THE DODGE CITY MASSACRE (A Jess Williams Novel.) (17 page)

             
“Well, might as well take out the ones we have in sight now,” said Jess, sighting his Sharps rifle on one of the two men coming in from the east end of town. He pulled back on the trigger and the Sharps rifle barked loudly. The man fell from his horse. Jess chambered another round and fired. The second man fell out of his saddle. All of a sudden, Jess’ hat flew off his head as a bullet from a rifle went straight through the top of his hat.

             
“Son-of-a-bitch,” said Jess as he ducked down and grabbed his Winchester.

             
“Yeah, I almost saw my investment disappearing from my hands,” replied Parks.

             
“I’m not talking about that. I’ve lost three hats in less than three weeks and I’m kind of getting tired of it.”

             
“Well, you said you had lots of money,” replied Parks, as he put a bullet in the man who had shot at Jess from the roof across the street.

             
Bodine and the other three men over at the west end of town took out the three men riding into town without even using the dynamite that was buried along the trail, but he lost two of his three men already from gunfire coming from all around town. Eleven of the men from the camp outside of town had made their way into, on top of and inside and around the many buildings in town. They were shooting from every direction. Jess spotted a man running toward the jail and he used his Winchester to shoot the man in his left side. The man fell, but Jess didn’t know if he was dead or wounded so he put another bullet in the man’s brain making sure he was out of the fight.

             
“Man,” said Parks, “that was one mean move.”

             
“Yeah, but it was the smart move,” replied Jess.

             
Bodine was trapped on the roof and taking heavy fire and he lost his one man he had left. He picked up the other three men’s rifles and loaded them all. That gave him four Winchesters and a lot of shooting he could do without having to reload. He peeked up every few seconds and tried to spot one of the men and when he did, he would duck down and wait for a bullet to hit the front of the rooftop he was on. As soon as that happened, he would lift his head just enough to take a shot at wherever the bullet sounded like it had come from; but it was getting pretty hard, since there was shooting going on from every direction.

             
Jess looked over at the jail and it was taking heavy fire. Bullets were chipping away at the bricks. There were only five men in the jail, the sheriff, Deputy Paul Fadden, one of the men from town and the two men they had locked up in the jail cells. Fadden had taken a bullet in his left shoulder already, but he was continuing to fire his rifle through the slot in the heavy boards going across the windows.

             
The leader of the group of gunslingers and thugs, Doug Hammer, and his close friend, Charlie Diggs were the ones peppering the jail with two other men in their group. They still had ten men left, although Hammer didn’t know how many men he had lost yet. Jess could see the direction that the gunfire hitting the jail was coming from. Jess headed for the stairs going down from the roof with his Winchester in his hand.

             
“Where in the hell are you going?” asked Parks.

             
“I have to go down there and take the fight to them. The jail is under heavy fire and I have to do something about it.”

             
“Do you want me to go with you?” asked Parks.

             
“Still worrying about your investment?” Jess asked, sarcastically.

             
“That wasn’t a very nice thing to say,” retorted Parks.

             
“Yeah, and this coming from a man who wants to kill me after this is over. I want you to stay on the roof and try to give me whatever cover you can. I’m going to work myself between this building and the one next to it. Then I’m going to try to make it across the street. Jess climbed down the stairs watching very carefully. He had put a sling on his Winchester a while back and he slung his rifle over his left shoulder. As he got to the bottom of the stairs a bullet hit the wooden rail not more than one inch from his left hand. Jess spun around and saw a man cocking a Winchester to take another shot and Jess slicked his pistol out and plugged him in the chest and then ran between the two buildings. He quickly reloaded the spent cartridge in his pistol and holstered it, knowing he would have to watch his body movement because the pistol could easily fall out of the holster. He kept his hand on it as much as he could. He kept watching behind him and then he saw Parks looking over the side of the building.

             
“Don’t worry, Jess, I’ve got your back so just worry about what’s in front of you,” said Parks.

             
“Thanks,” replied Jess, as he made his way between the two buildings and crouched down as low as he could as he got up to the front. He slowly peeked out around the corner of the building and tried to spot any of the men from the camp. He saw one man peeking out of the barber shop in town. He raised his Winchester up and pulled the trigger and hit the man in his chest and the man fell out of the doorway and onto the walkway, dead. A half-second later, a bullet coming from his left, splintered the wooden trim of the building where Parks was. He heard a shot coming from the roof and he heard Parks calling down to him.

             
“I got him, Jess!” hollered Parks, who was ducked down now, bullets flying over his head and hitting the front of the building he was on.

             
Jess spotted Andy through the glass window of the saloon. Andy was standing behind the bar with a shotgun in his hands and a Winchester rifle sitting on top of the bar. Jess decided to make a dash across the street although he knew it was a dangerous move, but he had to get to the back of the other side of the main street of the town. He slung his Winchester over his left shoulder and grabbed his Pa’s Colt along with his pistol and started running for Andy’s Saloon. Before he made it halfway across the street two bullets sprayed sand in his face and one seared through his left side just above his holster. He stopped right there and began turning around in a circle, both pistols in his hands and looking for any targets and he found three of them on the rooftops. He started firing both of his pistols as he turned around in a circle three times, each time moving toward Andy’s Saloon. He hit two men on rooftops and he saw Bodine peek up and put a bullet in the third man as Jess slammed through the doors of the saloon and ran behind the bar where Andy was. Jess quickly reloaded both of his pistols and holstered them and reloaded the Winchester.

             
“What the hell was that little dance out in the middle of the street?” asked Andy, a look of amazement on his face.

             
“What the hell do you mean?” asked Jess, as he finished reloading the Winchester.

             
“I’ll tell you what I mean, only a man who’s looking to get killed stops in the middle of the street and spins around shooting at everything in sight. You’re lucky you didn’t get plugged out there,” exclaimed Andy.

             
“I probably would have if it hadn’t been for John. He took out that third shooter while my back was to him.

             
“Well, try to be a little more careful from now on,” replied Andy.

             
Jess gave Andy a strange look. “Andy, when you find out how a man can be a little more careful when he’s in the middle of a war, you make sure to let me know,” replied Jess, as he made his way for the back door of the saloon.

             
“I’m just saying,”  Andy yelled back as Jess was running.

             
Jess found a broom in the back room of the saloon next to the back door. The bristles were worn down to about one inch. He laughed.

             
“What the hell kind of man laughs when he’s in the middle of a gunfight?” hollered Andy from the bar.

             
“The same kind of man who’s going to buy you a new broom when this is over with. Do you think you got enough use out of this one?” asked Jess.

             
“Hey, not all of us got the money you’ve got. Besides, that brooms still works just fine,” replied Andy.

             
Jess used the broom to push the back screen door out in a quick motion. Sure enough, two shots went through the screen on the door before it closed. Jess saw an outhouse in the back yard of the saloon and it was twenty feet away. He hollered back to Andy. “I’m thinking I’m going to have to buy you a new screen door too.” He could hear Andy mumbling something, but he couldn’t make it out and probably didn’t want to anyway. He pushed the door open again and two more bullets hit it, one going through the screen and the other splintering the wooden frame. Jess immediately ran through the door and over to the outhouse just as two bullets slammed into the outhouse.

             
Jess still didn’t know exactly where the shots were coming from, but from the sound of them, they were fairly close. He found some glass bottles on the ground and he picked two of them up. He threw them against the back of Andy’s Saloon and grabbed both of his two cut-down shotguns out and as soon as he heard the two shots, he jumped out from behind the outhouse and let all four barrels go off and then he dropped both of them onto the ground. The two men who had been shooting at him were behind the bank. Both of them had been hit with the buckshot from the two shotguns and were hurt and disorientated. Jess saw them reaching down to pick up their pistols and Jess slicked out his pistol and fanned two shots into each man. They both dropped to the ground, dead. He walked over their bodies as he reloaded his four spent cartridges. As he did, he spotted a shadow coming from a small storage building and he placed his pistol in his left hand and drew his Pa’s pistol from the front of his belt and plugged the man as soon as he came around the corner. The man stumbled around a little so Jess put a second slug into the man’s chest. The man hit the dirt, dead.

CHAPTER TWENTY

              Jess didn’t know exactly how many men were left, but he knew that they had taken down quite a few of them. He knew the jail wouldn’t hold out much longer so he made his way to where he heard the shots that were hitting the jail. He made his way to Mayor Smythe’s new General Store and that’s when he saw it. There were three men who were crouched behind a wagon loaded with canned goods and other items that was delivered earlier, but hadn’t been unloaded yet. One man lay dead next to the wagon, probably hit from the return fire from the jail. All three men were firing off Winchesters at the jail. Jess reached behind his back for his two cut-down shotguns and as he did, he remembered he had thrown them down in a hurry. He stepped out from the corner of the building he was hiding behind, his pistol in his hand.

             
“Hey,” Jess said. The three men were surprised and turned around to shoot at him, but he fanned off three rounds, hitting each of the three men. The two on the left were still standing and bringing their rifles up to try and take a shot at Jess again. He fanned two more rounds from his pistol. Diggs and the other man lay dead, but Hammer was moaning and trying to sit up. Jess was watching him carefully while he reloaded the spent cartridges from his pistol. He was also watching the rooftops even though the shooting now seemed to have stopped altogether. Bodine and Parks gave a holler that it was all clear and they climbed down the stairs. Jess looked at the one man who was left.

             
“What’s your name mister?” Jess asked.

             
“You kiss my ass. I ain’t telling you nothing. How in the hell did you know we was coming?”

             
“I ain’t telling you nothing either except that you and your men picked the wrong town to mess with,” replied Jess, as he grabbed the man’s pistol out of its holster and took the man by his hair and pulled him up to look him over. He was wounded, but not fatally. Jess’ bullet had gone straight though Hammer’s left shoulder. “I can’t believe I missed. I guess I’ll have to practice a little more. Jess shoved the man out and around the building and into the middle of the main street of town as some of the men came out of their hiding places. Jess threw the man down in the dirt like he was throwing away a piece of garbage, which wasn’t far from the truth. Doug Hammer was indeed a bad man. He had murdered men, raped women and robbed his share of banks, but Jess didn’t know that and he didn’t need to. Jess knew all he needed to know about him. He had dealt with this kind of man all too often. Bodine and Parks got there and then the Sheriff and his deputy came out of the jail and walked over.

             
“This is the last one to go, Sheriff,” as Jess placed his pistol about six inches from Hammer’s head and cocked it as Hammer was sitting in the street, unarmed.

             
“Hold it!” hollered the sheriff. “You can’t just shoot an unarmed man in the middle of the street,” exclaimed the sheriff.

             
“And why the hell not,” exclaimed Jess. “This pile of crap just tried to kill all of us and who knows how many of the innocent townsfolk his men killed today in the process so why would we let him live?”