The Last Train to Santa Fe

The Last Train to Santa Fe

“You know I remember when you Chinamen were building this railroad.” Ah told the short little man sitting across from me, he smiled and gave a laugh.
“I am proud of our work,” He replied, in his funny accent.
Ah nodded. “Well whatever you did, you did right enough I'd say.” Ah replied, point'n to his tailored suit. “Ah'd say better than me.”
“This is land of opportunity remember? But I say same to you, nothing not noble about a lawman.”
Ah nodded, “Ah like to think that, but after what I've seen, sometimes I wonder....”
The Chinaman nodded. “Those on front line against evil, often most exposed to it. Mr. Mercer, you see things, so that others may not have to.”
“That one of your Confucius sayings?”
“No, that is Ling Zhou, myself's wisdom.”
“Why do y'all have such weird names? What's wrong with a good Christian name like John?”
“I think you should have Zhongwen name, in my home I would call you....” He paused for a moment and thought. “We call you Jie-xi”
Ah was about to reply when we heard the ruckus coming from across the train-car, now ah ain't a man who's so current on what you call a black folk, it is after all 1876, and some say some words are demeaning or something, and some ain't. I always just called 'em black folk and never ran into issue, but even that some now are saying even that is offensive or something, but I'll just say what the man said, and replace 'em all with them other words 'black folk', cuz I will tell you, they got into quite the..... Maybe you could call it a debate, and I would hate to offend anyone with this here story.
“LISTEN YOU black folk I NEED TO BE IN SANTA FE BY TOMMOROW!” A man shouted at a black fella ah recognized as one of the engineers, what he was do'n in the passenger carriage ah didn't know.
“Good Lord Johnny, don't shout at the poor black folk! He's just do'n his job!” The man's wife stated in shock, to him. By now both me and the Chinaman were craning our necks to watch.
“Mister, I can't change anything, if we don't stop in Springer we gunna have a maybe the boiler blow, and if we do that, we ain't gunna make it to Santa Fe for more than a few days.”
The man turned to his wife. “I've said it once, I've said it thousand times, black folk do not have a place on the railroad, they're too stupid!”
“Oh Johnny shut your mouth!” His wife replied, her temper flaring. “You'll have to excuse him dearie,” She stated to the black fella, “One of you black folk put bullet in his leg in Petersburg when he was under good old General Lee, God Bless his debated soul, and well, he ain't been so, nice towards y'all since then.”
“You fought in the battle of Petersburg?” The Conducter asked, his voice rather surprised. “Well color me colored, I fought there too, 'course I assume I was on the other side of your guns.”
Ah, honestly would have enjoyed listening into their conversation, after all I myself fought in that dreadful war, though that's a tale for another time, maybe when the old wound starts acting up and I wanna complain about it. Unfortunately the little argument between the two men and long-suffering wife, was abruptly brought to a halt when the whole dang train suddenly lurched and a loud screach'n sound could be heard all around, the black fella, Gabriel was his name, ran off toward the front of the train as it continued to lurch and slow down rapidly before finally coming to a gradual and bumpy stop.
“What is going on?” Ling asked, as everyone in the carriage stuck their heads out the window trying to get a glance at the engine, all we could see however was a just massive cloud of steam. “Look like steam was vented or something? Over pressure maybe?”
“Ah hope we don't have to get out and push.” Ah quipped, getting a laugh from the Chinaman.
“You ever use one of those rail handcarts?”
“Me? Nah, always wanted to, but never got to.”
Our conversation was interrupted by the carriage door opening and Gabriel the engineer coming back in. “The bad news is we had an emergency valve blow, good news is we should have it fixed in a jiffy, we had spares, but we lost all our steam, we'll be getting back moving hopefully in an an hour.”
“DANG IT! WHY THE HE...” The man from earlier started to shout until his wife slapped him.
“Johnny shut up and let dang conductor tell us what's going on!”
“I was done anyways miss, nothing else to say.”
“Well that's good, cuz I got something to say.” A young man stated, standing up and walk'n into the isle. “My name's Buck, the Alameda Red Reaper! And this train is now haven' a momentary delay!”
All the heads in the carriage turned towards the boy who had now drawn a six shooter and was wave'n it about towards the onlookers. Several of them were gasping, and the southern belle was gripping her husband's arm, her husband however did not seem phased.
“Is the red in reference your oversized lips or that red smudge above them? Also you forgot to pull the hammer back on that there revolver.” Johnny stated standing up and stepping into the isle next to Gabriel, Ah guess forgett'n about their little spat.
Buck's face turned as red as his name, and he yanked the hammer back on his revolver, or at least tried as he had to awkwardly adjust his grip on the gun to pull it back. “You shut up! Or I'll pop a percussion cap in your Bohunkus!” He shouted furiously.
“I think if your mother had whooped your Bohunkus a bit more you would have gotten some manners.”
For my part Ah almost enjoyed watching the little bandit's face twist into fury, had the situation been less dire perhaps Ah would have laughed...... Louder that is. Both me and Zhou were chuckling quietly as the boy marched over to where the Johnny and the Engineer were standing.
“You ain't got a gun grandpa! You can say all the mocking words you want, but I've got the gun.” He stated, shoving the pistol into the man's face.
Johnny's face suddenly changed to one of surprise and almost forced fear. “Oh of course, my apologies Mr Buck, me and this black folk ain't going to be a problem to you, I learned my lesson at Gettysburg when the black folk hit us hard under General Hooker when we tried to take their guns.”
“Wait.” Buck's eye raised and his face twisted into confusion. “I thought Hooker was a Confederate Gen.......”
“WHUMP!”
Gabriel's massive fist collided with underside of the outlaw's jaw launching him almost a foot off the ground as Johnny's hand shot out and grabbed the gun, placing his fingers between the hammer and the bullet and yanking it out of Buck's hand.
“I can't believe he fall for that.” Zhou stated as the outlaw's body hit the ground with a meaty thud. “Is he alive?”



Johnny reached down and checked his pulse, the revolver now properly set in his hand. “Yeah, he's lights out though.”
At this point, without a crazed gunslinger looking for movement to shoot, ah was able to reach up for my bag, untying it ah pulled out my Winchester 73 and dumped the bullets into my pocked, throwing my Revolver to Zhou. “Don't lose that, that one's from when ah was in the war.”
“Oh surely this is over right? You knocked him out!” Scarlet stated in shock, glancing about the cabin.
Her Husband shook his head. “He was an idiot, but not stupid enough to hold up a train alone.”
As if on cue we heard a shout from the baggage cars. “Hey Red Reaper! You doing okay up there? Or should I send up the Rotten Gunslinger?”
Ah glanced at the Johnny and Gabriel, before turning towards the corridor. “NAW!” ah shouted, “Hey How many of you are back there?”
“Including me?” The voice shouted back.
“Yes! Including you, whatever your name is!”
There was a pause. “Ah told you! My name is Billy the Ruthless Sharpshooter! I've told you four times now! And you know, there's twenty of us! How can you not remember that?”
At this point, we had pretty well determined that, despite being quite adept at making mechanical failures happen, likely set up at the station, these bandits were hardly the pinnacle of intelligence. We probably could have kept this up for quite some time, unfortunately that's when Buck woke up, and before we could stop him he started shouting.
“GIMMY MY GUN BACK YOU ROTTEN SON OF A GUN! I'll SHOVE A CACTUS UP YOUR....”
Unfortunately Gabriel shut his mouth with his boot just a little too late, and from down the corridor we heard Billy shout. “Boss! You okay? Boys I think the boss is in Trouble! Come on lets geet up there!”
“Four vs Twenty?” Johnny asked glancing about. “I don't like those odds.”
“Ah agree.” Ah replied, as me and Zhou stepped into the corridor, our guns trained town towards the voices. “Get to the engine, see if we can get going and decouple the rest of the cars?”
“Train won't be ready for another hour or two, we have no steam!” Gabriel stated.
Johnny glanced about. “All of you head up the train, you, black folk, you go with them make sure they get there, the rest of us will cover you.” He ordered, in a voice of a veteran, gesturing as though he had an invisible sword in his hand.
“Zhou go with them, watch the windows, we may need to jump train.” Ah ordered, as the passengers in the compartment filed out and we could hear footsteps from the baggage compartment.

“Boss can you hear me?” The familiar voice of Billy shouted, as they entered the nearest baggage car. “We're coming for you don't worry!” He shouted, oblivious to just how easy it made it for us to track him. By the time he entered our compartment, we were already in the next train car, dragging their boss with us, one of my socks jammed in his mouth to keep him quiet. It didn't take us long to reach the lead passenger car, and too our unfortunate dismay, both the engineer and the fireman both shouted to us from the engine that this train wouldn't be moving for awhile.
Before we could consider our options, one of the passengers called out. “Look, on the left side! I see riders!”
Sure enough, about six hundred or so yards away, riding a good pace along the scrub-land to the left were about four dozen or so riders. “Injuns?”
“No.” Johnny replied. “Nor soldiers, I'd say they had someone who they were planning to meet.”
Ah gestured to the right side of the train. “All Y'all get off! Run towards the wood line and don't stop till you make cover!” We were lucky that the train wasn't so full of passengers this run, but we only barely managed to get off the train ourselves before the door burst open and the bandits rushed in. We ran, with Johnny running backwards holding their boss at gunpoint, this seemed to off put them a great deal, as they hesitated and didn't follow or shoot at us. The looks on their faces as we crossed the hundred or so yards to the tree line was honestly quite comical, and in hindsight I think we could have taken them there and then, but thankfully we didn't as you'll find out later.
We set up what we could only generously call a camp behind a hill from where the train was, from the top you could actually see the train, though with the bandits now circling the train and guarding it, we thought it wasn't a good idea to be seen. The nearest town was quite far away, maybe we could make if we ditched the old folks, but since that wasn't an option the plan was to just wait until another train showed up and we could flag it down, a sound plan if it weren't for the bandits just leaving the train there sitting on the tracks. From the smoke we could tell they were keeping it ready to go, guessing as a get away train. The question was, why hadn't they gone already?
Johnny had taken up being the leader, and no one really complained since he seemed to have been an army officer before, not that he mentioned it, he simply took control of the situation. As for our hostage, well ah was in charge of finding out what in the name of God was going on.



“You're looking at time boy, hard time, if you're lucky.” All the bravado of the kid was gone, instead replaced by fear and panic at the two men standing above the tree we tied him too.
“I ain't talken!” he replied to me fearfully.
Ah shook my head. “Well you see that's a problem, you have only two options, you can either help me and maybe I can help you get off, or you can help Gabriel here and can help you.
“You know” Gabriel stated shaking his head. “My wife died in childbirth, baby too. The day after I came to station looking for a job to keep my mind off, got a job keeping that there train in working shape, it's the child I never had. And your little gang just kidnapped it. If you help me you'll see what a mamma bear does to protect her cub.” He punctuated this by whacking a metal rod he grabbed from the train against the tree a few inches above Buck's head. “He's leaving in a moment, you best decide quickly who you want to talk to.”
Buck's new nickname aught to be the White Reaper, because his face paled so much that he looked like he'd never seen the sun. After that he went from not talking, to talking too much. It wouldn't have taken an hour to get the full story, except he kept talking about how him and his gang were just farmers down on their luck and really good people and they never meant no harm. But we got what he knew, turns out Buck didn't really know why they were stoppen the train, only that they were going to be paid in gold by the riders who showed up when they stopped it. Of course Buck was really proud of how the sabotaged the valve to break when they reached a certain point of the line, but ah didn't actually bother to listen to how they did it.
As night fell, me and Johnny both crested the ridge to look down on the train. It was a good view, and at the distance we could see riders running about, their horses tied to trees and campfires lit around the train.
“Jesse, you said you're a lawman right?” Johnny asked me we watched the shadows. “You ever have to go after anyone at night?”
Ah nodded. “Yeah, often you get 'em when they're sleeping less trouble.”
“Good, don't tell the others, but besides the battle of Petersburg, I spent most the war as a logistical officer and never really saw much fighting, especially not at night.”
“Ah was in artillery myself, though just loading the gun.” Ah replied with a slight chuckle. “Well, don't matter, tonight we're the only two soldiers here.”
Johnny shifted, “I hate to admit it, but that black folk was a soldier too, and if he survived the battle of the crater with getting shot he's at least better than most black folk, still a black folk though.”
“Three soldiers.”
“Well, it's better than two.” The former officer conceded. “You think you could sneak down there and listen in, maybe see what's going on?” He asked as the last traces of sunlight vanished and only the light of a half moon shown down.
Ah nodded. “Yeah, ah think ah can, they don't seem to be to concerned about us anyways, guessing they think we ran like rabbits.”



Have you ever tried to sneak through a hundred yards of scrubland? It ain't actually hard if there ain't much too scrub there, if you gotta sneak up on something or someone, it's not the worst place to do it. Of course, the other side can use it just as well to hide themselves, something that nearly got my cover blown when I nearly walked into one of the bandits answering the call of nature, but as he walked back to the train I finally got a good look at the bandits we were up against, unlike the idiots who took our train at first, this fella looked mean and tough. He was wearing a dirty old blue army uniform, patched and faded. On his hip a big old revolver sat and on his back a full sized rifle was slung, and as I approached the train I found that most of them were similarly armed and dressed, so much so that the bandits who took our train stood out like a sore thumb, and it was a spot guarded by one of them that I managed to slip underneath the train, crawling like a lizard under the carriages and listening.
“What time is it?” Ah heard through floor of one of the carriages above.
“Eleven, it should be along soon, you can quite pacing.” A second voice commanded.
“Ah don't like it, those imbeciles let them all get away! I'm telling you that'll bite us.”
“It's not important, by the time they make it to town we'll be paid and done.”
“And if they do something? Like try and stop us?”
Ah heard a clicking sound. “This is what will happen.”
“I get it, you don't have to wave that about.”
“Good, don't forget I have a plan for everything.”
“Like what we do with them imbeciles?”
“They're harmless, and they ain't ever seen our faces, no big deal, we can leave them behind for all I care, but I will say this, I don't want them touching the Gold, they'll guard this train while we load it.”
“Especially their leader, what was his name? Was he Bucky, Bob, or Billy?”
“I don't remember, doesn't matter. They follow orders like sheep anyways and their names are stupid.”
“Hey boss! I can see her coming!” A third voice suddenly shouted from beside the train.
Ah turned over and looked, in the distance coming same direction as this train the front light of another train, odd since according to Gabriel there weren't supposed to be any trains after ours until at least morning.
“Right boys! Showtime!” The second voice shouted, and around me the bandits started running about, outside the train and in it. At that moment ah started to think that, if there was another train coming, what if it didn't stop? And made my exit, careful not to run into anyone as I crawled forward along the train until I was near the engine, still hot since apparently they were keeping the engine running.
Ah waited until the guard moved and proceeded to crawl out from under the train and back towards the hill. Ah had made it about half way when the Chinaman Zhou beckoned me.
“I assume you see the train coming?”
“Yeah, we gotta move, and soon.”
We made it up the hill, and I told Johnny what I heard. He listened frowning. “Gold you say?” He asked, biting his lip. “Must be why the black folk didn't know of it, or anyone for that matter, it ain't unusual for those to shipments to be kept quiet.”
“How do we get out of this?” Ah asked, looking down as the train in the distance started to get closer and closer to the parked train.
“You said they say something about loading gold?” Zhou asked, a smile starting to form on his face. Ah nodded. “Well, then,” He paused. “They leave idiots to guard it, they not think we're coming back. So....”
“You think we steal it back?”
The Chinaman nodded “Yes, if engine is still running, we sneak aboard and drive away, if we get fast enough they can't follow before figuring out what happening!”
“We can't sneak everyone aboard, there's at least forty of our people!” Johnny countered.
“Ah have an idea,”



“Why do I have to keep being the bad guy?” Gabriel asked frowning as I told him my plan.
I figured no sense in beating about the bush so I just told him honestly. “You're big, black, scary looking, and about double his weight.”
“You're going to help foster negative stereotypes.” The man replied, shaking his head.
“Ah'll buy you a consolation whiskey at the saloon when me make it home.” Ah replied, patting him on the shoulder.
He nodded and muttered something under his breath, but went with me to where the prisoner was tied up.
“Good evening Buck, bad news for you.” Ah stated as the young man grimaced.
“I told you all I know!”
Gabriel shook his head. “No, we got something to tell you.”
“Your friends plan to ditch you and your boys.”
Buck shook his head. “They can't do that.”
“They don't even know which one of you is the leader, I know because I just listened to them!”
“You have two options now.” Gabriel stated. “You can help him steal our train back, or you can stay here with me while I show you exactly how dangerous a man who spends his days working on trains is.”
Buck's eyes glanced about fearfully. “Okay! Okay! I'll help!”



Ah wish we could have done something, but the Bandits stopped the second train and, well to put it bluntly those aboard put up a bit of a short lived resistance. The survivors they tied up to trees near the rails, and with that we had ourselves a bit of a problem, ah don't want to sound heartless, but ah have to admit that we were planning on just skipp'n without 'em, jump the train and full throttle it out, then miss Scarlet heard the plan, and unlike the miss Scarlet ah worked for in Charleston, she had a heart as soft as warm butter and insisted we do something for the, 'poor dearies' who she was sure would be killed if we just left them.
So we butted heads and, well came up with an idea, we could see them bandits loading the gold from the gold train into our train, and well, ah have to give Zhou the credit for the idea that, well if someone started hauling off their gold, who cares about the people tied up right? Zhou also said that the later in the night we did it, well the more tired they would be, he told me he learned this when he was a Ninja, Ningee or Ninjer, or something like that, though ah think he was tell'n me a tall tail, why in the world an Ningee Assassin come all the way from China to become a rail layer? But his point made sense, so that's where we were, everyone had quietly come down the hill, and us with guns and our little bandit hostage were sneaking up to the train as the main bandits loaded more and more gold into our baggage cars, their goal I assumed would be to get to the station and pass it off as normal goods and cargo until they were clear.
As we approached the train we stumbled upon one of the sentries, from Buck's gang, munching on piece of bread and paying absolutely no attention to us, honestly it was embarrassing that he didn't notice us until we covered his mouth and Buck whispered. “Ruthless Sharpshooter! Don't you make no noise!”
The bandit nodded and ah took my hand off his mouth. “Boss, we thought you was dead!”
“The Gunners are gunna betray us, pass the word we got a new employer Billy, and keep it quiet!” Buck stated still whispering.
“Betrayed boss? But what do ya mean? Ain't these the people who kidnapped you?”
Buck nodded. “Things in this business change quickly Billy, ya gotta go with the flow of the river, like the Injins!”
“Oh, okay Boss, I'll tell the others!”
“And stay quiet about it!”

The bandit ran off, and me and Johnny boarded the passenger compartment, while the engineer and fireman both climbed into the empty cab, the fire was a little low, but there was steam and that was what we needed.
Inside the passenger compartments we slowly cleared them, all were empty except for one of Buck's gang members who was sleeping, ah took his gun and knife and we snuck to the last compartment, in the baggage cars we could hear people moving about, footsteps and grunts.
“We're clear, call the others.” Johnny ordered, himself watching down the dark corridor.
Ah pulled out a match and struck it, holding the light near one of the windows, and carefully the rest of the passengers snuck through the scrub-land and into the compartment nearest the engine, Buck's men thankfully had apparently gotten the message, and not peep was heard as they all boarded, including Buck's boys.
Buck however hadn't yet, and honestly ah hated to put so much trust he weren't about to screw us over, but dangling the carrot of him and his boys getting off if they helped was hopefully enough to keep him on our side. He was going up to ask the other bandits when they'd be done. Blunt and not subtle at all but, given how stupid they thought Buck's gang was, something we figured wouldn't put them off.
“Howdy Partners, how's it going?”
“What you want, I ain't even going to guess who you are.”
“Buck the...”
“Ah get it, what you want?”
“Just how much longer we're gunna be here?”
“Getting jumpy you punk?”
“Just wondering, and what we're gunna do after this?”
We heard a spitten sound and the bandit's voice got real low. “Listen boy, tell whichever of you is in charge, we're one crate away so be ready to move. You're gunna shoot those boys tied to the trees, you do that and you're part of our gang and you get paid.”
“I'll go tell the boss,” Buck replied, fear in his voice
“Good, and no funny business.”



Buck climbed aboard the passenger coach. “He says...”
“We heard him.” Johnny interrupted. “We're going to have to move fast, you think they'll follow with just this much?”
“Ah did notice.” Buck interrupted. “All their rifles were piled like them military folks do, over by their campfire, and ah think the guys loading had no pistols cuz I saw several over them just sitten on the floor near where they were loading gold.”
“Why didn't you say so before?” Johnny asked surprised.
Buck didn't reply, but his raised eyebrow spoke more than words could have.
“Engineer says he's ready,” Gabriel stated quietly, walking up from the engine, “When you're ready.”
Johnny nodded. “Alright, Buck, get your boys guarding every boarding entrance to the train, Chinaman, when I tell you, you need to run up to front of the train and tell them hit full throttle, Black folk, Jesse, Buck, you follow me.” He ordered.
Those few minutes were more agonizing then being trapped in the desert without water for days, finally we heard a loud thud of something heavy being loaded into the cargo wagon.
“Zhou, go!” Johnny ordered, beckoning us to follow as we slowly snuck into the boxcar, inside two men were pulling a large crate into the wagon, just as Buck said their pistols were lying on the ground next to them as they hauled the heavy box, quite a few men below pushing. We sat unnoticed behind an already stacked box.
“HEAVE!” One of them shouted and box was pushed into the car. “Good job boys, catch your breath, then we'll....”
Suddenly the train lurched forward and we made our move, running up shoving them out the open door while the men leaning on the train scrambled to jump back.
“WHAT THE HELL?” The boss shouted, drawing his pistol as me and Gabriel pulled the massive sliding door shut with a thud!
“To the caboose come on!” Johnny shouted as a bullet tore through the door! We ran into the caboose as the train started to pick up speed, slowly, several of them were climbing into from the other side and Johnny and ah opened fire through the open door.
“GET ON IN THERE AND STOP THEM!” Their boss shouted as Gabriel and Buck started shooting from the open connector between the Caboose and Boxcar. “YOU GET TO THE HORSES!” He shouted as the train started to pick up speed and we could see men who hadn't been at the train running to after us.
“Clear them from the Caboose!” Johnny ordered, shoving bullets into his revolver. Before we pushed forward and started shooting through the walls the couple of guys who had made it aboard were hiding behind. After a couple a few more shots from my carbine the two jumped off, before the train could reach speed.
“Good job boys, but we ain't done yet!” Johnny shouted, as from the balcony at the end of the caboose we could see them running about and getting on their horses, and several jumping aboard the train behind us.
“Can we outrun their horses?” Ah asked, loudly since my hears were ringing from the gunshots.
“As soon as we reach full steam,” Gabriel replied. “Not sure about that train though, it ain't loaded with gold!”
Johnny nodded and pointed his pistol. “Horses first, even if they can keep up they can't keep up for long!”
“CRASH!”
Ah ducked as bullet smashed one of the Caboose windows, “SHOOT ANY THAT GET CLOSE!” Johnny ordered, holding his fire. “Buck, get your boys move towards the back!” He continued as he trained his pistol on an approaching rider. “And tell the boys at the front they can burn my luggage if it means we go faster!”
“Got it!” Buck shouted before running.
We were moving fast and their horses were struggling to catch up, but that didn't stop their riders from pushing them, and shooting as they did, though not accurately as the caboose was punched through with holes, often nowhere near us.
“Give me that pistol you black folk!” Johnny shouted, grabbing the pistol Gabriel had picked up from the Boxcar floor. “You black folk can't shoot worth a damn.” He stated as he pointed and missed his shot at one of the riders.
“Your leg disagrees.” Gabriel replied quietly, ducking as another bullet whizzed overhead.
Ah took my time to shoot, and ah didn't count kills, always seemed sacrilegious or something, but with the only long barreled weapon ah was the best shot there, well except Buck's gang who were shooting from the passengers compartment and, from the sounds of it, wasting ammunition. We would have brought them here in our car but, before we made ah told Zhou that, if we were overran that they were to drop the boxcar and leave us.
We were finally getting to speed, ah could see the horses of our foes dropping behind, unable to keep pace with our train, in the distance the former gold train could be seen picking up some speed, the sparks coming from its chimney and lights from the cabin illuminating it in the dark. That's when I noticed one of the horses dropping back didn't have a rider, then heard Gabriel shout.
“LOOK OUT!” Ah turned as gunshot cut through the air and the black engineer shoved Johnny out of the way! Before the man standing at the other end of the caboose could fire again I brought my rifle around and pulled the trigger, a shot that if ah were a man who bragged about kills, would have been worth a tale or two.
“DAMN YOU! WHY WEREN'T YOU WATCHING YOU DAMN black folk?” Johnny shouted. “YOU WORTHLESS......” He trailed off as he looked at the Gabriel. “You're shot!”
Gabriel nodded. “It's nothing!”
“NO NO NO!” Johnny shouted, bending down to look at the wound. “SOMEONE BRING A LAMP!” he shouted up towards the passenger cars. “AND A DOCTOR IF THERE IS ONE!”
There weren't any doctors aboard, but Zhou had first aid training, and did his best to clean the wound, and it wasn't good.
“You will be fine, just keep pressure on it!” Zhou stated before beckoning to Johnny, who was standing quietly watching the other train in the distance. “Mr Morrison, Jesse, if you please.” He called,
As Johnny passed the man lying on the floor of the caboose he reached down and patted his shoulder. “You'll be fine, you're a tough black folk, one bullet ain't going to stop you right?”
We followed him a short distance away. “He's going to die, I stopped the bleeding but even if he makes it to town the wound will infect, and it's not good. If maybe in a big city find a good enough doctor but, he won't last that long enough.”
“We can't let him die.” Johnny stated firmly. “It's my fault, I never told him to watch that direction, I don't want to hear that he's going to die, so do whatever Chinese voodoo you do and heal him!”
“Johnny, he'll do his best but...”
“BUT nothing!” Johnny interrupted me hissing. “Save him or else!”
Zhou nodded. “I'll do what I can.”
We returned to the caboose and Zhou started looking at the wounded man more, while me and Johnny watched the train in the distance.
“They're getting closer, they're gaining.”
“Look you can tell, they ditched most of the carriages.” Ah replied pointing into the moonlight night.
Johnny bit his lip, “Can we do the same?”
“Depends, want to lose the gold?”
“Ain't ours anyways.”
“I think we'd rather they not get what they want.” Ah replied shaking my head. “But if needed.”
The old soldier went silent. “In the war, I heard tell of a Yankee raid,” He stated suddenly. “They stole a train and were being chased by our boys in a train of our own, it was in Tennessee I think, what they did was tried to drop boxcars that were on fire in the middle of the bridges to burn them, the wood was wet so it didn't work but....”
“Zhou, you worked on this line, do you know where the next bridge is?”
The Chinaman nodded. “There's a viaduct, I think not ten minutes away, but I don't know if it will burn well, and that would do more damage than just letting them have gold!”
“We don't have to burn it!” Gabriel stated in a pained voice. “I know the viaduct, it's long and only one track, we leave the caboose on it, they won't be able to back up and get past it, they will have to go through it!”
“If we're luck the moon will be behind the hills by then and they won't be able to see it.”
Johnny's face twisted into a grin. “Jesse, go forward and tell them to give a whistle when they see it!”



It wasn't long and we could see the viaduct, the distance below wasn't that deep, but, like we hoped, the moon was behind the hills and whole place was covered in darkness. The other train however was gaining quickly, it's light shining from the front and we could almost make out people hanging from the sides, ready to jump when the got close enough.
“Blow out the lamps in the train!” Johnny ordered as Zhou reached down to pick up Gabriel.
“They're too close!” Gabriel stated gasping. “They can just push the caboose into us since it won't have time to slow down!”
“We'll have to risk that!” Ah stated picking up his other arm.
The wounded man shook his head, “No, we'll have to put the breaks on the caboose!”
Ah nodded “Okay, we'll put them on as we disconnect.”
Gabriel shook his head again. “No, they're on the back of the car.” He stated, putting weight on his feet. “Let me do it.”
“No!” Johnny stated firmly. “No, you're not strong enough, and we're not leaving you behind, you hear! You damn black folk!”
“Sir,...”
“Johnny! Call me Johnny!”
Gabriel smiled. “I heard you talk'n. I can feel it. My time.”
Johnny shook his head. “No, if anyone has to stay on the Caboose it's me, I've made a huge mistake and I must right it!”
“Johnny, let a dying man have his final wish, and let him have it before it's too late.”
The ex soldiers stared at each other. Johnny held out his hand, Gabriel took the extended hand. “For what its worth, you black folk were some of the bravest damn soldiers I ever saw. Braver than many of my own men, and....” Johnny paused. “I know it's late, and I don't deserve it, but I would be honored to count you as a friend.”
Gabriel nodded. “Take care of my train and get her to station safely and I'll count you as one.” He replied before coughing up blood. “Get me to the break-wheel in the back, before we hit the viaduct!” He gasped in pain, and we carried him to the back of the caboose. “Now get off! As soon as we hit the duct disconnect the car!”
The rest of us climbed off the caboose and onto one boxcar next to it, as soon as ah saw the first ties of the viaduct below us ah pulled the pin on the coupling, it was stiff but ah was able to yank it out, and shouted as it came out, almost immediately the caboose separated, rapidly losing speed. Through the open door ah could see Gabriel standing as we pulled farther and farther away.
If someone ever tells you, that their life is a train-wreck, they ain't ever seen a train-wreck. The other locomotive slammed right into the caboose, which itself flipped upwards crashing into the boiler. Ah suppose they were running too much heat because the impact caused the boiler to explode, and ah might have felt bad for the men hold'n onto the side hope'n to jump onto our train except that my pity was felt for the one very brave man had just given his life to make sure it happened.
The exploded train derailed and me, Zhou, and Johnny watched as it tumbled off the bridge, dragging the couple of wagons still attached with it, bursting into a shower of sparks and fire as it crashed into the bottom of the ravine. Then silence, no sounds but our own train clicking along the rails. Johnny reached into his jacket and pulled something out, look'n at it.
“What's that?” Ah asked, quietly in the dark night.
He held it up, in the light of a lamp in the Boxcar I could see a small pin, emblazoned with a cross and three letter K's. “My mistake.” He stated, before stepping back and throwing it off the back of the train.


We made it to station safely, though it was near enough noon and we figured we were about to run out of fuel, at first the stationmaster didn't believe us until we showed him the gold, then, well we had to bring in quite a few marshals and judges to sort the whole mess out. Buck and his gang were able to escape charges, heck we spun the story so as to give them a good enough light, they even got hired as security on cattle drive.
The survivors of the gold train were picked up, though of the Bandits we only ever caught one of them, months later he was caught on another charge, he had been wounded on horse and hadn't been with the rest of the group, all of whom died in the wreck or shortly after because of it. Johnny got Gabriel's body and insisted on a proper funeral, right next to the tracks too and it was quite touching. The Chinaman Zhou went on his way, though not without inviting us to always be welcome at his home. And me? Well I got along with my job, hope'n to find who was behind this attack, and ah got myself a lead. So if any of Y'all know were Black Watch Reyes is skulking, you tell him Jesse Mecree Mercer is coming for him.