Western Tale: Short Story Prologue

This week I am posting a short-story on Western cowboy story I wrote many years ago for one of my classes. In the past, I put up another cowboy short-story I wrote. This story is much different and covers broader scope. There will be a part 2 to this story that I will write for next time.

Before I go further, I must note there are some clichés throughout the story. You will notice it quickly if you are a fan of classic western cowboys movies – when I wrote this in about 2006, I was obsessed with watching old Western cowboy movies. The main character Carlos Gonzalez is based on the character Clint Eastwood played, named Blondie, in one of my favorite movies The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Doc Emmett character is based on Doc Holliday, who was a famous respected deputy gunslinger in the real 1870s Dodge City. I decided to make Doc Emmett an evil twin of Holliday’s to change things up a bit in name of creativity.

The mid-1800’s time-frame in question was truly a noteworthy era in American history. Often called the ‘Westward expansion’, entire new settlements and towns were developed by the US Government to get people to settle throughout the nation from Atlantic Ocean to Pacific Ocean. New territories were annexed to a brand new nation just past its’ 50th birthday. That, along with events such as The ‘California Gold Rush of 1849’, were key in pushing West.

Unfortunately, the growing territories also spread the US Army thin as it simply wasn’t large enough to protect everyone in vast new undeveloped open-country land. At this point, United States was not anywhere near to being a world power as it is today. Crime and corruption became rampant beyond the Mississippi River. For that reason, the era became widely known as the ‘wild west’ as anything went in huge patches of the country.

Many stories were told, and much literature was written about horse-riding gunslingers like Billy the Kid, Doc Holliday, Curly Bill, Butch Cassidy, Sundance kid, Jesse James, others. Some were greatly exaggerated as is often the case. As these stories became legends over time, kids grew up emulating and wanting to be cowboys. Many cowboy movies were made based on these legends. These gunslingers became legendary.

This story is built on some of those legends. Most of the story is fictional.

A Western Tale

“Amigo, you sure you want to go alone?” was the question that popped up in Jim’s worried eyes while in the act of throwing down a flush in their game of poker. Jim Cooper was a very close friend of Carlos Gonzalez, who had made quite a name as one of the best known bounty hunters of his time. Much like Gonzalez, Cooper was also a sharpshooter who could take anyone out with his dual .44 magnum pistols, regardless of the number of targets standing in his path. He was a short, plump man weighting at two-hundred at height of 5 and half feet; his reflexes were second only to Gonzalez himself in their small gang of well-trained gunslingers of ex-soldiers and ex-convicts.

“I must not draw any needless attention. Besides, this is not your fight, Jim. I will do this on my own,” responded Carlos Gonzalez brashly. Gonzalez was a tall, handsome, slender figure with very little to fear other than fear itself. He had recently lost his entire family, including his wife and children, in one of the most vicious attacks, and he was on a mission to take down the one responsible: Doc Emmett, his long-term adversary.

“I don’t know how I plan on doing this exactly, but I will kill the Doc.”

“There are rumors that he has a large group of private mercenaries that are posted around the clock to protect him. Nobody gets in or out of his compound without getting through the mercenaries. The private encampment is the most heavily guarded in this area,” said Cooper.

Gonzalez and Cooper had both lived their entire lives in the town of Dodge City. Although Dodge City wasn’t as great in size, it was packed with many great fighters that took up bounty work directly from the Marshall Earp, who was often feared for his ruthlessness but also well-respected by even the drifting bounty-hunters. Gonzalez and his gang often worked with and for the Marshall on different kinds of well-paid works from assassination to protection. One of the most sought after bounties on the Marshall’s bounty list was Doc Emmett. Many had tried to go after the Doc for the $50,000 bounty, but all of them had failed. Carlos was the one that would succeed.

“I will figure out a way to get in. Perhaps I will create some sort of distraction to draw out the mercenaries. I will sneak in during that time, choke Doc to death and quickly get out.”

Gonzalez and Cooper had been friends for the past two decades since early childhood. At first they were just fellow neighbors on the vast prairies before the fathers of the two became close acquaintances. Eventually, they, along with a few close neighbors, were spending time together playing ball to pass the time during the warm, dry days of the summer. They would sit around late into the nights talking about anything that was on their minds and dreaming of the day they would become the most feared fighters in the West. Both had wanted to someday become criminal masterminds and to garner magnificent wealth to help out those in need. In time, they ended up joining the Army where they learned how to fight and kill. Later on, they finally decided to formally create their private band of warriors consisting of their closest friends from the Army.

“How about you go there alone right now to scout and come up with a plan? We will meet you there in 7 days. We will kill Doc together; I will not let you do it alone. We need you as much as you need us. Think of it as a favor.”

After further conversing back and forth, Gonzalez finally decided that it would be smart to bring aboard Cooper and the others for dealing with Doc’s mercenaries. He agreed to scout out the Doc’s place of establishment before making any drastic moves that could cost him his life.

The next bright sunlit morning, Gozalez picked up his case of various specialized weapons and strapped on his cowboy belt with extra bullets. His round leather brown hat was the last thing to go on before he climbed aboard his specially bred swift horse named Romeo. Romeo was a black horse with white spots located on the front of his long face and extremely powerful legs with the capability of crushing a man with a single kick. He was one of the fastest thorough-bred horses in the country that had gotten Gonzalez out of many past touchy situations.

“Let’s go boy”, bellowed Gonzalez before kicking Romeo in the side. The poor horse whinnied loudly in angry response before setting off out of the stable at full speed towards the valley, blazing across the opulent region of Dodge City. The entire valley up ahead was magnificently lit up by the brilliant sun like thousands of firecrackers lighting up the night sky.

“Hola senor!” waved a short bulky man with a black mustache and a short beard, whom Gonzalez recognized as one of the local blacksmiths. He nodded right back in response.

On the ride to Frisco, Gonzalez began reflecting on his life. His parents had both come from Mexico and had settled in Dodge City region in late-1840s a few years before he was born. They had just enough money to build a small house, and a small shack near the woods for a small business in woodwork. Soon, the US Army arrived to put up a fort in the area, and Dodge City became an official city. The economy soon began to boom, and more families were drawn in. One of them was Jim Cooper’s family from Philadelphia. As the economy boomed, so did crime. The wrong crowd was drawn in including gangsters, murderers, thieves. The entire landscape changed quickly from peaceful tranquility to that of chaos.

Before long, Gonzalez rolled into Frisco. He was busy studying the houses and the town itself, intrigued by the beauty and richness of the bright brick houses and wealthy gardens filled with pink roses all along the main street along with the magnificent bars and stores. He had done bounty-hunting in the past in Frisco and used to travel often with his father on business before his father was murdered for trying to stop a crime in progress. Gonzalez had watched his father get shot, and he had made a vow that day to take down murderers and other dangerous convicts through bounty-hunting. He had decided to join the army to learn how to kill. He wanted to use those skills for bounty-hunting.

As he advanced towards an open field in the outskirts of town near the Doc’s huge marble mansion, Gonzalez heard a series of gunshots in the distance. Romeo whinnied slightly at the sound of the gunshots.

From across the open field, Carlos clearly saw a large bungalow surrounded by open prairie fields and some grassland behind the bungalow. A wooden tower stood in one corner of the compound with 2 watchmen clad in black carrying long-range rifles. The bungalow itself was situated across the wooden tower with 3 more soldiers keeping watch. There seemed to be no way in without a direct siege, which would require time, money, and plenty of resources that Gonzalez knew his group didn’t have.

He had to find a way to get inside or at least to the main gate to figure out the layout of the walled courtyard without arousing suspicion. He had one advantage on his side: very few had seen his full face before, and Doc was not one of them. Doc and Gonzalez were adversaries, but Gonzalez always wore a blue spotted bandanna while bounty-hunting. He never hunted without it. Until now.

He knew he had to get into the compound somehow or else his mission would fail before it even began. His mission was that of vengeance. He was not going to let go until he had killed the Doc for raping his wife and then murdering his entire family in cold blood. One of Gonzalez’s servants had told him what had happened, and he simply collapsed weeping, which he had not done since his father was murdered 15 years ago. Gonzalez had made a blood vow to destroy Doc Emmett’s wealth piece-by-piece before killing him. A dark side of Gonzalez had awakened that dreaded day.

“Vengeance is mine for the taking. For my family.”

 

Part 2 continued: A Western Tale Part 2

western tale

Photo by Kevin Zollman/ CC BY

Harsh Shukla
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