(Chapter 19: The destruction of Armadillo)
The day continued to move onwards into the night, it was five in the afternoon. The sun casted an orange blazing glow over the lands, giving the large rocks in Mexico a red appearance and most of the deserts throughout New Austin. The Marston Gang had been training the rescued inmates from Sisika, how to handle a gun with various sizes. The elites, except for Jack, was practicing deadeye skills.
The rest of the BlackJack gang had come to an agreement that they would make their way down into New Austin, moving out of West Elizabeth as the law enforcement began to approach their land. The women and children of the gang stayed back in Thieves' Landing, and would come later on in the year. Allowing their children to grow.
Rebecca aimed at a whiskey bottle in which was sitting on a box, Jack was guiding her arm around like a parent teaching their child to shoot.
"Oh Jackie, I know how to shoot." Rebecca laughed, making Jack snicker and smile.
"Now just take in a deep breath.." Rebecca took in a deep breath. "Slow and controlled." Jack added, giving her some helpful information. Rebecca slowed down her breathing, suddenly time slowed down around her. A smug grin came upon her face, letting Jack know that it was working.
"Nice shit eating grin, partner." Jack joked, making Rebecca giggle yet still keep aim.
Rebecca turned her arm towards another glass bottle, she opened fire, time still remained slow, she aimed her arm towards another glass bottle, and fired again. She had learned how to use her deadeye skill.
"How is it?" Jack asked, Rebecca smiled before giving the Marston boy a cheerful hug.
"It is awesome, everything in my vision went red, and I could focus a whole lot more."
Jack raised his eyebrows and decided to give some more information.
"My vision is orange like when I use deadeye, deadeye is used only in dangerous situations or you have a large animal attacking you. You can also use it for hunting if you want to, but it is a key skill not to waste. I find that drinking some alcoholic drinks fill it up and make it even better."
Rebecca nodded her head and grinned, she was happy to receive this helpful information. Bill was watching from afar, seeing the two interact caused his heart to sink slightly, since he had feelings for Rebecca. Bill snickered to himself.
"Get a room you two." Bill said in a joking tone before practicing deadeye on some pots hanging down from clotheslines.
The sound of several bottles shattering could be heard as Dred had already mastered deadeye, his determination and rage worked well. He spun, grabbing a tomahawk axe from a crate, and then hurling it at a dangling target, the axe made a bullseye.
"Hellfire!" Dred shouted, he was war ready for the BlackJacks. The strong willed african american was ready to bring the rival gang.
(Hennigan's Stead)
All of the BlackJack elites, including Markus and his mercenaries, was riding through New Austin to find any sort of fort that Jack Marston could be hiding in with his gang. A huge majority of the male members from the massive BlackJack gang rode along too, they was taking the path that would lead them into Cholla Springs and towards Armadillo.
"I was reading a map recently, a map of this whole state, and some parts of Mexico. There is a settlement down this hill called Armadillo, perhaps these people know of a fort." Douglas announced, Markus rode up next to him.
"What if these people don't comply with our questions?" The son of Dutch asked, Douglas smirked and formed the shape of a gun with his fingers.
"Then we'll take Armadillo for ourselves, and we'll force the question to be answered." Douglas answered.
"Where are the Lanza brothers?" Shaw asked, Douglas shrugged his shoulders. The leader of BlackJacks truly didn't know where the brothers of his gang were located.
"So we're just going to run these people of Armadillo off? Think of the young people." Shaw said, he seemed to be the only one that had reason among the elites.
"Shaw, the old west is dead, we're essentially the undead walking this Earth. New technology is taking over, soon towns will be all you see over this large desert of Cholla Springs. The people that we run off will have roofs that are over their heads." Douglas responded.
They began to run down the hill that would lead out into the huge desert of New Austin, they could see the town of Armadillo in the distance. The buildings looking tiny from where they all rode, if you was to stand in Armadillo, the only thing you can see rushing down the hill was a mass of jet black clothes on dark colored shires.
A devious grin slowly creeped onto Douglas's face, New Austin had never seen the likes of the BlackJacks before, aside from the Lanza brothers. No land East of the Grizzlies, or Redemption mountains had seen them. It was time to make their presence felt.
"Remember, it's all about making a statement boys!"
The BlackJacks edged closer and closer to the quiet town of Armadillo, no one was expecting them, all except for one person in particular that wasn't part of Armadillo, no one knew where the man came from. He wore a nice looking suit and a top hat, accompanied by a twirling mustache. For some reason, this man always shown up when a large amount of life would be lost. He was known to some as the harbinger of death and destruction, no one knew his name.
Seconds passed by, then a dust cloud could be seen in the distance where the BlackJacks was coming from. The paperboy of Armadillo noticed this dust cloud seemingly approaching in the distance, then the faint sound of horses neighing, several horses..
Then the BlackJacks broke through the dust cloud that the hoofs of their horses had kicked up as they all ran, all of them had weapons drawn, some had some fire bottles at the ready. The paperboy seen this and a growing sense of dread started to start in his chest.
The sight of a massive gang charging towards a town on horseback, guns drawn, and all having looks of malicious intent on their faces was a sight rarely seen, even when large amounts of gangs still existed, those gangs usually snuck into a town. The BlackJacks seemed to be extremely confident, indeed it was all about making a statement. The paperboy made a mad dash for the sheriff of the town, the sheriff was Jason Swinson, taking place after the legendary Leigh Johnson retired in 1914 after serving 17 years.
"Swinson, a gang, a gang is coming!" The paperboy cried out, as he heard another faint noise of a horse neighing, this time the noise was dangerously close.
Swinson ran outside followed by a couple deputies, the paperboy hid inside of the sheriff's office. Gunshots were heard, followed by a thud right outside the door, the sheriff had been shot dead by Douglas Mulligan. Another thud was heard, one of the deputies had been shot dead too. The citizens all ran in fear as the BlackJacks charged into Armadillo, but those poor citizens just weren't fast enough, and they was all gunned down. The other deputy, hid behind a barrel to take cover. A BlackJack member race past the other side of the sheriff's office, the deputy was shot in the back, he let out a pained growl of agony before collapsing into the barrel, knocking it over.
"Markus, take your mercenaries, demand where the Marston Gang is. Spare no one that doesn't comply!" Douglas shouted as he shot a running civilian in the head with his winchester repeater, Markus nodded his head, and his three mercenaries headed towards the Armadillo saloon.
Most of the citizens had crowded into the saloon, all of them were trying to go upstairs or hide behind the bar. Markus downed a man and a woman with his sawed off shotgun before shooting his revolver into the air for three rounds, the bullets digging through the ceiling and went up into the balcony, an unlucky citizen felt the bullets go right into his genitals three times in a row. The man yelled out in extreme agony, grasping onto his bleeding balls before falling over the guard rail. A native american member of the BlackJack gang launched a tomahawk at the man's throat as he fell, it was a direct hit, decapitating the falling man.
"Alright, let's keep this short and sweet. Does any know of a Marston Gang? They probably passed through this town two days ago?" Markus asked loudly for the silent citizens to hear him, no one answered despite them all knowing that another gang passed by the town a few days ago.
"We can make you all talk, we have no problem in killing all of you!" Markus shouted, aiming his revolver down at one innocent man's head, the man crouched down with his hands protecting his hands.
Suddenly, a drunken man approached the son of Dutch and the three mercenaries. He was tumbling all over the place, using the tables to hold himself up as he approached Markus.
"Hey buddy, go fuck yourself." The drunken idiot of a man said, then snickering a bit, Markus didn't find this funny, and nodded towards Lou Scherr.
Lou Scherr in all a lightning fast motion, snagged the drunken fool's head and jerked it to where it was almost turned around in a 360 degrees rotation, a loud snap was heard, and the drunken man fell to the ground, dead via neck snap. A woman and her child struggled not to scream after seeing the man laying on his stomach, but his head facing backwards. The man's eyes were wide open and had the thousand yard stare in his eyes, his mouth hung open, no emotions, just dead..
A loud explosion was heard, dynamite had been thrown into a building. Then the sound of shattering glass was heard, somebody had thrown a fire bottle at a building. A few people were hiding in the Armadillo theatre, a few BlackJack members barged in, and killed all ten people in just a matter of seconds, a few children, a couple of women, and the rest of the men all shot down as they frantically scrambled around to try and get to safety.
Douglas marched through the streets, shooting down any stubborn civilian that tried to run or fight against his gang. The smell of smoke was entering his nostrils, buildings were burning due to the dynamite and the fire bottles. The leader of the BlackJacks could hear the anguished cries of the people that burned alive inside the buildings, then to hear the screams of agony fall silent just a matter of moments later.
"Destroy everything, leave nothing left of this town! Burn it all down!" Douglas ordered, minutes passed as every building was blown up or in the process of being ransacked and burned.
All police that arrived on the scene was shot down instantly by the BlackJacks, nothing could stop them it seemed. The cruel gang made sure to rob any store or steal any valuables that the town offered them, not even the animals were left. A dog was biting on the leg of Douglas for a moment, a BlackJack member shot the dog dead without no remorse or any sign of hesitation.
A whole town's worth of money now belonged to the BlackJacks, a whole town's worth of weapons belonged to them, all of the food and items at the store belonged to them. Even the loot of the dead was theirs, the dead animals that they killed were skinned quickly.
All thirty of the BlackJacks that had rode with Douglas, thirty four counting Markus and his mercenaries, stood in the streets now littered in piles of rubble from the blown up buildings and some scorched pieces of wood.
Now the only citizens remaining was crowded in the Armadillo saloon, no escape for any of them. Six BlackJack members aimed their guns down at the floor in a single line, each man beside each other, like a firing squad. A couple of people had been killed since no one would answer Markus's demands.
"Fine, a large gang passed through here. I am not giving any more fucking details to you savage people!" The man screamed, one of the BlackJack members forcefully dragged the man out of the saloon, and thrown him into a burning building.
"I have a better solution." Markus said, the citizens were forced out of the saloon and was ordered to stand in the middle of the street. Fifteen citizens all grouped up, huddled together, the children at the center being protected by the adults. Five children, ten adults. Some of the children's parents were already dead.
Mickey Owens took two fire bottles, one in each hand, and looked intensely at the crowd of innocent people, eyes wide like a crazed beast and his face shaking with anger. Lou Scherr stood with a meat cleaver, the rest stood with guns.
"I'm giving you all to the count of five to tell us which direction this gang headed in, if there is any fort here, or if anyone spoke about leaving this state!" Douglas shouted, no one in the huddled up crowd of innocence spoke, the children were all crying.
Douglas felt sympathy for the children, and the kids were taken away from the adults. The children were spared to be raised in the BlackJack gang. The adults made attempts to help the kids, but all of them were shot down. Now only five civilians remained of Armadillo, only five mere children.
Douglas looked at all of the burning buildings around him, the dead bodies littered the streets. It smelled of rancid smoke and burning flesh, most of the larger buildings were collapsing as the fires spreaded out of control.
"This town has been burned, there is no saving it anymore." Markus said to Douglas, the BlackJack leader grinned and turned towards his gang to make an announcement.
"Any settlement we come across, we destroy it, we will destroy anything and everything until we find Jack and his mongrel horde! Leave no town left standing, burn all towns to the ground!" Douglas shouted, after a few seconds of gathering up valuables into large bags. The BlackJack men moved out of the destroyed town of Armadillo.
After so many years, the small settlement of Armadillo had been destroyed. It had been destroyed in brutal fashion, with everything being ransacked, and all civilians save for five children, murdered. All just to make a statement..