Bad Moon

Things have a way of going wrong for Zach.

"It was right after I got the payroll back from Jake. As soon as I came to a town with a saloon and a cathouse I stopped. I was spendin money left and right and havin a grand ole time. About five days into my good time I was layin in bed when I heard a knock on my door. I'd been waitin for Jake, I had my gun out and ready when I called out, '"Who is it?' I recognized the voice, 'It's the stable hand, your horse is missing.'"

"On the way to the stables he stammered his apologies, 'I'm sorry, sir. I was in the stables for the last time before goin to bed and when I got to yer horse it wasn't there. The door was hangin open and it was gone. I didn't hear nothin while I was at supper and I checked all the doors after I fed the horses and they was all locked.' When we got to the stables I whistled for Jim. He didn't come so I went in and looked around. There was the stable door and lock hangin open. The lock wasn't broke."

"Well, I never was one for brandin horses, it was a lot of work and I figgered the horse was none too happy about it either, so instead I shoed them myself. I'd rent me out some time at a smithy and pound them out. I'd always sign them with a Z and J. Z was me and J was Jim the Horse. I always named my horses Jim, don't know why, guess it was just easy to remember. I knew my shoes anywhere and I could track them pretty far. You're the first to ever know this, because I'd reshoe my horse with plain shoes when the need arose. Fact was, I'd just put a set of ZJ's on Jim right before I stabled him, just for night's like these."

"Anyways, I saw right off there was a scuffle, someone had come in and Jim didn't like it. They tried draggin him out but that didn't work. Then another horse was brought in and Jim went away with them. I figgered the other horse was a mare, Jim liked the ladies. The stable hand pointed me to a ranch, the Lazy H, where I could find a horse. I bought a fast stallion and hoped I wouldn't have to name him. Jim and the mare were moving at a pretty fast pace so I set a faster one. The trail led down to a ravine where there had been a fire and two other people. Once again, Jim had kicked up a fight but he settled down and all four horses left the ravine. I followed them back to the Lazy H. I waited until it got dark, went in and took Jim back. They'd branded him."

"I'd got about a half hour out of town when I heard a shot and a bullet tore into my shoulder. I looked behind me and there were ten men with guns ridin up on me hard. I kicked ole Jim into a run but the bullets kept flyin and pretty soon I got hit again. This time I fell to the ground."

"I woke up in a jail cell. The air was hot and when I put my hand on the bars I burned them. I yelled for some water but nobody came. I sat on the ground, there was no furniture, but it was too hot so I stood back up. I yelled out again but nobody answered. I paced around the cell for I don't know how long, the light never went out, when I grew too tired I had to sit down. I sat as long as I could then I got back up again. This went on for a long time until I grew so tired that I slumped onto the ground and fell into a restless sleep. The dreams began."

"I'd gotten me in trouble with the law a time back and I got shot pretty bad tryin to get away. I didn't like that and I decided I was goin to do everything I could to keep myself from getting shot again. Because of that, I taught myself to be fast with my guns, real fast. Bad thing about that was when people find out you're fast, pretty soon certain people come lookin to see you prove it."

"I didn't want to remember this but I couldn't wake up. I felt the floor burnin and every breath I took seared my lungs but the dream kept comin. I was drinkin in a saloon one day when this kid came in. He came up to my table and with his hand on his gun he demanded, 'You the one they call Denver Z?' He was young, real young but his eyes were filled with killing. I tried to put him off, 'I'm not interested.' He wasn't put off, 'Get interested or you're dead where you set.' So I got interested."

"We went out into the street and when the shootin stopped the kid was dead. I walked over to him, he looked so small, too young to be in gunfights, too young to be dead. Every night after that I dreamed of that kid and him layin dead on the ground. I took to drinkin real hard, hopin to stop the dreams, it didn't help with that but it did help me stop thinkin about it durin the day. About a year later the dreams stopped. But the dreams didn't stop for me in that burnin jail cell."

"Over and over the scene would replay, sometimes real fast... a quick shot and a dead boy, sometimes real slow... there would be my gun comin up before his hand ever hit the handle and then the bullet would crawl through the air and bury itself between his eyes. For an eternity the dreams burned into me then they stopped.

Excerpt from The Godz of Earth by S.E.Estes