Earthbound by Adam Lewinson Page A

felt Mrs. Johnson squirming a bit. Wasn’t
sure if it was fear, or something else. Some things are best not
considered.
    Pace filled the other bag to the brim with
coins. He hoisted the bag on his shoulder as he took the few
remaining coins and placed some of them in his pockets. Then he
leaned down and placed a few in Frank’s pocket. “A little something
extra in your paycheck this month,” he whispered in Frank’s ear. “A
bonus for being Employee of the Month.” Then Pace stepped over
Frank, but Frank somehow had the balls to grab Pace by the boot. He
wasn’t trying to stop him though. He just wanted to be heard.
    “You sure you want do to this, Pace?” Frank
asked.
    Pace didn’t hesitate. “Oh yes I do.” With his
foot released, Pace crossed to Mrs. Johnson, took her hand and
placed a bunch of coins in her palm. “Mrs. Johnson, I was once your
star pupil, wasn’t I?” She nodded with agreement. “How’d I turn
out?”
    Pace flipped the sign back to OPEN, unlocked
the door and stepped outside.
    I moved away from Mrs. Johnson with my back
toward the entrance. “I’ll be waiting until Pace brings up the
horses,” I announced. Don’t move until you hear our hoofbeats run
off. Remember, I’m standing outside with my gun.” I lied. I was to
do no such thing. I tipped my hat to Mrs. Johnson. “Mrs. Johnson,
don’t feel badly about how things turned out. I appreciate your
efforts.”
    And with that, I exited and closed the door
behind me. I concealed my revolver and saw that Pace had this
shit-eating grin. We untied our horses at the hitching post.
    “That was easy,” I said.
    “Like I said. It was a good plan.”
    “Can you believe – Mrs. Johnson. Of all
people.”
    “We’re going to give that poor lady a
complex.”
    “How much do you think is in there? Two,
three hundred?”
    “Does it matter?”
    Before we mounted our horses we both heard
something. An alarm bell started ringing. We glanced at each
other.
    “That shit Frank pulled the alarm!”
    “What do we do now?” I asked. I knew that
alarm would trigger Boze and his Nuggets going to the armory and
breaking out the rifles. And there was no telling which townsfolk
might want to try to stop us beforehand, even unarmed.
    We mounted quickly. “Which direction? North
or south?” I asked.
    “I’m not sure, we didn’t get this far into
planning… north? Back into town. No one knows it’s us yet. Just
keep smiling.”
    We rode calmly up the street. Some townsfolk
started heading toward the bank. They were looking at us funny.
Maybe it looked funny that we were the only ones walking away from
the alarm. I remember smiling and nodding to the townsfolk as we
passed. That’s expected from Pace, but from me – they must have
thought I was up to something. And, of course, I was.
    “Let’s ride up past the General Store, then
we can break for the river.”
    Maybe that was a good plan, I dunno, won’t
ever know because it got interrupted.
    Hoofbeats.
    “Boze!” I shouted. I tugged at the reins to
have Charon start running, but in what direction? It sounded like
the hoofbeats were coming from every direction. Cause they were.
Boze came down Main Street from the north. Other Nuggets came up
from the east and west. Pace and I turned our horses south, the
only available direction, but one of the Nuggets rode up quickly to
block that path. We were surrounded.
    Pace remained smiling, cool as could be.
“What seems to be the problem, Boze?”
    Boze pointed his shotgun at us as the other
Nuggets did the same.
    “The bank alarm rings, and here are you two,
conveniently riding up Main Street,” Boze said. “Saddlebags looking
mighty heavy. Mind if we take a look?”
    I’d never been in a shootout before. Never
seen one either. My dad did of course. Didn’t work out well for
him. Probably wouldn’t work out good for me either. Hah. And as
much as Pace might like to think, there’s no plan for this sorta
thing. I reached under my coat and