eyes."
"For being alive." Fred answered as Gene looks down again and it was a long time before he spoke. "Remember how I said it all happened so fast with Ron McDougal I did not have time to think about it? Well I have had plenty of time to think about all of this. I spent most of my life since I was born not knowing what I wanted out of life, just chasing my tail. But now, for the first time I know exactly what I want. And who. And that is the damnable misery of it all." Gene paused, looking at his friend. "I cannot defeat him, can I?" Fred Luo shakes his head. Gene nods then stands, getting ready to exit.
"No, wait, I will go with you..." Fred struggles to sit up, sweating and trembling, Suzuka tries to stop him and he finally falls back down, almost passing out. Gene puts a hand on his stomach, while Suzuka puts a hand on his forehead. "I am sorry. I am sorry, Gene, Suzuka. Damn, I am so sorry."
"That is all right, Fred. Do not worry." Suzuka said as Fred points to Gene's marshal badge. He takes it off, pressing it onto his hand. Fred Luo smiles then passes out as Gene and Suzuka exit the room.
It is late, almost sunset at the ranch. Gene steps onto the porch where Leilong and the others await. He glances back into the house, looking at the unconscious Fred Luo through the open bedroom door. "Do not worry. They want him they will have to go over us first." Gene nods gratefully, offering his hand. Leilong takes it, abashed. Gene mounts up with Twilight Suzuka, Shimi and Ikee Katchin. They ride off at a slow gallop. Four figures against the twilight sky....
Marx awaits atop the hill with Harry McDougal and the third Kei Pirate watching as Gene's group rides out. "Only four. They left somebody behind. Let us go take a look." The Kei Pirates ride up as Leilong steps up with several other hands.
"What are you doing here?"
"Who is in there?"
"It is Luo. He is very sick. Imagine he is dying." Leilong answered as Marx squints through the front door of the house to the open bedroom where Fred Luo lies unconscious, chest heaving, sweating. "Drag his ass out here, let us have a look."
"I looked the other way when you did a lot of foul things but I am not letting you torment a dying man. Not as long as he is under my roof. I draw the line here." Leilong said as he and his men look resolute. Marx smiles, nodding.
"All right, Leilong. I will be back in about two hours. We will see how brave you are then."
"I will be here." Marx and his men ride off. At the crossroads they stop, Harry peeling off. "As soon as I am through with "Wyatt" Gene Starwind, swarm down with the rest of the Kei Pirates and finish off Ikee Katchin and Shimi." And they gallop off in opposite directions as four Kei Pirates, Marx's seconds, ride up to where Gene and his men stand dismounted, waiting. One pointing to a thicket nearby. "He is waiting for you by the large oak, half a mile up that trail." he said.
Down the south road, Sheriff Clyde and the other Kei Pirates wait at the road above the canyon. 65 strong, mounted and ready. Harry rides up, full of anticipation. "Prepare yourselves. As soon as Marx is finished with Gene we are going to take care of the rest." Harry said.
"Are we not giving them safe conduct?" Clyde wondered.
"Sure we are. On their journey into hell!" Harry McDougal answered.
Sunset approaches the Hayphongian Canyon. Marx's seconds wait nearby as Gene whispers to his men. "They are not giving you any safe conduct. As soon as the castor shooting begins kick west for the Blue Heaven line. Well..." Gene shakes hands with Ikee Katchin who now turns away with emotion, hiding his face. Gene turns to Shimi. "Gene, I... I do not have the words." Shimi said.
"I know. Me neither." Gene pats Shimi's shoulder and walks off alone into the thicket, hearing the only sound of musical clinking and chiming of his spurs....
A beautiful sunset yellow and red shines down the thicket. Making his way down the trail, Gene looks up at the sky as a flock of wild geese fly over overhead, oblivious to the human drama below. Gene stops, drinking it all in, as if trying to grab all he can in the time being. He suddenly closes his eyes, falling to his knees, trembling in fear for the first time in his life, clasping his hands. "Father, this is the final battle. We worked it out in my mind every which way and I know there is no way I am coming through this alive. You have preserved me this far so I only ask for one last favor: just let us live long enough to take down the Kei Pirates. It will be finished and there is an amen to it." Gene stands back up, his fear gone, replaced by calm, his face luminous, almost angelic as he walks on, spurs still chiming in.
A clearing by the creek of the corral with a cluster of smaller oaks. Marx leans against a tree, sipping from a hip flask, smoking a slim cheroot as he hears the chiming spurs approach. Marx looks up as the shadowy tall silhouette of his nemesis emerging from the shadows of the thicket. Marx smiled. "Well, I did not think you had it in you." He setted himself up. "Shall we?"
"I will be your huckleberry." Marx stiffens as the silhouette steps into the waning light. revealing himself as Fred Luo, pale and drawn, looking like the grim reaper himself, but awake and ready just the same as he sees his shock. "Why Marx, you look like somebody just walked over your grave. I was not quite as sick as I made out."
"My fight is not with you, Luo. It is with Gene."
"I beg to differ. We started a fight we never got to finish. Play for flesh and blood, remember?"
"I was kidding about that."
"I was not." For the final time, the cheshire cat smile comes over Fred Luo's face as he pins on Gene's badge. "And this time it is legal." Marx nods, his hook replaced by a growing malice. As they set themselves, once again their eyes began to blaze, boring into each other, their concentrated rage focusing on one another, about to reach into critical mass.... "All right, lunger. Let us do it." Marx said.
"Say when." A long tense moment then both grunt in unison. Blurred movement, the flash of a gunshot. Fred Luo slaps his gun back in it's holster as Marx stumbles, a bullet hole in the side of his head....
Back in the thicket, "Wyatt" Gene Starwind hears the gunshot and starts running to the scenery... Blood coursing from the hole in his head, frenzied messages flickering all through his shattered brain, going only on pure hatred, Marx stumbles and jerks, struggling to raise his castor pistol. Fred dances in front of him, urging him on. "Come on! Come on!" But finally Marx falls over into the creek next to the oak tree, his castor pistol firing into the air harmlessly. Fred Luo looks down at him, shaking his head. "Oh Marx. You are no daisy, no daisy at all." Just then Gene appears, looking at Fred in total shock. "What happened?" Gene wondered. Fred looked at him like he is a fool then points to the decapitated Marx. "Poor soul, he was so high-strung. Afraid the strain was more than he could bear." Fred answered until suddenly they hear stallions crashing through the brush toward them. "Let us go! My stallion is over here."