Chapter Text
Things had taken a turn for the worst. Arthur had never expected the entirety of the gang to turn on him and John as they raced through the cave, hearts racing. Of course, Dutch wouldn’t listen to him, how could he be so stupid!
But none of that mattered, it didn’t matter that it was all falling apart and tonight would very much be his last night alive, all he needed to do was make sure John made it out alive. For Abigail. For Jack. He has a family, Arthur has nothing left, just himself and his honor, and by god, he’ll go out as a hero and die trying to reason with Dutch.
“They’re running into the caves! Chase them down!” Voices were shouting behind them as the boys ran side by side in the cave, jumping over rocks and sliding through the gravel. They just had to make it out of the cave alive. “Find them and kill them!” Micah’s voice could be heard, echoed through the cave and it sent chills down Arthur’s back. He could never trust Micah, not once, and for it all to come down to his betrayal, it’s not like he expected anything different but the way things were going, it turned out far worse.
The two of them made it through a bigger opening, quickly scanning for their way out. “Let’s keep moving!” John shouted to Arthur, once he found the best way out. “Surrender and we’ll take you both out alive.” A voice echoed through the cave again. Arthur couldn’t tell whose voice that was but he damn knew a lie when he heard one. All those bullets flying towards them back at the camp and in the cave now, told a completely different story.
John and Arthur reached the end of the path and their only way out was up. “Those bastards left me for dead, Arthur!” John told him the retelling of earlier events. “It’s what they do. They’ve lost it. Seems like we’re the only sane ones.” He said, being careful about the way he was climbing but also being quick. Arthur certainly wasn’t trying to die in a cave.
John was ahead of Arthur now as they continued climbing. A bullet whizzed past his head and he took a quick look down to see Dutch’s gun cocked and ready to aim again. John whipped his head back at Arthur, “Come on, Arthur! Stay with me!” His heart was beating fast in his chest, almost like it was ready to pop out. He wasn’t sure whether he was going to die from that or a bullet in his chest. “Micah was the rat!” Arthur yelled down to the gang below as they kept climbing. “Milton told me everything!”
Dutch’s voice could be heard responding, but Arthur couldn’t quite make it out. It was useless anyway, Dutch refused to listen back at the camp, why would he listen now in this wet damp cave?
Arthur could see light coming out from the top, showing that they were getting closer to their way out. “Come on!” John encouraged, scrambling up the slope and looking back to make sure Arthur wasn’t falling behind.
They came face to face with a ladder and John paused to look at Arthur. “Keep going, Marston! I’m right behind ya.” John hesitated no longer and started his ascend up the ladder. The ladder shook under the weight of the both of them but it was nailed into the rock and was going to hold as they scrambled up as fast as they could.
It was dark when they reached the top, but not dark enough that they couldn’t see. It was set to be morning soon, maybe not too much longer until the sun would shine. The night fog blanketed the forest as the boys broke out into a run in the trees. “We gotta go!” Arthur called out to John. He settled into a jog, John following his lead, as he whistled for his horse.
John followed, whistling for his horse. Hooves could be heard in the distance, getting louder as they neared them, both of their horses breaking into a hard stop in front of them. “Get on, we don’t have much time!” John told Arthur, grabbing his horse by the reins. “Wait!” Arthur pulled his arm, stopping him from getting on his horse.
Arthur paused to catch his breath, this running was doing him no good. “Abigail’s safe.” He breathed out, watching as John’s expression softened as the thought of her crossed his mind. “And Jack?” He asked, Arthur gave him confirmation with a nod of his head.
“They’re with Sadie at Copperhead Landing.” John pulled him into a quick hug, as the words ‘Thank you, brother’ came out of his mouth. He released him and moved back to his horse but Arthur held onto his arm. John felt his stomach drop as he looked back at Arthur.
He felt his throat grow tight as Arthur and him locked eyes. “I want you..” Arthur paused, John couldn’t tell if it was for a large breath or he was holding back tears, maybe it was both as John’s eyes pricked with wet tears. “to not look back...like I said.”
In the distance, Arthur could hear horses and the shouts of men, it was the gang coming for them. He patted John on the back and finally let him get on his horse as he climbed his. Gunshots whizzed past his head, nearly knocking his hat off as he whipped the reins, getting his horse to break out into a run.
“You’re dead men!” One of them cried out as they raced through the trees, bullets zooming through, hitting trees, and bouncing off of rocks. “Hyah! Ride, ride!” John called out, getting his horse to pick up pace. Arthur followed suit, but John was still a pace in front of him.
Just when they had enough of the gang chasing them, Pinkertons broke the treeline and started shooting at both groups. “Fucking Pinkertons!” John cussed, dodging a bullet as it hit the tree adjacent to him. “Come on Arthur!” A bullet whizzed past Arthur’s ear, just barely grazing it making him hiss out at the sharp pain.
Their horses raced up the hill, only to find a blockade of the Pinkerton. Arthur whipped out his gun and shot one of them point blank in the head as John looked around to find another way out. “Follow me!” They turned their horses, right as Arthur killed another man and they booked it down the path.
They soon had to ditch the path again as they faced another blockade. “I’ve done everything for you boys! Traitors!” Dutch shouted from below as some of the Pinkertons kept them busy.
John shot a man in the arm, once again trying to find another way out. “They’re fucking everywhere!”
“We’ll get out of this Marston!”
“This way!” As they got moving again, two bullets shot out. One hit his horse and the other flew right into Arthur’s side. Arthur groaned in pain as his horse fell to the ground, knocking him off. “Arthur!” John looked back to see him down, he turned away to shoot two more men and keep the Pinkertons off of them for a little bit. “Arthur, get up!”
Arthur groaned again, the impact of the ground nearly knocking the wind out of him. He couldn’t tell exactly if the bullet was lodged in him or struck his side, he felt pain everywhere. Next to him his horse, neighed loudly, visibly in pain from the bullet. He crawled onto his knees and placed his hand on his horse, soothing her. “It’s okay, it’s okay.”
Arthur got to his feet and grabbed his gun and began shooting the Pinkertons gaining up on him and John. John was no longer on his horse and was turning left and right, shooting one in the head to shooting another in the shoulder. There was no way either of them was going to get killed by the Pinkertons, not when they were so close to getting out. Or well, Arthur getting John out.
A stray bullet hit John’s horse, knocking it down to the ground. “Fuck! They got my horse!” They managed to clear out the Pinkertons that had surrounded them as Arthur got back on his knees and knelt by his horse, holding her head in his hands. “I’m sorry girl.”
“Come on, brother, let’s go,” John said from behind him, watching the trees to make sure no more were coming for them. “Gimme a second!” Arthur’s horse twitched in pain, grunting softly as she looked up at him. He rubbed her neck and brushed the hair out of her face as she closed her eyes. “Come on Arthur!”
“Yeah, yeah...” Arthur wasn’t fully hearing him, he had gone through so much with this horse, and it broke his heart to see her dying. Dying because of stupid men and maybe, just maybe he was loped into that ‘stupid men’ group but who cares? His horse breathed heavily, taking her final breath as Arthur kissed the top of her head. “Rest easy girl. I’m sorry and thank you.”
“Arthur!” John warned from behind him. All he could think about was his family.
“You don’t want the money?” Arthur asked, getting up to his feet and grabbing his hat from the ground. His side ached with pain as he felt the blood soak into his shirt slowly. John looked at him, “Family’s more important. I head down there and I’m dead in five minutes.”
“I guess..” John could hear the uncertainty in Arthur’s voice and he gave him a look, “You can head down there if you want, but I got to head to my family.” Arthur needed to make a decision, he thought about the money and how it might do John and his family some good, and the key Abigail gave him weighed heavy in his pocket as the eyes of his brother looked him up and down.
“I’m coming with you,” Was all he said as they turned to run up the hill. Things were quiet around them and maybe that was a good sign but it was too good to be true. Quiet was deadly too.
“I’m getting you out of this bullshit if it’s the last thing I do!” Arthur said to him, briefly looking at John as they ran side by side. “Stop talking like that, we’re both getting out of here.”
Arthur wanted to bite his tongue, there’s no way they both were. He touched his side, feeling the bullet wound through his shirt. Someone had to hold off Dutch and Micah anyway. Those two bastards. “You are, John, you are.”
They ran up the mountain, making sure they were careful not to slide off the side of it. Jumping over rocks and staying close to the wall as they could hear a commotion behind them. Arthur finally had the chance to look up at the sky as they continued going up. The sky was getting lighter and that dark blue was slowly fading out. He finally noticed the fog was no longer. A light orange touched the sky in the east, showing where the sun would be rising from. “I guess I’m seeing that sunrise after all.” He said quietly to himself. His death better be a good one.
They got to a clearing on the mountain and John cussed loudly as they saw the Pinkertons on their horses riding towards the mountain. “Up the cliff, let’s go.” He called out, beckoning Arthur over. They started getting shot at again as they scrambled up the rocks. Smaller rocks fell underneath their feet, sliding down the hill with every step they took.
“Get behind a rock!” John shouted to Arthur as they ducked behind cover. The bullets flying in the air were getting unbearable. John peered over the rock and shot down at the gang as Arthur did the same. They had to get out of this, they just had to.
The mountain was split in two and the Pinkertons were just on the other side, shooting from behind similar rocks as John and Arthur were. A bullet hit the side of Arthur’s arm, tearing his jacket and shirt underneath and drawing blood. “Fuck.” He made it this far, two bullets shouldn’t take him out.
They both managed to kill a few of them before John cried out, “Come on, we need to get going!!” They pulled from the rock and started descending down the other side of the mountain, sliding down slightly as they tried to catch their footing.
John looked back to see Arthur slowing down. He stopped in his tracks and turned to him. “Come on Arthur let’s go.”
Arthur was bent over, hand on his knees. “You go.” They were almost out anyway, Arthur could hold them up and John could get out. This was the perfect chance for him. “Keep pushing Arthur!” John was now standing in front of him as Arthur stood right back up, they met eyes and John could finally see the sadness in his eyes.
“I’ve done all I can. It’s up to you now. Your family’s calling for ya, get out of here!” John sighed and rolled his eyes. “They’re calling for us both, now let’s go!” He moved to grab Arthur’s arm but he took a step back, shaking his head. “I promised Abigail I’d get you back and this is what I’m doing. This doesn’t include me.”
“We don’t have the time for this, Arthur! Not now.” As much as John envisioned a future with Abigail and Jack, Arthur was included in it too. Arthur was family too, after all he’s done for him how could he not be? He wanted Arthur a part of his life just as much as he wanted Abigail and Jack.
“We ain’t both gonna make it.” Arthur breathed heavily, he moved his coat to show John his blood-stained shirt. He couldn’t ignore the wound any longer. He took off his hat and kept eye contact with John, “Go. Now.” John looked back and forth between the wound and Arthur’s eyes. He felt like his whole world just crumbled as his throat grew tight once again like it had done so earlier. “I’ll hold them off.” He hears Arthur speaking to him but yet he can’t speak back.
Arthur then does an action that makes John’s heart drop this time. He places his hat on top of his head, really pushing down to make sure it’s snug. That hand then falls to his shoulder as Arthur licks his lips. “It would mean a lot to me,” He breathes, “Please.”
John clutches his gun tightly in his hand, bringing it up to his chest as tears prick at his eyes. “We don’t got time for talking.” Arthur removes his satchel from his shoulder and presses it into John’s chest. John just barely grabs it as Arthur moves his hand. He clutches it tightly like it’s his job to do so, this just may be the last he’ll ever see, ever feel of Arthur. Only his hat and bag soon to be left as a memory.
“Go.”
“Arthur.” Words finally protrude from John’s mouth as Arthur turns away from him.
“Go. Go to your family.” He repeats himself.
“Arthur!” John repeats, more sternly this time. “Get the hell out of here and be a goddamn man. Be a better man than me, than all of,” He flails his arms out, “Us!” John knew he meant the gang when he said ‘us’ but he couldn’t help but feel a twang in his heart as it still felt like he was talking about the both of them. They both did dumb stupid shit during their time in the gang and here it was catching up to them. Death coming to collect.
Arthur moved back towards the mountain, aiming to climb higher. “You’re my brother,” John said, trying to talk some sense into him. They could get Arthur help, surely there’s someone around that could patch him up. “I know. I know.” Arthur looks back at him and nods. They exchange a smile and this is where they’ll part, heading in opposite directions. One towards a life, a family, and the other towards death. Death has embraced Arthur, clinging to him tightly as he climbs up the mountain, not looking back as John descends. If he looks back, he knows it’ll hurt him too much.
Shots start ringing out again and Arthur turns around firing stray bullets in every direction. “Goddamn you bastards!” He calls out. He’s not sure if getting their attention is the smart thing but maybe in your last moments as you bleed out, starts to make you feel a little crazy. Maybe that’s what he feels, crazy. He may as well go out with a bang.
Arthur climbs higher and turns back around again when he hears footsteps behind him. These Pinkerton men don’t know when to let it rest, he kills three more men before continuing up the mountain. As he turns around, Micah jumps him, knocking them both to the ground. Arthur groans, feeling the pain everywhere, especially in his gunshot wound.
Micah grabs the collar of his shirt, hand curled into a fist ready to punch him in the face. “I got ya now!” He hisses. Arthur’s ready to defend his face as he stares up at him angrily. “You fucking rat!” It’s all Micah’s fault, for everything. Arthur can feel the anger bubbling up in him as he swings at Micah connecting with his face, knocking him off of him.
The two get into a nasty fistfight, Micah pulling more punches than Arthur. “What, can’t fight now? You already given up? I’m a survivor Arthur! You’re no match against me!” Arthur shuts him up with another punch.
They step back from each other breathing heavily, both adorned with their own bruises and bloody noses. Micah spits out blood and rushes Arthur, pushing both of them off the side and down to the ledge below. They break apart as they both land on their backs, rolling away. “Fucking idiot,” Arthur says between clenched teeth as he sits up, holding his side. With all this heavy movement, this bullet certainly has moved around his side.
Micah jumps on him again and they break out into a fistfight again. Arthur manages to push him off and get up on his feet and Micah is quick to join him in standing. He punches Arthur in the cheek as he stumbles into the wall. He goes in for another punch but Arthur blocks it and punches him in the stomach making him keel over. They both spit on the ground as Micah stands right up again.
“You don’t how much I’ve longed for this!” Micah says with a dirty smile as he grabs Arthur’s collar. “Doesn’t seem like you got long to live.” Micah looks down at Arthur’s blood-stained side. “That’s none of your business.” Arthur’s fist connects with his jaw, once again getting Micah off of him as he stumbles back, holding his jaw in his hand.
“After I’m done with you, I’m going after that Marston pig.” Micah threatens as he rushes Arthur again, shoving him into the wall. He gets two more punches in before Arthur finally gets a turn. Arthur punches him in the face twice, one on each cheek, and knocks a tooth loose. “Get off me.” He pushes Micah away from him as he moves away from the wall, fists up ready for the next one.
Micah spits out the tooth and wipes his face before running up to Arthur and grabbing his neck, squeezing it. Arthur starts slowly choking as Micah presses harder. He claws at his hands, trying to get them off but to no avail. So he punches at Micah who only chuckles when it’s not doing anything but he doesn’t stop. Despite losing his breath, he punches Micah real hard in the stomach and his grip falters. Arthur takes that chance to punch again in the same spot and uppercut Micah in the chin.
Micah lets go and stumbles back a bit and Arthur pulls out his gun. He pulls back before swinging and at the last second Micah braces for the impact, knocking the gun out of Arthur’s hand. With no gun in his hand, Arthur punches Micah in the crotch, knocking him down before he turns and scrambles to his gun.
He was slowly getting his breath back, taking big gulps of air as he crawled to his weapon. Just as his hand lands on the gun, Dutch steps out and presses his foot down on Arthur’s hand, crushing his hand between his foot and the gun. “It’s over now...Arthur.” The way Dutch pauses before saying Arthur’s name, it’s almost like he regrets everything and feels guilty as he looks down at Arthur.
Arthur’s eyes slowly panned up from the foot of the man he once looked up to and finally reached his eyes. Arthur scowled as Micah grunted from behind them. “Shoot him Dutch.”
Dutch paid no mind to him as he kept looking down at Arthur. “It’s over.” He repeated himself again and Arthur wondered if he meant it more for himself and the fall of his gang or more for Arthur’s life.
“It is over, it’s over for you Dutch. Your little Micah here is a rat.” Arthur groaned, his breathing just ever so slightly weaker. His hand cramped under Dutch’s foot, the pressure getting worse. Dutch shook his head and Arthur couldn’t help but laugh. It was a fake laugh, he just couldn’t believe how quick he was to side with Micah after all they’d been through. Dutch just wanted power and money to his name and he’d throw everybody right under a train just for it.
He didn’t care about Arthur, he didn’t care about Molly or the gang, or even Hosea. Poor Hosea, dragged along with Dutch’s stupid plans all for him to die because of him and here Arthur lay, his hand crushed under his foot, dying because of one stupid smelly rat.
“You know it and I know it.” He finally said, making sure to really look into Dutch’s eyes. He hoped his death would haunt this man forever. “He’s dying, just kill the damn man already.” Arthur heard Micah from behind him as he cocked his gun.
Dutch was silent, shaking his head as these two argued. It felt like his head was going to split apart, who the hell should he believe? “He’s talking crazy, all that blood loss is getting to that stupid head of his.” Dutch finally looked away from Arthur and looked at Micah who looked worse for wear. His face was all bruised and bloody and he was missing one of his bottom teeth now.
He held his stomach in pain with his left hand, gun in his right.
“Up on the ridge, there they are!!” More Pinkertons.
“I gave you all I had.” Arthur gave a small smile, he didn’t even know if he meant it really, maybe it was all just to charm Dutch. “I did.” Dutch looked down at him as he spoke.
“I...” The man finally spoke a singular word. He stepped off Arthur’s hand and took a step back. Arthur wondered if he felt sick to his stomach just looking at the sight of him. Arthur practically had matching bruises as Micah, his black eye finally settling in. Dutch did this to Arthur, it’s all his fault.
Arthur rolled over, getting the pressure off of his left side as Micah approached. “Come on Dutch, let’s go, buddy. You know you don’t believe him. He’s a traitor like you said!”
Dutch kept his eyes on Arthur as he coughed up blood and wheezed. That bullet was really catching up to him now.
“We made it. We won!” Micah said, trying to get into Dutch’s head as he looked over at him. He beckoned him over. “Come on!” Arthur laughed from below, as best as he could really. “John made it, not you two fools. He’s the only one out of all of us. He deserves that instead of stupid men.” There it is again, ‘stupid men’ and Arthur roped himself right into it. It didn’t matter anyway, he’d been knocking on death’s door for a while now. Death heard his knock now.
“I tried.”
Micah ignored Arthur’s little ‘rambles’. “Come on, let’s go! We can make it.” Micah took a step back, pointing at the path. “Come on Dutch!” Instead of stepping forward towards Micah and past Arthur, Dutch took a step back from both of them. Looking down at Arthur’s dying body and up at Micah. His mind was racing with thoughts as his mouth hung open and yet he barely said anything while these two bickered.
Micah narrowed his eyes, watching Dutch’s movements. Dutch finally turned away and walked in the opposite direction. “Come on Dutch,” Micah called out to him again as he watched him walk away from him, from Arthur.
He balled his hands into fists and cursed. “Come on!!” He shouted, anger touching his tongue. “You bastard!” He shouted after him. Micah cursed and kicked the wall. He looked down at Arthur who was breathing heavily. That look he was giving him was making him angry. Micah spat again and pulled out his knife and walked over to Arthur. He got on top of him and stabbed Arthur right above his bullet wound. “Let’s see what kills you first, you traitor!” He got up and turned away, both men now, walking in opposite directions with Arthur lying on the ground left to die and bleed out.
Arthur wheezed and coughed as he heard their footsteps retreating. “Guess this is it.” He pushed himself up into a seating position and pulled himself over by the wall to rest. His hand lay on his side, covering it with blood, as he took a deep breath. When will this death take him?
The sun was now rising, Arthur almost forgot about it. The rays touched the tops of the trees as the sun ascended, soon touching the mountain and the spot where Arthur rested against the wall. He basked in the sun as it kissed his face for what felt like the final time. All that mattered to him was that John got out safely.
John, Abigail, and Jack, they were all safe. Sadie and Tilly too. They were all safe and he too was safe in the arms of death and now Micah and Dutch couldn’t touch him anymore. He could haunt them if he wanted to, he hoped they’d be haunted by him. He laughed at that thought.
The sun felt warm. Was it really the sun or was his body making him feel warm in his final breaths? Whatever, it doesn’t matter. The sky looked pretty anyway. He felt comforted by the birds that chirped nearby and the wildlife that woke up to the sun, now roaming the forest.
He was thankful these were his last moments, finally a bit of peace from the chaos that trapped him in this life, the life of a blasted outlaw. Nothing good ever came from it, too much death and now he was finally done with that life and into the next..if there was one for him.
Was he a good person? He hoped so, he hoped he turned everything around until now. He hoped he died a good person. As Arthur’s eyes slowly fluttered shut, he heard a deer cry out and his body grew heavy.