Arc shifted the rumbling pickup truck into first gear and screeched off, following the man who took Jack. He shifted up through the gears as he steered his way through Pembroke, honking the horn and alerting the townsfolk. With the amount of blood smeared on the windshield, if they didn’t get clear of the road then Arc was going to mow them down.

  “Move!” he yelled at the top of his lungs, swerving out of the way as an old lady narrowly avoided becoming roadkill.

  “He took Jack?” screamed Julie from the cargo bed as she clung to the sides to avoid being thrown from the vehicle during the sharp turn.

  “What in the—” called Arc, briefly looking over his shoulder. “Get out of here. You aren’t coming with me!”

  “No way. He’s my brother!”

  “It’s a trap and we’re driving straight into it! I want to get him out good and quick.”

  “I don’t care!”

  Arc didn’t have time to argue with her. He caught glimpses of the pickup truck through the alleyways and knew that he was gaining on it. It was driving quickly, but not with the same breakneck ferocity that Arc was driving with. That meant that the bandit wasn’t yet aware that he was being followed.

  The spellslinger burst into the town square, driving straight through the crowd who immediately scattered. As far as they were concerned, a raging madman was going on a rampage. All the while, Arc strained to see where he was going, but he was confident he had managed to avoid running over anyone. Sadly, the same could not be said for the stalls and Arc clipped the corners of two of them, collapsing them as he pursued his target.

  Emerging from the town square, the spellslinger slammed on the brakes, turning a corner before speeding up, and accelerated along the road out of town. His quarry came into clear view as the last of the buildings disappeared. He knew that with only one bandit up front, all he needed was a well-aimed Arcane Shot and the driver was a goner, leaving him free to grab Jack. Once he brought the twins to safety, he would patrol this road until he found where Colt was hiding. The bandit leader was going to pay. Any actions taken by his men, he was responsible for.

  “Julie. Now is not the time!” called Arc as Julie crawled along the cargo bed and slung herself through the open back window to sit in the passenger seat.

  “I don’t care,” she said. She leaned forward, placed her hands on the dashboard, and watched the vehicle carrying her brother through unblinking eyes.

  “Keep yourself low and out of sight.”

  “Why would he take Jack?” Julie asked, ducking down so that she could only just about see out of the windshield. Luckily for her, there was only a smattering of blood on this side and her vision was unobscured.

  “To get my attention. I suspect word got out that I’m still alive and blew up one of Colt’s outposts. His opinion of me must have soured with all of the explosions and assassinations.”

  “But why Jack?”

  “No doubt the rat saw that you two were with me when I tackled you to the ground. That cretinous minion thought it would be a smart move to kidnap your brother? Well, he’s about to find out that that was the stupidest thing he could have done. It will cost him dearly and I’ll make sure that he pays the fine, don’t you worry about that.”

  Arc was gaining on his prey, who still hadn’t realised that he was being followed, but that wouldn’t last for much longer. The spellslinger would make sure that the last thing Jack’s kidnapper saw was a glowing Arcane Shot filled with righteous fury, right before it turned his head into a rainfall of brain, blood, and bone, leaving his corpse as food for the ravenous coyotes and vultures.

  The bounty hunter’s tyres ripped the sand and dust from the road, turning it into a cloud that coned out behind the truck. All the while, the engine roared louder and louder, finally alerting the bandit who glanced over his shoulder in panic.

  “I’m coming for you, you rat,” said Arc, as the driver sped up.

  “He’s getting away!” cried Julie.

  “Take the wheel,” said Arc, keeping his foot on the accelerator and grabbing his spellcaster.

  “I don’t know how to drive,” said Julie, grasping the side of the wheel in two hands as Arc leaned out the side window and took aim at the bandit.

  “You don’t need to,” said Arc, trying to aim. “Just make sure we don’t crash.”

  The bandit was proving slippery and driving erratically to make things as difficult as possible. He knew that Arc wouldn’t risk shooting the car and blowing it up as he had delightedly done the last time they had met. He wouldn’t risk hurting the boy knocked out in the back.

  As Arc was on the verge of pressing the trigger, his hijacked truck swerved and he clutched the door to save himself from falling out. “Careful!” he yelled at Julie.

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  “I’m sorry,” she wailed, trying to see through the bloody smear. Her arms weren’t long enough to hold the wheel properly while still seeing out of her own side of the windshield. “Do you see Jack?”

  “I see him alright,” said Arc. Jack’s blue jacket and floppy brown hair were clearly visible in the back of the truck. “Damn!”

  Arc ducked inside as bullets whizzed past, clinking off the side of the truck. The bandit was shooting at them but at the cost of speed. His car slowed down and he veered off the road, giving Arc and Julie the chance to close the distance.

  “Almost there,” said Arc, leaning out of the window and aiming his spellcaster once again.

  The bandit started pulling away and Arc slammed his foot on the pedal, desperate to close the gap a few yards more, but it was no use. The truck was slowing down as the bandit tore along the road, making his escape. It wasn’t long before he was much too far out of range for the Arcane Shot to seek its mark and Arc and Julie had slowed to a halt.

  “What…what happened?” asked Julie, looking at her trembling hands as they remained clutching the steering wheel.

  “We’re out of fuel,” said Arc, smashing his fist against the dashboard where a red arrow pointed to the letter E. “How in the hell were they supposed to get back to base with so little diesel left? Ridiculous!”

  Arc turned around and looked in the cargo bed, hoping he’d find a canister or tank of some sort that he could use to refuel, but the only thing that caught his eye was a bullet hole in the side. His eyes widened and he would have sworn his heart had briefly stopped pumping blood around his body for a split second.

  The bounty hunter threw open the door and jumped onto the ground with a thud before pivoting to look at the side of the truck. He dropped his spellcaster, which clinked onto the dirt, and he fell to his knees in despair.

  “The bandit only just hit the car, there’s no way it would be empty…already…”

  Arc gasped in horror. It wasn’t the bandits’ fault that there was no fuel left; it was his. He fell back onto the road and stared at the sky. He couldn’t believe how close he was to rescuing Jack only for the bandit to escape due to Arc’s own mistake.

  “I hit the fuel tank,” he said under his breath, putting a hand to his forehead. “When I shot at the men in Pembroke, I hit the damn fuel tank!”

  Julie climbed over her seat and into the bed before vaulting over the side to land beside Arc. She looked at the holes in the side of the vehicle and followed a wet trail with her eyes that led along the road and back towards the town.

  “I…I’m so sorry,” muttered Arc, looking to Julie who was welling up. “I don’t know what else to say, Julie, but…I’m sorry.”

  Tears rolled down Julie’s cheeks as she mouthed words so quietly that Arc couldn’t hear her.

  “What?” he asked, not wanting to make light of the horrible situation as he so often would.

  “It’s not your fault,” she said, still softly, but audibly.

  Arc climbed to his feet and grabbed onto the edge of the truck, letting his head slump and hit the dented metal. He stood up again and thumped the car before throwing the trail of his scarf over his shoulder, picking up his golden gun and looking down the road.

  “It’s not over,” he said.

  “What?” asked Julie weakly.

  “Colt wants me to find him,” said the bounty hunter. “And that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

  Julie grabbed onto the back of Arc’s brown leather jacket. “I’m coming too,” she said breathlessly.

  “No,” said Arc sternly. “You head back to town. It shouldn’t take you long to get there and you can wait with Jamison. I’m sure he won’t mind if you explain the situation to him.”

  Julie grabbed Arc’s wrist as he tried to pull away. “I said, I’m coming too!” she shouted.

  “No.”

  “Jack is my brother and, as much of a pain as he can be, he’s all I’ve got left. I want…no, I need to make sure that he’s safe. He would do the same for me and you know it. He wouldn’t take no for an answer, would he?”

  “Julie…”

  “Arc,” she said, her green eyes piercing through him. “If you die trying to spring him from Colt, then he’s dead anyway. And I won’t ever find his body to give him a proper burial. I’m coming and doing whatever I can to help rescue him.”

  Arc took a deep breath and looked to the sun resting in the blue sky above before lowering his gaze back down. He couldn’t believe he was even considering it. After the mess in Purdue, he had vowed to himself to try and steer Jack and Julie as far away from danger as he could. Sadly, the danger had come to him, as it often did.

  “Fine,” he said reluctantly, “but there are conditions.”

  Julie nodded. “Just tell me what they are,” she said quietly.

  Arc could not believe he was relenting. “You do exactly as I say whenever I say it. There can be no room for fear or doubt and especially no room for hesitation.”

  “Yes.”

  “We’re going to be walking in and causing mass death. If we don’t, we’re the ones dead.”

  “Yes.”

  “And you’re not just saying that, right? You’re sure you can handle that?”

  “Yes,” said Julie defiantly, clutching a hand to her chest. “I can handle that.”

  Arc looked around, making sure that the loud vehicles and the gunshots hadn’t attracted any animals or monsters. He walked to the far side of the pickup truck and checked the surroundings carefully before walking back over to Julie.

  “There’s one thing we need for you and we may need to head back into town to get it,” muttered Arc, scratching his growing blonde stubble.

  He was keenly aware he needed to shave and had planned to do it before lunchtime, but that plan was scuppered. Another crime Colt and his men would pay dearly for.

  “What do we need?” asked Julie with trepidation.

  “We need…hmm,” said Arc, raising an eyebrow and looking towards the pickup truck. He had an inkling and he squinted as he stared through the driver’s side window.

  “Please, just tell me,” sighed Julie despondently. “You have this bad habit of not finishing a thought before acting on it, Arc. This really isn’t the time for that.”

  Arc walked around to the passenger side of the car, threw open the door, and wrenched open the glove compartment.

  “Beautiful,” he said.

  A faint smile crept across his face as he lifted out a 9mm handgun and a spare magazine, filled to capacity with ammunition. This was exactly what he had been hoping for and there were more bullets than he had expected. He snatched up both the gun and the magazine and walked back around the car, tossing them to Julie.

  “A gun?” she asked as she caught them.

  “That’s right,” said Arc. “Have you ever used one before?”

  “No,” she replied. She held her new toys out and ran her eyes over them.

  “Well, no time like the present. You’re a smart girl and a quick learner, so I need you to pay attention.”

  “Understood,” said Julie, not moving her fingers in case she accidentally shot the weapon. Not a single digit was within an inch of the trigger, yet she was still worried.

  “You’ll be fine,” said Arc, sensing her anxiousness.

  “Yes, I will,” said Julie, sounding more confident than she felt.

  “Lesson one,” said Arc, pointing to the weapon. “Safety.”