Chapter 53
Sean rode his horse at the front of the company. They had crossed onto reservation lands and had thus far found no one waiting for them. Was it possible they were mounting their defense in the central village?
That would be a silly idea on Vin’s part. The logical strategy would be to meet them far from the residential areas to keep collateral damage to a minimum. Sean’s mind immediately went into a defensive overdrive, trying to figure out what Vin was up to.
Adding to his irritation and general unrest was the presence of the Chain Gang members who marched along with him.
They didn’t march in unison, silently like normal soldiers would in this situation.
Instead, they talked among themselves loudly.
They joked and laughed and complained. It was jarring for Sean’s military training.
But that wasn’t going to matter once the fighting started. The Chain Gang members were there to do a job, and their numbers more than made up for a lack of military discipline. Sean’s irritation aside, this should be a quick and decisive victory.
As they approached the village, Sean found his heart beating frantically in his chest, rattling his insides until he could feel it in his temples.
Vin was waiting for him with some kind of crazy Vin plan.
Something to take Sean completely off his guard, something that would push into his army with the force of a tidal wave.
But it wouldn’t be enough. Vin had clearly lost something in thinking that he could do anything to stop this storm from sweeping over him and his new allies. Chainz was too strong, his forces too overwhelming. There was nothing Vin could do to. Sean was sure of it.
His thoughts disintegrated as they entered the village. There was no Vin, no Native forces, no armed villagers waiting to defend their homes. All Sean saw were empty buildings and a massive sea of government remnant troops waiting for them on the other side.
He gasped in alarm. What the hell had happened here? Why was the remnant in this area? How did they know the Chain Gang was going to be here in force?
Many of the remnant soldiers were mounted on horseback, and they stretched back as far as the eye could see.
All conversation occurring behind Sean instantly stopped, and his soldiers stared along with him in dumbfounded shock to take in the enormity of the struggle that stood before them.
The remnant was out in force, and while Sean couldn’t get a full accounting, it seemed as though their numbers might match or exceed his own.
Vin had done this. Somehow, he had maneuvered both the Chain Gang and the remnant into conflict with one another. But how? How had he so masterfully played all of them? Sean seethed, grinding his teeth together and swearing silently in his mind, raging against this impossible situation.
Sean understood the remnant enough at this point to know that there’d be no parlay to discuss terms. There would be no offer of surrender. Not that Sean was willing to give up, to begin with.
But additionally, there would be no hope of turning around and running off.
The enemy force would pursue them and wipe them out with prejudice.
They had to stand here and fight. They had to take out the remnant here and now.
When Sean considered it like that, he wondered if Vin had unwittingly given him a gift by allowing him to be the one to wipe the remnant from this area once and for all.
Surely, that would mean more to Chainz than simply acquiring some worthless reservation land.
“Charge!” Sean screamed back at the members of the Chain Gang, who were standing behind him at the ready.
There was a huge scream of acknowledgment as they surged forward around Sean, ready to take it to the remnant forces.
The government soldiers mirrored them, charging forward on foot and horseback, ready to meet their foes on the field of battle for one last stand.
Sean knew the sheer number of remnant soldiers assembled here today must have made up the remainder of their presence in the area.
There would be no reinforcements coming to back them up.
There would be no quarter offered or forgiven.
This was do or die, and Sean was going to do it.
The two armies surged at one another, and Sean watched with bated breath as his men opened fire as they moved.
And then, the sound of multiple massive explosions took his breath away.
Booming eruptions ripped up from the ground, tossing Chain Gang and remnant forces alike into the air like rag dolls.
As the surge continued on, the explosions continued, tearing out of the earth like the wrath of hell and consuming both armies as they fired on one another.
It was a minefield. The entire village had been turned into a massive minefield.
The world spun around Sean faster and faster as he started to see the full scope of Vin’s machinations.
He had lured the Chain Gang here in force and ensured somehow that the bulk of the remnant forces would be here as well.
He pitted them against one another, knowing the conflict would be massive in scale.
But he and the Natives had laid the perfect trap, mining the entire village. They were sacrificing the entire community for a chance at wiping their two strongest opponents off the map in one fell swoop.
And it was working.
Now realizing what was happening, members of the Chain Gang and remnant were trying to flee the battle, but even their frenzied flight was triggering the explosives buried beneath their feet. Homes and buildings were caught in the booming blasts and erupted in flames.
Sean’s horse reared back in a panic as he fought to maintain control. He pulled the animal back, drawing it away from the sight of battle as flaming bursts enveloped friend and foe alike.
It was a masterful plan, simply a brilliant strategy, and Sean was livid that he had not foreseen the trap. He had assumed some form of guerilla tactics were going to ensue and was confident that while they might take some early casualties from them, their sheer numbers would inevitably triumph.
But his forces were utterly shredded, with many of them lying dead or dying on the scorched earth.
The horrified screams of civilian combatants who were suddenly clutching at bloody stumps where legs used to be filled his head.
It was Vin’s masterpiece. His symphony of death and destruction.
And it filled Sean with a mixture of admiration, rage, embarrassment, and self-loathing.
But where was Vin? Where were the Natives? Had they left their land, after all, choosing to blow up their land rather than hand it off to Chainz. He thought the Natives would do anything to defend their home.
And then Sean saw it all so clearly in his mind. Vin knew how badly Chainz wanted him dead. He knew the bulk of the Chain Gang forces would likely be called out. He ensured they’d be far away from his actual target.
“The ranch,” Sean said out loud, imagining Vin and the Natives bursting into the fortress. But it wasn’t the idea of them dragging Chainz through the streets or knocking down the walls that sent coursing waves of numbing panic sailing through Sean’s extremities.
It was the mental image of Vin opening the horse barn like some gallant hero.
It was Deb running into his arms, burying her face in his chest as though he were some liberating knight.
It was Jimmy reaching for him, eventually coming to know him as his father as the three of them galloped off together, leaving Sean miserable and alone for the rest of his days.
Sean gained control of his horse once more and spun it around forcefully, kicking it into a full run as he turned his back on the explosions that shook the ground beneath him. Sean never even once looked back at the scene of epic devastation as the Chain Gang and remnant burned together.
His eyes were focused ahead, toward the direction of the ranch, where the real battle for his future would be taking place.