Enjoy my first story on Red Dead guys!
Poker was Landon Rickett's favourite game. A game which required patience, determination, stamina. Landon Ricketts had all of these, and he knew it. Right now it was 1899, a Sunday evening and Landon and his friends were taking a night off saving people to relax in Blackwater. They were sitting just outside the saloon where the poker table was, and they had just began they're game. There was seven of them in total, Landon, Dusty, Butch, Seymour, Terrence, Sammy and Jake. All honored by civilians, especially around Blackwater. The police force in Blackwater was terrible, and so when people were in trouble, they turned to these men. These men who had been together for ten years, riding across the county to restore order to outlaw gangs like the Walton's and Bollard Twins. They were welcomed in Blackwater, and it was basically they're hangout. Everyone was a little tipsy from the alcohol, except Landon. He was always on the alert, and if he was jumped he would be ready with his trusty LeMat which was sitting in his holster. The rest of his friends had Cattlemans and Scholfields, but would be less prepared for an attack. "You're call pal." His best friend Dusty said, a reasonably young man who still had a lot of fight in him. Landon realised it was his call, and scanned his cards. He had a pair of kings, and they're was a king on the table. He was about to go all-in with his three of a kind, but then he heard a scream behind him. The relaxed atmosphere had been demolished.
He and his friends turned to see a woman being beaten by five men on the cobbled street leading into town from Great Plains, and he instantly stood up and drawed his revolver. Dusty followed, and afterwards the rest of his friends. Landon took aim upon the man actually stamping on the woman, and could see that he was an unaffiliated criminal, along with the rest of his friends. One shot was enough, and it hit the man in the left cheek. He stood perfectly still for a second, and then collapsed on top of the poor woman. The rest were taken down with haste by Landon's friends, and the woman was showered in they're blood. Landon scanned the scene. Five dead men, just shot, and still the law hadn't come out to see what was going on. That was the police force for you. Landon moved towards the woman while his friends covered him. He knelt down beside her and saw how badly beaten she was. Her nose was broken, and she had two black eyes. "Who were those men?" Landon asked gently. The woman coughed up some blood, and then spoke. "They work for Koby... he... there's more coming..." And with this, the woman died on the spot. Landon closed her swollen eyes, and then stood high above her. He then addressed his friends. "Gentlemen, this woman must be avenged. There are more of these scum coming. We need to get prepared." But then it happened. Suddenly, a shot came from Great Plains. Sammy was hit in the side of the head, his brains splattering all over Terrence's jacket. He collapsed onto the ground, dead. Landon and his friends turned towards Great Plains, and could see about ten men riding towards them on horses, each wielding Henry and Winchester Repeaters. Landon and his men stood together, revolvers at the ready. "We're not prepared for this!" Dusty shouted. Landon agreed, but didn't say anything, instead standing by his friends. "We fight, or we die!" He suddenly shouted, making his friends cheer, except for Dusty. They all took aim, and began to fire at the men.
Of course the revolvers didn't have enough range to give any damage to the outlaws, and so Landon came to a decision. "RETREAT!" He screamed, turning and running further into Blackwater. His friends followed and ran. One of the outlaws took aim, and hit Butch in the back. Butch shouted for help, but collapsed soon afterwards. That left only five of them. Landon could here women and children screaming in terror as he ran, and he could see lawmen getting prepared for a battle. They were hardly prepared though, as the police force in Blackwater was terrible, and so they were only equipped with weapons such as the Cattleman revolver. Landon arrived at the general store, which was empty and closed due to the fact it was ten o'clock at night. He kicked the door down, and his men followed him inside. Landon then ordered Seymour and Jake to guard the door while he, Dusty and Terrence could try and devise a plan. Landon glanced out of the window and could see the outlaws separating, riding around Blackwater and picking off lawmen and civilians. More and more people died, and Landon knew that he and his friends were they're only hope. "OK OK, let's think of a plan." He said, slumping down in a chair. "We need to split up, the outlaws have separated and we need to take them from both sides, the rundown part of town and the part we're in now. The number of us is pretty even, so we could have Terrence, Seymour and Jake take the rundown part of town, while me and Dusty can remain on this side." And with this, Landon's friends nodded in agreement, and moved out, leaving Dusty and him in the general store. "OK Dusty, you ready for this?" He asked. Dusty smiled. "Hell yeah! The law ain't nothing, and they're just gonna get more people killed. It's me and you buddy, so let's go." And so, Dusty and Landon left the empty store to emerge onto the cobbled street.
They made they're way down, on the way picking off a couple of outlaws, and arrived next to the cinema. When they got there, a couple of lawmen emerged from the police station, repeaters at the ready. When they saw Ricketts and Dusty, they instantly assumed they were helping the outlaws attacking Blackwater. They opened fire, and Dusty and Landon were forced to retreat to the wall outside of the bank. They took cover behind it, and the lawmen were still firing. "Goddamnit! The law in this town are as bad as the outlaws!" Dusty shouted, as another bullet skimmed his head. "Landon, it's been a pleasure fighting alongside you!" He screamed, moving out of cover and firing his weapon upon the lawmen, who were put down, but in return he was shot in the chest, and he remained still. Landon studied his friend, the man he had first met in Mexico, during a massacre in El Matadero, which had been fifteen years ago. The man who had helped him throughout all of these years, and all of that had led to this point, this point when a group of scum outlaws attacked Blackwater. These moments would surely go down in history. Dusty slumped down next to his friend, and rested his head against the wall. "Good fight, my brother, good fight..." And with this, he died on the spot. Landon couldn't help but cry, and tears and tears streaked down his face. He rested himself next to his friend, and listened to the massacre that was going on behind him. He listened to the shots, the screams, the chants. He felt the pain of all of his friends who had surely died. And finally, at six in the morning, the noises stopped. No more gunshots, no more screams, no more violence. Landon wished he had had the strength to fight in the battle, but he had to remain with his dead friend. He looked at him. He was perfectly still, now in heaven, if there was one. Landon stood up, studying the area. Bodies everywhere, mostly lawmen, and he counted at least fifteen, and that was only around the station. Imagine how it was on the other side. And then he saw them. His three other friends, all dead by the cinema. It looked like they had been defending a random woman, who herself had been shot. This was the biggest massacre he'd ever seen. All of his friends killed within one night. But it was over, they seemed to have won at least, but with heavy losses. The town was silent, just a few whimpers from some surviving civilians. Suddenly, he felt a gun in his back. "Hello, Mr Ricketts. The name's Koby. It seems you and you're men massacred my entire gang." The woman Landon had seen beaten had mentioned a Koby, and that the outlaws who attacked were his men. Koby seemed to have a rough voice, he sounded old and unpleasant. "Listen to me, Koby. You can talk about massacres. You caused all this. Lawmen, civilians, and you're own men, all dead, because of what?" Landon asked angrily, studying his dead friends as he spoke. They seemed to have been cut open. Koby's men were disgusting. "That woman was my wife. That woman slept with another man behind my back!" Koby shouted, anger in his voice. "That doesn't justify beating her." Landon replied, putting his hand on his LeMat. Possibly, he could beat this man in a duel. "If you're a real man Koby, you'll fight me like one. I challenge you to a duel." Landon hissed. He could feel Koby relaxing a little, and then the gun was removed from his back. "OK, tough guy. You want to destroy my gang, OK. You want to stop me from bringing justice to my wife? OK. But you cannot defeat me in a duel." Koby stated, allowing Landon to turn around. For the first time Landon saw Koby. He was middle-aged, had plenty of scars, overweight. He was a man who had been in many duels, but so had Landon. This would be a tough duel.
They moved towards the mouth of the cobbled street leading into the centre of Blackwater, and got prepared for the duel. After everything this man had done to his friends, his brothers, he deserved to die. However, Koby looked very determined. Landon had never been so scared. He readied up, as did Koby. They each fanned the hammer of they're weapons, and looked into each other's eyes. He couldn't read anything on Koby's, they were purely empty. The tension built up between them. The moment was coming. The moment which could be the death, or the success. Then they drawed at exactly the same time, but Landon fired first. The bullet soared through the air, and hit Koby directly in the forehead. His body flew backwards, and he landed with a huge thud, dead. Landon holstered his weapon, and took one last look at what Blackwater had become. This event would go down in history.
And it indeed did, Landon Ricketts thought to himself while sitting in a chair at Chuparosa in Mexico in 1911, watching a young man argue with the local hoodlums. The man reminded him of himself, the way he spoke, the way he acted. Suddenly, the man shot the three bandits, and took his stolen hat back from them. Landon smiled. Time to teach the boy how to shoot.
Hope you enjoyed this, if you did please leave a comment and I'll try and make another in the future!