Chapter 3

Fighting Back

I watched two rounds hit Joe's head. As he hit the ground I moved quickly to cover the blood on the ground with dirt and dragged Joe's body out of sight. I pulled the grenades and the wire from my bag, and I broke the walking stick into pieces. "Time to get to work.", I said to myself. I attached one end of wire to the frag grenades and the other to pieces of the broken stick. I had three traps in all. It wasn't pretty but it would do the job. I moved Joe's body out into the open for the Powder Gangers to find and made my way back to town. I made my way back to the gas station and told Ringo what had transpired.

"Well you don't have to worry about Joe Cobb anymore. The other Powder Gangers may still be a problem, but I planned a few surprises for them."

"What happens now?", said Ringo

"We rid this town of the Powder Gangers.", I replied

"Okay, we may need more than just the two of us, go talk to Sunny Smiles, I know she's been eager to rid the town of the Powder Gangers and she's a pretty good shot too."

"I'll be back soon. Be ready to go when I come back, we may not have much time before they find Joe is missing."

It was still early in the night when I went down to the Goodsprings saloon. Like before I found Sunny there with her dog Cheyenne. She had just finished hunting geckos. I told her what happened and that we needed her help defending the town.

"Say no more. I'll head out and keep watch. You grab Ringo and whatever supplies you may need." With that Sunny left the Saloon to find a vantage point to keep watch.

I went back to the gas station and checked on Ringo. He was still jumpy but seemed to be more relaxed than before now that Joe Cobb was gone.

"Ready to go, just a little nervous.", Ringo said

All of the sudden the door burst open and Sunny entered, "Look alive we got company. Looks like the Powder Gangers are starting to sniff around for Joe Cobb."

"All right let's go get into position before they find him.", I said

We went down the hill and into town. Ringo only had a 9mm pistol so I told him to take up position behind the Mojave Express bin by the Saloon, while Sunny and I will take up vantage points close by and watch with our rifles. Shortly after getting into position I saw about a dozen of them walking over the hill heading into town. From the looks of them, they found Joe and took the bait.

"Just a little further you bastards", I whispered.

BOOOOOMM-The first trap had been sprung. Four Powder Gangers flew into the air missing body parts. They began to panic, but still continued to advance on the town.

BOOOOOMM-The second trap had been sprung but only managed to take one Powder Ganger with it. They were still proceeding cautiously. They wanted this town and they wanted to kill Ringo and the man that killed Joe Cobb.

"THAT ALL YOU GOT RINGO!? A COUPLE OF TRAPS!?", yelled one of the gangers

Ringo didn't respond.

BOOOOOMM-The final trap had exploded and had taken three more Powder Gangers with it. We were now down to a total of four Powder Gangers. I looked at Sunny and smiled. She gave me a thumbs up and mouthed NOT BAD.

I aimed my rifle at the nearest Powder Ganger and fired. With not knowing where I was, I had the element of surprise. A clean shot to the head and he was down. Just as they began to fire on my position Sunny aimed from behind a rock and took down another Powder Ganger. But it wasn't until after Sunny had taken down the second one that I realized one had taken out a stick of dynamite and threw it in my direction. I ran out from my vantage point and out into the open exposing myself to gun fire. Bullets hailed past me as I ran to find more cover.

BOOOOOMM-The dynamite that had been thrown at me exploded next to the Saloon. As I ducked around the corner of the General Store, I could see that there had been no damage to the saloon, but I could see that the reloading bench next to the General Store now lay in the street split in half. Bullets and dynamite now rained down on both mine and Sunny's positions. I told Ringo to fire but could not see him by the Mojave Express bin. I could barely make out where the Powder Gangers were located. I caught sight of one down the hill next to one of the houses. He had managed to get cover using the hill and the corner of the house. Just as he thought I was gone, he trained his sights on Sunny's position. I pulled my rifle out and fired. I scored a shot on his hand, which made him drop the rifle and lean forward, as he leaned out I worked the bolt on the varmint rifle and aimed for his head and fired again. The Powder Ganger went down clean. Only one Powder Ganger remained. He had Sunny pinned down. I couldn't get a shot on him from my position. Sunny couldn't move and was taking cover. There was still no sight of Ringo. I heard a second sound of gun fire by the Powder Gangers position and then silence. There, Ringo stood over the body of the last Powder Ganger.

"They were a little smarter than they looked, but not smart enough.", said Ringo