Always Was The Better Shot

Epilogue

The force of the explosion sent Cassidy flying backward into a stack of crates. Groaning, he got up and watched Ashe's car slowly lag behind the train before getting smaller and smaller in the distance. Good. The only way for Ashe to be safe was if she was no longer involved, and nowhere near him. Talon would gladly try to use her against him, and Cassidy wasn't willing to give them that opportunity. He watched the skies for any signs of Talon giving pursuit of the car, but after a few tense moments, he saw no Talon helicopters flying past the train towards Ashe and her crew. Giving a sigh of relief, Cassidy grabbed his revolver from its holster and turned back towards the main body of the train. He could see Talon's foot soldiers running towards him from a few dozen yards away, along with the red glow of the enforcer.

Cassidy always wanted to have a simple life. Get a piece of land and work it, build his own home on it, and have a quiet, uncomplicated job. Turns out fate had something different for him in mind, which is what brought him here, on this train, in the middle of the night. This was probably going to be it, but at least he'd go down fighting for what was right. There are worse ways to go, Cassidy thought as he checked the cylinder of his revolver, making sure it was fully loaded. At least I'll go down sending some of Talon to Hell. The troopers made their way closer to Cassidy, getting bottlenecked at each inter-car hallway, which bought Cassidy more time. When they were only a few cars away, he started shooting them as fast as he could, fanning the hammer of his revolver and unloading his cylinder into the mass of bodies in front of him. The front line of troopers went down with groans of pain, tripping up those behind them.

Reloading as quickly as he could, Cassidy resumed firing at Talon's forces, trying to shoot as many as he could before they got too close for comfort. As he reduced their numbers even more, he heard them shouting to one another amidst the cacophony of battle. As he took another chance to reload his weapon, he saw that the foot soldiers started to pull back from the hallway. Could they be cutting their losses? Regrouping? Pulling out their forces? Cassidy thought, snapping the cylinder back into place. The enforcer stomped into the hallway, charging up his weapon and pointing it directly at Cassidy. Of course not. Cassidy sighed and dove to the side of the car as the enforcer fired at him, hot red beams of energy flying past him and out into the night desert. He got up and started shooting at the enforcer, only to be met by a hail of bullets. Talon apparently had the genius idea of using the enforcer as a shield while they advanced on Cassidy's position. It wasn't a perfect idea, since Cassidy was still able to shoot around the enforcer occasionally, but it was nonetheless effective since they were making ground.

Cassidy turned to look back at the missing back wall of the car. Jumping out at this speed would be suicide, but then again, so would staying in this car. At least he had a chance of shooting his way out here, as slim of a chance that may be. He checked his ammo inventory, shocked to find he only had two cylinders worth of bullets left. Twelve more lives of Talon's soldiers he could take if he shot true.

"Give it up, McCree!" the robotic voice of the enforcer shouted at Cassidy. He looked back at the hallway to find that Talon had stopped their advance. "There's no way out of this. Lucky for you, we want you alive. So, we can either take you now, peacefully, or we can put some bullets into you and then take you."

"You putting bullets into me doesn't sound like you want me alive!" Cassidy yelled back, grabbing his final flashbang from his belt.

The enforcer gave a robotic-sounding chuckle. "We won't shoot you anywhere vital. So, what's it gonna be?"

Cassidy pulled the pin on his flashbang and said a silent prayer above. "I never was one to go quietly," he muttered, before flinging the flashbang directly at the enforcer. It exploded a few inches from its face, causing everything in the hallway to stumble around or shield their eyes in a panic. Cassidy stood up and advanced towards the enforcer, firing directly at its helmet, one bullet after another colliding with the faceplate. The armor the enforcer was wearing had to give out soon, especially after the beating it took over the late half hour. And give out it did. Cassidy's shots slowly dented the enforcer's helmet, causing the heavily armored Talon operative to slowly stumble backward with each collision. When Cassidy's sixth shot hit the enforcer, it broke through the helmet, and it was lights out for good. Cassidy's triumph was short-lived because the remaining Talon forces were quickly recovering from his flashbang, and he only had six bullets left. And there were way more than six troopers in the hallway. He retreated back into the car before the soldiers could fully recover their senses. He pulled out the last round of bullets he had. Six bullets left, and then he was out of ammo, and out of time. Time to make his last stand.

Cassidy snapped the bullets into his Peacemaker and swung around the corner, taking in the soldiers that had started to rush at him. Bang! The lead trooper missed a step, clutching at his midsection and falling over. One of his comrades grabbed his shoulder and pulled him to the side so he wouldn't get tramped. Bang! Another trooper stopped dead and fell backward, and a sizable hole in his helmet. Bang Bang Bang! Only one bullet left. The smart thing to do would be to use it on himself. Better to go out that way than to land in Talon's clutches. But, Cassidy wasn't a coward, despite what Ashe had said on the cliff. He took a deep breath in raised his revolver for the last time, taking aim.

Bang!

Cassidy hadn't pulled the trigger on his revolver, so what had... He felt a blossom of pain erupt in his right shoulder, and looking down he saw a hole had formed in his clothes, his poncho slowly turning a darker shade of red. He grit his teeth against the pain, before sending his final bullet Talon's way. As it sunk into the red helmet of a Talon trooper, he heard a dual Bang! and felt red, hot, burning pain in his right arm. He gave another grunt of pain, his revolver falling from his now useless arm. The group of troopers rushed up, surrounding him and pointing their weapons at his head. With a grunt of paint, Cassidy raised his arms and placed them behind his head.

"On your knees," a Talon trooper said, motioning with his rifle. Cassidy gingerly knelt down on the floor, his heart thumping rapidly. The Talon trooper looked over at his comrades before nodding to one of them. "Tag him and bag him." Cassidy looked up in time to see the trooper raise his rifle. He brought the butt of it down into Cassidy's temple, and Cassidy felt himself falling to the floor, everything going dark, until he knew no more.