Robert sets himself up to cover the likely locations for a sniper. "I'll cover you."

Louis gathers herself, and then dashes across to the trench. She moves down a few yards, picks a spot, and brings up her rifle. "Ready," she calls.

Robert takes one last look and then dashes in a zig zag fashion to the trench.

A shot rings out, followed instantly by Louis' return shot. Robert hears the bullet pass just ahead of him as he changes direction. He makes it into the trench before the rifleman can fire again.

Louis is watching him with wide eyes as he arrives. "Are you hurt?"

Robert rolls on the ground as the bullet had encouraged him to dive and roll into the cover.  He sat up and patted himself and then shook hi shead. "No, it seems I'm fine other than a bit of pride.  Did you see where he fired from?  Does it seem like one gunman?"

Wednesday, June 20th, 1889 1:45 PM

"There's a hill about three hundred yards west that seems to be higher than most of the land hereabouts," she replies. She sighs and looks at Robert. "I have a bad feeling about this, my love. I can't prove it, but I think there's more of them, and they're after us."
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:49, Wed 27 May 2020.

Robert glanced around quickly and nodded. "I will always trust your instincts Louis.  If we're outnumbered and they are after us then let's get out of here as quickly as we can.  If we knew that the air launch was coming then I'd say hole up somewhere and wait but without rescue they can starve us out pretty easily."  He looked around for a covered escape route.

OOG: Refer to the map in the Dropbox...

The wash they are in runs roughly southwest for some three hundred yards before ending in a jumble of rocks. Most of the ground here is open, although there are areas of rock and broken ground that offer decent cover. The hills surrounding the wash are twenty to thirty feet high, with the suspected gunman's hide being about forty feet at the summit.

There is little cover to the east to reach the ridgeline. But, there are more areas of cover to the south and west.

"We have food and water for perhaps three days," Louis says. "Either way, if they come at us here, we're exposed to their fire."

Robert nodded.  "They can fire right down the wash and take us like sitting ducks." He glances around.  "Let's work down the wash to the rough ground at the end.  We can work around the flank or just continue going."  Robert headed off down the wash.

Time: 1350

It takes the pair five minutes to move 150 yards down the wash to where a jumble of boulders from a collapsed bit of higher ground has tumbled downward, blocking up about half the wash with head-high rocks.

They see or hear nothing during their move.

Robert took a deep breath as he looked around.  "They have to expect us to make a break for it.  Still, we don't have much choice."  He thought.  "We'll both run together to the cover, weaving.  Up until now we've gone one at a time."

Time - 1352

Louis takes a full two minutes to look at the three hills covering a 120-degree arc from southwest to northwest. She comes back to Robert and sighs. "If I were hunting us, I'd have riflemen on all three of those hills. As it stands, we are right at three hundred yards from each of their most likely hides. The center hill's line of sight will be blocked by that small hill just west of us, and, if we stay here, the northwestern shooter can't see us." She points southwest. "That leaves the southwestern position, if there's anyone there at all."

Robert makes the same examination.  "Well, I can cover that one hill while you make a break for it.  Is there anywhere in particular on the hill, near the crest, that you'd use as a hide?"

"Yes," Louis replies. "There are plenty of places to belly up. I'd focus on the closest group of rocks. Are we moving to that little rise to the west? It's about fifty yards of open ground, but there's cover once we get there."

Robert looked for the point Louis indicated and nodded.  He covered his rifle with a blanket to avoid glint and then settled in. "West, that looks best and we can work our way south or around the back of the hills to the north if we need."

Louis nods and plants a quick kiss on Robert. "Cover me, will you?" With that Louis slips away through the rocks, presumably working her way westward.

Time: 1357

Three minutes pass, and then five. Then, a shot rings out, and Robert hears the crack of the bullet, a distant boom of a rifle, and he sees a puff of dust and smoke on the crest of the hill to their south-southwest, right where Louis said a shooter might be hiding. He estimates the range to be about 350 yards.

Robert smiles and nods, his attention focused on the crest of the hill.  As the shot rings out he fires in return and again quickly.

Everything goes quiet, and Robert sees nothing of note. His shots landed right in the rocks at the hilltop.

Seeing things go quiet Robert ducks back and moves his way down to the end of the wash.  He looks about again to the summit of the hill and calls out softy for Louis.

Time: 1400

He hears nothing from Louis as he moves southwest through the maze of rock and piles of gravel. Then...

Robert's instinctive reflexes save his life - he sees a powder flash from the hilltop, and jerks his head back just as a bullet passes through the space his head occupied. It smashes into the rock behind him, spattering him with bits of shattered jacket and gravel.

Robert lets out a loud cry of pain and flops up and back just in sight of the shooter.  He throws the coat up so that it looks like part of his body and then scurries immediately forward out of sight of the shooter to set up a new hide to watch the point of fire.  Hopefully they will think him dead or injured and show themselves.  He is worried about Louis but knows they have to deal with the foes.

Another bullet comes in, hitting near Robert's coat with a flat thwap. A faint boom echoes from the hill, and Robert spies a puff of rifle smoke and dust from a narrow space between two rocks.

OOG: Roll for your shots, as needed...

Robert peers through his vernier sight, takes a moment to settle on the target, and fires. The Sharps barks and pounds his shoulder, but he ignores the recoil and moves to the side to avoid a return shot while still watching the spot between the rocks.

Two seconds, and then four pass - and then he sees sudden movement in that spot. Something is appearing and disappearing, but he can't tell more with the naked eye.

Robert curses softly as his shots ricochet off the rocks around the location of the sniper.  Seeing some sudden confusion around the location he takes the opportunity to run down the wash into the cover of the broken rocks.

Time: 1402

Robert makes it into cover with no further shots fired.