End of a Time

A Story by Jun Rui

This is my first story and it's just something that I decided to write in a short notice so it's not very good but give me your opinions on it

Prologue

The year was 1899, a man unmounts and hitches his horse and walks into a saloon and orders a whiskey, sits down and starts to unwind from a long ride. He reaches into his satchel and pulls out a journal and inspects the cover, he slides his hand across the leather cover of the journal before letting out a long sigh and opens the journal and starts reading.

“We were on the run from the law for about 2 months now after that bloodbath back in Livingstead just right outside of Fort Smith. Now we’ve been camping out by a river near Cooper Post.” And the man starts to think back on what happened that day.

A year ago

“Morgan! Morgan!” A voice called, Morgan turns around and sees Bill, “The boss wants

to see ya, something about a stage” he said, “Sure, tell him I’ll see ‘im after I finish up here” Bill nods and hurries back to the boss.

Morgan finishes brushing his horse, headed over to the boss’s tent, and called out to him, “Grey! You wanted to speak with me?” “Yeah it’s about a stagecoach that’s coming up near here, I want you to hit it.” he said, “Any risk? Security?” Morgan questioned. “Nothing you can’t handle, just a few guys on horseback and a strongbox at the back so here’s the plan, I want you to take Levi with you as insurance, ohh!! The sight of both of you together would make a statue cry out its secrets.” “You sure about this? Hitting it so close to camp?” Morgan questioned “It’ll be fine” he exclaimed “When you and Levi hit this stagecoach, Me and the boys will start packing up camp and regroup with you just south of Walnut Springs.” Morgan nodded and said, “Alright Grey, I’ll go get Levi and maybe Jim too while you lot all get ready to move.”

Morgan walked over to Levi and asked him, “Levi, you know about what we’ve been planning right?” “Yeah!” He exclaimed “Hitting a stage but ain’t you getting too sick to do something this big with that cough of yours?” “I’ll remind you to show me some respect!” Morgan growled. Morgan looked over to Jim and yelled to him, “Jimmy boy! Come with us, we’re going stage robbing, grab a rifle and a mask and let’s go!” “Y-yes sir!” he nervously said.

All three of them mounted up onto our horses and rode over to a ridge overlooking a crossroads where the stagecoach would come by. While riding Morgan tried comforting Jim, “So kid, how long have you been with us? 3? 4 months?” I asked “3 months sir yes sir” Jim said “Drop the sir will ya? Call me Morgan.” He assured him “This here is Levi, hope you two will get along well” Jim tips his hat nervously to him.

Stagecoach Robbery

Morgan began explaining the plan to both of them as Morgan wants Levi to come with him to handle the men on horseback while Jim will take up a sharpshooter’s spot ahead on a ridge about a quarter mile from where Morgan and Levi will hit it. Morgan and Levi will hide near the trees on the side of the road.

Noon draws near and everyone has their role set straight as the stagecoach approaches, Jim readies his rifle, and Morgan and Levi wear their bandanas. When the stagecoach hits the mark, Jim shoots the driver, Morgan and Levi pull out their rifles and start shooting the men on horseback with Jim assisting them with some suppressive shots.

Once the chaos settles, Levi mockingly shouts out “Anyone alive throw out your guns! No one?” He jokes, Morgan goes into a coughing fit as Jim rides up on his horse, Morgan clears his throat and Levi mocks “You alright cowpoke?”, “Shut up Levi” Morgan exclaims.

Jim dismounts from his horse, walks to the strongbox at the back of the stagecoach and looks at the lock and shouts out to both Morgan and Levi, “Fellers! What do you think of this!? We might need to bring Henrietta with us, we can’t crack this lock without ‘er”, “Let me see it boy!” Levi says while shoving Jim aside, Levi examines the lock and pulls out his revolver and shoots the lock off. Levi looks to Jim and says, pointing to his head “You can fight but you can’t think, can you boy?”Morgan cuts in and says “Leave the boy alone, He did his part and we did ours, come on let me split the cash.”

After splitting the cash, Morgan compliments Jim saying “You know what kid, you did good here” He hands him his journal “I want you to hold onto it, I ain’t got much time left so you hold onto it tight”, “Oh! Okay Mister Morgan” Jim nervously says out “Just call me Morgan will you?” Morgan corrects Jim. Morgan instructs Jim “You go on ahead, Levi and I will search the bodies.” Jim nods and mounts up on his horse and rides off

As Jim is about to ride off, he hears a gunshot and turns around and sees Levi standing over Morgan’s corpse with a smoking revolver in hand, Jim’s eyes widen and he rides off in fear.

1899

“Jim Clarke!! Get out of the saloon!!” A voice shouts from outside the saloon, “We have a warrant out for you, dead or alive!! You best come with us” The voice states. Jim sighs and unarms himself, relieving his weapons on the table and walks out the saloon with his hands up, only to find it’s Levi on horseback with some men.

“Levi!! What do you want!?” Jim shouts at Levi, “Well I thought I’d tie up some loose ends and visit some old friends” Levi playfully states, Levi aims his rifle and shoots Jim in the chest twice. As Jim stumbles on the ground, Levi mockingly says “Well I suppose there’s that, come on boys let’s go!” And rides off with his new gang.

As Jim struggles for breath, he looks up at a rooftop of another building and sees an owl looking at him, as he reaches for the owl the light fades from his eyes and he dies of his chest wound.

The End