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California - 1891
The shade from the trees and a cloudy sky mercifully cut down on the California heat. The two riders walked their horses through the forest of pine. Arthur ducked under a low hanging branch, holding his hat to his head. The trail to this cabin was becoming overgrown, looking like it had been hardly used by anyone in awhile. With its already fairly steep incline and winding path, it made traversing the trail all the more difficult.
“Shit,” John exclaimed suddenly.
Arthur looked over, seeing his younger brother rubbing his face. He laughed. “Got a scratch there?”
“Yeah...” John muttered, leaning forward and patting his horse, a big brown turkoman. “We better get there soon, Layla is too tall for this skinny trail.”
“If that feller’s tip is right, we should be getting there soon. Said it would take about forty minutes on this trail.”
John grumbled as he ducked another branch. “Better be.”
Sure enough, the winding little path soon revealed a secluded cabin in the woods. It was located in a small open meadow, beautiful flowers dotted the long grass all around it, with tall trees stretching up at the clearing’s edge. It was somehow both very inviting, and very foreboding.
“Guess this is it,” John said, pointing out the obvious.
“Must be.” Arthur squinted, trying to take in more of the house’s details. There was no movement inside, it didn’t look like anyone had walked through the area around the house recently, and the dead garden next to the cabin was full of overgrown weeds. To top it all off, there seemed to be a shallow grave behind the house with a makeshift wooden cross stuck in the ground. It all seemed to point to nobody living here anymore. Emphasis on living. “I’m thinking the house is empty,” Arthur finally concluded
“That’ll make this easier,” John said.
“Yeah, well. Just be prepared. Ain’t nobody living here anymore, that don’t mean we won’t find some dead bodies.”
“Great.” John sighed, walking Layla closer to the wood cabin. “This better be worth the trouble,” he said over his shoulder.
“At the very least, we could probably move camp up here if we ever needed to. Nice secluded area.” Arthur nudged his own horse to move again.
The two of them dismounted into the tall grass. They didn’t bother hitching their horses, trusting them to stick around, giving the mares ability to eat their fill from the abundant foliage around.
Even though he was nearly positive the house was empty, Arthur drew his revolver as they approached the door. John did the same, flanking the door as Arthur pushed it open. The hinges creaked eerily as it slowly, slowly swung open. An unpleasant musty smell wafted out, but other than that there was nothing.
Arthur nodded to John and the two of them crept inside. It wasn’t a huge cabin, but there were two other rooms attached to the main area. Probably bedrooms. Or perhaps one was a storage room. Whatever the case, once they were sure the first area was clear, they both took a side room to check.
What Arthur found was an empty bedroom.
What John found was a- “Oh god damn it,” came his raspy yowl.
Arthur rushed towards the room John had entered. “Marston? You okay?” he said quickly, unable to keep the worry from his voice.
When the older man barged into the other room, he saw John just standing there, staring into the corner. Following his line of sight, he found what had spooked his brother; an old woman’s corpse.
“Oh,” he said, finally holstering his gun. “Guess that explains it.”
“Come on, Arthur.” John looked over at him, exasperated. “How are you always so relaxed about this kind of shit?”
“You’ll go numb to it too, soon enough.” Arthur rolled his eyes. But, he pulled the quilt from the bed. He walked over to the long dead woman sitting quietly in her chair, and gently draped it over her. “Sorry ma’am,” he murmured, hoping silently that John didn't hear.
“It ain’t like I’ve never seen a corpse before ” the young man defended. “Just... took me by surprise is all.”
“Really?” Arthur said as he turned, raising a brow. “I even warned you.”
“I know. Still, didn’t expect it.”
“Listen, I know I warned you, but the easiest way to deal with this shit is if you just don’t expect anything, then you can’t be surprised.”
John stared at him blankly. “So... no expectations? For anything?”
“Yep.”
“That sure explains a lot about how you get through life.” John sighed. “Okay, well I guess that does explain why that man said the people living here ain’t been seen in town in months.”
“Yeah.” Arthur nodded. “I have a feeling her husband is the one buried out back.” He changed the subject. “So, let's get to clearing this place out so we can get back to camp before sundown. I don’t feel like navigating that overgrown trail in the dark.”
“Me neither,” John agreed.
They made quick work of the cabin, thoroughly inspecting each room and grabbing what valuables and cash were lying around. There was a bit of decent jewelry from the old woman’s small collection. Would sell easily at a fence. Arthur even grabbed a few cans of still unopened food from the kitchen cabinets.
The best find, by far, was a large wad of cash stuck in an envelope under one of the beds. Arthur counted one hundred and six dollars.
John stared at it. “So... what if we didn’t tell Dutch or Hosea about that cash and just split it between us?”
Arthur glared at him. “You know we can’t do that. Everyone else needs to eat too. You been trying for years to be a fully fledged member of the gang, so try acting like it for once.”
John scoffed, crossing his arms. “Fine. I was mostly joking anyway,” he muttered.
“Mostly,” Arthur repeated with a small chuckle.
His little brother glanced around the house for a second. “You think that’s everything? Was a pretty decent haul. I’m actually surprised how good that feller’s tip was.”
“Me too,” Arthur agreed, shoving the envelope full of money in his satchel. “I think we’ve turned the place over, we should head ba-“
Arthur was interrupted by a loud call outside. “Alright boys!” a man’s voice said. “Just come on out now, hands in the air, and we won’t kill you!”
The brothers stared at each other for a split second before they quickly crouched low and out of sight from the windows.
“The hell is that?” John whispered harshly. “The law?”
Arthur shushed him, putting a finger to his own lips.
The voice continued. “Now I know you can hear me, just give us what you found, and maybe we’ll let you live!”
Arthur sighed. “That ain’t the law, we been followed,” he said quietly.
John cocked his head. “A setup?”
“Maybe...” Arthur crept towards the window by the door, slowly peaking out. He saw four armed men, one on horseback, the other three standing around. He held up four fingers to John. As he looked closer, he recognized the man on the horse. It was the same bastard who’d tipped them off about this cabin in the first place.
“You got ten seconds to get out here, before we start shooting the place apart!” the man threatened, clearly growing more impatient.
Arthur ducked back down. “John, crawl out a back window, quick.”
John looked back and forth at people that weren’t there, then pointed at himself. “Me? Why me?”
“I’m too big, dumbass, now get moving. I’ll distract them. And be careful of any more of them.”
John grumbled but quickly darted towards the bedroom further from the front door.
Arthur finally raised his voice. “Alright, I hear you,” he spoke loudly, hoping to cover for any sound John was making. “Just take it easy, why the hell did you give us that tip if you just wanted to rob the place yourself?”
“Oh, well, we just wanted someone else to check and see if it was safe. And, figured you two was thieves already,” the man replied smugly. “So you probably have even more valuables on you than what we would’ve found here.” He laughed. “Just two birds with one stone is all. Robbing you and the house at the same time!”
God, that was a stupid plan from these second rate criminals Arthur grumbled to himself. But he needed to keep him talking for John’s sake. “Sorry friend,” Arthur hollered out. “Anything else we’d have stolen wouldn’t be with us. We ain’t that dumb.”
“Guess we’ll see about that ourselves, now get out here,” the man growled
Arthur went to reply again when suddenly there was a surprised yelp from behind the house. Then the resounding bang of a gunshot and a man’s scream. Arthur held his breath, hoping it had been John’s gun, and the kid was okay.
A split second later he was relieved to hear his dumb little brother exclaim “Shit!” For the second time in the last hour.
“What the hell?” one of the men out front said.
Taking advantage of the confusion, Arthur burst through the front door, shooting the nearest man between the eyes before dashing to the side of the house and taking cover against the side, he felt the heat from the bullets as they whizzed by him, taking cover against the side of the house, somehow unscathed.
One of the men tried to come around the corner at him, but Arthur was too quick, killing him too. He crouched down, staying at his corner of the house.
Suddenly from behind him, he heard John’s rasp. “Arthur, Arthur!” came his harsh whisper.
Arthur looked over to see his little brother sliding closer to him, his back against the side of the cabin. “The hell is it John? You get hurt?”
“No!” John replied quickly, holding his six-shooter out. “My gun’s jammed.”
“Jammed?” Arthur repeated, frustration laced his voice. “Well go get the gun from the man you killed, quick!”
“I can’t!”
“Why the hell not?” Arthur was losing patience he didn’t even know he had left.
“He dropped it in the well when I shot him!”
The incredible stupidity of that statement hit Arthur so hard, he thought he’d been shot for a split second. What were the odds of that happening, on top of everything else going wrong today.
Arthur needed to take his own advice and not be surprised by something so unexpected, he had to get his mind back in the moment. They needed a way out of this. The bullets kept flying by them, keeping them pinned. There were only two of them left at this point, but he was going to have a hard time getting an angle on them. Especially with John not having a gun to help.
Twice as he leaned out, a bullet narrowly missed him. He peeked out again, just as John jumped out, throwing his revolver with all his might at the man on foot.
Then the most insanely lucky thing Arthur’d ever seen happened. As the jammed revolver hit the first man in the face, it fired, angled perfectly to shoot the second man on his horse under his jaw and right out the back of his head, killing him instantly. When the man’s body slumped and slipped out of the saddle, the horse panicked and ran off.
Arthur barely had time to let that all sink in before he rushed out and shot the last remaining man, he was an easy target, still stunned from being smacked in the face with a gun.
Arthur turned around in disbelief at what just happened. John stood in silence, exactly where he’d been when he hurled the gun. Eyes blown wide open, then a big smile formed on his face and he started laughing, nearly hysterically.
“God damn it, boy.” Arthur shook his head, then let out a wheezy laugh. John’s cackle was infectious. The older man sat down in the grass, continuing to laugh and wiping his eyes.
John leaned forward on the house, putting one arm up to support himself, keeping the other wrapped around his stomach as his cackling kept going.
They remained like that for what felt like longer than their shootout had lasted. Until, finally, Arthur stood back up. He looked over at John, who was finally getting control of himself and breathing deeply. “What a god damn circus clown show that turned into.”
“Did that really happen?” John asked in disbelief. “I must be dreaming.”
“It really did.” Arthur pinched his nose. “You have got to be the luckiest boy I’ve ever met. How you managed to pull that off and not even get shot in the process is beyond me.”
“Luckiest man.” John corrected as he stood up fully. “And how can you say that after all the bullshit with the well?”
Arthur shrugged. “Well that’s luck too, just not good luck.”
“It all evened out then, huh?”
“That’s how it goes, I guess.” Arthur grinned. “If luck were a man , he’d be you.”
“Don’t know how I feel about that.” John shook his head, then had some kind of realization and glanced around the area. “You don’t think there’s more of them, do you?”
“If there were, they would have killed us while we were having our laughing fit.”
“Oh... yeah.” John scratched the back of his neck. “What do we do now?”
“Check the bodies for anything of value and get the hell out of here.”
“Alright.” The young man smiled wildly. “I cannot wait to get back to camp and tell everyone about this.”
Arthur chuckled. “The first thing you should do when we get back to camp is clean your god damn gun, you moron.”
“That can wait,” John dismissed quickly.
Arthur laughed again. “You’ll forget if you don’t.” The older man pat John’s shoulder, then lightly pushed him towards the back of the house. “Alright, that’s enough talk. Go check the feller you killed back there, sooner we get out of here, sooner we can tell camp how much of a lucky fool you are.”
John looked over his shoulder as he walked. “I want to see Hosea’s face when I tell him. He’s never gonna believe me!”
Arthur shook his head fondly at his little shit brother, sometimes it was hard to believe how much he’d grown up the past few years. “You’re right, he sure ain’t.”