Sadie hopped off her horse a ways down the road from the walled-off village. The place looked quiet and abandoned, but she had to make sure first. She began rooting through her saddlebag looking for a pair of binoculars while the group of soldiers accompanying her dismounted as well. Reyes has insisted on a squad escorting her during this mission. It was clear from his tone that the decision wasn't made out of concern for her safety, more so a measure to prevent any perfidy on her end.

Sadie wasn't sure what she had done that would give Reyes any reason to distrust her. Sure, she was a hired gun that wandered in from across the border, any employer of hers would be a fool to trust her the moment they met. But she'd been as loyal as anyone could be to Reyes for nearly two and a half years, if she wanted him dead he'd certainly know it. Captain Vazquez, who was leading the group of soldiers and talked as if he outranked Sadie too, approached her from her right side and gave a slight cough. Sadie gave him a harsh glance before turning her attention back to their target. She wasn't an official member of the military, but Vazquez' disrespect was unwarranted. In comparison, Reyes had nothing to worry about from her, if she wanted anybody in Mexico dead he was certainly high up on her hit list.

"Quiero dos hombres en la parte de atrás a las. Atraparlos cuando intentan correr." Vazquez barked out an order in Spanish and two of the smaller grunts scattered off.

"Where the hell they off too?" Sadie sniped at him, "You wanna repeat that to me in English, Senor?"

"Easy, puta." Vazquez growled. "Focus on your work. The traitors aren't expecting us, so we should go straight through the door and open fire on anybody we see in there." Vazquez relayed the plan to her as if she was stupid.

"A pretty shit plan, but if you're so confident I'll let you take the lead. If we get lucky, they'll blow your head off the second you walk in the door and I can do the job right and without dealing with your shit." Sadie spat. The Captain scoffed and grabbed the binoculars out of her hand. Sadie felt inclined to slice his fingers off at such an audacious at, but her impending payday convinced her to stay her hand.

"Uh uh, you're going with us. No puta is getting the glory while my boys do all the dirty work." Vazquez barked. "So grab your rifle and be ready to move." The rest of the troops assembled around Vazquez as he pulled his revolver from his holster. Sadie grumbled as she pulled her Evans repeater from her saddle, as she began loading rounds a though occurred to her.

"Are you sure the information we got on this place is credible, if these were the 'dangerous insurgents' we were warned about, wouldn't they have some kind of perimeter guard? Or even one poor fool guarding the gate?" Sadie argued.

"Where do you get off questioning President Reyes?" Vazquez spat through gritted teeth. "When I tell him about this, you'll be discharged. Besides, no guard only means our jobs is easier." Vazquez gave the order to advance, and the group began slinking towards the dusty wooden gate. Sadie situated herself on one side of the doors, while some lowly private got in position to kick them open. Once the doors burst wide, Sadie sprang into action. With her rifle raised, she turned the corner and was met with a rather confusing sight.

Not a single armed soul was in sight, Sadie glanced down the main street dividing the village. There was a man operating a fruit stand and tending to a group of customers. A trio of kids chased each other in a friendly game. A man was brushing the mane of a donkey. That was all Sadie got to see before the first rounds went off. Several of the villagers went down immediately, the rest ran into their homes. Some brave souls grabbed a spare revolver and began fighting back. Sadie felt her rifle dropping to the ground and her stomach turned somethin' horrible. She heard shouting to her left, "Corten a estos traidores! Hasta los niños." She turned and saw Vazquez pushing his men into the village like they were charging into a fierce battle rather then a slaughter. She grabbed him and threw him against a wall.

"You fucking slime!" She landed a punch on him and felt his teeth cut her knuckle. "These aren't soldiers! They're people!"

"Get the fuck off me bitch!" He yelled. He shoved her off with one hand and wiped the blood of his chin with the other. "They're monsters and deserve death!" Sadie felt his and wrap around her throat, she struggled against his arm as he raised his revolver and fired in another direction. His eyes turned to her, "This gun is too good for you, I'm killing you with my own two hands!"

Sadie reached into her jacket, pulling her knife from the inside holster and sliced across Vazquez' forearm. He recoiled and stumbled back, Sadie grabbed the back of his head and pulled him closer, guiding her knife into his throat. Vazquez fell back, his pathetic chokes accompanying the ongoing orchestra of gunfire. She ran into the street and pulled her sidearm. Her eyes landed on four soldiers sweeping the street for any villagers. She dropped one before diving behind an overturned cart. The others turned and opened fire, bullets landing in the dirt around her. She leaned out of her cover and dropped two more. The last one rushed her as she began reloading, pummeling her in the forehead with the butt of his shotgun. Sadie stumbled back, groaning at the pain. The adrenaline in her blood allowed her to put the pain aside and kick the young man in the knee. He landed on all fours as Sadie crawled forward and punctured his chest with her knife. She jumped over him and ran down the street.

She turned her head and caught a soldier walking out of a house, she quickly fired off a round and watched him drop. She turned her head when she heard a gun fire in the building closest to her. She sprinted to the porch and stalked through the already opened door and down the hallway. She caught a soldier walking out of a room, putting a few rounds into his stomach. She stepped over him and looked into the room he had just exited, spotting the corpse of a elderly man in bed. She heard whimpering in the next room. She carefully stepped inside, laying her eyes on a mother with her arms wrapped around a little girl, no older then eight. They cried out when they saw her, but she holstered her gun and shushed them.

She cleared her throat and prayed that the Spanish she learned over the years wouldn't fail her as she tried to calm the two down. "Está bien. No voy a lastimarte. Ya no estoy con ellos" The mother relaxed slightly and nodded. Sadie walked over and offered her hand. "Tenemos que irnos. Quédate conmigo y estarás a salvo." The woman took Sadie's hand, her daughter standing closely beside her. "Vamos a mi caballo. Esta afuera-"

Shouting from outside cut her off. She tried to pull the woman down as the guns started firing through the windows. But she felt the heavy weight of a corpse wrack her chest. The girl let out a horrible cry as she gripped the woman tightly. Sadie stood up and looked around the room. She noticed the soldiers walking to the house, they'd be making sure they'd finished her off. She had to get out now. She kneeled down to the girl, "Lo siento, tenemos que irnos!" She tried to grab the girl but she just cried harder. Sadie could hear the soldiers enter the house, she pulled on the girl as hard as she could. But she wouldn't budge. Sadie, with tears in her eyes, dived through a back window. She ran out of the alley while another gunshot hit her ears, this one somehow louder than the others.

"How could you do that?"

"How could you let her die?"

'You could've saved them. But you ran like a coward."

"WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE HER?"

Sadie shot up from her bedroll, the sweat on her forehead made her hair stick in an unflattering manner. Her breath came out in labored huffs as she heard Jack jump up.

"What! Shit," He waved his gun around and stumbled as his foot caught on the sleeping bag. "What the hell happened?" He questioned.

Sadie tried to calm herself down. Grabbing the water from her pack and taking a large gulp. Her breath slowed down, and she responded with "I'm fine." She didn't meet his gaze, simply kept looking at her boots. "Nightmares."

Jack nodded. "You wanna talk about 'em? I read in a book from one of them eastern doctors that it helps."

Sadie shook her head, "No. But thanks for the offer. I'll be fine," she finally looked up at him. "Get back to sleep. We're heading to Lake Don Julio at first light." Jack sighed and laid back. Sadie heard him snore as he drifted back to sleep, but she continued to lay there for a long while before she entered a restless sleep.

(Sorry to anybody fluent in Spanish because I'm sure that it was a travesty filled with grammar errors and misspellings.)