The Dead Frontier (17)

When Ezekiel zapped inside the room, Glen was still looking at the letter the old man left behind on the counter.

Seeing him like that, Ezekiel wanted to bawl his eyes out again.

"Sir, I am sorry. I am so sorry" Ezekiel said with a meek voice and tears started to sip through his eyes again.

Glen, on the other hand, didn't do anything and just chuckled happily.

He wasn't faking it. He was genuinely happy.

"Thank you" he just said this.

The little guy didn't understand why Glen suddenly thanked him so he looked at him blankly.

"Thank you for not betraying me" Glen said as he sniffled. His eye started to sting. If he didn't stop himself, he would also cry his heart out just like this little guy.

But, his would be tears of joy rather than tears of grief.

Finally.

Finally, there was someone alive out there that didn't betray him and genuinely cared about him.

"Why?" Ezekiel suddenly blurted out. He didn't know why but he felt like he had to ask this question.

"Why? Well... it's a long story. Do you have time to listen?" Glen asked.

Ezekiel nodded his head blankly and sat down on the chair near Glen's bed.

"It started 16 years ago..."

***

-Red Plains, Graywood, Rhodes Ranch-

Glen and his father were looking after the cattle.

"So you see son, that's why you should never try to milk a bull!" said Irving as he got up from the ground and dusted off his overalls.

Mischievous little Glen, on the other hand, just laughed at his silly father's antics. Of course, he knew that one should not try to milk a bull.

Still, it was fun to mess with his naive father.

Actually, it was one of the few things he found fun about this simple farm life.

The other thing was when his father let him shoot the family gun. It felt so heavy in his arms despite just being a revolver, a navy revolver in fact.

In the end, even if there were not a lot of fun things to do in this time period, Glen was still happy with his simple life.

Yep, this was the life he dreamt of. They had a family ranch, they didn't expect anything from him. Well there was actually one thing though, for Glen, to take over the ranch when he was old enough.

That was an expectation he was okay with.

He was going to have such a fun time when he told Zerem about this uninteresting life. Watching his bored face would be a reward in itself!

Hahaha!

What could he do about Glen's choice of life?

Even if he was given a hundred tries, he would still choose to lead a slow but happy life.

Just because he was born in the wild west time period didn't mean he had to be a cowboy.

In the wild west, there weren't only cowboys.

Ranch owners were still people okay!

"...Glen! Get inside to your mother. Now!"

Glen was startled by his father's sudden shout. In his eleven years of life, he didn't hear Irving shout once. Even if he was being mischievous on purpose, he would just scold him lightly and let him off.

His mother was the true scary person of their household.

Glen looked at where Irving was looking towards. He could see a dust storm coming from the west and... there were riders there?

Seeing that far with his own eyes, he noticed there was something seriously wrong.

Glen ran towards their home with his chubby little legs. He was still small compared to his age so he had some baby fat left over in his body.

"What's going on?" seeing him head inside running, without even dusting himself off, Kathryn could tell there was something urgent. She worried an accident might have befallen Irving.

Kathryn was blonde and had blue eyes just like Glen. She was the flower of Graywood and everyone said Irving was lucky to capture the heart of a beauty such as her.

"Mom! Mom! People are riding towards our house" said little Glen as he grabbed her mother's hem.

"What?" Glen's grandfather got up from the chair he was sitting on.

He was Irving's father. His hair used to be grey but now it was all white. If Glen didn't remember his baby years, he would have probably thought he was born with white hair. That was how much it suited him.

Even if he was in his late fifties, the old man's body was still as strong as a buffalo. He would still help Irving with ranch work from time to time.

Also, despite the deep wrinkles, he was very handsome. There were a lot of old widows in the town that tried to seduce him. Glen acted dumb because he was currently a child but he could still understand their innuendos.

However, James was still steadfast and didn't make any move towards them. He was loyal to his grandmother.

As for his grandmother, Glen didn't know. She was long dead before Glen was born. They said it was something like tuberculosis.

James rushed upstairs and came back down again with their family gun in his hands.

"Pa, make sure nothing happens to Irving alright?" Kathryn said to him before watching him leave, worried.

Glen and Kathryn made their way towards the window hurriedly, looking outside.

There, the duo finally saw the identity of the dust clouds.

It was a bunch of men with bronze skin with circular blue paint all over it and two feathers stuck to the top of their hair.

Hm?

Were they the natives of this world?

However, wasn't it a myth that natives wore feathers on their hair?

If he was not wrong, this myth came from the fact that Cherokees' wore a feathered turban at the time of the war.

As Glen looked at them with child-like curiosity, Kathryn was getting worried by the second.

It was never a good thing when natives came down here.

When they arrived, they didn't even say anything and one of them just shot James with an arrow.

Glen didn't understand what was going on at first. It only clicked to him when he saw James falling down with an arrow stuck to his chest with blood leaking from his mouth.

"NO!!!" Glen shouted.

Kathryn could not see everything as clearly as Glen could but once she saw James falling down on the ground, she knew something was up.

Kathryn hugged the trembling Glen and carried him upstairs to their bedroom. Then she hastily opened up the wardrobe and hid Glen inside.

"Shhh, dear, be quiet. From now on, no matter what happens don't make a sound. Mommy and daddy are going to play with strangers outside, okay?" said Kathryn as she buried Glen with a bunch of clothes.

Then she closed down the wardrobe. After she did, Glen struggled and created a small opening that he could watch outside from the crack between the doors of the wardrobe.

***

*Crash*

Glen didn't know how long he waited but he finally heard a voice from downstairs. They were talking a foreign language that Glen could not understand.

Suddenly, he heard someone entering the room he was in.

"Ykoto uv mug?" he was talking to himself.

Glen watched him look under the bed and slowly come towards the wardrobe.

*Ba-dump*

Glen could hear his heartbeats getting louder and louder.

He slowly opened up the wardrobe and said something again.

"Ito bae koto?" he said as he slowly rose the spear in his hands ready to stab the cloth pile Glen was hiding inside.

*Crash*

Another loud sound!

The native that was about to stab him turned towards the origin of the sound. It was one of its compatriots.

"Now's ja. Wkoto uv mug koto. Yo vkaeng noixo" he said.

Then together with the original native, they left the room.

Glen kept hiding there with worry.

What happened?

Were mom and dad okay?

What about James? They had to take him to the town doctor!

Even though Glen was worrying, he didn't take a single step outside his hiding place.

He knew that his mom would come to get him.

*Cough*

Glen suddenly froze. He was afraid that someone had heard his cough.

However, there were no movements inside the house.

That was weird.

Also what was with this smoke... SMOKE!

Glen rushed out to see the house burning in flames!

Oh no!

No wonder why his mom didn't come to take him back. She couldn't get inside due to the fire.

Fire, fire, fire, what was he supposed to do in case of fire?

Got it!

He was supposed to sit in an open place and wait for the firemen to come... there were no firemen coming was there?

Then what?

Right!

He was supposed to cover himself in water and rush outside.

The water should keep the fire from burning him. Good idea!

Glen went towards the bathroom and poured a bucket of water on himself.

This should be enough.

Proud of his own work Glen rushed outside to reunite with his family.

When he went outside the house, however, there was no one to greet him.

That was when he saw the bodies up ahead.

*Ba-dump*

No!

Glen rushed towards them with his chubby little legs and cried at his family's now dead bodies.

"Get up!"

They didn't get up.

Their scalps were skinned and their bodies were mutilated.

"Get up... please" Glen cried beside his family's bodies.

The fire engulfed his house and turned it into ash.

When he looked towards the horizon he could see smoke rising from Graywood.

"Get up... please... I won't be naughty anymore" Glen said with teary eyes.

Eventually, he knew that he had to leave. He might be a child but he still had his previous life's memories. He knew that they were long dead but he just didn't want to accept it.

Glen spent the night together with his family's bodies.

When the morning sun rose, his eyes were puffy from crying. He had cried his heart out.

He turned back to leave but remembered the gun James took before leaving.

As a keepsake of their memory and a way to protect himself, Glen took the gun with him. But it was too heavy for him to lift and aim properly.

Glen spent the next 3 days walking through the desert towards the next town. Graywood was already burnt to ashes.

"Look at this little fella. Hello, kid! Do you want a lift?" asked a man leading a twenty strong gang.

This was the moment Glen met his teacher, guide and second father Wiley.