Chapter 4f
I leaned back in my chair, it helped relieve the back pain I felt damn near every day I wore a pack now. My leg was tingling. A good sign that. It meant it had not gone completely dead on me yet. One of these days it would not only stay numb, but start dying on me. The doctor I had seen told me eventually it would have to come off. That wasn't going to happen. No. Fucking. Way.
A loud scream of pain and I refocused. Kat was yelling, "You cocksucker! That hurt!" while she rubbed her left breast. The assholes were laughing, all of them except for Lizard Lips who just looked amused. It was show time. I decided to go with Plan B instead of the usual Plan A. Why? Because it was riskier.
I stood up and dropped a couple of silver dollars on the table top. Yeah, I was way over tipping but I wanted them to see the silver, hear it clink, and process what it meant. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Lizard Lips shift position and drop his hand down to his side. For an Indian he could hold his liquor better than most. I walked past them at the table and without looking at her I raised my hand and said, "Thanks. See you around.
I had to walk past the bar to get out the door. About ten paces from the door I hesitated, turned to the dumb ass bar keep who was polishing glasses, and asked him, "Hey. You got any matches?" I took a step toward him and went into overdrive. I hit the bar, grabbed the edge, and threw myself over the top of it. In doing that I knocked the barkeep back against the bottles.
The shotgun was where she said it was. Now came the fun part. Was it actually loaded and hopefully not with bird shot either? I had to flip it since it was facing the right direction for a right hander and I was left handed. I took that opportunity to bounce the butt off the barkeeps forehead. He was yelling in my ear, "What the hell you doing?" I didn't need any distractions. Then it was pump, watch the already loaded round eject, tuck it to my shoulder, and start acquiring targets.
I loved this part still. Everything else had turned to "stale same old same old" but this, this was magic, this was the rush drugs had always promised but only in the beginning had they come close to delivering. Life was chopped into frames of clarity and beauty that in real time lasted microseconds but crawled in this magic time, the time of killing.
I pulled the trigger and Lizard Lips went sideways. That happens when you are off balance and 7 or 8 balls about the size of a .38 bullet touch you all at once. He was good. Better than I thought. He still managed to draw and touch my right shoulder. I jacked the pump and found target two as I moved towards the end of the bar. He was just as good as his buddy. If I hadn't have moved, my head would have been all over the wall, but I had and it was his head that got turned into a bunch of puzzle pieces.
I hit the waist high swinging door at the end of the bar with the intention of coming out fast and hosing the two white boys down. I got past that, pivoted, and pushed off with my bad leg except it wasn't where my head told me it was supposed to be. I lost balance and went down. Not good. Not good at all.
I was getting untangled and back on my feet when I realized I had been too slow. Both of the white boys were up and moving towards me. One of them was screaming, in the lead, and had his butcher knife held low in his hand. The other had his gun drawn but couldn't shoot because his partners bull rush fouled his shooting lane.
I had cleared and pumped a new shell but when I pulled the trigger all I heard was click. Well, I hadn't asked her how many were loaded had I? Oh well. I dropped the shotgun and went for what I should have started with, my Rugers, when he hit me and bounced us both back against the wall. He was snarling "Fuck you" and his eyes were glazed with drink and the victory that was just seconds away. I realized he wanted to be in close for the knife work so I pulled him in even closer. "Fine you sonafabitch" I thought and pulled my bayonet from its metal sheath, pulled him in tight, and reached around and punched it in his kidney. He stiffened and I shoved him back towards his partner. I need the space to draw and I was going to be cutting this one just a little too close.
That's when I heard the "boom" of a large bore handgun. It was followed by another one and I watched the other white guy go down. I saw Kat standing there in a two handed shooters stance holding a Ruger GP100 with a long fucking barrel.
"That;s a big gun for a little woman."
"The world is filled with big assholes."
"Yeah. You got a point."
"You know you have a knife sticking out of your leg?"
I looked down, pulled it out, dropped it, and said, "You wouldn't believe how many times people have fucked this leg up. You got any bandages?"
"Yeah. Let me get them."
I pulled of my body armor and then my shirt. By then I was starting to get dizzy. I took the shirt and pressed it against my upper leg hoping to stop most of the blood loss. Then I slowly slid down the wall and waited for her to return.
extensive edit
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