Tarnished Chapter 3 (Patreon)

John was trying to read a book when he was rudely interrupted by the whistle of the train and the shouts of panic from the other passengers.

He wasn’t the smartest man around but it didn’t take a genius to figure out the train was getting robbed. He sighed and closed the book before glancing out the window.

The train was still moving so he knew he had time. He quickly got out of bed and started getting dressed, glancing out of the windows of his cabin to see what he could of the situation outside.

Unfortunately, it seemed like his cabin was on the wrong side of the train. Before opening his door and exposing himself to fire, he made sure to strap on his pistols. By now the train had come to a complete halt and he could see people jumping off and running to the forest line in the distance.

John just shook his head. They would have been better off staying put. Even before the quiet whip-crack sounds of pneuma rifles punctuated the air, he was ready.

He slid the door open to his room and risked a peek outside, one of his guns ready for anything. From his vantage point, he could see bodies lying on the ground. As he watched, men ran up to the bodies and began roughly checking them for valuables. He also noted the men paid extra attention to the men’s lapels. A place where a badge might be? He frowned at that but moved back into the room slightly. Not wanting to expose his position, he did his best to count the number of attackers.

The best he could figure was fourteen. He couldn’t see the platform on the automata that was stomping around so it wasn’t clear if they left men on it as well. Keeping it moving was a smart move, but keeping men on it might be too much for some greedy bandits. Either way, he only had twelve shots before he had to reload. He cursed quietly and checked the bandoleer on his shoulder harness. There were only six extra rounds stuck in the loops. Every bullet would have to count.

As men approached the back of his train car, John slid out of sight in his room. The men didn’t enter the car, instead, they posted up outside on either exit. He did have to duck as the man who crossed to the far side of the train decided that looting one of the corpses took precedence over having multiple people watch the exit.

That worked for him just fine.

John waited for the men to get complacent before he would move. He could hear someone talking in the forward car, but it was muffled. Since nobody was running out the back, the guy guarding the stairs wasn’t paying much attention.

Moving slowly so as to not make noise, John stepped out of his cabin. The floor creaked beneath him and he cursed, abandoning stealth for speed. It was only a few feet to the back exit and John’s gun was up and in the face of the confused robber before he could finish turning and bring his rifle to bear.

There was a crack as John pulled the trigger on his six-shooter. Unlike these lawless thugs, he had an actual firearm. The bullet tore through the man’s skull and out the back and he toppled back off the steps of the train.

John didn’t wait to see if his shot had even hit its mark, he knew it had. He was already rushing back into his cabin for cover.

The train shook as the pounding of footsteps approached from the front. He ignored those and leveled his pistol at the man who had gone to loot the corpse. The man was sprinting back to the train but it was an easy shot for John. His pistol barked out once again, shattering the glass and taking the man in the chest. He went down instantly.

Ducking down and turning away from the front of the train, John quickly reloaded the two spent rounds. It was just in time as a burst of gunfire tore through the thin wooden walls surrounding him.

John grunted as a few rounds struck his back armor. Thankfully the pneuma rifles didn’t have the same punch as his own firearms. The impacts would still leave bruises though.

Soon the sounds stopped and John popped the cylinder of his revolver back into place and stood.

“Do you think we got him?” One of the men asked quietly before someone else hissed at him to shut up.

Smiling, John whirled into the hallway. Rifles were already being pointed his way but John was faster.

With his off hand, he fanned the hammer on his gun three times before ducking back into cover. The three blasts were deafening in the confines of the train car, but he could worry about the ringing in his ears later.

There was a return of fire, but it was less than it had been before. Either he had hit his marks, or some of these robbers were out of charge. Who was he kidding, of course, he had hit his mark. John couldn’t recall the last time he had missed something at this range. It wasn’t him boasting, it was what made him a gunslinger and not just another idiot with a gun.

“We can discuss this reasonably, Mr. Gunslinger!” Someone shouted. “There is no need for you to die today.”

John almost chuckled at that.

“You seem to know what I am!” he yelled back as he extracted the three spent rounds and put in three more. That only left him with one spare, but it would have to do. “If you know what I am, you know what I am capable of. Do you think you brought enough men?”

Silence greeted him.

Not wanting to drag this out any longer than he had to, John pulled his hat off and stuck it into the hallway. There was a burst of shots, one even going through his hat and ripping it from his hand before the leader shouted for them to stop.

It was too late though, John rounded the corner again and opened fire. This time he emptied the entire gun before switching to his other revolver. There were four more men, he fired three more times.

The last man, whom John had pegged as the boss, stood there in stunned silence as John kept his gun trained on him.

“I’m a reasonable man,” John spoke. “How about you tell me who hired you and I’ll go have a reasonable conversation with them?”

“You were just supposed to be just another lawman,” the man muttered.

This time, John did laugh. “Sounds like you got some bad information.”

Before the unnamed criminal could answer, a shadow descended on the train car. John threw himself back down the hallway as a giant metal foot crashed through the roof where he had been standing a moment before.

The foot retracted from the opening as John scrambled to his feet. He could hear someone shouting from the automata to run. But when John looked to where the robber had stood only a moment before, the man was already gone. He glanced out the window and saw the man sprinting toward the forest for all he was worth.

He let out an annoyed grunt and stepped toward the broken opening. The artificer-built contraption had taken a step back and was beginning to bring its foot up again. But John could see only one person aboard. His pistol snapped up and fired. John strode past the wreckage as the behemoth tilted back and crashed to the ground.

There was one more target. As he walked to the exit, he popped open the cylinder and dumped the brass casings. He would pick them up later. Then he reached for the last round in his bandolier and stuck it in the chamber before clicking it back in place just as he stepped off the train.

The leader was sprinting full out for the forest and was almost there. John took careful aim and waited. The man glanced back, and John fired.

There was a red spray and the man spun around and hit a tree.

He put his pistol back into the holster and walked back aboard the train to collect his spent casings.

He had more bullets in his luggage, but it would take time to collect those. So he also picked up one of the pneuma rifles and checked the gauge on it. It had about half a charge. He opened the bolt to check if it was loaded, and it was. He didn’t much like the weaker weapons but it was better than nothing at the moment.

As he was rearming himself, some of the passengers started to peek out of the front car. When he glanced their way, they retreated back out of sight.

That was probably for the best, he wasn’t in the mood to deal with people at the moment.

After securing the weapon, John checked outside but didn’t see any sign of more robbers. It seemed like they had all piled into the front of the train car. Probably to try and overwhelm him.

Had it been another gunslinger, it may have even worked. But John was a bit special.

After checking for any more attackers, John stepped off the train and checked the bodies. All of the civilians that had been shot were dead. Not that he could do much to save them if they weren’t. He wasn’t a doctor. But he could at least give them a less drawn-out and agonizing death. He was glad he didn’t have to do that.

After that, he checked the bodies of the gang that attacked. The first two he shot were dead. One with a hole clean through the dome, the other in the heart. The ones aboard the train were a bit messier, but they had all bled out. He did find that they were all wearing armor though. Considering they were expecting a lawman with a pneuma rifle similar to theirs, it made sense. Unfortunately, they ran into John. And his firearm punched through the thin steel and layered leather armor without any difficulty.

The second to last body John checked on was the man piloting the automata. When he got there he crouched down and sighed. It was just a fucking kid. The round had clipped him in the forehead and caved in his skull. He pulled the goggles off and closed the kid's eyes before putting them back on.

“Try to make better choices in your next life,” he said as he rose and headed for the last corpse.

The leader was still sprawled brokenly against the tree he had impacted when John shot him.

By the time John arrived, a few of the people who had fled into the woods had started to return. A couple glanced his way, but everyone gave him a wide birth.

John used the barrel of his rifle to flip the body back over just in case the man was pretending. Going by the fact his bullet had gone through the man’s eye, there was no chance that was the case.

As with the other bodies, John searched him. Other than smokes and worn-out photos of some girl, there was nothing of note. This last body at least had something. A hidden pouch inside the man’s vest held a small black bag. As John crouched there, he opened the bag and dumped it into his hand.

He rubbed the diamonds around a bit before dumping them back into the bag and stuffing them into his own vest pocket.

Then he turned around and returned to the train.

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I think two chapters of Tarnished followed by two chapters of Blue Star Enterprises will likely be what I do until I hit my Patreon early access chapters. At least for the next few weeks. Although I may increase that to hit my 20-chapter goal before May 12th. Monday is usually the busiest day for RR, at least according to my analytics, so the first chapters of Tarnished will likely go up on May 20th, with BSE following two weeks behind. So expect a delay in May for new chapters of at least a week. But once they do come out, it will be 5 chapters a week until I hit 20 for each on RR.