Previously in Sediment Terri #5 : Vs The Heavyweights...

“The Rodeos too?”

“Yeah… They don’t make a good first impression do they?”

“Not really, no.”

“They’re strange, I’ll give them that. They have their own way of doing things but they’re there if we need them for anything so we can’t complain too much.”

“Own way of doing things?” Holt asked, noting Terri’s tone.

“Yeah, you’ll see. We will just need to make it very clear to them that there will be no killing today.”

---

“And if you do come across them…” Terri began. “Reign it in a bit, if you get my drift. They’re going to jail, not the morgue. Got it?”

“Crystal clear,” assured Effie. But it wasn’t Effie that Terri was concerned about.

---

“Holt, get him outta here now!” Terri yelled.

She had prepped Holt on this eventuality so he knew exactly what to do. He ditched his sparring with fish man and flew at Reuben, picking him up at high speed and continuing towards the desert.

---

"Why did you do that?” demanded Effie.

“It was just in case he went berserk- we all know his rage is unstoppable and I wanted them alive.”

Effie tutted and whistled with her fingers. Her horse galloped towards her. “How far out is he, space boy?” Holt told her he wasn’t far and put her in the right direction. She rode off without another word.

***

“That alien queer!” fumed Effie, pacing the living area.

“Cool it girl, he don’t know us. He was told to do it.”

“Well Terri's an even bigger two faced twat than I thought she was. Who’s she think she is? We’re in a middle of this drug shit with Outlaw but we still find time to go out of our way to help her out... yet she does us like that?!”

“Right now, I just need you to get those painkillers for me.”

It was not long after Reuben and Effie had assisted Terri and Holt with the recapturing the heavyweights who broke out of prison after they were spotted in Far Rompton.

However, after Reuben’s berserk phase kicked in and he got a bit more out of hand than Terri had clearly preferred, Holt had flown him out of the fight and into the desert somewhere.

They were now back on The Ranch and Reuben was coming out of his red haze.

“She knows, she fuckin’ knows what you do. What we do! How we do it. Why ask us to help if she can’t handle it?”

“Effie, the pain killers. Don’t make me ask again,” winced Reuben through the pain, not caring for Effie’s rhetorical ranting about what happened.

She instantly calmed, smiling warmly. “Of course. It’s just that you’re my-”

“I know.”

“And I-”

“I know.”

“I’ll get the pain killers for you.”

“Thanks.”

She came back through with a packet and a glass of water which Reuben eagerly took. He swung his legs over so that he was sitting up and popped the pills out of the blisters.

“Is it a bad one?” she asked.

He grumbled his response as he washed down the tablets with the water. “Just the usual. I just need a couple of hours.”

“That’s fine. I’ll leave you to it.”

***

“Reub? Reub,” hissed Effie a few hours later. Reuben stirred and rolled over on the couch.

“What?” he growled.

“We’ve got some leads on Outlaw. Do you feel any better?”

“How long have I been asleep?”

“Only half an hour I’m afraid.”

“Fuck, Effie. You know I’m not good for a couple of hours.”

“Cockit and Pullit have rocked up in a dive bar just outside of Boulderbend Spring.”

“So?”

“It’s the Liberty Diablo bar.”

Reuben rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. “Fuck sake Effie. I’m too fogged to give a shit about those ejits right now.” He buried his face in the crook of his elbow, not wanting to have his eyes exposed to the day light. “Can’t the Hands just monitor for a few more hours?”

“Reuben, it’s Cockit and Pullit. These chances don’t come often. Especially if they’re in cahoots with Outlaw.” She paused, expecting a response. When one didn’t come, she rolled her eyes. “Reuben?” He’s fallen asleep, the bastard.

One of the side effects of Reuben’s berserk mode were intense migraines which he referred to as a fog, that cleared best after some sleep. But this time, Effie was desperate to get out and get Cockit and Pullit, and if Reuben was going to sleep, she’d have to go after those two gunslingers herself.

Cockit and Pullit were two notoriously dangerous, expert gunslingers from the South who worked for those who paid the highest price. They knew no loyalty and bore no conscious.

Two years ago they killed eight of The Rodeo’s Hands trying to get to the two when a bounty was put on their heads and Effie relished any opportunity she had to get them back.

“Fuck it,” she whispered, walking away from Reuben on the couch. “I’ll just have do it myself.”

***

Effie disembarked from her steed and nodded in acknowledgement to the group of five Hands that met her.

“Just you?” one of them asked.

“Reuben’s clearing the fog but this couldn’t wait.”

“You sure you want to do this now?”

“And why wouldn’t I? I’m here. You’re all here. Let’s fucking go.”

Effie and the five Hands strode down the main high road through the small town towards the dive bar.

The sun was setting and the humidity had dropped from the air slightly. The neon lights from the bar’s signage flashed out across the street and the faint sound of rock and roll music could be heard as it seeped through the walls. Effie had her gun drawn as she burst through the main doors, followed by her backup.

Instantly, they started taking fire from across the bar, as if they were expected, but it was just that Cockit and Pullit were that quick.

One of the Hands took a bullet, their skull, brain and blood erupting over the wall as the bullet penetrated their forehead. The others had managed to duck in time and skulk round to some cover.

Whilst the other patrons cried out and ducked under tables and behind sturdy furniture, Effie began popping up and firing back in the direction that the shots were coming from.

After firing blindly the first time she came up, the second time she was able to spot where Cockit and Pullit were concealed behind the other end of the bar.

“Give it up!” Effie yelled out.

The only answer that came back was a few rounds of gunfire.

Effie took a moments pause and rolled across the bar area to behind a solid booth to her right, giving her a slightly better angle.

From the back, three leather clad bikers came through but were instantly taken down by the remaining Hands who were primed and ready to cover their boss.

From her cover, Effie would be able to get a good line of sight on Cockit and Pullit if they came up, but patience wasn’t her strong suit. She crept out from her cover again and darted behind an upturned circular table. Breaking her cover got her spotted and the table took a hail of bullets, pinning her behind it.

Another pause.

Effie took her chance and peeped over the edge of the table and saw Pullit come towards her, almost as if in slow motion. Pullit was in her signature black fringed leather trousers and was cloaked in a brown poncho that flowed out as she moved, her tread silent as she walked in her cow girl boots.

Gun aimed.

Effie kicked the table out, causing it to slide with force at Pullit. She reacted quickly, hurdling it, but wasn’t quick enough to dodge the lasso that Effie swung at her. The rope entwined around the rogue markswomen’s gun forearm, so Effie tugged hard, yanking Pullit forward and snapping her arm at the elbow.

Pullit screamed in agony, as she was flung to the ground in front of Effie’s feet. Effie picked her up and held her enemy in front of her as a meat shield from any shots Cockit could make.

“Not another move, ok?” Effie called out, holding her desert eagle at her enemy’s temple. “Or I’ll blow the bitch’s brains out.”

Cockit, who was in her trademark double denim jacket and bootleg jeans combo with a brown leather cowboy hat, slowly and cautiously came out from her cover. The back of her jacket had her signature three bullet hole embellishments, each one a different size.

“What do you want?” she asked.

“I wants to know where the production of Lace has moved to.”

“You think we’ll just tell you that? The Liberty Diablos have set up all over the state. You can’t stop it.”

“Try us.”

Reuben burst through the door of the bar, halting Effie’s negotiations.

“What the fuck?” she muttered seeing him. He was saturated in blood and bits of human tissue, the intensity of it concentrated to his upper body and face. He was also slightly out of breath.

“Effie, we have a shit load of bikers coming our way,” he warned.

“Fuck, can’t you see I’m in the middle of something?” she cried out, pressing the end of the gun harder onto Pullit’s head, causing her to growl in pain. “And these nice ladies were about to tell me where the Lace production has moved to.”

“Just bring her with us,” he suggested, watching Cockit carefully.

“Hell yeah, good thinking. I’ll get to use the new horse hoof clippers on her.”

“Let’s go then, Eff.” Effie shuffled towards Reuben and the door, with a firm grip on the injured Pullit. All Cockit could do was watch, as any wrong move would result in her girlfriend dying. She knew Effie didn’t mess around and make empty threats.

“What in the God fearing hell happened to you?” she asked Reuben as they came out into the street with the four remaining Hands.

“You wanna do this now, or shall we get back first?”

“Fine, our ride’s this way.”

***

The Hands helped The Rodeos get to one of the secret storage facilities they had scattered around Texas.

On the way there, Reuben was able to explain how he got to be so soaked in blood coming to Effie’s aide.

“When I came to from my fog, I was on my way to you when I came across a doz’n Diablos speeding towards you, so I killed every single one of them before they could get any further.”

“But you didn’t go full berserk?”

“Nah, still tore them limb from limb though.”

“Ok, well thank you for buying us some time. They’ll be out looking for us now though.”

“Let ‘em. They won’t find us here.”

Pullit was tied to a steel chair that was bolted to the concrete floor. A single hanging light bulb lit the workshop come interrogation room Effie and Reuben were in.

Pullit had her hands behind the back of her seat, and she was wrapped up tight with a tight, large chain. She had an oily rag tied round her mouth, gagging her. Sweat ran down her face as her untreated arm and her inability to support it was causing her intense agony.

Effie picked up a rusty old pair of horse hoof clippers from the work bench and menacingly walked towards Pullit. She walked around to the back of the chair and leant into Pullit’s ear.

“If you don’t tell me where Lace is being made, I’m going to use these rusty clippers to cut off a finger for every time I ask and you say fuck all. And trust me when I say it would be as easy as biting on a hot dog. I won’t even cut them off at the same length. You’ll probably have to have surgery to get them all trimmed down to the same length of stub. Won’t fancy your ability to shoot… or finger blast your girlfriend after that.” Effie opened the clippers and softly grazed Pullit’s left hand, tracing up to the finger. She wriggled and screamed into her oily gag rag and tried to move her fingers but it hurt too much to move.

“Reuben, which finger would you take off first?” Effie asked playfully.

“I’m a fan of the thumb actually,” he answered. “That one hurts like a bitch and it’s a nightmare trying to do things without a thumb.”

“Good thinking. I reckon I’ll clip the thumb off right at the base. Leave nothing there.” Pullit thrashed as best she could but it was fruitless. “I’m going to untie your gag, and I expect the only thing you say to be a location.”

Reuben untied the gag and took it from her mouth, with Effie waiting behind her, ready with the clippers.

“Readbrook,” she replied desperately, grimacing through gritted teeth.

“In Arizona?” Reuben asked.

Pullit nodded. “Now fucking let me go you whore and whore fuck!” she screamed hysterically.

Reuben ignored her and looked to Effie. “I’ll get the animals ready and let the Hands there know we’re coming.”

“And I’ll tidy up here,” Effie said. Reuben walked out of the interrogation workshop room, the metallic door sliding shut with a rattling sound. Then, the screaming started.

***

Reuben woke with a start. He looked at the time. Three fifty four. As his adrenalin kicked in, he honed in on what it was that woke him.

The horses.

He hit out at Effie, waking her up.

“Shit, what’s going on,” she cursed, but as she watched Reuben slip into some pants she tuned into what was causing him alarm. “Oh sweet Jesus.”

“The stable’s on fire. Quick!”