Blazer's Mill

A/N: This story is in the process of being re-written to make it flow better. I'd love to get your feedback, good, bad or otherwise. Enjoy.

Adios.

...

"Lord forgive us for our wrongdoings; for our misguidance of heathen religions, thank you for keeping us alive," Richard paused in his prayer.

Billy reached for his food but Richard hadn't finished.

"Please help guide us in doing the right thing."

Billy sat back with a huff.

"Our Father, Lord in Heaven, hallowed be thy name..."

"Please Dick, it's getting cold!"

The boys drew their guns at the same time and neither looked impressed.

"I could've killed ya Dick," Billy said. "I could've killed ya, but I don't wanna kill ya, I wanna eat!"

"When we finish this meal you little rodent, we're going to go out in the yard and see who has the right to run this group of Regulators." Richard sounded pissed.

"Richard would you be so kind as to pass the gravy please," Doc tried restoring calm but was ignored.

All of a sudden Steve rushed into the room. "We got a well-heeled man comin' this way."

"Just one?" Richard asked.

Steve nodded so Charlie got up and looked out the window. "Oh Lord, it's Buckshot Roberts."

I nervously swallowed my mouthful of food; I'd heard of him.

"We got a warrant for him," Richard said still glaring at Billy.

"Do you think he's coming to surrender?" Doc asked lightly.

"Don't look that way," Charlie replied with a shake of his head.

"He any good?" Billy asked as a familiar glint appeared in his eyes.

"He's killed more people than smallpox," Charlie replied.

Billy smiled and lowered his gun. "Well hell, introduce us," he said getting to his feet and heading for the door.

I moved closer to Billy as we followed Richard outside. Chavez was with Doc, and Steve and Charlie on Richard's other side. We stopped as we saw Roberts pull out two rifles and turn towards us.

"We got a warrant for you old man," Richard called.

"I got no business with that warrant anymore, pecker-head son-of-a-bitch," the old man sighed. "I'm on my own, I'm here to get that hundred and fifty dollars Sheriff Brady's putting down for the Kid," he said as he looked us over. "The rest of you shits is only worth a hundred and ten but I'll take it."

"What a sweet disposition," Doc remarked.

Roberts grunted and threw one rifle on the ground and loaded the other. "Let's dance!" he said as he opened fire.

We dove for the nearest cover. I hid behind a pile of wood with Richard and Billy. I looked over to Chavez and Doc in time to see Chavez get hit in the side. Doc helped him get behind a wagon before standing up and aiming his rifle at Roberts. He had no time to fire before he was hit on the hand.

I was getting mad now and carefully raised my rifle over the top of the wood pile and fired off a few rounds. I ducked out of sight as Roberts fired again and reloaded. I looked over at Doc and Chavez again and panic flared. Chavez's face was screwed up in pain and Doc's hand was bleeding freely. Roberts had retreated to the outhouse and fired a few more shots through the door, before silence fell suddenly. Billy took his chance and stepped out from our cover. Roberts kicked the door open again and opened fire. Billy barely made it back in time.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"It would take a lot more than that to kill me," he said with a smile, even though he was clearly shaken.

Silence settled over the yard and Richard cautiously stepped out and started towards the outhouse. Two shots suddenly rang out and he went down.

"DICK!" Steve yelled out before beginning to fire at the outhouse.

I followed suit and emptied my rifle.

"Dick! You son-of-a-bitch!" Charlie cried out. "Dick, we're coming to get ya!"

I looked behind me and saw Steve stop Charlie from leaving their cover.

"He's dead Charlie," Steve told him.

Charlie was wide eyed and panicky and struggled against Steve's arm. "We got to go get him!"

I dug around in my pocket for more bullets and my hands were shaking so bad I dropped some. I bent to pick them up and took the opportunity to wipe my eyes on my sleeve.

"YOU WANT TO CROSS IN FRONT OF THAT SHITHOUSE AGAIN?!" Steve yelled at Charlie as he tried to keep hold of him.

"What are we gonna do? Dick just got his guts blowed out!" Charlie's panic was rising. "He's our foreman!"

Doc helped Chavez over to the horses and I pulled on Billy's arm to force him to move as well.

Charlie looked terrified. "Doc! Doc, what are we gonna do?"

I held the reigns for Billy as Doc answered Charlie.

"This place is going to be crawling with Murphy men," he said helping Chavez onto his horse. "Get the hell out of here is what we're gonna do."

Billy mounted up and looked around. "Regulators! Let's rock out, now!"

I followed him as he headed for the path. The boys followed in silence and as I looked back at the yard of Blazer's Mill, a lump rose in my throat as I looked down at Richard's body face down in the dirt.

We made camp in a little valley with a high ridge line and got a fire started. I looked up and noticed Doc hadn't followed us down. He explained he was going to a nearby town to write to Richard's mother and get clean wraps for his hand.

"Well, whatever you do don't go near Lincoln," Billy told him.

I sat down in front of the fire and stared into the flames. Richard was gone and we were yet again on the run. I looked at Billy and tried to see what it was in his head that kept him going.

"What are you doing?" Steve asked stuffing his mouth with tobacco.

"Well sir, with the sight filed down I get an eighth of a second drop on our good Sheriff Brady," Billy replied before firing a shot at the hillside.

"Billy we can't touch the Sheriff, Dick said so," Charlie said. "You know that, besides we can't keep this up."

"Yeah well, Dick ain't around now is he Charlie?" Billy retorted. "Right now Sheriff Brady is in desperate need of being removed from office."

"We're not going after Brady!"

We all looked up at Chavez in surprise.

"No Murphy men. No more. I told you I would find the way," he said staring off into the distance. "The way is West."

"West huh? Well West is that way and the bastards we gotta kill are that way," Billy said waving his gun in either direction.

"The only bastards that are going to get killed are us Chivato, let it go."

"Let it go? Murphy is taking inventory in Tunstall's store right now and you're saying it means nothing to you?" Billy was getting mad.

"He said nothing of the sort," I said getting to me feet and placing a hand on Billy's shoulder.

He shrugged me off and stepped away. "I thought you were on my side?" he said hurt flickering in his eyes.

"I'm on your side."

"It means nothing to me?" Chavez turned around. "Murphy and his politicians have taken more blood from me than they ever will from you."

"Oh yeah? How do you figure?" Billy shot back.

"The Red Sands Creek Reservation," Chavez answered, pain passing across his face.

"What's he talking about?" Billy asked Steve.

"I don't know," Steve replied with a shrug.

"Oh Chavez!" I put my hand to my mouth in shock. I'd heard of the massacre at the reservation.

"Two hundred and seven people butchered in the snow with their stomachs empty," Chavez began. "My mother's people. You see Murphy and company were under government contract to supply us with beef; but two winters ago he sent only rotten meat! No corn, no flour, only rancid beef crawling with worms. So I went out with a band in the night to a trader's camp to get food. Oh yeah, they welcomed us in and then they opened fire on us. I got away. Only me! But when I got back to the Red Sands I found out the army had already heard about our big Indian uprising, and they had paid us back. My mother was cut with a sabre from her privates to her neck. My sisters were just babies and they had their heads bashed in with boot heels so the army could save bullets! Everybody on my reservation was butchered AND IT MEANS NOTHING TO ME?!" Chavez was real fired up now. "Oh yeah, I went to Lincoln to take Murphy's head. That's when John Tunstall found me, and he took me in and taught me another way to bury Murphy."

"Murphy buried him the old Irish way Chavez," Steve said.

"That's right Steve, and he starved out your family Chavez. Now he's doing it to every small farmer in the territory." Billy looked squarely at Chavez "but you want to run, go ahead. Just go right on ahead. You got no loyalty Navajo."

"Navajo," Steve repeated.

"Go to hell Steve!" I said storming up to him and shoving him to the ground.

"He ain't nothing but a piece of chicken shit in the rain." Billy stood up and moved towards his horse.

"Get your crazy-ass off me girl!" Steve tried pushing me off him. He failed and I punched him in the face.

"Easy Jackie," Charlie said as he put his arms around my waist and pulled me up.

"You can go to hell too Billy!" I yelled struggling in Charlie's arms. "How can you say something like that after all we've been through?"

"No, we had our ceremony out there on the ridge Chivato. Now I don't know what your vision told you but my vision told me we're headed for blood. Blood like a river. I'm the last of my clan, the last of my people. If I die, and I'm not afraid of dying Chivato, the sacred hoop is broken. I have to go West and make my people live again." Chavez walked over to his horse. "Charlie, you come with me?"

Charlie let me go and looked at Steve. "You ain't saying much Dirty Steve."

"Cause he ain't got much to say Charlie," Billy replied. "Old Steve understands the meaning of the word 'pals', don't ya Steve? See if you got three or four good pals, well then you've got yourself a tribe." Billy looked at all of us before settling his gaze on Chavez. "There ain't nothing stronger than that. We're your family now Chavez. You walk away from us; you break our sacred hoop. We gotta stick together fellas, that's the only way I see it."

I looked at the ground as silence fell on the camp. I looked over at Steve. "Sorry about that." I genuinely meant it. We were all on edge after Richard's death and I'd let my temper get away from me. I turned to Chavez. "You need to have your wound cleaned, so march yourself over to the fire and sit down!" I tried to look intimidating but with Chavez being a head and a half taller than me it didn't work.

"As you wish Gatito," Chavez managed a small smile and did as he was told.

I busied myself with the task at hand and was happy with the result, the bullet had only gone through a small part of Chavez's skin so it would heal quickly. I noticed Billy was standing by himself at the edge of camp so I went over to him. "Sorry," was all I could say.

"It's okay," he replied. "I like that fiery spark you got in you, don't ever loose it."

I smiled and placed a kiss on his cheek before taking his hand and leading him back to the fire. Charlie had found one of Doc's poems and started reading.

"The Bird by Josiah G. Scurlock. That's Doc. Once upon a midnight dreary, as I pondered weak and weary. There came a knocking at my...back porch. He ain't very original is he?" Charlie asked.

I smiled and threw another bit of wood on the fire.

"He's been gone an awful long time. I have a feeling that he's going to be making a run for it."

I snorted and looked at Charlie with an eyebrow raised.

"Who Doc? Nah, Doc likes me." Billy said with all the confidence in the world.

Soon we bedded down, with Steve on watch, and all I could think about was how similar my story was to Chavez's. I said a quick prayer for Doc and slipped into sleep.