Hell’s Horsemen

Not many people knew the true fate of the legendary Magnificent Seven.

****

We rode into the town of West Graves, California.

We’d received word that The Sammy’s Slingers Gang was heading in this direction.

We had stopped every gang in our path before. Today would be no different.

We were The Magnificent Seven.

We rode up to the saloon, our horses kicking up dust the entire time.

“Whoa, there,” I said and tugged on my horses reins.

I saw Daneil Griffith standing outside the saloon, leaning up against a hitching post, wearing overalls and a dirty white undershirt, with his hat on and a piece of buckwheat between his lips.

When he saw us, he ran inside. I assumed he was telling Sammy we were here.

Sure enough, Sammy came running out.

“Look who it is, boys. It’s Chris Larabee Adams and the magnificent babies,” Sammy said and chuckled.

“It’s The Magnificent Seven,” I said, teeth bared.

“That won’t matter in a minute… when you’re dead. Hey boys,” Sammy said and rifleman appeared on the roof.

We drew our guns but before we had a chance to fire, the rifleman shot us dead.

The last thing I remember was falling off my horse and my head slamming to the ground.

We woke up in a haze, surrounded by fire.

“Welcome to Hell, ha ha ha,” someone said. I looked over to my right, and there was a red eyed demon with long black horns and a pitchfork standing over us.

“Hell? No… there must be some mistake. We… we’re the good guys. We did everything right…” I explained.

“The good guys? Aren’t you Sammy? Leader of The Sammy’s Slingers Gang?” The demon asked.

“No. I’m Chris Larabee Adams, leader of The Magnificent Seven,” I said.

“I see. Come with me,” the demon said.

We slowly stood up, dusted ourselves off and followed the demon.

“Where are you taking us?” I asked.

“Managment. They’ll know what to do,” the demon said.

We stopped at a room with a bright read door and a name tag in the center that read ‘Lucifer.’

The demon knocked six times.

“Open,” a deep, grumbling voice from inside the room said.

The demon opened the door and there was a man in a fancy suit sitting at a desk.

The demon walked up to the man and whispered something in his ear.

“Thank you, Justin. That will be all,” the man said and snapped his fingers. A blaze of fire surrounded the demon named Justin and he disappeared.

“Gentleman, please, come in and have a seat,” the mysterious man said.

We entered his office and sat down.

“We’re not supposed to be here,” I said.

“I know, Chris. Justin informs me there’s been a mistake. It’s supposed to be Sammy and his gang down here. What happened? You guys were supposed to win the shootout,” the man said.

“Well, sir…” I started.

“Please, call me Lucifer. Just like the sign on the door says.”

“Ok, Lucifer. We barely had time to draw our guns,” I said.

“Well, I’ll tell you what. I’ll make a deal with you guys. I’ll send you guys back upstairs to stop The Sammy’s Slingers Gang, in return for trying out some new inventions I made,” Lucifer said.

“Sounds good. At least you’re not taking our souls,” I said and smiled.

“All in good time, my dear boy. Do we have a deal,” Lucifer said and smiled sinisterly.

“Shake on it,” I said, and we all shook hands with Lucifer. He then had us all sign a contract, which took us three hours to read. I still don’t know if I entirely understood everything that was written, and I didn’t believe Lucifer when he said there wasn’t a single damn lawyer in all of hell that could help us review the contract.

“Now, what’s this equipment you want us to test?” I asked.

“The first thing I’m going to give you guys is called a stun gun. Nobody on the western frontier has these. It shoots electrified wires at your target, which will incapacitate them,” Lucifer said.

“Electrified?” I asked. Lucifer rubbed his socks on the carpet and touched my face, giving it a shock.

“That’s electricity. Imagine that, but ten times as strong. That’s what’s in that stun gun,” Lucifer said.

“Incredible,” I said.

Lucifer handed one to each of us.

“The next thing I’m going to give you guys is called pepper spray. This will blind your opponent's,” Lucifer said.

We smiled as he handed one to each of us.

“The third and final item is something called infrared goggles. You put them on your eyes and you can sense heat, even through walls. It will let you see who’s on the other side before they see you. The goggles even have night vision,” Lucifer said and handed us each a pair of goggles.

“Thank you Lucifer. We appreciate the help,” I said.

“Damn straight you do. Now get the hell out of here and give Sammy and his gang my regards,” Lucifer said and snapped his fingers.

We were surrounded by fire, and the next thing I knew, we all again woke in a haze.

We stood up slowly.

I looked around to figure out where we were.

We were about a mile in a half outside the town where we found Sammy and his gang.

The sun was positioned differently. I estimated we had been sent back to three hours before we died judging by the suns position.

I checked my pockets and inside was the stun gun and pepper spray.

On top my head was the infrared goggles.

I felt my face, and it felt bonier then before. I looked at my men, and their faces looked like skulls.

“Lucifer must have wanted us to scare the crap out of Sammy and his loser gang,” I said, and we all laughed.

We got on our horses.

I shouted, “let’s ride,” and we were off.

When we got to the outskirts of town, we put the infrared goggles over our eyes.

We could see several heat signatures on the roof. Those must have been the rifleman that shot us.

“Let’s take out the rifleman now so Sammy can’t call for backup,” I said. We used our rifles to take care of all the rifleman on the roof tops.

Sammy and his gang came running out of the saloon they were hiding in and he whistled for his rooftop men.

“What the hell?” Sammy loudly asked when they didn’t show up.

“They’re on to us. Let’s come in from the other direction,” I said.

We circled around to the other side of town.

We waited until Sammy hid back inside the saloon. Thanks to our goggles, we knew exactly where he was sitting and who was with him.

Just like before, Daneil Griffith was standing outside the saloon, keeping guard.

But unlike before, we were able to sneak up behind him.

I stun gunned him, and while he lay convulsing on the ground, my man Jim pepper sprayed his face.

“This is fun,” I whispered.

I took out my pepper spray, kicked in the saloon door and told Sammy not to move.

“Reach for the sky,” I said.

“Or what… and what the hell is that in your hand?” Sammy asked. I sprayed him with pepper spray.

“Aaahhh, it burns. I can’t see. You lousy, no good, worthless son of a rat,” Sammy shouted.

“Nobody calls my mother a rat,” I said. We took out our stun guns and each one of us took turns zapping Sammy.

Then we tied him up, along with Daneil Griffith and the other members of his gang who were on the roof, tied them to the rear ends of our horses, and dragged them to city hall to collect our bounty.

We were rewarded handsomely.

While we were there, I saw a wanted poster.

Wanted: Calvera. Dead or alive. $500 reward.

“Boys, I have our next target,” I said and smiled.

We holstered our weapons and rode off into the sunset.