As the gunshots broke the silence, the horses bolted from the picket line snapping it in with their massive bodies. Riled up the horses stampeded through the camp waking everyone in their midst. The people were slaughtered as they rose from their sleep in an attempt to fight off the raiding bandits.

          “Alright men they’re dead. Stop wasting bullets.” said the man that appeared to be the leader of the gang which, he later found out that their name was the Huntington Gang.

          Little did the bandits know that as they were rampaging through the camp they missed one person though injured was able to make out who they were. The Huntington bandits known for their mischievous and ruthless ways, had killed all of the other thirteen men, women, and children in the camp.

          The lone survivor of the raid had little supplies, for the bandits had taken all the provisions. The man, however didn’t need supplies for he had been raised by the Indians. As a young boy he learned to live off the land and for the next few days he would have to recall that skill once again in order to survive until he could reach help or help reached him.

          The survivor was broad shouldered and tall with coal black curly hair. Had a scar that ran the length of his arm were he was cut by what most calls Kansas toothpick which was a long thin bowie knife. He called himself Smoke Hansen. Smoke was not his given name but a name he picked up because of his stealthy ability to appear and disappear with out people knowing about him until in was to late.    

          It was almost daylight when he scanned the sky for the smaller of the two big drinking cups whose handle ended in the star which all stars revolve around. “There!” He shouted to himself as he located its spot. Now I will follow it until I reach the clear river which they had passed on their way south the previous day. This would be off the trail and less likely path in which to encounter the Huntington gang again in case they returned to pillage the camp again once the sun was up.