By Benjamin GroffMedia© | benandsteve.com | 2025 Truth Endures©
Chapter Five: The Clock in the Dust
The bell above Petal’s shop rang twice—slow and deliberate.
That was the signal.
Wren waited until the third cloud passed over the moon before sliding off the schoolhouse roof. She moved like a whisper down the alleyway, avoiding the creaky boards and broken glass with practiced ease. She paused behind the horse trough near the sheriff’s office and whistled once—two notes, flat and low.
Chester was sitting inside the dim jailhouse with his boots propped up on a barrel. His bruised rib was bandaged with a strip of curtain. He heard the sound and stood up.
He opened the door.
Wren stepped into the lamplight. She was small and wiry, wrapped in an oversized coat that had seen better days. Her eyes were dark and deliberate, scanning the room, the exits, the Marshal.
“I watched you fight the Gentlemen,”
She said without greeting.
Chester gave her a nod, cautious but not cold.
“You’re the girl from the roof.”
“I’m the girl from everywhere,”
She replied.
He gestured to a stool.
“You hungry?”
She hesitated, then sat.
“I want something else.”
“Alright.”
“I want Cain gone.”
Chester leaned back against the wall, arms crossed.
“That makes two of us. But wantin’ it and surviving it are two different things.”
Wren pulled her notebook from her coat and opened it. She showed him a crude map—of underground tunnels, secret entrances, schedules.
“I’ve been tracking his movements for six months,”
She said.
“He’s gotten sloppy. He trusts the wrong people. There’s a weak point—down in the old mines under the vault. He thinks no one remembers it exists.”
Chester raised an eyebrow.
“And you want to hit him there?”
“I want to expose him first. Show Serenity what he is. Not just a tyrant. A liar. A coward. I can get you inside. You have to decide if you’re willing to break the rules you came here to enforce.”
He looked at her for a long moment.
“You ever worked with a marshal before?”
“No,”
Wren replied.
“You ever work with a kid who knows where all the bodies are buried?”
Chester smiled.
“Can’t say that I have.”
She closed the notebook.
“Then we’re even.”
They shook hands—hers small and cold, his calloused and warm. In that moment, something changed. Not in Serenity. Not yet.
But it had started.
Meanwhile –––
Five miles west of Serenity, in a ravine that didn’t show on most maps, a boxcar shuddered to a halt. It stopped on rusted rails.
A figure stepped out—tall, dressed in black, face hidden beneath a wide-brimmed hat. Beside him, four others disembarked—mercenaries, by the look of them. Not local. Not from this state. Not from this country, maybe.
They called him Mr. Gallow.
No one knew if that was his real name. He didn’t speak often, but when he did, people obeyed—or disappeared.
Gallow held up a leather-bound dossier stamped with the faded seal of the Bureau of Internal Affairs. Inside was a photo of Chester Finch, clipped to a thick file marked:
“CLASSIFIED – OPERATION ASHWOOD.”
He flipped the page and revealed a second file—one that bore the name Braddock Cain.
And then a third.
Subject: WREN (Alias Unknown).
Status: Missing / Witness Protection Violation.
Gallow smiled faintly.
He turned to his team and said only two words.
“Kill quietly.”
They vanished into the desert night like wolves on the scent.
Back in Serenity
Petal watched the train lights fade on the horizon, her face tense.
She reached behind the counter, pulled out a dusty revolver, and said to herself,
“They’re all waking up now.”
And somewhere, far below, in the tunnels beneath Serenity, a clock that had long stopped ticking began to turn again.
So, Chester’s past is coming back to haunt him. What exactly are contained in the files OPERATION ASHWOOD Files? And, how much of it did Chester do or not do? He now cares less about the moped. If the contents of the file sees light of day, what would it mean for our Marshal? The man trying to cleanup this dirty town? And the tunnels, are another thing? Just a quick way to get about town or something more sinister?
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