[Short Story]Duel in the middle of nowhere

I saw yesterday The magnificent seven ( the remake of the remake of The Seven Samurai) and I was inspired to write a story about a wild wild west duel. Or something like this. Enjoy the story and let me know if you like it

Johnny looked at the piece of paper once again. He knew the picture by heart, by he couldn’t stop looking over it to be sure he would spot the man right away he saw him.

That piece of paper was a wanted poster. “Jack the Butcher, Dead or alive, 500 dollars” was written on it. The picture of a man with a scrawny beard, small eyes and a big nose. A big scar was crossing his left cheek, from ear to nose. This was the give away element, and it would be very hard to hide. The Butcher was wanted for killing three men in a bar fight in Texas a year ago. He evaded the law ever since.

Johnny puts the wanted poster back in his pocket and moved his horse toward the town in front. This was the 5th or the 6th town, he saw in the past five months looking for information on The Butcher. The trail got cold around two months ago, so he hoped he will manage to find something in this small frontier town.

Little Black Rock, this was the name of the town, a typical frontier town. A small church, a rundown hotel and a grocery store were the most notable buildings in the town. Johnny led his horse towards the hotel, that as many such buildings in the West, had a bar downstairs and some rooms for rent upstairs. Some ladies neither too young, nor too old, and wearing revealing clothes were on the porch of the bar, eyeing him from a distance. It didn’t take too much brain to know what kind of job these ladies were doing, but that wasn’t Johnny’s business to question their morals. Everybody did what they had to do to survive in this world.

The bar was filled with a thick smog, smelling of piss and cheap booze. A broken piano could be heard into a corner, cheering up a crowd enchanted by the spells of Bacchus. Some tables were playing cards and the people there seemed to be the most happier there, but on a closer look, you could see one of their hands on the cards and the other on their triggers. Playing cards were a dangerous job in this part of the world.

Johnny went straight to the bar and asked for a double of whisky, while scrutinizing the crowd.

“Young man, in your place I wouldn’t look directly at these men. A death over a weird glance isn’t strange in these parts” an old man quietly said near Johnny.

“Thank you for your kind words, Grampa. But I can take care of myself.” he replied, patting over his holster.

“Young men these days. So eager to fight” the old man sighted. “What are you doing in these parts? I don’t think I’ve seen your face until now”

“Do you remember every face that you see?” Johnny asked, making a sign for the bartender to fill in his glass.

“I might. Why do you ask? Are you looking for someone?”

“I might. Or maybe I’m here for the view” Johnny replied.

“Ha, ha, ha. That’s a good one. I’m here for the view.” the old man was cracking up, attracting the looks of the people around him. “Hey everyone, hear this. This little fellow said he came here for the view. Ha, ahahaha.” The old man couldn’t stop laughing at this joke and shared it everyone in the bar. Everyone burst into laughter, making Johnny smile as well. He did not intend to attract that much attention to him, but now that he did he just went with the flow.

“You said that you remember every face that you saw. It’s that a fact? Could you check your memory for a man I will describe?” Johnny said to the old man, after he settled down from the laughter.

“Did I say that? You know that I’m an old man, my memory isn’t what is that good now.”

“Maybe this will help you refresh your memory” Johnny said, placing a silver coin on the table for the man.”Have you seen a man with a scar on the left cheek, from ear to nose in the past two months? Based on his attitude, he should’ve played cards and if he lost, he would have made a scandal.”

“Hmm, scar from ear to nose. Playing cards. I might, I might remember something” the old man said. “But my memory is still fuzzy.”

Johnny placed a another coin on the table.

“Yes, he came around here a month ago. He meet up with some dangerous looking fellas. He stayed in a room here for about a week and then left in the east. I heard something about the Little Yellow Creek” the old man said.

“Thank you, old man. Here is another coin” Johnny said and left the bar.

After two months of searching he finally found out the trail of The Butcher once again. Little Yellow Creek was a valley, owned by a gold mining business. The Butcher might have gone there to either rob, or to find a job. It didn’t matter in these parts what kind of past did you had, as long as you did what you were paid for.

Two days later, Johnny arrived in Little Yellow Creek. The view was astonishing. A big mountain range was covering the horizon. From the mountains, the little river, Yellow Creek was splitting the valley in half.

A town of tents was rising over the right side of the river. The only proper building was the administration building, which had written all over it with big painted letters “Administration office”. This is where Johnny went. If he wanted to know something about the people working here, the administration office was the best place to find out.

In the office, across a desk, a man was looking through his glasses at Johnny.
“So you’re saying you are a proper bounty hunter, right? Hmm, there are many people working here, I don’t care about their story as long as they do their work. You can look around, but let me warn you, I don’t want trouble around my camp. If you disturb the operation, I will take actions against you. Now off you go, I have work to do.” the administrator sent him off quite fast.

“Well, that didn’t work” Johnny scratched his head and looked around.

There were about 200 people in this camp. How could he find his target here? He started to wander around the camp, walking slowly around the tent, searching slowly. For everyone else, he was just another person in the camp.

After a while Johnny saw the bar tent. Was it a place in this forsaken world without someone owning a bar? He entered the tent and right after the he entered, he saw him. He finally found him, after so many months. Because there were too many people here, and everyone had a gun at his waist it would be insane so start shooting directly. So he tried to trick The Butcher into a fight.

So Johnny went to the bar and asked for a bottle of whiskey. Drinking half of it and playing drunk he went over the table of The Butcher, stumbling on him on purpose.

“Pardon me, dear sir. Hick” Johnny continued his farce.”It seemed I you were in my way. Hick”.
“What the hell are you playing at”. The Butcher burst with anger, reaching for his gun.

“What do you mean, I was walking and you were in my way. You even spilled my drink” Johnny looked at his now empty bottle, trying to drink the last drops of it.

“The poor man is drunk, Jake. Leave him alone” one of the Butcher companions said. “Let’s not spill blood today”.

“Hick. Don’t I know you from somewhere? That scar of yours looks quite familiar” Johnny continued to pester the Butcher and force him to do something.

“Stupid drunkard, leave me alone” the Butcher threw a fist towards Johnny, but he immediately dodged.

“Whoa, whoa. Do you want to fight? You spill my drink and now you try to hit me? Let’s go outside, let’s talk with our guns”

The surrounding men immediately burst into laughter. This drunk guy was provoking Jake to a duel?

“Jake, don’t waste your time with him, we will beat him up for you” someone rises from his table, heading towards Johnny.
“What, hick, what? Are you scared to fight me? Aren’t you a man to step up for yourself” Jake said, while moving back and forth, looking as he was about to fall at any moment. “Let’s make a bet. I bet 10 dollars that I can take you, he said”.

The Butcher eyes lightened up when he heard about the money.

“Fine, if you want to die and don’t know how to kill yourself let’s do it. Follow me boys, something fun is about to happen.”

Hearing about a duel, everyone cheered up. Bets started to flow from one side or another. There weren’t too many fun things to do beside drinking and playing cards in this valley, so they took this duel as entertainment.

Jake and Johnny took their places.

Johnny because serious, his drunken attitude stopped. His all being was focused on The Butcher. Everything has stopped now. The wind, the sun, the earth. Everything.

Dueling someone was like playing a game of chess. You have to anticipate the other moves. Johnny looked the Butcher in the eyes. A few moments passed.

Bang, bang!.

Two shots were heard. The Butcher fell, with a hole between his eyes.

“Goddammit” Someone shouted.”Right between the eyes”.

“This man is wanted, dead or alive in Texas for murdering three people one year ago. I will take his body as proof for catching him”. Johnny said, while loading the body on his horse.

Then he left. This hunt was done. Time to look for another target.

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Thank you for read. As usual if you like the story and want to see more don't forget to follow @sstefan