Sadie was kept bound in her own basement, tied to one of the pillars. How long, she really wasn't sure. Down here, there was nothing for her to measure the time by, and with her head still fuzzy from when one of the men smashed her in the face with his gun she quickly lost track. It wasn't as if it mattered much though. Out here, all alone, her beloved Jake already dead, probably just abandoned somewhere in the snow nearby, this was just a purgatory. Once the weather broke and the gang moved on, they would have no reason to take her with them. She was just entertainment while they waited for a break in the weather that would let them get back to the rest of their gang. She only hoped that before they left, one of them would finish her off rather than just leave her here to waste away.

There really wasn't much to do in the cabin while they were cut off. Jake had books, but it was pretty clear very quickly that these men weren't exactly the literary type. There were only so many games of poker anyone could play so they would take turns coming down into the basement to amuse themselves with her. They loved to taunt her about the helplessness of her situation, go into detail about Jake's corpse, which they delighted in telling her they had just dumped outside. They would beat her, humiliate her, and satisfy any and all of the sick appetites they had, and they had an imagination for cruelty that would make even the staunchest of people believe in the existence of Hell.

The hatch opened, and one of them came down the ladder into the basement. She quickly recognised him as Tom, the one who had taken her Jake from her. The knife that had split Tom open like a prize hog hung at his waist. She drew herself up into a seating position, as high as her remaining strength and her bonds would allow. She didn't want to show any weakness, any frailty in his presence. He smiled as he came over to her.

"Well, it's been fun darlin'." He said in a dismissive drawl. "But, the weather's finally lettin' up. I reckon by mornin' we should be able to head back to camp. I'm sure Colm is real worried about us by now."

Sadie didn't say a word; she had nothing to say to these men, not yet. Her only words would be when she repaid the debt Tom owed her in kind. Her eyes burned through him as she glared at him. She hadn't said anything, but she listened and heard everything. She had learned that these men called themselves "O'Driscolls". She had heard the name, everyone had. Colm O'Driscoll's gang had robbed, burned, raped and murdered their way across multiple states. Colm was wanted for hanging from one end of the country to the other.

If what she had heard Tom saying to the others was anything to go by, Tom was second in the gang only to Colm himself. Tom and his boys had been sent out to find supplies, only to be cut off by the weather. She had no doubt that once Tom left here, even if she somehow escaped, even if she survived the winter or got to town, once he was gone, he would disappear for good. Once he was back with the gang, he'd be almost as safe as Colm, and he had already escaped the Gallows at least once that she'd heard of. Tom let out a little sigh.

"I know, it's always tough to say goodbye." He taunted her. "The only question is, how do we do this?"

Tom pulled out his hunting knife, the one he had used to gut Jake and leave him to bleed out onto the floor, and also her harmonica. It really did have next to no value. While it was shiny, it was only made of cheap tin. There wasn't much point in Jake spending a lot of their limited funds on an instrument he wasn't sure Sadie would even be able to play.

"I'm gonna let you make the choice which one of these you want." He told her. He held up the harmonica. "You can have this; have something to do while you're down here or..."

He held up the knife. She knew he didn't mean that he would cut her free. She didn't answer, there was no way she would give him the satisfaction of begging him for a swift end, to deliver her back to her beloved Jake rather than let her inevitably waste away by herself here. No matter how much she wanted to ask him to just end it now; to slit her throat and be done with the agony, she couldn't give him that power over her. Not when he had taken everything else. Tom put his knife away and tossed the Harmonica into her lap.

"Don't say I'm not good to you." He chuckled, grabbing her face and forcing her to look at him. "You know...even messed up as it is...I really do like this face. It's almost a shame to leave. But..."

He just shrugged, and then headed back up into the house, closing the hatch behind him. Sadie could hear the men upstairs drinking and hollering, having themselves a good old time. Within hours they'd be gone, and she would be alone here to die.

That was when she looked to the Harmonica. It was never meant as much, more a final spit in the eye than a comfort to Sadie in what was sure to be her last days, but having it near, she almost felt like Jake was with her. He would guide her home, back to him.

It was then that she noticed it was slightly twisted and had started to split, no doubt warped as Tom carried it around in his pocket. It really was a cheap piece of shit, as much as she loved it, but seeing an edge, as one of the plates separated from the rest of it, she suddenly got a thought. She immediately started to struggle to get the harmonica into her hands, before starting to smash it against the pillar. After some time, it finally came apart. She tossed the rest of it away, keeping hold of the plate. Tin, when broken, could be incredibly sharp. She didn't have long. She could still hear the men partying upstairs. She worked frantically, gritting her teeth as the metal worked against her bonds, ignoring when she cut into her own flesh in her desperation. Finally, the ropes fell free, freeing her.

She started looking around the basement. There was nothing of any real use out here. She was wearing only a nightdress, unless she ran into a traveller within a couple of hours the mountain would claim her very quickly. There were no clothes down here, no weapons either. Jake had always insisted they keep all of them upstairs, in case a sudden thaw caused the basement to flood. It was hopeless; there was nowhere to go, even if she did somehow make it past the men upstairs. She was resigned to her fate, when she heard a pounding from outside. The party quickly fell silent. Sadie kept quiet too.

"Hello?" A voice called from outside. The O'Driscolls started to murmur.

"Who the hell is that?" One of them asked.

"Shut up Billy!" Tom stated. The door sounded again.

"HELLO?" The voice called out again. She could hear some movement.

"It's just some guy." One of them said, checking the window. "He must have got lost."

"This don't smell right." Tom said, considering his option. "Billy, you and Seamus head out front, see what this fool wants. The rest of you get into good spots. I'm heading around the side."

Sadie heard some movement, and the door opening. She could hear some voices, a conversation, it sounded a lot like someone had just got lost in the snow, but before long she heard gunfire. Within moments, the guns fell silent again. She heard some movement upstairs. She had no idea who won, but given the fact there were at least a dozen O'Dricolls in the house, she didn't much fancy the chances of any lone traveller.

She looked up through the space between the slats in the floor. At least two men came in. It quickly became clear that it was not an O'Driscoll. From the voice, it was the one who came to the door. Of course, given the fact the last visitors were the O'Driscolls; she didn't want to take any chances assuming that she was being rescued. She waited, keeping silent as the two men started to wander around.

"Alright, turn the place over." He stated. "We need the essentials. Food, medicine...whiskey."

Sadie definitely didn't want to make herself known now. Jake would likely have called it poetic justice that the men that came to their home to ransack it for supplies would be slaughtered by another group of men coming for the exact same purpose. As they started rummaging around upstairs, going through what little the O'Driscolls had left from their raid, she figured her best chance was to wait and hope they didn't find the basement. The one advantage she had with them as opposed to the O'Driscolls was that the O'Driscolls had known exactly where she was. These men, it was possible once they had taken what they could stuff in their pockets they would just leave. They had no reason to suspect they hadn't already killed everyone inside.

One of them left after a moment or two, but footsteps let her know that one of them was still in the house. She managed to catch a glimpse of him between a couple of the floorboards. He was hovering by the fireplace; something on the mantle caught his attention. She watched as he picked it up. The photograph! She and Jake had a picture taken when they first moved out here. He stood, staring at the picture for a moment, before looking around. Shit, did he realise that there was a woman living here? She knew the O'Driscolls had just dumped Jake outside, but had they left him so close that he recognised one of the bodies? Did he realise there was meant to be a woman here?

"Arthur! Is everything alright in there?" The other man called out.

"Fine Dutch." Arthur replied as he put the picture down. Dutch...the name sounded familiar to her. She had heard some of the O'Driscolls use the name. Arthur left the homestead, at which Sadie finally made her move. She climbed up the ladder, opening up the hatch and climbing back out into the house.

She went towards the window, and watched as three men, Dutch, Arthur, and a third man who hadn't come into the house spoke for a moment. Dutch pointed towards the stable, at which Arthur headed over. SHIT! If they took her horse, she was done for. She had clothes, she had an outside chance of making it to town...a VERY slim chance, but if they took the horse, there was no way she'd have the strength to make it on her own. She had to stop them! She headed for the bed, reaching underneath it for her guns, hoping that they hadn't already been taken. Unfortunately the case was empty. Either Dutch's guys or one of the O'Driscoll's had already taken it. That was when she heard the door open. She turned around and saw a man standing in the doorway, the third man. He must have come to make sure they hadn't missed anything.

She couldn't see any difference between him and the O'Driscolls. When he saw her, she could see the same look in his eyes they had. Even through his thick, bushy moustache she could see the smile starting to form on his lips and knew exactly what he was thinking about. She was damned if she was going to just go from being the plaything of one gang to another's. He started to come towards him and she grabbed the first thing that came to hand, throwing it right at his face.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" She screamed at him. She tried to keep the table between herself and the attacker, who started laughing, thinking of this as a game. She was going to show him that if he wanted her, he was going to have to fight! The noise apparently attracted the others, who barged in through the door.

"Micah, what the hell do you think you are doing?" Dutch demanded. Sadie didn't really care much about the other guy's name, she was too busy keeping him far enough away that she could grab anything that wasn't nailed down to throw at him. This guy though, Micah, seemed to like it. It was a game to him.

"Look what I found! She must have been hidin' in the basement!" He cackled as he ducked left and right, looking for how to get around the table for her. Sadie saw a knife on the table and snatched it up. These men were armed; they had already killed the O'Driscolls. She had no doubt in her mind that she would never take them with a knife. If she was lucky she might get one of them before she was taken down, but she would sooner split Micah in half than let him touch her. "Wild thing ain't you?"

'Just try it!' She thought as she snarled, swiping the knife back and forth before her. 'I'll show you how wild I am!'

Sadie was expecting them to gun her down. She was forcing their hand; she'd sooner be dead than be at the mercy of more degenerates! However, she was surprised that not only was Micah not going for his gun, if anything getting more excited at the thought of the fight she was putting up, but his companions seemed to be trying to stop him.

"Leave her alone!" Arthur snapped at him. Sadie could swear she saw his hand straying towards his holster. Was he really prepared to shoot his own comrade to stop him? Micah either didn't take him seriously or he didn't notice.

"She's one of them O'Driscolls." He responded, as though that was all the justification he needed for what he intended to do.

"No, she ain't Micah! Look at her!" Dutch beckoned him, trying to calm his friend. Dutch seemed to be more of a peacemaker right now. He was trying to talk the situation down. Arthur though, still had his hand on his revolver. "Miss, miss, are you..."

They were interrupted as Micah overturned the table. In the process he tipped a lantern onto the floor, where it shattered, spilling fuel all over the place. Within seconds the whole room was going up.

"Oh, you fool Micah!" Dutch scolded him, like a schoolteacher to a child. He shoved Micah away, at which Arthur grabbed him, pulling him further from her. His hand was still on his revolver. "Miss, now it's gonna be OK."

He repeated that a couple more times as he came towards her, holding up his hands. Sadie couldn't keep her eyes off Micah as she brandished the knife. He whispered to her, his voice becoming softer as he tried to assure her that she was not going to be harmed. Still she kept her eyes locked on Micah, the knife at the ready to ensure the first time he touched her would be the last. She barely heard Dutch's words as she tried to soothe her. She felt his hand on her arm, not grabbing her, not trying to restrain her, but just to try and gently lower her arm, like he was showing there was no need for the knife.

"We mean you no harm." He whispered. "Come on. It'll be OK."

Finally, Sadie relented and dropped the knife. He looked to the flames spreading across the floor.

"We need to get out of here and quick." He instructed his comrades. "Come on now."

When they got outside, Dutch wrapped a blanket around her and Arthur helped her onto the back of Dutch's horse. She didn't remember much about the ride from the house; Dutch was saying something to her, trying to reassure her that she was safe, that she would be safe until she figured out what to do. Arthur and Micah spent most of the journey bickering back and forth, pretty aggressively by the sound of things. She would learn over time that was more or less the norm for them. As they rode off though, she couldn't really focus much on what anyone was saying. All she could do was watch as the homestead burned to the ground, taking with it literally everything she owned in her life. She didn't know then where they were taking her or what her life would become, all she knew was that now, there was nothing for her here.

Back in the bar, Sadie put down her glass.

"Dutch Van Der Linde?" Levin asked her. "You...you were rescued by Dutch Van Der Linde?"

"Yeah, I guess you can say that." She responded.

"I can't...you were held by the O'Driscolls for three days?" He asked her.

"That's what I said ain't it?" She asked him. Levin could hardly believe what he was hearing. He knew that very few people in a line of work like Sadie's had a happy tale to tell. He'd learned in his time researching his book on Calloway that there were rarely any good reasons someone would actively choose a life that inevitably revolved around violence and bloodshed. It wasn't a coincidence there weren't many old bounty hunters or gunslingers or bandits. It was the kind of life that had large short-term games but had a habit of resulting in an early grave. He imagined some kind of personal tragedy or some kind of revenge story but the O'Driscolls? The Van Der Linde Gang? The O'Driscolls had been wiped out shortly after Colm was finally hanged. The Van Der Linde Gang had disbanded and scattered, disappearing into the wind years ago. If what she said was true, he had unwittingly stumbled onto a goldmine!

"Wait, the Grizzlies...that would mean you met up with Van Der Linde shortly after the Blackwater..."

"Wait...shut up a second will you?" She asked him.

"But..."

"She silenced him with a glare as she watched a couple of men coming in. They were wearing suits, and looked far more dapper than the normal clientele of this slop house. Sadie watched as the barman went and spoke to them for a moment, before they turned and left. She just sighed.

"Shit." She muttered, before pulling out her watch and checking it. "Alright, now...where were we?"

"Van Der Linde." He reminded her. "You were saying they took care of you."

"Yeah, they did. If it wasn't for them I'd probably still be lyin' dead up in the mountains." She told him.

"So, what were they like?" He asked her.

"You, Mr Levin, are just full of really big questions." She replied. "Lucky for you, I have some time to kill."