4 Claude

Claude was sitting on a rock, devising a solution to his problem.

That camp shouldn't be far and the only reason why they haven't found them yet is because the rain covered their sound and trail.

Rose was doing nothing, there wasn't much she could do in her hostage situation.

"We have to get away," Claude said, as he stood up.

"Sure, but where," said Rose.

Claude stood almost outside the cave, where his horse was, the day was beautiful and the sky was clear and he wished his mind was that calm.

But just at that moment he heard a noise from the bushes, he involuntarily moved into the cave, but he continued listening.

"Damn psycho brothers"

She saw how a man passed through some bushes to stand next to a tree.

Claude approached, Rose looked at him curiously and when Claude was close enough with knife in hand she grabbed the man.

He quickly put the knife to the subject's throat, almost cutting his jugular and he began to kick and move, generating a sound that Claude did not like to hear, so of course he told him.

"If you try something that a stupid person would do, I'm going to cut your jugular like a pig, do you understand?" Claude told him and almost automatically the man stopped moving.

Claude dragged him from the bushes into the cave, the questions did not wait in the form of whispers.

"Which brothers?" Claude asks as he releases the man's mouth.

The man began to cough, as if he had choked on his own saliva, as Claude dragged him along and responded:

"I'm not going to tell you anything, you damned son of a bitch!" the man responded angrily.

"Oh, who taught you such strong words, huh? You bastard, I'm going to teach you something even stronger." Claude was now grabbing the guy by his shirt, and there he landed the first blow.

"Say something," Claude said and hit him again, this time knocking out a tooth.

"Where is the tongue you used to insult me now" he said as he hit him again, the blood coming out of the corner of his mouth and much more blood coming out of his broken nose.

Rose, on the other hand, watched this in horror, not very used to see violence of that kind.

"s-s-stop, please, I-I-I'll tell you everything you want" the man said as he began to cry out the pain and covered his painful face with his palm.

"We're talking now," Claude said and released a man.

The man then finally began to count.

"W-w-we are the Bennett brothers gang, we did a robbery a few days ago in the local city, we are being wanted by the law," said the man, scared before Claude.

"How many are?" Claude asks this time.

"We are about 20 men," said the man, now a little calmer.

"Where are they camping?" Claude asks, the most important question of all.

"We parked, nearby, from the top of this rock you can see it" said the man and he also asked his own question

"What will happen to me?" asked the frightened man.

"Well..." Claude began, approaching the man and crouching in front of him, "you've been good as a hostage" he said finally giving the man hope of getting out alive.

"Oh, I appreciate it very much, I swear I'm never going to steal or anything like that again, I'm going to live with my-" Claude intones, without much more patience, because of what he told him the man quickly stabs his hunting knife into his throat.

"You should have thought about the consequences of your sins," Claude said and the blood starting to ran down his hands.

Rose, on the other hand who had been hearing and seeing everything in silence, felt horribly horrified by what she had just seen.

Claude, however, stood as if nothing had happened, pulling the knife from him and leaving him bleeding on the floor like a pig or a cow.

Claude began to walk as he approached his horse, looking for a cloth, and when he found it he began to wipe away the excess blood.

Claude approached the cave exit to think better about the situation and look at the landscape, but a Rose who could no longer remain silent approached him.

"Why?" Rose said.

"Why, what?" Claude responded, somewhat surprised.

"The man cooperated well and you still killed him, you savage," said Rose, quite wondering about Claude's attitude.

Claude looked at Rose for a few seconds and then responded.

"Well, princess, that's how things are done in this world," Claude said mockingly and proceeded to wipe the blood from her knife on her dress.

Rose pushed away Claude's hand with which she was holding the knife she was smearing on her knife and slapped him.

Claude clearly mocked when her face turned almost completely and his cheek began to turn red, Rose looked at him with anger, so much anger that it seemed that tears were beginning to come out of her eyes.

Rose turned her back on Claude and went to sit on a rock nearby.

"hmp" Claude exclaimed and went to check the man's body, luckily for the man he had none other than some of those famous Winchester rifles, with bullets and so on.

Aside from that, he didn't have anything else of value, they were really short on pockets to pull off a robbery recently.

Rose was turned away, looking at nothing so as not to look at Claude and her act that she considered cruel

Claude, after checking the body, simply leaned on one side of the cave entrance, looking at the nothing.

I had several options, but going to the city was not one of them, it was probably still at war, the gang of Rose's father and the old man who hired me, and so big that it allowed these 2 brothers to rob the local bank.

Claude looked at the landscape and the hours passed.

"I'm hungry" Rose said and it was true, she hadn't eaten anything all day and that was the first word Rose said to her.

"Are you hungry?" Claude walked over to Rose who stood up, she was still looking at him angrily.

"Yes, yes I have, and unfortunately you are the only one here who can get us food"

"hmp, I see" Claude, I take the belt of his costume and look at his feet, then he pulls out his revolver, a hard hit on her forehead that will leave a small scar for a while, Rose fell, but claude grabs her head. 

claude leave the head of rose in the ground and he ties up rose again

The apathy towards him was going to deepen more of what it, but he still didn't trust Rose that she wouldn't escape if he went outside for a few hours.

Claude approached his horse, in the second load of his horse there was a small but very good weapon, a double barrel shotgun.

Claude put it on the left side of his belt and with the Winchester on his back he prepared to go outside.

Night was almost falling and for almost a day he did not leave that cave, now it was different, Claude began to climb towards the top of the cave and from there he began to walk.

He didn't have to walk far before he began to see fire, a fire freshly lit at night falling into the valley.

Claude approached stealthily, right where there was a cart and a few boxes, he looked towards the center of the camp and saw how men were eating around the fire, many, but not all.

He counted around 15, that is, there were 4 men missing from the band, he listened to them eat until one said.

"It's too bad Jeff isn't here," said one man.

"That little man, he got lost, surely," said this time a, bearded man.

"Hey, hey, hey, give little Jeff a rest, I'm sure my brother must be out there asking people he catches on the roads for cigarettes," said this time a man, very similar to the one he had killed.

Claude took his repeating rifle from his back and found an oil lantern near the caravan. It wasn't the best, but it worked, so he put the rifle aside and raised the lantern. The men around the fire were eating so much that they couldn't se him, He realized it when he turned it on.

And when the moment finally came, Claude threw the lamp at one.

"A-aaAAAAAH" soon caught fire.

"¡They are attacking us!" the one next to him shouted, but he didn't have much luck because the burning man threw on top of him, grabbing him by the shirt, spreading the fire towards him.

Claude started shooting while the others were foolishly taking the gun besides them.

There were already 2 deads that easily turned into 8 dead men in a minutes of shots, Claude's shots were fast and hit the target, but the moment of surprise had already passed and the men were behind barrels or wooden boxes waiting for the moment to shoot.

"You'll regret this shit, you fucking idiot!" one shouted and started shooting towards the boxes where Claude was.

The fire little by little spreads to a large layer nearby and about 3 naked women began to come out, burning and screaming desperately as they lay down to die on the floor.

Soon a big fat man came out shouting with a shotgun, but Claude had already moved.

The women who were in the middle of this little by little fell to the floor, dead and burned.

It was a horrible thing to see and the chaos in the camp was great because of Claude's actions.

Claude fired the winchester at the gang, finding himself in a gunfight that surpassed, apart from the fact that his right side, by the wound that he ignored, hurt since he interrogated the guy in the cave.

Claude was being outmatched and although he had managed to kill a few more, bringing the kill count back to 11 (not counting the women) but it was still a 1 to 10 duel.

But what those of the Bennett brothers' band did not know was that their horses would come out of their ties when they saw the fire near them.

The completely upset horses tried to flee in a hurry, taking entire tents with them and stepping on some men. Claude managed to take refuge behind a small tree that barely covered his figure, for which he still suffered some blows from the horses.

When all that was over there were not so many men left.

Claude took out his revolver because his Winchester no longer had bullets, there were only about 5 men left in the gang, which made it easier for Claude.

Claude finished off the band members one by one, some had moved to the boxes where he was before and it was easy shoot them from the angle where he was.

finally, all died.

Although he couldn't celebrate because a bullet hit in none other than Claude's hand.

1 men leave one of the 3 stores that are furthest from all of them and the smallest.

Claude knew that he had killed that Bennett, who was fat (monstrously fat) but he had not seen the other one and it seems that he was now in front of him.

The man told him something that Claude did not expect to hear.

"Come out, boy, and let's finish this like men," said Bennett.

"How could I trust," Claude said.

"Well then I give you my word as a man and that the devil will use me as a pet if he doesn't keep it" said the man, he had a particular country accent, an accent that made him trust him.

Claude's hand was injured, but that was not an impediment to being able to use a firearm, and even less a revolver, so he left the boxes.

On his face, Claude, noticed how this man was tanned and around 50, he had black hair and his face was also adorned with a v-shaped, very lush beard, apart from a horizontal scar on his nose.

Claude stood in front of him, his hand was sore and he had his revolver in the left holster and he had put his small shotgun in the right holster.

He did not expect all this chaos to end in a gun duel, especially with the entire camp on fire and a fire that quickly disappeared once it reached its peak.

Claude prepared himself, there were no missing words, because they both knew why they were each in front of the other.

It was fast, Claude managed to draw his gun very quickly with his left hand, showing great control, but even so his shot was not accurate.

It hit him in the jugular and the man held his throat, from where the blood came in spurts and ran down his hand, finally before falling he shot Claude in the leg.

"AH!" Claude shouted as the shot made him drop his leg in pain.

The man fell dead and choked on his own blood.

But while his story in this world was ending, Claude was in pain, he had had almost extreme luck that, as entry, the bullet came out and Claude, after letting out a typical moan of pain, got back on his feet.

He looked around, half of the camp was in ashes, many bodies were on the ground, some not yet dead, but they were dying and on the verge of death.

Claude didn't have time for that, so he started staggering back toward the cave, to bring Rose here and then eat some of them provisions.