It's always the good ones

There were a few moments during which I had feared somebody could have seen me but eventually I managed to take cover behind the corner of the outmost house of the town. From my position I could see the bandits. Now we had them encircled. The sheriff would see his opportunity, Elizabeth would shoot at them from her position in the store and I would shoot at them from behind. I wondered if maybe it would be smarter to use the opportunity to first shoot one of the others before giving Elizabeth the sign, but they were moving and my aim was still too unreliable to risk giving away my position too early.

I waited for a moment during which the bandits seemed too busy to pay attention on one shot more or less and then aimed at the one bandit still winding on the ground in pain. One shot and he got limp. It was likely the best for him.

The bandit who was the closest to the shop seemed to have realized what was happening and turned around, that means he at least tried, before Elizabeth, standing in the opened door of the Shop, pulled the trigger and hit him directly in the face. He was dead immediately, or at least he stopped moving. The spreading projectiles of the shotgun also hit another one of them. His arm started bleeding at multiple spots simultaneously.

Four left.

The bandits tried to hide from the new threat oblivious to the fact or ignoring  that I was there as well.

Due to this I had a free shot at another bandit who was trying to run away, leading him directly into my line of fire. The advantage was that even if he was moving, he was far closer and far larger than the cans I had trained with. I fired three shots, out of which two hit him. One into the stomach and the other just a little higher into the chest. He fell flat on his face and stopped moving as well.

So now there were three of them left, out of which one was wounded. The sheriff seemed to have picked up on what was happening and tried to get closer to the actual happening. The bandits started to shoot into basically every direction without aiming at all, to avoid the fire of the shotgun.

I reloaded the revolver as long as there was still a good opportunity to do so and then waited for the next chance to appear. There were little to no opportunities to aim without risking to get hit by a stray bullet. But then again there were only so many bullets they could get in their weapons. They had to stop shooting for once, even if just for a moment or two.

The sheriff had the same thought. As soon as he thought to see an opening, he sprinted into a place from where he could freely aim at him. The fourth bandit was dead before he could get his gun ready.

Bandit number five on the other hand had been ready to shoot, and did. The sheriff fell on the ground.

Elizabeth and I sprinted towards the bandits and ended the fight just a moment too late.

After they were all clearly dead, I walked towards the sheriff. He was heavily breathing.

“No, no, no! Come on! Don’t die on me on my first day.”, I tried to joke about the situation, mostly to hide my own insecurity and the feeling of guilt.

“Sorry, boy. The age made me slower than I used to be.”, he replied with a weak smile.

“What am I supposed to do here? Don’t you dare to die here!”

He slightly turned his head.

“Nah, you will do fine I feel.”

“How is he doing?”, asked Elizabeth who was done checking if the bandits were truly dead.

I looked at her and then back at him. He was losing blood. Lots of it. Even if he wouldn’t die now, he would surely be dead in a day or two due to sepsis or something of that kind. The doctors wouldn’t be able to help him, that means even if one would come along. I hadn’t met one in the town so far at least.

I pressed my hand on the wound, making the sheriff inhale sharply.

“What do you think you are doing?”, he asked, the pain causing some weak anger.

“I’m trying to save you.”, I replied.

“It’s ok, boy. Stop it please.”

He put his hands on mine and looked at me.

“I know the first day maybe isn’t the best time to do something like this, but somebody needs to do it.”

The sheriff took his star off his chest and placed it in my hand.

“Consider yourself promoted. Protect them, will you, sheriff?”

I looked at the people slowly leaving their houses now that the shooting was over and looking at the unfolding scene.

“No, no, no, come on! Your time isn’t over yet!”

Don’t die on me in the most cliché way possible., I thought to myself in panic.

I wasn’t made to be a protector. I couldn’t even stand for myself. How should I stand up for others?

“Stay here. The people of this town still need you!”, I tried to keep him awake.

“Hey, boy. You can do this. You have already done it.”

“But I couldn’t protect you.”

“That’s life.”

I looked at him and knew, that there wasn’t much time left.

“Promise me, that you will protect them.”, he asked me, breathing heavily.

“I- I promise.”

His time was running out. I might as well help him go with a good feeling.

“I knew that I could trust you.”, he said, before the last breath left his body.

The situation was overwhelming in more than one way. I wanted to run away to get my thoughts clear but everybody in town was watching by now. They had been silently watching the sheriffs last moments, some trying to hide their tears for as long as he could see them. Now that he was gone, they let their cries grow loud. There was not a single person who wasn’t at least slightly touched by the sheriff’s death.

So that’s what it looks like if you actually did something for the people., I thought. Back at my home I was sure nobody would have attended my funeral if family ties hadn’t forced them to. Here he was, a person who had been valued and held in high esteem by the people around him, shot down, while protecting the ones around them. On the other hand there was I, somebody who never did something for the people, too occupied with my own problems and in the end still ending up dead.

In the end this was what would await us all. The good ones often too early, the bad ones too late, but in the end everybody. If rich, if poor, if loved or despised, if important to the world  or just a worthless piece of human, not worth the air it breathes. In the end everybody would end up dead.

I remembered my father once saying: “none of us is getting out of here alive.”

He was joking, but he was damn right. I had gotten another chance by who knows who, but usually everybody stayed dead as far as I could tell.

Ashes to ashes. That’s how the world worked since the beginning of time. And human beings wouldn’t change a thing about it, even if they tried.

I closed the sheriffs’ eyes with my right hand and looked at the bystanders. The priest walked towards me and told me to bring the body to the church. I placed the body on a blanket that had been placed on the floor to give the scene a little more dignity.

This all had happened before the sun had reached its peak.

The funeral was held on the next day. Everybody was attending. Even the few children that lived in the town.

It was a simple ceremony, but it felt like everybody was healing during it. After all the dead don’t profit from these things. They are held for the living.

The bandits’ bodies on the other hand were a whole different story. I had personally put them up on simple gallows as a warning for everyone to come.