Second Harvest - Page 120/146

Dix quickly stepped backward into the bank while firing shots at Roy. Scrambling to his feet, Roy ran back to the boardwalk where he initially emerged, hiding behind the horse's watering trough. He glanced across the street where the shot that killed Sal originated. Roy saw the blacksmith's son, Bobby, with a rifle in his hand. Bobby smiled and gave Roy a thumbs-up signal. There's one more man left, Roy thought. Roy scanned the streets looking for movement. Dix was now hidden somewhere in the bank.

Sara heard several shots and ran to the window of Reverend Daniel and Maura's house. She could not see a thing so she opened the front door and stuck her head out. Billy was walking down the street, and he spotted Sara's head and recognized her from the time when the gang was out on her farm. Billy crept onto the porch and behind the front door. Sara swung her head around to look behind the front door and then Billy grabbed her by the hair dragging her into the street. Sara started kicking and screaming. Billy stuck his gun into Sara's open mouth banging the metal barrel against her teeth. Sara abruptly stopped screaming.

Roy was desperately trying to plan his next move, but he could not see a way out of his situation. He decided to strike Dix with his guns blazing. After loading each pistol with more bullets, Roy hesitantly stood to begin his assault. Before starting, he daubed the blood dripping from his head wound with his sleeve. The blood was drying quickly in the humid heat. Just as Roy stood and started walking toward the bank, Dix emerged from the bank grinning. Right behind him Billy appeared with one hand wrapped around Sara's throat and the other pointing a gun at her head. Roy gasped.

"Dix, we're gonna have some fun now. I got ol' farmer boy's girlfriend." Billy stuck out his filthy tongue and raked it up the side of Sara's face. He then grabbed Sara's blouse and yanked the shirt open exposing Sara's undergarment.

Roy was enraged and started breathing hard. Dix never moved his gun from Roy. Boiling with anger, Roy shifted his attention from Dix to Billy and back while holding his weapons at each man. Roy was trying to decide who to shoot first. Timing was everything and Roy had less than a few seconds to plot a course of action. Using the same split-second decision-making, Roy used the day he walloped Sergeant Fassbender in France, he rapidly ran at the enemy. Roy pulled the gun's trigger at Billy first, with one round landing square into his right eye and the next round striking Dix in the shoulder.