Shit! John thought. Abigail is going to be so mad!
Here he was, taking cover behind a big rock in New Austin, what's shooting at him is the bounty hunters. He was on his way home after hunting a legendary he kept hearing about at New Austin and then just as he was about to head home after killing it, a group of bounty hunters showed up and fired at John when they spotted him. About a month ago, while he was doing some bounty hunting with Sadie, she did say something about the sheriff at Tumbleweed. So since that day, John visited Tumbleweed to meet the sheriff, sheriff Sam Freeman.
When he first met the man, the sheriff brutally murdered a Del Lobo gang member upon being brought to town and even declared that all trials should be quick and punishment by death. He even killed a few innocents just because they did something so little like small accidents and such but Freeman declared all that as federal offense and punishment by death is necessary. John was disgusted by the man's unfair and ruthless rules, he's like the parallel version of Dutch. However, at the same time, Freeman pays well when doing bounty hunting jobs for him.
So John spends the next 2 to 3 days hunting bounties and gets paid very well and had to watch the bounties getting murdered by Freeman himself already. The last part made John despise him even more, and he's a lot worse than Dutch, Micah, and any of the bounties he just captured.
Until one day, a feller from Tumbleweed was fed up with Freeman's ways and wants him silenced, however, he gives that task to John instead out of fear of being wanted, John almost considered declining this task, however, thinking about it, if Sam Freeman lives longer, then he would mercilessly and unfairly murder more innocent folks because of something they did was so little like small accidents and all. John claims that was too petty and stupid to kill folk, so he agreed and finally silenced Sam Freeman once and for all via sniper.
That's when the trouble leads to him now, because of that, he had to kill some more sheriffs when escaping the town and had to kill more chasing him on horses. While everyone at Tumbleweed was quite happy and thankful that Freeman was gone for good, it's still not justified in the eyes of the state of New Austin and John now has a $1,500 bounty on his head in the desert. John has been considering paying off his bounty but since he's so busy raising his family at the ranch, he completely forgets about it.
Here he is now, outnumbered by another group of angry bounty hunters, constantly firing their bullets at the big rock he's taking cover from. He may have gone straight and lived an honest life with his family since the day he had killed Micah a few weeks ago, John still had not forgotten about his guns on his hostler. Just in case if he needed to defend himself.
Holding Otis Miller's revolver he found in the caves and his tinted gold cattleman revolver with both of his hands, John took a deep breath and pop out of the rock and quickly fired his bullets at the bounty hunters one by one. The bounty hunters tried to outnumber him fast but John was just too quick for them and has the upper hand despite being outgunned. After killing the last of them, John knew he had to get away from the bodies now, so he quickly picks up Arthur's hat on the ground when it flew off when the bounty hunters nearly headshot him. He ran back to his black Arabian horse named, Rachel with the dead legendary animal on the back, he gallops his way away from the corpse.
As he left the state of New Austin and to Tall Trees, John had to be more cautious because the last time he's here, he had to save Uncle from a gang called Skinner brothers that Sadie and Charles told him about. So be had to be more careful this time. He's been worried about it since he and his family lived closer to Tall Trees and hopes that the Skinner Brothers didn't try any form of retaliation such as kidnapping his family.
Just as he's being warier while slowly riding his horse, he heard the voices of one of the Skinner Brothers and a woman screaming, prompted John to grab his tinted gold rifle and dismount his horse, and runs his way to where the voices are coming from.
Just as he arrives, he saw a dead horse, 4 Skinners had cornered a woman, and they looked like they were about to gang-rape her, or worse just as that. So John came and intervene.
"Hey!" John shouted. "Robbing and Killing people is one thing, but folk like you don't deserve a place in this world!"
"And outlaws like you don't deserve a place in this world, either!" one of them countered.
"You got a point," John replied. "But I left that life. Just as I was about to make you leave this poor woman alone!"
"Tough chance, tough guy!" one of them snarled.
"Alright," John growled. "You asked for it..."
Good thing for John, they were only armed with machetes and knives and don't have any guns, so in a flash, John headshots each and every one of them in an instant. So John put his weapon on his shoulder and slowly walked to the woman who was covering behind the tree in fear.
"Excuse me, miss?" John said, slowly approaching her. "They're gone, you can come out now..."
As the woman slowly peeks from the tree branch, he can see that the woman is wearing a dress in all black, but the woman itself made John recognized who she was.
"Mary Linton," John spoke. He had heard about Arthur's old flame during their time together with the gang, John hardly even knows the woman. But after Arthur gave him his things, John took out a ring he used to marry Abigail and also a picture showed a young Arthur and Mary. This was the very first time he had met Arthur's old lover in person.
"You... know you me...?" Mary asked, slowly approaching John.
"Yeah," John nodded. "Well... through the pictures of you and... Arthur."
"So, you do know Arthur," Mary said.
"Yes," John replied. "It hurts that he had to die that way. I don't talk about him much, but I do think about him."
"Me too," Mary responded. "Oh, I really wished how life could've been if he hadn't been caught up to that lifestyle."
"Actually, he knows that too," John told her. "But he knows he can't let that happen to anyone who still deserved a second chance to live like me."
"Really?" Mary asked him.
"Yeah," John explained. "Not trying to offend you or anything, but I do have a family of my own, and when we're not safe with the gang we rode with a long ago, Arthur took it upon himself to use the time he had left to give us the life we lived now."
"what do you mean "time he had left?"
John was hesitated to answer. "It's hard to explain," He explained to her. "but in case you didn't know, he didn't meet his end with bullets just like how outlaws usually met their end, but he died of TB. Tuberculosis."
Mary gasps. "Oh my! I'm... I'm so sorry... I didn't know... I-I-I thought he died b-by,"
"You don't need to be sorry," John interrupted her. "He is a good man."
"That he is," Mary replied. "But I should also be ashamed about my part, I-I," tears forming as she was hesitated to answer. "I used him!" She blurted, then her tears stream down on her cheeks. "I was so desperate about my own problems I had him to do my bidding by using the affection I once had for him! I felt bad for using him but I had no other choice! When I heard he was around and I thought he could help me..." She knelt down and begin to cry. "I was so ashamed..."
John started to have some empathy for Mary Linton, sure, she may had used him before but at least she regretted it, but John knew it was all the past and he needed to tell her not to beat herself over it and tell her to let go of the past.
"Hey, look at me," John said softly, Mary gaze up at him. "It doesn't matter what you did, it is all in the past. Arthur knew your intentions but he doesn't take it badly, he just missed you dearly as much as you missed him. Plus, I did some things that made my family unsatisfied by resorting to my old outlaw ways when I had no choice but to protect my family. I regret that too for resorting to that, but I had to because I loved my family."
"Then I guess we both had something in common," Mary sadly remark.
"Yeah, but like I said," John replied. "Let go of the past, time to focus on the future. The past is gone."
Mary Linton sniffed, knowing that he is right, so she wipes her tears and stood up and dust off her dress.
"Thank you, Mr..."
"Marston," John answered. "John Marston." He looked at her dead horse again. "It looks like you're not safe here. Let's get you to safety." He turned back to his horse and push the dead animal off of the back of his horse, he knew he can always go hunting next time. He mounts on his horse and helped Mary to mount on the back. The horse takes them through the woods as John continued his conversation with Mary.
"What exactly are you doing here, Mrs. Linton?" John asked.
Time has been tough," Mary explained. "But I was able to afford a lot of money for me and my brother to live. We owned a small apartment at Blackwater, it was nice, and it was ours. One day, my little brother Jamie went out for a walk, and for the entire day, he never returned. I'm getting worried, without Arthur, I have to find him myself, so I asked around the whole town if they had seen him, they told me he was around here somewhere and that's where the trouble begins."
"And then I saved you," John finished. "So what does exactly your little brother looked like?"
"Oh, he is just a young man, I hope that doesn't seem hard to you," Mary said.
"Believe me," John replied. "I've done bounty hunting before, so this shouldn't be hard.
John started to have a bad feeling about this, here he was, finding this woman's little brother while taking her into danger. So he had to make sure they didn't get themselves hurt. Especially how sick and deranged the Skinner brothers are.
"Hey Mary, listen," John told her. "Tall Trees is dangerous, and you would've been dead if it weren't for me. So I want you to stay close while we're looking for your brother, and you two stay the hell away from here and let the Law deal with them."
"Okay, John," Mary replied.
They stopped by where Evyln Miller's house was burned down after the man starved himself to death and requested John through the book that he should burn his place down, John can't help but actually liked the feller. What they also saw is another dead horse lying on the ground next to the house, and Mary recognized what that horse was.
"That's Jamie's horse!" She pointed out.
"Then he shouldn't be that far," John said, dismount his horse and help Mary down. They observed the dead poor animal, Mary can't help but feel disgusted by the sight and wanted to vomit.
"I can see footsteps on the trail there," John pointed to where he see saw them. "I believe that's your brother's footsteps. Come on."
So John followed the trail with Mary following closely behind her. He gripped on both of his guns with his hands just in case, the Skinner Brothers were also armed with guns as well, especially that some of them just straight-up run towards him with their machetes while the rest were shooting at him.
They eventually come across a small camp, and they saw the Skinner Brothers, and what's worse, they saw Jamie in black clothing was being beaten to submission by them. This makes Mary horrified and John angry at how sick and vicious this kind of folks are. So without thinking, John runs up to them and goes gun blazing at the Skinner Brothers.
More Skinner brothers showed up with rifles and snipers but John held his own and killed each and every one of them, the rest of them was running towards him with machetes but John guns them down before they went too close to him. There's more by the rocks with snipers, John barely dodged the snipers and duck behind some crates, after they stopped to reload, John pops out and guns them out instantly.
There are still more and more Skinner Brothers everywhere but this still doesn't stop John, so he runs around and fires his guns at them while avoiding the bullets and other Skinners charging at him with their machetes and knives.
When they're all dealt with, John regroups with Mary who was checking over her little brother, who was bleeding badly, bruises all over him, his clothes were a bit torn, and have a wound on his left arm. He quickly knelt down and check the condition his in.
"Are you alright?" John asked Jamie.
"Y-yeah..." Jamie barely replied then look over to his sister. "Who was this feller, Mary?" He asked her.
"This is John Marston," Mary told him. "He saved me when I was looking for you. He just saved us both."
"And you have a bad spot on your arm," John told him. "It seems that they must have stabbed you there."
"They did, Mr. Marston," Jamie told him.
After John spends the next minute treating his wound with bandages, and also giving him some of his health potions, John also gives Jamie a horse that once belonged to one of the Skinners since his horse got killed by them. After Jamie treating his new horse, the horse accepts him as his new owner and Jamie mounts him with John helping him up.
Making sure they made it out of Tall Trees alive, John must guide them back to Blackwater, so he mounts back onto his horse and guides the two out of the woods and to town with Jamie riding his new horse with Mary sitting on the back. While riding their way back, Jamie wanted to know more about John so they continued their conversation.
"So you also rode with Dutch and Hosea?" Jamie asked him.
"Yep, things didn't end well for the gang but I do know it's for the best," John replied.
"But what about Arthur? Where is he?"
John hesitated for a moment but Jamie needed to know the truth. "He passed away," He answered somberly. "A long time ago. He saved my life."
That news saddened Jamie. The last time he was him was getting inside a train with Mary and Arthur had to watch them leave.
"I see..." He says somberly.
"I know how that feels," John said. "But hey, at least he is in the better place now. He may be a bad man like me, but he grew to be more than just an outlaw at death waiting at his doorstep."
"Still, it's terrible," Jamie replied. "I know he's an outlaw but I liked him so much that I've come to view him as my own big brother, he is the one who taught me how to ride a horse, gave me some wisdom and all. I always liked Arthur."
"Me too," John replied. "Me too."
They eventually returned to Blackwater, they stopped by the edge of town and look at John before they leave.
"This is it," John told them. "I'm going to head back to my ranch we just passed by. You two can take care now and stay outta trouble."
"Yes sir," Jamie nodded.
"Thank you, John." Mary thanked him.
"No problem," John replied.
John watched as Mary and Jamie went straight into Blackwater. Out of all of the folks who were friends with him and Arthur, and also to those who knew him, Uncle, Sadie, Charles, Mary Beth, Tilly, Rains Fall, and that homeless man at Valentine who saw him walking with Arthur that time. John felt that he had quite a day, so he turned his horse around and made his way back to Beecher's Hope.
It is stated that John was originally to meet Mary Linton in the epilogue, so I thought I gave that a fanfic. Forgive me if it's too rush.
I may want to continue the Red Dead rewrite series, really, I really do but I still have other things to do in personal life so I hope you all understand. Stay coolio. Peace!