57 - WALKUREN

 57 - WALKUREN

The night was still growing, but a small group was advancing through the meadow... the rays of moonlight illuminated the road they were following, although it wasn't a full moon night... it was possible to see the path, but there was no way to see more a hundred meters, for example... there were four horsemen who were slowly, inexorably conquering the night... but why this urgency, why ride at night running all the risks that the veil of night usually brings to the unwary? That was the question Rosa had been asking herself since they started riding a couple of hours ago...

She even tried to talk to Graça, the leader of the group... but it wasn't successful... Graça decided that they should start the trek back to her homeland at that time and nobody managed to dissuade her from that idea. Of course, the men who were injured and killed during the clash at the scene had a great influence on their decision... After all, there were seven men for three women, and only two were carrying firearms, at least at the beginning... but Graça Don't let that get in the way of your action...

It must have been ten o'clock at night, more or less... judging by the position of the moon and the stars... when they decided that the time had come... Rosa spotted the first victim... the man who would be the protector of sleep of your group. Well, probably due to the tiredness of the day, he was in the deepest of sleeps, and Rosa had no trouble disarming and tying him up... and getting a gun in case he needed it. She took the belt off her victim and tried to immobilize her before she woke up. Quickly, she checked the chamber of the weapon, found that it was loaded... she was ready to act... she now had a revolver and a rifle kindly provided by the watchman of the group they were hunting... as someone once said... who is on guard and ends up sleeping, you run the risk of waking up playing the harp...

Unfortunately the rest of the crew couldn't be subdued as easily as the guard... due to one of those mishaps in life, someone in the group wasn't that sleepy and as soon as he heard the noise of the girl immobilizing the guard, he tried to wake up his companions and they were all ready to receive whoever was preparing to attack them... well, the surprise factor was gone, but they were still in a better position to attack their target...

When Graça shouted the order to surrender to the men, their reaction was to shoot instantly at the direction of the voice... of course the girl was protected by a tree trunk that served as a shield... aggression, taking care not to hurt any of the men... but when the rain of bullets in her direction increased, she came to the conclusion that it wasn't the time to have principles... after all, one of them could miss and hurt her during the shooting ...

Maria and Rosa also started shooting, making life a little more difficult for the men who were left with nowhere to protect themselves... they had chosen the wrong place for their camp, since they didn't expect anyone to chase them so soon... and some One of the men in Zé Ferreira's group began to complain to him for not allowing them to finish off the girls who had chased him earlier...

The shooting didn't last long... about ten, fifteen minutes... but for those involved it felt like an eternity. When they realized that their targets would not surrender easily, the girls began to better adjust their aim... until then they weren't worried about hurting anyone. But, after a certain point, they came to the conclusion that either they neutralized their opponents or they would run out of ammunition... and in a hand-to-hand fight they would definitely be defeated...

Slowly, slowly, they were taking down their opponents. They weren't concerned with annihilating enemies, just neutralizing them. But some could not accept being defeated by a group of women and, even when shot, continued to shoot. And then the girls ended up slaughtering those who resisted the shooting... in the end, only Zé Ferreira remained, two of his friends shot and the guard who was tied up, hidden in the middle of the trees. When Zé found himself alone, isolated, he simply raised his hands in surrender...

- I should have let the men finish you off...

- And why didn't you?

- I know you don't believe me, lady... but I'm not a murderer.

- You killed a girl...

- It was an accident...

- He ran away...

- Of course... if the girl's father caught me...

- Well, I have bad news for you... he got you...

- It's part of the game...

- Yes...

- Can I ask you something, lady?

- Ask...

- You know what he's going to do to me...

- No, I don't know...

- You don't want to know... but you know...

- Look, after I hand you over to the colonel, I don't care what happens to you...

- I admit I'm a crook... I've harmed a lot of people... but never, before, have I hurt anyone...

- You killed the colonel's daughter...

- I told you... it was an accident...

- It may even be... but she died...

- What about my friends?

- What about them?

- That's what I'm asking... what are you going to do with them?

- I? Nothing... if they hadn't reacted, none of them would have been hurt...

- Well, two of my friends are wounded... and the rest, dead...

- No, there's one that's still alive...

- As? You killed them all...

- No... your watchman is tied up, but alive and without any injuries... in fact, only his pride was hurt in this story...

- And now?

- Now? Let's leave your friends here and let's go... you have a score to settle with someone...

That said, Graça tried to immobilize Zé Ferreira, put him on his horse's saddle, collected all the belts with their respective weapons, released the watchman, who was simply terrified, and scared the remaining horses. She and her friends rode, and before leaving, she spoke to the man...

- Two of your friends are alive... it's up to you if they stay that way or not... ah, forget about us, because if we cross our paths again, you'll end up riding the great celestial prairies... Do you understand?

The man, startled, nodded in agreement. Then Graça and her friends, leading Zé Ferreira's horse, left into the night.