Conquistador

“We are only three,” Paco said.

“My God!  We are lost!”

“Not necessarily.  Do what I say and we may have a chance.  Quickly, get all the weapons you can find, spread out and hide in the houses.  They will return to the plaza, and we will have them surrounded.  Then we will give them the big surprise.  Now run; tell the others.”

“They were about to shoot us,” another man said.

“Two or three of you: let them find you.  They will try to resume the executions.  While they busy themselves with lining you up, the rest of us, on my command, will run out yelling.  We will kill as many as we can.  Do you have machetes for us?”

Someone produced three machetes.  Paco reloaded his pistol and poured a handful of bullets from the box into his pocket.  He grabbed a machete in his right hand and the gun in his left.

Before long they heard the soldiers marching back.  Paco saw out the window of his hut that they were spiritless and drenched in perspiration.  Standing in the middle of the plaza the sergeant began to yell, “Come out, immediately, or we will burn down the whole damned village.”

One at a time, as instructed, four men emerged, the same four who had been awaiting execution.  Paco immediately recognized one of them, the large Negro, Ali.  Grabbing them the soldiers led them to the same church wall and lined them up as before.  “Where are the others?” the sergeant yelled.

“They left.  We did not want to leave our farms,” one of the villagers said.

“Good.  We will finish what we started and then find them.”  He ordered five soldiers to line up as executioners.  Before he could raise his sword to give the order to fire, Paco began yelling and the townspeople poured out of their huts like wild savages swinging their machetes.  A few had only ax handles and some gave extra machetes to the condemned men.  The villagers outnumbered the soldiers ten to one, and swinging wildly, those cane cutters severed a dozen arms, legs and even two heads in the scramble before the soldiers could fire the first shot.  One managed to fire his rifle as another hit him.  The bullet hit Ali in the foot.  An instant later Paco fired his pistol and dropped the soldier.  Although he could barely stand, Ali continued to swing his machete.  Paco moved in his direction swinging his machete at anyone who came near while holding his pistol ready.  It felt as if that they fought for an hour, for time seemed to slow down.  Actually in less than a minute all the soldiers lay dead or mortally wounded.