Iron Eyes Must Die by Rory Black

breeze moved the long black mane
of hair and ragged coat-tails of the bounty hunter. Nothing else
moved on the awesome figure. He was like something carved out of a
block of stone.
    His disfigured face remained emotionless.
    The unblinking
bullet- colored eyes stared at the large group of men. There was a
grim warning in them as they burned across the distance between
them.
    It was the warning of impending doom.
    Fearfully, the
town ’s
menfolk realized what they were facing in the shape of the gruesome
bounty hunter. They backed away from the men with stars pinned to
their chests. The three outlaws cranked the levers of their rifles
and walked closer to Iron Eyes.
    ‘ Let’s
finish this, boys,’ Frank Mayo yelled out. ‘Old Brook should have
killed that critter when we caught him last night. Let’s kill him
and collect that outlaw bounty on his head.’
    ‘ He
can’t get us all.’ Larry Olsen tried to convince himself
loudly.
    ‘ Look
at him, boys.’ Matt Cole sniggered. ‘He’s half-dead
already!’
    Like a creature from the bowels of hell, Iron
Eyes raised his hands until his bony fingers were above the grips
of his lethal guns. Slowly, he started to walk towards them.
    The outlaws stopped. They were frozen with
terror.
    ‘ I’m
gonna kill ya all!’ Iron Eyes called out above the sound of
rumbling thunder. ‘You’re dead meat!’
    Then the three outlaws realized that the
towns-people they had paid to help them had scattered in all
directions. Within a single beat of their hearts, the men found
that they were facing the infamous bounty hunter alone.
    ‘ The
yella bastards!’ Olsen yelled out.
    ‘ Get
back here!’ Mayo screamed.
    ‘ We
paid you cowards!’ Cole shouted.
    Iron Eyes stopped.
    ‘ Dead
or alive!’ he spat. ‘You’re all wanted dead or alive! In my book,
that just means dead!’
    The three outlaws fanned out in an attempt to
make it harder for Iron Eyes to get a bead on them. None of them
knew that it was a vain exercise.
    Suddenly the barrels of each of the primed
Winchesters were swung around and aimed straight at the thin
figure.
    ‘ Kill
him!’ Cole yelled.
    Faster than any of the outlaws
could see, Iron Eyes drew both his guns from his belt, cocked their
hammers and squeezed their triggers. Before a single bullet left
any of the three outlaws’ rifle barrels, Iron Eyes had emptied the
chambers of his Navy Colts into them.
    The men were knocked off their
feet by the sheer power of the bullets that tore through them.
Their lifeless bodies crashed heavily into the dusty ground
as gun smoke
trailed from his hot gun barrels and drifted over the dead
outlaws.
    Iron Eyes shook the spent bullets from his
Navy Colts and was about to walk towards the blood-soaked corpses
when the voice of Duke Hanney rang out above him.
    ‘ Look
out, boy!’
    The bounty
hunter ’s
eyes darted up to the veranda where Hanney was standing with his
shotgun raised to his shoulder.
    ‘ Duck,
ya long-legged idiot!’ Hanney shouted.
    The sound of a rifle being
cocked to his left echoed along the main street. Iron Eyes twisted
on his heels and saw one of the townsmen aiming his Winchester straight at
him. He threw himself into the dust as a flash erupted from the
barrel of the rifle. A bullet missed his head by only an
inch.
    Then a deafening blast rang out.
    Two barrels of lethal buckshot
spewed down from Duke Hanney ’s shotgun. Iron Eyes watched as the rifleman was
torn apart by the venomous accuracy of the old-timer.
    Blood and flesh splattered over the window
and wall of the storefront. The body staggered, then fell
lifelessly from the boardwalk.
    Iron Eyes looked up at the livery man and got
to his feet.
    ‘ I’m obliged,
Hanney.’
    ‘ I
told ya I’d cover ya back.’ Hanney nodded and reloaded the shotgun
before descending the flight of stairs down to the
street.
    Iron Eyes looked around the empty street as
his bony fingers quickly reloaded his guns.
    ‘ I got
me a feelin’ this ain’t over yet,