You Ain’t Really in a Position to Be Making Demands
The Ballad of Abigail Lambert: Chapter 4
Less than a mile east of Valentine, the pair of them arrived just after nightfall, at the wooden gate of the sprawling ranch—the house overlooking them both from atop the hill. It would be a long walk to the house from here, and it was here that the Sheriff cut Abigail loose and lowered her off the horse.
“My gun?” She held out an open palm. He unholstered the gun she was arrested with, the very same gun she’d been carrying since she was forced to run from her homestead all those years ago. He held it out in front of her, but pulled back when she went to grab it. He unlocked the chamber and pocketed the remaining bullets. It was only then that he handed her the gun.
“What am I supposed to do with an empty gun?”
“Suicide mission, right?” The Sheriff tipped his hat to her and rode off back toward town. She holstered her gun and walked the main path toward the house. As she approached, she could just barely make out the men scattered about the property. A couple of them sat on the porch, feet kicked up like they owned the place. Over by the barn, a pair of them exited and approached the house. On the second story, she spotted another with his head poking out, staring her down. He whistled as soon as he could tell a woman was approaching, and the rest of the men followed suit, raising all kinds of ruckus upon her arrival.
“What have we got here?” One of them shouted.
“Oooh, momma! Hello, hello!” said another. The more ‘gentlemanly’ of the outlaws stepped off the porch and crossed over to her.
“Good evening, darling.” He took her hand and gave it a kiss.
“So cordial,” Abigail said.
“What brings someone as fine as yourself up around these parts?” He asked her. Even with her suitor at arm’s length, the air was thick with the lust of every outlaw that surrounded her, undressing her with their eyes.
“I was told there was a gang of men holed up out here.” She said, looking around. She locked eyes with her ‘gentleman’ suitor. “Can’t say I see any men though.” Every outlaw in earshot started hootin’ and hollerin’.
“Well ain’t you a little firecracker?” The outlaw asked her. Abigail leaned in close to him.
“You wanna watch me pop?” She whispered.
“What’d you have in mind?”
She swiped the gun out of his holster and shot him in the stomach! He cried out and keeled over, but she caught him in her grasp and used him as a human shield as the rest of the gang drew their weapons to return fire. She plowed forward, gunning down the outlaws with precision and fury—as if it was expressly what she’d been built to do. She made it to the front of the house, dropping her meat shield and kicking down the door.
Once inside, a pair of outlaws poured in on her left from the living room. She shot them both. Outlaws came in from the room opposite her and she took cover behind a wall. As they made their approach, she popped out from behind the wall to shoot them dead. Upstairs, a pair of them ran down the hall to the stairs but she shot one before he had the chance to make it down. He fell over the railing, landing on an oil lamp below. It wasn’t long before the flames consumed his body and began to spread throughout the house.
She re-entered the foyer as the second outlaw, sporting a rifle, rushed down the stairs. She took her shot and emptied the contents of his skull on the steps behind him. He fell backward, his corpse riding the bloody stairway to hell all the way to the bottom. She approached the body on the stairs and took the rifle for herself. As the fires climbed up the walls to the second floor, screams echoed through the house. The pitch was too high to be that of any man, it must’ve been a woman’s, maybe even a child’s. The adrenaline pumping through Abigail’s veins was enough to dull her hearing to such a thing as she continued her march up the steps.
Out of one of the rooms upstairs emerged an outlaw, which she quickly turned to and shot in the head, painting the wall behind him with what remained of his brains. Another outlaw emerged from a door behind her and choked her with his rifle. Further down the hallway, another one of the outlaws ran toward her, firing in her direction the whole way. She’d managed to turn around the one strangling her, filling his back full of his friend’s bullets. She looked down at her attacker’s boot and noticed a knife sticking out of it. As he lost his grip on both Abigail and his life, she slipped out of his grasp, took the knife from his boot and flung it at the other outlaw—the blade finding a new sheath within the outlaw’s skull.
It appeared the assault was over. She crossed over to the outlaw she’d stuck with the knife and removed it from his skull. She wiped the blood off the blade with his own shirt. She walked down the hall to the room he’d emerged from as smoke filled the house behind her. She raised her rifle, kicked down the door and burst inside to an unexpected sight.
She spotted a young Mexican girl, not a day over 13, with her wrists and ankles tied to the bedpost. Her clothes were tattered, and it was anyone’s guess how long they’d left her tied up here. The young girl couldn’t take her eyes off Abigail’s gun. She lowered the weapon and took the knife in hand as she approached the bed. The girl thrashed but the bonds that imprisoned her refused to break. Abigail stood over her and cut her free. The girl crawled across the bed and took cover behind the side opposite Abigail. She approached the girl and she scurried away toward the wall.
“Stay close to me.” Abigail put away her knife and extended a hand. The young girl nodded and took her hand as she lifted herself off the ground. They left the bedroom, retreating back into the house which was now filled with smoke too thick to see through. They hugged the side wall as its opposite was now engulfed in flames. They ran out down the stairs and out of the burning house, having narrowly escaped before a wooden beam came crashing down onto the porch. Smoke and flames billowed out the broken windows as the girls coughed up a storm.
A surviving outlaw managed to spring out of the house with his gun drawn and he fired at Abigail. She quickly returned fire with a shot to his leg, and he dropped to the floor. He yelled in pain and brought his gun up again but she shot it out of his hand.
“You can’t take the girl!” He yelled through gritted teeth.
“You ain’t really in a position to be making demands.” Abigail said as she towered above him.
“I’m warning ya. If you take her, Colin will hunt you down to the ends of this Earth.”
Without a second thought, she lifted her gun and shot him in the head. Abigail holstered her pistol and walked away from the property as it burned to the ground. She crossed the young girl who stood frozen in shock. She stared at the flames eating away at the wood in all their rage. She grabbed some nearby rocks off the ground and yelled as she flung them at the house. After she’d had enough, she turned toward Abigail, who was already halfway down the hill.
“Where are you going?” she shouted at her.
“Not sure yet,” Abigail replied. “Thinking I might try walking off a cliff and seeing if I grow wings.”
“Wait, you can’t leave me!”
“Can’t?”
“Don’t you understand?” She asked as she’d finally caught up to Abigail, planting her feet in the ground to stop her in her tracks. “God has brought us together for a reason.” Abigail couldn’t help but laugh.
“Oh, you sweet girl.” She kept walking.
“I prayed every night for God to save me from these animals. To take me back home!” She explained as she trailed behind Abigail. “And just when I was beginning to think he wasn’t listening, you arrived!” It struck Abigail that there was an oddly Scottish underpinning to the way the girl spoke, betraying her dark skinned exterior.
“Well, if it was God’s plan for me to save you, consider yourself saved.”
“But that’s only half of it. You need to help me get home.”
“And where’s home?”
“Just outside of Memphis.”
“Tennessee! That’s at least two thousand miles from here.”
“So you understand why I can’t do it alone.”
“That maybe so, but I’ll pass.”
“You can’t pass on God!” She shouted. Abigail turned on a dime to face her.
“God passed on me, girl! The sooner you learn there’s no one looking out for you, the easier it’ll be to take life fucking you in the way it has already and the ways it has yet to. Now, truly, I wish you well.” Abigail turned and walked away. The girl stood there, flummoxed. She grabbed a rock and chucked it at Abigail, but she missed. She tried again and fell to the ground from the weight she’d put behind the throw. This one managed to hit Abigail, scraping her cheek. She put a finger to the wound and saw red. The first time she’d seen such a thing since she’d started wandering all those years ago.
“On your feet, girl,” she commanded. The young girl stood. Abigail pointed at her to approach, and she did just that. “Clean your face up.” The young girl wiped the dirt and soot from her cheeks on her clothes. Abigail looked into her eyes and saw the shades of memories she’d hoped to forget. “Do you have a name?”
“Esperanza.”
~ ◦ ~
That night in Valentine, the Sheriff snoozed in his chair with his feet kicked up on his desk. His slumber was interrupted when the door was kicked down off its hinges.
“Sweet Jesus!” He nearly fell off his chair from the scare. Two outlaws with bandanas over their faces entered with guns drawn and trained on the Sheriff. “Just who in the hell do you think you are?” He shouted as he stood up. In through the doorway entered Colin McCalister, clad in black with a thick mustache and a red bandana around his neck.
“I’m guessing you’re the ring leader, here?” The Sheriff asked him. Colin huffed and punched him square in the jaw. He dropped like a rock onto the floor. Colin stepped over to him and placed a boot on his head. He winced in pain as Colin leaned down toward him.
“Where is the nearest train to Tennessee?”
“Ain’t but a couple miles!” The Sheriff said, doing his best to cloak the quaking in his voice. “Follow the road due east and you’ll come upon the station, sure enough.” His attempt to hide it wasn’t working out too well.
“Thank you, Sheriff.” Colin lifted his boot off the man’s head, and the Sheriff took a sigh of relief. He turned onto his back, only to spot Colin pointing a gun at him.
“Wait!” The Sheriff shouted as he brought his hands up to cover his face, but Colin shot him dead. The three of them exited the sheriff’s station to find what remained of Colin’s gang, about six other members, atop their horses.
“Wesley!” Colin called. He approached Wesley who mumbled to himself as he counted a deck of cards atop his horse. “Clean ya ears, boy!” Colin shouted as Wesley put away the deck.
“Sorry, Colin.”
“I want you to meet us in Ridgewood.”
“What about the train?” Colin approached him.
“Have I ever led you astray?”
“Colin, I was just askin—“ Colin cut him off.
“Answer the question!” He boomed.
“No.”
“Then get moving.” Wesley did just that as Colin crossed over to his horse. “The rest of ya’ll! We’ve got a train to catch.”
~ ◦ ~
Abigail and Esperanza sat in their seats aboard the train cart as it chugged along down the tracks. There were a handful of other riders on the train tonight, but everyone kept to themselves. Esperanza stared out the window at the dark scenery as it flew past.
“How long do you think it’ll be?”
“As long as it takes.” Abigail leaned back in her chair, tipped her hat over her eyes and did her best to get some shuteye. Struck by restlessness, Esperanza climbed over Abigail and wandered down the train cart. They’d barely managed to catch the last train before it left the station, and most everyone aboard was either keeping to themselves or took the opportunity to catch up on some rest before arriving at their next destination. They wouldn’t sleep long however; the train’s brakes screamed into the night and Esperanza fell to the floor as it ground to a halt. She got up and looked out the window. She spotted a handful of men with lanterns approaching the train. It was hard to tell but it seemed like they were wearing bandanas across their faces. She rushed over to Abigail and shook her awake.
“What’s going on?” She asked in a daze.
“We’re being boarded.” Esperanza said.
“By who?” Esperanza shrugged. She looked over to her side, to the train car closest the engine, and through the window she spotted Colin in the next car.
“We need to get off the train.”
“What for?”
“Cause they’re here for me.” That was enough for Abigail to hop out of her seat. The two of them ducked into the next car. Just as they slid the door shut behind them, Colin and his gang entered.
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen! I am so sorry to delay your journey this evening, but there is someone aboard this train that is very special to me, and it is my duty to find her.” He announced. As he looked around, his gaze passed the window into the next cart, where he saw Abigail and Esperanza moving into the next cart over. “Much obliged!” He said as he tipped his hat and stomped forward to give chase.
Abigail and Esperanza left another cabin car behind them and found themselves in one meant for storage. Abigail closed the door behind them as Esperanza crossed over to a nearby crate.
“Help me move this.” The two of them pushed the crate in front of the door. Two men smoking cigarillos stared at them as they did it, bemused, a sight far more interesting than the card game the girls had just interrupted.
“Excuse us, gentlemen.” Abigail said as they crossed the cart to the other side. Gunshots blew holes through the door behind them, and Colin began ripping boards off the door to get a look inside.
“Esperanza!” He shouted as he continued to rip through the door with his brute strength. The two girls exited the cart and found themselves at the end of the train. Abigail barred the door shut with its metal bar.
“What now?” Esperanza asked.
“We run.” And run they did, off the train and into the trees.
Gunshots rang out as Colin shot his way through the door and managed to squeeze an arm out through the planks, lifting the metal bar and swinging open the door. He stormed out of the cart, the rest of his gang behind him.
“Search the area, they can’t have gone far!” He commanded. Far they were not, but they ran as fast as they could.
“Don’t stop!” Abigail said. They ran until they could barely manage it any longer, every gasp for air like knives in their lungs and blood like broken glass pumping through their veins. With the gang out of earshot and enough distance between them and the train, they stopped to catch their breath.
“What do we do now?” Esperanza asked.
“Stay off the train lines, for one.” Abigail heaved. “Suppose we head for the nearest town.”
“Where’s that?”
“Ridgewood, I think.” Abigail said as she sat down on the dirt.
“We’re not going now?” She asked.
“It’s the middle of the night and it’s liable to take us a day or so on foot to get there but if your objective is to waste time walking in circles, then help yourself. I’ll wait till dawn.” Abigail said as she turned about on the ground in an effort to find some kind of comfortable position on the floor.
“What about Colin?”
“You’re welcome to stay up all night and keep watch.” She replied as she tipped her hat over her face. Esperanza did what she could to take her up on that, sitting with her back against a tree facing the direction they came from. At least, the direction she was pretty sure they came from—after all, it was the middle of the night and in the absence of light, darkness looked identical from all sides. The first couple of times her head grew heavy from weariness and dropped, she snapped back awake, but it wasn’t long at all before she took Abigail’s lead and dozed off herself.
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