And somewhere in the darkness....

[SexyChele]

Sam

Standing stock still as I watched the woman named Maria dragged atop the huge black stallion, I could no longer believe this was a simple robbery.

As the one named Black Bill spoke, I tried to digest that we were being taken hostage. Hostage! I glanced up at the trunk on top of the stage. I would be thankful to only lose that, I supposed.

Deep in thought, the crack of gunfire startled me back into reality. I saw the driver slump over the side of the coach and land with a thump into the dust beside the coach. Choking back a scream, I suddenly saw the world weave dizzily before me. Holding the side of the coach and trying to gasp air back into my lungs, fear seized me.

The woman named Martha said some words of comfort to me, but I couldn't take my eyes from the dead man. I dared not look at Black Bill or any of his men - who knew who might have a trigger finger among them?

I felt a light pressure on my arm, and jumped, startled. Looking up, I saw it was Mr. Earle, my fellow passenger. Taking my arm lightly, he lead me to the coach. Giving the driver once last glance, praying he had no family who would worry about him, I hefted my skirts, and climbed inside the dim coach. Mr. Earle sat down across from me.

Loosing a few buttons at the top of my dress to allow myself to breath easier, I gasped as the coach lurched forward, then turned. I looked up at Mr. Earle, tears forming in my eyes.

"D-do you think we'll be alright, Mr. Earle?"

 

[ShyGuy68]

Silently he had watched as things were evolving, restraining himself when Black Bill had used his whip on Maria after she had plead for her fellow travellers, without any luck.

He noticed the look from Maria once she was seated in front of Black Bill, and how she tried to will him to keep an eye out for Sam, so she wouldn’t get hurt in anyway. At that point he was thinking that Maria sure was a special person, since she put other people’s welfare ahead of hers, so he swore to himself that he will do his best, so they would all get away from this alive and unhurt.

After Black Bill had given his orders, he watched Mrs. Cameron climb up onto the driver’s seat, and he couldn’t help but notice that as she did that, she was exposing quite a bit of a very nice leg. He then noticed how Sam was leaning against the coach and quickly supported her with an arm, since he was having the feeling that she was feeling rather faint. He helped her enter the coach, and followed her right after, doing his best to make Black Bill see that he was obeying orders.

Once seated inside the coach again, Sam opened a few buttons at the top of her dress, and he couldn’t help himself thinking about how nice it would be if she was going to show him what the top of the dress was hiding. But that thought only stayed in his mind for a few seconds before the coach lurched forward.

"D-do you think we'll be alright, Mr. Earle?" Sam asked, and he assured her that they would indeed be alright, if they just did as they were told, and were careful.

He then felt the coach sway and drive quite a bit more unevenly as they turned off the road and went cross country towards where ever Black Bill was taking them.

 

[Hecate]

Martha Cameron

The coach moved, and Martha wondered .. looking around it didn'T appear the gangsters were paying much attention to them actually ... Black Bill riding in the front, a fair bit ahead already and three of his men following him, one a little fallen back but still ahead of the coach.

"Excuse me Sir , you sure don't think we have any chance of outrunning them with the coach?" Martha knew it was a silly question, but she felt like company - even if it was a merely hypothetical plan it made her feel better to at least THINK about escape

"Maybe if we just threw the trunks and boxes from the roof, they are after the money after all, right? ... they would have to return to get them but at the same time couldn't follow us - maybe? Maybe only one or two - you could kill them, couldn't you?"

Slowly the imense danger of the situation hit home and Martha shivered - there had to be a way out of this - there simply HAD TO!

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Thor

"Excuse me Sir , you sure don't think we have any chance of outrunning them with the coach?"

"Maybe if we just threw the trunks and boxes from the roof, they are after the money after all, right? ... they would have to return to get them but at the same time couldn't follow us - maybe? Maybe only one or two - you could kill them, couldn't you?" The woman sitting beside me was babbling on....her way of dealing with fear, no doubt. Meanwhile, I was rethinking my 'arrangement' with Black Bill. I realized that he would probably bushwack me to increase the shares for him and his gang. I was not part of their group......

I turned to the woman and said, "First of all, this coach could outrun them for maybe half a mile. Then they would kill us all. You just sit tight and let me study the problem."

I snapped the reins and urged the horses to pick up the pace. Black Bill looked back over his shoulder, and then spurred his black horse toward what I assumed was the gang's hideout. I had never been there....

 

[Merelan]

Maria:

Clinging to him as he ignored me, angry, flushed with it. Damn him.

"Please, let them go Bill. I swear. I will do anything you want me to." But again, nothing.

"You bastard. Nothing. I shall give you nothing then." Lurching away from him and wishing I had the nerve to jump off. But all it would get me was hurt, and maybe Mrs. Cameron killed.

 

[Master T.]

So far things had gone rather well, and with Maria here with me I felt a winner.

I felt her struggle at first - to no avail. Now she had changed to pleading.

"Please, let them go Bill. I swear. I will do anything you want me to."

I looked back, Thor was following us with the coach.

"You bastard. Nothing. I shall give you nothing then."

I returned my attention to Maria and couldn'T help but laugh: "Oh, so M'Lady will give me all I want if I cooperate? Gee, woman - I will get anything I want of you anyway, don'T you realize? There is nobody there anymore to protect you, hun! And you will actually even beg me to take whatever I want from you before I am done with you!"

Revenge for the humiliation she had caused me for rejecting my avances was still fresh and vivid on my mind, and I spat out the bitter taste of the memory.

Only a few minutes later we passed the entrance to a hidden canyon in which we had set up camp. It was a gold diggers place at some stage, but long since abandoned. There was still a little well that gave enough water for the few of us and the horses, and when entering the rotting huts and shelters you could go through to the abandoned mine. Excellent to keep the horses out of sight if anyone should happen to stumble across that remote part of the area.

Although the outside looked deserted, I knew that once passt the first room of the miners house, the rooms in the back were quite well preserved and would do as domicil untill I had secured the money and settled a few other bills.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Thor

I drove the coach into the hidden canyon. As I looked around, I decided that this must have been a gold miner's camp. It was surely deserted now - no one looking for the coach would ever find this place. I had studied on the situation and decided that Black Bill would kill all the passengers - after torture to wring every last dollar from them. I would be next, since I would have done everything they needed. The cold blooded killing of the old coot driver made me decide that I was now on the side of the captives. I would bide my time......

 

[Merelan]

We entered a ghost town, small but obviously deserted. Where was he taking us? Here? It was then he spoke to me.

"Oh, so M'Lady will
give me all I want if I cooperate? Gee, woman - I will get anything I want of you
anyway, don'T you realize? There is nobody there anymore to protect you, hun!
And you will actually even beg me to take whatever I want from you before I am
done with you!" It was enought to make me let go, and just as we went over a bump. I slid from the horse and ended in a tangle on the ground. Furious, hurt and angry. He sat up there, high above me. Laughing. Me face was red with anger and humiliation. My lips quivered as I used my strength not to scream or cry, or run. I even turned to do so, but saw Mrs. Cameron, perched high and in the open on the couch. Who knew who was watching, and I stopped still.
He too slid to the ground next to me, only watchign as I gathered my damn skirts and got up, dusting them off as best I could.

Hissing at him through clenched teeth.

"Never, you pig. Never will I beg you for anything."

 

[SexyChele]

Sam Wells

I felt I should be saying something to the gentleman in the coach with me - but what? I secretly wondered if he also carried some sort of weapon, or if he, like me, were unarmed as well. Glancing at him under my lashes, I decided that he might not be quite the match for the man on the big black horse just outside the coach.

Attempting to hang onto the curtain as the coach tumbled over rough terrain, I felt my stomach start to protest. Trying to lean back, the air stiffling in the coach, I closed my eyes attempting to concentrate on other things, pleasant things. But to no avail.

I felt stray hairs across my cheek, and then felt my hair tumble down around my shoulders in a cascade of flaming red curls. The jolting of the coach was too much for the pins which held my hair in place. I tried quickly to put it up again, searching for scattered pins, when I caught Mr. Earle staring at me, a smile across his lips.

Realizing that I must look rather foolish, I smiled back.

"I suppose it is rather useless, isn't it?"

Just then the coach came to an abrupt stop. Looking at Mr. Earle, I cautiously pulled aside the curtain just a bit, but the scene before me seemed as desolate as ever.

Sighing heavily, I say to Mr. Earle, "I wonder where we are - and what they plan to do with us."

I feel tears begin to well up in my eyes, and quickly wisk them away.

 

[Master T.]

Maria slid of the horse in a furious state, fighting and struggling - deliciously heated up. Oh yes - I liked the fight - the conquest!

There she stood - in all her beauty , trying to defy me.... with a roaring laugh I reigned in the horse and looked down at her.

"Time to tame you my little wild vixen!! You don't wanna ride with me? Fine - then walk!" and again the whip came uncurled and hissed through the air, passing only inches from Maria's face.

There was no way for her to run - and I had been herding cattle away silently , accurately and in the dead of the night before to make sure she'd be going exactly where I wanted her to go!

The coach had by now passed us and was pulling to a halt in front of the deserted dwellers houses.



OOC: anyone wanting to shoot me - feel free! I am sorry but I am kinda pressed for time lately (guess why I haven't been playing in ages) and I do not want to slow down this thread ... or I could offer my position for any takers interested in being Black Bill - in that case PM me please

 

[Merelan]

Maria:

My temper snapped as the whip stung out at me. His smile, told me all. We were all dead. No matter what we did or said, it was over for all of us. Quick? Or a long drawn out process?
Without a thought I pulled the small derringer from my pocket, where I had moved it, and shot. Dead between his eyes. His fall to the ground seemed an eternity. The horse rearing and screaming as his rider fell at my feet. Before a word, or motion he was then trampled by his own mount, who turned and fled. I sank to my knees. Still staring wildly as I realized what I had done.
"Dead?" A single word sounding, from my lips. Thor jumping down from the coach and pulling Mrs. Cameron with him. Unable to tear my eyes from his body, he lay so silent, so still.

 

[ShyGuy68]

He had been paying quite a lot of notice to Sam as they drove cross country, to make sure that she wasn't going to pass out on him.

Finally they arrived at what seemed like their destination, and it didn't take long before one of the thoughs had pulled the door open, and was ordering them out of the coach, waving his gun at them.

He quickly got out of the coach himself, and once he was standing on the ground, he turned around, placed his hands on her hips, and gently lifted her down to the ground, and once she was there, he did however let his hands linger a bit more than needed on her nice firm hips.

Then suddenly he heard a whip crack in the air, and as he turned around, he saw Maria pull out the Derringer and shoot Black Bill right between his eyes, so he wasn't in doubt that he was dead even before he hit the ground.

He didn't hesitate at all after Black Bill had hit the ground, so he quickly pulled out the stiletto from under his shirt sleeve, and in a smooth move stepped up behind the guy who had herded him and Sam out off the coach, and quickly cut his throat from ear to ear. He then quickly grabbed Sam around her waist, and pulled her to the ground with him, pushing her under the coach so they weren't to easy targets.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Thor

When the gunshot rang out, I was startled. I assumed that Black Bill had murdered yet another innocent. I looked down and saw Bill falling to the ground, Maria's tiny Derringer still smoking. Quick as a flash, I grabbed the shotgun from the boot and triggered a blast at the closely grouped gang. Three of them fell, ripped apart by the double O shot. I held the other barrel, waiting for a chance to erase the other two.

 

[Hecate]

Martha Cameron

The coach had come to a halt in front of the ruins of the former settlement and Martha looked back - a moment later wisheing she had not.

"Ohhhh my god - Jesus help us!"

Martha had been watching the little scene between Black Bill and Maria in a dazed state of horror. This woman was either crazy or she didn't really have anything left to loose to challenge their captors like this!

But then the unimaginable happened - Martha had closed her eyes as she didn't want to see the whip hit the pretty young woman but right after the hissing sound a gun shot followed - and it wasn't a riffle as were the men wearing.

Her eyes flung open and she saw Black Bill on the ground, Maria with the Derringer still smoking clutched in her hand. But before she fully realized what had happend the man at her side pulled a loaded gun up from his side and in swift row three of the gang had found a similar fate as had their leader. From the corner of her eyes she saw a movement at the side of the coach - in a frenzy nestling for the twin weapon of the one who gad spit the first deadly bullet - but there was no danger there, no moreanyway. Mr. Earl had made a quick end with the gangster that had opened the door to hustle him and Miss Wells out - the matter-of-fact way without hesitation and a a clear cut across the man's throat revealed that there was more to Mr. Earl than his smooth and so far gentelmanly surface.

I felt pulled or pushed from the coach - mentally adding up that there was only one more of the robbers alive now - unless of course there were more around in tha camp than the few that had brought us here.

"Sweet Jesus and Mother Maria, help us in the hour of our need..." words voicelessly mouthed like a mantra made Martha Cameron regain her composure and strength again ... and seemingly her prayer was being heard as she saw the last rider disappear in a cloud of dust.

Now what?

 

[Merelan]

Maria:
I turned, still on my knees, at the other shots. As if in a daze watching the others take down the men. The last jumping on his horse and riding off.
I swallowed hard and stood, trying to keep my legs from shaking any worse. Automatically dusting of my skirts and pulling my bodice into place.
My eyes met Mr. Earle's and I then saw what he had done. The blood streaming from the man's neck as he half crouched, as if waiting for others.
A cry and gasp and I was at the young girls side, my arms holding her close as she fainted. Blood down the front of her. Was it hers? Or had she gotten it from the dead man. Trying desperately to hold her and check to see if she was hurt.
Laying her gently on the ground I waved Mrs. Cameron over, who seemed upset, yet calm. Muttering under her breath.

'Please, help me." i was loosening her stays and top, unladylike yes, but I needed to know if this was her blood or not. Her creamy skin exposed I felt slowly.
"I don't think it's hers. Thank sweet God."