Every Last One Of Them - Red Dead Redemption II

Act Six - The Loss of Life

The four men stood outside the bank's main door. Trying to play it cool as they walked inside. Once inside, everyone got into their positions, Dutch beside the main door, Arthur next to the teller, and Hosea and Hugh standing around holding the place down.
"Alright! This is a robbery! Now give us the money and nobody has to die today!" Hosea shouted,
"Oh please mister do what he says!" A woman on the floor begged the teller.
"Alright alright-" The teller opened the door to the vault, Arthur hurrying him the entire time.
"Hurry the hell up!" He shouted as the man fiddled with the combination.
"I-I am hurryin'!" The man kept going at the lock.

To say he was taking too long would be an understatement, he was all but making a show of it.
"Open the goddamn lock!" Arthur shouted once more, this time hitting him across the head with his pistol. The man groaned, however that seemed to work as the door opened.

With a firm hit to the teller's bald head, he was out like a light. Arthur rushed into the vault, immediately cracking the codes to the smaller safes. He fiddled with the combinations as the hostages began to cry and make some truly sad noises.
"Arthur how's it lookin' in there!" Hugh shouted, still holding down hostages.
"Good! Good!" Arthur opened the safe, taking stacks of bills and stuffing them into his bag.
"Hurry up these people are gettin' antsy!"

Hugh kept his gun trained on a particular man who was giving him way too much side-eye than he'd like.
"You got a lazy eye or somethin'?" Hugh asked the man with a growl through his bandana.
"You'll get what's comin' to ya." The stranger mumbled,
"I'd certainly hope so-" Hugh then whipped the man across the skull as he collapsed to the floor.

Suddenly Arthur came out from the vault with his bag full of cash. An excited yet worried look on his face as he stepped over the knocked-out body of the teller.
"C'mon let's get the hell outta here!" Dutch shouted,
"Hugh take care of them," Hosea said, pointing to the civilians. The others ran out as Hugh figured out something to do with the randoms.
"Close your eyes and count to fifty and you'll live," Hughie told the strangers before rushing out of the bank.

Luckily they'd managed to rob the place without as much as a peep as they stumbled outside to find nothing amiss. It was honestly a shock, usually, these end with gun fights and dead lawmen.

The four men saddled up, galloping away on their horses. Completely dumbfounded at how easy that was,
"What's the cut?" Dutch shouts to Arthur.
"Nearly ten grand!" The four of them collectively cheer at the sum as they ride back home.
"Why was that too easy?" Hugh asked,
"Hmm?" Hosea inquired,
"There wasn't any trouble or nothin' kinda sad."

The rest of the ride was quiet, it was a damn good take. They wouldn't have to rob for at least a few months. Which is always nice so they can get a chance to just lounge around and enjoy themselves.

As they rode up to their cabin they began to cheer,
"Ron! John! We're back!" Arthur shouted, the four men dismounting. They didn't get a response,
"Ron?" Hugh shouted once more, his smile fading at the dead silence. The front door was cracked open, mud was tracked all inside.
"Oh my god... Ron? John?" Hughie rushed inside in a panic where he found John on the living room floor.

John was curled up and knocked out, blood spilling out of his nose as he mumbled in his sleep. The four men soon crowded around him in a panic, Arthur holding him up as Hosea shook him.
"John!?" Arthur shouted as the boy's eyes flicked open in a panic.
"Ugh... my head." He groaned,
"Where's Ron?" Hughie asked, looking at the younger boy with the most worried expression he'd ever had.
"T-they took him..." he mumbled,
"Who? Who took him?"

Taken? Did someone take him? Was he in trouble? Why would someone want to take him? Hugh's mind piled with hundreds of panicked thoughts as he began to lose his patience with John. The boy was doing his best to talk but he was just too delirious to explain in detail.
"I dunno... strangers they broke in and took him. John groaned,
"Shit," Hugh mumbled, Arthur looked at him with worried eyes as they began to ponder the worst.
"Boys. Go get him." Dutch growled, Arthur and Hugh nodded.

The two ran outside, mounting up as they looked at the ground. It'd been raining for the past week, the mud left hoof prints, which formed an almost perfect trail to follow.

They found multiple sets of hoof prints down a path, nearly ten horses.
"Why would someone take Ron?" Arthur asked,
"I don't know. But I've gotta find him." Hugh all but growled,
"That's a lot of horses. You think it was the law?"
"They don't beat up witnesses."

They kept riding as fast as they possibly could when Hugh came upon a cabin, the prints stopped in front of it. But they also continued past it. So Hugh dismounted his horse, looking at Arthur with worry.
"You keep goin' I'll check here," Hughie said, Arthur nodded and took off further.

With his revolver in hand Hugh carefully approached the front door, he placed a quiet hand on the knob. And with a deep breath, he opened it. There he found Ron on the floor covered in blood, a man standing over him.
"Ron!?" He shouted, however as he tried to rush the man he was tackled by another stranger behind the door. Hugh swung his head back as a man tried to choke him, he broke the man's nose but not before being pinned to the cold wooden floor.
"I'll fuckin' kill you!"
"Shut your goddamn mouth!" A man shouted, swinging his boot into Hugh's face.

Warm blood dripped down his face onto the floor as Hughie tried to move out of his pinned position. He thrashed around violently before his head was once again hit, his world went dizzy for a moment. All he could taste was blood as he looked at his brother.

"Leave him alone!" Hugh begged the strangers, and Ron laid there. Not saying a word, he was too beaten up to be able to.
"Hugh. Olsen. You pathetic bastard." The man above him mumbled to Ron. He has the wrong twin. And Hughie's eyes widened.
"He's not Hugh! I am!" He cried out.
"Shut the hell up!" A stranger shouted, throwing their leg into Hugh's side, knocking the wind out of his lungs as he gasped for air through tears.
"Don't you fuckin' touch him!" Hugh screamed.

"I said shut it!" A boot was then placed on the back of the brunette's neck as he mumbled,
"Ron. It'll be okay. I promise." Ron looked at him through a swollen eye, his mouth moving like he was trying to say something but couldn't.
"Please just stay with me." Hugh cried.
"Please! Please stop! Please don't do this."

Hugh laid against the floor in tears, everyone else in the room had gone silent as they paused for a moment. He begged them again, begging for them to let Ron go. A plea that fell on deaf ears.
"Ron please get up!" The man front and center above Ron then shot him in the head, blood and brain matter splattering onto the floor.
"NO-" Hugh cried, his chest heaving in grief as the entire world went quiet. Nothing but his brother's corpse was visible.

"Burn in hell." A stranger said,
"What about him?" Another asked, pointing to the boy on the ground who had all but disappeared into his head.
"No witnesses." A man pulled a gun on Hughie,
"Wai-wai-wait! He ain't part of this." Another man said, blocking the line of fire.
"I don't give a damn get outta my way."
"Stop! We're done." The man who killed Ron said, nodding at another stranger who threw the butt of a rifle into Hugh's head, sending him into darkness.