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Caleb had already unslung his Litchfield, holding the repeater steady in his left hand while guiding Morgan with his right, flicking the reins to make her ride faster. "They're still alive," Caleb said sharply. "If we hear shots, they're still holdin' on. That means they need us now."
John cursed again and kicked his horse hard, both men now racing through the final stretch.
The gunfire grew louder, sharper, more frantic.
The trees parted.
And the whole battlefield exploded into view.
Hosea, Arthur, and Lenny were pinned down behind a cluster of boulders, bushes, and scattered trees, each firing desperately at a group of nearly fifteen armed men. The attackers were a messy mix of Pinkertons and government stagecoach guards, using the crashed coach itself as solid cover. Gunshots cracked in rapid succession, bullets kicking up dirt and chipping bark.
Arthur was crouched low behind a tree trunk, firing between the branches. Lenny was pressed flat against a boulder, trying not to get his head taken off. Hosea was kneeling behind a fallen log, hands shaking but shots still accurate.
They were severely outnumbered.
And they wouldn't last long.
Caleb and John's sudden arrival immediately drew attention, too much attention.
Bullets whizzed toward them, ripping through leaves and dirt.
Hosea's voice rang out with relief, shaky and breathless. "Thank God!"
Arthur shouted, "Caleb! John!"
Lenny yelled, "We're over here!"
The Pinkertons and guards spun toward the newcomers, some repeaters, rifles, and revolvers shifting toward their direction.
But Caleb was faster.
Much faster.
His vision shifted.
The world slowed.
Colors faded into a dull yellow hue.
Dead Eye surged through him, sharpening every target, every heartbeat, every breath around him. Five red X's appeared instantly, five heads belonging to five men who had just turned their guns toward him.
Caleb didn't bother thinking.
He let instinct take over.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
Five shots in barely a heartbeat.
Five men dropped simultaneously, dead before their bodies even hit the dirt.
John hit the ground running, leaping off his horse and diving behind a boulder while Caleb slid off his own horse and slapped its flank. "Go!" he shouted, sending the animal sprinting away.
Bullets immediately hammered into the tree Caleb ducked behind, splinters flying everywhere.
John pressed his back against his own cover, breath heavy. "Hell of an entrance!" John yelled.
John then shouted over to Arthur, Hosea, and Lenny, "Arthur! Hosea! Lenny! Y'all alright?!"
Arthur's voice rang out, pitched between grit and fury. "We're good! Damn near run outta luck, but we're good! You two?!"
"We're just fine!" John yelled back. "We took care of the ones after us!"
Caleb peeked around his tree and fired two quick rounds, forcing two Pinkertons to retreat deeper behind the overturned coach. Then Caleb shouted, voice sharp, commanding. "Talk later! Clear 'em out, grab the money, and we move to help the others! They'll be in the same damn trouble by now and they're gonna need us! As they are gonna be facin' the same mess!"
Hosea yelled back, "Then let's get to it!"
And with that—
The fight escalated into pure chaos.
The remaining Pinkertons and guards, about ten men, shifted position, firing from behind the tipped stagecoach, trees, and the surrounding rocks.
Caleb kept low, moving from tree to tree, firing controlled, deadly bursts. John provided cover, firing steady shots with his Carbine Repeater. Arthur popped out from behind his tree trunk to fire whenever someone exposed their shoulder or head. Lenny, emboldened by backup, took more aggressive shots. Hosea moved carefully, firing when he could, trying not to get pinned down.
Bullets sang through the air.
The stagecoach's wooden panels splintered from all the gunfire.
A Pinkerton officer barked, "Hold the line! Don't let them regroup!"
Caleb rolled to another tree and fired a shot right through the man's throat.
Another guard tried to flank around the left side of the rocks, right into John's line of fire. John shot him clean in the chest and fired again to ensure he wouldn't get back up.
Arthur hit one who tried climbing onto the overturned coach for better aim.
Lenny dropped another by hitting him in the leg, then the neck.
Hosea, breath tight, fired at a guard rushing forward and clipped him in the shoulder, slowing him long enough for Caleb to finish him off.
The last few Pinkertons grew desperate.
One yelled, "Fall back!"
Another tried to run.
Caleb didn't let them.
None of them were allowed to escape.
Not today.
Not ever.
Because if even one got away, Milton and Ross would know more than they should know other than the plan have failed.
Caleb darted out from cover, Dead Eye kicking in again for a brief flash, three marks this time. He fired three rapid shots and all three targets dropped instantly.
Silence fell.
The only sound left was the echo of the final shot fading into the trees and the heavy breathing of the gang members.
Lenny leaned back against his boulder, panting. "Jesus… that was somethin'…"
Arthur wiped his forehead with the back of his sleeve, checking the field for movement. "Everyone still breathin'?"
Hosea nodded slowly. "Barely… but yes."
John exhaled and glanced at Caleb. "Nice shootin'."
Caleb slung his Litchfield back over his shoulder. "Could say the same."
The five men stepped into the clearing, weapons still raised, checking bodies one by one to ensure no survivors remained.
Caleb kicked away a Pinkerton's rifle, checking for a pulse.
None.
Good.
Arthur crouched near the overturned stagecoach. "Hosea, Lenny… y'all hurt?"
Lenny shook his head fast. "No, no, just get scared for a moment. They came outta nowhere."
Hosea grimaced. "It was supposed to be three guards, maybe four. Instead we got fifteen."
John growled, "Pinkertons knew exactly where each group would be."
Arthur sighed heavily. "Dutch walked right into their trap…"
Caleb nodded slowly, expression tightening. "This wasn't to wipe us out. It was to scatter us. Wear us thin. Keep us separated so nobody can help each other."
Hosea rubbed his forehead. "Then the others—"
"They're in danger," Caleb said. "Big danger."
Arthur took a breath. "Then we ride."
But before they moved, Caleb checked the coach's insides.
The lockbox with the government mark was inside, tightly locked, as he took it out before giving it to Lenny to be strapped into his saddle.
"There it is," Caleb muttered. "At least they bringing the valuables for the ambush, we could get more of this after helping the others."
Arthur nodded his head. "Thats good, but our priority is saving the others first."
Hosea shook his head in frustration. "Yes, even if we got the money, this is still a setup in which Dutch believed the damn intel."
John spat into the dirt. "We go. Now."
Caleb agreed.
"Mount up," he said. "Charles, Sean, Sadie, they'll need us next I reckon."
Arthur nodded firmly. "And Dutch… God help whoever gets caught with him."
Within moments, the five of them mounted their horses. Caleb opened his map interface once more, only for himself and placed markers on the next ambush site where Charles, Sean, and Sadie were supposed to be.
Caleb's eyes snapped to the glowing marker hovering above the treeline on his private map interface.
"This way!"
He flicked the reins and Morgan surged forward, hooves pounding hard against the dirt path as she accelerated. The others didn't hesitate for even an instant, the fear, the adrenaline, and the urgency of the moment left no room for questions or doubt.
Arthur immediately kicked his horse after Caleb.
John followed a split second later. Hosea and Lenny rode behind them, watching the trees and ridgelines in case any more Pinkertons were lurking.
Branches whipped past. The forest thinned and thickened as they sprinted through it, riding fast enough that the wind roared in their ears.
Arthur called out over the thunder of hooves. "Caleb! You know the road to Charles, Sadie, and Sean's spot?!"
Caleb didn't look back, he didn't need to. He kept his eyes forward, scanning the terrain, tracking the markers in his mind.
"Yeah! Just keep up with me!"
That was all he said, but it was enough.
Arthur grunted and leaned low over his horse. "Alright then!"
And the group fell into a tight formation, built instinctively from years surviving together even if Caleb had only been with them for a short time:
Caleb at the helm, Arthur and John right behind him, weapons already in hand, Hosea and Lenny forming the rear, watching their flanks, five riders moving as one.
The tension between each hoofbeat was nearly suffocating.
They were rushing from one bloodbath straight into the next.
Hosea's voice burst through the wind, older but steady. "Soon as this mess is done," he called, "we head back to camp. Have everyone packed up. Then we leave Shady Belle behind."
Arthur glanced over his shoulder at the older man. "You sure?"
Hosea scoffed bitterly. "Of course I'm sure! Pinkertons will be swarming all over Lemoyne after today! We stay, and we'll end up boxed in like turtles in a burning shed!"
Caleb didn't hesitate. "Agreed," he said immediately, speaking over the galloping hooves. "If we stay, they'll catch up to us in days. Maybe hours."
Arthur nodded tightly. "Yeah… yeah, makes sense."
Caleb didn't even turn his head. "North," he called back. "Past Annesburg, up into Roanoke Valley. Thick woods, steep ridges, barely any roads worth the name. Folks don't ride out that way unless they got a death wish or somethin' to hide. We can disappear there for weeks if we need to."
The reaction was immediate.
Arthur shot him a glance. "Roanoke Valley? How in the hell you know about that place, Caleb? Ain't exactly on the tourist maps."
Hosea chimed in, suspicious but curious. "And you're sure it's safe?"
Caleb couldn't just say, 'My Past Life Memory Skill gave me a perfect memory of the entire damn world.'
So he used the alibi he'd prepared.
"I've been gathering information," he said plainly. "When I goes out to Saint Denis before, I asked around. Wanted to know wilderness spots, quiet places, anywhere we could camp out if things went bad someday." He shrugged. " Figured we might need an ace in the hole one day. Turns out I was right to ask. And I made sure nobody thought I was digging for gang business. Told 'em I liked the idea of camping out on my own."
Hosea stared for a moment. Then he nodded slowly. "…Good work, son."
Arthur let out a low whistle. "You sneaky son of a bitch. Good work, Caleb."
Lenny chimed in from the back, sounding exhausted.
"We ain't even stayed at Shady Belle that long… and we already gotta move again?"
Hosea sighed. "We move or die, Lenny. Pinkertons ain't comin' alone, they'll bring whoever they damn well please."
Lenny groaned. "I know, I know… just feels like all we do anymore is run."
Arthur and Hosea fell silent at that.
Caleb didn't say anything out loud, but inwardly he couldn't deny the truth.
Running. Running and running until there wasn't anything left to run from, or run to.
Because this was the beginning of the end, in the original timeline.
Blackwater shattered Dutch. Micah corrupted him. The gang fractured from the inside out.
But Caleb had already cut out the rot, Micah was dead, lying in a shallow grave at Horseshoe Overlook after he shot him in Strawberry's jail.
But Dutch… Dutch was losing whatever had once made him special. The man was chasing ghosts now, and dragging the rest of them with him.
He spoke firmly, snapping everyone back to the present. "We can think about that later. Right now, focus on saving Charles, Sadie, and Sean. Then Dutch, Javier, and Bill."
Everyone tightened their reins. Everyone understood. They were close, very close. And then gunfire cracked through the air, it was loud, rapid, and frantic. Much louder than the firefight Caleb and John had just escaped. Sadie's voice tore through the chaos, distant but unmistakable. "YOU SONS OF BITCHES!! COME ON THEN!!"
...
Name: Caleb Thorne
Age: 23
Body Attributes:
- Strength: 7/10
- Agility: 7/10
- Perception: 8/10
- Stamina: 7/10
- Charm: 7/10
- Luck: 8/10
Skills:
- Handgun (Lvl 4)
- Rifle (Lvl 4)
- Firearms Knowledge (Lvl 4)
- Past Life Memory (Lvl MAX)
- Knife (Lvl 3)
- Blunt Weapon (Lvl 1)
- Sneaking (Lvl 4)
- Horse Mastery (Lvl 4)
- Poker (Lvl 4)
- Hand to Hand Combat (Lvl 3)
- Eagle Eye (Lvl 1)
- Dead Eye (Lvl 3)
- Bow (Lvl 2)
- Pain Nullifier (Lvl 3)
- Physical Regeneration (Lvl 2)
- Crafting (Lvl 3)
- Persuasion (Lvl 3)
- Mental Fortitude (Lvl MAX)
- Cooking (Lvl 4)
- Teaching (Lvl 2)
- Trilingual Language Proficiency - G, I, & C (Lvl MAX)
- Inventory System (Permanent - 10x10x10)
- Acting (Lvl 4)
- Alcohol Resistance (Lvl MAX)
- Treasure Hunter (Lvl MAX)
- Drugs Resistance (Lvl MAX)
Money: 3,655 dollars and 10 cents
Inventory: 104,669 dollars and 72 cents, 11 gold nuggets, 64 gold bars, 1 Double Action, 1 Schofield, 2 Colm's Schofields, land deed (Parcel), 1 Mauser, 1 Semi Auto Pistol, 1 Lancaster Repeater, 1 Old Wood Jewelry Box, 1 F.F Mausoleum small brass key, & 1 Ruby
Bank: -