Wild Western: Irwin Hampton #0

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TommytheHitman

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Bleach, February 22nd 1857

The town of Bleach was as dangerous and as toxic as its name suggested. Littering its dust covered streets was a large variety of waste, ranging from discarded barrels of rotting meat to the deceased bodies of anyone foolish enough to challenge the local gang that had claimed the town as its own. With any luck the bodies of the victims would be claimed by the time the sun rose, mostly by their friends and families. However if the deceased had no family or simply were too disfigured to recognize the bodies would be left out in the sun, rotting pieces of flesh that generated a stench similar to what their town had been named after.

No Caption Provided

I say, "had" because the town isn't actually called 'Bleach' anymore, in fact the town isn't even standing anymore, however at the moment that part is largely unimportant. It'll become important later however right now it doesn't matter. The reason why the place isn't called 'Bleach' anymore is largely due to the fact that one day.... the man known as Irwin Hampton decided to pay a visit to the godforsaken place.

The citizens of Bleach had been clearing their streets of blood when they'd first noticed the Black rider galloping towards them on horseback... or maybe not 'galloping' more like he was descending down upon them with the wrath of God riding with him. Upon noticing the Rider the townsfolk watched in silence until the man arrived before them. He was a large man, tall and burly, he was wearing a black trench coat with black pants and a brown duster hat sat atop his head. His horse, named the Unknown was a black, quarter horse with large beautiful brown eyes that seemed to understand every single detail that was going on.

"What can I do you for, youngster?" The local grocer, Meryl Freely asked as the Rider glared down from his horse. The man was silent as he pulled off his filthy hat and unfolded a piece of crumpled brown paper that had been within it.

"Ah'm lookin' for this man." The Rider mumbled before spitting upon the ground, Freely stared at the poster for a moment. It showed the face of a local gang member, Wanton Quimby. Freely hadn't known his name... he simply recognized a scar the boy had on the left side of his face. It was a bounty poster, with the reward for the bounty's death or capture being $200. Freely knew for a fact that the man and his gang were currently seated inside the town's saloon, he'd heard their drunken insults earlier while he was passing by on his way to work.

"No, sir." Freely said slowly. "Can't say that I have." The Rider pulled his hat back on and jumped down from his horse to the ground, kicking up a small cloud of dust.

"Really?" He asked. "Damn shame." He mumbled while tying Unknown to a nearby post designed just for that purpose. "Must've just missed 'em." It was at this point that Irwin Hampton smiled for the first time that day. Unfortunately it wasn't going to be the last. "Then ah I suppose you wouldn't mind if ah go git myself a drink from your local saloon?" He asked before spitting again. Freely opened his mouth to reply, however before he could even say another word, Irwin Hampton had pulled out his Colt Peacemaker and started to march towards the town's Saloon.

No Caption Provided

"Please, sir!" Freely protested before chasing after the Bounty Hunter. "I lied!" Hampton continued his march and arrived at the steps leading to the saloon's entrance. "I lied!" He yelled. "Please! We don't want no trouble in this town!" Hampton stopped and Freely smiled slightly. "We don't want any fighting in Bleach!"

Hampton stepped up to the saloon gate and prepared himself for the violence about to ensue.

"Don't worry." Hampton growled. "There ain't gonna be any." The saloon was fairly quiet, with only a few custodians inside, most of which were in the corners of the building trying to enjoy their drinks in peace, the bartender was busy cowering behind his stall and in the middle of the room sat six or seven of the most vile and disgusting vermin to ever walk the Earth. Murderers and rapists... some of the quickest shots in the West. The problem was that they were all drunk to the tops of their skulls.

"Wanton Quimby?" Hampton yelled, aiming his Colt at the brain of the man that most resembled the poster. Upon hearing him yell, the "man's" head turned in response.

"Ye-" Quimby started to say right before his skull exploded into a mess of red liquid.

BDANG!

The other gang members stared in shock as their friend's brains splattered onto their faces, several of them began to pull out their weapons to shoot at the unwanted intruder, however before they could even pull the triggers to their own weapons, Irwin Hampton pulled the trigger to his.

BDANG! BDANG! BDANG! BDANG!

4 more shots fired, 4 more dead gang members slumped to the ground, leaving only one last member wondering what the hell had just happened. He stared at Hampton, Hampton stared back at him... and the member reached for his weapon.

"Ah wouldn't recommend that." Irwin muttered, his gun aimed at the survivor's head. "See, ah got no desire to rifle through them filthy pockets and mess up mah suit... so I want you to pull out your friend's wallet... and in exchange ah'll let you go."

"Pl... please, sir." The bandit stammered as he raised his hands into the air. "I ain't got no desire to die."

"Then ah'd recommend you hurry the hell up!" Hampton snapped before nodding to Quimby's headless corpse. The bandit tossed the wallet over and Irwin smiled for the second time that day. "Appreciate it." He muttered.

BDANG!

"Problem is... ah hate bandits." He growled before pulling a couple of dollars from Quimby's wallet and tossing them over to the bartender. "You have mah apologies about the mess." Irwin told him.

"Th... there's something you should know, sir." The bartender said nervously, he seemed to be staring at the blood covering the floor before him. "The bandits were stayin' upstairs... and they brought somethin' with them."

Hampton's eye twitched with natural curiosity. The bartender passed him a key to the room and carefully the Bounty Hunter made his way up the stairs, he kept his weapon drawn as there was no guarantee that he'd killed all of the gang members. Silently he unlocked the door to the dimly lit room... and he was shocked by what he saw.

"Are... are you here to kill me?" The young girl chained to one of the beds asked. Hampton stared at her in surprise.. and of course when I say, "her", I really mean....

"He stared at me in surprise."

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batkevin74

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#2  Edited By batkevin74

@tommythehitman: Coolio. Now a geographical question where is Bleach?

Nice names: Meryl, Wanton, Irwin. Irwin strikes me as Han Solo with a mean streak mainly for this line (He growled before pulling a couple of dollars from Quimby's wallet and tossing them over to the bartender. "You have mah apologies about the mess.")

And the twist at the end. I look forward to seeing where you go with this

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#3  Edited By TommytheHitman

@batkevin74:

Bleach is in Utah territory.

Thanks! I usually have quite a lot of trouble with names... but for some reason they came really easily to me today... probably because I grew up reading a lot of Jonah Hex comics and the weird old names come more naturally to me then the modern names.

As for the Han Solo remark... he is a bit of a cocky ba$tard... however as you start to learn more about him you're going to realize that Irwin isn't really like Han Solo in the slightest.

Even though Han is completely amazing and I would love to write a character similar to him. Han's more likely to talk his way out of a situation while Irwin would just punch it.

I knew people were going to like that twist.

Thanks for reading!

Sorry about the mess.

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@tommythehitman: no worries. And you're about a month ahead of me, which isn't a problem at all just noting it

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dngn4774

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@tommythehitman: Read this the other day but forgot to leave a comment. To me it's sort of like Sharpshot meeting Daisy. I could be wrong, or I could be right about that dynamic, either way I'll just have to keep reading.

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ImpurestCheese

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@tommythehitman: Needs a little formatting, there were a few words that don't need to be capitalized, but other then that an interesting read

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TheAmazingImmortalMan

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I liked the story looking forward to reading more

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wildvine

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The bolding is distracting. At least no time skips this time.

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batkevin74

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@wildvine: Not a fan of the time skip to more the story along?

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wildvine

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@batkevin74:

Three hours later - two weeks ago - one month later - five hours ago.

If I have to take notes to keep up with what timeline we are currently in, then no. If it only skips forward, or only flashbacks occasionally, then fine. But not both in the same chapter.

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@theamazingimmortalman: Oh. Never mind. Lol. Thanks for the comment.

@wildvine

:)

No huge time skips for the foreseeable future. A flashback here and there but nothing TOO major.

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@tommythehitman:

You are a good writer Tommy. When I can keep up for the aforementioned reasons. Notes aside this was pretty good. Thought Hampton was the main guy, so nice perspective switch

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#14  Edited By TommytheHitman

@wildvine: Actually there is going to be a pretty major flashback in issue 2.

I have finished writing Issue 1 now. However I'm currently checking to see if it's actually any good or not as it seemed to leave a bad taste in my mouth upon finishing it.

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#17  Edited By cbishop
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#18  Edited By cbishop

@tommythehitman: Not feeling your setup, and that's only because of a Discovery Channel show I saw years ago, about boomtowns. Boomtowns were built close to mines to accommodate miners, their families, and the various businesses hoping to collect off of the miners' pay. The problem was the buildings were built very close together, and inevitably, the poor conditions brought rats, which brought disease, which brought the town low.

Eventually, there'd be a fire which would burn down most of the town, killing most of the rats and burning away traces of the disease. They'd rebuild and start over again.

Now, you didn't say Bleach was a mining town, but I imagine the same could be said for any town of the Old West. So bodies just left in the street to rot seems unlikely, as it would have brought rats and disease, something even a vile gang would have to be concerned about. Plus, the local undertaker would be quick to collect bodies so he could make his living.

Just thoughts, and as the narrator states that the town is no longer standing in the present, the point is kind of moot. ;)

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Fun dialogue. I enjoyed the names too. Look forward to catching up on the other installments.

When Hampton rode in, I wondered why the townsfolk watched in silence. When something's coming down like the wrath of God, shouldn't the townie's scatter? I know you want to establish Hampton as a badass, but his actions do that quickly enough.

Thanks,

Wim

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@wim_garnet: Well, they didn't know that it was Irwin arriving. They simply thought it was a normal rider passing through the town. This was being told from the character of Dot's perspective which is why she chose to describe Irwin's arrival in that specific way.

Thanks for reading and commenting.

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Bumped for referencing

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Bump!