The Gunfighter 1.4 of 1.5

4.

Mack looked out the window from his room, while Gannon had taken liberty on his bed. Gabe was given a room to himself, with Wesley to joined him in the evening.

"I counted twenty five of them; five in the hotel lobby, two on our floor, and two at Wesley's while the rest are posted around the town." Mack looked at the two wagons with the covered tarpaulin over its rear contents but from the shape of it, he had seen such likeness in the war with the Indians.

"Make that two Gatling guns, on the wagons."

"We need to get away." Gannon was getting agitated. "This is my town and they are running me out."

"I think we would be soon." Mack saw the signs that thing was going to get messy in the evening. He then stepped back from the window and approached the door. At the landing, he was stopped by the guard there.

"I am going down for a drink, Corporal." He had dealt with non-comm in his career and the tone he took was sufficient to have the guard back off. He went down and met Kate at the table. He took his drink and played some cards. Later he was back at his room when Wesley reached the hotel later in the evening. They got together to discuss the findings of Ms. Smith.

"I am not sure as to how Ms Smith does her works. She held on her, wonderful contraption never been seen by myself." Wesley spoke to the other three. "However, she was quite thorough in her works. She mentioned a clue to the whereabouts of the specimen. It was to do with the soil that was on the specimen."

"It was zinc."

Gannon recalled the old zinc mines in the hills. It was abandoned some years back due to the instability of the ground. As he was to asked more, the shouts of help was heard.

"Fire! The blacksmith on fire." It was a concern as the local bank was two doors away. Gannon got up and rushed to the door. He was followed by all three but on their way there with the enthusiastic crowd, Gannon felt his sleeve was pulled. He looked to the person who did that. It was Mack and he was indicating the alley to the left. Gabe and Wesley was already heading there. The Corporal who was following them saw the other two headed to the alley. He was going to call for assistance when Jake clobbered him with the billy jack.

"Go in, Gannon." Mack pulled the sheriff into the alley. They joined the other two to the rear of the shops. There was Painted Horse with three horses ready for the fugitives.

"I got three horses, and you come in two pairs?" Painted Horse groaned at the inequality. Nevertheless, Painted Horse dismounted and offered Gannon his mare.

"Ride her but try not to damage her. Mare untested." The warrior told the sheriff before he disappeared into the shadows. They rode to the plains following Mack' instruction. They ended up on Gabe' farm where Kate was waiting for them. She had retrieved the weapons from the sheriff office with the help of Ian. She had taken the liberty of grabbing the Henry rifle and the two Sharps rifles. Alison offered them food and drinks in the house while they discussed the next options.

They agreed to ride to the zinc mines at the hills, including Kate.

The zinc mines have stopped production for some time but the equipment are still there. There was three entrance opened to go inside the hill with a distance of five hundred feet apart. The biggest entrance was the extreme left one which the twin rail tracks was laid with wagons to transport the zinc. The other entrances have single rails, but the middle one was the last one to operate. The town folks once asked why was there was three entrances but the reply was more logic; the miners feared the collapse of the walls, hence they build the extra exits.

Mack decided to split the group into pairs; Gannon would paired with Gabe, while he would paired with Wesley, leaving the Kate alone.

"Painted Horse would accompany the lady." The warrior appeared from the shadows. "I had many years of guarding the ladies. I also brought my rifle." It was an old flintlock dated back probably from the Pilgrim era. "The rifle takes time to load, but the stock does well for a club."

"Painted Horse, you can leave that. Take my Winchester. I would use my own Henry." Gannon pass him the Winchester. "It got a 15 round inside. Here are some more bullets."

The warrior took the rifle and then pulled out his tunic to reveal the bandoleer of bullets. He smiled at the Sheriff.

"A prepared Apache is a good one." Painted Horse took up the rifle and checked the barrel. He smiled. "Good mechanism. Well oiled. Like mine years ago."

With that last line, Painted Horse bucked his legs like the stallion, and then held back his dance when he remembered there was a lady there. Mack stepped in and told Painted Horse to take his place with Wesley.

"I would take the middle one." With that Mack approached the entrance. Kate was dressed for the ride held the Winchester in her hands. She had on her waist pouch the extra bullets and the derringer taken from the lady who was in the hotel. There was a mining lamp which he grabbed one, and had it lighted. Kate took one herself and followed the man. The wall of the tunnel was well spluttered by the miners with beams to support the ceiling and sides. Due to the long absence of dormant activities, the layer of dust have accumulated thick on the flooring but the newly arrived strangers had stirred it up. The dust settled on their clothes and even stifle their breathing at some stretches. They kept on moving along the tunnel for some time before it was joined by an adjoining tunnel from the left. They met up with Painted Horse and Wesley there.

"What did you guys walked into? Cobwebs or rumbled in the dirt?" Wesley asked.

"Probably they laid down to see the stars." Painted Horse had all the logical answers. "Our way was well traveled."

Mack was puzzled how the other path has less dust than theirs. Nevertheless, they continued on but this time the ground was more solid and some beams looked newly upright. They were to end up in small cavern where they sighted the other pair of Gannon and Gabe. They looked like they had crawled through the rabbit burrow.

"We almost lost our lives. The beams were all rotten and in some places, we have to crawl through." Gabe muttered out. "Are you sure it was zinc as this place looked like it was used since they abandoned the mines."

"Not all," Mack told the others. "There was the tunnel taken by Wesley which was cleared of dust. Look at this place. Its also cleared of debris and there are tracks."

Gannon nodded and click on his Henry rifle. He looked to the two tunnels ahead of them. He looked at Gabe.

"Painted Horse, you followed me." Gannon took to the left tunnel but before he could move, he saw the dark shadow that loomed over there. The dark shadow turned out to be the specimen kin; a bigger one with a more vicious look. The first to appeared the iron hard head shell followed by the appearance of the large scorpion sting tail followed by the sharp pincer claws on the upper limbs of the creature. The rest of its body was supported by the large tri claw lower limbs that looked like that of the feather fowl. This one was almost twice the size of the cowboys.

"By the spirits, I think we stumbled on the Dark One." Painted Horse muttered out. "I think its best we say our prayers for forgiveness."

"To hell with it." Gannon leveled his Henry and pulled on the lever to released the first shot. The .22 caliber hit the creature on its hard shell head surface. The resonance of the gun shot vibrated off the cavern walls. Painted Horse was next to shoot but he had aimed at the middle torso. It caused the creature to shrieked out.

Mack took up the Sharps in his hands and fired the .44 caliber twice at the creature. At that range, the gunfighter could not missed the creature. The shots hit the creature in its hard shell head which caused it to slink back into the tunnel. It went back into the darkness.

Follow it!' Mack shouted out.