James “Gunslinger” Morrison was a simple man, and he lived a simple life. He was an orphan, as were many men during the times of the western frontier. His mother died when he was just 16 years old, and his father went soon after; but James was not one for shedding a tear. In fact, James would occasionally appear as if he was not affected at all by the untimely death of his parents.
James showed bad qualities at a young age. When he was just thirteen, he stole from a nearby general store, “Lucky’s General Supplies.” He stole approximately thirteen dollars and two Smith and Wesson pistols. He was caught and jailed, the money and pistols getting confiscated in the process. He was released two days later on bail, and he went out and robbed the same exact general store; but this time, he was successful. This opened his senses and made him realized that crime was his passion, and it was the one thing he was good at.
When James was 17 years old, he was thrown out of the boarding home in which he resided. He roamed the open frontier for two months, never knowing where to go or which path to take. He spent the money he had stolen from the general store along the way, always spending it in small increments.
Eventually, James came upon farmland that was owned by a man who would soon become his dearest friend, Alexander Mackie. He walked up to the door, and knocked as hard as he could, exerting his final amount of strength after being out on the trails for two months.
As it would turn out, Alexander was not in his home. He was working on the field, and he did not find James’ collapsed body on his porch until nearly three hours later, almost stepping right on his hand. Alexander picked up James’ collapsed body and brought him inside, dropping the body on the bed like a sack of potatoes. Over the course of three days, he nursed his newfound acquaintance back to health.
When he awoke he was confused and dumbfounded; he was in a spotless bedroom, with a tray of home-cooked, delicious food right next to him. The meal consisted of fresh turkey legs and potatoes. James ate the entire plate of food in what seemed like one bite: he had been starving.
He walked out of the bedroom, to the hallway, and into the kitchen of the one-story farmhouse, Alexander was standing there, waiting since he heard James walking down the hall.
When James walked out, the first thing he said was, “What did you do to me?”
Alexander explained to him the situation and how he had found him on his front porch. James did not recall any of this, but he assumed that Alexander was indeed telling the truth. James sat down with Alexander, when all of a sudden, Alexander asked him a very contradicting question.
“So what do you do for a living?”
James thought to himself; how would he explain to Alexander his story without triggering him to report him to the sheriff? He decided that, before he told him, he would need to trust him first, so he responded with,  “That’s not important. What about you, partner?”
Alexander told him, “I own this here farm and pasture, but I have another job on the side if you are up to it. I was wondering if you would be interested in it; you seem like the type.”
James asked, “What ever do you mean? What is the job?”
Alexander responded, “Well, you see, this farm is a cover-up. I happen to run a gang, known as ‘The Outlaws’ and I was wondering if you would be interested in joining up? We actually sort of had our eye on you. After we heard of all the crimes you committed at such a young age, we knew you were the sort of man for this job.”
James was dumbfounded, he wondered ‘Was this fate? How did I just happen to end up in the one place where I would be recruited into the same profession that I am quite skilled in?’ James said three words that would change the course of the rest of his life. Those words were, “Yes, I’m in.”
Alexander was ecstatic. He had just recruited another member, and thanks to that, he was now going to be able to carry a higher cut out of all robberies that ‘The Outlaws’ commit. He was glad to have an extra pair of hands.
He and James went out back to the Barn, which just so happened to be the meeting place and living quarters for ‘The Outlaws,’ considering the fact that Alexander was the leader. James met the three other members: Richard Jameson, Lukas Hamilton, and Drew Gallows.
Richard was the newest member, before James arrived of course, and he was the youngest as well.
Lukas was the man who scouted out the robberies and mapped them out before they happened.
Drew was the oldest member at 48 years old, and he was the first member as well as Alexander’s friend before he even joined up. He was the first one recruited.
They got introduced and everyone got acquainted. No one had anything to say: they had no problem with James joining, considering they already knew who he was.
Alexander took everything one step further, and he started discussing the next heist that they were planning on pulling off, a robbery like nothing they had ever heard of before: they were planning on robbing a military outpost. James was absolutely dumbfounded. Why would they even try this; why risk it all? However, on the inside, he was excited, for he was completely up to the task.
The months that passed were months spent planning the heist and plotting out everything that was supposed to go down. In that time, Jame became great friends with not only Alexander and the rest of ‘The Outlaws,’ but especially with Lukas Hamilton.
Lukas and James grew together, which made Alexander quite jealous at times. Lukas and James did everything together: from petty thefts to bank robberies, they did it together. Their robbing together all lead towards the giant heist coming up in less than a month.
As they neared the date, which was now less than two weeks away, Alexander grew more and more despondent about the heist. However, everyone else was excited; which was odd considering that was not the case when the plan was first described to them months ago.
Alexander would often stand in his field for hours, not doing anything of any importance, and his running mates soon grew worried. They were not sure if Alexander would be able to complete the heist.
There were a few days left until the heist, and they spent time gathering up the rest of the supplies that they would need. Some of these supplies included: ammunition, food, and canteens filled with water. They finished gathering up supplies, and they used the rest of their days to finish up their final plans, making sure to rest themselves before the journey.
On the way there, Alexander once again would not talk one bit. It always seemed as if he was in deep thought.
Roughly 16 hours into their journey going towards Phoenix, Arizona, (the place in which the military base lies) James decided to ask a question he had forgotten and also neglected to ask: “Why are we robbing this military base?”
Alexander did not respond.
Because Alexander did not respond, James, showed the only emotion he knew: anger. He got very angry with Alexander, letting out all of the rage he had held in from the weeks of Alexanders’ silence and their sinking friendship.
He yelled and screamed at Alexander until Alexander got up, pulled the gun out of his holster, and aimed his Smith & Wesson Revolver straight at James’ face. James asked him what he was doing, and Alexander, as usual, did not respond; all he did was move his index finger over to the trigger and pull.
A gunshot went off, and James’ ears rang. But he did not feel dead. He opened his eyes, and right in front of him was the dead body of his former friend, Alexander. James looked to the left, and he saw the end of a rifle aimed right at him. The man holding the gun was Lukas.
Lukas ordered him to get down on his knees, and when James asked why, Lukas didn’t respond. Instead, he took the butt of the rifle and cracked James over the head, knocking him out instantly.
When James awoke, he was tied up to a chair in a room. But it wasn’t just any room, nor was it just any chair. The chair had wires going in and out of it: it was the infamous electric chair.
James looked around and saw Lukas in the next room over, through metal bars. Richard and Drew were tied up. They were bloody and beaten, but they were not dead.
He saw Lukas walk into the room wearing a sheriffs badge, and it was in that moment that a realization washed over James.
You see, there really was a group called “The Outlaws,” but there never was a military outpost: that was a delusion of grandeur told to Alexander by Lukas, as a way of tricking them into making the trek. You see, the whole time it was a sting operation set up by Lukas, who has actually been a sheriff this whole time. He worked with The Outlaws for almost a year just to bust them for their crimes (with enough evidence, of course).
Lukas’s plan this whole time was to bust The Outlaws on the way to the made-up heist, and he finally got his opportunity on the way to the nonexistent location.
But things went awry when Alexander started catching on. That was the reason Alexander became despondent: he didn’t want to say anything because he knew. He knew that one of his men was a traitor. But if he had said anything, it could be used against him if they got captured.
Of course, Alexander suspected that it was James, for he was the newest member. So when James started to get angry with him, he made the assumption that James was the traitor and attempted to kill him to shut him up.
However, he didn’t get very far because the sheriff, Lukas, was waiting there to stop him: and killing him was the only way to do so. Of course, James thought he had been saved, but it turned out that it was the perfect time for Lukas to perform the bust. He knocked James out and rode the carriage back to the jails.
As James sat there piecing together the entire story, he realized one simple truth: he realized that he was, to put it simply, too trusting. He now knows that trust takes years to build and just seconds to break.
He also realized that there was no escaping this. He was going to rot in a jail cell for the rest of his life: all because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.