Hunting Trip: Day 2

I wake up to a bright morning sun in my eyes as i groan and sit up to see Hosea crouched over what is left of our campfire and he offers me a cup, "coffee?", he says as I gratefully take the cup of depressant to get me through today, its the legendary bear after all, I don't remember a lot of deptails of the early missions, I just know this one goes wrong somehow.

Arthur wakes up a minute later and we begin to discuss the plan, "we need to use bait to draw him out, bears like fish obviously, but not many people know that bears have a sweet tooth", Hosea tells us while handing Arthur ingredients, "Now help me pack up while he does that", and we manage to get it all packed up with Arthur finishing making bait at around 9:42AM when we saddled up and continued on, "Lets try down by the water, thats where I saw him last", Hosea tells us as we follow him down a hill off the trail.

"How's the big bastard of a horse treatin' ya Lawrence?", he says and I pat the humongous black and white horse, "Decided to call him Domino, he's burly but he's a big softie when I mention sugar cubes", and on cue the horse starts bobbing his head and pawing at the ground as if I'm going to give him one but I lightly whack the top of his head, "I literally gave you one before we set off today you fat bastard, your gonna burn a hole in my pockets", Causing Domino to snicker in protest but he keeps going with or without a sugar cube, "You know. I used to ride this area with Bessie, years ago.", Hosea tells us, "Oh, really? I didn't know that. I imagine you still miss her", Arthur pipes up, "Everyday", Hosea says with a hint of melancholy.

"Did you two ever think about getting out of 'The Life' and living a normal one?", I can't help but ask, "We did briefly, Arthur you don't remember? Guess you were still young, didn't last long. Drifted back into it. She understood... she knew what I was", Hosea answers, "I remember you not being around for a while, but things were looser back then", Arthur remarks, a reminiscing expression adopting his face, "Yeah well there is no really getting out. We understood that, but Bessie and I made it work. Why? You thinking of getting out?", Hosea explains as we make our way along the side of O'Creagh's Run, "No. No. It's just... feels like we're getting sloppy lately, with the whole mess in Blackwater, the new members, feels like things aren't going the way they should, you know?"

"I feel you Arthur, but we just gotta trust in Dutch's plan, we just need to get a lot of money, move somewhere new, real new, and maybe we can all get a fresh start", Hosea reasons as we slow near a T-junction, "let's pull off left here, see if he's been fishing again recently. Look for tracks, dung, bone... any recent sign of him", so we pull onto the small rocky shore and hop off our horses to search for anything. Fortunately as we comb the small shore, time slows as the world goes grey, and I see a paw print highlighted with a small geyser of gold flakes/sparks(?), indicating I activated hunter vision and time resumes as I bend over the print.

"Found something, paw prints, big ones too, Arthur can you track?", Arthur and Hosea jog over at the find and Arthur looks at the tracks and over to the road, "yeah, he seems'ta gone this way, follow me", Arthur says and I follow while activating hunter vision a couple times and notice Arthur is following the animal trail as shown by hunter vision, does Arthur have this ability? Since in the games they had it, do Arthur, John, and Jack have deadeye? 'Something to ponder I guess', as I write it into my small notebook Hosea bought me in Valentine.

"Here we go, seems fresh", Arthur says as crouched over a fish, "Half eaten, must'a been left by our big friend, he must be close", Hosea mentions as he also takes a look at the dead fish, "He probably went up there, tracks lead over here, so he probably dumped the fish and went up there", I pipe up, pointing to a ravine pass that goes uphill, "Must be, ain't no other he'd be with such a fresh dinner sitting here, when we get over there, Arthur you set the bait while Lawrence keeps guard, I'll be in the back ready to fire", Hosea says as we draw our rifles and slowly advance towards a formation of boulders and take point on a boulder at the front on the left side of the pass while Arthur baits a little behind me, 'please don't be invincible when we shoot it like in the game'.

After about 30 seconds Arthur finishes setting the bait as he falls back to Hosea's position a couple meters back behind a boulder and as we get into positions we hear... nothing, we don't hear a thing, "maybe its the bait, should we check it out?" I hear from over behind me and as they begin to leave the rock I begin to hear a low growl, causing me to hold up my hand and wave them to get down as I shrink myself to be as small as possible and hold my breath as an absolute UNIT of a bear walks by, thankfully missing me due to the missing right eye, and I begin to aim at the bear as he gets close to the bait and...

*CLICK*

"Shit shit shit! It jammed!", I hear Hosea shout from behind his hiding spot and the bear stands up and gives a roar, showing its absolutely massive 8 1/2ft tall frame before I retreat slowly while unloading bullets from my rifle into it, *BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG CLICK*, and I run dry, quickly trying to reload but fumbling as the bear turns to me.

"Ah shit! Fuck it!", and I throw my rifle to the dirt and activate deadeye while drawing my revolver, everything goes red as multiple black X mark the bear where I aim and when 6 of them appear I fan the hammer. *BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG* And I flick open the gun and dump the empty casings as I grab bullets from a pouch on my waist and reload the gun as fast as I can, only getting a few bullets in before I'm nocked to the floor by the furry tank I just unloaded hot lead into.

As I'm on the floor the bear goes to bite at my face and missing as I squirm my body down towards its torso and draw my knife and stab at it's neck while gripping it's fur causing me to go with it as it swings itself, dragging me across the ground, ruining my shirt and causing my back to be bloody as I feel the pain wrack my body before it stands and claws at me to get off, *BANG*, a powerful shot connects to its leg, causing it to flop on its side as I twist my knife in its neck, causing it to go full limp as I'm thrown a bit by the landing.

"Holy shit! You ok kid?! C'mon lets patch you up", Arthur yells as he runs up to me and begins to rip strips of my shirt so he can use it as makeshift bandages, "Jesus, we need to get you back to camp, I'll take him Arthur, you can clean the bear while we head back, we'll need evidence of our achievement", I can hear Hosea say as I begin to drift, "Let's get you out of here", and with those last words I pass out from pain and blood loss.