Outlaw - Born & Bred

Chapter 1: Goodbye Pa

She was 12. But acted more like 16. She figured, that sometimes happens, when you have to grow up fast. Not that her Pa wanted her to grow up fast, but sometimes shit happens, and you don't have a choice.

She hardly remembered her Ma. She was there, and then she wasn't. Then it was just her, and her Pa. He said, her Ma had gone to a better place. Not that hard really. Any place was better than Valentine. But Pa had gone to a better place now, as well.

Right now, any place was better than Valentine jail.

Sheriff Curtis Malloy was a complete bastard, she thought. Well at least he was to me, and to my Pa, come to think of it.

He's the one that pulled the lever, when they hung her Pa last week.

Pa always said, the law was scum. That was the best lesson he ever learned me, she thought.

But Sheriff Malloy was the lowest scum.

He said he'd let me go this time, after whupping me, with his leather belt. But he said if he caught me again, he'd hang me, just like my Pa.

She didn't think they hung girls. But then her Pa always said, she looked a bit like a boy. Pa always said that was an advantage. Not if some bastard Sheriff wants to hang ya it ain't, she thought.

So now, she was just waiting for the sheriff to cut her loose. Thats unless he decided to give her another whupping first.

The sheriff grabbed the kid by the scruff, and chucked her out into the street.

"If I see you back here, you little bastard," he sneered, "your gonna swing like your daddy."

Her Pa always said, that sometimes its best to say nothin'. So that's exactly what she did.

She looked at her clothes, covered in mud, and smelling like shit. I can always get more, she thought. I still have Pa's pistol, well I hope so, If its still near the railtrack, where I hid it.

All she really wanted to do, was spit in the sheriffs eye. She was pretty good at spitting. Like her Pa always said, you have to do what your good at. For the last 6 months, that was mostly running from the law. Guess they hadn't done that too well. If they had, Pa wouldn't be dead, and she wouldn't be starving hungry.

Her whole body ached. The whupping she had got from the sheriff hadn't helped. If her Pa had been alive, he would have whupped him right back. Although, she probably wouldn't have got caught in the first place.

She started to walk to the railtrack, thats where she'd hidden the gun. She was gonna rob someone tomorrow. There were only 6 bullets in the gun, and she didnt have any more. But like her Pa said, you dont always need to use 'em, just have 'em there just in case. She only had 6 though, and no money to buy more, so she'd have to be real careful. She'd probably needed 'em more to hunt some food. She couldn't try stealing anything else from the store in Valentine, or she'd be in for another whupping, or she'd be joining her Pa, in the better place.

She'd seen a camp, just a ways past Valentine, watched the wagons roll in a few days before her Pa was hung.

She was gonna try and steal some shit, but noticed a guard with a gun. She'd thought about it, and like her Pa always said, they only put a guard on if its valuable enough to steal. She didn't want to get caught again anyway. Her Pa always said, keep your wits about you, and never get into a fight you can't win. But kick up hell to get out of one.

Might have been why the sheriff whupped her. He wasnt too happy, when she kicked him in the shins. Not hard enough though, lesson learnt. She was gonna kick harder next time, cos she just found out its kick, or be kicked.