The Electric West

Chapter One

I held my revolver in front of my head. Sweat dripping from my face in the dry heat. "Dammit they've followed me," I thought. Three mounted figures were riding to the abandoned shack I was hiding. They were at least 100 yards away, but it was still difficult to see them in the mirage. They were getting closer,and closer, until they reached to the shack circling around like vultures. "Get out we know you're hiding in there! If you don't get out in three, I'm sure as shit will shoot you down like a dog!" "Go to hell!" I said. "FIRE BOYS!" Said the leader. Bullets ripped and broke, through the old and weak walls of the shack. I jumped on my belly and held my hands over my head. Just as they stopped shooting, i broke through the door and shot one of them from my hip. CLICK CLACK the revolver fired, and the two outlaws fell leaving the leader in the middle standing. Just as the leader pulled his rifle up, I extended my arm shot his rifle out of his hands, and shot another between the eyes. "That was close," I thought.

Remember the old saying, "history tends to repeat itself?" Well they weren't bullshitting. Folks here had to get the old ways back to how it was long ago. After they say the great explosion happened.

Usually we'd expect to have our own kin to destroy ourselves; through nuclear war or disease but that's not the case. This explosion some say came from the heavens, possibly from the wrath of God for our mistakes. Sounds insane and ludicrous, but I'm sure he said that he wouldn't bring the flood again.

We might've been brought down several decades down; but we didn't lose our connection from the past. We don't have those hover Ferrari's, or the chrome uni-bikes any more. But the calm or shall we say destructive friend still stayed with us.

Since we lost our greatest fusion reactors and the great solar plants, there is no way to any type of electricity. "What about coal and natural gas?"
That shit was gone a long time ago.

"HARVEY!"

"YEA!?" I yelled across the town, knowing it was the marshal. Stubborn as hell and takes no for an answer which can sometimes push my buttons.

"HAVE YOU GOTTEN THE MACALLISTER BROTHERS LIKE I ASKED YOU TO!?"

"YEA THEY'RE RIGHT HERE AND THEY'RE STARTING TO STINK!!"

I finally reached up to him from the other side of town, with the towns people staring at us, taking my own time. "Here's the bastards, almost got me this time."

"I'm actually surprised you've actually made it," he said with a low chuckle.

The marhsall was a sturdy tall man with a medium-sized beer gut. His jet black hair was down to his shoulders, with a beard grown down to his collar bone. His real name is Frank Warden, why folks don't call just him warden I don't know, I mean marshal is just a position that no one wants to take. Warden was elected marshal because his father was and did an ok job at it, and his son was practically born for the job. He used to be active in protecting the town, hunting down outlaws, and looking for potential allies, but he never went beyond the 100 mile radius.

"Harvey I got another job for you to do but this may not be exciting as the last one," he said cutting off the corpses ropes that were tied to my horse.

"As long I won't bring bodies this time," I said jumping off my saddle and inspected my revolver.

"You know how this bounty hunting buisness works, and besides I need you to check this special place."

"What special place?" I questioned.

"There's a rumor from the watchtower that theres a light luminating in them hills, and i'll need you to check on-
"The Rodriquez home? Theres always a light popping there!" I interrupted.

"Let me finish dumbass, the blue light is getting brighter and theres nobody to look on him. You know how crazy that bastard gets with that electric shit."

"Marshall watch that language, there's children here!!" Said one of the old hags.

"Alright," I said, just because he'll give us another blackout like last time. Which he did, that fool always gets crazy with that stuff, once he gave electric shocks to live pigs to demonstrate how defibrillators work. Not to mention the other time he talked about his inspiring inventor, Nikola Tesla designed the notorious death ray. Which I feared thats what he was doin' that caused this blackout.

Although I wanted to look for Rodriguez in the hills, the sun was setting and it was too late to go. The first rule of survival in the town of Twig, is not to venture out at night. There's stories of yelling ghosts of the past and mysterious shadows lurking in the moonlight. But I think that's a bunch of bull, that happens when the people don't finish school or listen to their childhood stories. Only that the real problem is the thieves that lurk into the night.
The town of Twig that we reside is what most call the ressurected wild west. We ride horses, use repeaters, and anything that is easy to build and use. The town was constructed from the survivors that moved from the old cities 60 years ago. The reason why they or we moved here in this barren wasteland ; was becuase where theres water theres death, how ironic. We've been taught that water is what life needs to survive. Well its the opposite after the the fission nuclear plants, and the warheads exploded after the great explosion. The radiation got into the ground water in the cities and into the wetlands. Since there's barely any ground water, and it never rains in the desert, we're safe.

As the years goes by the wood dries and rots away. The settlers had to find a new way to keep our homes together, and we had to make mud houses, which are partially underground. After a while we have to send possess and scouts to look wildlife and vegetation. When there's life then there could be a possibility of food.

Our advancement in technology in the past has made our problems obsolete. Our fight for AIDS, HIV, cancer, and other viruses were won. Our carbon emissions dropped due to new innovative pro-green inventions, and our world effort to become pollution free. Our discovery to store and create nuclear fusion brought new feats in space exploration. Mars was beginning to be colonized and the oceans were beginning to be discovered. Our nations effort in ocean cleaning and new discoveries in bioplastics made ocean pollution in the pacific a thing of the past. With new inventions came more problems. Discoveries in nuclear technology turned powerful terrorists heads for new ideas for destruction. Entire cities such as Dallas and Hong Kong were wiped out. New York being the luckiest of all, which apparently wasn't chosen since protection made the city impenetrable .

That was the old world and now it's the new which brought everything back to the 1800s. The thing that caused it from many stories was a metor the size of Rhode I sland struck into southeast asia. It hit the planet at a 45 degree angle, from one to ten that was a six. If the meteor hit at a 90 then we would have been screwed. The strike brought mass extinctions, destroyed cities and ended our golden age. Our exploration in Mars and the fight of nuclear terror made us oblivious of the potential threats from nature.

Although we cannot bring back the things we had for another hundred more years to come; we still have a invention more desirable than our solar generators. Water pumps, not just a water pump, but a hydro-converter. This machine can convert the molecular structure of gas particles in the air and turn into liquid water. It sucks air in like a vacuum and the machine shreds molecules into seperate particles, and convert them together to form water. The only way that this machine will work is by getting it powered by electricity, and without it our town can be wiped out in a couple of days. Thats where I come in to find what's Rodriguez doing that is threatening everyone's lives.