Free The Forge of Darkness (Darkness After Series Book 3) by Scott B. Williams Page B

behind those trees over there. Then somebody else opened up on me with what sounded like a .22. I’ll bet they must have shot 20 rounds!”
    “I know; we heard it.”
    “When the shooting finally stopped and I looked up, they had moved the one I knocked down. I guess they dragged him back to wherever they came from. I never saw any of them again after that. I waited a while to make sure, and was finally coming down here to see about Kenny when I saw y’all coming.”
    From what he’d heard already, David gathered that the man who had spoken was the father of the dead boy Benny had killed. He was bent down over the body now, and David could hear what he was saying:
      “Kenny, I don’t know what you expect me to tell your mama now! I’ve been telling you over and over again you needed to be more careful. I thought you’d listen eventually, but you never did, and now it’s too late. I hate it for you, son. I really do. All I can tell you is that we’ll find those folks that shot you and they’ll pay. We’ll kill them all and round up every last one of their cattle. There’s a house around here somewhere and we’ll find it. If any of them are still in it, there won’t a one of them be alive come daylight. I promise you that, Kenny.”
    “How many head was in that cattle herd?” David heard one of the others ask the man as he got to his feet again.
    “I counted 25, including those two over there. I hit another one but didn’t put it down.”
    “Well, if that’s the case there’ll be enough to feed everyone for weeks, just on the beef. And there’ll probably be other stuff in the house when we find it. I’d say we scored pretty good on this one, Kenneth, other than losing your boy.”
    “I’ve been expecting it to happen. But there’s nothing any of us can do about it now. How far back is Drake with the horses?”
    “He’s close. We sent Jimmy on to get him. They should be here any minute. But you know the others probably won’t get here for a couple of days. The rain ain’t helping; you know how it is.”
    “It doesn’t matter. When Drake shows up there’ll be enough of us to do what needs doing without them. We don’t need to wait for them. We can go ahead and find the house and get moved in.”
    “Yep, and if the folks that shot at you were dragging a wounded man, there ought to be a trail,” one of the other men said.
    “Let’s find it then, before it gets too dark,” another said.
    David’s worst fear came true in the next instant. All of the men were walking straight towards the clump of trees where Tommy was lying hidden under the leaves! David didn’t see how he could stop them from finding his friend now. There were too many of them for him to shoot them all by himself and Tommy was helpless, unable to move. All David could do was watch as the men began combing the ground looking for sign.
    “Well would you look at this!” one of them said with delight. “Hey Kenneth, it looks like your new friends gave up on their man and lit out for home! They tried to bury him before they left, though!”
    “Is he dead?” One of the others asked as he walked up to the one who’d found him.  
    Before he answered and before David could grasp what was about to happen, much less react, the man who he now knew was the dead boy’s father stepped up as he reached for something behind his back. Then he suddenly knelt down and hit Tommy hard with it, the sound of the impact a dull whack that made David shudder when he heard it.
    “I don’t really think he was, but I know he is now, the sorry bastard! That was for Kenny, and I’ll get the one that shot him too!”
    When the man stood back up, David could now see that he was holding what looked like a hatchet or tomahawk in one hand. He had just hit Tommy in the face with it—hit him and killed him right in front of his eyes and there was not a thing he could do about it! David wanted to shoot them all. He wanted to make them pay for what