Category: Writings
Every now and then I get the urge to write something. Check out my dabblings here.
Agents of the Vault – Part 23
Part 23 of The Agents of the Vault is here! The final shootout on the streets of Trinity.
If you want to subscribe to the Grantcast, you can do so with iTunes, or by using this feed in your favorite podcatcher. Enjoy! And let me know what you think of the story in the comments here, as we go along.
Also, if you prefer a PDF version of this part to read, CLICK HERE for that.
Finally, if you’d like to support my projects, visit www.patreon.com/saturdaymorningmedia
Agents of the Vault
Part 23
By Grant Baciocco
The first shot Jane fired caught Grisom in the shoulder and spun him. As he spun, Charlie fired right over Grisom’s head in the direction of where the shot had come from. As Charlie ran along the front of the hotel, he spied some barrels across the street and Brenner’s hat sticking up behind them. He crossed his left hand under his right and fired a shot off in that direction. Brenner’s hat sailed off his head.
“Get him Charlie.” Grisom shouted indicating Brenner, and Charlie ran down the wooden porch of the hotel toward the corner.
Grisom was on his butt, back up against the front railing of the hotel’s front porch. He cocked both his guns, grimaced in the expectation of the pain that was about to rip through his body, and then kicked himself up in one motion to a standing position and fired off two shots in the direction where Jane had fired from. She answered back with a shot, all three shots went wild.
As Charlie made the end of the hotel and dashed around the corner, Brenner fired three shots. Each just missed Charlie as he ran, but he was able to make the corner and turn it. Once around he took a deep breath and then slid his back a little ways down the wall so he would be lower when he swung around to fire.
Already he could feel the heat of the fire from inside the hotel radiating through the wooden slats. The hotel would not provide much of a hiding place for long.
Inhaling, Charlie spun the corner, took aim near the barrels and when Brenner popped up, he fired. Two shots. One, from his left pistol, going wide and the other, from his right pistol, catching Brenner in the side, sending the Pinkerton stumbling back behind the barrels, still on his feet.
Charlie didn’t hesitate, he sprung from the corner and advanced on Brenner firing both guns. Brenner’s head jerked back as a bullet passed through it. The Pinkerton fell to the dusty ground, dead.
A gunshot rang out up the street from him and Charlie spun to see Grisom falling back to the dirt. As Grisom’s body fell, it revealed Jane standing in the street, her smoking gun still aimed at where Grisom had been standing. Without thinking, Charlie raised his guns and began advancing on Jane.
Jane pulled the hammer back on her pistols and aimed them at Charlie.
“Boy!” she yelled over the growing roar of the hotel fire which thrust the twilight on the prairie into light and shadows. “Don’t be stupid. Just turn around and walk away. You’ll live. That’s about as good a deal as anyone here is going to get today.”
Charlie ignored her, the smoke making his throat want to cough as he advanced through it towards the Pinkerton. He was within 5 yards of Grisom’s body and through his peripheral vision, he could see a large pool of blood growing underneath him.
Charlie felt rage build up in him and felt his finger tighten on the triggers of his pistols. A shot fired and Charlie froze. His mouth open, he looked down at the bloodstain that was quickly soaking through his shirt. He dropped to his knees in the street.
Jane, a slow smile spreading on her face, slowly began closing the distance between them. Charlie’s arms dropped to his sides as she approached.
“You can’t say I didn’t give you the chance, boy.” Jane growled. “Now I hope you see you should have taken it.”
“I can’t let you take the desk.” Charlie said, his breath coming heavier, the pain of being shot starting to fill his body. “Can’t let you take Doris.”
Jane smiled. The pistol in her right hand aimed directly at Charlie’s head. “I will get one, or both here today, you can count on that. Grisom can’t stop me any longer. And now, you can’t stop me.”
Charlie began to raise his right hand, but the pain was immense. Jane stood backed and kicked the guns out of his hands. Jane pulled back the hammer on her pistol.
“Just close your eyes kid, it’ll soon be over.” Jane’s finger squeezed on the trigger.
Right before the gun discharged, Jane heard a sound behind her. A high pitched whistled, suddenly joined by a second creating an eerie harmony. Jane spun, expecting to see Grisom, somehow, still alive, but saw that behind her in the street stood Doris and Pahaat. Before Jane could register that it was the prairie fires making the sound that had now drown everything else out, they both opened up their jaws and engulfed her in a solid column of fire, consuming her completely.
Charlie fell backwards as the fire engulfed his enemy, he was vaguely aware of her screams as she ran wildly from where she stood. Charlie looked upwards. The sky was black ink above him, smoke rising up into it from the hotel fire was being illuminated by Jane’s burning body. Though the smoke he could see the faintest star shining in the night sky and he focused on that, as his hand slowly moved to his pocket, inch by inch searching for the small glass vial of dirt that was there.
His fingers closed around the vial and his world went dark.
©2015 Grant Baciocco/Saturday Morning Media – www.SaturdayMorningMedia.com
100 Word Stories – Police Blotter – Reunited
Below is, yet another, 100 word story based on an item from the police blotter of my hometown of Burlingame, CA. I hope you like it. If you’d like to see all the past 100 word police blotter stories, you can do so by visiting here:
https://blog.mrgrant.com/category/writing/police-blotter/
Now, on to today’s story. As always, the link to the actual blotter is below the story. Enjoy!
Reunited
by Grant Baciocco
Josh took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I am sorry I ever left you. I, I just don’t know what I was thinking. I was foolish. I thought there’d be something better out there but there isn’t. There couldn’t be. There couldn’t be anything better than right now, right here surrounded by you. I can promise you, from the bottom of my heart, that I won’t leave again. I’ve even requested late check out just so we can stay lost in each other, here a little longer to just be together. I’m sorry and I’m so happy we are reunited.”
—
Agents of the Vault – Part 22
Part 22 of The Agents of the Vault is here! Grisom and Charlie realize the hotel is on fire!
If you want to subscribe to the Grantcast, you can do so with iTunes, or by using this feed in your favorite podcatcher. Enjoy! And let me know what you think of the story in the comments here, as we go along.
Also, if you prefer a PDF version of this part to read, CLICK HERE for that.
Finally, if you’d like to support my projects, visit www.patreon.com/saturdaymorningmedia
Agents of the Vault
Part 22
By Grant Baciocco
Both Charlie and Grisom had heard something come crashing into the kindling dry lobby room below them. They both reached for their guns. Grisom winced as he drew his and then again he attempted to lift himself up off the edge of the bed.
“You should sit.” Charlie chided, helping Grisom steady himself.
“If Jane ends me today, I’ll be on my feet when she does.” He said through grit teeth.
Both Charlie and Grisom kept their guns trained at the door, expecting Jane and her Pinketons to come busting through at any second. They both held their breath, fingers on their triggers and it wasn’t until they exhaled that Charlie made the discovery.
“Smoke.” He said, looking down at the whips of black smoke coming up through the thin floorboards under them.
“She’s burning us out.” Grisom said, looking around.
“How are we getting the trunk out?” Charlie asked, looking towards it.
“We don’t.” Grisom replied, grabbing spare bullets out of his bag at a great deal of pain that he tried to ignore.
Charlie stood dumbfounded. “It’ll burn.”
“It won’t.” Grisom said, stuffing the bullets into his pockets. “The trunk has enchantments on it. No harm will come to it. It can’t be opened, it can’t be burned. Let’s just hope it the desk survives the fall when this building burns and it falls to the ground floor.”
“There’s no way out of here but down the steps and out the front door, if it ain’t blocked by fire yet.” Charlie said, gripping his pistol tight.
“Then that’s the way we go out, I’ll go out first, draw their fire, you follow behind, but we going out one way and one way only.”
“How’s that?”
“Guns blazing.”
Charlie nodded and helped Grisom towards the door. Thick smoke was wafting up the stairwell. As they got to the top of it, they could see the fire was to the right of the stairs and they had a clean shot to the door.
Charlie smiled, “Let’s hope the stairs hold out otherwise, we might fall into the fire.”
Grisom smirked, “I think the real fire is waiting for us out on the street. The flames downstairs might be the easy way out.” Grisom pulled the handkerchief tied around his neck up over his face. Charlie followed suit.
Charlie helped Grisom down a step at a time. Both tried not to choke on the smoke as it filled their lungs. Blinking their eyes to keep them clear. When they’d reached the bottom step, Grisom took his arm from around Charlie.
“Okay kid.” Grisom said, “Let’s do this. On three.”
Charlie nodded.
“One.”
Charlie gripped his pistols in either hand.
“Two”
The heat from the fire in the room behind them grew, about to propel them out into the street.
“Three!”
Grisom was out the door and into the street. Charlie crossed the threshold of the hotel as he heard the gunshots begin. Unsure if it was Grisom’s or Jane’s gun that was firing, he raised his guns and stepped out on to the porch of the hotel.
©2015 Grant Baciocco/Saturday Morning Media – www.SaturdayMorningMedia.com
Agents of the Vault – Part 21
Part 21 of The Agents of the Vault is here! After the initial firefight, Jane regroups and plots her next move.
If you want to subscribe to the Grantcast, you can do so with iTunes, or by using this feed in your favorite podcatcher. Enjoy! And let me know what you think of the story in the comments here, as we go along.
Also, if you prefer a PDF version of this part to read, CLICK HERE for that.
Finally, if you’d like to support my projects, visit www.patreon.com/saturdaymorningmedia
Agents of the Vault
Part 21
By Grant Baciocco
Brenner had made his move towards the buildings when the shooting had begun. He had seen Morgan, who was behind the hotel building, fall dead when the shooting had started and rushed to help Jane whom he found taking shelter behind the general store. Jane was horseless, having been thrown in the confusion of the gunfight with Grisom. Brenner rode up, dismounted and crossed to her.
“You okay?” Brenner asked.
“Fine.” Jane replied. “I got a shot into Grisom though.”
“Is he dead?”
“I wouldn’t bet money on it.” Jane replied.
“They got Morgan, he’s dead at the back of the hotel.” Brenner said.
Jane didn’t reply, her eyes focused on the hotel.
After a minute of silence, Brenner spoke, “Where are they now?”
“Holed up in the hotel.”
“What’s the plan?”
Jane was silent for a minute. “We need to flush them out. Let’s burn the hotel.”
“But isn’t the trunk in there? And the prairie fire?”
“Yes. Grissom won’t let either burn. He’ll get them both out of the hotel. We’ll just hope to snag the prairie fire as it tries to escape the building. But I’m tired of waiting, this ends now.” Jane began rooting in her bag for a box of matches. “I hope we’ll get both, but at this point I’ll settle for just the trunk and Grisom dead. We have the other prairie fire, perhaps we can use it to lure the other one out.”
Jane grabbed one of the dried out tumbleweeds that had collected against the side of the general store and struck a match. A small flame ignited and she pressed the matchstick against the tumbleweed which caught quickly and began to burn. “Cover me,” she told Brenner and began to move from behind the hotel to the street. Brenner followed closely behind. He peered around the corner of the store and aimed his revolver up at the windows on the second floor of the hotel. There was no movement.
Jane sprinted across the street, leaping over Leland’s dead body. The tumbleweed in her hands almost completely engulfed in flames. She tossed the burning bush in through the front door of the hotel and ran back across the street to where Brenner was watching for any movement.
“You think the building will catch?” Brenner asked when she had returned.
“That building is drier than the tumbleweed. It’ll catch.” She unholstered her pistols and cocked them both. “Cross back around to the other side of the general store so you have a view of the front and far side of the hotel. Just in case they come leaping out the window.”
Brenner nodded and moved out behind the building. Jane watched the door with her eyes squinted. Soon enough, thick, black smoke began to roll out the door an up into the sky.
©2015 Grant Baciocco/Saturday Morning Media – www.SaturdayMorningMedia.com