The three raced into the court yard only to find themselves surrounded. Pania’s calculation had outnumbered thirty three to one. It would be a tough fight to escape this hell, but the need for survival greatly outweighed the temptation to curl up and die. All three brandished a pistol as they raced to the fountain that stood as the center piece of the court yard. Shani kept watch as the others quickly scrambled on the statue, desperately seeking some higher ground. As her companions climbed, she fired careful shots into the crowd of zombies that slowly lurched forward. They would have to be careful with their bullets, as they might very well run out before it was safe to bolt. When Shani was assured that the other two were safe, she joined them quickly. The three pushed their backs to the statue, a free hand ensuring that they would not fall.
Pania’s shots were well trained, even though they were virtually ineffective. Ezekiel, however, fired more out of fear than anything else. Deep inside he felt that this would be his last night on Earth. The bullets hit the zombies squarely, but they did not deter the undead crowd from turning tail and running. They needed something bigger.
Something much more powerful than a mere pistol.
“Panny,” Shani cried out over the din of grunts and growls that surrounded them.
“Aye?” Pania called back through heavy breaths of worry and fear.
“’Memmer what I said in Oxford,” Shani stated as she tried to jar the elven bard’s memory. “The part ’bout not usin’ magic?”
“Aye,” Pania replied, a smile forming on her face as she could tell what the next words from the elven gunslinger’s lips would be.
“Fergit I said anythin’ ’bout it,” Shani stated flatly. “’Cause we need a fireball cooked up somethin’ fierce.” Pania only smiled in response as she tossed the Smith and Wesson to Shani. As the shambling crowd advanced, Pania began muttering her incantations, her hands became alive with flame as she weaved her fingers together, forming a larger ball. Without warning, she hurled it into the largest group of zombies that advanced. Most were tossed back, some burned to cinder. All of those in the line of fire were suddenly engulfed in flames. That still did not stop their forward movement. But it would eventually, as the dry bodies were perfect kindling for the magical flame.
Shani kept firing into the advancing crowd, looking back to the masion every so often. On the main balcony, she saw her target. Kingston had dragged his dark mistress with him. From what Shani could gather, the woman was the central cause of this, but not of her own accord. But forced by Kingston. Some how he had a hold over her. And Shani would find out what. “Hey Kingston!” she shouted out over the echoing sounds of gunfire, magical assault and zombie shuffling. “Nice dinner! Hate ta run, though!”
“Oh, you will not run far, m’dear!” he called back before turning to his charge. “He held tightly to her arm and spoke in a voice filled with venom. “That girlish one seems to have your power. Do whatever you can to stop her. Remember, your family’s life is at stake.” Isabella nodded timidly and began to concentrate on the pale elf in her tattered dress.
“Her powah is strong,” she said in a voice that was like a squeak. She turned quickly to look at Kingston as his hand squeezed tightly around her arm. The look in his eyes were enough to kill, and she understood that not only was her family’s life at stake, but her own as well. She had no choice, she had to try. As the zombie horde began climbing slowly up the fountain, she again concentrated on the pale elf.
“Bloody…” Pania shouted out as she tried casting another hellfire, but found something blocking her concentration. “I cannu ge’ ‘nough power t’gether. Somethin’ keeps interuptin’.” She quickly looked around the area to see who might be able to counter her spells, and soon she found it. “There!” she cried as she pointed to the balcony, right toward Isabella.
Shani nodded, knowing exactly what Pania was motioning to. “I wager so, but I dare say she ain’t doin’ it b’cause she want ta. I figger Kingston’s got a hold o’er her.” She loaded her Colt and cocked back the hammer as she steeled herself. “Time ta sway his mind.”
Kingston ducked quickly as bullets hit the marble railing of the balcony. The gunslinger had decided he would make an excellent target. “Fire on that bitch!” he shouted to his body guard. “Make her bleed, but don’t kill her. I want to watch her die. Slowly.” The body guard took his rifle and fired. But he had no clue who he was firing on, as his bullets were replied in kind quickly. And much more effectively.
The body guard’s head snapped back quickly, and his body slumped to the ground, a trail of blood trickling down his forehead. “Thet’s how ya shoot, ya bastard. Maybe ya should learn how ta handle a pistol, ya yella coward!” Shani shouted from her position, hoping her words would infuriate Kingston to the point of making a fatal mistake. “Girly girl, we need more fire power! Keep hurlin’ fireballs ‘r lightin’ bolts ‘r whatever ya got!”
“It’s no’ like I’ve go’ an endless supply!” Pania shouted back. “I’m nearly drained o’ all o’ me…” She stopped as she realized that one of her spells did something she wasn’t expecting. Pania, Shani and Ezekiel only watched in amazement as a pure, white light seemed to spread forth from Pania and went outward. With each zombie it touched, it destroyed them completely, crumbling them to piles of dust. At the outer edge of its reach, the zombies turned in fear, shambling away from the three as they perched on the statue.
“H…how the hell ya do thet?” Shani asked in a much quieter tone.
“Um… I dunna know?” Pania only replied in a rather meek voice. Whatever it was, it had given them a lot of space. The danger had seemed to pass, as the zombies where either scattered in pieces or running aimlessly. Shani just smirked as she found her senses and climbed down from her perch. Pania and Ezekiel soon followed. “Wha’ now?”
“Don’t it make sense ta go see the bastard what started this,” Shani asked with a sneer as she reloaded her Colt. “I intend ta misbehave!”
*****
Kingston dragged Isabella with some difficulty, as she struggled to get away. While he did not show it often, he actually had quite the formidable strength. After all, before owning this plantation, he actually oversaw the work in the fields personally. He forced her along, snarling as he did so, dragging her down a dingy hallway toward a locked door. Quickly and effortlessly, he threw her to the floor in front of the door as he reached into his suit jacket and produced a pistol. “Now my dear,” he sneered as he worked the lock on the door. “It’s time that you and your family paid dearly for this failure. I cannot abide by failure, and those who fail must pay.” He tossed the lock to the side and cocked the hammer back on the pistol, slowly lowering it to aim at Isabella. “You shall be first, my dear.”
Isabella flinched as a report sounded out. She felt her heart stop, but only for a moment. She looked to Kingston with fear, and then wonder, as a trail of blood red began to flow down the clean with shirt that he wore. Without any grandeur, he fell over to the ground, the life pulled from him.
Isabella slowly turned to look away from Kingston, down the hall. There stood Shani Wennemein, a smoking gun in her hand. Behind the gunslinger were Pania and Ezekiel. All three appeared to be out of breath. Isabella shrank back as Ezekiel stepped forward. “Please. Please don’ hurt me,” she pleaded, her voice coming out in a squeak.
“Ain’ plannin’ on doin’ such a thing, Miss’m,” Ezekiel replied in a calm voice. “Figger y’all been forced ta do things that ya never want ta do in the first place.”
“He… he foun’ out,” she began to speak, telling the tale of what she had done. “Foun’ ou’ wha’ I could do. Said he’d kill mah fam’ly if I did no’ do as he said.” She curled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. Ezekiel knelt beside her, as though to console her as Shani and Pania looked on.
“Wha’ now?” Pania asked quietly.
The elven gunslinger twirled the pistol and holstered it as she took a deep breath and looked around. There wasn’t much life left in this place. Kingston and his body guards were dead. Some slaves were still locked up. The zombies were destroyed, and those that managed to escape wouldn’t last very long. “Let’s jist get the hell outta here,” Shani said with a long sigh as she look to Pania and then to Ezekiel and Isabella. “All o’ us.”
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