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Date Posted: 17:22:01 07/07/04 Wed
Author: Clive
Subject: .Last.
In reply to: Briar 's message, "� b o y s d o n ' t c r y" on 09:45:18 07/07/04 Wed

---

Blood now stained the dusty road, vast in proportion to the scapes the boy had endured. Clive had no broken bones, yet his breaths were now ragged and disgustingly wet in spite of his torn lung. Almost stickily, his fingers loosen around the handle of the cross-gun and the weapons slips. After hanging mildly on the ends of his fingertips, the weapon falls and clatters uselessly to the ground.

Clive somehow wraps one of his hands feebly around the shaft of the first arrow. His first thought it to pull it out, but the inflamed agony caused by the action replaces it with a distant, hopeless realization. His lifeline had been snipped, deleted, erased. He was not going to live. Very soon, any moment now, he would die...

The first Drifter reaches him, glacing warily at the fallen horse that pinned the boy. Her young face is a mix of tension and pity, but it was masked with another, colder dimenion. Business. Quietly, she puts the unloaded weapon she'd recently fired into its holster and gestures for her two companions to make their haste.

"We're sorry, Clive," she said without expression. For a moment, a flicker of dismay shows deep, very deep within her gaze. It vanishes before she draws another breath. "I didn't think it would end like this."

"Who cares?" sneers the silver-haired youth. "He stole our money and our horses. He almost killed us. Just cut his throat."

The woman, the leader, turns a sharp glare on the second Drifter. "We won't do such a thing! It's bad enough this happened...what about Catherine? And Kaitlyn?"

"Women," snorted the Drifter. "You still care too much, Virginia."

"Growin' up ain't easy," said the third Drifter -- the wounded one, Gallows. He held his bleeding arm with a grimace. "Jet's right anyway. If it weren't for Clive, Shane'd still be alive. So would Granny."

"Still-" Virginia stopped herself. In silence, she watched as Gallows drew near to the felled mare and looked down unhappily.

"She's got two broke, I think," he said haltingly. As of the moment, he hadn't realized there was a boy trapped beneath her. "Clive's old horse. If I put one between her eyes, she'll go quick."

Then, as if he'd just discovered a poisonous, crouching serpent, Gallows draws back. "Hey, Ginny, I found the other one."

The woman's eyes snap towards him. "Is he...dead?"

"No," comes the sardonic reply. The large man scowls. "Looks pretty pissed, though. Then again, so would I with a horse lyin' on top of me."

"No..." Virginia sighs, sounding surprisingly grief-stricken. "We shouldn't have taken this mission. Killing innocent men isn't what Drifters are supposed to do!"

Jet is silent. The silver-haired man walks calmly towards Clive and stops just behind him, ignoring the silent treatment that the older Drifter chose to display. His eyes are full of scorn and icy reproach. "Time to say goodbye Clive. Wish you'd never betrayed us."

"Jet!" The female Drifter goes rigid, her eyes aflame.

Jet ignores her. He spits on the ground just behind his former comrade just before planting a boot on Clive's back. With a single heave, he slams the mortally wounded man into the ground, driving the bolts even further into his chest. Clive gasps, unable to voice his pain and lands heavily. Cruelly, the fall did not kill him. Another wave of agony erupts in his chest, momentarily winding him. Then his breath comes in short coughs, causing him to shudder.

Meanwhile, Gallows holsters the weapon he'd been carrying in his good arm. The mare pinning Briar down was limp, dead actually, from the bolt now embedded in her skull. Surprisingly enough, the large man wraps his good hand around the saddle horn of the small horse and heaves. Not without a large amount of effort does he manage to slide the dead weight off the crippled youth below, ignoring whatever cry of pain that may have follwed.

"He's just a kid," the largest of the three Drifters comments. "They want us to kill a kid?"

"Stop yapping," growled Jet. "If you won't do it, I will. That way, we can all go home and enjoy spending our well-earned money."

Virginia's eyes widen slightly. "Jet, don't. I'm ordering you, as the leader of the Maxwell gang!"

A sharp smirk crosses Jet's face. With a deliberate swiftness, he draws his loaded weapon and aims straight past Gallows' shoulder. Before anyone can move, he squeezes the trigger on the cross-gun and releases the arrow.

It whistles, much like the first that struck Clive. With the same precision as before, it lands with a dull thud in the boy's chest, inches from missing his heart.

A chilled silence passed between the Drifters before Jet replaces the gun. "We're done here," he says bitterly. Without so much as a glance at Clive or Briar, he marches towards his mount and swings himself onto its back. "If you two want to sniffle a bit, go right ahead. I'll be back at the Inn if you want me." He turns his horse and gives it a swift kick, vanishing over the crest of the hill.

The large Drifter backs away from the dead mare and the stilled boy. Sure that such a wound would kill a boy his age, he shakes his head and returns to his own mount. "Just a kid..." he mutters, before mounting. "Let's go, Virginia. It's not our fault he turned on us. And the kid's just money."

Virginia shook her head, having been transfixed by Jet's uncalled action. "It's not. Clive was...our friend, and this young boy is just...a boy."

"Born the wrong time, the poor sucker," agrees Gallows. "C'mon, we have to catch up with the whiny nickel-head."

In silence, neither quite sure how to feel about the turn of events, the remaining Drifters ready their horses and ride away. Only one of them stops at the crest of the hill to look back. With obvious regret, Virginia then spurs her mount and returns to a full gallop after her retreating companions.

Overhead a raven caws noisily, announcing the event to the rest of its kindred. From afar, a series of crows and other scavenger birds return the call. With a flutter of black wings, the single bird swoops down to the abandoned road and pauses. It cocks its head left and then right, before hopping onto the sleeve of the fallen Drifter. It hops again, looking around for the arrival of its family.

Clive is barely able to stir. His movement is still restricted, his chest feeling cold and numb. He felt tired, but...where? He'd listened carefully. Was Briar alive? Why was he thinking this, now? The pain and embarassment of this death mingled with the dusty blood and he continued to struggle for breath. His gasps were becoming weaker and shorter, and he tried to speak, to ask of the boy's safety, but he could not.

The chorus of black birds rings out from above.

---

((OOC: It's long and possibly quite boring. Wondering why Clive isn't dead yet? So am I. I just...can't kill him yet. I will next post, 'cause in order for this Alternate Universe thing to work, he has to. Sigh. And voila! They shot Briar...and I sorta kinda put in that 'Briar went still' thing so they'd be convinced and leave. Anyway. ^_^))

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Replies:

� b o y s d o n ' t c r y -- Briar, 19:25:57 07/07/04 Wed
- Stupid tags... -- Briar, 19:28:03 07/07/04 Wed
  - .End. -- Clive, 22:36:47 07/07/04 Wed
    - Not Every Rose Has Thorns -- Sadie Rose, 14:13:17 07/08/04 Thu
    - � b o y s d o n ' t c r y -- Briar, 19:17:08 07/08/04 Thu
      - >Wolf< -- Huttser, 22:01:59 07/08/04 Thu
        � b o y s nbsp; d o n ' t nbsp; c r y -- Briar, 05:37:10 07/09/04 Fri
        Not Every Rose Has Thorns -- Sadie Rose, 19:30:21 07/11/04 Sun
        � b o y s d o n ' t c r y -- Briar, 16:29:06 07/17/04 Sat
        >Wolf< -- Huttser, 20:02:25 07/21/04 Wed
        Not Every Rose Has Thorns -- Sadie Rose, 18:37:01 07/24/04 Sat
        � boys don't cry -- Briar, 18:25:21 08/15/04 Sun
        <shinigami> -- Lily / company, 19:36:19 08/15/04 Sun
        Not Every Rose Has Thorns -- Sadie Rose, 18:50:04 10/05/04 Tue
        Break You Now -- Briar, 18:45:13 10/06/04 Wed
        e m p t y -- Kaen, 13:09:47 10/07/04 Thu
        >Wolf< -- Huttser, 18:25:00 10/14/04 Thu
        Just Bend the Pieces Till They Fit -- Briar, 19:11:41 10/14/04 Thu
        e m p t y -- Kaen, 18:45:05 11/06/04 Sat