While Deacon helped Dwayne get back to his feet, Lee wasted no time looting the corpses for ammo and weapons.
"Well, at least I was able to recover the ammo i just spent." She said as she collected their revolvers and holsters so she can stow them away on her body. Through her searches she managed to find an unopened pack of cigarettes. She immediately ripped the packaging open and lit one, taking a much needed, and well-earned drag. As the nicotine calmed her down, it was then that she remembered that she never thanked her rescuer. She turned around and saw Deacon dusting Dwayne off, and she couldn't help but smile. "Thank you for helping me, Deacon." she said plainly. She couldn't really get a read on his intentions, but at the very least he seemed sincere.
Deacon paused his dusting and just looked back at her with a big smile. As weary of strangers Lee tries to be, she couldn't help but trust that smile of his. "Of course!" Deacon said cheerfully. "Miss...uh.."
"Call me Lee."
"Well, Lee. What's the plan?" Deacon asked.
Lee just began checking the ammo on all the guns she collected. "I dunno, save my men? Don't die trying?" Lee replied. In truth she didn't know how exactly she was going to accomplish this. But with the Rangers now on her tail, there was no time to formulate a plan. All she could do is trust her own battle tested instincts, and perhaps the unusual strength of this stranger.
"Sounds good enough for me." Deacon said as he balled his hand into a fist and slammed it into his opposite palm.
"Wait." Dwayne interrupted. "Those aren't actually Rangers, I think an outlaw gang may have infiltrated the base."
"Are you sure?" Lee asked as she grabbed Dwayne by his shirt and pulled him closer. "Because I was fully willing to commit treason right now." And she meant it too.
Dwayne could only gulp nervously as he saw the intensity in her eyes. "I'm positive. The Rangers aren't your enemy. There are at least a dozen actual Ranger recruits in the city that arrived with Deacon and I. Let me try to rally them. We can give you two backup."
Lee looked over to Deacon, who just shrugged cluelessly. "Do whatever you want, but dont expect me to wait for yall to work up the nerve," She said stoicly as she let go of Dwayne's shirt. "You coming, Deacon?" Lee asked as she began to walk towards the fort.
"Right behind ya." Deacon said cheerfully as he marched in sync besides her.
Dwayne watched in silence as the pair walked off. Worried as he was about the situation, he knew Deacon was strong and competent, and Lee sure as hell carried herself like she was. All he could do was have faith in their abilities. "I promise you both, I'll do my part."
Deacon and Lee set off through the main dirt road. Fort Tuskegee's town was organized like many other towns in the West. A main street between two opposing rows of houses, shops, saloons, and merchant stalls all lined up uniformly in parallel lines. As the two approached the main street to the Fort, they immediately noticed the townspeople were fleeing into their homes or into buildings. At least three squads worth of would-be Rangers began patrolling the streets and searching through the crowd while also going door to door. Trying to root out the fugitive and the intruder.
"Damn. There's a lot of em." Lee said as she aimed a rifle at their general direction. If she were to start opening fire, they could easily get overwhelmed.
"Nah its not that many." Deacon shrugged. "We could take em."
"Well aren't you a confident one." Lee said with a raised eyebrow. She did witness him destroy an entire gallows by himself. "Think you can make me a distraction?"
Deacon smiled with gritted teeth and hard eyebrows. "One distraction, coming up."
Lee went to hand him a pistol but Deacon just raised his hand and rejected it. "Don't need it." he said.
Deacon ran up to a nearby watermelon cart and with a spin, lifted it off its wheels and lobbed it at a Ranger several feet away. The cart crashed into him and took him out instantly. While the commotion startled the nearby rangers, Deacon sprinted over to the next Ranger and ran his face through with his fist, putting him to sleep instantly. As two nearby Rangers lifted their rifles to open fire, Deacon was faster and grabbed two watermelons, beaming the watermelons into their faces so hard, the fruits exploded on impact. Two shots from the opposite side of the street hit the cart next to Deacon, making him run for cover behind it. As two rangers emptied their guns to the cover, splintering the wood, Deacon decided to lift it up again and approach his assailants. The cart absorbed every desperate shot before Deacon dumped the cart on top of both shooters and they collapsed under its weight.
"Okay, not bad cowboy." Lee said, as Deacon's actions had definitely stolen the attention of the Rangers, who all focused on him.
Seeing her chance, Lee slipped into the back alleys and tried to navigate her way to the fort, hoping to find less resistance. Unfortunately as she made it halfway there, she was stopped by several rangers who seemed to have been lying in wait for her. They popped out of the back doors of houses with several occupying roofs of houses and balconies for their vantage points.
"Four on the ground, and three on high ground." Lee said to herself as her eyes scanned her surroundings, and she counted her opponents.
"Heheheh. We got ya, you Roughheaded bitch." One of the Rangers growled. "Drop the guns."
Lee was carrying two rifles, one on each hand, as well as the six revolvers she had holstered around her body. To feign compliance, she dropped the two rifles from her hands and they dropped to the ground.
"You guys fucked up." Lee said with a confident smile as a bead of sweat dripped from her forehead. "You guys really wasted time trying to look cool and call me a slur instead of shooting me on sight. Now you're all gonna die." In her mind these weren't people anymore, their faces or any distinct features had all blurred from her vision. As far as she was concerned, they were just targets to shoot.
"Pfft, you think we're scared of some roughhead?"
"You should be." Lee whispered menacingly.
Before they could even twitch, Lee had two revolvers unholstered. She aimed and shot both before anyone else could, while simultaneously dropping prone to the ground. The shots hitting two heads of the Rangers with the high ground. The returning fire of the Rangers whizzed past her head as she dropped onto the ground just in time to let out another shot, this one going through the head of the final Ranger with high ground. Lee used the momentum of the fall to roll her body sideways on the ground, evading returning fire as the bullets slammed into the dirt next to her. Now upside down, she lifted her two revolvers and let out a couple more shots. Her orientation causing no difference in her aim as the two shots burst through the skulls of two more rangers. Making the surviving one panic and rush to cover. Lee took this opportunity to launch herself back to her feet and burst through a door into a home for cover. Grabbing a rifle in the scramble.
"Holy shit!" the surviving ranger yelled as he ducked his head as low as he could. "I need backup over here!"
With bullets flying past her, but safely in cover, Lee took this moment to pull out a cigarette and take a quick drag. She then peeked out the window and saw four more rangers rushing over from the main street to provide support. Unfortunately for them, they were all lined up. Lee raised her rifle and let out a shot that cracked through the skulls of all four Rangers like a hot knife through butter.
"You idiots!" the survivor yelled. "Surround her!"
Lee panted heavily and wiped sweat off her face as she steeled herself. She peeked out the window again and saw the surviving Ranger with three others, they just kept coming. They must've learned their lesson as they spread out and slowly approached the house she was in. Before she could react, they all opened fire to suppress her. All she could do is drop prone and cover her head as bullets whizzed past her and destroyed everything in their path.
Before the Rangers could close in on the house, a lasso wrapped around one of their waists and they were pulled into the strong grip of Deacon, who held the Ranger in a chokehold as the other rangers turned around to aim there weapons at him.
"Come now, you don't wanna shoot your buddy right?" Deacon bargained as he held the Ranger in front of him as a human shield.
"Fuck him." one of the rangers said as he started opening fire with the others.
"Damn, sorry, I didn't think they'd shoot." Deacon apologized before spreading the ranger out in front of him to block the incoming fire.
Lee saw that her assailants all had their backs turned and began fishing for headshots again. One of the Ranger's heads exploded, causing the rest to panic. Deacon threw his human shield like a missile at one of the Rangers and the two collided with each other, knocking them out, as Lee cleaned the rest out with headshots.
"Oh I forgot to tell ya." Deacon said as he regrouped with Lee. "They have bulletproof bandanas under their clothes."
"Oh?" Lee said casually, as she put bullets into the skulls of the unconscious Rangers. "I hadn't noticed."