Shadow+of+The+West

Chapter 1 The chains clattered around the cell that bound him. The rag clothed man, gruff and nasty, reached his gnarled hand to the only stone window in the entire earthen room. Pulling himself to the iron bars, he saw the same sight as he had for the past sixteen years, a rock wall showing nothing but a tiny crack. He knew if he failed this last attempt to escape he would be shot or hung; although if he did not try he would eventually die in this horrid prison anyway. “Guard!” A uniformed man, brandishing a silver pin walked next to the bars of his cell. The prisoner took out the only thing he now owned, a small tin cup. “Might I have a drink of water?” He wheezed. “If you must.” Said the guard through gritted teeth. When he returned he did not see the prisoner through the bars. “My water.” A voice choked in the darkest corner of the cell. “There you are! You're really wasting my time you know.” Opening the small cell door with one of the keys on his ring, he walked into the cell. Suddenly, out of nowhere the prisoner struck the guard in the face. As the man fell to the floor the jail bird laughed, “You're really quite the stupid one ain't you?!” Grabbing the guard’s small pistol, he dashed out the door, into the glistening moonlight.

Chapter 2 It only took about five seconds for people to realize that a criminal was escaping the inescapable prison. “Jack! Yelled one of the other prisoners. What the heck y'all do’in! You gonna getcha-self killed!’’ Jack didn't take much notice of the whooping fugitives around him. It would be kind of hard to realize they were there when you have a bunch of angry, cussing, rifle firing, nimrods right behind you, out for blood. Jack snatched his new stolen pistol, and shot a barrel of gasoline in the rocky hall behind him. The barrel exploded in a fiery mess, some of the jail birds around it spontaneously combusted with a shower of molten sparks. His pursuers skidded to a halt. “Get the hell back here Jack!” They roared but their voices were lost in the raging flames. Jack gave a short chuckle while he was opening the door to the prison, his bare feet padded quietly along the ground of sand. He picked a small grove of rock and cactus to sleep on that night. How good it felt to sleep under the stars, his head resting happily on some of the rags he had taken with him. Slowly he began to drift into a deep sleep. He could not control his dreams, the dreams wondered and explored places forgotten until they settled on one moment that Jack wasn't entirely at peace with. Actually he hated this moments guts and would kill it if he had the chance. It appeared more clear in his mind now until it was as vivid and fresh as if it had just happened yesterday. In his dream, he woke up early that morning in a good mood, obviously not realizing that this was his last day as a free man for a long time. Heading toward the bank he greeted each neighbor politely if he saw them out of their houses and saloons. His fine white horse trotted on the uneven sand, and then he unsaddled and hitched the pretty horse to a post. Walking into the bank he realized something was wrong. All of the bank’s lamps were out, and fowl gun smoke heavy in the air. Suddenly a bag of money dropped on him as a man jumped out of a window.  “Shawn T. Rook at your service!” Jack stole a look at the man before his hasty departure. “Rook” had a demonic appearance, mostly due to his black right eye and red left eye that both twitched freakishly while he searched the room for anything he had not stolen. He also had a large stub of where a finger should have been. The man slyly chucked a bloody knife at Jack. At first Jack thought the knife was meant for him to be utterly destroyed, but this thought was dismissed when it came clattering to his feet, and he saw the teller laying dead behind the desk. Everything happened at once, thousands of dollars in his hands, then the sheriff, and finally a life sentence in the Robogh jail.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Chapter 3 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jack woke with a start and shielded his eyes with one of his hands. He was not used to any sunlight but the tiny beam from his jail cell window. Humming happily as his eyes adjusted to the blinding rays of hot desert sun, he set out to the nearest town where they would not recognize him, Dochja, 95 miles away.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Gently sliding under the barbwire fence of an old farm, Jack rolled to avoid a near nick on one of the microscopic spikes. Realising a deep breath and jumping up, he thought about his past. He used to be a jolly neighbor, a good friend and a well rounded man. But now, after his experience in prison, everyone would hate him, and know him a fugitive and a murderer. All he wanted now was revenge at this Rook man. The only one who would still think of him as Innocent was the only family he had left, his brother.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Opening the door and hollering “Brother!” A man came to the wooden frame that passed as a door. “What do you want beggar?” Said the man in a western accent. Aidan, Jack’s partner in crime, had rough skin, a wispy goatee, of which he twirled with his finger, and a filthy bandanna tied around his neck. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Who be you?” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“I’m Jack! Your brother!” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Jack’s in jail. Now get the hell outta here or your blood stains th’ floor.” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He grabbed his silver tiger revolver and stuck a few wax bullets in the barrel, never taking his eyes off of his rag clad brother. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Sixty four.” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“You say somthi’n stranger?” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Sixteen sixty four, ma died,” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Howed you know that?” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“I’m Jack, how else would I?” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“If you’re Jack how did you get out of jail?” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“A knocked out guard and a burned down prison.” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“You are Jack! Only man I know who could cause so much mischief in a single day.” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“You believe me then?” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Of course ya idiot.” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Then let me in fore I freeze.” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Ain't them sheriff gonna be after you?” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Course they will.” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Get in here, quick.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Chapter 4 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“I’ve got a spare straw bed for ya, but you gotta get out of here before noon tomorrow.” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Thanks for the bedd’in brother.” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">‘‘Word’s out the a man named Shawn is out an’ about, robb’in people, and he’s going on a train from Dochja to Pinshith by tomorrow night.” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jack’s head ached as the name Shawn was mentioned, and he instantly thought of his revenge on the baneful man. As Aidan lumbered off to his small bedroom, he stumbled and looked back at Jack. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Why'd ya jump when I talked about the Rook man?” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Rook got me towed to prison.” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Aidan’s eyes widened and he said, “We’ll get a early start on Rook in the morn.” Aidan’s head was obviously still trying to comprehend his brother’s statement, as he staggered back to his room. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Aidan, you all right?” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Just a little side pain.” he said while clutching his left shoulder tightly. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jack had to catch up to Rook before he got on the train, he just didn't how.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As Jack woke up in the morning, he realised it must be at least noon and was wondering where Aidan was. Bones creaking, arms stretching Jack let his feet touch the old wooden floorboards of the shanty, and found some roughly stitched pantaloons accompanied by a blue shirt and a bandanna stuffed in a closet. After putting on all of his new clothes he headed toward Aidan’s bedroom. There, laying choking in the bed, was Aidan. His brow was covered with beads of sweat, and his shirt was just a wet rag. Jack rushed to the bedside of the last family member he had left. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Aidan!” Jack shouted. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“F-find my h-horse in the shed and lift the hay, get Rook.” He said meekly. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“No! No!” Jack blubbered through a river of tears. And all too soon Aidan’s eyes rolled back in his head, he had just experienced a heart attack.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Jack lifted up Aidan’s limp and lifeless body, taking it to the only tree he could see for miles. Then he started to dig a dirty hole in the sand. He remembered all of the happy times he had shared with Aiden before his death, it was too hard to take all of this in at once. As the last bit of dirt was flicked out of the hole, Jack rolled Aidan into it and shoveled sand on top of him until the only feature of his brother left showing was his pale white face. After giving Aidan one last look, Jack put the last mound of sediment on his dead brother.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Chapter 5 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Jack half heatedly trudged to the barn door. He felt the rough leather of the boots on his feet that he had found found in the house, and a small tear trickled down his cheek. The chipped red paint cracked when he opened the door and a shower of dust fell on him from overhead. The barn was dim and musty, there was an old broken clock on one wall and a few dusty sacks of feed stacked against the other. A thin brown horse stood in one corner, munching happily on a few pieces of hay it looked at Jack with its gentle blue eyes and gave a large snort. A short chuckle escaped Jack’s mouth, and then another few tears rushed down his face and made small watery domes on the hard sand floor. Grabbing a hoe through blinding tears, he started to clear away the hay on the uneven floor. Suddenly, “THUNK!” The metal hoe struck against a piece of wood and Jack cleared the stray ground hay. Under the dust, there was a rusty trunk. It opened with a creak, and revealed the most astounding sight Jack had ever seen. The trunk was obviously a trap door because it went about six feet deep. Inside the trunk there was just about as many weapons stashed away as there would be in a small army. Shotguns, rifles, knives, and revolvers of all kinds lined the wall of the trunk, Jack selected three pistols, and jammed them in his belt. There was a particular rifle that caught his eye and he found it to be made of heavy iron, though it wasn't very light it did have a barrel that he could lodge ten bullets in at a time, so he strapped it on his back. Grabbing two bronze barbed knifes and putting them in his rag pouch, he started to walk toward the horse. The sleek brown horse was small and skinny, you could see its rib cage but it still stood steadily. Jack considered just walking to find Rook when he took a closer look at the horse. But in the end he decided that he might as well give the poor scrawny thing a chance. He took hold of the horse’s reins and walked it out of the rickety barn.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Chapter 6

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Jack didn’t need a saddle to ride a horse, he thought that riding on a flimsy piece of leather was a waste of time and a sign of weakness. Pulling himself on the horse he saw the sky, it was turning black, this meant rain. He had to reach Dochja before the rain hit, if he did not make it in time he would likely not find Rook, and only find himself dreadfully wet. Jack doubted that the horse would even come to a slow trot and eventually fall down and die. Again Jack considered just walking the distance to Dochja, but that would take a fortnight; time that Jack didn't have. He knew he had only a small window of precious time to catch and hopefully kill Rook so he had to get moving. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Heee-aww!!” Jack bellowed into the desert while slapping the horse’s behind. The stared at Jack in a very unpleasant manner, it had not moved an inch, and it was disgusted at Jack’s cruelty to him. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Aww, damn, why th’ hell won’t you move?” Jack said angrily. The horse glared at Jack nastily and snorted as if to say: What the bloody heck is wrong with you? Suddenly a deafening crack of thunder erupted from the sky and seemed to shake everything that existed. The horse was startled and it took off, (Not literally) tearing across the desert kicking up a colossal spray of dust in its tracks. Jack was stunned, in fact he was so stunned that he fell off the horse and onto a cactus. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jack cried out in pain as the horse suddenly stopped dead and daintily turned around. Staring at Jack with lively joyful eyes, the horse trotted next to him as thunder shook the Earth. Jack realized that Aidan had never told him this horse’s name, he could pick one himself. Looking at where he was sitting, Jack felt a sharp pain in his rear end. After quickly jumping off of the prickly mess, he once again looked at the brown stallion and said, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Well you’re insane, somehow you're not all that bad; so I’m gonna name you... Beaute.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Chapter 7 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The rain had struck right as Jack and Beute were approaching a canyon, but something about the the enormous radiating jet black cloud was unsettling. The unnatural cloud was starting to creep closer and closer as Jack decided that they would camp out in a rather large cave encrusted in the side of the massive rock. Leading Beute into the cavern with his hands on the lines, he laid out a small roll of sheets that would be his bedding and mattress for the knight. Jack hitched Beute to a little stalagmite in the wall and checked on the storm again. From inside the festering cloud, two small drill shaped objects streaked out of the cloud toward the ground; getting larger and more terrifying with each passing moment. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Cyclones,” Jack choked hardly able to breath. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He knew that the place he had chosen to be a camp would hold against the horrible wind of one tornado for about an hour, but having two tornados, he had no idea how he would survive. To make matters worse, Jack knew that desert storms like these could last for hours sometimes even days; and with the pure destructive force of two cyclones, he would die. Jack’s only choice at this point was to follow the dark and forbidding passage in the back of the cave. He could hear the wind starting to harshly smash against his cave so he grabbed beute, and hurried to the back of the cave and into the passage.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The narrow tunnel was not as bad as he had originally feared, it was worse. Bleak squishy mud containing a substance unknown, gushed from the sides of Jacks boots creating a watery footprint that was soon filled with more of the grimey disgusting mud. As he stumbled through the dark trying to create a path for beute he reached for the rock wall which was covered with (To his disgust) dried bat <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> dung that flaked off the wall and migrated to Jack’s hands in a sticky mess. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“What the hell is wrong with this place!” he cursed while kicking that wall and stubbing his toe. But instead of the hard rock he expected to feel, these was a reverberating feeling that shook his foot. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Hmm” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jack kicked the same spot as he had before, but this time a little harder, and felt the same feeling. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“That was strange,” he said while getting down on his knees and trying to dig through thick quicksand like mud. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jack’s hand closed upon something hard and he pulled on it with all his might. But is would not move. Again he pulled as hard as he could but nothing happened. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“I with that stupid thing would come out,” he grumbled loudly. Just as Jack started to walk away three thick metal bars shot out from the ground making a eerie grinding sound that made Jack dizzy as it rang in his ears. The rods were in front of him so he tried to turn in the other direction where Beute was standing and watching the rusty bars fall from the ceiling. As all of the bars suddenly snapped into place, Jack felt as if he were falling off of a mountain as the surrounding ground started to drop beneath his feet.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Falling and tumbling, possibly both at the same time, Jack slid down a slightly tilted passage that ended on a small island in a lake of water that looked never ending. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Sancreek; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Ahh,” he mused. Jack had heard the guards by his prison having a heated discussion about whether or not a German man named Jhak Ghuto should open a mine in a nearby gorge, their argument was based upon the fact that the Arroyo river ran through the canyon every spring and would most likely flood all of the mine passages.