Chapter 24:

The plan

My first life was a bore, so now I got another 7?!


“So you think he is going to help us?”

“I wouldn’t rely on it. In case he doesn’t we would be up for a bad awakening.”

The mood in the saloon was bated. After we had returned to old branch town, the people had still been awaiting us in the saloon. The children were sleeping on the floor next to their parents. Some of the older boys seemed to enjoy being allowed to finally stay up as late as the adults at least for once and didn’t want to let this situation pass even if they barely kept themselves awake.

Everybody else had waited for our return. Some had tried to play cards but nobody was really enjoying it. It was just about passing some time and distracting from the thoughts of what might come.

When I had returned to the place where I had left Gav and Archie I realized that they had followed my words and actually returned to our town already.

That made my return quite dramatic. Gav had already told everybody about our findings and now people were waiting for my return, or rather hoping for it.

So my return had basically everything that would make a movie-director shed a tear.

The sun had already begun to rise and the mood had dropped with every passing hour. I couldn’t see it but I was sure some people would have lifted their heads as soon as they heard the sound of hooves down the road. I left my horse in front of the saloon. Since I was awake for almost a whole day by now I, with my last forces, pushed open the swinging doors and stood there shortly after having taken a step inside.

Their faces lit up and the people surrounded me cautiously, as if I could break, if they came into the distance of an arms reach.

They offered me a seat in a chair by a table and something to drink. Everybody was waiting for my part of the story, but at the same time they were too afraid to ask me to finally start telling it. I took a few deep breaths and waited for the audience to finally calm down before I described my day in detail. I told them about how many people I saw, which were directly linked to Troef and also about the few villagers I had seen.

During this time Jeremiah walked up and down in the saloon, listening to every single word I said.

“We have to do something!”, he shouted every once in a while.

“We will, but we need a plan at first.”, replied somebody every time he did.

“What do you think about our chances?”, asked Frank after I had finished my tale.

“We are working with too many unknown here. I wouldn’t hold the governors word in too high esteem. Even if he turns out not to help Troef in the end, we should rather be prepared for the case he does. Best case, we defeat Troef because we were prepared for a fight of a much larger scale, worst case, everything happens exactly how we expected it. That’s better than going in, blindly believing a corrupt politician.”

“What could he even do? The army would ask questions if he’d send them to defend a criminal.”

“True. Even if he’d find a few man loyal to him, who wouldn’t ask questions, there surely wouldn’t be too many. He’d be more likely to put stones in our way by using some good old bureaucracy. Maybe he limits the number of weapons we are allowed to possess or something like that. The fact remains. It will be far easier if he doesn’t help Troef in whatever way he might be able to think of.”

“What do you think we should do?”, asked Archie.

“It would be the safest for the villagers to lure him out, but the longer I think about it, the less likely I think it to be. I can’t come up with a reason why he should leave the village with all his men. Especially not during a time and place we decided. Any ideas?”

“We could free the people and use them as bait!”, offered Jeremiah.

“Too dangerous. First of all the village is guarded day and night. As long as you’ve got money you get in, but we for sure wouldn’t be able to guide the whole population out of the village and then use them as bait. There isn’t even a guarantee that Troef would follow us. Other ideas?”

Silence. Nobody had an idea about how to get Troef out of the village. At least none that they couldn’t already bring down with their own arguments before even telling somebody else.

“If we don’t get them out of the village, why don’t we just come to them? As long as we surprise them, it might be fine.”, offered Casey.

“What about the villagers?”

“There is likely no way to keep them completely out of danger. But if we start by shooting from a far distance, everybody will go into hiding. But Troef’s men will fight. So it would be only natural for the villagers to free to their houses and lock themselves. That won’t work in all cases, but it seems like we have little to no choice in this matter.”

“What do you propose in detail?”, I asked.

“We need two or three precision rifles and our best gunners. Also we will need a small wagon and a gatling-gun.”

“How are we supposed to get one of those.”, laughed Frank.

“Well that will be your task, I believe.”, she blinked at him with a smile.

“Sounds better than no plan. Lets draw a map of the village and its surroundings. Then you can tell us about what you intend to do with such an arsenal.”

The village itself was Y-shaped, with the gate which I had passed laying on the southern, longer side of it, while the other two, shorter, sides guided out of the village into nearby mines, just far away to avoid the whole village being blown up, in case something went wrong with the dynamite.

The mines weren’t built into a real mountain but more into a steep hill, making an escape on this route possible, but the position greatly defensible at the same time.

“We will position two of our sharpshooters on the hills around here. One here and here. A third will take position on the plain around here. Like this we get all three exits covered. Nobody will be able to escape.”

“And what about the gatling gun?”

“We will place it on the wagon and let a horse drag it. We will need two people. One to shoot, another to drive the wagon. There is only so much one sharpshooter can do. In case they try to break through our line of attack by force, we will mow them down all at once.”, she explained.

I blinked at her with a smile. Apparently this was the crisis it had taken for her to get recognized as the type of thinking person that she was. Or maybe she only now let go of her assumptions and finally started helping the people who had never refused her help.

“So now we cut them off and made it impossible for them to leave. What then? We will have to storm the village and take it by force.”, summarized Gav.

“That’s going to be a whole different matter. If it weren’t for the villagers we could just besiege them until they have no choice but to try to break free. But that won’t be possible.”

“If only we could get them out somehow.”

“Maybe we don’t have to. The mines!”, exclaimed Jeremiah.

“What about them?”, asked Archie.

“Since Troef took over the place the men have to work extra shifts in the mines, allowing them breaks only for food at noon and sleep late at night. But they are only allowed to leave their places during the breaks. That’s why the women bring the food to their men, even if they mostly do it to check if they are still alive. So exactly at noon there will be a short amount of time during which almost every villager sits in the mines. And if they hear a large-scale gunfight, they wont come out again as well.”

“That might work. Also it gets most of the villagers into something like safety. Whatever we do next will still have to be done quickly. The siege is out of question.”

“How about we burn the whole damn place to the ground?”, offered somebody from the back of the room.

“Great idea! And as a sign of gratitude they do the very same thing with your house.”, I replied.

There was no response.

“Sounds like we’re up for a fight.”

Author: