The Town Of Outlaws

Book summary

In the year 2040, amidst an enigmatic desert, The Town Of Outlaws remains untouched by time, its iron-fisted ruler Chairman Lindey Mason maintaining an eerie order. When the Banks family stumbles into town, unaware of its harsh laws, they find themselves unjustly imprisoned. Their arrival sparks a transformative upheaval, shifting allegiances and settling old scores as the sun sets. J.L. Melton's "The Town Of Outlaws" blends science fiction and western elements for a captivating futuristic adventure.

Excerpt from The Town Of Outlaws

WELCOME to “THE TOWN OF OUTLAWS,” partner. The location of this town is in an unknown desert, located on Earth. This is a new year in “The Town Of Outlaws.” Today is January one, and the year is 2040. This is a town that appears to be an old western town. However, it is far from it, even though it has everything an old Western town should have, like saloons, hotels, cafes, a sheriff’s office, a general store, a bank, a blacksmith shop, gallows, and many more. It is not a normal old Western town.

The town is mostly owned and run by the man they call the chairman, Lindey Mason. He doesn’t do it all by himself; he has two outlaws that help him. They are Barney Bates and Parker Riley.

Chairman Lindey Mason arrived here in “The Town Of Outlaws,” after he was once a high-paid judge in a big city and turned bad, sentenced to ten years for manslaughter. He killed a young woman in the (city that never sleeps). Then one day, three years ago, he found himself here in “The Town Of Outlaws.”

He was chosen by the people in town to be the chairman of “The Town Of Outlaws.” He is sixty-one years old, bald, has green eyes, is tall, is extremely obese, and has an ugly long-gray beard. He loves being dressed well and buys very expensive suits and big cigars from the general store in town, which he now owns.

Barney Bates can’t read or write, and he is dirt poor. He owns only the clothes on his back, which are: a blue shirt, a black vest, black jeans, and a raggedy old black cowboy hat, worn-out black boots. He lives in a run-down shack at the edge of town, with his cousin, Parker.

Barney is very good with handguns and rifles. Barney carries a .45 caliber pistol with a brown gun belt and holster. The back of the gun belt has slots for over fifty bullets. He is in his late forties, and he found himself and his cousin here in “The Town Of Outlaws” after he and his cousin Parker killed an old man and robbed him in a small town in South Carolina. Barney has brown hair, one green eye on his left side, and a brown eye on his right side, and most of the time he has a handlebar mustache and goatee. He is the third cousin of Parker Riley. Barney is only five-foot-three inches tall and weighs about one hundred and forty pounds. He is in his late forties, but because of his bad lifestyle, he looks like he is in his sixties.

Parker Riley also can’t read or write and is dirt poor. However, he does own two sets of clothes, which are the same: a brown shirt, a black vest, blue jeans, and an extra-large fairly new white stetson hat. He always wears his brown boots and keeps them shiny and new looking.

Parker is also in his late forties and is more of a clean-cut type, and his main duty is to keep his third cousin Barney in line. Parker is over six-foot tall, weighs about two hundred pounds, and has blue eyes and a regular mustache. Parker is a marksman when it comes to shooting a pistol or rifle. He never misses, and usually kills what he shoots at. Parker also carries a .45 caliber pistol and wears a black gun belt and holster with rhinestones all around it.

Barney and Parker are extremely loyal to Chairman Lindey Mason. They usually obey his every command; no matter how difficult or “downright evil” it is. Yes, these two outlaws are very obedient, and they won’t hesitate to shoot or hang someone the chairman has found guilty of not following his rules in “The Town Of Outlaws.”

So you see, Chairman Lindey Mason wears many hats here in town. He is the sheriff, the hotel manager, the bartender in the saloon, president of the town bank, and his biggest hat is being the judge and jury here in town.

This town is occupied by mostly villains, murderers, bank robbers, and just plain evil folks, but they are a few that could be considered “good folk.” Sometimes, though innocent folks end up here in “The Town Of Outlaws.” The chairman loves it when that happens because he loves to pick on the innocent folks and threatens to hang them and put their remains in an old tree outside of town for the buzzards to eat.

Sadly, sometimes innocent people do get hung here, and if they have family members, they are put to work in town, and in the gold mines, just a few miles outside of town. They become prisoners of the town and servants to the chairman.

There was one such family that came into town one day by accident. They were the Banks family.

***

Timrod Banks is forty-two years old, is five feet eight inches tall, and is average-built. He has brown eyes and hair. He mostly wears his jeans and tee shirts.

Shari Banks is Timrod’s wife, and she is forty years old, and she is five feet five inches tall. Average built with blue eyes and blond hair, and she is a beautiful woman. She mostly wears blue blouses and faded blue jeans.

Jason Banks is Timrod’s and Shari’s son, he is sixteen years old, and five feet nine inches tall, with an average build, blue eyes, and brown hair. He loves wearing his flannel shirts and brown jeans.

The Banks family is your average family. This day they are traveling on vacation to the West Coast. They are going to California and plan to see as much of the state and the sights as they can in three weeks. They are traveling from their hometown in Timmons, South Carolina.

Mr. Banks has been waiting for this vacation for five years. He is a bank president at the Town Bank of Timmons. He has been there in that position for fifteen years, and today he is happy that the vacation that he had been waiting for is finally here.

They are traveling in the state of Texas, on the interstate, when it starts thundering, lightning, and pouring down rain. The road is becoming hard to see, and Mr. Banks pulls over to the side of the road to wait and see if the rain lets up.

“We will wait here for a while. The conditions are too treacherous to keep driving in at the moment,” Mr. Banks said as he sighed and exhaled heavily in disappointment at having to stop for the storm.

“Jason, please, get us some drinks and snacks out of the cooler while we wait for the rain to let up,” Mr. Banks said as he looked at his wife and smiled, even though he wasn’t happy about having to stop for the storm.

“Dear, please, don’t be upset, the rain will let up soon, and we can continue our journey to California,” Shari Banks said reassuringly.

Suddenly, a loud rumbling noise was heard by all the Banks, and in front of them, a tremendous blue light, shaped in a circle appeared. The circle was over eight feet in diameter. The loud rumbling noise was coming from the blue light, and it started moving closer to the car. The Banks were startled, and in disbelief at what they were seeing. Then the tremendous blue light started pulsating, and it encircled the car.

“What the hell is going on?” Timrod Banks exclaimed as he looked at his wife and son.

Mrs. Banks started crying, and then she grabbed her husband’s right hand, looked at her son, and said, “I love you both…so much.”

Several minutes have passed now, and the Banks are in their car, and they are disoriented. They are shocked and frightened at what they see in front of them. It is a large wooden sign, painted white with red letters on it. That is strung across two large poles, and on the sign are these words:

***

“WELCOME TO THE TOWN OF OUTLAWS, PARTNER”

Timrod Banks rubs his eyes and looks again at the sign hanging at the entrance to the town. He looks at his wife and son and sighs because they still are in a daze. Their eyes are open, and they are looking straight ahead, but they are not fully sentient of what is happening around them.

Timrod nudges his wife on her shoulder and says, “Shari! Shari, you okay, hun?”

His wife does not answer; she is still looking straight ahead in a daze with a frightened look on her face.

Suddenly, a dust cloud starts coming toward town rapidly, and it’s coming up on the Banks family’s car. Then they all hear loud neighing, and when the dust settles, in front of his car is a Palomino horse, with her hind legs on the ground and her front legs kicking up in the air, and neighing.

The Palomino horse is named Mongo and used to be Chairman Mason’s favorite horse until he bit the chairman on his butt two years ago. Chairman Mason was so angry that he got Barney Bates to take Mongo far out into the desert. He tied the horse to a cactus and left it. A week later, the horse died of thirst, starvation, and heat exhaustion.

Mongo is now a ghost horse, and he comes back into “The Town Of Outlaws” every time innocent people mysteriously appear in town. Not knowing what has happened that caused them to be here and not aware of what will happen to themselves in this strange town. Mongo tries to persuade innocent people to leave town. Sometimes he is successful, and sometimes he is not.

That is the case with the Banks family; they arrived against their will, and they want to leave, but they can’t leave. The evil that’s in this town won’t let them leave.

Timrod Banks was getting frantic because Mongo was now pushing against the front bumper of the car with his right hoof and looking at Timrod Banks while breathing heavily and neighing, and moving his head up and down. Banks decided to try to move the car away from the horse that appears to have gone ballistic. But when he turned the key to start the car, nothing happened. It was as if the car battery was dead. Banks got out of the car and left his wife and son still inside, and still in a daze. He raised the hood and looked at the battery and engine, while the horse was jumping around and neighing and breathing heavily.