Wild West - Chapter 3 - Part 4 - 5 minute freewrite challenge

They heard gunfire from the south and lead started hailing at them, missing them by mere inches, but because of the unmatched speed of their horses, they managed to get away without even a scratch.

James pulled on the harness to bring Jaguar to a halt and looked back to see if there was anyone following them. Tom stopped also and also turned back to assess the situation.

“What the hell? Why did you shoot him?”

“You really think he’d make us a cup of tea and we’d eat potatoes together? Really? You think he was out just picking apples? At sundown? No, no, no, Tom, let me tell what probably happened here. He's one of God's or whoevers men and he was out scuting. When he saw someone was coming, he came to check it out and probably shoot whoever it was, but when he noticed we were actually two and he couldn’t handle us alone, he needed to come up with an excuse why he’s out there… Then lead us to his friends to finish the job.”

“Maybe.”

“Listen, Tom, we can’t trust anyone but ourselves, okay? And you heard where the gunfire came from. Are you going to tell me it was his wife shooting five guns at once? And just when did you get so sentimental?” James kicked his horse to start moving forward.

Magnum followed Jaguar without Tom’s command. “I’m not saying you’re not right, but I just wanted to sleep in a bed tonight, and this seemed like a good opportunity.” Tom realized it then that James was right and they really weren’t in a situation where they could trust anyone. “Too good an opportunity.”

“We’ll never know, nor does it matter now. All that matters is getting to that dome, and you know what all this gunfire could mean, right?”

“We’re getting close.”