A Life Of 'Shine - Lem Fike

55

The three all shared a worried glance before moving outside, hands raised high in the air to show they were defenseless and not planning to shoot either.

Nora's eyes travelled back and forth between each revenue agent that had surrounded them, noticing all the gun's pointed at the three.

"Don't think we can cause an explosion to get outta this one." She joked, looking around her for any possible spots she or the other's could hide behind.

Before she had moved outside she had informed Cripps and Kieran to wait by the door of the moonshine shack, gun's in hand and to be on the ready in case any shooting were to take place.

"You guy's should just give up with us, I mean come on, how hard have you tried only to fail?" Nora teased, narrowing her eye's at one revenue agent who had presented himself to stand out more so than the other's.

He had his own weapon lowered, standing proud before the group. "All three of you are under arrest. I suggest you make this easy on yourselves as well as for us."

Lem looked at Danny-Lee from the corner of his eye, a scowl on his face as he watched the male. "You brought 'em to us didn't you?" He snarled, teeth gritted and voice hushed.

Danny-Lee almost gasped but rather had let out a noise close to a squeal at both the harsh look given his way and the bark from revenue agent commanding them to walk their way and turn themselves over for arrest.

Slowly, her hand had moved until her finger's were barely resting on her revolver as it rested in the holster off her hip. She watched, eye's focused on the agents in front of the group. She had counted maybe six guns or so pointed at them, other's maybe pointed away or holstered meaning that while the number of men they had seemed plentiful the fight would be a lot less tougher given how little weapons they actually had focused.

Nora could also take a few hits herself, able to fight a little longer than the other's could possibly manage. Perhaps having been doing this for so long her skin grew a lot thicker or maybe she was just too foolish to notice when a bullet would land home in her flesh.

Slowly she turned to Lem, nodding slowly and before anyone had time to react accordingly her revolver was raised and a few rounds already fired into a few agents. Then, she used some time while the agents were stunned to take cover behind few conveniently placed crates just as soon as the hail of bullets stormed them.

Now the real fighting had begun.

Kieran and Cripps had joined in and Nora could swear this was the first time she had really seen the boy fight, that or she could not remember any other instance which seemed more likely. He had this determined look about him as she ran through what little space the small group had to their own, many bullets narrowly missing but when few did hit he would let out a hiss or a groan as an exclamation of his pain.

Cripps too wasn't doing to shabby during this fight either. Then again with the amount of time's Harry and James had brought law men back to camp after their long foolish nights of drinking it was no surprise that Cripps still had that same amount of witts about him.. having helped defend themselves against the likes of the law many times.

"They keep coming!" Lem shouted, taking a quick break just so he could reload his gun. "Just how many of 'em were hiding?"

Nora chuckled, giving Lem a quick smile before returning to the fight to cover the man as he struggled with that of the bullets. Nora had looked over and noticed the shake in his hands, raising her brow in that of concern at the uncharacteristic behaviour.

"Ev'rything okay, Lem?" She asked admist the battle, hand now on top of his own to steady him. He looked up, this grateful look in his eye. "Course.. nerves I guess."

"Try and not get yourself shot.. that's all. We can handle the shooting but I don't think we could handle you dying."

He chuckled, reaching into Nora's satchel and pulling out an old stick of dynamite she had been saving if the situation ever called for it. Curiously, she watched him as he lit the wire before throwing it over.. surprised at the forceful tug on her arm as Lem pulled her down to stay in cover just as an explosion went off.

"Got anymore by chance?"

"Not on me I'm afraid.. was a good idea though."

The pair remained in silence, comforted by the other's presence amidst all the shooting that took place around them. She worried for what would happen if she left his side given his inability to properly load his gun at the moment, but soon he had worked up enough strength once again as well as easing his nerves enough so he no longer had a tremble in his hands.

After a while the revenue agents had thinned out by a large number, those who were smart having fled and those who weren't ended up riddled with bullets in a matter of moments.

It also meant Nora was able to move about a lot more with the smaller number of bad guys after them.

Soon the noise of extra horses echoed throughout the battlefield, a noise that worrier Nora at first before she recognised the whinny of one mare at the string curses following soon after. She looked over at the path, just in time to see the mare ride away from the battle and her brother Harry in the mud- annoyance clear over his face.

James dismounted ready to help his twin but instead he ended up having to lie on the floor and curl into a ball from the firing at them. They had shared worried looks before scrambling over behind some crates, joining Danny-Lee who looked far from thrilled to be hiding near them. In fact as Nora watched her brother's get into safety she had realised that Danny-Lee wasn't doing as much shooting as anybody else; letting everyone else do more of the work it seemed.

"Oh kind of you to join us during these.. hard times." Nora chuckled as she stepped closer towards the new arrivals. They weren't so amused by the situation they had stumbled upon, which was understandable.

James crept forward towards Nora, hand on gun ready. "What happened?"

She looked up for a moment to survey the area, chewing her bottom lip in thought as she tried coming up with a way to benefit her side in this situation, but no clear option showed itself to her.

"They showed up an' so I started a fight. Tried arresting Lem, Danny-Lee and me."

"Wasn't what I expected to return too.. Danny-Lee being here as well."

"He showed up begging for help. Though it seems he brought our problems too us."

Her brother nodded. "Seems it. Although I don't think we need to continue fighting, looks as though they're all running away."

She peeked up from behind her cover, a pleasant smile on her face at yet another victory for her team. She turned towards James to speak some more but had caught herself off guard just the minute a dynamite stick had been thrown their way just like Lem had done minutes before.

Stunned, she looked at the explosive and took a few steps back away but unfortunately she was not fast enough and before she could process what had happened everything in front of her had burst into a bright ball of flames, her hearing shifting into dull ringing and her feet knocked from under her. The last thing she felt before everything had turned black was the pain of her back hitting something solid and amidst the ringing and drowned out sounds she swore she could hear Lem calling her name, desperate for her to answer.