Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Blog

Blogathon 2006: Chapter 41.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

"You alright, Brand?" Dove hollered, lowering his gun to Solitaire, who was lying in the dust, his gut wound bleeding out into the dry ground, lips curled back in pain, eyes half shut.

Another boom of thunder.

"I'm alright! He just clipped me in the side!" Brand shouted, watching as Dove slowly moved in front of Solitaire, towering over him as he quietly pulled back the hammer on his .45.

"I know where you came from," Dove said softly, Solitaire twitching and muttering pleas for mercy he never gave. "I know where you came from and I aim to send you back there." He drew a bead on Solitaire's forehead.

Overhead the skies grew darker, roiling above the parched ground now wet with blood, stirring up the dust. "What time is it, Brand?" Dove hollered over his shoulder. Brand struggled to sit up and looked at his watch.

"It's noon."

A few lone drops of water splatted on the ground in front of Brand, doing little more than anger the thirsty ground.

Dove paused for a moment, out on the street. Brand wondered if he'd changed his mind. He thought of the paint horse Dove rode, it's flashy black and white markings at odds with a man who slipped in and out unnoticed. Dove had shrugged the inquiries of Zane off with little more than a nod. "There's good and bad and I give in to both, sometimes," was all he'd said.

Black and white.

Dove spoke with a deadly low voice, gentle and vicious. "The strong shall live," he said, to himself more than the quivering man in front of him on the ground or the newsman in front of the building. With a gentle squeeze of the trigger and an explosion of powder, Dove made good on his promise. Solitaire lay still, the sky spitting on the dead man.

Brand pulled himself further upright, sitting, seeing the townspeople watching from the windows of the buildings having chosen safety above all else; they lived in crossfire. No sense being caught in it.

Dove was standing next to his horse by this time, both walking out of town in the direction they'd come in.

"You coming back?" Brand yelled, but he knew the answer.

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