1457054074479.Pdf
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Dead/ands'" Dime Novel'" #4 lXDER;A- ++-~O/ED f'..'ool (P,4-1<f O tE): .slK:.P!~ BEDFFI I Oil5=- Written by: Matt Forbeck Production: Barry Doyle & Hal Mangold Cover Art and Logo: Ron Spencer Interior Art: Kevin Sharpe Maps: Jeff Lahren Special Thanks to: Justin /\chilli. Kelley Foote, Shane & Michelle Hensley. John Hopler, Ann Kolinsky. Ashe Marler. Dave seay. Ethan Skemp. Richard Thomas, Matt Tice. Mike TInney. Stephen Wieck, John Zinser. Dead/ands created by Shane Lacy Hensley werewo!f:The Wild West created by Justin Achilli &Ethan Skemp PINNACLE ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, Inc. elM! STUDIO .. ~." "Iito-" "t< • 'lito'''' ~-. lito-.· Pinnade Entertainment Group, Inc. P.O. Box 10908 Blacksburg. VA 24062-()908 www.peginc.comordeadlandSiiaol.com (BOO) 214-5645 (orders only) DeadIandJ. Dime -.. WciId WesI..he DaclIIrIds Iogo..r>d the P"",ack SUrtlunl If\! Tl"IIdema,'u <If Plnnaele Enteruolnmenl Gmup. In<. ~ The WlId west is. Trademarl< d WMc WOlf. Inc. The White 'M;>If GP'Ie S1udoo lot<> is. R"IIkSI~ Tr.aoern.rt 0( Whole WOlf. inc. C 1997 Pinnae" Enlt!flllnlMrll Group. Inc.. Ind While WOlf. InC. ~!I Rights R<'5tfW:d. _Icd In ,he USA .?~ t;EDt-E.LONS There was something different about this camp, though. The larger tents bore the brassy emblems of Wasatch, the company controlled by Dr. Darius Hellstromme, the most notorious master of steam technology the West had to offer. That wasn't why Ronan was here though-at least not directly. Wasatch was laying dozens of spurs off of their main line on their way toward the coast. Hellstromme's workers were scattered throughout the west, and situated in northern Arizona, Monument valley wasn't so far from Salt Lake City, the overdeveloped Hellhole the lbmbstone Epitaph liked to call the City of Gloom. No, Ronan had run across many rail company camps in his meanderings around the West. but one thing made this place ~~~0i/5- odd: No tracks ran in or out of the place. When Union 8lue had hired him on to investigate this site. Ronan's first thought had been that the people here must have r~_~_~.~ . ~_~ ~=~.~_~ ~.~ just been a massive survey team. Now that he saw the place, he knew that he'd been wrong. You didn't need that many folks to survey a stretch of land, even one as broad and starkly beautiful C+'+-P IER OE as this one with its tremendous towers of stone stabbing into The moon rose wide and bright as the dead man's horse the blanket of stars overhead. slowly tapped out a funeral drum's beat on the hard. dry dirt of Something else entirely was happening here. the high plains. Steam rose from the horse's flanks in the chill of Ronan reined in his horse, putting an end to its clip-clop gate. the autumn night. Ronan Lynch didn't feel a thing. It nattered quietly as the choir of YIOlves sang on. Ronan didn't feel much of anything these days. Being dead had The gunslinger dismounted and wrapped his reins around a a w.ay ~r doir:t& t~at to a man. Still, while most of the dead lay nearby outcropping of rock. Carrying a dead rider made the nag rotting In their pme-box beds, Ronan was roaming about the nervous enough. The wolves were making her want to bolt, so he West, so he counted himself lucky. tied her down good. She wasn't going anywhere. These da~s, though, Ronan's luck seemed mostly bad. Ronan strode off toward the camp, trying to stick to the A howl pierced the night sky like a silver needle through shadows as much as he could. The crunching of his boots on black velvet. Back in his breathing days. a shiver might have shot the gravelly ground seemed like it YIOuld rouse a man from his up Ronan's spine. Now he just listened to his bay skitter grave, but the few sentries Ronan could see patrolling the camp nervously as a chorus of howls rose to meet the first long. didn't appear to hear a thing. lonely wail. Unfortunately, the camp squatted right in the center of a He ignored the wolf songs and concentrated on the task at broad, relatively smooth section of the valley. When Ronan got hand. As he crested a low hill, he spied the object of his within a few hundred yards of the place, he saw that nothing midni~ht run off in the distance, standing exposed sharp and larger than a }ackalope could make it the rest of the way to the stark In the pale moonlight: a circle of pup tents squalling camp unseen. around two larger tents that would have made a circus He knelt down and began to study the movement of the ringmaster jealous. sentries. He noticed they took a break every 15 minutes or so, Ronan had run across dozens of camps like these before: and it lasted for at least five minutes. All he had to do was wait small, lonely places that stood at the vanguard of the rail lines for their next rest and he could sta lk into the camp unseen. He racing across the broken landscape to be the first to reach the didn't have any idea what was going on here, but he was sure shattered coast. What was left of Ca lifornia in the wake of the the secret was under those t'NO big tents. Great Quak.e was chock full of ghost rock, the most valuable He waited with the calmness of the grave until the guards mineral ever scratched out of the planet's crust. Rail barons took their next break. The wolves had fallen quiet. and the only would kill to win the contract to bring the stuff Back East to the sound he heard was the crackling of a small fire in the center of power-hungry War Between the States that raged on to this day. the smaller tents. ?~-'I<TE BEDFFI I Ob ?~ BEI>FELL06 Ronan was just standing up to make his way into the camp Taza nodded. "Finally, you speak truly." The wolf sounded off when he heard the rifles cock behind him in unison. again, even closer this time. Taza's friends shuddered at the His right hand wandered vaguely toward the Peacemaker sound, but the Apache leader's face was like a fresh-carved hanging from his bell. tombstone. "Oon't think of it, wasichu." The tone belonged to a man "So what did you tell them?" prepared to kill. The accent had Apache all over it. "I have heard your story and measured your words. vou are not Ronan lifted his gloved hands and turned. an innocent man." A trio of Winchester rifles pointed down at Ronan from the Ronan could see where this was heading, and he didn't like it. rocky top of the last small rise before the plain on which the He glanced from one set of murderous eyes to another and camp sal The wan moonlight bleached the color from the land, waited for the wolf to howl again. but Ronan didn't need that to tell him that the three Indians had When it did, he dove to the ground, scrambled to one side and murder on their minds. He could see the warpaint on their faces went for his gun. As he brought it up, a bullet grazed his ribs. just fine. Ronan barely noticed the second shot pierce his left thigh as The man in the center aimed his weapon right at Ronan's he squeezed off three quick shots. The first smashed into the left hearl. "You are trespassing." Apache's arm, k.nocking his gun away. The next caught the Ronan smiled inwardly. He'd been shot through the chest woman in her right shoulder and sent her spinning to the before, and he knew he could take it. even at this range. But that ground and exposing Taza to Ronan's sights. didn't mean it wasn't going to hurt. Just as Ronan was firing at the leader, Taza's rifle barked. The "I was just wandering through, partner." The gunslinger bullet smacked the gunslinger square in the chest, and his own brought down his hands and spread them wide as he walked shot went wide. forward, up the rise. The two other guns poked like a viper's Stunned, Ronan went rolling down the short rise until he fangs at Ronan's ribcage. came to a rest in a dusty heap. When he recovered, he scrambled Ronan ignored them until he was halfway up the rise. Then he to his feet to spot Taza helping his injured companions escape. stopped short and put his hands back up. "I'm on my way from Ronan grunted and started up the side of the rise again, Denver to Virginia City. I just saw the camp and wondered if hunting for his pistol. which he'd dropped. He spotted its they'd be willing to let me bunk near them for the night." polished barrel gleaming in the moonlight and went for it, A single wolf's howl punctuated the sentence. The beast was keeping his eyes trained on the top of the rise the entire time. closer now-much closer. Taza and his friends were gone for now, but there was no telling "You are not welcome here!" hissed the Apache to Ronan's how long that would last.