In Which A Four Is Heavily Shadowed Upon

By the time the sun passed over their heads, Lozen found about three reasons why getting another horse was probably a good idea. One, maybe it was because she had gotten used to the smell, but when the desert heat beat down on the animal, it started to reek like, well, a corpse left out to bake. Two, it seemed to be oozing some sort of liquid from it's pustules and wounds. A substance that she decided to ignore for now and try not to think about how much it looked like liquid meat.

Three, it was, to her bewilderment, a meat eater. As her own steed trotted along side the beasts, she could see it's rotten teeth smacking together, tearing the steak apart and letting a large amount of blood drip down to the sand below. A snake like tongue wrapped itself around the chunks before pulling them into the back of it's throat, some too large for it to have hoped to swallow only for the meat to slip down its throat. It made her wonder why the creature chewed at all, but she quickly discerned why. It liked the feeling of tearing the meat apart.

She shuddered when she realized that, but kept it to herself and tried focusing on the last thing she ever thought would bring her comfort. The desert. They had been traveling since morning, leaving the town with a massive crowd of idiotic folks crying their praise and somehow inflating Judas's ego even more. Now they had thankfully moved past the endless flat wilds and entered into a canyon like crevice of sorts with high walls rising on either side of the them. Occasionally she saw a dried up tree sticking out of the smooth cliff sides, but for the most part it was still as barren as usual. Still, it at least gave her something else to focus on that that creature.

Though Judas didn't want to be upstaged by even the terrain.

"You know, when people say just a little bit, they don't literally mean a sip of gin." He exclaimed, more distressed than desperate for attention and Lozen didn't mind the distraction.

"I said a little. What did you expect?"

"More than a sip!! You're supposed to, you know, slowly start consuming vice at a pace you think you can handle only to be swept down into a bottomless vortex of primalistic desire accompanied only by an animalistic need to consume anything you can get your hands on!!"

"Like a civilized man?"

"Exactly! Besides, it's really insulting not to indulge in front of me! Do you know how many visceral compounds I take in?! All of them! And do you know how many of them actually work since this happened!?"

He waved a hand all over his body, gesturing to himself.

"None of them! And yet here you are, with a perfectly good brain to intoxicated and you have a sip!!"

"I got 'tipsy' as you put it off a single swallow and threatened a sheriff over a knife. I don't think another bottle would have been much better."

"You mean an expensive knife."

"It's not expensive. I traded it for a jug of water."

"What?! Then why didn't you stop me!!?"

She raised an eyebrow at him, waiting for it to dawn on him, and he continued once it did "Right. Tipsy. But I could've bribed them for gold or silver or something!! Not just some useless daggggggg-" His voice trailed off for a moment before saying "You're bullshitting me."

"What?"

"You're lying. How much is that thing really worth?"

"Nothing."

"I'm serious. Why else would that sheriff have it? Did you use it to pay him off?"

"Oh. That's complicated. People think it's expensive and I just don't tell them otherwise."

"Wow. So you con those guys and then leave them for dead. That's cold."

"What's the phrase your people use? Survival of the fittest. If they wanted to stay alive, they should have been better."

"And you're only digging your own grave here."

Lozen sighed and took one more look around before saying "You're the one asking. What exactly do you want to hear?"

"Not that."

"Look, that's just how things are. You should know that more than me. I'm not trying to change the world, just survive in it."

"What's that mean-Oh. It's because I died, right? You know, that's real insulting. Using a deadman's death against him."

"You got cocky and you paid the price."

"Fuck you too! I'd like to see you outrun fifteen guys with a gut wound!!"

"I wouldn't give them a reason to chase me in the first place. Which reminds me," She nervously glanced at the horse again and after seeing that it had finished its snack, asked "How did the horse die? I don't see any bullet wounds on it and the gashes that are there look more like rot or an animal picking something off it."

"Huh." Judas said before glancing down at his mount and patting her on what was left of her mane.

"That's a bit of a story. I think, at least she says that she stayed with me after that rat bastard shot me. For three whole days she waited by my grave until the thirst got to her." The horse let out a small snort at that to which Judas replied "Don't pull that with me! Right when I woke up, you were prancing all around screaming 'You're back!! You're back!!' like I was the Second Coming!!"

Lozen raised an eyebrow at that and glanced down at the horse's disfigured complexure with fresh blood still running down it.

"Were you two that close?"

Judas let out what sounded like a wheezy hiccup at that, fell deathly silent afterwards, cleared his throat despite his lack of, Well, a threat to clear, and said "I wouldn't say 'close'." Beatrice neighed and Judas snapped his fingers at whatever she said before continuing "Right. We were more like co workers. She treated well and I did the same for her."

Lozen replied "Are you sure? The legend says Chunuxu was only brought back with his most prized possessions. A bow that he spent fifteen years crafting and a horse whom he had ridden into battle more times than any man was able to remember. I know one version where the horse was actually his brother."

Judas fell silent for a moment. Lozen expected him to burst out into laughter at her suggestion, even she thought it sounded a bit much, but instead he just stayed quiet for far longer than she thought he was capable of. The hand he laid on Beatrice's mane started gently strolling it back and forth in the same way one might pet a dog as he said in what she swore was a genuine voice or the greatest acting she had seen "I'm not sure about the brother thing, but......me and you have been through a lot, haven't we, girl?"

Even the beast merely trotted along silently for a moment before snorting again.

"Yeah. A lot more than you would have liked too. Can't say it was easy though. We had a hell of a lot of close calls together. She got me through some rough patches and I fed, protected, provided, and made sure she didn't get turned into glue."

The creature snorted again before Judas said "Well it's true! You just wander around the place while I do all the everything!" It neighed, kicking a foot up and sending a small burst of dust crashing into the deadman. "Hah!! Jokes on you, I don't have-AHH!" He started before slapping a hand up to cover his eyes and then started fiercely rubbing them. "How?! I don't even have eyes to hurt!!!"

Lozen rolled her eyes at the sight, whatever fear she had of the creature washing away. The two seemed........united in ludicracy was the best way she could think to put it and seemed more like minor pests than unholy abominations spat back up from hell. It didn't surprise her, but what did was the fact that there was something besides proximity that connected the two.

"She really stayed by you until she starved?"

"Yeah."

"Is that also apart of your performance?"

"No. Strangely enough, there is a person under all this." He gestured to the cloth covering his face and thankfully made the obvious comment before Lozen had to. "Okay, so maybe there's a skull faced monstrosity, but it has feelings too."

"And is it willing to tell me how it became in league with the most dangerous-"

The horse accompanied his reliance with a series of angry neighing "No it won't and if you keep asking, maybe it'll put you in Beatrice's gut the whole ride over! Trust me, she'll enjoy the snack!!"

Lozen tilted her head at that and asked in as calm a voice as she cared to muster "Is that a threat?"

"You're goddamn right it is!!"

"Then tell me where the rest of your former companions are."

Judas fell silent for a moment before realizing he still had no idea about any of them and saying "Dammit!"

"I didn't think so." She said couldn't before cracking the reigns of her steed and sending it galloping forward, leaving the deadman to wallow in his misery for another moment. He was immortal, but she knew how to get what she needed and usually that entailed never "playing her hand" as the colonizers would say. She also knew that as foolish and, in all honesty, childlike Judas was, the only reason he was keeping her around was because she knew how to find his companions. Not that she thought he could find them even if she drew him a map, but it was best to keep him at least thinking that he needed her for the moment, especially when they were this close to their bounty.

The canyon was an unlikely place for a copper mine or a mine of any sort. All sorts of things could come crashing down with the slightest overuse of explosives and the sheer cliffs made sure there were only ever two ways of escaping. Still, if people wanted a place to die, that would be their business and if they were, it saved the both of them a bullet.

For what felt like an hour, the bends in the valley continued, forcing them to keep trudging through the wastelands much more than she would have expected. Copper veins were a dime a dozen out here, so why someone would come all the way out here to dig for one was beyond her. Though at worst she could say this was annoying as opposed to troublesome and before long, they finally arrived at the last bend in their path.

Something about the way the canyon was made must have had a detrimental effect on sound, but the second they rounded the corner, a wave of sound washed over them. Chatter from dozens of people exploded out in front of them, causing Lozen to instinctively pull at her stallions reigns until it trotted back behind the corner. She swiped a hand up to stop Beatrice only to then head Judas exclaim "Oh! So you stop for her, but not the entire reason you're alive!!"

"Will you be quiet!" She replied as she dismounted from her stead and crept towards the edge of the corner.

Around it was about what she expected to see from a copper mine. The gorge opened up into a massive bowl like formation in the ground, the bottom of which was littered with a miserable collective of holes and tents. All of it was covered in a thick layer of dust and soot and looked more like what would be left behind by bandits than living quarters. All the tents looked as if they could barely fit a person in them and were propped up by two flimsy sticks on either of their triangular entrances. Some had outright collapsed, but most were bending in the middle like they were about to. A horrendous odor permeated the area, causing her to let out a small moan as her stomach threaten to upchuck her dinner. There were holes dug in the ground and judging from the massive swarms of flies, she had a pretty good guess as to what was inside them.

"Wow. What happened here? Don't tell me I missed another bandit raid." Judas said and causing Lozen to jump as she realize he was suddenly right behind her. She glanced behind her, was thankful to see he knew to get off the walking corpse before getting close to anyone else. "Haven't you been to mines before?"

"Yeah, and none of them looked like this literal shithole!"

"What did they look like?"

"You know. A hardy town full of hard working men come to make their living on the rugged west. Not.....this!"

"........It was a theater troupe, wasn't it?"

"What?"

"What you did before that gang of yours. You were in a theater troupe, weren't you?"

"No! Do I look like a-"

"Extremely."

Hey.......nah. Nevermind. That's fair."

"Now, before we go in, tell me everything you know about this Moore of yours."

"In one word. Loud! My god that guy-"

"No. I mean is he intelligent enough to plan any sort of trap or escape plan in the event that a bounty hunter and a deadman come to kill him?"

"Oh hell no! That guy was a leech! Always stealing a bit from everyone's shares without doing anything! He always took shelter behind me during the firefights!! Though he was good at talking to the Pinkertons."

"And how much would you say he has in terms of cash?"

"A lot more than he deserved!"

"So enough to buy a mine and maybe armed guards?"

Judas fell quiet for a moment, stuck his neck around the corner for another before saying "Not sure about the mine part, but if it guards your worried about, I don't think you've gotta worry."

Lozen glanced around the area one more time and indeed say that the people she could see weren't in the best shape in general. Their clothes were torn and covered in the same grime and filth as everything else, most of their feet were outfit bare and covered in scabs the size of fists. Flies darted in and out of their overgrown and unkempt beards speckled with rock and painted white with dust. Their eyes seemed to have been drained of life and just stare right through whatever was in front of them. They honestly looked more like corpses than her companion and none of them were holding a weapon. It in all honestly looked more like graveyard waiting to happen than a mine camp. This would be easy.

"Fair enough. Leave Beatrice here and follow my lead." She said as she readjusted her holster and started making her way back to grab the reins of her horse. Beatrice let out what sounded like an annoyed grunt and kicked out at the air in front of her, too which Lozen found herself replying to with "You're 200 pounds of rotting flesh that doesn't even have a complete face. You go out there, it'll scare everyone here all the way to New York." The horse huffed again to which Judas said "Yeah, and there's a good reason for that! You look like something dug up." Beatrice snorted again.

"No! I look like something that haunts a graveyard! You're a horse with no skin!"

Lozen rolled her eyes and pushed the exchange out of focus as she started pulling her stallion towards the opening. She patched a hand onto the deadman as she passed and pushed him out into the open as she shouted back to his steed "Just stay there for now. We should be back within the hour, but be ready to leave at anytime."

The horse huffed again before Lozen turned the corner as well. She hesitated for a second as the stench struck her, but managed to keep pace with Judas as they started making their way through the encampment. Chattering and even some dull thuds could be heard all around them, but there appeared to be very little activity to generate such noises anywhere around them. The buzzing flies were disgustingly obvious, but the muttering and smashing weren't seen anywhere. She knew they were coming from the tents, but she couldn't find anything specific.

The only activity she could see were the occasional lost souls that wandered around her and only a handful of them acknowledged their existence. "Excuse me, could you-" She called out to a few of them before they stumbled past her and disappearing between the cesspools and tents. "What're you even looking for?" Judas asked.

"A manager. He should have a list of every man working here."

"And what if it's him?"

She didn't answer such a stupid question and merely waited for it to dawn on him.

"Oh. Right. So we're gonna do this out here?"

"No. If this man is as useless as you say he is, all we needed to do is show him one of these-" She patted her revolver.

"And we'll lead him out of this place. We're not killing him until we arrive at another town."

"What?! Why the hell not!!?"

"Because I'm not dragging a bloated corpse across the desert."

"You've been perfectly okay while riding one."

Lozen sighed at that.

"Come on. It's just so easy and I rarely get to mock her."

"Point is, you don't carry a corpse through this heat. It gets them thinking you picked the corpse up from a road instead of catching it. People are less inclined to pay full price for spoiled goods."

"Oh. Really?"

She rolled her eyes again, questioning how exactly this man was supposed to have been a criminal only to end up burying the question. There were more important things to deal with than an immortal moron. She continued trying to ask people around her if they were a manager to not luck, but she eventually saw someone who appeared more promising.

He didn't look any better than the others, but what caught her attention as he walked directly ahead of them was the fact that hanging from his neck was a portable desk. It wasn't much, but it was more than anyone else around here and so she tossed the reins of her stead over towards the deadman in order to sprint in after the man.

"Excuse me! Sir, are you the manager of this mine?!" She exclaimed and much to her relief, saw the man stop in his tracks instead of merely wandering past her like the others. He still looked as disinterested as all of them, but he at least had to common courtesy to speak up. "Hey listen, buddy! If you're with the bank or Jennson, get the fuck out of here!" The man exclaimed, waving his finger at her with a vicious look in his eyes that burned even through the hair and dirt blanketing his face.

"Sir, I'm not with the bank and have never heard of this Jennson fellow." She replied, raising her hands up in what she knew most took as a sign of inferiority and usually claimed them down, but this man stayed on his toes for the moment. "Yeah, that's what the last guys said before he shoots three of my guys!!!" His other hand fell down to his belt, an act that caused Lozen's feet to twitch in preparation to dodge whatever he was planning, but she too still didn't run away yet.

"Sir, I promise you we're not going to hurt you." She started just before she heard a series of footsteps race up behind her followed shortly by Judas's voice. "Yeah. Whatever she said. We're looking for a guy named Tobias Moore. Will you please stop struggling!!" Lozen glanced over at her shoulder at that last part and seeing that Judas had his back turned to her and his feet dug into the ground. He was tugging at the horses reins to which the beast was arbantly fighting against and clearly trying to pull it's bindings from the deadman. She didn't entirely not expect that and was more focused on the fact that her companions had decided to give away their intentions to a man who's identity they didn't know. All she could do now was hope he wasn't the target.

She sighed, grinding her teeth together for a moment and felt her heart skip a beat as the image of the target running away passed through her mind, but she managed to keep herself composed despite the anxiety rushing through her. "Alright. Sir, this is all a-" Lozen started as she turned her attention back to the man, but was cut off when he spoke in a much less distressed voice "Oh. That guy do business with you guys behind my back?" She stayed quiet for a moment, considering whether or not to go through with this lie. He seemed less infuriated at least, his expression taking on the same soulless expression as the rest of the people here and the hand she had taken note of was now hangoing harmlessly from its socket.

Though, before she could make a decision, Judas again spoke instead despite having his hands full with the horse "In a way. We're bounty hunters and that bastards got a pretty hearty price in his head." Her breath froze in place when she heard that, but against her expectations, the manager simply raised an eyebrow at the comment and said "Ah. More of you guys. Look, if you wanna take one of the workers, just do it without causing some trouble. I still need these workers, so if you plan on taking one, you better not lay a hand on any of the others. Got it?"

Lozen couldn't believe what her luck, but didn't bask in it for long before saying "Thank you." Though before she could get far, she heard a panicked neigh rise up from behind her and saw her stallion finally break free of the deadman's grasp. He fell into the floor right as it started running back down the way it came. Lozen sighed as she saw that, reminded herself they still had Beatrice, probably, and then turned her attention back to the manager.

"We'll try not to waste your time. Yes. We need to find a Tobias Moore. He may have invested in this operation a few years back." She said as Judas dusted himself off and arrived right next to her. The man gave them a distrusting look before glancing down at the plank of wood hanging from his neck. He started flipping through several papers, pen clutched in hand, and saying "Invest? You sure? Gentlemen, this place hasn't seen a drop of investment in three years. The banks made that very clear. This friend of yours though. He the drifting type?" Judas replied "Fuck no and trust me, he's made that very clear much to the rage of literally everything in ear shot. I'm pretty sure even the dirt had a problem with him."

The man chuckled at that before finally stopping in one of the papers and saying "Ah. Here we are. Tobias Arthur Moore." Lozen raised an eyebrow at that before Judas voiced her concern "He actually used his real name? God, he's a bad criminal! Even I know to use a fake one!" Much to her surprise, the man took no notice of this and just continued "Trust me, buddy. If your guy's here, he ain't exactly gifted in the sciences. Anyways, says here I hired him a few years ago for menial labor. Asked for what the rest of these bastards do. A hole to sleep in, another to die in, and enough money to keep the two far apart."

Lozen interrupted "And where is he now?"

"Says here he's working down in the lower levels with the rest of them. No investments or anything like that in case you were wondering."

She nodded and started "Thank you. Can you show us where-"

However, she was cut off when Judas whipped a hand out in front of her and exclaimed "Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Could you repeat that last part?" The manager again tilted his head before saying "Your guy didn't make any investments."

"No. The other part."

"We hired him a few years ago?"

"The other part!!"

"He ain't a scientist?"

"God!! No! You said he was a menial worker! Say that again!"

"Why?"

"Just do it!! I've been waiting for nearly a decade for this!! I need to hear it!"

"Jesus!! Fine! He's a menial laborer! Happy?!"

Much to Lozen's surprise, Judas didn't say a word after that. Instead, he just stood frozen in place, staring ahead without uttering anything. At first she thought he might be somehow having a stroke because this was the longest she had ever heard him stay quiet while in the company of others. She tried cherishing it, but very quickly it started to become a little concerning.

"Kremely?" She asked with Judas still not moving an inch. Her eyes darted up to the manager who in return shared the same look of confusion and maybe a little fear before they both look back at the masked man. "Is he diseased or something?" He asked and Lozen replied "No. He's not dying if that's what your concern about."

The manager nodded and look back down at his desk before saying "Alright, well if you want to-" However, he was cut off when out of nowhere, Judas chuckled. It was tiny at first, barely noticeable at all, but it soon started to build. A chuckle evolve into a light laugh, a light laugh morphed into a cackle, until finally a cackle evolved into an eruption of hysterical laughter that exploded out throughout the opening.

She could see him toss his head back under his hood as his entire body seemed to bounce up and down. His arms wrapped around his gut as his laughter kept building and building and building until it sounded like he was about to explode. The immortality of his situation seemed to be working in his favor as he never seemed to take a breath and the constant barrage of laugh eventually caused him to collapse to the floor. His back hit the ground and his feet started kicking themselves up into the air like a child as he simply kept laughing and laughing.

"Are you done?" Lozen asked with ice on her tongue, thankful Judas was acting like she expected, but also extremely annoyed at how buffoonish her expectations were proving to be. Judas cackled for what felt like another minute before screaming up "NO!! OH MY GOD!!! THIS IS GOLDEN!!!" She sighed and pinched to top of her nose again as the manager asked "Is he always like this?"

"I wouldn't surprise me."

Judas cut in after that, hands till over his gut and words only come out every few seconds "I'm sorry!! No, I'm not, but still!! This has been a long time coming!!! After a literal lifetime of having to listen to that bastard talk about how big and successful he was going to be, this is AMAZING!!!!! Oh my god, did he ever get a promotion?!" The manager looked back up at Lozen and she answered the question plastered over his face "Just answer him."

"Alright. No."

"HAAAAAAAAA!!! OH MY GOD!! THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!!! THAT LITTLE SHRIMP IS WORKING IN A COPPER MINE!!! JESUS!! I THINK I JUST BECAME A BELIEVER!!!"

His wild bleating resumed after those words and filled the entire work camp up with the activity it lacked, but Lozen tried ignoring it as best as she could. With her companion kicking and hollering on the dirt, she said "Could you point me in the direction of Moore?"

"IMPOSSIBLE!!! THERE IS NO WAY THIS COULD BE ANY BETTER!!!! UNLESS WE WAS LURED HERE BY TALES OF HIDDEN GOLD!!!!"

The manager ignored that and answered "Yeah." He stepped side and pointed behind him at a hole that had been blown into one of the walls surrounding the camp. It was outlined by a square brace of wooden planks holding the place up and a small rail track extended out of the impossibly black maw. She couldn't see anyone walking inside, but she could hear a dull thud coming from the direction of the entrance.

"Just ask around for section 10. My guys'll point you the way you need to go. Might be a bit of a walk though." The manager said

"How deep is he?"

"Maybe half a mile down." Lozen sighed again to which the manager said "Don't blame me. He always requests to be at the newest mine sections."

"It's no problem. Thank you for your help."

"No need to thank me. Just don't make a mess of the place. Try and keep the shooting to minimum too. Got a lot of unstable tunnels down there and I don't wanna have to waste three more months digging new ones."

"Of course. And when he recovers-" Judas let out a loud snort at that.

"Could you tell him to get the horse?"

"Will it get you out of here faster?"

"Probably."

"Fine. Just get going." With that the manager resumed walking between the rows of tents.

Lozen started walking towards the mine entrance, pulling out her weapon and popping the barrel out to check the conditions again. She had done so before, but it was better than having to get into a firefight and realize some of the gunpowder has leaked from the shells. It was also preferable to having to focus anymore on the deadman's howling. Every second of it made her wish she had brought his horse instead. At least that one seemed to be angry as opposed to umbicilic.

Regardless, she had a job to do. Get in, find him, and get out. If he ran, she killed him. Simple enough. She sucked in one last breath of, mostly, clean air as she approached the cave, slid her weapon back into its holster, and began her trek down into the black maw.

...

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