The Reckoning of the Rogues

First Confrontation

Although it felt to them that they had been walking for days, they finally arrived at Tombrise. John almost collapsed by the time they entered the dead town.

"Why couldn't we take the horses?" John asked between exhausted breaths. Will snapped his view to John.

"I told you before, we can't risk the lives of our horses. They're much more vulnerable to the diseases of this town and if we lose them, it's over" Will explained again, clearly agitated. John sorrowfully nodded and stayed quiet.

They went further into the town. It was a very small one. The smallest town in the area in fact. It was mostly used now for dumping dead bodies of the dishonourable, and putting the sick in. However, more recently, society pushed against the containment of the diseased in this town as lives started to become more valued. There was nothing special about the town, other than the constant eeriness of it. All the buildings were decrepit and crumbling apart. Tumbleweeds often passed through the town to add to the atmosphere. The only sounds that went through the place were the gusts of wind that passed through and blew the sand into the air, as well as the distant barks or squeaks of starving animals.

Alex seemed to close his posture a little more than usual. It was clear he felt far from comfortable here. Ben didn't change. He simply wanted the mission to be over with. John was nervous but tried to stay optimistic about the situation. Will stayed ahead of them all, leading them and taking the sacrifice of the front defence.

The tension was indescribably high as they walked through the town, not saying a word. They knew that at any moment, they could be attacked. They knew Rogue and Lasagna were here, but they didn't know precisely where.

Will kept looking ahead, hardly blinking to assure he missed nothing, while the other three kept watch of the other directions around them.

Suddenly, Will signalled for the gang to stop moving. He had heard a noise. He listened out, and sure enough, it wasn't his imagination, but the sound of a knife carving into something metallic.

They slowly started to walk, making sure their footsteps made no sound. Nothing could be seen for a second, and these were the most tense moments of any of their lives. Even Ben was sweating a little. But Will slowed down once more as he spotted something. It looked like a hat poking out from behind a building.

Cautiously, he approached. He did not want to fire in case he missed or if it wasn't even who they were looking for.

They finally reached the suspicious hat and looked around to see Rogue and Lasagna, both kneeling down. Rogue seemed to be carving his bullets with a knife while Lasagna sat and watched.

Will slowly lifted his gun to point it at Lasagna's head. John and Ben did the same, while Alex started to get into a promising position for a perfect shot.

John cocked his revolver, ready to fire, but unfortunately, guns weren't advanced enough to be silent. Upon hearing the sound of the gun being cocked, Lasagna snapped around to see them. Her eyes widened in shock, and she patted Rogue on the back twice.

In reaction, the three hunters shot, one after the other, but Lasagna managed to roll out of the way as Rogue unholstered his gun and fired blindly at the hunters, barely missing Will's head.

The psycho then scrambled to get behind the building for cover while Lasagna ran to a distant building to take cover.

Alex was now sat on the top of a crumbling building, aiming towards Lasagna's location with his scoped rifle, but unable to see her behind the cover.

Will and the other two took cover opposite Rogue, and from there it was a waiting game of who had the most bravery.

Finally, Rogue let out his hand for a second, attempting to aim his revolver at Alex, but Alex was too fast and too precise and managed to blow a hole through Rogue's hand, causing him to drop his revolver and retract his hand.

It went silent for a second, and they heard a slight sobbing noise. The three looked at each other in confusion and then at Alex, who simply shrugged at them from the top of the building.

Rogue didn't seem like the kind of person to cry after being shot, but he did have a gaping hole through the middle of his hand now. It was understandable.

"I'm gonna go check it out" Will said. The others looked shocked at his bravery but acknowledged that he no longer had a weapon, and it was safer to approach. Meanwhile, Lasagna was nowhere to be seen.

Will could feel his heart beating out of his chest as he slowly walked to Rogue, still hiding around the building. He became aware of his heavy breathing as he also heard the sound of Rogue's dreadful sobs.

He looked at Rogue around the building, who was sat down and holding his wrist of his destroyed hand. But as he looked at Rogue, he came to a morbid realisation. Rogue was smiling. And not only that, he wasn't sobbing, but rather laughing at this hole in his hand, as what looked like gallons of blood poured out of it and down his arm.

Rogue then stopped laughing and slowly looked up. His eyes were those of a man who had nothing to lose. The pupils were impossibly small, and they were bloodshot to the point where the white of his eyes was completely red.

The maniac let out a horrific screech and at the same time, unholstered a second revolver with his undamaged hand and swung it round to smash Will over the head with it. Will had no time to react, and took the hit, falling to the ground. As Will hit the ground, Rogue cocked the gun and pointed it at Alex.

This was the perfect opportunity to take Alex away from having the privilege of a life, but he didn't shoot Alex, he shot the tower beneath him.

The weak tower crumbled apart beneath Alex and he fell through, almost being crushed to death by the rubble. Will was still struggling to get up as John ran over to Alex to help him out.

Ben ignored both the men in need and ran after the two bounties. By now, they were both on their horses and were fleeing the area. Ben fired a few shots at both, but missed, and in response, Lasagna shot one shot back at him, hitting him in the arm. Ben let out a short groan of pain and held his arm in agony. He noticed he was unable to aim now due to his injury, and so had no choice but to let them go.

He approached Will, lending him a hand with his good arm and pulled him up, then they both approached Alex with John. Luckily, Alex managed to survive under the rubble and wasn't hit by any of the stones.

"What happened?" John asked. Ben looked behind and had a disappointed expression.
"They escaped" he said, regretfully. John was even more distraught now, but accepted the unfortunate event.
"It's alright. We'll do better next time, I promise you" Will reassured them.

Ben was still holding his arm in pain and Will was rubbing his head every now and then. There were no fatal wounds, but this was only a minor attack.

Alex had a bad feeling about the next encounter after seeing what happened this time.