youtube.com/watch?v=ZC9owaRLqFg

"The cavalry has arrived ya bastards!"

"It's more of Elijah's boys, fellers! Shoot 'em!"

"I'm gonna send you straight to Hell, Elijah Rainwater! You and your fuckin' gang!"

"Give Satan our regards!"

"You goddamn boys couldn't shoot a fart out your ass!" Even with all their threats and blusters, Elijah wasn't fazed at all, riding hard across the valley as his two trusted guns covered his swift approach, Ben and Pete. Bullets zipped and whizzed past the ears of him and his horse, some nearly grazing his flesh, but still the valiant leader rode on, unleashing hell from both barrels of his 1851 Navy revolvers. "Howdy boys!" He hollered to John and Seth. Despite the grimness of the situation he and his gang were in, the man was laughing his head off like he was half crazy, taking down man after man without a scratch on him. "Looks like y'all need a hand!" He jumped down from Boudica's saddle, giving the mare a firm slap on the rump and sending her away before racing over to his other men behind the boulder.

"It's about damn time, Elijah!" John shouted back, still razing the rest of the Thunder Hill boys with only his Schofield. "Jamie's dead! He tried to hold on, he did! We couldn't make it back to the camp because of these bastards! Shit!" Quickly he ducked, as did Elijah when another flurry of lead smashed into the boulders. John grit his teeth, his face burning hot with anger. "Goddammit! Fuck all y'all!"

Elijah glanced over to the rocks nearby. There he lied, the younger Holcomb brother, in a pool of his own blood, a cold, empty look in his still open eyes. "Son of a bitch!" He cursed under his breath with a grimace. "I'm sorry, John! Jamie was a good boy, but right now, we gotta shoot these bastards! So c'mon! Seth, cover us from the rear! We're gonna flank 'em on the right!"

"Alright, boss!" Seth replied hastily racking the lever on his rifle. "Y'all get goin' then!"

Elijah grinned and nodded, "C'mon Johnny Boy! Let's finish these assholes! Hell's come to breakfast, fellers! YEE-HAW!" And like that, both John and Elijah sprung from their cover, both men unloading their weapons almost in perfect unison, a symphony of cracks and bangs amidst the loud, visceral screams and grunts of men being gunned down in a blaze of gunfire. Between him, John, Seth, Ben, and Pete, nowhere, not even the thickest and strongest of boulders on the prairie, was safe anymore for the attacking outlaws.

And nary could any of them escape as they were mercilessly shredded by the overwhelming hail of destruction that rained down on them.

"Holy hell! They're cuttin' us down, boys! Retreat!"

The frantic cry was given, but far too late it was. Now men lied dead in the fields, even some horses. A perfect warning to never mess with the McCullen-Rainwater Gang. It wouldn't be long before the rattle of constant discharges subsided, fading into silence, only to be interrupted by the cawing and cackling of buzzards and crows coming to feast upon the newly dead flesh. With a flourish of his pistols, Elijah slipped them back in their leather holsters, still that ever present grin upon his face at the delight of a job well done. A firm pat on the back he gave to John, stating proudly to the rest of his men, "We sure showed them fellers, didn't we? I ain't ever seen them boys run so fast." Heartily he laughed, however, his smile faded upon seeing the grim, bothered look on John's face. "You alright, son?" He asked, looking at the young man concerned.

"Yeah...just peachy." Muttered John. "We lost another one." A weary sigh he heaved, looking down at the body of Jamie. Still he was beating himself up on the inside, even after his boss and the boys came to rescue him and Seth. He should be happy, yes, but how could he be knowing another of his gang had died.

"Jamie was a good man, John." Elijah replied quietly. "He would gladly give his life for his brothers. I'll have Seth and Pete bury him somewhere nice. In the meantime, you need to get back to your woman. I reckon 'ol Kira is worried sick about you. Ben!" He called out to the other man. "Nice shootin' out there, you and Pete. Why don't you take 'ol Johnny Boy into town, meet up with the girls? I'll meet y'all there in a little while."

"I'm gonna stay here and bury my brother." Seth calmly cut in between the two, a small smile towards John. "You did good, John. Really, you did."

"Seth, I'm sorry about your brother." Said John. "I tried to get him help."

"Alright now, John. It's over." Elijah returned. "Go on now. Go find your wife." He patted the man on his shoulder. "You did good today. You sent them Thunder Hill boys runnin'. I don't reckon they'll be back for a while now."

"Hell, I reckon so, boss." John sighed with a shrug, shortly after giving a shrill whistle to call Blackjack over. He climbed up on the steed, petting his mane. "I'll see you later, Elijah. Seth, Pete, you take care." A tip of his hat he gave before spurring his horse along to meet Ben, "Giddy up, Blackjack!"

Just as quick as it began, it was over for John. He was thankful Elijah and the others arrived just in time, but still, the guilt weighed heavily upon both his mind and his soul. If only he could have reached the camp sooner...

With each passing second Kira was agonizingly awaiting her husband's return, silently not saying a single word. She was unknowing of just what her beloved had gone through, still she was unaware of what she would soon be in for when he would be returning to her. She knew that he was a broken man but knew that she was also a forgiving woman when it came to a few things here and there.

She waited in the carriage, looking down at her hands and soon she saw her beloved horse swiftly galloping by. "Feather! .. come here girl!" She called out to her beloved companion, the horse turning sharply and running toward her, slowing down and soon stopping in it's tracks. She shook her head from one side to the other as if she were sayig the word "no" neighing and huffing through her wide nostrils, pawing at the ground with her right hoof and alerting her owner that she was unsettled and nervous from all of what had happened.

"What is it girl .. what happened back there?" Kira asked softly, gently, delicately, seeming to ask as if the majestic animal could speak of her language which was of course impossible. Kira stroked her snout gently up and down the middle of it, letting her beloved Feather know that she was there for her and the gang as well, also letting her know that this was a safe place and harm was not allowed. It was now a distant thing.

Kira guided Feather to the carriage and stood there, waiting for further orders from the orders of the leader of the gang. She wanted to mount her graceful steed and ride her to the Hunting Cabin to find her husband but she was unable to because she was under strict orders because of being restricted to going into town only. She sighed sadly, wanting to ride to figure out as to where her husband was.

She felt as though something awful had happened and it had her heart beating fast and her soul wanting to find out what exactly happened there. With each passing minute the timer ticked down on her sanity that her husband was not returning to the camp.

SO far it was one and a half days but to her it felt like an eternity. She needed to hold him, to touch him and know that everything was as it should have been. Many would probably call her crazy, insane, paranoid, clingy, worried but she was just being her natural self.

She missed John. She was clingy but she loved each moment of it. She loved his warm touch, she loved being a witness to his smile, she knew that she was a cause of it as he was of hers. She wanted to give him space but she always wanted to be a reason for his proudness.

Hannah Bennett
Location: Town of McKinley, Saloon

The perfect silence of the saloon had been broken. A gaggle of well-to-do Gents and a tag along lady fluttered into the empty halls, a cloud of sound with them. With a sigh, Hannah reaches over to get her husband's hat off the counter and flops it on her head, pulling the brim down. Oh she knew that voice all right. It was Mathias Quinn. She and her husband had bought horses from him a few years back and even sold one of their brood mares to him in return. They weren't exactly competition, but Hannah had always worried that the horse man would turn cow man once he found out how much more money running cattle was... of course, her husband had said that it was too dirty of a job for a clean man like Mr. Quinn.

A bar stool not too far from herself rumbled softly against the floor as it was moved and out of the corner of her eye, Hannah could see a lady next to her. A proper one at that, although she seemed a bit... off. Peering over her mug of coffee as subtly as she could, Hannah gave the woman a look over. She had gathered from the conversation that she was likely the wife of Mr. Quinn, the rumors not unknown to Hannah... except this hide away girl was hardly what Hannah would have guessed. Town ladies, of course, had made her out to be a monster as they were all jealous of her quiet wedding to one of the most successful men in the area.

"Mornin'" Hannah offered with a forced smile, her eyes suddenly catching the bruises on her wrists. Her lips pressed into a thin line. Her husband had been a rough man, but never with her... it sadly was not uncommon, but it was not highly acceptable either, for a man to beat his wife. Hopefully there was a better story than what was running through Hannah's mind.

"Are y'all traveling through town? I don't recognize yer face..." she asked softly, trying not to be to presumptuous, although she was fairly certain she was correct in who it was that sat next to her.

@stitches

With the gun fight over and the ground being littered with dead bodies, there was only one thing left to do for Ben and that was searching the dead for any and all kind of things that could be useful. So far he had found a few rounds of bullets, a letter to some girl with added picture (she looked mighty fine!), a pack of cigarettes and a finely crafted silver pocket watch, which he quickly stashed away in the pocket of his vest. All in all some fine prizes after a job well done. He heard Elijah's voice while he was checking on a sound coming from a nearby body who seemed to be not so dead. Without turning his head and without keeping his eyes from the wounded man he answered Elijah.

"Sure thing, boss!"

The wounded man grunted in pain and raised his eyes towards Ben, who knelt down beside him with a grin, in fear. "Yer bein' awfully rude, interrupting the boss. Hush." He placed his hand over the mouth of the man and took his knife out of the leather sheath on his belt. "Hush now." He said again as the man started to struggle, realizing what was going to happen to him. A few moments later the struggling was over, the light from his eyes had faded and Ben had watched it happen. He pulled the knife out of the chest of the now dead man and wiped the blade on his clothes. "I'm done here anyways." He said to Elijah as he got up and walked towards John.

"Ya sure you'll be able to ride in yer condition there, John?" He pointed out the wound on his side. "Yer not lookin' too good. Let's pray those hicks in McKinley have a good doctor in town with at least a small notion on how to treat bullet wounds."

Feather had run off, probably finding its mistress, leaving Ben without a horse so he decided to take the one from Jamie instead. The boy had no need of it anymore anyway. Nasty business and a bloody shame but such was life. One moment your running around enjoying life and the next your six feet under. Ben sighed as he got on the horse, patting the neck of the animal. They rode off, Ben slightly behind John, keeping a close eye on him. "Ya know, I can hold the reins for ya if its too hard to hold them." He said teasing John. It could earn him a punch to the face later but Ben did not care.

As he had expected the wagon was not at the place where he had left them, certain they had made it to town already. Maybe that would be a good thing because if they had arrived all together, the women and both Ben and a wounded John, it would have drawn unwanted attention to everyone. Even know it would for Ben and John but at least the women would have nothing to worry about. Perhaps Ben could say it was a hunting accident or a bandit attack, which was not far from the truth, leaving the part they were a rival gang of course.

I hope the womenfolk did not run into trouble while we were gone

Pete Tailor counted at least four more dead men from his rifle, and maybe one or two others who would probably die soon without a doctor. Not every shot was a hit, but he felt proud of his work. Once again, he had justified to the gang why they kept him around.

Pete got down from his perch to return to his horse, blowing into the breach of his rifle. He'd have to clean it properly later, but this would do for now. Once his gear was put back on Kaiser, he made his way down to the spot where the rest of the gang had been. His first reaction was to check the pockets of some of the men they killed, but once he saw poor Jamie, he could only stop and stare.

"Shit..." was all he could say while wiping the sweat from his brow. When Elijah gave him orders to help bury the poor kid, he simply nodded and pulled his army issue entrenching tool from Kaiser. Digging the grave didn't take very long, and he helped Seth place Jamie's body inside.

"I didn't know Jamie well." said Pete, taking off his hat in reference. "But he I knew he was a good man and a good brother." He offered the shovel to Seth in case he wanted to do the honors.

Either way, he knew he was going to buy poor Seth a beer or three once they got to town.

The women and Gus eventually made it into town, though there was a bit of an issue getting Delta and Gus's disgusting mule to work together. It took quite a bit of coaxing to get the large black horse to cooperate but finally they made it. They found a decent spot to part the cart, near the general store and Anna hopped down with ease.

"I am going to the general store to get the supplies we need. I am sure the men in the shop can help me load up the cart. Miss Kira, Miss Claudia, y'all are more then welcome to join me or you can scout out the town, see if there are any easy scores or even bounty jobs the gang can take. Bounty that ain't us of course." She said the last bit quietly. Then she turned to the Gus. She considered telling him to do something useful rather than drink himself stupid but she doubted he would listen to her. So instead she went with the alternative. "Gus, don't get into any trouble, Elijah will kill us if we draw to much attention to ourselves already." She squinted at the man, making sure he was paying at least some attention to her. Though she didn't wait for a response before walking into the general store and browsing the product.

It took her all of 20 minutes to purchase the necessary supplies to feed the camp for a solid 2-3 weeks, paying for that with the camp funds. After that she began browsing for herself. Her focus was on the variety of sweets the store had in stock. Candies in particular were her guilty pleasure. After spending another 5-10 minutes trying to make a decision she eventually purchased enough sweets to fill up her own personal stock, paying for that with some of the money she had saved for herself. Very few, if any, of the gang members knew she had her secret stash of sweets, and if they did they had no clue where the woman hid them. She had caught some people attempting to locate her stash before. Which didn't end well for them. Those some people being Seth and Jamie in particular. She shook her head at the thought with a small grin, unaware that one of the brothers was no longer with them.

Kira had been rather unsettled because of her husband not being able to return as of yet, sighing as she made her way into town by the way of Gus and his stinking to high heaven mule. He led them into town where Kira and her crew members could assist with loading the horse drawn cart. She was eager to shop and stretch her legs.

"I would love to assist ya in shoppin miss." She said, carefully stepping down from the mule drawn cart. She had hummed to herself assisting with searching, carrying and packing the vehicle that was she once was a passenger inside of its depths.

Once completing her task she soon climbed up, getting and had sat in the back of the carriage, feeling eager to head back to camp grounds and discover the whereabouts of her missing husband. She sighed once more, trying to pick her own brain about just what he was doing and where he was at that exact moment.

She felt as though she were unable to think correctly. She daydreamer about meeting her once more and embracing her in a warm hug. She whimpered softly, not knowing that her husband was already back at the camp once more. She wanted to remain hopeful, wanted to be strong and stay courageous through it all but with each passing second she felt farther and farther away from hope and all it had to offer.

Truly it did, it did so much more. She felt a strange bout of foreboding, like a slice of warning was telling her that something was amiss. She wanted more than anything to be in her husband's arms and be able to remain there, burrowing into his heart like a love starving love tick and never ever leave his body. Never ever.

She was also unknowing that a few members of their gang were now deceased. She was not prepared to return back to where she would be subjected to once she would return back to the camp with the gang. She was also not prepared to see the full extent of John's wound. She felt as though she would return to the hunting Cabin.

She took a second to whisper to her unborn, whispering to him or her. "Papa's alright, he's the toughest man I know. So is the entire crew. Consider them our family." She said with a small smile.