User blog:Gamer.Matt/Assault on El Presidio - Chapter 5

I gripped the reins of the horse with knuckles as white as its' speckled coat, and dug the spurs of my boots into its' sides. It took off down the road so quickly that I had almost fallen, but I quickly regained control and assumed riding formation behind my squad. We were heading to Chuparosa, a small town in the middle of bandit country, deep in Nuevo Paraiso. I had never been there, but from what I'd heard, it wasn't exactly a friendly place.

As we neared the town, I heard Morgansson yell from the front of the pack. "Spin 'em up, boys!" He grabbed his Schofield revolver from its' holster, popped two rounds in the vacant chambers, and spun the cylinder before throwing it back and holstering it again. All the other members of the squad did the same, with the exception of Ty, who slid a new box magazine into his FN 1903 High-Power.

We parked our horses at the gated entrance to the town. As I peered past the wall, memories of madness and bloodshed came back to me. This was the same town where I had been attacked, on my first day in combat. Morgansson's gruff voice shook me from my daydream. "Alright, ladies, we're moving in." He vaulted the wall, followed by the other squad members and I, and led us through the town. The entire time, my eyes were trained on those shutters..that fountain. We arrived at the Federales station across the town, as I locked eyes with a man sitting alone in the saloon. As we moved into the station, a soldier ran down the stairs and was quickly dispatched by 8 shots from Harlow's LeMat revolver. He fell back against the wall before slouching forward, hitting his face on the handrail, and expiring. Harlow chuckled as Morgansson spoke to us again.

"Alright, this place's emptier than Tumbleweed's saloon. Let's get outta here." He proceeded to the door just as the man at the saloon walked back inside. Something didn't feel right. As we walked out of the door, I saw movement from the shutters. Dogs howled from across the town, as a single tumbleweed bounced across the deserted road. Suddenly, a 10-man posse of Federales rushed the gate on the far side as the shutters popped and the town filled with powder smoke and gunfire. Through all the noise, Morgansson's voice still pierced my ears as he dove behind the stone fountain. "Ambush! Get down!"We all obeyed, desperately trying to stay out of the open. We were being fired at from 3 angles and our only retreat point was a building with one exit. We decided to break for the rear gate. "Go! Go!" Morgansson barked more orders at us as we ran out of the town, down the road. Just as we neared what seemed to be a safehaven, I saw the turning of a cannon atop the wall and recognized this as the cause of my earlier fate at this town. I yelled out the only thing that came to my mind. "Cannon! Down, now!"