Chapter 3
John Marston
"This is where things get Intense"
John Marston and the strange girl he just met, made it to the small town of Armadillo, when the girl saw the town, it was like nothing she ever seen before, John notice this, it's like she never seen a lively town before, which was strange to John, Ellie did see Tommy's town, but she never seen a town that was without walls, filled with people without fear, and the townsfolk are just walking around like its a normal day, its seemed peaceful.
"(I could get used to this feeling)" she thought.
John's horse slowed down and stopped completely next to a small store, he got off of his horse and went to help the girl come down.
"Okay, we're here," said John, he tries to help the girl whose name he still doesn't know, but the girl got of the horse by herself, this attempt made her staggered a little.
"Whoa, easy there," said John, "I got it," said the girl, who ever she was, she was just as stubborn as John's son.
"Well at least let me help you," said John, Ellie didn't think anything bad of it, so she let him help her walk to store, when they both came into the store, she started to limp.
"Howdy there, how can I help you," said a man behind the counter.
"I got a kid here who got her ankle injured," explained John, the man who was the doctor that John was talking about, looked down to what John was saying.
"Oh my lord, come in, my name is Dr. Walt," he helps the red hair girl walk to the bed.
"You rest here, miss," said Dr. Walt, the girl sat on the bed and picked both of her legs up and rested there, "How this happen," Dr. Walt asked.
"She was out hunting with her father until she got bitten by an animal," answered John.
"Pretty Ironic," Joked the red hair girl, "I wouldn't say that, it's pretty much expected, though I still don't understand why your dad wants you hunting at your age," said John
"What are you...11, 12," asked Dr. Walt as he checked the girl's injuries, John saw her smiled, it's like she was asked this question before.
"I'm 14," answered the girl, "Oh," said in surprised Dr. Walt.
"Well that's still seems pretty young, I have a boy of my own and he hasn't start hunting until he was in his 20's," John said.
"Well, I had a kick start," said the girl, John grew more curious of the girl, the only thing that drives him crazy was what was the girl's name.
Dr. Walt checked the injuries, he gave her some medicine for the wound and wrapped it up.
"Alright, it should heal in a couple of days, take it easy from there, okay?" said Dr. Walt.
"Yea, glad I didn't get any rabies," said the girl.
"Well, you settle here for a bit, I'm going to see that friend of mine, you take care now," said John, with that, he tipped his hat to her as a goodbye and left the store, John Marston will check on the girl later, right now he has to go and see what Marshal needs.
"You were lucky you made it out of there alive, miss," said Dr. Walt, "Yea, I sure was," Ellie has been nervous ever since she got here, the fact that she was suddenly in an Old Western Time is already starting to freak her out, but she now wonders how Joel is doing, could he be trying to look for her, if so, she's far away from him than he thinks, Ellie couldn't help but sleep, maybe this is all a dream, and by tomorrow, she'll wake up from it.
John heads to the Marshal's office, when he steps through the open door, Marshal was sitting in his desk, he was looking down on some papers when he notice John coming in, "John! Glad you made it," said Marshal.
"Well your the one who wanted to see me Marshal," said John.
"Indeed I do, I'm sure I must of mention about these bandits that kept getting away," said Marshal.
"Yea, I don't see why you have to call me though, you could catch these guys on your own," said John, feeling a little annoyed on how the Marshal is wasting his time.
"Yea, that's what we thought, until we found this," Marshal picked up the paper he was looking at.
"We found their hideout only to have them already gone before we arrive, the only thing we found there was this bag they must of dropped," Marshal pointed out the bag behind him, "When we searched it, we found something very interesting."
Marshal gave the paper to John, what he saw was something that made enough reason why John has to come down here, it was a drawing of John Marston, on the bottom of the paper was written saying, "Get to John Marston whatever it takes, but bring him back ALIVE," John read out, it was just a few words that meant a whole lot of things, he then notices a symbol in the corner of the paper, a small black triangle with 4 blank colored circle inside the triangle, he focuses back to the picture of him.
"This is a damn good sketch of me," John admits.
"Yea well, that's why we called you, just wondering if you ever made any enemies that for some reason are searching from every town and reckoning them all just to look for you," said Marshal.
John did heard about these bandits whose been coming to town from Mexico to America, but he tried to ignore it now he has a new life, but if these bandits are after him, they could try and hurt his family, he's not willing to let that happen, not ever again.
"Sorry Marshal, I might of made some enemies but they're all dead as far as I know, but I'll be willing to help out anyway I can," said John.
"Good, can't thank you enough, I needed your help for this because I don't want these bandits coming to this town and hurting these good folks," said Marshal.
"Well, when do we start?" asked John, Marshal was going to give an answer until he saw his men coming, they were riding they're horses really fast.
"Hopefully, now," answered Marshal.
Marshal's two deputies, one was skinny name Jonah while the other one has a little heavy weight on him name Eli, they both came to Marshal's Office.
"Mr. Johnson, we have news on where these-" Jonah notice John, "Oh it's you again," he said.
"Well we're going to need all the help we can get," said Eli, "Boys," said Marshal, getting both of their attention.
"Oh, yes sir, we saw them bandits that's been terrorizing the country," said the Jonah.
"Yea, they're out settling by the canyon, we'll show you," said Eli, he and Jonah went back to their horses.
"Come on Marston, let's put an end to they're game," said Marshal, he grabbed his own rifle and putting on his white hat.
"Right behind you," John answered, he followed Marshal and when he got outside, John whistled and called his horse to come, John and Marshal got on their horses and followed where the two deputies are leading.
"Let's go," said John, the 4 men ride their horses to the last known location of the bandits, John looked at the store where he left the red hair girl to rest, he needed to get back and to help her find her home again.
"Remember Marston, these are the bandits that can bring the town down, so we'll be facing quite a number of them," reminded Marshal.
"You don't need to tell me twice," said John.
"I heard them bandits burned down a school house in the south, and burned down 3 more houses, these men are beast," said Eli.
"I can't wait to have a bullet in each of them," said Jonah.
"Assuming you might have enough bullets, if those rumors are true, we could be facing dozens of them, maybe more," said John.
"Well it's a damn good thing we got you on our side, Marston, you were a bandit once right? What do you think we'll be facing," asked Jonah.
"I left all that behind me, but since your asking, we'll need to watch out for an ambush, they could be expecting anybody since they are starting to have a name around here." answered John.
"We might be facing 20 of them if they're after John Marston," joked Eli.
"Look, we just watch our head so we can head back to town, I got someone to look after for a while," said John.
"Who?" asked Jonah, "It's a kid, a girl, I was on my way here when I stumbled upon her almost becoming a meal for the wolves," answered John.
"What's her name?" asked Marshal
"She wouldn't say, I guess she has some trust issues, she's said she was out hunting with her dad until they got separated," explained John.
"You sure you can handle this girl, she's sounds like a handful," said Marshal.
"I'll admit, she can be stubborn, but she reminded me of my son, so I think I'm good," said John.
"Maybe, how old is she?" questioned Marshal.
"14," John answered, "Oh lord, you are in trouble there, partner," Eli laughed.
"Enough fooling around, are we getting close to their hideout?" questioned Marshal.
"Nearly there Mr. Johnson," answered Eli.
"You can see ahead of you, the canyon," said Jonah.
John and Marshal looked up to see the canyon their getting close to, they stopped to the entrance and mounted off their horses.
"Alright, keep you guard up, these aren't like scums we dealt with before," ordered Marshal, John, Jonah, and Eli got their weapons drawn.
"Hey Marshal, I got to ask you, how do you know these are the bandits that's been the one terrorizing the south," asked John.
"Because that paper I showed you has the exact same symbol that these bandits painted on each house in each town," answered Marshal.
John remembered the odd symbol, the black triangle with 4 blank colored circle inside it.
"Let's just keep it quiet first, we don't want to start reckless," suggested Marshal, the two deputies were a little disappointed but know that there will be a shoot-out soon, John and the deputies follow Marshal's lead, it was quiet at first, they enter the canyon further, it took a while, stealthing nice and easy, when they got to the center of the canyon, that's when they started to hear voices.
"How long do we stay here," said a man in an american accent.
"As long as we have to, they should be back later," said another man, Marshal led out a hand signal to sneak up the campsite and ready their weapons, it was Jonah and Eli who followed to orders while John watch their back.
"I'm getting tired of this, when do we get our pay," asked the first man, the group can see the two men talking to eachother a 10 feet away from them.
"Until we find that Marston guy," answered the second man, Jonah and Eli got closer.
"This is pretty stupid, how do we know he's even here," asked the first man, who was looking annoyed.
"Hey, we follow the boss, do you want to tell him to his face that your not doing this anymore," said the second man.
"I'm not saying that it's just that the first few times it was easy and-" by accident, Eli tripped over a rock in which fell down a hill, making a loud smashing sound that caught the two men's attention.
"Who's there?!" questioned the second man, it was time to put an end to this Marshal thought.
"Put your weapons down! You are under arrest!" shouted Marshal, when Jonah tries to have a peek at the two bandits, they saw him and immediately start shooting.
"Oh sh**," cried out Jonah.
"Kill them!" ordered the second man, they began to shoot at the group.
"Well, we try the easy way, now let's do this the fun way," said Jonah, breaking a smile, John took cover behind a boulder, before the bandits could take cover, John with his rifle out, aims his weapon, and shot the first bandit, killing him.
"This is not going to end well for you friend!" John cried out, the group got closer to the bandits, after killing 3 bandits, the last one who was still standing, was shot in the leg by John.
"Ah, son of a-" the bandit couldn't finish the sentence.
When the group saw the bandit down, they got out of their hiding spot and started to walk over to the surviving bandit with their weapons still drawn.
"What? That's it?" said in confused Eli, he thought that there were going to be more, John would also agreed, but for now, he walks over to the last bandit.
"I did said this wasn't going to end well for you," said John, the bandit who was wearing a dark hat, having a short dark brown hair with brown eyes, an unshaved bear, wearing a brown leather jacket with blue jeans in which the left of the leg was wounded, he had the F you look on him, but when he saw John, he smiled.
"Well, this is funny, been looking for you, John Marston," the bandit said while holding his leg in pain, Jonah started to kick him in the face which knocked him back, the bandit spit out blood, "You stupid hillbilly," it was when the bandit said that had himself get kick again.
"Shut up, or we're gonna kill you right here, I would love to have my bullet into your head," warned Jonah, he pointed his pistol at the head of the bandit.
"Now listen here friend, for your life is depending on you, who sent you, and why are you looking for me," questioned John, but all the Bandit did was smiled.
"Friend, you don't even know the half of what we're doing," he said, "Mr. Johnson and Mr. Marston, you better take a look at this!" cried out Eli who was looking at the chest he found, he gave it to Marshal and started reading.
"What is it?" asked John, Marshal only read half of the sentence and already his face was getting pale, "Mr. Johnson?" said in concerned Eli, "This is a settup," he said in a harsh tone, he whistle his horse to get here.
"The rest of the Bandits are already heading towards to Armadillo," said Marshal.
"What!?" both said Eli and Jonah, "You son of a hoar," Jonah pointed his pistol at the surviving bandit.
"Hey, it was you fellas stupid idea to leave that town," said the Bandit, Jonah was about to pull the trigger until Marshal stopped him.
"Don't, we need him alive, we still got more questions about him," Marshal's horse as well as the rest of the groups horses made it to them.
"John, have him hogtie and come with us to Armadillo fast," said Marshal as he mounts on his horse.
"Yes sir," said John, he got out his lasso and hogtie the bandit, "What the hell are you doing?" asked the Bandit.
"You just shut up now and stop struggling," said John, after he hogtie him, he placed the bandit behind the back on the horse and followed Marshal as well did Jonah and Eli.
He tries to go as fast as his horse can, "Come on, faster!" cried out John to his horse, all of the horses were running as fast as they can.
"That little girl you mention, she's still at Armadillo?" asked Eli.
"Yea, which is why we need to get there now," answered John, the group made it out of the canyon with the bandit and head towards to Armadillo.
"What is it you people want with me, I've done nothing wrong with you," said John to the bandit.
"I ain't telling you anything," he answered.
"Oh, your gonna tell me everything, because if that little girl I got back at Armadillo gets hurt, I'm going to kill you myself," said John in a threatening tone.
"Well, then you shouldn't have become a hero, John Mar-" all of a sudden, a bullet went through the brains of the bandit, killing him instantly and falls off of the horse.
"What the-" John started, more gunfires were heard behind him and the group, when John turned, he sees dozens of bandits coming at them.
"God Damnit, they killed our prisoner!" shouted out John.
"Damn it," said Marshal, "You boys keep him off our back, we need to get to Armadillo alive," Marshal orders, John aims his pistol at the twelve bandits and starts firing at them, killing 3 bandits, but what seem like they're growing less, a few more bandits comes out of nowhere.
"Holy sh**, they're so many of them," said Eli, he's beginning to regret the wish for more bandits.
"Just keep shooting boys!" shouted Marshal, he pulls out his rifle and starts killing 4 bandits, the group started shooting at the bandits from left to right.
"This is some hell of an ambush!" admitted Jonah.
"No kidding!" said John, they kept riding and shooting until Marshal saw the town ahead of him.
"There it is!" he said, but then from a distant, what looks like to be 5 bandits coming to Armadillo, "SH**, we're too late, they're already there!" cried out Marshal, John looked ahead, and see the bandits attacking the town.
The only thing in his mind was the little red hair miss, he may not know her name, but the thought of something happening to that girl makes him feel sick and worried, he just hoped that girl is just as good as a shooter as a gunslinger.