[[ milliways // el paso, texas ]]

2012-02-28T02:30:56Z

[ "Now, Sparklehead, don't you know it's armageddon out here?" ]

Ben's tired.

His arms are heavier than iron, and his breathing is labored.

But Jesus Christ and all twelve disciples, it's not like he can just quit fighting these swarms of monsters and demons.

So he fires every bullet he can finagle; he attacks with the pike until it snaps in a mammoth, razored mouth; he resorts to fists and elbows and feet; and, when he's driven back, and back, and back by a fire-spitting serpent, he finds himself near the forge once more.

He dives inside, and hefts the first weapon his fingers close around: a samurai sword, as beautiful as it is deadly.

But Ben has precious little time to appreciate the aesthetics. He has a serpent to behead.

He doesn't expect to be thrown backward upon the kill stroke, as if he's ignited a powder keg by mistake.

Hurtling through the air, Ben twists, and —

shit damn shit shit shit shit

— he's sailing into the forge, headed for a workbench covered in all manner of sharp, certain death.

Two heartbeats later, he blinks in the Texas sun.

He's standing just outside the Acme, sword still in hand.

He doesn't feel like an overgrown pin cushion, but he takes stock of himself, all the same.

comments

[[ oom : el paso, texas ]]

2012-02-22T00:41:26Z

[ "I'm just here lookin' for steady work, and prayin' I find it." ]

Blending in is almost too easy.

Simple is as simple does: Under the name Thomas Cowan, Ben takes care not to dress too fine, or too raggedy. The pistol he wears at his hip is plain, nowhere near the quality of his beloved Colt. After a haircut, and without his customary beard, he looks almost nothing akin to his wanted posters or those damned dime-novel likenesses.

Four days after he rents his room at the Acme — two days after a profitable bartending shift in Milliways — he accepts just the job he was hoping to land.

Thomas Cowan, widower and former rancher, is now a carpenter in the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad.

comments

Ben Wade

[[ milliways // el paso, texas ]]

[[ oom : el paso, texas ]]