Killer Be Killed Read online

  “That’s just the thing,” Muscles said, sniffling. “It’s not being a coward to pick a fight with Dogg Holly. It’s a hero’s death.”

  “No, dude,” Roslyn said, shaking her head. “It’s not.”

  “Trust us, son,” Dogg said. “There’re plenty of women out there.”

  “I get it,” Talbert said. “I know how you feel, big fella. But this isn’t the way to go about it.”

  “Pick yourself back up and go out and face the world, sir. You got your whole life to fuck up,” added Dogg, going to the mouth of the tent to look out. Talbert nodded and almost grinned watching him itch the same urge he had.

  “We’re going to walk you to the edge of the camp. You’re going to hitch a ride from someone going back to Phoenix from here,” Roslyn said, separating his Da’akvine restraints from hands to feet. He rose first to his knees, then to his feet.

  Roslyn held her gun out toward him. Hattie unsheathed her sword. The men kept their guns in their holsters.

  Out on the street, Talbert took point, while Dogg took rear. The girls and Muscles filled the center. Puff soared overhead, keeping watch. People stopped to see what was happening, as they passed tents and hovels, walking steadily toward the path to Phoenix. There they warned Muscles that if he were to return, Dogg would kill him on sight.

  “Can I have my gun back?” he asked, head bowed like he was eight years old. Roslyn squinted at him.

  “I’ll last a day and a half unarmed out here,” Muscles pleaded.

  Roslyn dug into her bag and fished out his gun. She turned off the charge and handed it to him.

  Roslyn saw it, but only for the briefest of flashes. Dogg certainly had to have seen it if she had. Talbert as well. Maybe it was in his melon shoulders, the way they heaved. He seemed poised suddenly, ready to jump off the bridge. Only the bridge was a man. A very deadly man.

  Don’t do it, you idiot boy. Please don’t.

  Unlike the Avians, Muscles couldn’t read thoughts. But even if he could, he wasn’t going to listen. So he spun. A nickel-plated pistol appeared in Dogg’s hand almost by magic, and the shot rang out before Muscles had fully spun around. A pink mist filled the air. Brains clung to a white, fluffy bush analogue that now resembled ketchup splattered on cauliflower. The body crumpled on the ground in a dust cloud. Roslyn groaned a little and dropped her head.

  “That was goddamned inevitable,” Dogg said with a sigh. He straightened his tie, then his jacket and turned to walk back to his hotel. “If you’ll excuse me. I must find my lady friend now.”

  None of them had any stomach to eat and so they returned to their tent home. Talbert sat and read a hologram book. It was set in ancient times. The American Old West period. He loved stories about that time. He always had. This she’d learned from all those hours they’d spent traveling together. Roslyn watched him. The withdrawals from the bug juice caused his hands to shake. He looked pale and droplets of sweet beaded on his forehead. Was he doing this for Hattie?

  As if on cue, Hattie came and sat beside him on her bunk. He glanced up at her and grinned. She grinned back. She put in earphones and listened to music, while sketching in her pad. After completing an abstract pencil sketch, she switched to a book. Roslyn squinted to see the title. She nearly laughed out loud. It was a romance novel set in the American Old West. Jane’s Calamity.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The next morning Roslyn was up before the sun. Puff seemed agitated and when opening the door flap didn’t work, she took him outside for a fly about.

  She was haunted by the image of Muscles’ head exploding. Puff took flight and circled her, flew east and then back. He squawked and shook, pointing his head toward the volcanoes.

  “What?” asked Roslyn, staring at Puff and then following his gaze to the pillars in the grey distance.

  There were two dormant volcanoes in the area. The further one was where people had first discovered the diamond deposits.

  “You want to prospect?” Roslyn asked, with a quick chuckle. Puff nodded his head.

  “Okay?” Roslyn said and they set out for the hills.

  The air had a crisp bite and an irony, rustic smell to it. Roslyn paid attention to smells, because, unlike most people, smells didn’t lie. She was back in nature. Puff took flight on occasion, leading her to the best route to the volcano and to be certain they weren’t being followed.

  Upon returning after a flight near noon, Puff clicked and pointed his head to her left. A dust cloud wafted into the shimmering sky. She checked her pistol’s charge.

  As a pair of hover bikes drew near, she recognized the dour one on the left. His mustache hung below his chin making his face an eternal frown.

  “Mr. Wyatt,” said Roslyn as they slowed.

  “Mrs. Epps,” Wyatt said with a cordial nod. He was protecting her cover. This meant he didn’t trust the man he rode with. The first and foremost question that came to mind was; had he come to collect the bounty on them? She could never be too certain. The mole began to dig. He didn’t seem about ready to throw down. But perhaps that was his tactic? She bent her knees slightly just in case.

  “Kind of far out here to be alone, huh?” Wyatt said, looking around. Puff launched into the air. Roslyn couldn’t help but flinch. This gave her away. He had the jump on her now.

  “Decided to prospect,” she said and glanced at the other man. He was a stout, short man with a round face. His eyes didn’t miss a thing. They studied her.

  “This is Bat Matters,” Wyatt said, as way of introduction.

  “Hello,” Bat said with a formal grin.

  “Prospecting alone?” Wyatt asked. He wanted to know if the others were waiting in ambush, she reasoned. But what was his play? He most likely wanted them all. The question then became; did she play along?

  “I can take care of myself,” she said and spat. Wyatt slowly grinned, though his mouth still appeared to frown. It was only in his otherwise cold eyes. A light was in there after all.

  “I can see that,” Wyatt said in his slow and deliberate way of speaking.

  “What brings you to New Vegas?” she asked. Puff’s shadow circled the two men. “You collecting another bounty?”

  “We came to make money, one way or another,” Wyatt said. “Hired for a job. They own a hotel and a casino and are building more things. We’re coming in as security.”

  “I know who that might be,” Roslyn said mostly to herself.

  “Yeah, okay, “Wyatt said finally. “See you around.”

  Obscured by their dust clouds, the men sped across the desert toward the camp.

  With Puff circling above, Roslyn made it to the face of the volcano. She followed a trail with her eyes that vanished from time to time below thick underbrush. Had someone cleared out the apex predators yet? Probably not. Well, at least she had Puff.

  It took her two hours to reach the next plateau. The top of her butt was drenched. But she didn’t care. Being out there, made it all okay. What a beautiful planet, she kept saying to herself. Hattie was wearing off on her, she reasoned with a smile. A larger species of pigmy dragon flocked in a broccoli looking tree, watching them pass in unison. They were curious about the relationship between Puff and her. She grew a little worried they might not approve and attack him. But they let them pass unmolested.

  That was the pigmy dragons. But the three men that she nearly fell into proved an entirely different beast.

  They were robbing an elderly man that much was clear. She’d been looking up at Puff who’d missed them somehow beneath a thick bright green canopy of trees. They were in a gully. She’d tripped and tumbled into it, startling everyone.

  She shot the punk holding the gun to the old man’s bald head. The shock wave blasted him in the face, knocking him off his feet. Walking quickly, she stepped toward the others and shot them both before they could draw. Sparks dissipated all over their bodies before they fell.

  The old man was on his knees, looking up at her with only one eye open. He was trembl
ing.

  “You’d better get the hells out of here. I’ve only stunned them,” she said, helping him to his feet.

  “Why the hell didn’t you kill the cock suckers?” Old Man said, in a quivery voice.

  “Because I follow the way of the Birds, sir,” she said and made the sign of the Avians. “To the highest perch we ascend.”

  “That’s bullshit. We’re people not birds,” he said, stammering away. The back of his head had a cut and a lump. They probably did deserve to die, because they were probably going to kill the old guy. They’d most likely killed several on this road. But who was she to act as judge and jury.

  Leaving the sleeping robbers in the gully, Roslyn climbed further up the volcano. Puff led her to the mouth of a small cave. He wanted her to go inside. What was there? But he was intent and she shrugged.

  After shining a light in and banging rocks together, she wriggled inside. She had to keep to her stomach and crawl. She mounted the light to her hat. The fungal, mildew, earthen smell of the cave reminded her of something. Was it Earth? Did she miss it? She missed her New York life. The first part. The part when she was putting on new personas and filling in the faint outline that her childhood had drawn. The part when she bought her lucky boots. That was all before things turned down right sinister. Her stepbrother’s friends got into drugs and crime and dragged her right down with them. Those spoiled little bastards, trying on street credit and getting in too deep.

  She came to a place where she could stand and that’s when her light caught the sparkly wall and displayed all the colors of the spectrum. It was glorious and sublime, and she nearly passed out. She’d found karythm!

  How was she ever going to get all those diamonds home? It didn’t take long to realize that she couldn’t possibly haul all of these down herself. She’d take what she could carry and somehow mark the spot. But surely someone would see her marking and find her cave.

  Had she just saved her father’s legacy? Forget Dogg Holly all together. They didn’t need that money any longer. Now they could take only noble cases; clear-cut cases that served real justice. They’d become an institution.

  She chiseled as much as she could carry in her pockets. She contemplated tying a large diamond to Puff, but decided it wouldn’t be a cool thing to do. Puff didn’t understand greed. It would seem like a punishment or something. However, he had led her to this particular cave, for what she assumed was this very reason.

  Struggling to crawl out of the cave without the diamonds cutting her legs and hands, Roslyn tried to use her knees and elbows to move along. It was a challenging haul, but she made it out as the sun dipped behind the volcano.

  A half moon and a slit moon hung overhead. The Milky Way divided them, like two friends on either side of a white raging river. Shit! Could she make camp back in at least the mouth of the cave and then return in the morning? It made the most sense.

  She constructed a lean-to out of gigantic leaves and broccoli stems. Next step in survival was to build a small fire. In it’s glowing warmth she ate a protein bar. Puff perched atop the lean-to, keeping vigilant.

  “Thank you, Puff,” Roslyn said, looking up to him. “You brought me here. I don’t know how much you understand, but you keep pushing the envelope. I tell you that much.”

  Sometime in the night, something woke her. Her fire was nearly out. She threw a veggie stick into it and it grew. As it flared, it caught a pair of eyes.

  She jumped back and drew her pistol. What sort of beast they belonged to was beyond her, but it wasn’t human. It stood there, just beyond the glow’s reach. Only the reflection of the fire caught in those reptilian eyes. They were larger than any dragon she’d heard of. Careful not to move too suddenly, she tossed another stick in, then another. The fire grew. But then the beast was gone. Whatever it had been, it failed the fire test. She was thankful of that. She kept the wall and the cave behind her. She didn’t sleep for the rest of the night. What if it attacked Puff? She called him down to her.

  “Stay with me. I’ll protect you,” Roslyn said and held up her gun. Why hadn’t Puff alerted her to whatever that was out there? Was that thing that stealthy? The mole said it could attack her at any second! Had she been seeing things? Was she dehydrated? She was down to her last water pill. She questioned whether she’d brought the water purifier. Had she even passed a water source on her way there?

  A couple of hours passed. She tried to keep her eyes peeled but they blinked more frequently as the night droned on. Distant mating calls of the insects chirped in the bushes. Then her eyes sprang wide open again. The reptilian eyes returned. Now there were four of them. Her heart stopped for a moment. When it resumed it raced. She held her gun up. She contemplated stunning one of them to make a point. She had convinced herself it would be the right move when the eyes vanished again. She backed against the wall, gun held up ready to fire. Puff nudged against her ribs. Perhaps they’d realized she was a threat and given up on her? Hours passed. Her head ached and her throat burned.

  The next day the sun shone bright and hot. Puff guided her out of the wilderness and back to the camp. He was going to get the biggest, craziest treat, she told him. She talked to him for hours. Puff was the best listener there was.

  Her head began to ache and she took her last pill around noon. It cleared her up and gave her renewed energy. But her stomach lurched and she nearly threw it up. Keep that shit down!

  They made better time on their way home, because she knew where they were going and it was mostly down hill, so they arrived in the late afternoon. She wondered if anyone even missed her? But she’d made it, she told herself, killing the mole. They would miss her, once they saw what had cut up her legs and hands. She hoped someone had some antibiotics. Did the camp even have a doctor yet?

  She found the tent unoccupied. She dug a hole and buried the diamonds, placing her cot over the spot. She cleaned up in a bucket and changed her clothes. She asked Puff to stand guard.

  Barely able to contain her pride, she walked with long strides toward the buildings. She was curious what had happened while she was gone. Did Wyatt have her friends holed up in a room or cell of some kind? She’d need to use stealth. She bought large sunglasses from a hut that sold hats and sunscreen; 150 SPF and above.

  Two tents up she bought a scarf and wrapped it around her neck. Her head swiveling with each step, her eyes flashed on tiny scenes upon scenes being played out across the camp. Frisbees flew back and forth, while another group played corn-hole. Grills made dragon steaks and people drank to fall over. Music seemed to breath as she walked up the freshly laid boardwalk. That was new. That wasn’t there the day before.

  Walking too quickly past a tent casino, she had to stop and go back. Dogg sat at a table facing the entrance, his back to canvas. He held cards and puffed a cigarette. His eyes looked red and empty.

  She hoped Grace was with him, but then realized she would be just as drunk as her lover man. She deleted the thought. The fact that he sat there at all was a good sign that Wyatt hadn’t made his move. But she realized, perhaps too late, that until now, they hadn’t all been together. Perhaps too late, because upon concluding this thought, she saw Mr. Earl Wyatt leaning on the bar, sipping a steaming cup of joe. What could possibly be his plan? Dogg Holly and Devil Bill Talbert against anyone in the galaxy spelled death to the challengers. Hattie and her weren’t things to slouch over, either. She looked around for his partner, Bat. She didn’t spot him. But he was around. That she counted on.

  As she entered the tent, she found Hattie, Talbert and Grace playing together at a different table. Perhaps Dogg and Grace were fighting? It kind of looked that way to Roslyn. Not much of a decision between the two tables sat her down at Grace’s.

  “There she is,” Grace said. She didn’t seem too drunk yet. This was the funny, and sweet Grace. So why was Dogg sulking at the next table?

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Talbert was sober and weird because of it. He had all this extra energy that made him s
eem younger, closer to the boy she’d met before. Her first crush. That Hattie sure didn’t take much time to swoop in there, did she? She reminded herself that she needed to be supportive of them, even if it was wildly inappropriate and unprofessional.

  Wyatt scanned the room as he sipped his coffee. He didn’t seem particularly interested in her friends. It started to make her question her original assessment. Either he was a brilliant actor, or he wasn’t there for them. She reminded herself to keep her guard up, just in case.

  She wanted to tell them so badly, but couldn’t. The urge became gradually painful, until it flat out hurt her head. What she buried in the tent alone was worth ten times the bounty someone was asking for Dogg. He could go free. Let someone else deal with him. Frigging Karythm!

  “We need to have a company meeting,” Roslyn said, looking at Hattie and then to Talbert. He squinted and tilted his head forward slightly. “There’re some things I’d like to discuss.”

  The Inn Keeper from the hotel, now dressed in an even more expensive outfit, walked carefully along the wooden planks in spectacular shoes. As she passed, Roslyn wondered where a lady found perfume out there. It smelled nice and made her jealous. Well, Roslyn would be asking her where she found it, soon enough.

  Grace motioned her head toward the Inn Keeper. “She’s the owner. Nice lady, tough as shit, but I like her. She doesn’t take people’s shit, you know? Her name is… What is? She told me… Excuse me, my friend?”

  Inn Keeper turned to her and smiled. “Hey, girl. How are you?”

  “This is my friend Hattie. This is her partner Roslyn,” Grace said in a manner befitting her name.

  “I’m Star Belly,” she said, grinning. She seemed far too nice to be opening a casino in a brand new boomtown. She was from money that much was clear. She owned the hotel and now this place. “Welcome to the Belle Star Casino.”

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Roslyn said and shook her hand. She felt sorry for Star. She was going to learn some tough lessons. Perhaps she should envy her. But why envy someone with the same fate as your own?