Snippet #914226

The number of these bastards who had chased him into town had been drastically reduced. Their fire was no longer concentrated on his position and the sound of gunshots from a position parallel to his own had indicated that someone else had joined in against these bastards. Coast peered over the side of the building and caught sight of one of them trying to reload his shotgun. He stretched out his arm, trained his gun on the man and let the fire fly. The man dropped to the ground, grasping at his throat as blood burst forth from the wound. Coast was going to shoot at the next man, but he heard that all to familiar empty *click* that he hated to hear during a firefight.

Wounded and with his arm hurting like hell he tried desperately to reload his gun, just knowing that man was going to try and take advantage of the situation...

That's when he thought he heard Sadhat, one of the members of his former gang talking to him. Sadhat had been the eldest of the gang, damn near 50 and had seen the most combat outta all of them. A deserter of the Civil War Sadhat had traveled to the frontier and after joining up with the gang became one of the most determined to keep the war from reaching the New Mexico territories. He had watched as boys got splintered and split apart by cannon and rifle fire, as families were torn apart while sons fought fathers and brothers killed each other. As senseless as the gang's goal was, Sadhat was a firm believer in keeping more from going off to war and died in that quest. Ironically, Sadhat had died while helping Coast escape being pinned down by Confederate rifle fire when the gang had intercepted a company of soldiers setting up an ambush for a band of Mojave Indians that had assisted the group. Out of all the members of the Gang Coast had respected Sadhat the most....

But when he snapped back to reality, it wasn't Sadhat saving him again but yet a stranger, armed quite well. He couldn't help but point the rifle that had somehow been placed in his hands at the man, hell he was scared and figured himself to be a goner. He was almost in a trance when the man had spoke to him. This guy was a soldier and knew how to fight. The instructions that he gave Coast sounded smart, and the bandolier that he put 'round his neck gave him a surge of confidence that was well needed. He didn't even pause as the stranger dropped the man that Coast knew was going to flank him earlier, and dashed towards the livery that the he had pointed out.

Bullets flew past Coast in his dash, he was able to get off a shot before he made it within the store but it had missed. Just as the stranger had told him he vaulted over the counter, landing hard on the arm that was still bleeding. He cursed aloud, giving away his new position to some attackers. "Damnit...." was all he said.

They ran towards the livery, but the rifle that the stranger had given him was a beauty! Her shots rang out loud in the store but the two targets that Coast had made dropped to the ground in silence. One had a bigger hole where his eye socket had once been and the other's heart now had a bullet keeping the beat from continuing.

Coast kept his fire up, ducking as the wood around him splintered by the bullets that crashed into them. He wiped the sweat from his brow, steadying himself to pop up again and return fire when he heard the sound of a charge accompanied by the screams of the confederates fleeing the scene.

They took off in all directions, the few that were left scattering into the surrounding wilderness. Coast ran from the store and tried to pursue but they had made it to their horses and were flying as fast as they could. He trained the rifle in his hand on the back of one of the riders that were trying to flee. However his hands were shaky and his shot rang out, missing his intended mark.

The bullet however did shatter the man's ankle, causing him to topple from his horse. He crashed to the ground hard, screaming in agony while holding the bloodied limb with both hands swearing to the heavens. The others that Coast could see were too far gone now, so he sighed and walked towards the man who had been taken down. He reached down to his left leg and removed a long hunting knife from it's sheath. When he arrived to where the man had landed he crouched down and viciously grabbed the man by his hair, raising his head up while pressing the knife hard against the man's neck.

"There's more of ya'll bastards ain't there" Coast said as he gave the man's hair a sharper tug. The man was steadily defiant, spitting at Coast before speaking out.

"Ya goddamn right there are boy, and the fellas that made it out are gonna get the rust of us to send you, and everyone else in this town to hell!"

Coast had dodged the wad of spit that had flown at him and slammed the mans face hard into the dirt, breaking the man's nose as he gave out another scream of pain. "Ya'll ain't even confeds are ya'll? You sure 'as 'ell don't fight like'em..."

The man simply kept telling Coast to go to hell over and over again. With a sigh of irritation, Coast slit the man's neck. Slowly he rose back up to his feet to turn back towards the town. He wanted to find his horse and get the hell out of dodge. Coast knew there was some truth to the man's words. While they hadn't been confederate soldiers, they would be back and in much greater number. It had happened too many times before. More than likely this was just a very large group of people who posed as confederates to spread whatever message they wanted. Still, they were dangerous and not the sort of crowd Coast wanted to piss off.

He wanted nothing to do with them at this point...

But as he continued to walk his vision began to fade in and out. He stumbled a little and remembered that he had lost a good amount of blood from the wound but still tried his best to walk, talking out loud to spur himself forward.

"Gotta...get...the hell...outta"

He fell down to his knees, both arms feebly trying to hold himself up from falling on his face but it failed. As the world became dark the last thing he remembered thinking was: Momma wouldn't want me to die like this...