New Title 1 by Eric S Brown Read Free Book Online

know, ma’am, but I think it’s time we both hit the trail.”
    A chorus of screams rang out as pistols cracked and a shotgun thundered again. The crowd at the door, the ones who hadn’t ventured outside, turned in a panic and fled towards them. A dancer darted by with tears flowing from her eyes and a stricken look of horror contorting her face as she raced for the stairs.
    The saloon’s small outer doors swooshed apart as a mangled corpse was hurled inside. It landed on the floor, its head cracking wide open on the wooden slats. A puddle of red wetness grew around the dead man, staining the sawdust. Michael and Beth watched as a trio of creatures came bounding inside in search of the crowd. Two of them had once been men. Their skin was leathery and held a greenish, sick hue. Long razor-like nails sprouted from the tips of their fingers and their eyes glowed yellow with hatred and anger.
    The third of the grotesque pack was a woman. Most of her hair and half of her face were gone, as if someone had blasted a shotgun into her at point blank range, leaving a hollowed-out crater where her cheek had once been. The woman leaned back her head and snarled like a mad dog, revealing rows of dagger-like teeth.
    “ Holy...” Michael started, but Beth poked him in the ribs with her gun.
    “ This ain’t the time to be takin’ the good Lord’s name in vain,” she corrected him. “We need all the help we can get. ”
    One of the creatures launched itself up the wall to the open area of the saloon’s second floor, covering the distance in two leaps of its powerful legs. The female creature’s glowing golden eyes fell on Michael and Beth.
    “ This way!” Beth shouted as she tugged Michael into the rear portion of the bar where she and her pa lived. The gambler followed her down a short hallway and into a room that was half a kitchen and half a bedroom. Beth closed the room’s heavy door and threw a thick piece of wood across it to keep it in place. “That ain’t gonna hold her,” Michael warned. The door rocked in its frame and the wooden flat barring the entrance cracked from the pressure, barely staying together.
    “ You got a gun, mister?” Beth yelled. Michael nodded dumbly, drawing a revolver from underneath his jacket. “Then shoot her!” Beth screamed at him.
    The woman slammed into the door again, and this time, it flew inward. Michael raised his gun and fired as she leapt at them. His shot wasn’t aimed, but God was with them and the bullet impacted with the woman’s skull, snapping her head back at an unnatural angle. The woman collapsed. Blood leaked from the hole in her head. “Is she dead?” Michael sputtered.
    Beth kicked the limp body. “I think so. Don’t matter none, though. There’s two more of them.”
    Beth looked at the pieces of the shattered door. “We can’t stay here. Besides, we got find my pa,” she said. Tears dribbled down her cheeks. “He’s stuck out there with those monsters!”
    With the immediate danger passed, Michael was beginning to get his nerves and emotions under control. “Your pa is dead,” he said, his voice flat.
    Beth whirled on him, moving in so close the Derringer’s barrels dented his gut as she poked it into him again. Tears streaked down her face and her cheeks were red with anger. “Don’t you dare say that. You don’t know if he’s dead any more than I do,” she snapped.
    “ Alright,” Michael soothed, staying as still as he could until she removed the Derringer from his stomach. “I’m sorry.”
    “ Nothing to be sorry for,” Beth said quietly. “He ain’t dead yet and neither are we.” She started for the door, but Michael caught her by the shoulder.
    “ Wait, let me go first,” he requested. “That little gun of yours is just going to make them angrier than they already are.”
     
    Thirteen
     
    O ld man Patrick lay with his face pressed into the dirt of the space between Pete’s saloon and the general store next door to it. He