Showdown in Pine Bluff: An Unwelcome Return

Continued from Chapter 3: Randolph Ranch

Chapter 4

By the time Edge and the girl had arrived back in Pine Bluff, the word was circulating that Hollow Men had been seen nearby. People were afraid. Edge could feel it in the air.

They walked into Gunderson’s store. The shop owner was standing in the middle of the mercantile, talking to three members of the town council. Together, they met the Rider with frowns and a foul mood. With his reinforcements at his back, Gunderson strode up to Edge, and poked his finger into the lawman’s chest.

“When we called for you, Mr. Wallace,” Gunderson sputtered, “we expected you to handle this situation with a little more professionalism. Instead, we get even more destruction, dead bodies, and those unholy nightmares terrorizing our town. There are questions, sir, and you need to have answers.” He was clearly angry at Edge, blaming him for the mass murder at the Randolph Ranch and the town’s most recent unsettling visitors.

“Now wait just one second, Eli,” Edge objected. Using the mayor’s familiar name caught him off guard and gave Edge the opportunity he needed to complete his rebuttal.

“What gives you the idea that the Hollow Men were with me? They were here before I ever arrived.

“Those beasts and their operators appear to be part of an authorized search and seizure action – but I have my doubts. Nobody uses monsters like that to do legal reclamation work. The question we should be asking is ‘Why are they here?’ and ‘What are they looking for?’”

Gunderson didn’t say anything. His pointed finger had curled back into his fist. He just stood there; his anger had turned to stony silence.

“What does this farm family have in common with Purdy Wilson or that girl that went missing or that lumber foreman … what’s his name?”

“Jim Murphy – everyone knows him as Big Murphy,” Gunderson interjected.

“Yeah, that’s it. Whatever happened to Big Murphy, and how are he and that girl connected to all this?” Edge asked. “And what about those bodies? Or the vagrants? We don’t actually know how many people are missing or what’s behind it all.

“There are quite a few unanswered questions, and we need to keep asking them if we want to find any answers and make sense of all this.”

“Are you sure they’re all connected?” Gunderson’s voice had taken on a curious pitch as he looked over the top of his spectacles.

Edge could sense Gunderson’s consternation and tried to explain: “Look, these Hollow Men don’t act on their own. They’re killing machines, that’s about all. Nobody really knows what drives them, who controls them, or why they even exist. It’s a mystery I’ve been working on for years.”

Of all the Riders of the Outland Plain, Edge probably had the most experience in dealing with the unexplained – and that included the Hollow Men. Assessing their current situation, though, he shared a theory that caught Gunderson by surprise.

“Quite frankly, this bunch of overseers didn’t impress me as criminal masterminds in the slightest. I think there must be someone else controlling them. Directing them.”

“If we can determine who’s behind what these savages are doing in Pine Bluff and what they hope to achieve, we’ll be able to confront them and bring this to an end.”

Edge’s reasoning seemed to break the tension and offer some hope to the community elders. They looked at each other with a sense of relief. Even though it was just the slightest sliver, Gunderson and his cronies could breathe again.

The mayor looked at the little girl. She was in shock – which would be understandable. “Come with me, Sarah, let’s have Mrs. Gunderson look at you,” he said to her. Taking her by the hand, the pair walked to the back of the store.

Before the two of them left the room, Edge mentioned one last thing: “Eli, it’s important to know that if these Hollow Men and their masters haven’t found what they’ve come looking for, they’re going to keep terrorizing parts of Pine Bluff and the surrounding area. It’s likely they’ll be here again tonight to keep searching – and that means more people will go missing or get killed.

“I’m here to help put an end to this problem, but we’re stronger if we work together.”

Gunderson locked his gaze on the Rider.

“Understood.”

He had no choice in the matter. Eli Gunderson had worked too hard to lose it all now. It appeared there was only one way to stop the killing and to get the Rider back on his bike and out of town.

To be continued in Chapter 5: Dawn before Death