The marauders were on motorbikes. They could hear them in the distance, echoing up the canyon, getting closer with every passing second. Some were howling and calling out, but these were just the usual war cries, according to Cassidy. If the marauders had known he was alive, and were hunting him down, they'd be attacking a lot more quietly and quickly.
Mercy and Reaper led the convoy, but the Ute was only able to travel for about fifteen minutes before one of the tyres went flat and the vehicle broke down with a heavy sputter and a cloud of dark smoke. Junkrat was the first to begin swearing and cursing, jumping around the vehicle on his peg-leg, accusing it of being trash. Reaper watched passively.
'This is the problem with you Junkers,' Cassidy snarled, his raspy voice increasing in anger but not in volume. 'Everything is trash.'
Junkrat turned his wild gaze onto the cowboy. 'Where's your car then, eh, Cassidy?'
Reaper watched Cassidy's fingers twitched by his six-shooter. Tracy stepped between them, clearly hoping to avoid bloodshed.
'Come on,' she said, 'we have more important issues.'
'Fix the car.' Reaper projected his voice into the minds of all around him, but it was directed specifically to Junkrat. The group turned to face him; all but Mercy still looked uncomfortable with the sound of his voice in their heads.
'How the fuck'm I supposed to do that?' Junkrat asked.
'The tyre on your back,' Reaper replied. 'Use it as a substitute.'
Junkrat unhitched the spare tyre from his back. He'd picked it up at the shanty town and had been tinkering with it since, installing a small engine and a mass of explosives.
'No way,' Junkrat replied, looking longingly at the tyre. 'We can use this to take down Cassidy's old friends back there. If you want to live, we're keeping my wheel right where it is.'
Reaper stared the Junker down. Everyone else flinched back. The skull mask was formidable.
'Leave the marauders to Cassidy and myself. The rest of you can fix the car.'
'Five minutes ago you had a bullet wound through your leg,' Mike started to say, 'How are you…?'
'Don't worry about it.' Mercy put her hand on Mike's shoulder, and pointed toward the Ute. 'Reaper is fine. Come on. We'll need you to help Road Hog lift the car while Junkrat changes the tyre.'
Reaper turned his attention away from the gang. They would either fix the car or not, there was nothing he could do to help now except buy them time. The primary focus now was the marauders. Reaper had a plan, but he needed a distraction.
Once Reaper and Cassidy had left their comrades behind, the cowboy took a cigar from his pocket and lit it. He sucked at it, pulling smoke into his mouth, looking utterly relaxed as they walked back in the direction of their enemies.
'We got a plan, partner? Or am I just bait?'
Reaper said nothing.
'You're a spooky feller, you know that?'
Beneath his mask, Reaper smiled. He liked that the others were not at ease around him. That was the way it should be.
'Well, whatever you're planning, I hope it's good. I don't wanna die to these folks. I don't wanna die at all.'
'You won't,' Reaper replied. He said nothing more. If Cassidy really knew what death was he would panic and lose focus on the mission ahead; they did not need that. Not now.
The canyon stretched on. Tall walls of rock on either side, the occasional flash of green where plants dared to grow. And above, the blue sky and the shining sun. It would have been a peaceful, if slightly claustrophobic walk, if not for the impending noise of motorbike engine and hollering marauders. The enemy were getting closer.
'What about that young girl, the one in orange?' Cassidy asked. 'You know anything about her?'
'Tracy?' Reaper asked. He shook his head. 'Nothing… except that she should be dead.'
'Why isn't she?'
'Mercy brought her back from the precipice.'
'And what sort of person is Mercy that she can bring people back like that?'
Reaper considered not replying at all. Mercy's story was her own to tell. But then, he decided, Cassidy might not return from this adventure, and he deserved to have his last few questions on earth answered.
'An angel.'
When the motorcycle engines were so close they could no longer hold a conversation for the noise, Reaper gestured for Cassidy to go on, and carried out his own part of the plan, shadow stepping up to the top of the canyon. From there he looked down, watching as a cloud of dust was pulled along by a caravan of angry looking bikers and stopped, just a half dozen meters from a lone ranger in their path.
'Howdy, gang.' Cassidy smiled.
The first of the bikers stepped away from their mount and walked over, upholstering a long rifle from the sling on her back. The biker was a large, bulky woman with shaven head, a bandana around her mouth and nose, and goggles over her eyes. She wore tattered clothes and heavy jeans.
'Cassidy, you sly bastard, we thought you'd be dead by now for sure.'
He shrugged lazily, and drawled his reply. 'Death and I had a run in, but it didn't stick.'
'Well, ain't that fine. So tell us then, Cassidy, how did y'all survive? Ain't many people get left behind by the Deadlock Gang and live long enough to tell the tale. You betrayed us? Knew something we didn't?'
'I ate tumbleweed,' he replied drily. 'Cooked it into a stew with pumpkin, taters, you name it.'
'Tumbleweed stew?' Another of the Deadlock Gang clambered from their bike. 'You fucker, Cassidy, tell us the goddamned truth.'
'I'd rather not.' He smiled, and the cigar drooped in his lips.
Reaper, meanwhile, watched the whole thing from above. He was waiting for the right moment, the right opportunity, hoping that it would present itself for him. Just when he was preparing to make his move two of the Deadlock Gang members – those closest to Cassidy – grabbed him by the upper arms and slammed him up against the wall.
'Damn you, Cassidy,' the bald woman snarled, her voice barely loud enough to carry to Reaper. 'Damn you for leading us out here, where there ain't a hope to live another month. Damn you for delivering us into this fate. Leaving you to die was too good for you. I should've shot you myself.'
It was as good a chance as any, Reaper told himself. He gathered the darkness under himself, pulling it in as if were a tangible force, and leapt from the top of the canyon. The tightly wound ball of darkness uncoiled beneath him, slowing his fall.
He drew his hellfire shotguns and turned, stepping nimbly in a circle, arms outstretched to his left and right.
'Die,' he snarled, firing left, then right, then left again, turning swiftly, felling enemies. 'Die.'He repeated, projecting the deep of his voice into the hearts and souls of his enemies. 'DIE!'He said one last time, firing the last of his shotguns shells so that both weapons ran dry together. He stopped spinning, and allowed the darkness beneath him to dissipate as his feet touched the ground.
Now that he had stopped he looked around. Thirteen figures in total lay on the dirt, blood spreading where fell, all dead and never to stand again. Like a flower blossoming the scent of death spread. He took a deep breath, allowed it to fill his nostrils, felt a shudder of energy as the souls of the newly deceased passed by.
'Ah, Reaper, about that…'
Reaper looked over. Cassidy had used Reaper's distraction to throw down a flashbang and disarm the bald woman. She was the last remaining member of the Deadlock Gang.
'Kill her,' Reaper said. 'This has been a success.'
'Not in cold blood.' Cassidy looked down at the woman. 'This is Jenny Cassidy. This is… my sister.'
Reaper said nothing. If Cassidy wanted the woman to live then he was willing to allow it, but he would not be held responsible for anything the woman did. That was on Cassidy's conscience, and his alone. It was his decision to make.
But, as it turned out, Cassidy did not want to see his sister live. And she was equally unwilling to go on living beside her brother. The desert, it seemed, was not big enough for the two of them.
'A duel, then,' Cassidy suggested. 'You 'n' me, sis, nothing but six-shooters.'
She nodded. 'Suits me just fine, ya Junker-fucking bastard. You still carrying that old Peacekeeper?'
He angled the gun so that she could see it. For some reason she laughed. 'Yep, that's it. Time for an upgrade, isn't it?'
'Maybe after I kill you I'll take yours,' he drawled.
Reaper acted as adjudicator, a job he had not been expecting and did not particularly want. The siblings stood back to back, pistols in hand. The sun slipped behind the horizon.
'On three,' said Cassidy.
'Sure y'all don't wanna wait until High Noon tomorrow?' Jen taunted. 'I remember that always was your favourite time of day.'
'Don't matter what time of day it is,' Cassidy replied. 'I'm still gonna shootcha.'
Reaper projected his voice into both of their heads at the same time.
'One…'
They took a step, fingers twitching. Reaper could sense their fear, their trepidation, and their excitement. Whatever had happened between these two in the previous months had not been good; worse, he guessed, than the abandonment of Cassidy at the Junker shanty town.
'Two…'
Another step. Jen Cassidy was the hungrier of the two. She stalked forward, body tensed and edgy, ready to spring around at any second and empty her clip. Her brother, the cowboy, stood tall and straight.
'Three.' Reaper completed the countdown and the two spun.
Two shots rang out. Reaper looked from side to side, unable to stop himself as curiosity overcame him. Both brother and sister stood, suspended like puppets, for another moment. They had both been so ready to die, in some ways; Jen Cassidy had seen her entire gang murdered around her, while her brother had lost almost everything in his life. Reaper could not yet see which of the two shots had hit home. He imagined that whichever sibling remained standing after today they would not be the same.
'Fuck you,' Jen said. 'Fuck you and your black hooded friend. Fuck you all and…'
Blood dribbled from her lips. She fired with her pistol, but the shot went wild, ricocheting from the wall of the canyon and into the air without effect. So, it was the sister that had been shot. She slumped down to her knees.
The brother did not even approach her. Instead, Cassidy made his way to Reaper.
'C'mon. Let's get out of here.'
Reaper looked over. 'I heard two shots. Hers missed?'
'They were both mine,' Cassidy replied, no emotion in his voice at all. 'I was always the faster drawer. Jen didn't even take a shot – not until her finger twitched, just then.'
Reaper blinked. He did not know what to say.
'You knew she would die?'
'So did she.' Cassidy answered. 'I think it's what she wanted. You already killed everyone she cared about. Only reason I suggested a duel was because I didn't wanna shoot her when she was unarmed. Wanted to give her a chance to die on her feet.'
To this, Reaper did not know what to say. So he said nothing, and followed the cowboy back toward the rest of the group, where hopefully the vehicle would be repaired and the group would be ready to continue.