Resurrection by Kevin Collins Read Free Book Online

girl,” one of the men who was holding Charlie from behind bellowed into his ear.  
         “That right, you here for the girl?” the man standing in front of Charlie yelled.
         “He’s here for the girl, ain’t ya boy, ain’t ya?” The man who was restraining him repeated.
         “Shut up Bear, just shut the hell up!”
         The man jerked Charlie’s goggles from off of his face and he screamed in pain and turned his face to the ground. The man pulled his head back up.
         “Damn boy what’s wrong with your eyes?”
         “He’s a secondary, damn we got us a secondary, and they’s a bounty out for them!” Bear yelled.
         “That right boy what Bear says, you a secondary?”    
         Charlie was silent; the man grabbed him by his hair and punched him hard in the face.
         “You don’t talk much do you boy?”
         The man punched him again, harder this time and blood streamed from a cut above his left eye. Charlie’s body tensed and he glared at the man.
          The man drew his fist back for a third round on Charlie’s face but he quickly threw his head back smashing it into Bear’s face and he immediately released his grip on Charlie.
          Charlie ducked and caught his antagonist’s fist in his hand and crushed it and then broke the man’s arm. He then spun round and grabbed Bear by his hair and tossed him violently into the fire; he yelped in pain and fled with his clothes ablaze.
         The other men in the camp rushed him en masse. He seized one of them, picked him up over his head and then threw him into the others.
         Shots rang out and Charlie hit the ground and rolled to where his weapons had been tossed. His shotgun snapped several times in succession and each time several men fell to the ground until none were left standing.
         He stood up and surveyed the carnage he had wrought. Some of the men were not dead and lay moaning on the ground. He picked up the rest of his weapons and his goggles.     
         “Who are you?” cried the man whose arm Charlie had shattered, his words gurgled in his throat.
         Charlie held his pistol at his side and then walked away without answering. He turned his attention to the woman still tied to the post on the other side of the fire and pulled a knife from his boot.
          She saw the gleaming blade in his hand through the flames that separated them and let loose a blood—curdling scream. Charlie approached her, she let out another scream and spat in his face, he reached behind her cut her hands loose.
         He walked around the campsite picking up weapons from off the ground and then he turned and started off into the night
         “Mister, hey, where you going?” the woman called to Charlie.
         He did not answer and she ran after him cautiously, rubbing her wrists.
         “Mister,” she said, “you’re not just going to leave me here, I, I mean thank you for helping me.”
         Charlie did not stop and again she followed after him.
         “Hey, I want to apologize for that and say thank you, you know.”
         Charlie stopped and faced the woman, “your welcome, now, go on back to your people.”
         She looked at Charlie; his face was barely visible in the flickering amber of the campfire. “I don’t have any people, not anymore at least, they killed them all,” She said looking back at the men in the camp.    
         Charlie looked at her face and it was then that he realized that she was no more than a girl, eighteen at best and it was obvious that she had no place to go.
         “I got nothing for you, look I can’t feed you,” he said, “I got no room for strays,” he said.
    “Well, I’m no stray and you ain’t leaving me here. I can carry my own weight.”
         They stood eyeing one another, a warm desert breeze blew back her hair, Charlie sighed and then he moved back into