RDR: NO REGRETS - Chapter 258: “Zombies” Surround the Boat (Patreon)

While Stephen and Charles were fighting for their lives, Sadie was waiting anxiously aboard the ship.

The night was pitch black, while the raging fire at the center of the island had dyed half the sky red.

From the distance came the occasional sounds of fighting and shouting, along with scattered gunfire, but there was still no sign of Stephen or Charles breaking through.

Sadie tightened her grip on her rifle, staring fixedly at the island's only main road, hoping their figures would appear at any moment.

"Damn it, what the hell are those two doing???"

She was starting to lose patience and wondered whether she should go help them.

Just as she was considering it, a burst of shouting drew her attention back.

"You bastards! Go take that ship back for me!!!"

Sadie quickly turned around and saw two men in the robes of the Church of the Holy Lord standing on the dock, waving their arms at the Black slaves.

Without hesitation, Sadie fired at them, but the darkness threw off her aim and the shot missed.

Even so, it scared the two men badly enough that they scrambled behind a pile of junk beside the dock.

But they had already riled up the slaves.

There were probably forty or fifty of them gathered along the dock, staring unblinkingly at Sadie aboard the ship.

"Stay back! All of you, stay back!"

Seeing that things were getting out of hand, Sadie raised her weapon and aimed it at the slaves.

"Those cultists are finished. If you want to leave, take the small boats."

"If any of you want to avenge them, then come up here and try."

Sadie sternly warned the crowd, watching their vacant expressions.

She really didn't want to kill them.

As far as she was concerned, they were nothing more than pitiful people who had been enslaved.

Only moments earlier, she had even considered taking them with her and giving them their freedom.

Most of the slaves were thin and frail. Many of them could barely even walk.

By the faint firelight near the dock, Sadie could clearly see that most of them were shackled in iron chains.

Their bodies were also covered in scars from repeated whippings. It was obvious they had been treated little better than animals.

They began moving toward Sadie one step at a time.

They weren't fast. In fact, they moved painfully slowly.

Yet as Sadie watched them stagger toward the ship with unwavering determination, spurred on by those two so-called priests, cold sweat broke out across her body.

The sight was unbearably eerie.

If Sadie had been born in a later era, she would have thought these people were practically no different from zombies.

They were still human, but those cultists had conditioned them until they were almost mindless.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Sadie raised her rifle and fired three shots into the sky. The deafening cracks echoed through the night.

"Stop! Aren't you afraid of dying?"

Sadie shouted at them, but the slaves showed no reaction at all.

They didn't react to the gunshots.

They didn't react to Sadie's yelling either.

"Hahaha! Charge, slaves! Take the ship back, and I'll let you enjoy the Holy Ointment!!!"

But they reacted to their master's voice.

The moment they heard those words, it was as though some restraint had suddenly been removed. One by one, their eyes lit up.

"Ahhh!!!"

They all began roaring and rushed toward the ship, flailing their arms wildly.

"Bang!"

Sadie shot one of the Black men down, but it did nothing to slow the others.

They simply trampled over their fallen companion and kept charging.

"Damn it, these people are all insane!!!"

At this point, Sadie had no reason to hold back.

She braced the rifle in her left hand while her right hand rapidly worked the lever, sending bullets pouring into the crowd.

The slaves were charging shoulder to shoulder, so Sadie barely even needed to aim. No matter where she fired, she was bound to hit someone.

The slaves struck by bullets fell one after another. Some were trampled to death by the companions rushing up behind them.

But many others simply struggled back to their feet, ignoring the blood pouring from their wounds and the pain wracking their bodies as they howled and charged forward again.

Worse still, Sadie had deliberately kept the ship alongside the dock so she could pick up Stephen and Charles when they escaped.

That meant that although there was a sizable gap between the wooden dock and the ship, it was still close enough for a person to jump across.

And now it was too late to sail away.

Like a horde of zombies, the slaves leaped across the gap and swarmed aboard.

Quite a few fell into the lake because of the heavy iron chains around them or because their companions shoved them aside.

But even more made it onto the ship.

Sadie could only keep firing as she retreated, trying to use the narrow passage along the side of the ship to create more favorable terrain for herself.

But there were simply too many of them.

Before long, the relatively small ship was packed with slaves.

Sadie was forced to climb onto the roof of the wheelhouse, using the height advantage to kill as many of them as she could.

Worse still, her rifle was out of ammunition.

The weapon in her hands was an Evans Repeater with a full 26-round capacity. Twenty-six rounds sounded like plenty, but against slaves who had no fear of death, it suddenly seemed pitifully small.

With no other choice, Sadie gripped the empty rifle in her left hand and swung it in broad arcs, using it as a club.

With her right hand, she quickly drew the revolver from her waist to keep up her fire.

But there were simply too many of them.

Every time she killed one, another took his place.

Before long, both of Sadie's pistols were empty as well.

The ship was littered with the bodies of slaves. More than half of them were already dead or wounded.

Even worse, perhaps realizing that Sadie was nearly spent, the two priests finally grew bold enough to rise from cover.

Each raised a weapon and opened fire on Sadie while laughing wildly.

Sadie was standing high above them.

She could either stay where she was and let those two use her as a target, or jump down and face the slaves.

It wasn't a difficult decision.

Compared to bullets that could kill her outright, Sadie figured fighting these frail-looking slaves hand-to-hand wasn't such a bad option.

There was no reason to hesitate.

Sadie hurled both of her empty pistols as hard as she could into the face of a slave trying to climb up.

Then she grabbed the barrel of her rifle, raised the stock high over her head, and jumped straight down.