The low hum of crickets was punctuated by heavy bootsteps and the jangling of spurs. The ruined adobe fort at Twin Rocks was under the protection of outlaws, battle-worn men who scanned the desert for any sign of intrusion into their shady business dealings. One of these guards was stationed at the entrance to the old fort, leaning against a small boulder with a worn repeating rifle in his hand. The guard seemed desperate to spot anything moving that wasn't a tumbleweed. Bored out of his skull, he picked at his teeth, which were stained brown with chewing tobacco.
The guard looked up for a moment at the beautifully painted sky above. Although the light was fading fast, the Sun was still bright enough to illuminate a figure on a brown mare, trotting directly toward the fort. Sensing trouble, the guard drew his weapon, pointing it at the figure, who could be heard singing a religious hymn.
"Hey! Who goes there?" he shouted, trying his best to sound tough.
As the person approached closer, she dismounted her mare and dismissed it; the horse ran off into the desert, leaving the portly African-American woman on her own as the man approached.
"Well hey there, fellas!" she said with a broad smile. "Fine evenin', is it not?"
"What you want?" the guard asked her, not withdrawing his weapon.
"Well, friends, I have come to talk to you about eternity. Oh, Great Almighty Father, I am blessed to be able to talk to you today, friends! Will you join me, my people? Will you join me in being saved?"
"I think you're a little lost, woman."
Some of the other guards had approached by this point, attracted by the girl's jubilant singing and dancing at the entrance to the fort.
"Hallelujah, my friends, ha-a-lle-lu-jah! I am glad to have been bathed in the blood of Christ Almighty! Eternity, my friends, awaits the good and the righteous! Join me, my brothers, and be saved!"
One of the other guards watched from a distance, leaning against the wall of an old stockhouse. He was far away enough from the action that he only passively watched, so confident was he that his friends would take care of the threat. Unfortunately, this left him unprepared for the arm wrapping around his face and covering his mouth, followed shortly by a hunting knife entering his heart. He fell to the ground spurting blood from his chest, leaving not a sound as his assailant moved to another target.
"I am blessed and honored to offer you the blessings of the Father, the Son, and the Ho-oly Spirit! Join me, friends!"
"Leave right now, you negro bitch!"
The woman stopped, looking squarely at the man who had said this.
"Now come on, fellas, be civil now. I am a simple messenger, come in peace to save your souls. It would be a great shame if the Almighty Father were to take vengeance on thee."
"I'm gonna take vengeance on you if you don't leave now!"
Another guard stood watching from a nearby rooftop, repeater resting casually in his hands. Like his friend down below, he was relaxed, so relaxed that he didn't see the small girl behind him climbing up the ladder, sneaking up behind him, and ending his life with the hunting knife. The man let out a final groan, the last thing he saw being a swish of gleaming black hair in the dying sunlight.
The small girl took up position, withdrawing her own repeater from the sling on her back. She gave a hand signal to her friend down below, giving the okay to start the assault.
"Well…" the black girl shrugged. "Guess there's no savin' some folk."
In one swift motion, the girl casually withdrew two revolvers from two holsters on her belt and fired, striking one of the men in the chest. The guards returned fire, but with surprising grace, the large woman dove behind a rock, shielding her from bullets.
Simultaneously, the men were met with precise repeater fire from behind them. In the ensuing chaos, they scattered, allowing them to be gunned down all the more easily by the two women, whose skill with firearms was readily apparent.
Soon, the guards were only down to two men who ran, frightened, into the desert, leaving their dead friends behind. The women allowed them to run and met up in the courtyard, the black girl wiping a film of sweat from her brow.
"Whew…How'd you like that performance, Daiyu?"
The other girl, a much smaller Chinese woman, nodded briefly, giving a smile of approval.
"You really thought it was good?" the black girl lifted a hand to her chest, touched. "Well thank you, sugar, I try my best."
The girls took up their weapons, the black girl her two revolvers and the Chinese girl her repeater. The black girl kicked open the door, aiming her guns around the room.
"Mrs. O'Dowd?" the black girl called. "Are you in here?"
The Chinese girl followed close behind with her repeater, sweeping the main living area and finding it empty.
"Hey! Don't shoot."
The three guns were aimed at an unarmed white man with his hands raised cautiously, accompanied by a young woman.
"Let me guess," the woman said. "Terrence sent you to collect me? Well, I ain't going back! I can't go back!"
"We're in love," said the man. "Look, her husband ain't good to her. Help us escape, and I'll give ya' everything we have."
"Cliff, you promised I wouldn't have to go back! You promised!"
"They'll have to kill me to get to you," he said firmly. "Now come on, you two, have a heart. Please."
The black girl slowly lowered her guns; the Chinese girl kept hers pointed squarely at the man.
"Your husband," said the black girl. "He told us you'd been kidnapped."
"Kidnapped?" Mrs. O'Dowd scoffed. "That's just the way he is, always trying to control me. He beats me if I step out of line. I couldn't take it any more!" Mrs. O'Dowd looked desperate as she said this, hiding behind her lover.
The black girl swallowed hard, looking down at the floor.
"My husband used to beat me every day," she said. "Fists, pieces of rope, broomsticks, you name it. He abused me in more ways than one…Like you, Mrs. O'Dowd, I just couldn't take it anymore. And so one day, I…I shot him in the chest with a shotgun. And I don't regret it one bit."
The Chinese girl looked briefly over at her friend, lowering the repeater in her hands.
"S-so you know what it's like?" Hope flashed across Mrs. O'Dowd's face as she asked this. "…Hey, what's your name?"
"Tabitha," said the black girl. "Tabitha Smith. And this here is my friend, Daiyu."
Daiyu nodded, her narrow eyes scanning the two lovers with a shrewdness that made them slightly uncomfortable.
"So, you're gonna help us?" said Cliff.
"Well, I would like to," said Tabitha. "But this here is Daiyu's mission. It's a long story, you two, but I work for her."
Tabitha sighed, placing a hand on Daiyu's shoulder.
"It's your call, Daiyu, but I say we help 'em. They ain't hurtin' anyone, they just wanna be left alone."
"Exactly," said Cliff, looking at Daiyu. "And I know he promised you a paycheck. We ain't got much, but we'll compensate you, I promise."
Daiyu looked at the ceiling, her narrow eyes cast over in deep thought. It was hard to tell exactly what Daiyu was thinking sometimes, even for Tabitha, her best and practically only friend. It was hard for the couple as well, who couldn't help but notice the prominent scar on Daiyu's neck, a horrible jagged feature just underneath her chin that stretched most of the way across her throat.
After a moment, Daiyu's face softened. She looked at the couple, giving an upward nod and heading toward the door.
"I-I think she's gonna help us!" cried Mrs. O'Dowd.
Daiyu nodded again, holding the door open. The couple took the chance while they had it, rushing to the exit. Daiyu and Tabitha met eyes briefly; Tabitha smiled at her friend, signaling to her that they were doing the right thing before she headed out herself.
Cliff went out ahead, getting a wagon ready for their departure while Allison waited for Tabitha.
"Oh, thank you! Thank you both!"
"You're welcome, Mrs. O'Dowd," said Tabitha.
"Call me Allison, please."
She took Tabitha's weathered brown hands in hers. On the way to their wagon, Allison looked back at Daiyu, who followed at a distance, scanning the horizon for bad guys.
"Say, uh…why doesn't she talk?" Allison whispered.
"She can't," said Tabitha. "I don't know what happened to her because she can't tell me, but whenever she tries, all that comes out is breath. Whoever put that scar on her neck must have cut up her vocal cords."
"Goodness…I wonder what happened?"
"Me too. But it don't matter if she can't talk, 'cause that girl always gets the job done. Maybe, by the grace of God, her voice will heal one day. But until then, I've agreed to stick by her and be her voice."
"That's so sweet of you," said Allison. "You're a good woman."
"I ain't a good woman," Tabitha dismissed. "All these bodies are proof enough of that…But, me and her do have sense enough to help folks that need helpin'."
Daiyu came up behind them suddenly, nodding at Allison. The scar on her neck was a large and nasty one, a harsh pink against the soft, milk-white skin of her neck. Whatever had happened to her to have caused such a hideous wound, it hadn't seemed to have dampened her wish to do good for others.
Allison smiled at her. "Thank you, Daiyu, for deciding to help us."
The Chinese girl didn't smile back, instead looking toward the horizon and the town of Tumbleweed, from whence they had been sent by Allison's husband. She pointed in the direction of dust trails, five or six of them, heading in the direction of the fort.
"Shit…My husband's men!" cried Allison.
Daiyu suddenly put two fingers in her mouth and whistled, a startlingly loud and sharp whistle for someone without functioning vocal cords. Out of the desert shrubbery emerged a great white stallion with a silver mane, a beast of an animal that the small girl leapt onto with ease.
"We'll ride up ahead and intercept 'em!" said Tabitha, whistling for her own horse.
Tabitha quickly helped Allison onto the wagon and mounted her own horse, the shorter brown mare from earlier.
"Looks like a lot of 'em!" said Cliff. "You two be careful!"
"We always are…Hyah!"
Without a hint of hesitation, Tabitha spurred her horse to join Daiyu, who was well ahead of the wagon already as it rolled out of the compound.
Despite her small size, Daiyu controlled the huge horse with ease, its gallops barely even jostling her in her saddle. She aimed her repeater at the approaching riders and let a bullet fly, killing one with an expertly-placed headshot. A volley of rounds greeted her afterwards, which she avoided by steering her mount with the reins.
Tabitha came up behind at breakneck speed. She let fly a couple of bullets from one of her revolvers, which hit one of the other riders in his chest. With his left leg caught in the stirrup, the body was dragged along the rough desert scrub by his frightened mount, who galloped off into the fading sunlight.
Seeing the couple's wagon approaching fast, Daiyu and Tabitha led the riders from their path, heading offroad into a relatively cactus-free patch of land that their horses could maneuver in. Daiyu took another shot with her repeater, hitting and disarming another enemy. A second shot hit the man in the neck, killing him instantly.
Daiyu felt a bullet whiz by her head, almost taking the black Stetson hat off her head. Using the reins, she steered her horse to the right, taking aim and killing yet another one of the riders. As the wagon approached their position, only a couple of enemies remained, one of which headed for Allison O'Dowd. Tabitha acted quickly, shooting him in the head and back as he passed their position.
"Only one left, Daiyu! Let's kill the bastard!" shouted Tabitha.
This last man attempted to ride back toward town, but there was no way they were going to let him gather reinforcements from the man who had hired them to recapture his wife. Daiyu raised her repeater, taking careful aim for a moment before taking a shot that brought the man down instantly.
"Whoo!" Tabitha fist-pumped with joy. "You see any more of 'em?"
Stopping her horse, Daiyu peered into the approaching darkness, but saw no sign of any more enemies: neither lantern lights nor clouds of dust greeted her vision, and she turned to her partner with a shake of her head.
"Alright, good shootin' back there, sugar. I'm gonna go and tell Cliff and Allison that we're all clear."
Tabitha rode off to join the wagon while Daiyu briefly dismounted. Reaching into her satchel, she withdrew a nice, juicy carrot, which she reached up and gave to her horse. The stallion readily curled its lips around the meal, its reward for a job well done as Daiyu patted his neck.
The Chinese girl smiled as she leaned into her horse's body, still warm from the physical exertion, and gently brushed its silver mane. She had received the stallion as a gift from Clay Davies, a horse thief back in Blackwater, although Daiyu had been the one to have stolen the horse from some other thieves that Clay didn't like. That had been her and Tabitha's first job together after being broken out of prison and tasked with helping the widow of Philip LeClerk, a man Daiyu had been accused of murdering. Daiyu, of course, had not actually murdered LeClerk, but had instead been arrested for the crime because she was a convenient target – a Chinese girl who couldn't speak was an easy conviction, another win for Blackwater's burgeoning legal system.
Not everyone had bought into this sham trial, among those people being Jessica LeClerk and her hired gun, an old man named Horley. Together, they had plotted to break Daiyu out of prison while she was on a work detail in Valentine. Tabitha, a naturally charismatic and sagacious woman, had bribed a prison guard with cigarettes so that she and Daiyu would be assigned to the same detail. In this way, Tabitha could protect Daiyu from racist attacks from the other prisoners and also provide her company, making the act of breaking rocks with a sledgehammer in the stifling heat perhaps a little more bearable.
Before the prison wagon had reached its destination, it had been intercepted by the mysterious smooth-talking old man and a couple of masked toughs. The men had released all the prisoners except for Daiyu, who the old man wanted to come with him. When met with this request, Daiyu had kept her feet planted firmly in the ground while pointing at her friend in the prison wagon, indicating that she wouldn't go with Horley unless Tabitha came with.
Getting two prisoners clothed, fed, and back on their feet would undoubtedly be more expensive, but Horley figured that it would be better if Daiyu started building up a posse sooner rather than later. Under this pretense, he had obliged Daiyu's request and brought Tabitha along as well to a camp in the Heartlands, where Jessica had explained her situation and tasked the girls with avenging her husband's death. Daiyu had accepted this quest with a simple nod while chowing down on beef stew that Jessica had prepared for them. It was more difficult for Daiyu to swallow due to her throat injury, but her taste buds still enjoyed the stew, which was like a delicacy compared to the food she had been served in prison.
Noticing darkness approaching, Daiyu shook herself back to the present. She grabbed a lantern from her horse's saddle and lit the oil within with a match. With the agility of a gazelle, she leapt back onto the saddle and spurred her horse onward, galloping toward the distant lights of Cliff's wagon.
The couple stopped at an empty patch of road and disembarked from the wagon. Tabitha and Daiyu followed, dismounting their own horses.
"Okay, it looks like we're clear," said Cliff, withdrawing something from a chest in the wagon. "Terrence won't give up that easily though, he'll be sending agents to track our every move."
"To hell with him," Allison sneered. "He's a monster. But you two did help us."
"We'll make it," said Cliff. "We always do…Take this."
Daiyu took the clip of money that Cliff offered her. Like he had promised, it wasn't much, barely enough to cover the cost of the bullets they'd fired. Such was the cost sometimes of making the honorable choice.
Allison walked up to Daiyu, having noticed her frown as she looked over the paltry amount. The two met eyes for a moment before Allison wrapped the Chinese girl in a hug, planting a kiss on her right cheek.
"Thank you, Daiyu…You made the right choice. Cliff and I are probably going to Mexico or Australia next. I ever hear of any doctors over there that can fix your voice, you'll be the first to hear about it."
Daiyu nodded, her pupils having grown wide after the kiss. Allison felt breath leaving Daiyu's silent lips, perhaps suggesting that she was trying to say something, but couldn't get it out.
"I'd be up for a trip to Mexico," Tabitha said playfully. "Especially with my travelin' partner over here."
"We'll pay for you girls' tickets," Allison laughed. "But until then, you take care, you hear?"
"We will."
Tabitha and Allison hugged briefly before the newlyweds climbed back on their wagon and departed, leaving a fading dust trail as night approached in the desert.
"Whew, it's already getting chilly," said Tabitha, holding up her lantern. "We'd best be heading back to camp, Cripps'll have dinner ready…Daiyu, you're red, are you blushing?"
Daiyu shook her head rapidly, hiding her face behind her long black hair.
Tabitha laughed mischievously.
"I mean, that girl was pretty, I can't rightly say I blame you. I would've liked a kiss from her too."
Daiyu put a hand up, her way of telling Tabitha to stop.
"What do you mean, too far? I was only kiddin', sugar."
Tabitha sighed, quickly pulling her friend into a hug.
"You know I'll stick by you no matter what. And hey, maybe we won't have to go to Mexico. Maybe around here somewhere, there'll be a doctor who can do some surgery and fix your voice. There are a lot of places in New Austin and New Hanover we haven't explored yet."
Daiyu let herself lean into Tabitha's embrace. Although they were roughly the same height, Daiyu's slender frame was absorbed by Tabitha's as the two hugged. Daiyu's lighter weight made her much better at stealth than Tabitha, who normally served as either the heavy or as a distraction on missions.
Tabitha smiled down at her friend, who timidly smiled back.
"How about a race back to camp? I've been training Rhoda over there, we'll beat you this time."
Daiyu nodded, pulling away from Tabitha and running toward her own horse. She immediately spurred the horse and took off like a bat out of hell down the road, leaving Tabitha clambering onto her own horse.
"You're not even gonna wait for a count?!" Tabitha yelled. "Oh, you must be scared then! Hyah!"
Tabitha spurred her own shorter brown horse to action; it reared up for a moment, its whinny echoing through the empty desert, before sprinting down the road to catch up with the white stallion.
Oh hi there. :) If you're reading this, thank you for taking the time to read chapter 1. This is only my third story I've published, so please consider leaving a review and letting me know your thoughts, be they good or bad. If you're also a fan of Grand Theft Auto, I have an insanely long story based on GTA Online that you can check out as well.
Otherwise, I appreciate your time and I will hopefully see you later.