text: The desert lay calm at sunset. The main star that gave the planet its daytime had long been gone, and her smaller cousin was following the same path. At this hour, the human eye could only recognize shadows before the horizon. Among the shapes of copious cacti, something stood out: the figure of a woman in a squatting position. Lena grabbed some of the fern-like plants she had gathered earlier and proceeded to clean herself. She then pulled her black leather pants up and walked towards her motorcycle. The woman gazed into the rear view mirror and noticed that her hair was getting too long, so she grabbed her bowie knife and began to shave it off. The short black strings that fell off her scalp got carried away by the warm desert wind and quickly disappeared. The young bounty huntress knew that her destination was close. Luckily, she wouldn’t have to spend another night out in the hot desert. Unfortunately, that delicious can of beans she kept in one of the pockets of her bike would have to wait. Lena stepped on her black chopper and took off, leaving a thick cloud of sand behind her back. An hour later, in the dark of the night, Lena spotted a beacon. A huge neon sign that stood in the distance read “Welcome to Yuma”. The woman smiled at the sight of the only non-astral light that could be spotted in miles. In spite of it, this wasn’t a smile of joy. The word “welcome” seemed almost ironic. Not a concept someone would link to the capital. The old chopper went straight through the unguarded gates of the city. The place had definitely made a change. At one point in time, the compound was meant to serve as the main prison of the largest penal colony the Earth kept in the galaxy. But this was long before Lena’s birth, and not particularly of her interest. She had her own reasons to visit that big old dump for the first time. The sights weren’t what most would call pretty. The city seemed to never sleep. The dirty streets were crowded with junkies and criminals of the worst kind. Everyone out in the desert knew that Yuma was only good for two things: getting hooked or getting killed. But Lena had something else in mind. She knew that drugs and thugs were attracted to money like a moth to a flame, and she was going to get her share. The loud roar of the bike began to fade when it arrived in the main street of block P-113. The young woman parked it right outside a filthy looking joint with a sign that read “The Bushy Juicy”. Without further ado, she walked towards the door and entered the place. The inside looked just as expected. The floor was exquisitely decorated with cigarette butts, spit, and a couple of used condoms here and there. The rest looked very much like the cellblock it once was, except for some added furniture. The tavern appeared to be empty. Lena walked towards the bar and sat on one of the stools. Soon enough, a shabby looking old man appeared from inside a room behind the bar. He then walked up to Lena, took his dirty apron off and began to dust the counter with it. “What can I do you for?” he asked, while shamelessly inspecting Lena’s body with his eyes. “I think I’ll start with some black tequila,” she replied in a deep voice. Lena loosened the zipper on her leather jacket, exposing more of her bosom. The bartender smiled. “I take it you are a desert dweller... Not many people in the city have a stomach for the local cacti,” he claimed while picking up a bottle from the shelf and pouring its black liquid into a glass. “I guess I’m a wildflower, I am not fond of greenhouse plants.” Lena quickly swallowed the tequila and placed the glass back on the wooden bar. “Like this wood... You don’t see much of it around these parts.” The woman knocked on the counter. “I have some connections... But I take it you aren’t here to talk about wood...” Lena let out a smirk. “Well... as a matter of fact, I am. I’ve heard you deal with whores that could make one night in the city worthwhile.” Lena grabbed the bottle and filled her glass again. “I’ve got both guys and dolls that could fuck you senseless. Even I could be up for the task... I’d give you a fair price of course...” The old man looked at Lena’s cleavage and bit his lower lip with his toothless gums. “I came here looking for someone in particular. A friend of mine recommended me a young hooker called Romeo.” Lena emptied her glass again in one quick motion. The barkeeper laughed. “Romeo? I am sorry dear but the only Romeo I know does not have a taste for women... You need someone who knows how to treat you right...” the man leaned against the bar, getting closer to Lena. “I must insist. I came all the way here to see if this man is worthy of his fame. I could pay double his usual price!” Suddenly a harsh, loud voice was heard. It came from the top of the staircase situated behind Lena. “Double eh?” A remarkably tall and muscular man walked down the stairs with nothing on but his skin and a pair of sleepers. “Even with all the moaning upstairs, I can still hear the chiming of coins.” “You must be the man I’ve heard so much about!” exclaimed Lena, while taking a long look at Romeo’s body. “I hear you only deal with men... I hope you are willing to make an exception,” she then said while detaching a bag from her belt and throwing it towards the naked man. Romeo caught the bag and opened it, revealing rhodium coins worth five times what he was used to. He looked at the woman and smiled. “Where I come from there’s a saying: ‘a hole is a hole’. The rooms are upstairs.” Romeo made a gesture with his arm, inviting Lena to head to the top floor. The woman led the way. While following her, Romeo turned towards the bartender and nodded his head. The old man seemed to understand the meaning of it instantly and nodded back. The moans of pleasure kept getting louder as they walked towards the upper floor. When they got there, Lena stopped and observed the scene. A long line of metal doors extended before her eyes. Those were undoubtedly recycled cells, now used for a much merrier purpose. Romeo walked in front of Lena and entered a room that had the number ‘389’ printed on the door. The woman followed and shut the door behind her back. “Let me get more comfortable...” she then said. Lena took off her leather jacket and placed it on a metal chair. This left her upper body bare, except for a pair of leather gloves. “Just lay on that bed and I’ll do what you paid me to do,” answered Romeo while pointing at the cot. His voice seemed reluctant, perhaps suspicious. Lena took off her belt and threw it on the floor. Romeo quickly noticed that it had a sheath attached, where she kept her bowie knife. The eager woman lay on the bed and began to unzip her leather pants. “Come here, baby.” Her voice sounded both demanding and eager. She extended her arm. When the man approached her she held the back of his head. Then, she gently pushed it towards her hips, until his lips met her labia. The hooker gave his best performance. He could barely remember the last time he had lain with a woman. Nonetheless, Lena appeared to be satisfied by his skills. Every time that Romeo tried to lift his head up she pushed it back down, keeping it tight between her legs. The intense procedure lasted about twenty minutes. After a long and intense orgasm, the girl released her lover and allowed him to move. The man stood up and walked straight to the table where he had left his payment. He began to count the coins. Meanwhile, Lena wiped herself with the sheet and put her pants back on. “We are done. I hope you enjoyed yourself. You can come back at any time,” said Romeo. His eyes were still fixated in the rhodium coins. “You seem to like money an awful lot. There’s more where that came from, you know?” asked Lena while rubbing her crotch. “Maybe I could trade it for something else...” The man quickly turned his head towards Lena and frowned. “What are we talking about?” “I am looking for a man that goes by the name of Sanchez... Perhaps you could tell me where--” Romeo didn’t allow Lena to finish her sentence. “I knew it! You are a bounty hunter! You damn bitch, I knew it since the moment you came in!” His look had completely transformed into one that Lena had seen many times before. The look a man gives only when he is about to kill someone. Romeo jumped on the bed ready to grab Lena by the neck, but she rolled away instantly. She fell on the floor and quickly regained balance. By the time the man could react, the bounty huntress had already clung to his back and was using her right arm to try to choke him. Lena was far from being a small woman, but this adversary seemed like a giant in comparison. Romeo stood up swiftly and carried the bounty hunter on his back showing no signs of effort. Then, he ran backward towards the metal wall and smashed the woman against it. Lena tried to keep choking the colossus, but she didn’t handle a second blow against the hard metal. The young bounty huntress fell on the ground and tried to reach for the knife she had left on the floor. The effort was futile. Romeo got ahead and grabbed the knife by the handle. He pulled it out of its sheath and, in one agile movement, he held it against her. “Don’t you move bitch! I told the barkeeper to call Sanchez and he must be about to get here... So it turns out you are gonna meet him after all... Now you’re just gonna stay put until he comes and takes care of--” Romeo’s voice seemed to fade away as he spoke. Eventually, his mouth stopped moving and he stood frozen with the knife still in his hand. Lena smiled and got back on her feet. She quietly picked up her jacket and belt and put them back on. “So... Long story short baby... I knew what goes on between Sanchez and you... And I know he will pay good money to save his sweet prince from the hands of a mean bounty hunter.” The woman picked up the knife from Romeo’s hand and put it back in its scabbard. Then she continued to speak. “I do have to give you props for making him come all the way here, though! You made my job so much easier... Now we just need to wait.” The woman waved her hand in front of Romeo’s eyes, but the man showed no reaction. “You may have already figured it out but... The handle of the knife is made with this cactus named ‘chollula’. It’s got these tiny toxic spines... It’s truly fascinating, you should look it up. It’s also the reason why I always wear gloves.” The young woman made a big effort to lay the man on the bed. She then picked up the key to the room, walked towards the door and opened it. “I just have to pick something up from my bike, I’ll be right back. You’re gonna stay like that for at least two more hours... And trying to move will only make it hurt more.” Lena looked back at the paralyzed man for an instant. She then turned and slowly walked back towards him. The woman leaned on the bed and whispered in the man’s ear: “We had some good times, didn’t we...” The bounty huntress bit the man’s earlobe and walked towards the door again with a wide smile on her face. The bounty huntress managed to slip out of the joint without being noticed. She gathered various pieces of equipment from her bike and took a good look around the street. Sanchez was nowhere to be seen. She knew that she didn’t have much time before he arrived. It was very likely that Romeo had given the bartender specific instructions about how to act. If so, enough time had passed for him to start worrying, and to lead Sanchez upstairs as soon as he arrived. When the woman went back in she noticed the bartender had come out of his room and was walking around nervously. She sneakily passed behind his back, headed upstairs and locked herself in the room with Romeo. She pulled out the bag with the gear she had picked up and started preparing to welcome Sanchez as fast as she could. Lena was right to make haste. Less than five minutes had passed when she heard someone banging on the door of the cell she was in. The banging came accompanied by the angry voice of a man. “Open up for the mighty Sanchez! You’ve gotten yourself in some deep trouble bitch!” “I don’t respond to goons! Tell Sanchez to step forward and we’ll talk!” yelled Lena from inside the room. The men outside started to speak to each other. From the babble, Lena determined it must have been five or six men that were waiting outside for her, including the bartender. The chatter stopped. Only the footsteps of a heavy man were heard from inside the room. He was approaching the door. A man with a raspy, high pitched voice began to speak. “This is Sanchez. If you have a plan to get out of here alive I suggest you reveal it now. If not I ask you to come out and die. I am a busy man, I’ll be quick.” The man coughed loudly. “I guess I have what you might call a plan... If you consider holding a detonator that would make your boyfriend’s pretty face blow up into a million pieces a plan... Then I do have a plan.” Sanchez sighed. “How much?” “500 rhodium coins. I know that for you that’s just pocket change. Gather it, put it right outside the door and leave the way free for me to come out.” Lena heard the man step back and turn towards his minions. “You heard her boys! Empty your pockets and do as she said!” When the money was ready, Sanchez gave the bounty huntress notice of it and, without further ado, she opened the door. When she did, she revealed that the hooker was tied to the bed. He seemed to be still paralyzed, and he had what appeared to be an explosive charge held with tape in his mouth. Lena was holding the detonator on her left hand high above her head. Her right hand was carrying a revolver. She looked down and saw that the bags of money were already on the floor. Next, she looked up and saw Sanchez surrounded by the barkeep and four other thugs. It wasn’t hard for her to recognize the kingpin. He was by far the bulkiest and tallest of the bunch. While all the others sported long brown trench coats, he wore only a sweaty sleeveless white t-shirt and shorts. He was also displaying a long, thick mustache. The bounty huntress had no doubt that this was the man that had been described to her. “You!” --She pointed at one of the thugs with her gun.-- “You are going to count the money right in front of me... Then you are all going to follow me downstairs, put it in my bike and watch me run away with it... Understood?” They nodded and proceeded to follow her instructions. Everything happened according to plan. Lena got on her chopper with the detonator still in hand and disappeared in seconds. The thugs were left behind. The barkeep looked astonished at the woman that was leaving the scene with more money than he would see in a whole year. Swift as a bullet, Lena left the city and headed west. She stopped at a gas station in which she ordered a room for the night. Neither of the suns would come out until at least 10 hours later, so she had time to rest before her appointment. She couldn’t wait for that job to be over. There wasn’t any reason for it to not go smoothly from now on. The light of the first sun coming through the window woke Lena up. The second would rise soon, and she had to get ready for her meeting. She picked up her knife and her revolver and she stepped outside. She waited for around one hour until she saw two rusty cars pull over. Sanchez and his men had arrived just in time. The fat boss stepped out of his car and walked up to the bounty huntress. She lit up a cigarette, and used it to lit a second, that she offered to Sanchez. He picked it up and leaned against the wall, next to Lena. “Duane... the fucking barkeep...” he said “he can’t mind his fucking business. If he hadn’t followed us everywhere we could have ended the deal right there.” The man took a puff “I’m surprised you didn’t just run off with all my money... That was a smart decision.” “I was paid to do a job, and I’ll take only what was part of the deal.” Lena picked up four bags full of coins from her belt and handed them to the kingpin. “I’ll keep the one hundred coins we agreed on and the satisfaction of a job well done. Did I manage to scare your boyfriend off?” “You did... Everything went just as I planned. I convinced him that being out on the streets would be dangerous for him.” Sanchez looked at Lena. “He’s not a bad guy... He just liked his job too much... He belonged with me and that’s where I want him to stay. I can protect him you know... If we hadn’t faked it this would have happened sooner or later anyway...” Lena smiled. “You don’t need to explain anything to me. We put up a good show for the poor bastard... I hope you two are very happy,” she said while giving her cigarette one last puff. “If you need me again just send your contact back for me, she’ll know how to find me. A pleasure doing business with you.” The bounty huntress threw her cigarette butt on the sand and stepped on it. Then she walked slowly towards her bike and hopped on. “Hey!” yelled Sanchez. Lena turned her head and looked at him. “I don’t remember any pussy licking being a part of the deal!” Lena couldn’t help but laugh. “I didn’t remember anyone forbidding it either!” Sanchez shook his head and smiled, then he went back into one of the cars. Lena started the bike and headed east once more. The young bounty huntress knew she would cross paths with Sanchez again. But she didn’t need anyone else for the time being. As she sped up she felt the liberty that only a bag full of coins and a tank full of gas could bring her. After a long time, she was finally free to chase the horizon once more. THE END -- I wrote this so I could post it here. This is the first time I post a short story! I would really love some feedback. -- My idea is to write a bunch of short stories all based in this same world. -- I would also be very pleased if you could point out mistakes. English is not my first language and I might have slipped a couple of times.