The men didn't know what hit em. I was spraying lead faster then I ever remember in practice at the shooting range. I wasn't shooting to kill, just knocked their guns off. They they always seemed to have another. But the ones I couldn't see… the ones who only staging bullets flew. I had to do something. I thought furiously as I kept firing. The men below didn't know I was behind them. The thought it was the men in the house that had such lucky shots. But this shooting wasn't working. I had to think like an outlaw… I was one… I had to act and think like it. So I thought. And thought hard. But the only answer that came was to pick the men off one by one. Kill them. I wasn't sure I wanted to do that. So what could I possibly do? An idea suddenly came to mind. I was an outlaw right?
So wasn't dynamite always part of their escapes? A cruel smile creapt over my mouth. I ran back to my horse, and dug deep into my saddle bag. I stuffed my pocket full of sticks of dynamite, and ran back to my high spot look out. Without stopping I threw one. Yeah it wasn't lit… but that wasn't a mistake. It landed right behind a group of men on my far left who were hiding behind a bunch of boulders. Now… this dynamite wasn't enough to kill… just enough to knock em out. Plus it was to far for them to be caught in the explosion. I aimed my gun… and fired. The wick on the stick flared and sparkled suddenly. I threw another one. Which landed on my far right. I set that one alight to. Then I lit one… and waited for the spark to be about an inch from the stick before I threw it hard into the air. The explosions went off one after the other.
First on my left, splattering and spraying rock everywhere, blinding the men. The one on my right did the same. Then the one in the air went off, getting everyone's attention. The men right below me were confused and wondering what had happened. The gun shots stopped, and I ran to the top, visible to everyone.
"They're taking off!" I said, "They have more horses around the bend and are heading to the river!" I screamed. All at once the men took off. I lowered my hand from around my mouth in disbelief. They believed me? No way. I scoffed. These guys are… dumb. Dumb was the only word that came to mind. They all left, the last of the dust settling from the horses. I climbed down and up to the house. I knocked on the door. Nothing. I knocked again. The door was almost coming off it's hinges. Then shots rang out and the door started to explode in specific area's. I ducked, "Dang it boys quite shooting you dang twits!" I screamed, as the lead flew by. The shots stopped, and the door opened. Billy stood there, pistol cocked, starring at me.
"What the…" he started. He looked behind me at the rocks above. I crossed my arms waiting. "Where'd they go?"
"They left." I said. Billy blinked, like he didn't believe me. His eyes wondered behind me and saw the explosion. Then he saw two pistols on him hips, the rifle in my hand, and the dynamite in my pocket. His eyes suddenly sparked, coming alive again, and a smile spread on his face. He gave a sharp abrupt whistle.
"Hey boys! Come looky what we got ourselves into!" he yelled into the house. Doc came around the corner, ducking low, rifle aimed. He stopped when he saw me and Billy at the wide open door.
"What's going…" he started. Then Jesse came in, with the same act. He rubbed his chin, rolling his head, chuckling to himself in disbelief. Cole came next, then SHavez and the rest. All of them trying to act all stealth and holding a cocked gun in their hands.
"What are you still doing here? What's going on?" Cole was confused.
"I WOULD tell ya, but we got a little less then four minutes to skin out or we'll be trading our dinner in for lead down our throats." I said. They all starred at me. I gave an annoyed sigh and rolled my eyes, "MOVE!" I said. They all bolted for the door without a further word. By the time I was mounted Cole and Jim were already making tracks out of the canyon. I kicked my horse into a hard run and sped out of there knowing the rest where behind me.
It wasn't long before the posse hit our tails. Led flew, and sooner or later someone would get a lucky shot and hit someone. Lucky shot. I huffed and pulled my rifle out again. I swung one leg over the saddle, while the other leg went the other way. Now I was riding backwards. I cocked my gun, and waited for the beat of the horse to fall into motion with my aim. There. I pulled the trigger, and one of the horses in the posse flipped out. I didn't hit it, don't worry. I don't blame the horse though. I mean one second it was carrying a heavy saddle with a heavy man whaling on it to go faster, and the nest, the saddle snaps and all that weight is suddenly lifted in a quick loud BANG and a snap.
The saddle strap snapped and the man fell off. The horse burst into a hydraulic of kicking and bucking, causing two more horses to loose their focus. That was all for my rifle, I was out. I flung myself back around, facing forward now. I saw the rest of the gang in front of me, their shirts and vest fluttering wildly behind them. I urged my horse to go faster. I felt a bullet wiz by my head, and my heart jumped and I ducked. That was close. I could have been killed if that shot was just a little bit over to the right. Maybe I shouldn't have pulled the trigger. That thought lasted about a second, before I was back into the rage of the race. We were gaining ground between us, slowly but surly. Soon we were out of range and the bullets stopped. When I looked up, I saw that I was further behind then the rest. Much further. And the rest had all stopped for some reason, their horses in a frantic mess. Why'd they stop? Were they waiting for me? I found the answer as I flew past them… and straight over a cliff.
I fell off the saddle as I fell, my horse letting out a frantic scream. Water below me caught me in a strong but slow current. It was cold, chilly, but I surfaced quickly and swam to shore a little further down stream. I looked up. The rest of the gang were starring… wide eyed.
Then suddenly I saw Billy flying off the cliff screaming THIS IS FOR SURVIVING CHRISTMAS! As he flew. Jesse was next and the rest followed quickly after. I found my horse just coming up onto the small rocky beach. I took shelter the small wood on the side of the river the posse was not on. The rest soon followed, Jim being last.
We waited in the cover of the overgrowth as the heads of the posse popped up above the ridge line on the cliff. They all stopped and looked over. A few shook their heads while others instantly turned their horses around. The last few who even thought about jumping, turned around and left.
"You crazy wack!" Cole yelled when we were trotting across the land, squeezing the water out of our clothes, "You can't just JUMP of cliffs like that!"
"Ya there could have been nothing but rock down there." Jesse said, smiling.
"How'd you know it was water?" Jim asked. I licked my lips and smiled.
"I didn't." I said.