Day Two - Hard Luck Gang

"You didn't say anything about them using explosives!" Meryl screamed, her hands to her head, her heart dropped into the pit of her stomach where she was sure it wouldn't easily be retrieved. "I knew it! I knew it! This was a bad idea from the very beginning!" She turned her anger on the priest, grabbed him by his lapels and found she couldn't shake him nearly as easily as the mayor from Enepril, but she was giving it her gosh darned best try! "You idiot!"

Wolfwood put a hand on her head and turned his gaze from the cave entrance that was now billowing with smoke and dust. "They were just cutting off the other route for escape. It's perfectly safe, they're trained professionals."

"Trained professionals my…" Meryl turned, people were pouring out of neighboring buildings now and she loosed her grip on the priest's coat. "If anyone gets hurt…"

"I said they won't!" Wolfwood took a step forward and dislodged the little girl from him. He was half-concerned with the amount of dynamite that was used, it was a bit too much for the type of explosion they needed. Trying not to show that there was anything wrong with his plan, because, as far as he was concerned, there wasn't outside of this little hitch, he wrapped his arm around Meryl's shoulder. The little girl tensed.

"What are you doing?"

"Comforting you…" Nicholas glanced down at her, pulling his sunglasses off his face, folding them with his free right hand and putting them away. "Don't forget, we didn't have anything to do with this…"

Meryl's eyes narrowed, and she tried to put a shocked expression on her face, as if she were as surprised by the explosion as the other villagers, which wasn't hard to do. Especially with the priest's strong arm around her shoulder, his fingers digging deeply into her arm as if to remind her to keep acting. When Milly and Vash came out, she couldn't let on that she had anything to do with it. Although, at the moment, she was starting to think she'd rather take the blame than stand there with that creepy priest holding onto her.

From within the cave, there were voices and yelling, the sound of… children! Meryl wrenched away from Wolfwood and shaded her eyes from the smoke to see figures, small shadows coming from the cave… "You idiot! There were kids in there!" She rushed forward, a little boy and girl ran from the opening, coughing. "Are you okay? Are there others in there? What happened?"

The little boy choked out, "M-Mr. Vash… And the lady! And Hattie, Saddy and Josh… Still in the cave! I'm scared!" He clung to Meryl and the little girl was sobbing on her knees. Meryl nearly dragged out her derringers and turned on the priest, but she waited, her teeth clenched. People were pouring from the buildings now and the parents of the two small children were rushing up to them.

"Why weren't you in school?" Meryl managed before they were retrieved to safety.

"Spring break," the boy said before calling to his mother and disappearing into the crowd. Meryl felt a sadistic grin come to her face as she swung on Wolfwood. The priest held up his hands, backing step by step away from her.

"Now hold on little girl… I didn't know they were on vacation…"

Meryl forced an angered scream from her lips, the only thing she could muster at the moment to stop her from strangling the life out of the mangy man in front of her. People were staring at her in curiosity, but maybe figuring that they were having a lover's quarrel. "No more plans from you, MISTER! As soon as…" Her words trailed off as someone was shouting for their children within. There were more shadows coming from the slowly diminishing smoke within the cave. Two of the bounty hunters stepped out into the light coughing, waving hands in front of their eyes.

"Slight miscalculation," one was mumbling, and it was Wolfwood's turn to grow angry, he ran up to them, and with one swift swing of his cross, knocked them both to the ground, completely unconscious.

"Here's your men, sheriff!" He yelled as the first of the authorities arrived. Nicholas was mighty proud of himself for covering up his tracks so easily, these bounty hunters were also wanted men, so at least he wouldn't go hungry for the rest of the trip and would probably have enough money to buy a motorcycle out of this crazy place. Although, he had to admit he was having fun under the circumstances, life traveling in the desert was mighty boring until he joined Vash and the insurance girls. But he was almost as eager to get away from them… At least the little one, she was scary.

"Were there others in there?" The deputy asked, his eyes worried, glancing from the knocked out bounty hunters to the cave entrance. He frowned, "These guys are from the Hard Luck Gang, there's always four of them…" He pulled out a notepad as the sheriff started toward the cave. "Sheriff, Zan and Yast are probably in there still. Poor guys, they can't pull off any heist right…"

The sheriff had his hand on his gun hilt, but he didn't make to pull it, "What in the world could they want inside of there? Nothing but rocks…" He shook his head, "See if you can get those two awake again, we need to know what they were doing in there." Suddenly, there was another explosion, the sheriff threw himself backwards to avoid a pile of debris that came out of the cave's mouth. "Damn! Don't tell me they're still blasting!"

"That was a cave in," Nicholas yelled, his eyes wide as he tried to keep the insurance girl from taking him apart bit by bit. "Calm down," he murmured to her and she settled, although her feathers were still ruffled. "We're going to need shovels to clear it…" Sure enough, as the smoke cleared, the entrance to the cave was nearly blocked off but for a small opening at the top. Wolfwood had a feeling he wasn't going to see the end of this… He started over to the deputy, "These guys were wanted right…"

Thanks to everyone again for reading! I really appreciate all of your feedback!