Dead South Page #5

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It's now or never, if going

to make a go of our harvest.

You and griff will be okay.

I'll be back in one night.

That girl's making you soft.

Now, come on, now,

don't get all womanly on me.

Brother...

I will not

say this to you again.

You're tender-hearted.

You talk too much

and do too much.

Like you got something to prove.

You are also the finest man

I've ever known my whole life

and I envy you,

your Mercury heart.

You got nothing to prove, Beau.

For whoever cannot see these

obvious and wonderful qualities

in you, is not worth the letters

and breath to dissuade.

And I cannot imagine the station

at which I find myself,

without you by my side.

You a bear, Beau.

You a goddamned grizzly.

Hiya!

I want you both on

the eastern field tonight.

I'll take the Meadow with Beau.

Mr. Jenkins say you

want to see me, Mr. hunt.

Yes, we do, Silas.

Yes, we do.

- Have a seat.

- Yes, sir.

Have a drink.

Yes, sir.

Daddy!

Daddy, where are you?

No...

Philomena! Hey...

Philomena!

Shh, shh...

Hey, tell me what's happening.

- Hey, hey, what's wrong?

What happened?

What happened?

It's just...

It's this whole place, Beau.

It's eye tooth itself.

There is no love here.

- Shh...

- Except with you at nightshade.

Tell me about what you're

going to do when you leave here.

Tell me about your family.

As soon the crop comes in,

we're gonna have enough money,

we are going

to go see the potion man.

All right, we are gonna...

We're gonna be human, again.

We're gonna go home.

- Why can't you go home now?

- Because I...

- Before things get worse.

- 'Cause I ain't exactly right.

All right, I don't know what

i am, but I am not what I was.

You're fine just how you are.

Shh...

Well, there's my brother, too.

I ain't never heard of

a nightwalker making that

transition back, not ever.

We aim to try.

What is this, Beau?

It's my family.

My family's gone, Beau.

I'm all alone.

No... hey...

You are never alone

as long as your family is near.

Yessum, I believe today

is the day of first rains.

Too many of them for us alone.

Hilde must have been wrong

about them

gatherin' men so quick.

Hold them off long as you can.

I'm going to go get Beau.

Run!

To Silas...

For conveying the proper message

to our negroes.

Whiskey.

Goddammit, Lester, what the

hell happened this morning?

We did what you said,

we poisoned the ground.

All high ground,

you got all the crops?

- All of them?

- Yes, sir, we did.

Twenty large bags

of lime and... acid.

I want a raise, goddammit!

What y'all have promised us,

ain't nearly enough

for this madness.

Sure, sure, you earned it.

It was like them ghouls

knew we was coming.

One of 'em got loose

in that... that robe a his,

and killed us or run us off

who weren't already killed.

Now, where's the rest

of your deputies?

Are you not listening?

They're dead!

The whole thing went sideways

out there, all of it!

So, those charmington boys,

they just run you all off?

Uh, no, it weren't but one them

in that bushy suit a his.

And those goddamned squatters

did their part, too,

and that niggrah, griff.

Less than a dozen a us survived,

prolly less than half a dozen.

So how many of those others

were killed besides your men?

You weren't there, Stokes,

you don't know

what we was dealing with!

Even your goddamned daughter

showed up in that crazy mix.

If you have harmed a hair

on my little Philly's head...

Quit your threats, Stokes.

She wasn't supposed to be there.

The new men

thought she was a squatter.

We done lost five men

getting her!

You fiends!

There weren't but

no other way to bring her.

She was like a bag

of angry cats.

You have doomed us!

You have doomed us all!

These me are going to

take you home now, Philly.

I am my father's daughter!

And by my birthright, I am

doomed with the rest of you!

There will be a reckoning

for all that we have done!

There will be a reckoning

for all that we have done!

There will be a reckoning!

No!

You men...

Just get her home!

There will be a reckoning!

There will be a reckoning!

Reckoning!

Where's the other brother,

Lester?

I have no earthly idea.

I want you to ride to every

burg and briar patch you can,

find every man with a firearm

and have them here tonight,

have them here by the town hall,

tell them I will pay $100

and five acres of land.

We're going to

end this thing tonight.

One night's work.

That's all, now, get.

Come on.

I want you men to get down

to Jenkins store

and get all the wood

you can get.

We're going to secure the hall

for our families.

Now go.

My mama's dead, griff.

She got killed.

Can't find David.

I gotta go warn Silas.

They might be

coming for him, too.

- I want to go with you.

- Find your brother.

I'll be back in a spell.

Go.

Beau was off with

miss philomena for a spell,

and when they came to attack,

I went off to fetch him

so we could stand together.

I wouldn't let them

mass up on you.

Where is she?

The few what we didn't kill,

they done took off with her.

She went with them?

Not like that,

she was kicking and screaming.

Yeah, I'm sure.

They poisoned

high field with lime.

The rains done already washed

it across the whole farm.

There won't be nothing

growing here at nightshade

this season.

And... they killed Ferris.

And Silas, too.

Left him hanging out there

in the middle of the town.

I'm sorry

for your troubles, griff.

You a good man.

We know you and Beau

needed this here money...

...so we all throwed in.

It only 'bout $75,

but it all the moneys we got.

You still gots to see

the potion man

so you could go home

to your peoples.

That's some good seed stock.

Y'all keep it 'til next season,

clean up the bad

top soil from the rows,

plough it under and come next

season, you'll be good to grow.

Y'all are now the owners

of nightshade.

Well, they just gonna run us off

soon as you leave, Mr. hilde.

How we gonna stay

and make a go of it?

You can stay, griff...

...'cause y'all going to be

the only ones left.

'Cause I'm gonna to kill

anything bigger

than a yardstick.

It's mine! It's mine!

I curse the day you were born,

you motherless cur!

I curse you through

the afterlife!

May you rot in hell!

My god...

And I'm just gettin' started!

Kill him!

Get in there!

Get him out of there!

Get him out!

Get in there!

That's right, ghoul, we got him.

We killed your soulless brother.

And you ain't

no goddamned different.

We gonna kill you, too.

I told Stokes it was

a bad idea to go this way.

You don't know nothing of your

new nature, do you, hildebrant?

What happens when it's been

too long since we've fed?

We start to become handsome,

beautiful.

Exquisite, irresistible.

The hungrier we get, the more

beautiful we become to them.

That's an evolutionary

development.

It allows us to

predate more effectively.

Join us, hilde.

Let us show you our world.

You don't have to hide,

you don't have to be alone.

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