Chapter 2: The Hunt

Sam was helping lift what little food they had from the wagon into the shack while others set to work. She even helped Mr. Pearson get a fire going for a stew. Then she helped set up some beds for Arthur and Dutch. During that part, she was introduced to women named Tilly, Mary-Beth, and Karen. They were an absolute delight to be around, to say the least, but the more Sam got to working, the more faith she lost that this was all some weird dream.

"So where are you from, Miss Burke?" Tilly asked Sam.

"I'm from Minnesota," Sam replied with a sigh.

"Wow. That's a long way up north. How'd you end up down here?"

Sam paused as she was laying a blanket on Arthur's bed. "I...well..."

What was she supposed to say? She had to come up with something, didn't she? No, she could just tell them to mind their damn business, but that would be rude.

"You don't have to tell us if you don't want to, Miss Burke," Tilly said. "We understand."

Sam turned to face the girl. "You do?" she said with surprise coating her voice.

"Yes. Not everyone wants to talk about their past."

"Oh."

Well, she could fake that, at least. She had a good past, actually. Nothing too traumatic except the death of her mother, but by that time Sam had been a self-sufficient adult. She'd never known her father, unfortunately. He'd died before she was born, but it didn't affect her much. In her musings, she didn't hear the girls leaving as there was a commotion outside. The door opened and Sam walked out of Arthur's room to see Dutch and some woman walking in.

"Ah, Miss Burke," Dutch said to Sam. "We haven't been properly introduced. My name is Dutch Van der Linde."

Sam bowed her head a little. "Sam Burke."

"Sam, huh? Is that short for somethin'?"

"Samantha."

"Ah. Well, if you'll excuse me, dear, I need some shut eye. I haven't slept in three days. We'll discuss your, uh, situation in the morning."

"Of course."

"Molly, which room are we in?"

"This one, Dutch," Molly said, pointing to the room on the left.

Sam noticed the woman was Irish and she shrugged. She went to the door but it opened and she backed up, seeing Arthur. "Oh, excuse me, Miss Burke," he said.

"You're excused," Sam answered.

"So, you still think you're dreamin'?"

"Yes."

Arthur chortled and jerked his head to the side. "Well, I guess for your sake, I hope you wake up."

Sam scoffed in amusement and pointed to the room on the right. "That's your room back there, I believe."

Arthur nodded. "Do you know where you'll be sleepin'?"

"Um, I guess the big shack with the others?"

"Well, maybe I'll see you in the mornin', then."

"I hope not." Arthur blinked at her words and Sam sighed, closing her eyes. "Sorry, I only meant-"

"Ah, it's alright. I know what you meant, Miss Burke." Arthur tipped his hat to her. "Well, good night, Miss Burke."

"Good night, Mr. Morgan."

Arthur walked passed and she turned to watch him go. As his spurs clanked against the wooden floor, Sam realized this man was a bonafide cowboy. Now, what kind of dream was this for a cowboy to be in it? Strange. Everything about this was so strange. She left the building and ambled through the snow to the main shack. As she walked in, she almost ran into Hosea.

"Oh, sorry, sir."

"It's okay, Miss Burke. Let's get you settled," he said.

Sam went back to her corner where she'd left her blanket. She snuggled into it as she sat down, and it didn't take long for her to fall asleep.

Sam was laying in her bed when she woke up. Her eyes were heavy but when she saw her surroundings, she immediately got out of bed and jumped for joy.

"Oh, thank God that was just a dream!" she exclaimed. She looked at her clock and gasped. "Oh shit, I'm gonna be late for work again!"

Sam quickly brushed her long, wavy rat's nest and rushed out to her living room. At least she had her uniform on already. When she got to the living room, however, she saw a buck in it. Her eyes blinked in shock a few times at the sight. "Miss Burke," it said it Arthur's voice.

"Um...what are you doing in my apartment?" she asked.

"Heh heh heh, you talk in your sleep, huh?"

"What? I'm not asleep."

"Wake up, Miss Burke," the deer said softly.

"But I told you, I'm not asleep," she argued stubbornly. The deer walked to her and nudged her with his antlers. "Hey, stop poking me!"

"Then wake up!"

Sam's eyes popped open and she was staring at the face of Arthur Morgan. Ah shit. She looked around at the room she was in and people were staring at her. Sam felt her cheeks turn red and she covered her head with the blanket. "I was talking in my sleep, wasn't I..."

"Yes you were," Arthur said with humor in his voice.

"Ugh, I'm sorry if I disturbed anyone."

"You didn't. Actually, it was really funny."

Sam sunk into her blanket even further out of embarassment. "Oh, shut up!"

Arthur laughed at her and took the blanket off her head. "It's time to get up."

"But whyyyyy?" she whined like a child.

"Because you ain't dreamin' at all, Miss Burke, and you can't just sleep the whole day away."

"But I have my perfect comfy."

Arthur laughed at her again. "Your what?"

"Oh, nevermind!" Sam took the blanket off and started getting up, but Arthur grabbed her arm gently and helped her stand. "Oh. Um, thank you, Mr. Morgan."

"You're welcome." Sam looked around the room and frowned. She was back in the place she was before, which meant only one thing: she had traveled back in time. As impossible as it seemed, she was in the year 1899. How did it happen, and why? People were still looking at her, some with amused looks on their faces. Sam felt embarassed beyond words, but Arthur seemed to notice. "Alright folks, quit starin' at the lady."

They did as they were told and Sam scanned the room. Arthur had gone over by the fire to warm his hands when one of the women approached him. "Hello, Arthur."

He glanced at her before looking back at the fire. "Abigail."

"Arthur...how you doin'?" Abigail asked.

Arthur slowly turned to her with a suspicious look on his face. "Just fine, Abigail...and you?"

Abigail hesitated for a moment as Sam went to join the two. "I need you to..." Arthur huffed and looked away. "I-I'm, I'm sorry to ask but..."

Arthur looked back at her. "It's little John...he's got himself into a scrape again."

"He ain't been seen in two...two days."

"Your John'll be fine. I mean...he may be as dumb as rocks and as dull as rusted iron but that ain't changin' because," Arthur motioned to the door, "he got caught in some snowstorm."

Sam frowned. She had no idea Arthur was that grumpy and callous. "At least go take a look," Hosea interjected. "Javier?"

"Yes?" Javier asked.

"Javier, will you ride out with Arthur to take a look for John? You're the two best fit men we've got."

Arthur went back to warming his hands. "Now?" Javier asked with incredulity in his tone.

Hosea looked at Abigail. "She's...we're all," he looked back throughout the room. "We're pretty worried about him."

Sam caught Arthur's expression. He didn't look too happy. "I know if the situation were reversed and," Javier got up and walked to Arthur, "he'd look for me." Javier held out a a sawed off shotgun to Arthur.

Arthur respectfully took it. Sam suddenly chimed in. "Can I come with and help?" she asked Arthur and Javier. What did she just ask? Why was she offering to help? She didn't even know this "John" guy, but Sam knew she'd get bored just staying in the shack.

Arthut chuckled. "You? Seriously? Ha, I don't think so."

"Oh come on!" Sam snapped impatiently. "I can't just sit here twiddling my thumbs, Mr. Morgan. Besides, three sets of eyes are better than two."

Arthur shook his head. "Look, it's too dangerous for you out there. We'll be fine."

Sam sighed resentfully. She knew he was right, but god dammit if she wasn't bored. With her arms crossed, she gave Arthur a nod and he went on his way. There had to be something she could do.

"You wouldn't happen to know how to hunt, would you Miss Burke?" Hosea asked.

Sam remembered the few times she'd gone hunting with her Uncle Frank. Granted, she never shot anything but he did teach her how to use a bow. A gun, not so much. "Well, I can use a bow if there's one available."

"Hmm. Go see Charles in the barn. He's got a bow."

Sam immediately went outside just as Javier and Arthur were leaving. She passed by Mr. Pearson's little hut and he caught her attention. "We're gonna starve to death up here, Miss Burke."

This made her stop in her tracks and she looked at him with sympathy. "It can't be that bad, can it?" she asked.

"We have a few cans of food and a rabbit. For what? Eleven, thirteen people?" He made his way over to the chopping table as she went to warm her hands. She really wished she had gloves. "When I was in the Navy..." he chopped up some rabbit meat. "We were stranded at sea for fifty days."

"How the fuck did you survive that?"

The man sighed. "We fished a lot. Now, when our group here ran away from Blackwater, I wasn't able to get supplies in," he said, grabbing his cauldron and hanging it up over the cooking fire.

"Ran away from Blackwater? Why?"

"We're on the run from the law, Miss Burke. We're a gang of outlaws."

Sam's mouth went agape. "No shit? For real?"

"Yes." He went back to the prep table and grabbed the rabbit meat to put in the pot. "Did no one tell you this?"

"No." Great. Not only was she stuck in 1899, she was also stuck with a bunch of criminals. Though they seemed like nice enough people, it made Sam's stomach churn. She'd never broken the law in her entire life. "So, um...we need food, right? I can uh...I know how to shoot a bow, so maybe I could go find some food."

"I sent Lenny and Bill hunting and they found nothing."

It was at that moment when Charles walked in. "Miss Burke, did you say you know how to hunt?"

Sam shrugged. "No, but I can use a bow. Mr. Matthew's said you had one?"

"I do." Charles studied her for a few moments. "Do you know how to track?"

"Nope."

"Have you ever actually shot an animal?"

Sam bit her lower lip. "Well, no, but it wasn't because I couldn't. I just refused to kill an animal at the time. I was only ten."

"Huh. Think you could kill one now?"

"I think I might have to, Mr. Smith."

Charles smiled at her softly. "Alright. Let's go find somethin'."

"Wait a second," Mr. Pearson said, walking over to the prep table and grabbing a jar of something. "Here..." he tossed her the jar and she caught it. "...you're gonna need something to eat out there."

Sam read the label out loud. "Assorted, salted offal." She scrunched up her brow, making an expression of confusion. "What the fuck is offal?"

"Animal organs."

"Oh yuck!" She handed the jar to Charles. "That' just...ew."

Both the men laughed at her. "It's better than starving."

Charles sighed. "Come on, let's get you saddled up on a spare horse."

Uh oh. While Sam had ridden a horse maybe three times in her childhood, she never quite got the hang of it. "Um, okay."

She followed Charles to the barn and picked out a bay roan horse to use. She found a spare saddle then looked at Charles pitifully. He looked back at her curiously. "What?"

"Do you think you could um, talk me through saddling a horse?"

"You're joking, right?"

"I wish I was."

Charles laughed briefly then sighed. "Okay, I'll talk you through it."

It didn't take long for Sam to get the saddle and the reins tied on, and when she took a step back to admire her work, she crossed her arms and looked at Charles. "Well, how did I do?"

Charles checked over the saddle, the bit, and the reins, then he nodded in approval. "Not bad for your first try."

Sam climbed on the horse clumsily but settled in comfortably. "Okay, this should be easy, right?"

"You've never ridden a horse?" Charles asked with a raised eyebrow.

Sam started to blush. How was she supposed to survive this world if she didn't know how to do basic things? "I have a few times, but I'm a...city girl."

"Uh huh. Well, that explains a lot."

Sam narrowed her eyes at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's the way you carry yourself. Like you're, well...I don't know how to explain it, but you carry yourself like a city girl."

Sam's arms crossed over her chest. "You mean I walk around like I'm lost in the woods?"

"...A bit, yeah."

Sam huffed resentfully, but she knew he was right. She was lost, just not in the woods. "Okay, just give me the damn bow."

Charles handed her his bow and quiver and she put them over her shoulder. He mounted up on his white and brown speckled horse and they headed out of Colter. Sam shivered from the cold. As they rode side by side, Sam couldn't help but noticed his bandaged hand. "What happened to your hand?" she asked Charles.

"Oh, I burned it by accident. Stupid mistake. It'll be fine in a day or two, I just can't pull a bow right now."

"I see. That explains why we're all starving to death. Well, I hope I can kill something for us to eat."

"You'll be fine. All you have to do is not get noticed and shoot. I can do the tracking."

"Think we'll find anything up here in this snow?"

"Ha! There's meat up here for sure. Pearson doesn't know what he's talking about. Now the weather's eased off a bit, they'll be needin' to feed." Charles pointed ahead of them to the left. "We'll head up this way, find some higher ground."

"Okay." They both turned left to go up the hill and Sam shifted uncomfortably in her saddle. Man, her legs were getting sore already. She should have stretched first.

"So where are you from, Miss Burke?" Charles asked as they got up higher.

"Minnesota."

"Uh huh. How'd you get all the way down here?"

Sam chuckled nervously. "It's a long story."

"We got time."

"Actually, I'd much rather not get into it, if it's all the same to you."

"Hmm, okay. I understand."

They moved about in silence for at least a few miles before Sam spoke up again. "So, where exactly are we, anyway?"

"We're in the Grizzlies of Ambarino."

Sam blinked. That was way, way south of Minnesota for sure. "Geez, that is a long way. So, why the hell was there a snow storm. Isn't it..." Suddenly she realized she had no idea what season or month it was. "What month is it?"

Charles looked at her with a bemused look. "You don't know?"

"Well...I've had it bad for awhile now. The months have just kinda...blurred together, you know?" she lied.

"I see. It's May."

"Isn't it unusual to have a blizzard in May so far south?"

"Yes." They eventually got to the river and Sam noticed there wasn't so much snow now. "See some of the ground uncovered here. Come on, let's try this way," he said, banking to the right towards the river. "Keep your eyes peeled for movement."

"Okay." They trotted their horses along the riverbank and her horse neighed loudly. Sam pet the horse's neck and cooed at it. "You're okay, dude. You're okay."

"What's a dude?"

Uh oh. "It's just a Minnesota thing."

"Oh. Hmm, the wind's died down too."

"Is that good or bad?".

"No wind at all is bad, but if it's too strong, they won't move. Now, shh. Stay quiet." They trotted along some more but then Charles slowed. "Hey, stop here a second. I see something."

Sam brought her horse to a halt and watched as Charles jumped down and crouched in the snow. There were some kind of prints heading up the way. "There's deer been here...recently," he said. "Let's walk it from here."

Sam pulled out the bow and notched an arrow. Huh. Feeling a bow in her hands again was like riding a bicycle. You never forget how to do it. "Okay, now what?"

"Quiet as you can. Stay low and move slowly." Sam crouched down and they both went through the snow low to the ground. She started following the tracks and smiled. Well, at least the snow made it easy for her to track an animal. "You see the tracks?" Charles whispered.

"Mmhmm," she hummed.

"Good. You're doing great so far." They eventually made it past some pine trees when Sam suddenly spotted a deer along the riverbank. She held her breath immediately so as not to make noise as she stopped walking. "Down there, you see 'em? You ready with that bow? Try to hit them in the neck or head. Quick and clean. You can pull back quite hard. And you can keep going, you know."

Sam nodded as she resumed walking in a crouched position. When she got close enough to be comfortable, she drew back the arrow and aimed. The deer was drinking from the water as Sam exhaled. Time seemed to slow down as she waited for the right moment to strike, but when the deer lifted its head, she took the shot. A loud thunk and a dying squeal sounded as the deer fell. Sam gasped at herself. "Holy shit, I did it!"

Charles pat her on the shoulder. "Nice job. See if you can get another one."

Sam spotted more tracks going across the river and she notched another arrow. She was feeling very excitable about actually taking down a deer, but she did her best to stay calm as she approached a few more. She stopped at a comfortable distance, aimed, and fired. The arrow embedded itself into the deer's neck and it went down. Sam started jumping up and down with joy. "Yes!"

Charles started laughing at her. "Well done, I think that's all we can carry. Okay, you pick up one, I'll get the other."

Sam went running to her second kill and slung her bow and arrows over her back. She went to pick up the deer...but it was very heavy. "Shit."

She bent down and slowly but surely hoisted it over her shoulder...making her fall down instantly. "Son of a bitch!"

She got up and tried again, this time keeping her legs spread apart to balance herself. She managed to get it over her shoulders and sighed. There, that was better. She slowly crossed the snow to the river and carefully made her way through the water just as Charles was coming up with both horses. Sam got onto the river bank, sweat breaking out on her body and her breaths hard and heavy.

"You okay over there?" Charles asked.

"Yup. Just...didn't expect this bitch to be so heavy."

Charles laughed and walked over to her. "Here, I got it."

Sam gave the deer to Charles without complaint, but her previously good mood was now gone, replaced by a sense of failure and disappointment. How could she hunt if she couldn't even carry her kills? She eyed Charles as he tossed the deer on her horse's rump and he looked at her. "Hey, you made good, clean kills. That's what matters."

"Yeah, but if I was by myself, I wouldn't be able to feed any of you."

"Ha ha, well, maybe you should have me or Arthur go with you on hunting trips until you get your strength up. You'll be able to carry deer eventually."

"Yeah, but what about bigger game? Like elk or bears?"

"Well, then one of us will definitely have to come with you."

Sam mounted up on her horse. "Just the two of you?"

"Yes." Charles mounted up as well. "We're the burliest of the bunch."

"Hmm, I hadn't noticed."

"Ha! Once we get out of this snow and we're not wearing jackets anymore, you will."