WWX: Lazarus [Extract 2]

Second extract from ‘Wild West Exodus: Lazarus’ (link in comments).

Next up, Mrs. Kelly, the indomitable undertaker from the town of Little Beam.

She’s amazing.

Mrs. Kelly was aiming for where its heart should have been, where any natural, living thing would have been vulnerable.

“Damn thing’s tougher than stewed boot leather,” said the old woman as every shot she fired passed cleanly through its flesh with no effect. “An’ my guns sure as hell ain’t powerful enough to put it down. Ain’t you got somethin’ bigger? Better? There’s gotta be somethin’ else we can try.”

Shaw’s eyes raked over the creature,assessing it, measuring it, taking in how big it was and how tiny the window of destructive opportunity actually was. The answers to those two questions were ‘goddamn huge’ and ‘ridiculously tiny’ respectively.

“We need those cannons back,” she said, simply and Mrs. Kelly nodded. Then the undertaker’s face split in a mostly toothless grin and she jumped from her mount. “Cover me,” she said, without affording any sort of explanation whatsoever.

Before Willa could so much as say a word, the woman peeled away from the group and began running directly at the rampaging monstrosity. It registered her with a strangely childlike curiosity, its lumpen head tipped to one side. Then it took a flailing swipe at her with one of its massive fists. The old woman smoothly dropped into a diving roll that seemed incongruous with her age and passed cleanly beneath it, coming out the other side. As distractions went, it was most certainly effective. Mrs. Kelly ran at full pelt toward one of the other abandoned ‘Horses.

“Fire at it!” Willa screamed the order at the
top of her lungs. “Keep it off her!” She glanced at the big man. “Is she completely out of her mind?”

“Don’t look at me,” said the man mildly, shrugging easily. “Mrs. Kelly is totally her own person. I ain’t gonna start questionin’ the whys an’ wherefores of what she does now. Besides, she’d take my head off if I tried.”

Book is here:

https://www.waylandgames.co.uk/wild-west-exodus-core-products/93894-lazarus?fbclid=IwAR38ubSQM9aqBgeEt9U9Ht7w7pn-UGK8VLObAA1POQJmlIbU1ZDTGaSRGyU