Chapter 1
"The Great Silence"

By 1899, the age of outlaws and gunslingers was at an end.
America was becoming a land of laws...
Even the West had mostly been tamed.
A few gangs still roamed but they were being hunted down and destroyed.

The harsh winds of the raging winter lashed at the faces of the figures crawling through the dead of the night. The storm howled fiercely, powerless to stop the weather, the drifters on horses let the fangs of ice bite into their bones. Only they weren't just any wanderers, the holsters and guns clung onto the men on horseback like the snow on their thick coats and their horses.

Inside of the wagons, the lanterns glowed within. They were looking as if it gave off a sense of warmth, but alas, there was only the cold of the terrible snowstorm and its sugary particles slowly creeping in through the cloth that covered the wagons. The lanterns' light highlighted the faces of each of the women, they were tired and solemn, their wrinkles and eyes showed only despair and sorrow.

One lady stood out from the group in the wagon, who held a rifle, its metallic parts shiny and silver. She sat by the back of the wagon where the exit is, the cold biting against her body despite her wearing a bulky attire. It made her fingers incredibly stiff, they were like icy claws clasping on her favored Winchester. A girl around the age of 17 shivered in her sleep on her shoulder, tightly clung on a blanket draped over her like everyone there. The cowgirl glanced at her to adjust her blanket and checked her well-being, her cold hands gently pressed on her forehead.

The 17-year-old girl shuffled, her heavy eyelids opening to reveal bright blue eyes. "I- I'm scared..." She whispered, the storm almost drowning out her voice. "D- do you think we're gon' be fine T- Tulip?..." She found it difficult to push the words out of her slightly chapped lips, especially with her throat choking up from recalling terrible events.

The woman, Tulip, placed a hand on her blonde hair, trying to comfort her. "Yeah..." Another lady spoke, she had dark skin and paused to think carefully over something. "Yeah we gotta be. We've made it this far, ain't nothin' gon' stop us, Willow, even those Pinkertons and that get-up back on Blackwater."

The 17-year-old blonde glanced at her, "I- I hope so, Tilly..." The atmosphere was tense and heavy, the girls didn't speak much in the wagon, the recent events made conversations hard to start off. Everyone's heads hung low, grave and quiet.

Tulip glanced out of the crevice between the cloths every now and then, checking the other wagons that creaked and stirred against the wind. The horses were just as tired as the people, still plowing through the white dust that piled up and pushing onward. Tulip, who had never said a word, but held the rifle looked around, sighing at the situation the gang has gotten themselves into and now were trying to dig themselves out of the hole.

Trotting through to what seems like an endless winding road of nothingness, the storm had no signs of lifting, Willow couldn't sleep and just stared at the darkness out of the wagons. It was a black night, nothing could be seen, and the snow whirled like a tornado. She and Tulip could barely make out the shape of the other carriages only the orange glow of the lanterns made the outline, which were being smuggled by the dark and splotches of the snow from the weather that smothered the light.

The wagon stopped rumbling as voices were being heard from far up front of where the ladies were, everyone looked at each other in deep suspense. Until, a hoarse voice rang out, which belonged to an aged woman. "That's Miss Grimshaw." One of them said.

The only thing they could all do was listen, "Davey's, I'm afraid he's..."

Willow was choked up on her emotions, the words stabbed everyone to their core. "Not another one..."

Another spoke in their wagon, she had blonde hair, golden, just like Willows. Unlike her though, her hair was curled. She sighed, "We knew it'd happen."

Tilly elbowed her, "Karen!"

Tulip shook her head and let her brown hat hide her eyes, sighing through her nose. Willow buried her face on Tulip and sobbed silently as she could. None of the women could do or say anything.

Davey was one of them, one of the gang, no matter how vicious that young man was. "You all seen it- " Karen cut herself short though. "Agh, damn, I need more than just a bottle of whiskey..." She let her hands cover her face, sighing heavily.

"Don't we all?" Tilly added, laughing slightly but bitterly.

Tulip looked at Willow, and everyone settled themselves, trying to be comfortable. As much as they could for the time being at least. As time kept rolling on, Tulip eventually was the only one wide awake, watching over the girls. Willow was no longer resting on her shoulder. She carefully set her Winchester next to her in case of needing to grab it quickly, and rummaged through the bags near her, pulling out a journal. It's leather on the spine was wrinkled and its edges were worn by time.

"The Mountains - Grizzlies"

She wrote and drew, trying to make sense of their situation.

"Ever since the failed heist in Blackwater, our luck had turned for the worst and the mood were downright heavy as the deaths and burdens that we carried upon our shoulders."

She paused, the pencil stopping in its tracks and her mind still scrambled. Tulip sighed and shook her head, writing all of midnight.

"Situation became sour and ugly. We lost Jenny, Sean, Mac, and now Mac's brother is dying right by us in the next wagon: Davey Callander. Poor feller, both him and John Marston took a bullet to the gut. John's fine, but Davey... I wasn't too sure what happened during the ferry, I've only heard of Dutch Van Der Linde, our leader, shot and killed an innocent girl. Maybe she wasn't, but I reckon she was innocent and the Pinkertons urged Dutch to act in such a way... Me and Willow were doing the usual robbing and jobs that needed us to act like lustful women, emptying pockets from drunkards, while Arthur and the others were doing a different job entirely. Found it odd that Arthur and Dutch, even Hosea for that matter, were not in the same heists."

Tulip paused once again, rubbing her eyes in stress.

"The gang's money is still in Blackwater. Including me and Willow's personal savings. We had to pack quick before those nasty bounty hunters - Pinkertons - had gunned us down. They were something else. Those Pinkertons were relentless, bullets flew everywhere, and I hate to admit, but they were good shooters. The money... It's the ticket to freedom. As greedy as it may sound."

She carefully drew the spot of the gang's cash and the map of Blackwater, on the next page, she looked around the inside of the carriage, and decided to draw what was in front of her. Then, she drew how she imagined the wagons traveling through the snow.

"Now here we are, running from the law once again. The snowstorm is unbelievably endless."

Not knowing what else to write, she glanced at Willow, a sad and longing look made way to her.

"I worry about the children. Willow and Jack. The Pinkertons were fast at figuring us out, too fast. And I wondered, if it was him who had somehow ratted to the Pinkertons. It's been years since we've met face to face. But I find it impossible, MW wouldn't know where me and Willow were."

She wrote the letter "MW" hard upon the paper, her brows lowered. It was in bold because of it and popped out of the entry more. After that, she couldn't write or draw anymore and decided to get some shuteye for the next freezing days that lies ahead.

Willow shifted and stirred awake, waking Tulip up who had a hand on the barrel of her own rifle, cautious. "Oh, uhm, sorry." Willow yawned tiredly, the cold greeting her in such an unforgiving way.

Everyone was awake, seeing that it was now early in the morning, Tulip and Willow could see that everyone was cramped together. The boxes and camp sets for tents and whatnot were taking up the space, but no one minded the small space they had, it was unbearably cold, and they all cuddled together for whatever warmth they could possibly get.

"Just how long we gonna keep on like this?" Karen's lip smacked, it was a question that wasn't meant to be answered. No one knew the real answer.

The ride was long, the rumbling and creaking sounds of the wheel rolling against the covered ground became repetitive and monotonous. Tulip was bored and just continued to add little tweaks and shading on the entries she did last night, it was until the 4 of the wagons slowed to a crawl once again in the dead of the night, just like before.

"What's happening?..." Willow whispered.

Tulip searched with her watchful eyes, seeing that one of the men in the cloth, Reverend Swanson, was trotting through and making his way to the very front, the snow that came up knee-height at least. He had orange hear and a mustache, bits of gray streaked the sides of his hair.

"Abigail says he's dying, Dutch. We'll have to stop someplace." He spoke, his voice rough and coarse.

The voices were faint and difficult to hear because of the howling winds that hasn't died down, but Tulip and the rest of the girls could make it out. "Okay. Arthur's out looking, I sent him up ahead."

After a grunt of some sort Swanson returned to one of the wagons. Hosea's voice could be heard, but it was too muffled by the sound of the storm.

Then, the wagons stopped to a halt. "There! Arthur, any luck?" Dutch's voice was heard as he spoke to the approaching figure that slowly crept out of the snowy veil.

The man, Arthur, was wearing a thick blue coat. He yelled back, "I found a place where we can get some shelter. Let Davey rest while he..." Then his voice was faded away by the snowstorm and him saying it lower, everyone knew about Callander. "An old minin' town, abandoned, it ain't far. C'mon."

Dutch commanded his followers, "C'mon!"

A/N : The first chapter of the fanfic and right off the bat, just like the game. I will add drawn journal pages later, so be sure to check your announcements or something, I don't do announcements much since the wattpad update lol. And for , I suddenly remembered why I hated updating here. XD
But no worries my friends, it's only some few extra steps to do. Good thing is that when publishing I get to go over my story and even add or fix some details here and there. As for my other two stories, I'm super into RDR2 right now, it's been like what? More than 5 years since RDR1? Finished the game, I waited for the countdown to play the game and even pre-ordered it on PS4, and that also means I'm doing rando things RDR2Online. IF you seen my twitter, KayKatMeow, you can tell how crazy I am about it right now, MY ENTIRE SIDE OF ONE WALL IS RDR POSTERS I MADE.

Published : Nov. 28, 2018

Edited : Nov. 30, 2018
Added Journal page. (It's the gang riding through the snowy mountains. And it's on my deviantart.)