Brandy stood in the darkness.
Even the ground beneath his feet was as black as ink.
Going forward is darkness, retreating is darkness. Even when you look up at the sky or down at the earth, all you see is darkness.
He moved forward tentatively at first, gradually increasing his speed, and soon turned into running, running hard. He even felt that he was even running much faster than a horse.
He didn't know why he was here, he just wanted to escape, far away.
He ran for a long time, but he couldn't see the end here, couldn't tell the direction, and even his concept of time gradually became blurred.
But soon, he suddenly felt his body sink, and he immediately fell out of the boundless darkness, and then appeared in the blue sky, naturally starting a free fall.
It is normal for people to shout when they fall from a high place. However, Brandy shouted until her throat was almost speechless. Her body passed through layers of thick clouds, but she still did not see the ground or water.
After about thirty minutes—Brandy didn't know why he knew it was thirty minutes, it was just that the concept suddenly came to his mind—Brandy saw land beneath him.
The land slowly enlarged, gradually revealing the appearance of the city. He gradually saw clearly that facing him seemed to be the spire of a Gothic church.
He originally thought that he would be penetrated directly by the spire into his chest and abdomen, but that was not the case, because his body suddenly became as light as a feather.
Brandy landed smoothly on the church steeple in a crouching position that he found familiar but very unfamiliar. At some point, he put on a strange white dress with a strange hood.
An eagle flew around him in a circle, then flew into the distant sky, leaving only a long cry.
Brandi still didn't understand what was happening to him now, but when he looked down and saw a cart of haystacks on the ground not far away, it seemed to awaken something that had been dormant in his DNA.
He raised his hands flat, and his whole body was like a white cross. Then, with a slight exertion on his feet, his body left the place where he landed, drew a beautiful arc in mid-air, and then fell straight down.
In the field of vision, the cart of haystacks gradually enlarged and changed, and the surrounding environment began to distort. The city gradually sank and turned into a deep ocean with rough waves.
At some point, Brandi, who had lost his hood, fell straight into the sea. Before he could react, an absurdly large shark with a huge mouth swam toward him quickly.
Brandi had no time to react, so at that moment, the world fell into darkness again.
Brandy opened his eyes suddenly, but the slightly dazzling sunlight made him couldn't help but squint his eyes again. When his eyes adjusted to the brightness, he opened his eyes completely. When he saw what was unfamiliar to him, But when the structure of the wooden roof was still familiar, he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Even if it's just a dream, don't do something so outrageous to me."
Brandi sighed in his heart and subconsciously prepared to get up from the bed holding the bedside table, but he only straightened up a little, and the severe pain from the right half of his body forced him to lie back on the bed.
He had never experienced such pain, so much so that his body was a little out of control, and the hand he was holding on to the bedside table accidentally smashed a ceramic cup on the bedside table to the ground.
There were rapid footsteps outside the door, and not long after, a familiar girl's face came into view.
"Mr. Munny, are you awake?" the girl asked happily, "How do you feel now?"
Brandy saw this face and thought for a while before searching for the owner of this face in her mind. She was half surprised and half confused and asked: "Mattie? Why is it you?"
"You are in my home now," Mattie smiled slightly, then began to squat down, quickly picking up the broken ceramic tiles on the floor, and said, "There are really no empty beds at Dr. Calloway's place. As for the hotel, , as you know, it was blown up by a cannonball, and your friend, who was well-dressed,
The guy with the moustache said he was going to take you to their camp outside the town, but I felt that you shouldn't have to suffer any more bumps, so I volunteered to take you to my home. . "
Mattie finished collecting the broken porcelain pieces, turned around and dumped them somewhere outside the house, returned to Brandy's bed, pulled up a chair next to her and sat down, and said slightly sullenly: "By the way, there is one more thing. Well, the cup you broke just now was my mother's favorite, and the bed you are lying on now also belongs to my mother."
Brandy understood what Mattie said, but his mind was still a little confused, so he didn't catch the implication from the words. He just smiled apologetically and said, "Say sorry to your mother for me. "
"It's a pity that she can't hear." The girl said slightly sadly.
Only then did Brandi notice that on the wall behind the girl, there was a black and white half-length photo of a white woman with simple makeup, but she was naturally beautiful and looked 70% similar to the girl.
Although in this era, the photos were all in black and white, but based on the girl's words, the place where he was lying, and various details, he concluded that the girl's mother had passed away.
"Oh, sorry, I'm sorry to hear that, I didn't know about it." Brandi immediately apologized.
"It doesn't matter, at least I got my revenge." The girl quickly put away her sad emotions, forced out a somewhat awkward smile, and said.
This aroused Brandi's curiosity. He endured the pain and tried his best to support his body. When the girl saw this, she immediately went up to help him and put up pillows.
"Thank you, Mattie," Brandi sat up straight and said, "By the way, although it's a bit rude, I still want to ask, what did you mean when you said "you took revenge" before? "
"If you want to hear it, I'll just say it. There's nothing rude or not. After all, it's quite curious, isn't it?" Mattie smiled slightly and behaved in an elegant manner.
Brandy was very surprised because he saw the calmness that only belongs to adults in a girl who looked ten years old at most.
"It was on the day of the Battle of Valentine - as people call it now, it was very noisy outside, with gunfire and cannon fire, and my mother asked me to stay in my room while she used the phone she had at home. Everything I have is blocking the front and back doors of the house, I just hope I can get through it like this."
"But she forgot to seal the windows. My poor mother, she is always like this. She often does things carelessly." When Mattie said this, a few tears flowed from the corners of her eyes. She raised her hand to gently wipe away the tears. He wiped it dry and continued, "Anyway, a person in a yellow robe - more like a ghost than a person - broke in through the window of the living room. I happened to open the door at that time, and the intruder He saw me at a glance, and I saw him at a glance.”
"I'm not afraid of your jokes. I was so scared that my legs were weak at that time." When Mattie said this, she laughed, as if she was laughing at her fear and cowardice at that time. "If I could have thought of you right away, Give me that gun and maybe my mother will have a chance to live."
"No one will laugh at you for this kind of thing," Brandi comforted, "You are a brave girl, you always have been."
"I'd better continue talking," Mattie gathered her emotions again and took a deep breath, as if she wanted to hold back her tears and sadness to ensure that her narrative was objective enough. After calming down, she said, "At that time , I was so frightened that the man came towards me with an ax in his hand, but I didn’t react at all. At this time, my mother also opened the door and came out. Seeing this situation, she shouted frantically: "Stay away from my daughter." Click!", and then rushed forward and struggled with the intruder. "
"My mother was unarmed at the time, and she was not strong, so she was quickly pinned down by the man and his body was chopped with axes. At first, I could still hear my mother's screams and see her struggling, but Soon, my mother stopped struggling and screaming, and then..."
"What happened then?" Brandy asked.
Mattie laughed sadly and said, "Then I remembered that the pistol you gave me was placed in the iron box under my bed. I rushed back
In the room, I took out the revolver. At this time, the intruder stood up and turned around to come to me. I was really scared at the time. When I saw the man rushing toward me, I didn’t aim at it. I just kept I pulled the trigger, cocked the hammer, and pulled the trigger again until the gun stopped firing and I opened my eyes. "
"I found that the bullet I fired had beaten the man's upper body to pieces, and he was already dead. But my mother had also been chopped beyond recognition, and even I couldn't recognize her."
At this point, Mattie could no longer hold back, and tears began to fall.
Brandy now regrets very much that he let the little girl uncover the scars in his soul just to satisfy his curiosity. He wanted to raise his hand to help the girl wipe away her tears, but as long as his outer right hand moved, the wound would be affected, so he I could only say with guilt: "Sorry, Mattie, I shouldn't have let you talk about this."
"It's okay, Mr. Munny," Mattie took out a handkerchief to wipe away her tears and said with a forced smile, "it's good to talk more. My mother said, tell others about the death of your loved ones, and you can think about it later. , it won’t be too sad.”
Brandi wanted to say something else, but found that she couldn't say anything, so she had to give up.
"Oh, by the way," Mattie seemed to have remembered something, stood up and said, "Dr. Calloway and Pastor Swanson are very concerned about your injury. Now that you are awake, I am going to tell them."
After saying that, Mattie immediately ran into her room to change clothes. Before going out, she poked her head in and said, "By the way, Mr. Munny, my home is near Chadwick Farm, very close to Valentine." "It's close. If you feel your injury is better in the future, it will be very convenient if you want to go out for a walk." After that, he closed the door to the room.
Brandi sighed slightly, turned her head and looked out the window, questioning her decision and feeling extremely guilty for the first time.
"If I had taken the initiative to deliver myself into the hands of those cultists and O'Drisco, this town might not have suffered such a disaster, right?" He couldn't help but think while listening to the sweet birdsong outside the window.
And when he thought like this, another voice immediately sounded in his heart: "Brandy, what are you thinking? You should know very well that compromising to extreme evil will not end well. Think about it, even if you hand yourself over Will O'Drisco, who possesses machine guns and artillery, and the "seventh generation" sect who have gathered more than a hundred cultists who only know blind obedience and killing, and whose doctrine is to cleanse the world, let Valentine go? "
"But," the softer part of Brandi's heart retorted, "even so, if I had handed myself over, wouldn't things have gotten to this level?"
"Are you sure? How sure are you that they won't massacre this town?" Another Brandy's rational and cold voice said, "Remember, Brandy, since you are in this country and this era, then , all the soft-heartedness and compromises that should not be had are absolutely not allowed. When you feel that you have done something that seems irreversible and irreparable, it will not help to look back and regret it. This kind of mentality will even affect you in the future. Make the right decision, understand?”
"I understand what you mean, but..."
"Nothing but," said the rational voice, "remember what I said, in order for us to survive in this era, we should not be benevolent as women."
Just as Brandi was in the middle of a war between heaven and man, and had begun to see the light, the door to the room was opened again, and Pastor Swanson and Mattie, who had messy hair and sunken eyes but looked extremely excited, walked into the room.
When Pastor Swanson saw Brandy, he let out a joyful laugh that was slightly broken due to excessive excitement: "Haha, Brandy! You finally woke up. I thought you had to sleep for a few more days. !」
"Yeah, thank God I woke up," Brandi smiled slightly and said, "Your mental state doesn't look normal. What's going on?"
"Oh, it's okay. It's just that I haven't slept much recently, and my days and nights are a bit reversed." Pastor Swanson smiled and said, "There are too many wounded people in Valentine, and Dutch asked me to help the doctors in the clinic. We also called some of our girls to help, but in fact, we were still too busy. After all, Dr. Calloway and I were the only ones who knew medical skills.
People can only do a little bit, and the burden they can reduce is really limited. "
At this point, Pastor Swanson said to Marty, who served him a cup of steaming coffee: "By the way, Miss Rose, Brandy and I may have to talk about some more personal topics, so if possible, why not How about you go and make the medicinal soup we just prepared at the clinic?"
Mattie smiled slightly, nodded obediently, turned and left the room, and closed the door very considerately.
"A very nice little girl, isn't she?" Brandy said as she watched Mattie leave.
"It's very good, so good that I can hardly tell that this is a little girl who looks to be in her early ten years," Pastor Swanson said with some compassion. "It's hard to imagine what kind of experience it took to create such a beautiful girl." Such a sensible child, oh, God bless her."
"Okay, Pastor," Brandy interrupted Swanson and said, "Tell me, what's going on with Valentine now?"
"Valentine is in chaos right now," Swanson said. "The battle five days ago that was enough to call it a war set off a thousand waves. In just these five days, the bailiffs, the governor, and even the United States The Army sent a company to investigate the situation. The bailiffs and the governor only came to understand the situation, inspect and express condolences. The U.S. Army company helped clean up the wreckage of the train and the bombed houses in the town, and also helped bury them. The townspeople who died in this battle cremated the bodies of the cultists and O'Drisco, but the subsequent reconstruction work still has to be left to the people who are still alive in this town."
"Is it just that?" Brandi was a little confused. "Didn't this incident alarm Detective Pinkerton and Cornwall? After all, this is a big case, and Mr. Cornwall indirectly provided a huge contribution to this defense battle. There’s help.”
"Pinkerton came, but nothing happened," Swanson recalled. "That afternoon, a thin man and a fat man from the Pinkerton Detective Agency came to town and met with the police who were organizing an outdoor meeting. Sergeant Malloy, who was working as a police officer, briefly chatted for a few words and then left. I don’t know what we talked about specifically, but what can we talk about in a chat that lasted less than five minutes?”
"Haha, according to Pinkerton's level of detective, if you ask targeted questions, five minutes is enough to find out all the details of our gang." Brandi thought.
"What about the gang?" Brandi asked, "Is everyone still in town?"
"Dutch sent someone to bring me, Abigail and Mrs. Adler to the town, and left immediately. Hosea told him that such a big thing happened, and such famous wanted criminals as them were in the town. It is extremely dangerous to stay on the road, and I think Dutch himself should also understand this, because before he left, he told the Sheriff not to tell others under any circumstances that there was a group of foreign cowboys who played an important role in this battle," Si Pastor Wangson took a sip of coffee and said, "Originally, they planned to use a carriage to pull you back. If it weren't for Dr. Calloway and I's efforts to stop it, and little Mattie's volunteering, you wouldn't have a roof now. Enjoy the blessing of a warm bed in your own residence."
"Yes, I really should thank you," Brandi smiled slightly and asked, "Speaking of which, how is my injury? I only know that I was shot once, but where exactly was it, who shot it, and how long will it take to heal? Recovery, I don’t even count these.”
"Of course you can't count, remember? You just woke up more than half an hour ago," Swanson joked. "Speaking of your injuries, you are really lucky. You were injured by Odris The sniper from the Branch Gang took a shot. Fortunately, they were all half-hearted. Otherwise, the one who got shot would have been your head. In that case, you would have had no choice but to go see God. Speaking of which, that shot did hit you. The torso was still a penetrating wound, but the bullet actually avoided all the organs in your body. Because of this, we were able to save you. Now, since you are awake, you are out of danger, so don’t worry too much. It’s just that a penetrating gunshot wound like this will definitely take some time to recover. The specific time depends on your own recovery ability.”
"Ha, I don't have much confidence in this aspect." Feeling the pain from the right side of her body, Brandi said with a wry smile.
Swanson said with some disdain: "At first glance, it looks like a young chick who was shot for the first time. She lacks
Experience, you don’t know how many bullets I have taken out for the boys in the gang. Which one of them will be alive and kicking in a short time? As for John, you are one of the people who rescued him. You know best how injured he is, but what about now? I can already go to the fields and help with simple chores in the camp. "
Brandi smiled and said nothing, thinking: "Can I compete with those two iron men, Arthur and John? I guess with gunshot wounds like mine, they wouldn't even be able to say a word if they were hit two or three times at a time. One sound."
"Anyway, you can have fun under these conditions. Don't forget that other members of our gang are still living in the open," Swanson said with a slightly lewd smile and said, "Moreover, There is also a pretty little girl taking care of you. With this condition, I wish it was me lying on this bed now."
"Aha, yes, you old beast," Brandy said mercilessly, "just like when you were in the monastery and those little boys who looked like porcelain dolls waited on you?"
Pastor Swanson's expression immediately became serious: "Don't talk nonsense. Although I am drunk, lustful, and even took drugs, I have never done this kind of thing."
Brandy smiled casually and said, "Just kidding, why are you nervous?"
"Nonsense, any clergyman who is humiliated like this would be doing you a favor if he didn't call you blasphemous directly," Pastor Swanson stood up and said, "Anyway, you have a good rest. The clinic is very busy, so I will I will stay soon. The decoction was provided by Dr. Calloway. It should be taken three times a day. It is best to take it on an empty stomach. After two days when the news subsides, I will send the news back to the gang and everyone will come to see you."
"Thank you, pastor," Brandy said, not believing in religion, but crossing herself on her chest in a decent manner, "thank you for everything you have done, and may the Lord bless you."
As a pastor who hangs out with gangs all the time, Swanson is indeed different from ordinary pastors. Hearing Brandy's heartfelt words, he was stunned for a moment, obviously not expecting Brandy to do this, but soon, he He said in a scornful tone that should not belong to a pastor: "You'd better pray that the bullets will avoid you next time, you unlucky boy." After saying that, he turned around and left.
Brandy turned his eyes to the window again. The sun was shining brightly outside, the birds were singing and the flowers were fragrant. In the distance, he could hear some noise in the nearby town of Valentine. Although he didn't know why it started, it always gave him a sense of prosperity and positivity.
As for the reason, it may be because he feels much better now.
