Trusting Dust

Chapter 9

After a bit of planning, the two had a plan. Five minutes after their conversation, one of the captors entered the carriage to continue watching the Connor and Ava. A few minutes after that the carriage was moving again, although he would never admit it, the thought that he didn't know where he was bothered Connor substantially. The farther they got from his home village the more uneasy he began to feel. But the plan remained engraved in his head. They were going to escape, he knew it. Unless... He refused to think about the alternate possibility. One that had been haunting him since the beginning of the entire situation. No, he refused to think about that.

After hours of silence, the carriage came to a stop. Connor and Ava readied themselves for the back door of the carriage to open. They waited anxiously as the lock clicked open, and then they sprung into action. Connor lept onto the first man to bring him down while Ava climbed out of the carriage. She grabbed the first metal object she could find, a frying pan, and hit the second captor with all her might. As he fell to the floor another captor raced to grab her, but Connor caught him with a blow to his head. After that both of them started to run. That was their plan, keep running and don't look back, they would surely find a town somewhere along the way. As they ran, Connor heard Ava muttering, "Don't look back, don't look back" and they didn't, not until the shot.

The shot came first as a small projectile, then as a burst of wind between them, then as a sound, but Connor knew this shot. It was a warning shot, and one that he had seen before. He stopped immediately and told Ava to do the same. She stopped, but she didn't understand why she needed to. She didn't know what Connor knew, that they were in much more danger than he had anticipated. Because as he stopped and turned and beheld the face of the man who had sent the shot at them, his alternative possibility that had been haunting him became a reality.

What they had just seen shoot past them was a bullet, that came from a gun. The specific gun from which the shot came from was a pistol. Connor had only seen one of these once in his lifetime, and it wasn't when the bandits killed the guards. They terrified Connor due to his experience with one ten nights before the Massacre of 1876.

***

    It was dark, ten days before the massacre. Connor ran back to his home excited to tell his parents the good news, he had gotten them a turkey as a grand prize in a competition. He was reaching for the door when a shot rang out, the first shot Connor had ever heard. Wood splintered around him as a hole appeared in the wooden door and a small projectile passed Connor mere inches from his arm. As the projectile exploded through the door, Connor flung himself out of the way, throwing the new turkey in the midst of it.

The door opened revealing the one man Connor feared. Standing there with a pistol in one hand and holding the door open with the other, the man looked down on Connor in disappointment.

"What have I taught you about being prepared for anything? You are hopeless."

Connor pushed himself up off the ground, "You could have killed me! What is that?"

The man snarled, "It's a gun, pistol as a matter of fact. The new way in Hazrad, or it will be. All in a matter of time."

"That thing is deadly. It won't solve anything."

"That is where you are wrong Connor,"
The man placed the pistol level with Connor's head, "See. With one trigger I can rid the world of any unwanted thing. I can take whatever I want, because now I have the power."

Connor stood completely still, afraid of what this man could do. "You're mad."

"I'm right. You'll see. One day Connor you will see."

The man dropped the gun and Connor allowed himself to breathe. And with that Connor's father walked away.

***

"Well isn't this wonderful," the man with the gun yelled.

Connor turned around and faced his father standing ten yards away from him.
His father whispered something to one of the bandits and three of them were signaled to bring Connor and Ava in. Even though Connor wanted to turn and run and fight, he did nothing, because the situation had changed and things had gotten a lot worse. Instead he stood there frozen, as if he had just seen a ghost, which in a way, he had.

"Why did we stop running?" Ava asked when they were left alone.

"Did you see the bullet?" he asked her.

"The what?"

"The small piece of metal that flew past us."

"Well, yes. But it was just a small piece of metal. Nothing too harmful."

"It was traveling at such a speed that it would have been anything, but harmless." Ava's eyes widened.

"Was that what the men used to kill the soldiers?" Connor nodded and Ava closed her eyes, trying to wish away the memory of the event.

"What is it?" Ava asked.

"It's called a gun. It is a weapon that can take out someone with one pull of a trigger. It's very dangerous, especially in the wrong hands."

"So you've seen one before?" Connor nodded. Ava opened her mouth to say something else, but was cut off when one of the captors opened the door and motioned for Connor to get up. Ava moved to get up also, but the man motioned for her to stay where she was. This time she didn't protest. Connor followed the man out the door to see his father.