18680711 13:20:18 continued

18680711 13:20:18

TA x 16 S

Cook watched the leader of the three men in front of him draw his pistol in position first. The two men who flanked him seemed to motion to do the same, but did so later, so Cook knew that his priority was on the man in the center. He fulfilled his promise and shot his gun at Cook without issuing another word of warning. When he pulled the trigger, Cook steadied his feet on the ground and turned his hand slightly to its side as he thrust the sword in a circular motion in front of him. In that instant, the sword appeared to create a shadow of its motion in mid air as a thin screen of the metal spread from the blade, and the bullet from the gun reached the screen and shattered in metallic fragments. The shooter let a trail of tobacco juice slowly dribble from the side of his mouth as he saw the bullet get deflected away and leave Cook unharmed. Cook knew Massac was at his right, and the two understood what to do next;  the men pivoted away from each other and lunged their swords at the direction of the men on the sides of the leader. The inertia of the motion seemed to compel the metal in the blades to shoot forth from their tips, and the swords shot forth in length. Before the two men could fire their weapons, the tips of the swords had each pierced through each of their necks, which caused each to drop their pistols without having a chance to fire them. Massac braced his left hand under his right to thrust his sword upward, causing the sword to slice through the top of his target's head; Cook braced his hand in a similar manner but used the force to swing sideways, causing the impaled neck to be slashed in half and for the sword to race towards the leader. Before he could turn his head to see it, Cook's sword penetrated the leader at the shoulder with enough force to cleanly cut his right arm off and follow through to exit at the left side of his collar bone. Cook's first victim had his head fold over the side of his body, and the lack of balance and consciousness caused him to fall to the ground instantly and leave a trail of blood smear upon the horse's body. The fragment of the leader's torso fell forward and landed on the ground before the rest of his body reached the surface. Massac's target sat upright and stunned for a moment before the man fell forward and remained slouched over his horse.
Cook turned around before the leader's body finished falling to the ground and ran towards Rodney. The rider at the rear of the carriage behind Rodney was only capable of staring at Cook with eyes bulging from his head and his breath labored.
"You want it next?" Cook screamed the question at the rider as he put his arm around his son's shoulder to pull their bodies closer together. The rider remained standing still, except to silently shake his head. "Well gwan git then! Get the hell out of my home! I'll kill you next time! Go!"
The man did not hesitate to turn his horse around and race off away from the scene. Cook kept his gaze upon the man and watched him ride off until he noticed that Rodney was whimpering and weeping as he was being held against his body. Cook snapped his sword back into the chain length and motioned his arm around to use the centripetal force to wrap it around his body. He then knelt on both knees to face his son more directly.
"OK now look. Look at me. It's OK now, look at me." Rodney sniffled loudly as he looked up and felt his tears drip over the sides of his face. Cook rested both of his hands on the child's shoulders before speaking again. "This is the truth, here. This is the truth. There are some folks out there who want me dead, you see? You saw those guns. You heard them. They wanted to shoot me dead. It was them or me."
"But, ...  but why kill you? What did you do? What did you do to them?"
"Uh, well, without knowing who they are, I don't know for sure. It might be a few different things."
"Like what?"
"That don't matter right now. Right now, what you need to understand is that I got to do things like that to keep me and you alive. If they don't die, I die. We die. That's what you need to know from this. Now, we gotta do some clean up here before we can get back goin home. You gotta stay out here where we can see you while we do that, OK? Stay right by us."
"Urm, can't I just go sit in the wagon-"
"No! What just happened out here, boy? Pay attention! That wagon gets jumped again while we're taking care of things, then what? We might not be so lucky next time. No, you just hush and stay with me."
"Yes, Daddy." From this point on, Rodney obeyed his father's order without another word of protest, but kept his eyes to the ground and away from any pools of blood as best as he could. Massac and Cook approached the bodies and pulled the bandannas away on the men to get a closer look.
"Anyone you recognize? I don't." Cook took one of the fallen men up by his armpits and dragged him to the side of the road as he asked.
"Nope, nobody. That much is a relief." Massac let the body he was holding fall to the ground and ran to the body that Cook was dragging to help lift it by its feet. The two mean used the same teamwork to move the two other bodies, then Massac tended to the horse left behind to get it tethered to the carriage. Luckily, the animal was braced and ready to go with no difficulty and within a short span of time.
Nobody said another word for the rest of the ride home. By the time he entered the carriage, Rodney was able to regain his composure and stopped crying.