"Scream, you die..." Buddy tried real hard to sound threatening and sincere, "Warn anyone else that we're in the building, you die... don't do exactly what we tell you to do, you die... try to escape--"
"I DIE! yeah yeah, I get it already!" the call girl seemed less than impressed. "You know, the stinky Mexican had more manners than you, Fearless Leader... take me, take me now... I am your hostage..." she dead-panned.
"OK, OK... I'm sorry..." Buddy lightened up, as much to his own relief as to anyone else's. "Now, you take us, to the roof!"
"You can't get to the roof from here..." she explained. "But I can get you into Master Cavendish's suite... Suite 303, at the end of the hall... that's where he met with your friend, Luis, the NICE Mexican gent..."
Buddy and Greg looked at each other; Luis Pasillas, a nice Mexican gent?? when did that happen??
before they could wonder, they were set to wander, down the hall to Suite 303... It was easy work for the call girl to get passed the one remaining guard at his post outside the suite door, giving Buddy and Greg access to the room.
The suites at the end of the halls ran the length of the building, so there were windows with a view of the town square as well as rear windows wit views of another part of town. While the prostitute made way to the town-square window, as the speechifying and pontificating began at the podium, Greg and Buddy marched to the rear window for a look.
"I still need a rifle..." Buddy reminded.
"Oh, Master Cavendish has a pretty hunting rifle..." the prostitute pouted, "He seemed more interested in caring for it than taking care of me, after..." she shrugged, and moved to the bed, pulled out a long animal-hide gun case and unwrapped a shiny rifle.
Buddy beamed, while Greg worked on the rear window.
"Got it... let's go!" Greg smiled. "Remember, Army sniper's... so be quiet.."
with that, and with not even a kiss or a second look, Buddy and Greg slipped out the window and carefully climbed up onto the flat roof.
"Typical males..." the prostitute continued her pout. "Give them exactly what they want, and they ignore ya and forget about ya the moment it's over..." she shrugged and huffed and headed back over to the window to watch the hangings progress...
On the town square, Sanders continued his rousing pre-murder speech.
"But, as great a day as it is, with the capture of 2 of Reno's Renegades, it is also a historic day, as these vile wretched excuses for humanity are, in fact, and unfortunately, women!"
cheers and gasps as the hoods are removed, revealing two women, neither of which is Victoria or Holly/Lily!!! These women are full-breed Indian women, black hair, brown eyes, dark skin, but, amazingly they resemble the pictures posted out front of the gallows, which are only then unmasked for the crowd to see. And the WANTED poster pictures label the unknown women as CATORI and LILY!!
"uhhhh,...." even Sanders seems stumped for a moment, before realizing where he is, and what he stands to lose if anything deviates from his current plan. "YES! These 2 savages are the 'heart' of Reno's Renegades! They would work their wiles on many a hard-working man, only to slit his throat or scalp him, and steal an entire mining camp full of diamonds... greedy, cold, heartless, murderous savages!!!"
Sanders motioned for his guards, and the innocent Indian ladies to be brought back and placed before the gallows, the nooses dangling in front of their faces, terror and horror etched in their eyes, moans of fear droning from behind the gags on their mouths...
"BUT! WAIT! We have a few more surprises for all of you..." Deputy Sanders promised with a huge fake smile....
((OK, yuna... if that's the way you want it...))
"uhh... What would a historic day such as today be, with the capture and fracture of the scariest band of outlaws to ravage the region, if it ended with the hangings of but two of those savages... when we can bring FOUR before you fine folk, so that justice be doubly-served!!"
with that, 2 more hanging hopefuls were brought up before the crowd...
...but not those two... apparently Lily's cries and promises of surprise entertainment were unheard or overlooked amidst the maddening hoots, hollers and hisses of the crowd around them. Army drums sounded then, as from the garrison building 12 more troops escorted TWO MORE PRISONERS, clothed in brown skivvies, bound, gagged and masked in burlap bags.
"I give you, sharpshooter, Nate Francis! and his near-dear close Mexican friend, if you know what I mean... Luis 'La Muerte' Pasillas!!"
The men were brought up and unmasked, for all the crowd to see, including Cavendish and Luis himself, from the stands!! Once more, the men were not who they were supposed to be, but, again, their faces matched exactly to the faces expertly-drawn on the WANTED posters bearing their names...
something wicked was afoot...
Luis looked up at the men standing on the gallows, baffled. Surely Cavendish knew what was going on, but Luis thought it best to keep his mouth shut and watch how things played out. He had assumed that it was Catori and Lily who were going to be hung, which is why he had come with Cavendish in the first place. Now he was unsure of what to do. He didn't much fancy risking his neck for a bunch of strangers.
((speaking out as you witness your own hanging is exciting for you? ok.......))
Steve Sanders finally does notice his sister in the crowd, and his face goes white with stunned shock, if only for a moment.
A moment later, the cold steel of a pistol barrel was pressed against Lily's spine as she stood there in the crowd.
"You can follow the convicts into Hell, little miss, or you can lead them..." a harsh whisper in her ear silenced her shouts. "Or you can keep quiet and let this nightmare end..."
"Finally..." Sanders stutters, shifting his gaze from Lily's position to the garrison building once more. "Last, but not least, I give you the leader of this wretched refuse, renegade BUDDY RENO!!"
6 soldiers surround the single prisoner, in fact, 2 of the troops are dragging the bound, gagged, burlap-bagged man, because it seems he is hardly able to walk!
"Unfortunately, the great mastermind, Buddy Reno would not come as quietly or as peacefully as his partners in crime, and necessary steps had to be taken to facilitate his capture..." Sanders explained.
"All is fair in the cause of justice, folks... and, since he was last man captured, Buddy Reno shall be the first to hang!!"
The savages and other replacement killers were shuffled aside and the 'prisoner' Buddy Reno is set before the noose.
"Have you any last words, renegade?" Sanders snarls, stepping close to the prisoner and slipping the still-masked man's head into the noose.
The prisoner clawed his shackled hands at Steve Sanders mid-section, scratching and struggling to unsheathe the sabre. Sanders instead quickly skinned his sidearm, and squeezed off a few quick rounds into the stomach of the hanging man... -BANG!-BANG!-
The Execution of 'Buddy Reno' was complete...
((ooh and hey DR... thought you'd miss this... 😎 ))
'Buddy Reno's dead body was removed from the noose and carted away, amidst the cheers, applause, and gasps of awe and reverence from the crowd.
"Now, we make history..." Steve Sanders' grand-standing continued, and he motioned for the Native American females to be brought forward.
"Any last words, Catori, lover of renegade Buddy Reno? or my dear, sweet Lily... lover to all with 2 bits to spare... what say you?"
The Native girls screamed and cried out in their native tongue, but only a few in the crowd were of proper lineage and education to understand their pleas. "HELP! We are innocent! We're not criminals! We're simple tribal folk... HELP US DAMN FOOL WHITE PEOPLE!!!"
before their heads were placed in the nooses, and the ropes tightened, and the Army drum roll began, signalling the end of two innocent lives...
Buddy and Greg were equally torn, perplexed and confused, from the roof of the hotel. Should they save the dopplegangers, expose the deception by exposing themselves as the true renegades? or do they allow Sanders and Jericho's Army to murder more innocents? if they were in fact, innocent... they could well all be convicts themselves, put before the crowd so the Army could save face after all the jail breaks... but, who was the man in the 'Buddy Reno' burlap bag?
Why was it so important that he be brought before the crowd and executed in the way in which he was?
First things first... it was obvious upon reaching the rooftop, that the 'snipers' were as phony as the rest of the hanging day festivities... an Army uniform, stuffed with straw, holding a stick as a rilfe, lay in place of an actual sniper. From a distance, from the street, it would pass, but, up close, the deception was destroyed...
What the Hell was going on?
It was tense, and it wasn't until the females were brought before the noose again that Buddy determined it was time for action...
((I'll let others post some actions first, since I seem to be taking over again... sorry folks!))
((I would have liked to have more witnesses as this played out, but everyone keeps coming and going and not lingering long so...))
-BANG!-BANG!- (you shot me down...)
From the hotel roof, rifle shots rang out, and the crowd screamed with startle. A sniper, gunning down a renegade rescuer? Reno's renegades getting the best of the Army sniper?
The 'Army sniper' body fell from the hotel, landing with a soft -thud- on the dirt below, and the crowd gasped. The straw exploded from the 'body of the soldier, the stick-rifle clattering to the ground beside it, the deception exposed...
"This Hanging Day festival is a farce!" the man on the hotel, Buddy Reno, stood tall front and center on the roof, rifle in hand, waving its aim over the gallows area, while Greg skinned his pistols and covered the Army troops around the Gatling gun and garrison.
"I AM THE RENEGADE BUDDY RENO!!!"
Leo spots the Indian girl he remembers from under the hotel stair (Catori) in the crowd, with a few other girls (Lily and Victoria, I guess) at her side. He also notes a flash of cold blue steel between and behind the girls, held by a malevolent-looking man in a dark blue suit and black cowboy hat.
((there's the person you recognize, Spike, along with a little something extra... 🙂 ))
"I'm Victoria Sanders, daughter to the sheriff. And not accused of the following. Did you even realize there were no witnesses to thses so called crimes so they must be false. It's like making up a childern's story or something," she replied as she walked around the crowd. "Maybe Buddy Reno did nothing but my brother did! He tied me up and almost raped me! He was the one causing all this trouble!"