The Heroes of Buzzard's Bend, Part II

...But Mains just shrugged, then said, “Let’s go.” offered the wrists to his bandittos. Two of them led the man away, Diaz fumed more watching him go. Denied the chance to see him beg, denied the chance to drink his fear, he growled, “Find that redhead whore! Wake her up, and send her round here!” The next morning Diaz awoke, still unsettled by the affair, left the redhead there on the bed, surprised by a note of despair. Seeing the young woman sleeping… such a sight just troubled his mind, you could believe her innocent, but he knew all hearts were malign. That was what his life had taught him, since the days of his recent youth, when his whore mother had run off, and his father beaten him blue. There only was what you could take, the priests blathered nothing of sense, Mains had claimed that he came from God… what madness possessed broken men? But as he neared the window glass Diaz heard a low, buzzing sound, he pulled aside the muslin drapes, and saw something carpet the ground. A moving, humming, writhing mass, he saw the motion of their wings, locusts moving in a great swarm, the insects covered everything… It was a shocking sight to see, and more so when his men came in, “They’re eating the grass on the range, even all the kitchen gardens! “How will our people grow the food? How will all our cattle get fat?” Diaz frowned as he heard the news, they made quite a good point at that. They’d taken all the local herds when they’d taken over the town, still thin were they, worth no good coin, now their graze was razed to the ground! “There’s nothing we can do right now,” said Diaz, pouring some whiskey, “Besides, this town is worth much more then rustled cattle are to me.” The men did not look all that glad, but what other choice did remain? They settled in to wait them out, and could handle a little pain. But Diaz couldn’t help but think of the man Mains they had captured, one hell of a coincidence, suspicious men might be disturbed. Yet Diaz was not one of those, so just sighed, went about his day, until night came and a rancher’s fair daughter let him have his way. Again he woke, this time at night, saw his whore in the candle glow, the swell in her belly was quite plain, was it his bastard? He didn’t know. But he heard voices in the street, walked over and saw his own gang scratching themselves, cursing the world, took him a bit to understand... CONTINUES IN PART III.