The Ballad of Decker Crane Ch. 12

Harp here. So, I'm just loading the queue and the mediators will release chapters on their judgment. As a result, I'm writing this before the first chapter posts. I don't know what's going on. I hope you like it and are commenting. For any issues or updates or comments that can't be taken care of in the comments section, see my profile. Thanks for reading.

All characters are under the age of eighteen

Chapter Twelve

Figures emerged from the woods as Decker fired his pistol, Kay and Cabot doing the same. Kay hit one man and others went for cover. Cabot ran for the porch and Decker went with him.

"Ambush," Kay yelled from the porch, firing. "Get inside, girl."

Adya ran into the house. Chione was standing over Persya and yelling, firing. Cabot bolted up the steps and grabbed her, but she didn't want to go. He turned his shoulder, his arm around her waist, pulling her in with him screeching. Bai rushed out the front door to get Persya, who was on the floor of the porch, bleeding, probably to death.

Decker turned around on the top step, aiming and taking one out, cold, and then taking out another. Then four or five popped up, and more, shooting, and he ran. A bullet went past him as he ducked inside. It hit the far wall, the wall splintering, as Cabot closed the door.

Kay was putting the wood slats up to the windows that had crosses in them for firing. He pushed them into their slots. Adya was trying to help.

"Get down, girl," Kay snapped.

Adya dropped. She did listen. A bullet whizzed through the thick glass, the women screaming.

"Everybody down on the floor," Bai yelled, leaning down, Persya at his feet.

"Sons of fucking bitches," Decker spat, coming in low and getting to Persya. She was unconscious or dead, blood on her head and face and in her silky hair.

"Lie her down on the floor here, Decker," Grace said, her voice calm, crawling to them and bringing her bag.

These bastards had an endless supply of bullets, plugging away at them like they were the only whore in town. Then it slowed, the men yelling at one another, disorganized. Decker hated these kinds of assholes. Fucking amateurs.

The firing stopped and someone began to yell, all of them listening.

"Hello in there," the voice called. "You must be Decker who owns Briken Ranch. I'm Shay Dather. Sorry about the woman. I'm a little rattled, given those fucking monsters caught and ate nineteen of us. We know you got women in there. We seen them from afar. We come for them. You shot three of my men, but there's still seventeen of us left, which is a lot more than the four of you and a pretty little whore with a gun. We counted six women and two girl-childs. Send them all out and we'll go on our way and let you live. We'll doctor the woman if she's still warm for fucking. Or, we can take them after we kill you. Those are your choices."

Another prick who talked too much. Decker had turned to move before the fucker's stupid speech was halfway over, going low. Idiots like that always needed time to think and talk and think some more, like action could be slowed at this point. Cabot was already moving toward the kitchen too, the back door, looking over his shoulder at Decker. Their eyes met. Decker looked back at Kay, who looked at Bai, and then Decker went faster.

Kay and Bai began shooting out of the cross sections of the wood as he and Cabot exploded out the back, clearing it. Decker went first, five men there aiming at him. But they hadn't really expected Cabot and him to come out like that because it was still early for something like that in their minds and the men were armed and there were a lot of them and most people feared a gun and because these losers still needed time to think. The rapidity of events in play simply overwhelmed them.

Everybody thought being a known frontier outlaw was standing still like an asshole at paces and some kind of dueling like in those stupid stories in Prime. What it really came down to was simply firing and actually hitting what you were aiming at. It was a lot more difficult than people thought, practicing their shooting. Aiming at an unmoving target wasn't the same as aiming in motion at someone else in motion in the heat of conflict when you might get hit any moment. It put a powerful fear into you.

The simple fact was, you needed practice with the real thing to ignore that fear and get good at it, which was what happened if you survived. That was the whole and entire difference between these men and himself. He'd survived. They tended to miss and he didn't. And he didn't stop acting in order to think about what the fuck he was doing. He was a lot more used to killing, too. But they were still five men with guns.

He took one out, the man spinning, and Cabot shot twice, hitting his target both times. He was good. A bullet came at Decker, missing, another coming and seeming to part his hair. Decker shot one guy. Cabot took out the last one, who'd missed them twice and then a third time. Cabot put him down for mercy. Decker shot two men who were still moving.

Both he and Cabot ran and got guns from the dead men, because running out of loaded bullets was always a problem. They went in opposite directions. Cabot had said he was good in a fight, and he was. Decker looked around the corner of the cabin and saw a man bringing Tag out to the front of the house. Tag, who'd warned them and gotten caught in the open. They'd taken his gun.

"No. Tag," a woman yelled from the house. That would be Grace.

Twelve against four, spaced far enough apart. They might do it. Maybe.

"You can watch your man here die--" the leader said, his stupid self planted dead center in front of the house, right before Decker moved, taking aim and shooting.

The fucker who had been about to shoot Tag flew back with a bullet in his throat. At the same moment, Cabot came around the other side of the cabin at a full run, firing.

At the same time, Kay and Bai came out the front door, one and then the other, selecting their targets. Now they were in it.

Then Chione came out, closing the door behind herself and shooting, because that woman didn't ever hold back. Decker had to say they could use the help. Five was better than four. Tag got his gun off the dead man, staying low and aiming. He shot a man, and six was better than five, to be sure.

It was a shit show, bullets flying everywhere this way and that. They got hit just merely out of luck. He heard Tag yelp. Bai yelled low not much later, going down. Bai rolled, his one hand going to the calf of his leg, coming up on his side and still firing with his other hand.

"Bai," a woman yelled from the house. That would be Dawine.

Decker was still moving, because standing and presenting a target was stupid. They missed him some more. He killed two, one right after the other. A bullet brushed by him on his left and he swore it tugged at him, turning him a little as he aimed and killed another.

He shifted and brought his gun up, but before he could fire, Cabot killed the man aiming at Chione. Chione turned her head and saw it, grimacing, and aimed again, pulled her trigger, grim, the man she was aiming at shot in the chest. That was good. Now she just needed to survive the fight. Decker shot another.

It was finally fucking over. Decker was panting, standing over the man who'd spoken to them. The leader of this lame-ass misguided idiot parade, the son of a bitch. The man's arm was hanging at the wrong angle, a bullet hitting the bone and shattering it. It was ugly.

"You're Shay Dather?" Decker said, cold and breathing. He kept flashing on Persya lying on the porch bleeding, shot with a bullet intended for him.

"I'm him," the man panted, vomiting from pain and then spitting into the grass, groaning and rocking. "Who are you?"

Decker was furious. He hadn't ever been so mad in his life. "Decker Crane. You shot my girl. Don't you know you never shoot a woman? What the fuck is wrong with you?"

The man forgot it all for a moment, staring up at him. "Decker Crane? The outlaw?"

"You missed me and your chance, stupid," Decker said.

"Decker Crane. Ah, shit," another one of the men who was on the ground panted, his hand on his belly and covered with blood, looking at Cabot. "No wonder. Who're you?"

"Name's Cab Hollis," Cabot said, nodding at him in a friendly fashion and shooting him, the man's body jumping.

Cab Hollis. Now, that name rang a bell. A big one. Things made a lot more sense now. Cab Hollis, who'd run with the Fallon Gang on Pimpton and was a man-killer with a reputation for being colder than space ice. Decker looked at Kay, who met his eyes. Kay, not shot and on his feet, didn't seem surprised.

"I recognized him from his wanted photos," Kay said mildly.

Bai was somewhere not far, groaning, his hand on his leg. "I hate getting shot. Fuck, that hurts."

There was one man still standing, his hands up and his eyes darting, unarmed and useless in a fight even when he'd had a gun. A big belly and a checkered shirt and just a mud-stupid face, unharmed out of the sheer perversity of the universe. It was a miracle he'd outrun the brikens in the first place.

"I'm Jack," he said, introducing himself, his voice wavering because he'd come here for killing and the raping of women and instead discovered himself at the wrong end of a gun.

"Hello there, Jack," Kay said to him, going to stand in front of him, his gun pointed at the guy's belly.

Decker sighed. Kay got chatty in these moments. It was best just to let him do what he was going to do in the aftermath of it, and this was going down a well worn road that he and Bai just didn't talk about. Or think about too much.

"You're the lucky one we're going to let live to tell the tale," Kay elaborated, still addressing Jack, coming closer and looking at him all over. His glance was a lot like a briken looked at a cow it was going to eat. "I know you fuckers already blathered about the women like a bunch of gossips. So you, Jack, get to go back to town. You're going to tell the smart ones that stayed put what happened here. Tell them who did it and who defends the women. Let them know what they'll face, anyone comes here again."

"Yeah," the man said, nodding and smiling like they had a deal, like they'd hired him and he couldn't wait to get started. "I'll go do that. Sure."

"Well, now, hold on," Kay said, his pistol still aimed at the man. "Don't go running off in such a lather. We're going to have us a little time in the barn together before you go, you and me, alone by ourselves. Like begets like in this world. Our intentions matter."

Decker sometimes thought Kay got almost poetical when he was horny.

"What you were going to do is a deep perversion, an evil thing, and I take it personal," Kay waxed on. "I'm angry, so it's going to be pretty bad, but I'll still let you go after, like I promised. You might walk a little funny and bide weepy for a time, but you'll be on your way. Come on now."

"To the barn? After what?" the man said, walking in front of Kay's gun. "Wait. After what?"

Cabot's eyes followed him. He winced. "Kay Gaurt," he muttered. "I should have realized. I heard about him."

"You heard right," Decker said, putting his knee down on Shay's injured arm, the man under him giving a wavering cry through his teeth. Decker pulled his knife and got close. "Let's talk some," he breathed, reaching for the man.

"Come on, Chione," Cabot said, eyeing him.

When Decker came back from the haze of it, there was blood everywhere and the man was very dead. He straightened, a black place of rage still in him as he turned toward the house, simmering right over the black place of despair in his guts.

What was the use of his talent at killing if he'd let the only woman he'd ever cared about get murdered by a bullet? If Persya was dead, he wasn't going to stop killing, he decided. He'd go from one planet to the next, murdering anyone that had ever crossed him or pissed him off until he didn't feel like doing that anymore. He had a list of grievances. Fuck it.

He came up the stairs and went in, going to stand over her form, blood on her, in her pretty hair, her delicate limbs limp, looking all crumpled and ill-used. Her eyes were closed, her neat face, so beautiful to him. He only just found her. His breathing was fast and deep, a coldness going all through him he didn't think would ever change or get any better.

Grace looked up. "She's still out. She's going to be all right, Decker. I'm getting ready to treat Bai."

Decker went still. "She's okay? Are you sure?"

Her eyes darted all over him. "It's a graze. Head wounds bleed a lot. Go wash up. You've got so much blood on you, I can't even see if you're shot."

Decker looked down at Persya's face again and released his breath, realizing he was shaking. He holstered his pistol.

"What can I do, Grace?" Tag said behind him.

"Hello, Tag. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine."

"Get this under her, would you?" Grace said, her voice getting lower as Decker turned. "Will you find out if Decker is all right?"

"Leave him alone, Tag," Bai said, groaning. "Nobody's going to approach Decker Crane right now, Grace. He's a raw son of a bitch. Fuck, that hurts. Leave him alone. He'll be fine."

"All right. Put Bai there," Grace said to Tag. "I have to make sure the bullet didn't hit any arteries. Take his pants off."

"In the middle of the room?" Bai objected, his teeth clenched.

"Stop being a baby," Grace said, Tag reaching to peel them off, Dawine coming to help.

Decker went through the door, silence in the kitchen. It calmed him as he turned on the water at the sink. He washed his arms and then his face. There was still blood everywhere. He took off his shirt, tossing it. His heart was pounding like it did when he had been in a fight or when he'd done something like that in a cold rage, the man's screams still ringing in his ears, his begging. Only after. The adrenalin was still coursing through him. He couldn't seem to get the blood off his fucking hands.

"Decker?"

He turned to look. Bryn was there, a smaller version of her sister.

Decker turned around, grabbing a towel, which came away red. "Come here, girl."

She walked to him and he squatted a little and lifted her with one arm. She put her head under his chin, leaning on him.

"You're all right. Persya's okay," he said, believing it now and feeling cautiously better.

"I know. But you got shot," Bryn said, pulling back and looking at his hand.

Decker looked down at the chunk taken from the fleshy part of his hand, his unhurt one supporting her, seeing the blood everywhere. "Well, shit. I sure did. Come on." Now it hurt like a son of a bitch. At least it wasn't his shooting hand. He set her down, cradling his hand against his chest and going back into the main room. He was making a mess.

Bai was there, protesting, in his drawers and crying out through his teeth when Tag twisted the tourniquet. Dawine was beside him and Bai couldn't scream properly because she was there, which was a mercy for everyone. Chione was sitting with Persya, who was still out.

"Let me bind your hand, Decker," Chione said, grabbing the gauze.

"Stop the bleeding first," Grace said, glancing and sounding distracted. "Then it will need to be cleaned. Tag? Is that blood on your shoulder? Did you get shot?"

"It just winged me. It's nothing, Grace."

"Go see about him, Chione. I'll do it," Decker said, grabbing the gauze and then the other shit and the stuff that would hurt like a mean fucker.

#

(Persya)

Persya was floating on a boat. They'd had a boat and a small lake at the orphanage. Her hand was in the water but she kept hitting her head on the side of the boat whenever the waves came. Trying to scoot back, she hit it again, and again. They only got rougher. It hurt.

She opened her eyes. Decker was over her.

"Ow," she said.

Decker got a weird look on his face and leaned down and kissed her, his mouth gentle. When he drew back, he brushed her hair from her face.

"Did you kill Cabot?" she said. Her own talking was too loud in her head.

"Cab Hollis. That raw fucker," Decker muttered. "We'll get along now we know each other, as long as we're careful. It was good we had him when those assholes came for us."

"Cab Hollis? The outlaw? Wait. Who came for us?" Her head was really aching.

"A bunch of men tried to sneak through the briken enclosure. The brikens ate most of them, but the remaining men got through. They felt like they deserved a reward for their sacrifices and ambushed us at the cabin to get to you and the other women. One of them was aiming for me and shot you in the head, the son of a bitch."

"What?" she said, her hand going there, feeling the bandage.

"You're all right. Bai took a bullet in the leg, but he'll walk again. Nothing vital. It's ironical that he's known for no bullet hitting him, because he's a magnet for them. He just never gets hit anywhere to kill him. He's been shot five times now. Tag warned us or we'd probably be dead. He got shot in the meat of his shoulder, but it went clean through, and he's more in danger from Grace being mad at him for not saying anything. Cab and Kay are fine, the fuckers."

She sat up, seeing the bandage on his hand, blood showing through. "You got shot?" Then she was on her back and she rolled over onto her side, curling up. She gagged, her hand going to her head, whimpering.

He brought himself behind her, supporting her. "Fuck, slow down, baby. The bullet grazed you, but you still got shot. You were out for a time. I got a hole in my hand. It hurts like a son of a bitch, but I'm fine." He brushed her hair back again.

She felt the bandage on her head. "Someone shot me?"

He rolled her on her back gently, his eyes assessing. "You still got all your brains, girl?"

She frowned lightly. "Of course I have all my brains. Even if I only had half of them, I'd still have more than you."

He stared at her and then snorted laughter, leaning down to kiss her again. "I know."

She looked into his eyes, deep brown eyes, his handsome face, and then smiled, feeling shy. "You were worried for me?" He had been worried about her, she could tell.

"After all the trouble you put me through since I met you?"

Her smile faded. "What?"

He laughed. "I thought my whole fucking world had come to an end, stubborn." Then he sobered. "The man who shot you suffered. I made sure of it."

Looking at his eyes, flat and cold, she shivered, her nipples twinging.

His eyes went to them and he shook his head, falling onto his back. "I'm always horny after killing and Grace says three days before I can screw you. I'd like to torture that asshole all over again."

She looked around. They were in their bed. "Is Bryn all right?"

"She came in while you were sleeping. Grace won't let Tag go home. She sure is bossy as a doctor."

#

Tag stayed that night, sleeping in the main room on the floor. Decker could tell he was enjoying Grace fussing over him, checking the wrapping on his shoulder, his shirt off and his eyes on her face. His gaze on her when she wasn't looking was brooding.

The next morning, Chione got mad at Cab, publicly, all of them in the house and on the porch and witness to the spectacle of it. Those two were courting hard. Everyone here had been through it, trying to figure it all out. It could be difficult.

"I have the right to ride and defend myself," Chione said, walking as he followed, a loud argument that started outside and came onto the porch and went into the house and around the table and then crossed over onto the porch on its way to somewhere else. "I don't need anyone to look after me."

"You could have been killed going out there," Cab told her back, his face hard. He didn't try to stop her anymore because the last time he'd tried, she'd pulled her gun and pointed it at him.