TWENTY-FOUR HOURS previously six riders draped in long dust coats guided their mounts into the outskirts of the fast growing settlement of Tuscan. Tuscan was a growing town on the verge of being regarded as a city. It had buildings of stone, cement and brick within its sprawling boundaries and a solitary bank. A bank which boasted to be the most secure in the territory and impossible to rob. To some men who had made a profession out of bank robbery, it was a tempting and boastful statement which they found impossible to either ignore or resist.
Many fledgling territories did not have prisons that were as large as the ominous bank which sat in the very center of Tuscan and its sheer dimensions was enough to deter the majority of potential bank robbers.
The majority, but not all.
For the most confident and determined of bank robbers would always believe that they were capable of achieving the impossible.
The Tuscan Bank was one of the numerous branches of the large Second National Bank Company and situated upon the banks of the Red River. It prided itself on being the fastest growing bank company in the newly developing states and territories beyond the infamous Pecos.
Nobody knew exactly how much hard cash nestled in the vaults of the Tuscan bank apart from its manager and his eastern employers, but however much it was, it was a lot.
A new day had broken as the six horsemen guided their mounts into the western side of town and slowly made their way in groups of two through the numerous side streets toward the very center of the impressive town square. Tuscan was like so many other similar towns which had suddenly emerged in the previous decade and prospered.
Its bank had grown from a simple wooden structure into an enormous red brick building during that decade as its citizens proudly displayed their success.
Newspapers ran daily adverts for the bank and told of its brand new construction methods and its impenetrable vault and its fortune in both gold and paper currency.
The advertisement might have increased the bank’s profits but it also informed every potential robber within a hundred-mile radius of its irresistible vault.
A vault which was crammed full to overflowing with money.
Throughout the numerous states and territories as well as the lawless regions which fringed them, there had been many gangs of outlaws who robbed both banks and the ever-expanding railroads. Yet one by one the gangs had fallen foul of the law and now resided in mostly unmarked graves in various cemeteries situated throughout the land. Yet there were a few who still plied their trade.
These gangs had grown far more dangerous than their fallen competitors and learned by the mistakes which had cost so many of their lives.
This was survival by any means. These were hardened men who left no witnesses in their wake. They followed a well-practiced routine which relied heavily on their weaponry.
Yet just like all men who choose to steal, they were guided by one solitary thing. They were driven by simple greed.
As birds started to awake and fly between the various buildings and trees which made up the outer limits of Tuscan, the determined Slim Hogan led his gang deeper into the prosperous settlement with one thought filling his greedy mind. He was going to rob the Tuscan bank in exactly the same fashion that he and his five followers had done a score of times before to other smaller banks.
The only difference was that this bank was very different to the all of the others which Hogan and his men had previously targeted.
They had never attempted to rob anything which remotely resembled the Tuscan bank. They had grown used to the far smaller wooden banks that posed no problem to heavily armed and determined robbers.
Neither Slim Hogan nor any of his five heavily armed men had ever faced anything to compare with the massive edifice they would soon encounter.
As Hogan rounded a corner with one of his expert gunmen at his side and entered the town square, he drew rein and gasped in a mixture of shock and reluctant admiration. Tanner Dale stopped his own horse beside Hogan’s and pushed his hat off his temple as he too stared at the massive structure.
He stared in awe.
‘That’s one hell of a big bank, Slim,’ Dale said as he rubbed his dust-caked face. ‘Mighty big.’
Reluctantly the leader of the gang started to nod in agreement with the statement. He glanced at the bank and swallowed hard.
‘Yeah.’ Hogan nodded and steadied his horse. His mind raced as it attempted to try and work out if his usual plan and tactics would work on such a huge physically solid bank.
At that very same moment Leo McCloud and Luther Bale entered the square from another side street. They too stopped their horses advances and stared at the bank as the morning sunshine started to move up its brickwork.
‘Are you sure that we can rob that bank, Slim?’ Dale asked as his eyes followed the numerous figures which moved around the large square. ‘We ain’t ever tried to hold up anything as big as that thing is.’
Slim Hogan knew that his saddle pal was right but also realized that they had ridden a long way to do just that. There was nothing which could deter the seasoned bank robber from his chosen course even though the bank appeared far larger in real life than it had done on paper.
‘I know, Tanner,’ Hogan mumbled thoughtfully as directly opposite the spot where they sat astride their mounts the last two remaining members of his gang emerged from another side street. ‘I’m thinking about it.’
‘Thinking about what, Slim?’
‘I’m thinking that all banks, no matter how big or small, are exactly the same,’ Hogan reasoned. ‘They all got doors and that’s all we need. A door to go in and leave by.’
Dale stared at Edris Kyle and Toby Jenner as they dismounted from their horses and tethered their long leathers to fancy cast iron hitching rails set outside another enormous building.
Tanner Dale was not nearly as confident as his leader. He leaned nearer the veteran bank robber.
‘This town has also got a lot of law officers,’ Dale warned. ‘I got me a feeling that it ain’t gonna take them very long to wonder what we’re all doing here.’
‘What time is it?’ Hogan asked from the corner of his mouth.
Dale checked his pocket watch. ‘Almost ten o’clock, Slim.’
Hogan threw his leg over his cantle, dismounted and secured his long leathers as he glanced up at the troubled Dale who remained atop his own horse.
‘We’re gonna do this exactly like I planned, Tanner.’ Hogan said in a long whisper. ‘Just because the bank is a lot larger than we figured don’t mean nothing. All banks can be robbed if those doing it got enough firepower.’
Tanner Dale nodded. ‘You’re right. All we gotta do is what we always do. That bank ain’t any different than the usual ones we have robbed. It’s just made of brick instead of wood.’
Slim Hogan dragged a scattergun from its saddle scabbard and hid it under his trail coat. His index finger curled around its large triggers as his narrowed eyes looked to McCloud and Bale and signaled them before turning his attention across the town square to Kyle and Jenner who were waiting for his instructions.
Hogan nodded at them.
Experience had taught the ruthless criminal to always keep mounted men out in the street to guard their horses and fire at anyone were became too curious. It was a common practice often called ‘clearing the street’. Hogan would then enter the targeted bank on foot with two more of his henchmen.
It was a system which had never failed him.
But as with all plans, they were vulnerable to fate moving its great hand. For fate was fickle and could take either side at a whim. The morning sun beat down mercilessly upon the large square as Hogan turned toward the bank.
With their dust coats concealing their secreted Winchesters, Kyle and Jenner suddenly began to walk toward the front of the large bank as Hogan crossed the street. Their timing was perfect so that they would reach the bank entrance at exactly the same moment.
Each of the three men watched as the banks guard opened the metal door and began to greet its awaiting customers. The outlaw leader heard Dale’s horse canter to his usual position in the middle of the street.
Each of the robbers had their own job to do.
They knew exactly where they had to be and what they were expected to do before Hogan entered the ominous bank. As the leader of the gang reached the boardwalk he was joined by Edris Kyle and Toby Jenner. Both men curled their fingers around their rifles concealed under their dust coats.
Hogan glanced around the square.
When satisfied that Bale, McCloud and Dale were in position astride their horses at various points around the large brick structure Hogan led Kyle and Jenner inside the Tuscan Bank.
To the determined Hogan this bank was no different to any other apart from its size. He eyed its interior with the same contempt that he had shown all of the others. As he ventured into the large foyer his hand gripped his hidden shotgun in readiness.
Jenner and Kyle fanned out from Hogan as they always did and studied the innards of the bank. They all varied in layout but were basically the same.
This was a well-oiled operation which they had repeated numerous times across various territories and fledgling states but this would be one time when things did not go exactly to plan.
When Hogan was satisfied that they were all in position he glanced at both his men in turn and gave a quick nod of his head.
That was the signal. The most-deadly of games had started.
The three lethal bank robbers quickly produced their hefty weaponry from beneath their long dust coats. The staff and patrons assembled within the confines of the marble floored foyer did not react the way Hogan and his men were used to folks acting when staring down the barrels of repeating rifles and a scattergun normally reacted.
Maybe it was because this large bank had security guards which gave them confidence. The bank had far more armed guards than Hogan or his two fellow outlaws had imagined.
Hogan aimed his shotgun at the vaulted ceiling and pulled on both his weapons triggers. The deafening eruption of the twin barreled scattergun sent it lethal buckshot skyward into the ornately decorated plaster.
Debris of every size cascaded down upon the men and females within the foyer. Hogan ejected both spent shells from his guns smoking chambers and swiftly reloaded.
‘Get down on the floor,’ he yelled at the banks startled customers. The fiery flash of his shotguns venom caught the attention of the people trapped in the interior of the bank. This time they did exactly as they were commanded even before the bank robbers voice had ceased echoing. Men and females fell upon the cold marble in unfamiliar terror.
Hogan waved the barrels of his shotgun at the open-mouthed bank tellers and pointed at a pile of canvas bags. He then snarled at them.
‘Fill up some bags with every damn cent you got in your cash drawers,’ he ordered.
No sooner had the tellers managed to get three canvas bags filled with banks notes from their cash drawers than three armed guards suddenly appeared from the back of the bank. The ear-splitting sound of Hogan’s shotgun had drawn them like moths to a flame.
The guards carried their repeating rifles at hip height and were firing into the heart of the foyer wildly. Hogan swung on his hips as he grabbed three of the cash filled bags and levelled his twin barreled weapon at the guards.
He unleashed the fury of his scattergun at the guards and watched as two blazing rods of hot buckshot ripped into them mercilessly. Before the bleeding guards had time to fall more equally well-armed guards appeared from another door behind his broad back.
The deafening crescendo of gunfire rocked the interior of the bank as hot lead cut across the foyer in search of its targets.
Hogan watched in horror as both Kyle and Jenner were hit by bullets from the guards smoking Winchesters. He dragged two more shotgun shells from his dust coat pocket and hastily reloaded his smoking weapon. The veteran bank robber raised his scattergun and blasted both its chambers at the guards.
The buckshot sprayed across the smoke filled foyer and found the inexperienced bank guards still gathered near the open door they had only just emerged from. Suddenly the marble wall behind them was splattered in crimson gore.
Blood and flesh was torn from their bodies as the guards felt the ferocity of the shotgun cartridges rip them to shreds.
Yet even as they started to crumple like a house of cards, two of the guards still managed to cock the mechanism of their rifles and keep firing.
A handful of female customers screamed out in terror as bullets ricocheted off its solid marble lined walls and went in every direction.
Totally startled, Hogan pulled back on his scattergun triggers sending buckshot back in reply. His brutal weaponry ripped mercilessly into the guards but not before he saw both Edris Kyle and Toby Jenner riddled with rifle bullets. Their dust coats were suddenly stained with a crimson gore as they staggered and fell on to the floor.
It was a gruesome sight only matched by the buckshot peppered bank guards as they eventually succumbed to Hogan’s brutal scattergun. Pools of blood spilled from the dead as Hogan quickly reloaded his weapon with two fresh shotgun cartridges and blasted his weapon at the remaining bank guards.
The guards were knocked backwards by the sudden impact of the massive shots. They crashed into the walls and left deathly scarlet trails down its marble surface.
Hogan balanced the canvas bags of his left shoulder as he always did and reloaded his weapon again as he started to step over the prostrate bodies on the reflective polished marble floor. Most of the bank employees were either dead or dying as Hogan felt the heat of more bullets pass within inches of him as he moved toward the large open door way and the dumbfounded guard stood out in the sunshine.
The guard situated by the large doors moved toward Hogan with his own rifle clutched in his hands. Before he had time to curl his finger around the weapons trigger, a blinding shot from one of the three horsemen in the street and hit the guard in his shoulder. The guard staggered as he watched Hogan racing toward him.
It would be the last thing the guard would ever see.
Hogan raised his scattergun and unleashed its two barrels of lethal buckshot. The bemused guard was lifted off his feet and fell on to the steps.
As Hogan ran back out into the sunlight the guards lifeless body rolled down to the street boardwalk. Hogan leapt over the stricken man and raced to where Tanner Dale held his awaiting horse. The gang leader thrust his rifle into its saddle scabbard as he heard the raised voices behind him grow louder as customers and another wounded guard followed him out into the sun-drenched street.
A few of the outraged bank customers were carrying guns and began blindly firing at the fleeing Hogan as he managed to mount his horse and swing it around.
Sensing that Hogan was in the direct line of fire, Luther Bale spurred and rode toward the bleeding guard and the shouting customers firing his .45 at them as Hogan tossed the canvas bags to Dale and then frantically grabbed his leathers and shouted at his men.
‘Let’s get out of here.’ Hogan screamed above the sound of the gunshots. The words echoed off the surrounding brick structures as the bank customers fired at the four mounted men in hysterical anger.
At exactly the same moment Bale made the mistake of riding between his cohorts and the guns of the outraged bank patrons. His body took most of the shots in his chest at point blank range. As blood splattered from countless bullet holes in the outlaw’s chest, the three remaining bank robbers spurred and thundered into a side street.
The six-shooter fell from Bale’s grip as he swayed upon his saddle and tumbled from his skittish mount. As the lifeless body crashed into the paved ground the mob descended upon it as though they could extract anything more than the life they had already extinguished.
No ravenous flock of hook-billed vultures could have appeared as frantic as the mob as they tore at the blood soaked corpse.
Amid the carnage that the good citizens were inflicting upon the lifeless body in their fury a handful of the Tuscan lawmen appeared on foot. The sight which greeted them came as a sickening shock. With the air in the town square still flavored with the scent of gun smoke, the sheriff and his deputies could only watch in stunned horror.
Complacency was something the lawmen had grown used to. Never in their wildest imaginings had any of them thought that outlaws would even consider attempting to rob their massive bank.
They had been proven wrong. For there were always some hardened bank robbers who were unafraid of giant buildings which were said to be impenetrable. To men cut from the same cloth as Slim Hogan and his gang, the grand Tuscan bank was merely a challenge.
A challenge which they had accepted.
With the sound of gunshots fading into the heat haze which drifted skyward mixed amid the acrid gun smoke, the well paid lawmen were confronted by the sight of their fellow citizens acting more like mad dogs than respectable members of Tuscan society.
The sheriff and his deputies had their own six-guns drawn but it was obvious that their living targets had already fled leaving only the dead in pools of blood.
The streets of Tuscan had not witnessed anything like the sight of the horsemen who thundered through its streets for more than a decade. Bank robberies had become a distant memory but suddenly in the space of a few minutes, the reality of the outside world had returned.
Slim Hogan led both McCloud and Dale through the large twisting streets at pace. The lethal outlaw had never lost any of his men before, but he had not stopped to find out if those who had fallen might still have a spark of life left in their bodies.
The seasoned bank robber did not have time to actually care for all he and his diminished gang were thinking of as they fled, was survival.
Hogan knew that what remained of his gang had to escape the sprawling settlement as quickly as possible. He whipped the shoulders of his charging mount with the tails of his loose leathers and led them toward a place they had spotted as they had ridden into Tuscan.
A place they believed they would not only shake off any posse who might chase them, but sanctuary. With each corner they guided their horses around, they noticed that the streets grew narrower and more akin to its poorer relatives scattered across the vast territory.
Like men desperately fleeing the bowels of Hell, the three horsemen galloped from the outskirts of Tuscan and headed at breakneck speed toward a massive forest. A forest which seemed to defy nature itself. It was vast and its trees covered an unknown number of hills in its dark imposing greenery.
It was only as they aimed their mounts at the forest that the three bank robbers became aware of it size. It seemed to stretch from horizon to horizon hiding a blackness beyond its tree trucks.
Hogan knew that forests were dangerous places where wild animals roamed in search of their next meal, but they were not as dangerous as the six-shooters of a posse intent on avenging the deaths of so many of their fellow townsfolk. Hogan glanced over the shoulder of his dust coat at the town behind their thundering mounts. So far they were not being pursued but he knew that soon the lawmen would gather a posse together and start after them. A posse who would have just one thought on their collective minds and that was to hang them.
Even towns like Tuscan preferred to stretch the necks of those who had broken its rules and looked behind its glittering façade and seen its dirty laundry.
The forest offered them safety, Hogan thought. A place where he and his fellow bank robbers might escape the wrath of the Tuscan law and their own brand of justice. The forest promised the chance of sanctuary.
Sanctuary which might just save their hides.
A million trees provided perfect cover for every living creature who entered its domain yet neither Slim Hogan nor his surviving henchmen knew that this particular forest held a secret which was far more dangerous than the avenging six-guns they were fleeing.
The straight tree trunks with their dark canopies pointed up at the blue cloudless heavens like countless accusing fingers seeking answers to questions which could never be answered.
Over countless generations, the unnamed forest had ever had few visitors for there was a trepidation of something very dangerous hidden within its depths. At least, that was what the tall stories implied. Yet there were some who either did not know or chose to ignore the gruesome stories which were as old as the forest itself.
Only the lost or the desperate ever ventured willingly into its eerie depths and not all of them ever returned after their foolhardy adventure. For there was a legend about this particular forest which had grown over the years into something which seemed beyond the realms of reality.
Yet like all similar legends, it was based on a truth.
It was said that the forest hid something. Something so unimaginable that most regarded it as a myth while others claimed that every tall story they had heard was actually true.
Hogan himself had heard many lurid tales of a forest which somehow managed to swallow up all those who dared enter a special place within its vastness. Yet the gang leader had no idea that this was the very forest behind all those stories.
The place which chilled the bones of almost everyone who had heard the many stories based upon it. Hogan led his followers through the increasingly dense forest with an urgency only those in peril could ever muster.
Hogan refused to slow his progress as his bloody spurs kept his horse moving at pace along the natural trails between the countless trees. The veteran outlaw knew from bitter experience that the law could and often was far more dangerous than the lawless men like himself.
Even though the sun was blazing outside the forest, it was quite dark amid the numerous trees within it. An eerie twilight pervaded the surrounding air which the trio of horsemen kept riding through. A half-light which was only fractured by occasional shafts of sunlight which managed to find a chink in the tree canopies armor.
This was a different world that Hogan, Dale and McCloud were riding through yet it did not slow their pace as they navigated its winding trails.
They had one collective thought between them. They wanted to escape from the posse that they had briefly spotted on their trail an hour before they had managed to enter the mysterious forested realm that covered untold scores of hills and valleys.
Whatever the truth actually was about the vast forest, Slim Hogan, Leo McCloud and Tanner Dale would discover soon enough as they forced their exhausted mounts further and further into the uncharted depths.
The three horsemen were too scared to stop. The sheer thought of the ropes which desired their throats was enough to spur them on up through the dense forest.
They had to continue on. No matter where they ended up had to be better than facing the sheriff and his posse for that would either get them shot or lynched. Neither prospect appealed to Hogan and his men as they drove their spurs deep into the flesh of their mounts. Escape or a safe haven somewhere within the sprawling forest was their goal. All three of the riders kept glancing back into the eerie light which filled the strange world they travelled through.
So far they had not spotted any signs of the Tuscan sheriff or his deputized posse but that did not mean that they were not on their trail. It did not mean that they were not still following the three surviving bank robbers.
Hogan could not shake the thought that the lawmen might know another route through the numerous trees and that was why they had not seen them trailing his small band.
Were they still trailing them? Maybe the lawmen knew of another route which might enable them to get ahead of Hogan and his men.
The chilling thought haunted the lead horseman.
Hogan and his comrades no longer were sure of what time of day it was. The eerie half-light never seemed to clear and hung before their eyes like a plague of cobwebs.
Fear now gripped them and refused to release its hold.
They drove their weary mounts further and further along the meandering trail deeper into unknown forest which mocked their attempts to see the sky which only a short time earlier had burned their hides like branding irons. Now there was no sky above them or it was totally obscured by the countless trees and their entwined foliage.
The rider’s horses stumbled as they attempted to continue on along the ever narrowing trails between the trees. The strange twilight which enveloped them seemed to have made them lose all track of time. Fear kept them moving ever onward between the trees at an insane pace. The dense canopy above the horsemen was so entangled that it cast a sickening hue throughout the forest. It tormented their senses but they had to keep moving in the belief that it might lead them to a place of safety.
A place their pursuers would never find.
A place where they could rest and gather their wits and rekindle their confidence. The bank hold-up had cost them dearly and that shock still haunted them. Three bags of cash at the cost of three of their cohorts was a hefty price they had not expected to pay.
Slim Hogan knew that they had to escape if they were to have any chance of surviving and the only way to do that was to keep forging on into the unknown terrain.
The wrath of the Tuscan lawmen would probably be far worse than anything any of the surviving horsemen had ever experienced in their collective lifetimes. In their fevered minds there simply was no alternative but to attempt to use the forested hills in their bid to flee retribution.
It was either that or die and none of them favored the second option. So they continued to ride on but none of the three had any idea where they were heading.
This place was unlike anywhere else they had ever ventured into and that troubled the hardened bank robbers. There was something unearthly about the woodland which they could not explain nor understand.
Yet as they spurred and whipped their exhausted horses they would soon discover that there was something far more dangerous secreted within the large forest than the pursuing posse behind them.
It was something which none of them could have imagined in their wildest nightmares. A place which would make the trail they were travelling along appear like a child’s playground. It is said that there is nothing more frightening than fear itself but soon they would discover that there was.
Oblivious to what horrors lay ahead, Hogan, McCloud and Dale rode on. Soon the long strides of their exhausted mounts would bring them to a place which was the basis of many of the strange tales Hogan had heard tell of.
The bank robbers steered their horses up through the entangled brush until they found a wide avenue which led to a spot within the forest that amazed all three outlaws.
A large shaft of bright sunlight filtered down from the tree canopies like a heavenly torch. What it illuminated glowed like a beacon and lured Hogan and his associates like moths to naked flames.
No horde of precious gems could have dazzled and shone so intently. Hogan shielded his eyes with a gloved hand as his fellow horsemen moved their mounts to either side of him. They too stared at the pulsating light as Hogan suddenly smiled.
‘If that’s what I think it is,’ he began. ‘We’re gonna be damn rich, boys.’
McCloud screwed up his eyes as he stared at the alluring light which lay at the base of the shaft of sunlight. He rubbed his face.
‘What you reckon it is, Slim?’ he asked. ‘Gold, silver, diamonds?’
Hogan grinned and tapped his spurs. ‘Let’s go find out.’