Eido's Short Stories: Tales of the Wild West

Story #2: The Outlaw: Bad

A wolf howled towards the moon, full and gleaming in beauty and splendour as the stormy weather thundered across the plains, the land illuminated by a strike of lightning in the distance every so often. Three men were riding an armoured wagon, being drawn by four horses. Each man was armed with a long-barrelled weapon of some kind, with two of the men further armed with all assortment of weaponry. The ones riding up front wore matching outfits – a tattered jacket over a plain shirt, with a red neckerchief tied round their necks, and matching brown leather chaps worn over a pair of dirty striped trousers. Each wore a hat similar to that of a cowboy’s or a cattleman’s. The one on the back of the wagon wore a more conservative outfit – with a dark gentleman’s suit, slightly dirty and frayed on the edges of the sleeves, and a bowler hat which sat plum upon his head – looking more like a banker with an armed escort. This is exactly what it was – a banker with an armoured wagon full of money, being escorted by two professional gunfighters.

A shot was heard echoing across the plain, before the driver’s body took a bullet to the sternum, with a second entering his left breast. Both bullet holes were quickly surrounded by a collection of blood, pooling out of the wound and staining the man’s clothes. The wagon drew to a halt as the driver fell off the wagon, his shotgun falling with him, and both hit the road and lay where they landed without moving. The banker quickly ducked back into the wagon, taking rifle with him. The other gunfighter clambered from the wagon, aiming his own rifle around him, trying to find the mysterious shooter. He heard noise behind him, quickly dropped his rifle and pulled out his revolver, before taking a shot and finding the mark. A body collapsed.

The gunfighter carefully picked up his rifle once more, before shooting at the indiscriminate body once more; attempting to make sure it was dead. Feeling sure he was now safe – the man walked up to the corpse. A deer, with a bullet to the side, and a further one to the head. This was the last thing going through the man’s mind when a shot fired and a bullet penetrated his head through his right eye, gore hitting the shadowy figure in front of him.

A knock upon the armoured wagon’s door caused the banker to jump – he was sure his guards were done for. ‘Maybe not, it seems?’ he thought as he opened the door, only to see an unknown figure with a revolver outside. A pull of the trigger later, and the man was the proud owner of an armoured wagon full of cash. Taking out a cigar, the outlaw placed it in his mouth before lighting a match to light his cigar – the fire illuminating the man’s face to show he looked very similar to many of the current wanted posters circulating the nearby town of Raven’s Hill, upon the edges of the Llano de la Tormenta – the infamous outlaw Elijah Wallach, better known as “Devil Eye Eli” or “Ojo del Diablo”.

A/N: This is effectively the first chapter of something pretty major. If you like to compare it to something - it would be the first chapter/ prologue for an actual book, starring Elijah Wallach as a central character. It does, however, donate itself rather well to being a one-shot without any loss of structure. And yes, this was already written by the time I decided to start this topic. That's why comparing the first and second stories would have you taking the second one much more seriously.