Chapter 3
John Marston looked down at the bandaged up form of his arm. Only at Copperhead Landing, where he tended to his gunshot wound with some gunpowder on the wound and ignited it, which sealed the wound. Always hurt like a bitch but wasn't the first time. It was tender and numb.
Saying goodbye to Tilly who was off to Saint Denis, it was time for them to venture on their own.
Afterwards, they were off again to the Van Horn Trading Post, getting a cabin that Sadie'd managed to whip up for them. It was better than risking any Pinkerton coming across them. With all of the wonderful luck in their life so far, they didn't need to fear pushing it.
A day before, his father figure, the man who raised him, found him all those years ago, went mad or perhaps he'd revealed who he was really all along. John was pretty sure he would never know. Regardless, that rat, Micah, got away with months of lies and horseshit. He'd swayed those goddamn traitors, Bill and Javier, to side alongside him.
The former wasn't too shocking, John knew. Always was a goddamn idiot. But Javier... they were close. Despite the weeks of quarrels they had, he hoped the Mexican asshole would have been able to put his senses together and do the right thing. But he knew deep down Javier leaving him to die was the moment he'd proven that his loyalty to Dutch outweighed everything.
It was a shame about Arthur, how he had to stay behind to fight off the law and no doubt get himself killed.
John smiled as Abigail and the boy were already enjoying their time in the cabin. Laying low for now was the only thing he could do. Sadie was out, always on the move. He'd never thought he'd be appreciating whatever gods they were about his family. He'd always loved Abigail and even the boy. Just didn't know how to approach them. The excuse of not believing Jack was his really fell flat. He'd thought about how he could have lost them, about how everything went to shit so fast.
Still, vengeance was in his system.
One day, Micah would regret this.
Sadie'd made the thought of getting revenge on that rat bastard crystal clear.
He'd known Abigail would disapproved, especially since she would likely believed Arthur wouldn't want this. But, John couldn't help it. Arthur told him to keep running and don't look back, but he wanted to make Micah pay. That goddamn rat played them all for fools and mustn't get away with it-mustn't be allowed to live his days out knowing he ain't got his.
John found himself sitting back on the bed when he heard a soft tapping on the door.
Groaning, he pushed himself up and walked over to it, opening it up with his optional right hand and staring at the teenager.
"Whatcha doing far out here, boy?" he asked.
"Good morning, mister, here's the paper for the day."
"I don't want to read it," John denied, knowing that word about someone as famous as Arthur Morgan dying would spread fast. He'd rather leave that in the past.
"Are you sure? Some interesting things happened up in a small mountain crossed by the Ambarino and New Hanover border, south of The Loft."
"I said no."
"Please. Boss wants me to sale these papers out today. Ain't gonna pay me if I don't."
Feeling bad for him slightly, he asked, "Will you leave me the hell alone if I do?"
"Yes," the boy said hopefully.
He decided to give pity to the young lad. "Fine."
He took the newspaper, giving the boy one last nod, before walking over to the bed and sitting down, groaning slightly at the burning in his arm as he opened up the newspaper.
The very first section grabbed his attention.
When he'd started reading, he couldn't stop.
"Co-leader of the Van Der Linde gang, Arthur Morgan was spotted killing Pinkertons agents. Fellow outlaw, Micah Bell, was found, dead. Few agents spotted a figure in the shadows, carrying a man on a horse. Regardless, new high-ranking agent in the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, Edgar Ross, after Morgan killed Andrew Milton, is launching an immediate investigation onto who this person might be. Dutch van der Linde has also gone missing. They are all armed and dangerous individuals. If you come in contact with any of them, inform the nearest agencies and stay indoors." John read to himself, yanking back, surprised as he looked at the pictures of the men beneath the articles.
There was Micah's dead body on display.
Foot tracks.
Micah's corpse? Arthur's body not yet found? Someone possibly taking Arthur's body? John knew himself out of experience not to say anyone's dead before seeing the body.
His name was also there, a $5000 dollar bounty, along with Dutch, Bill, Javier, and Arthur. The others weren't that well-known.
John was processing what it all could mean for the next fifteen minutes or so. Mere months ago, Arthur Morgan could have clawed through armies of the law with his bare hands. With his obvious sickness taking ahold of him, it limited what he could have done, and John knew that Arthur wasn't expecting to get off that mountain. He was planning to go out in a glory, like them heroes Hosea told him about when he was younger.
"John! John! Open up!" A familiar voice shouted from the other side, rough banging causing Abigail and Jack to shoot up.
Absently, he moved over and opened the door, looking at the forms of Sadie... and Charles? For a brief moment, he felt cautious around the latter especially knowing of his past loyalty to Dutch, but the man expressed doubts in where everything was going, and he'd cared heavily about Arthur and John. Bill even tried to threaten him once and backed down at Charles' mere glare.
"Charles... I thought you were up with Rains Fall and them folks after everything that has happened," John said slowly, deciding to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Charles straightened. "I was. We had a rider come down from the north that talked of a hundred or so Pinkertons dispatched to take out a gang hidden at the ridge," he replied. "They'd neglected the Murfees for years, so I concluded Dutch, and the others were the target. Rode out to warn all of you, but everything had been blown up by the time I've arrived. Flames burnt the camp. I found this loot." He pulled out a briefcase full of money, much to the surprise of John. All of the money. Everything. "This is the compensation that the camp gotten. Naturally, went to Copperhead. I was curious when I ran into Sadie, but she told me it was best for you to answer this question. What happened up there?"
"A rat happened," John said, disdain and anger clear in his voice. Venom was clear in his tone. No matter if the bastard was dead, he'd loathed his guts, and it would always be that way. "Micah had been feeding Agent Milton information and he got into Dutch's head to believe me, and Arthur was rats. Once the Cornwall mess show'd we'd not stop causing trouble, everything came crashing down." Goddamn it! If only John had been able to realize the truth sooner, maybe they could have saved Arthur from being the unfortunate victim in the middle of Dutch's bullshit. "Arthur tried to reason with Bill and Javier back there. Both sided with Dutch."
Charles nodded slightly. "They had disembarked by the time I reached camp, and they left quite a mess," he stated. "I found Miss Grimshaw, shot and left dead up there. Buried her before I followed Arthur's tracks through the caves and to the mountain."
This wasn't surprising. He was always a good hunter, taught Arthur some things about it too-a hell of a tracker. "Then you'd have found Arthur's horse," he said, feeling agony briefly consumed him much more than his now numbed up wound. Arthur'd always have an attachment to every horse he had. When he saw Arthur mourning his horse, it reminded him of Blackwater-Boadicea. He'd thought Arthur was going to break down right then and there, only able to push up in the final moment. He didn't have much time to grieve over Old Boy.
"I did. Buried him too for respects. I traveled through the mountains, finding a few other tracks. The Pinkertons clearly didn't care about the mess, but I had to be careful, or they would have found me. Indeed, I found Micah's dead body, but no Arthur's. Found some blood and mucus. I did an observation over the corpse and found something interesting."
"What?" John asked.
Given Sadie'd own expression, she didn't know what the dark-skinned man had discovered, obviously something he chose to wait until they united to tell.
Charles looked up and delivered the words, "Micah was shot from behind. Arthur was not the one who pulled the trigger."
"That meant... there was someone else on that mountain," Sadie concluded. "Someone who saw the fight and shot Micah. If Arthur was shot too, that would mean that his body would have turned up so this must have been the person who took Arthur."
"Yes..." He was able to say, his muscles tight. He didn't know how to feel, what to do, or what should be the next plan.
"If Micah is dead, and Dutch is nowhere to be found, maybe Dutch and Micah had a falling out," Sadie suggested.
"I doubt so. The rat already undone any rationality of Dutch." John dismissed.
"I agree, but for a different reason. According to what you're telling me, if Dutch wanted to save Arthur or they had a falling out right there and then, he would have shot Micah while he was looking. At most, he would have walked away, be it with Micah and his followers, or in the opposite direction. Micah didn't have time to prepare for this, so it goes against just pure logic." Charles declared, as always, the voice of calm, hand on his chin in thought. "There were other tracks that I noticed. These tracks went off-course from the original ones. There was another person on that mountain, another one who shot Micah and took Arthur. Dead or alive, we should find them."
"Arthur didn't have long to live," John managed. "If he somehow got off that mountain, he is going to collapse dead."
"Arthur, corpse or not, deserves to be surrounded by people who'd care about him. We should find him." Sadie insisted.
"I have a family. That's more important." John forced himself to say, remembering what he said to Arthur as he was thinking about heading back down for the money.
"We understand," Charles said, placing a hand on the back of Sadie's shoulder to calm the tension in her body.
"John," Abigail spoke, having heard everything.
He looked back at the two. "I'm sorry, but I-"
"No, John, this is different. Arthur saved our lives." Abigail argued, much to everyone's surprise. Did Charles' eyes ever went so wide like that before? "Find his body and give him the burial he deserves. Just be careful."
John was looking at her as if she'd grown a second head while Abigail leaned up and kissed him. He'd known Abigail cared about Arthur, and the feelings were mutual. While Arthur wished she'd chosen him at one point, the relationship slowly became close friends to the point of a sibling-bond.
After she pulled away, she nudged him to their friends direction and warned him. "Stay out of trouble, John Marston."
He smiled. "Ain't no trouble, Abigail, ain't no trouble."
Charles handed the loot to Abigail who nodded.
As the woman went back over to the chair to where Jack was still sitting, helping him do his hair, John looked at his two comrades.
Charles stated. "And it couldn't have been a Pinkerton. The few law men who weren't recovered had been shot in a certain angle. Micah would have had time to counter if they decided to betray him."
But who else could it have been? Trelawny? Reverend? Let it never be said that both can be underestimated. Maybe they heard something and went to rescue or at least recover Arthur's broken body, but John knew it had to be someone connected to the gang.
"Well, where do we start?" Sadie inquired.
"The tracks are still fresh. We're going to have to go on this search very carefully," Charles told them.
"And here, I thought you didn't like taking leadership," John offered dryly.
"I don't, but you're going to have to be very careful with your wound," the man said. "Meaning no rushing ahead. We'll take rest stops so you can at least fire a gun with both hands."
He thought he heard slight amusement in the normally serious man's tone.
"Reassuring."
Giving one last stare to Abigail and the boy, he followed his friends out.
This was going to be very interesting.
The hunt began.
Time to find his brother.
Dead or alive.
And whoever this person was and either give them a bullet or a thanks.
Probably both.
If Sadie didn't beaten him to it.
Arthur's note: I'm suddenly afraid for Javier. Lol
Also, yes, Charles got the loot. The result of Micah being dead... but where's Dutch?
I don't know if Abigail would support John going after Arthur dead or alive if he suddenly disappeared given how much she nags John off, but I feel like she appreciates the sacrifices Arthur made.