Gordon Thompson rode his horse towards a huge mansion which seemed abandoned. He looked at it closely as he rode the horse and noticed that it was covered in moss and mud. The roof had a huge hole in it. Birds came flying out of the hole and flew into the grey sky. Thompson got closer and closer to the mansion. He saw a wagon on the right side of the house which looked as though it was carrying something. Thompson stopped the horse and jumped off of it. Gordon approached the wagon to check what was inside. It was a body. It looked fresh. Gordon looked away and back again to examine the body more. It had huge slashes on its face and a bullet wound on the left shoulder. Thompson then walked away and began to inspect the house's interior. He opened the two large doors and turned his head both ways to look around. He looked forward and noticed another body lying on the floor. He moved towards it and spotted a huge bloody puddle that formed underneath the corpse. There was a small hole revealing guts and bone on the stomach, making Thompson gag. "What in the hell happened here?" He muttered to himself.
Gordon then walked up some stairs that were located next to the living area. The staircase stood against a wall, separating it from the rooms. Thompson looked around as he walked up the stairs before suddenly, his foot went through one of the steps. "Goddamn it." He said. Thompson lifted his foot out of the broken step and shook off some scraps of wood. "Stupid ol' house." He groaned.
As the sheriff moved through the top floor, he heard some noises coming from the distance. He walked over to a window which was located at the end of the corridor and looked through it. The noises were loud bangs, almost like explosions. "What the hell?" He asked. Thompson moved away from the window and looked around the top floor. He could see yet another corpse laying on its side, with its hand missing and it's head partially blown off. "Jesus H Christ…" Said Thompson. He didn't move closer to the body as it made him feel queasy so instead, Thompson walked into a large room which had a broken furnace inside of it. There was a huge window which had been broken, so Thompson decided to approach it. He looked down and saw the first body encountered, still laying there. "This must've happened recently." Thompson said to himself. Gordon exited the house and walked back over to his horse. As he jumped back onto it, he could hear the loud noises in the distance. This made Thompson suspicious and so he decided to head closer to the noises. Thompson noticed that the noises were coming from the east, so he decided to ride there. As he rode, he began to realise that the noises were becoming louder and louder. He must be getting close.
Thompson rode for at least five minutes before coming across a bunch of men sat near the river. They were holding sticks of dynamite in their hands. Sheriff Thompson got closer before getting off of his horse again. He approached the men with his thumbs in the side of his pants. "Excuse me!" He called out. "D'ya mind tellin' me what you're doin' with that dynamite?" He asked the men. All of the men looked at him and scowled. One of them decided to hide on behind his back, which caught Thompson's attention. "I can still see it." Thompson laughed. One of the men began to walk over to Thompson and held out his hand. Thompson shook his hand and began to question him.
"So what are you doin' with that dynamite?" Asked Thomspon.
"We're fishin'." The man responded.
"With explosives? Are catchin' a super fish or somethin'?"
"Well actually yes and no. We're brothers and we don't have mommy and daddy to look after us no more, so we have to look after ourselves. So we figured we should come down here and try and get some fish usin' dynamite."
"Yeah well, fishin' or not. I don't want you throwin' explosives into the river. D'ya mind tellin' me your name?"
"Ewan Maguire. That over there is Eric, that's Earl, Eddie, Edward and Edgar."
"Okay thank you. Listen you seem like nice people and all but, I don't want you doing this sorta thing. Now can you all head someplace else and use fishin' rods instead of dynamite. I don't want you to hurt yourselves."
"We ain't hurtin' nobody."
"Well not now you ain't but, you see that over there? That's a bridge. And what goes over that bridge?"
"A train…"
"Yeah, a train. Now let's say that a train full of people is goin' past, you throw a stick of dynamite in there and it takes a while to ignite. The stick moves closer and closer to the bridge and all of a sudden, BOOM! The whole damn thing comes tumblin' down. And you and your little brothers have just murdered tons of people. You are then arrested, taken to prison and then sent to Grande Fortuna to hang. You don't want that do you?"
"No…"
"Good. Now, pack your things and get outta here."
"Okay."
Ewan then walked over to his brothers and began to talk to them. Thompson couldn't hear what they were saying but he saw them nodding heads and looking at him. Thompson then saw one of them stare right at him. He was a tall man and looked really mean. Thompson felt threatened and took a few steps back. The brother was still looking at him and then began to crack his knuckles. "Actin' all tough." Thompson chuckled.
Suddenly Ewan threw a stick of dynamite at Thompson. The sheriff quickly evaded the dynamite and ran over to his horse. He attempted to climb on top of the horse until the stick exploded. The horse became frightened and rapidly galloped away. "No! Come back you stupid son of a-" Thompson was then charged by one of the brothers. It was the tall one which was staring at him a moment ago. Thompson tried to push the brother off of him but the brother was stronger than him, he was wrestled to the ground before the brother began to punch him. Thompson's face was taking multiple hits and he began to lose consciousness. The brother laughed ominously before there was a gunshot. The brother's smile quickly became an emotionless expression. The brother then fell on top of Thompson, giving him a chance to escape. There were more gunshots as Thompson began to flee. He looked around and suddenly heard, "Gordon! Get down!"
Thompson then ducked and fell flat on his stomach. The sound of guns firing was almost deafening. Thompson quickly covered his ears to muffle the sounds of gunfire. He saw Sheriff Ross firing his rifle and hitting the rest of the brothers with every shot.
Thompson moved slowly through the mud before seeing Ewan being shot in the leg and tumbling to the ground. He could hear the muffled screaming of the man and kept his eyes locked on him. Ewan was then shot in the back, sending him into a state of unbearable pain. Ross then quickly put an end to Ewan by shooting him in the back of the head twice. One to kill him and another to make sure he was dead. The gunfire continued as Thompson crawled towards Ross. There was a short silence as Ross held out his arm to pick up Thompson until Ross held his arm back an began shooting again as one of the brothers shot at him. The brother missed Ross and was then shot in the leg and then shot in the back. The area looked clear and Ross held out his arm once again as Thompson stood up and climbed onto Ross' horse. "What the hell happened here?" Asked Ross. Thompson took a minute to calm down and position himself on the horse.
"I was tellin' those idiots to stop throwing dynamite into the river and all of a sudden they throw a stick at me and nearly kill me. I'm lucky you got here so quickly." Thompson explained. Ross began to ride his horse back to town.
"So, you wanna look for your horse?" Asked Sheriff Ross.
"No, I'll just get another one." Said Sheriff Thompson.
"They ain't cheap you know?"
"I know but neither is death."
"What does that mean? Gordon, I think your gonna live until your 100."
"Yeah, I wish. I'm gettin' too old for this. I may think about retirin' you know? I could rest more and have less things on my mind."
"Well you do that then, I'd be happy to look after Appleseed. Yeah, Sheriff Jim Ross at your service. Maybe I'll get some new guys to boss around."
"I wish I still had your enthusiasm, Jim. But I tend to lose the enthusiasm after the first few gunfights."
"What were you doin' out here anyway?"
"Some guy came up to me in the office and told me he saw a cart knocked on its side next to some dead horses. That cart was holding prisoners. The guy told me that he was walkin' past as he saw a big group of guys with guns attack the cart and help free the prisoners. Two officers were killed and one prisoner was killed two."
"Did you go and look for the cart?"
"Yeah, yeah I did. The guy took me there and I looked over it. The prisoner that was killed was William Schulz. He was found guilty of rapin' and murderin' some woman. But I didn't recognise the officers."
"So what happened then? Were those guys at the river the prisoners?"
"No. I came across an old house a few minutes ago, its just down there. It was empty but I saw a few bodies in there. Only one of them was wearin' a prison uniform. And the rest of them looked like regular cowboys. I don't know if those guys were related to the cart crashin' but I'm gonna have to look into it."
"Why don't you let someone else handle this, Gordon? I mean you said it yourself, your gettin' too old for this."
"I can't let anyone else do this."
"Why not?"
"Because Wyatt Ellery was in that cart!"
"What? How do you know?"
"William Schultz's name was on the same hangin' list as Ellery. The guy was arrested. We were so close to getting' rid of him, and he got away."
"What is it with you and Ellery? Why do you wanna catch him? Is it some sort of personal situation for you?"
"Another time, Ross…"
"Fine, let's just get you back home your done for the day." Ross then rode quicker in order to get Thompson home faster. He could see that he was exhausted and wanted to rest. So Ross' horse began to gain speed and ride faster, faster than Thompson's career.