Planet Protectors Book one

Chapter 11: Wildman

The day was hotter than the inside of a furnace when he came. In the small desert town of Pottersville a dark clothed stranger had come in recent times and had killed random folk. We had hidden and waited for him to come. I fingered the gold coins in my pocket as we hid. I looked over at the new school house with its plaque on the front reading: built and founded in 1885. Then a woman cried out:

"He's here!"

And with that we leapt off, well the horses were the ones who sped off. The men of the town chased after the stranger into the desert but his dark horse was as quick as a shadow. We chased after him for hours and one by one the rest of the group turned back. But not me and crackerjack.

His grey mane flipped back and forth as we continued following the dark rider further across the scorching sands. The criminal rode into a train tunnel and vanished. A few minutes passed before we caught up to him and entered the tunnel.

We made our way slowly to the other side in case it was a trap and he was still in here waiting for his next victim.

The clopping of crackerjack's hooves echoed against the walls as we reached the light at the other side.

We emerged into a darkened forest with the only source of light being the full moon in the sky. The ground was covered in lush grass and plant life that I had only seen in books. It would have been a beautiful sight if it wasn't for the coldness of the cloudless night.

"Okay, clearly either this is a dream or that whiskey went bad" I spoke to calm crackerjack.

He was just as amazed at our change in scenery as we continued exploring the place. I remembered my dad telling stories like this to me of heroes going to foreign places to write a wrong. I checked the name imprinted on my horses saddle:

Roger Wilson, my name, but most called me Wildman because of my upbringing.

"Okay, this isn't a dream because you can't read in a dream. So this is real" I said out loud.

After a bit I decided to turn back the way we came but found we had become lost in the expanse of the woods.

"Hello, can anyone give me directions to.... anywhere?" I shouted.

I certainly didn't want to make camp for the night knowing the murderer from the village was out here. We rode on further into the night until I heard something and stopped crackerjack.

Out of the bushes rode a dark horse with a rider on top. His upper torso and head were concealed by the low, thick tree branches

"Oh thank god, you wouldn't know a way out of here would you?" I shouted to the rider.

The dark horse clopped forward and his upper half was revealed. It was the dark rider from town. He wore a fancy suit of leather and looked like a jockey but wasn't small or angry looking enough to be one.

I gasped when I saw he had no head and his neck was in pieces. He drew out a long, thick whip from his side and got his horse to go for me. The dark horse reared up and let out a guttural screech.

I turned crackerjack around and we sprinted away. I held on tight as we raced through the forest with the headless horseman on our tail.

I turned and fired my pistol and nicked him in the chest but he kept on top of his horse.

We leapt over trenches and I ducked under trees and we got ahead. I had a risky plan. I jumped up into a tree and let crackerjack run ahead.

The horseman came behind and I jumped down on top of him, tackling him off his horse. We rolled in the grass and traded punches.

I thought about the legend of the Dullahan that had been told to me as a kid. It couldn't be killed or stopped but didn't like gold for some reason.

The Dullahan kicked me off and I put the gold coins in between my knuckles and laid into the spirit. It hissed and gnawed with every punch until eventually it raised its hands in retreat.

"LIE AGAINST THE GROUND AND DON'T MOVE" I shouted and it followed command.

I grabbed the spine whip and tied its hands together before getting it onto its feet and yanking him toward...

"Aw crap, I'm still lost. Wait do you know the way back to the train tunnel?" I asked the rider.

It nodded with its torso and led the way. It took a while and I had to find crackerjack again but eventually we reached the tunnel and walked through.

At first I thought I had been tricked by the dullahan because what I came back to was completely different from when I left. Instead of desert sat a huge city with high and low buildings all around.

We rode through the streets and were looked at by people in odd moving metal boxes. But then I saw it. A run down school house where the new one should have been. Built and founded in 1885, condemned in 1953.

My eyes went wide as I realised what had happened and that time had moved quicker here while I was gone like that story of Oisín and Tír na nóg I had read as a kid. I looked back at the Dullahan who remained unchanged so it was probably safe to step off crackerjack unlike in the story.

It was then that I heard an odd siren and two orange and grey machines rumbled down the road towards us and stopped to block our way.

People in orange uniforms got out and surrounded us, grabbing me and the dullahan and putting us in either machine.

Before the door of the automobile closed a round object shot into my coat. When I looked out to see where it came from I only saw a dark shadow fly past.

A purple smoke then entered the box and after breathing it in I was out for the count.