Hello ladies, and gentlemen. Been quite a while. I hope this latest update may make up for all that.
We have been running for weeks. We found shelter and been resting here in some old abandoned mining town while we wait the thaw. Hardly the spring I had been hoping for.
Arthur found a few things in his cabin, one is a miracle tonic, a small box of revolver bullets, chewing Tobacco, and a Potent Health Cure. He might be going to need all of this just in case, the new century is coming in fast, law and civilization are increasingly rising. And with the money stashed but trapped in Blackwater, which is the money that they all needed to escape the country, it looks like Arthur and his gang have to work even harder to make even more money.
As he finished looting, he overheard Dutch and Hosea talking. So he walked over to the next room to find the two sitting by the chimney and the fire warming them.
"So what now, Dutch?" Hosea asked him.
Dutch thought for a moment before answering, "We get strong, we get warm... we wait." Dutch replied. "When the storm breaks, we move. But we're safe here."
"I guess," Hosea responded, seemingly hesitated.
Dutch noticed Hosea starting to have doubts so he questioned him, "You sound doubtful," Dutch told him.
Hosea was hesitant to answer. "Not...doubtful, just worried," Hosea protested.
Dutch turned to Arthur, "What do you think, Arthur?" Dutch asked him.
"I wasn't on that boat, so it's hard to say," Arthur answered. "but I trust your judgment, Dutch. Always have."
"Thank you, son," Dutch replied sounding thankful, then turn back to Hosea. "We have been shot before, Hosea," Dutch reminded him. "I don't feel that this is honestly new."
"I hope not," Hosea replied.
"We had a bit of bad luck," Dutch recap. "but then the storm covered our tracks, so now we wait a bit and we go back to Blackwater and we get our money, or we get some more money and we keep heading west."
"But we're heading east," Hosea reminded him.
"For now..." Dutch replied silently. "For now... We got this. We're safe," he stood up from his chair. "Stay strong Hosea."
He turned to Arthur who's been watching the whole time.
"What about you, Arthur?" Dutch asked him warily. "You doubting me, too?"
"Never," Arthur replied.
"Good," Dutch nodded. "Because you know me, son... I'm just getting started. Once we get some money, well, they," he paused for a bit. "they'd better send some good men after us, 'cause they ain't never gonna find us, but we need money."
"Of course, Dutch," Arthur said.
"Thank you, son," Dutch told him. "for your strength. It means a lot to me. And thank you for bringing John back. Finally some relief."
"Well, he should be more careful, Dutch," Arthur told him.
Dutch nodded. "Right," he replied. "But what matters is that we're all together and safe. For now..." He turned to leave to discuss something with Strauss.
"How you feeling, Hosea?" Arthur asked Hosea. "You've been coughing a lot."
"It's the cold," Hosea respond. "thank you for bringing John back."
"Course," Arthur nodded.
Without saying anymore, Arthur headed out to the door and went to the other cabin where Javier was standing by.
"Morning Javier," Arthur greeted him.
"Morning Arthur," Javier greeted back.
Arthur went inside the cabin to find the other gunslingers in there as well and Micah was talking nonsensically.
"up with you boys, because I thought you liked action," Micah continued. "Couple of days on the lam and you lot have turned all yella." He turned to Lenny. "Apart from you, of course."
"Shut up, Micah," Lenny grumbled, he was smoking a cigarette.
"I ain't never seen so many long faces," Micah continued, ignoring Lenny.
"I guess," Bill spoke. "I guess folks miss them... that fell."
"Well, when I fall, I don't want no fuss," Micah told him.
"When you fall, there'll be a party," Lenny said jokingly.
The others except Micah laughed at that joke. Micah was pretty offended.
"A party," Bill laughed. "Probably."
Micah stood up and slowly approached Bill.
"That funny, huh?" Micah asked Bill venomously.
"Sure," Bill chuckled.
Suddenly, Micah punched Bill in the face and before he gets even with Micah, Arthur and Lenny quickly intervene and grab him.
"Maybe I don't feel like being laughed at by the likes of you two," Micah complained.
Dutch bursts in the door. "Stop it!" He demands sternly. "Now! You fools punching each other when Colm O'Driscoll's needing punching, hard. You wanna sit around waiting for him to come find us?" So then, Arthur and the others exited the cabin. "All of you, we got work to do. Come on."
Arthur heads out first but stops to think about this sudden decision for a moment. They've only been here like a day, and they barely escaped with their lives at Blackwater and they nearly froze to death. Arthur wasn't sure if they could make a move already after all that chase with the Pinkertons, lawmen, and Bounty Hunters.
"Are you sure about this, Dutch?" Arthur asked him.
"Yes," Dutch replied.
"Folks been through a lot recently," Arthur told him. "we hardly back on our feet."
"And the last thing we need is to get bushwacked by Colm O'Driscoll," Dutch reminded him. "Let's go."
The two walked over to their horses.
"I know you hate him, Dutch," Arthur told him.
"He's here for us," Dutch replied.
"I doubt that," Arthur said.
"No, you're just doubting me," Dutch told him.
Dutch grabs a Carbine Repeater from his horse and examines it.
"I would never doubt you, Dutch," Arthur told him. "you...you always said revenge is a luxury we can't afford."
Yes, unlike any other gangs and the O'Driscolls, Dutch's boys had their own morals and codes, such as not taking revenge no matter how badly the others wronged him and his gang, not robbing other people who were running low on money, and others.
"This is the right call, Arthur," Dutch told him, giving him the weapon. "Take this. And this is more than revenge for business long ago. They were talking about trains and detonators. Here." He gives Arthur a lasso as well.
"Colm always had good information," Dutch continued.
"And you think now is the time to hit a train?" Arthur asked him again as he and the others mount their horses.
"Now you might fancy living on deer piss and rabbit shit, I'm getting too old for that life," Dutch responded, then turned to the other three at the cabin. "Mr. Matthews, Mr. Smith, Mr. Pearson," He called to them. "would you please look after the place, there are O'Driscolls about!"
So then, Dutch leads the gang out of the mining town and into the snow. The snowstorm was still raging, and the gang barely holding on their own at this rate but with the O'Driscolls somewhere in Grizzlies, they can't afford to appear weak. So they continued while keeping themselves warm somehow and try their best to stick with Dutch and ignore the blizzard blowing to their faces.
"Southwest, right, Arthur?" Dutch asked again.
"Yeah," Arthur explained. "he said follow the main trail southwest. They're camped near some lake."
"Okay," Dutch replied and Arthur can barely hear him because of the snowstorm. "let's go find these bastards before they find us, and rob this score they're planning."
So they continued traveling through the snow, the blizzard is blowing hard the more they pushed through. They had to go through this once when they escaped the law last night and now they're going through it again. As they traveled through the snow, Dutch notices a few tracks so he signaled the gang to slow down a bit.
"What's that?" He wondered, taking a good look and can see what it was. "Tracks... horses, quite a few of 'em."
So they decided to pick up the pace a bit and follow the tracks.
"You good, Dutch?" Arthur asked him.
"Of course," Dutch replied. "Listen, I know you don't think much of my ideas recently, but this is the right move."
"Okay," Arthur reluctantly replied. "you know that I got your back."
"I learned a long time ago that you hit Colm O'Driscoll, wait for him and people you love will die."
Arthur sighs. The feud between Dutch and Colm was getting far long enough and it has to end.
"This feud between you and him," Arthur told him. "needs to be put to rest, one way or another."
Bill scoffed. "It will be," Bill told Arthur.
"Some things I can forgive, others I can forget," Dutch said. "But what he did to Annabelle, I can't do neither."
"You killed his brother, Dutch," Arthur reminded him that.
It was true, it all started when the O'Driscolls and Dutch's boys hit a bank together in Canada, and then Dutch accidentally shot Colm's brother when he is in the firing line between them and the law. However, Colm was so enraged about this he even went as far as killing Annabelle as revenge for killing his brother, the feud has been burning for so long ever since.
"Yes, I did," Dutch replied bitterly. "And I hope the bastards'll be reunited soon enough! That's how this'll end."
I hope so, Dutch, Arthur thought.
The gang continued until they see a cloud of smoke coming from a hill up ahead.
"See that smoke?" Dutch pointed to the smoke. "Let's cut up here and take a look. They said it was near the lake, so we must be close."
So the gang rides up to the hill and once they reached the edge of the cliff, they stopped and dismount their horses.
"Alright gentlemen," Dutch told them. "This is it. Are we goddamn ready?"
The others replied with full determination written on their faces.
"Good," Dutch nodded and then explained the plan. "Now, Mr. Morgan and I, we're going to head up here a little, see if we can't get a sense of the layout of the camp. Mr. Willamson, Mr. Bell, you two take up a hidden position just outside the camp. Mr. Summers, Mr. Escuella, you two hold up positions here. Let's go."
So the gang went to their supposed positions and Arthur and Tuch went to the higher hilltop, they crouched down and they took out their binoculars. What they see is a camp, many men in black were O'Driscolls.
"There they are," Dutch said, pointing at them. "That's definitely them."
They saw a man in black walking to his horse. That man has got to be Colm.
"Colm?"
"Think so," Dutch replied, he took a hard look with his binoculars and can barely see that it was indeed Colm. "Yeah... that's him."
Colm is on his horse, then someone walks to him and they were talking about something. It seems that Colm was not treating him very well when talking to him.
"Who's he talking to?" Dutch wondered. "He don't seem very happy."
"No..." Arthur muttered.
Colm hits the man and he rides away on his own
"Seems to be," Arthur claimed. "Should we go get 'em?"
"No," Dutch protested. "Colm can wait. Best to get some of them outta there."
The man Colm hit earlier also mounts his horse and rides away as well.
"And much less fun to rob him and his score if he never finds out about it," Dutch continued. "Come on, let's get down there."
So then, the two walk away from the cliff and to their horses.
"Don't forget to grab that rifle from your horse," Dutch told him.
Arthur walks to his horse and grabs the rifle, Dutch turns to Lenny and Javier. "You boys be ready to pick them off from up there," he told them.
Lenny nodded. "You got it, Dutch."
"Good. Come on, let's go."
Arthur and Dutch walk down the hill while the other two went to the upper hill, they were slowly walking down towards the camp.
"We'll circle around the far side and go down that way," Dutch explained. "same as Micah and Bill. Our needs right now are supplies, equipment, and a way out of here. Everything else, including Colm, can wait."
"Okay," Arthur nodded.
"There's enough of those bastards down there to deal with as it is. Now come on."
The two continued until whilst avoiding the steep, staying low as possible, and quietly until they eventually made it to the camp and get in cover.
"So what are we doing, Dutch?" Arthur asked him. "Can I take this if you want."
"Just make the call," Dutch ordered. "You wanna take the lead? Go."
Arthur takes the moment to decide, either he takes the lead or has the gang start shooting, on the other hand, he thinks that taking the lead is a good start.
"Okay, I'll go first."
So Arthur pops up from his cover and kills 2-3 O'Driscolls, starting a firefight between the two gangs.
"O'Driscolls!" Arthur shouted as he is shooting at them. "You're dead, you sons of bitches!"
Dutch laughed. "Let's go, boys!"
The O'Driscolls may be bigger than Dutch's gang, but nothing is matched to the Van Der Linde gang. Dutch and his boys held their own as they fire every bullet they got in them. After like 2 minutes of shooting, the O'Driscolls were laying dead on the ground.
"I think that's all of them!" Bill said.
"Search the bodies," Dutch commanded. "strip everything we can from them!"
So the gang started looting each one of them, Arthur looted 4-5 O'Driscoll gang members, what he got from them are a few things; another Potent Health Cure, Potent Snake Oil, Gun Oil, $20.00, and more gun bullets.
"You recognize any of them, Dutch?" Bill asked, pointing at the corpse he just looted.
"Of course not," Dutch protested. "Colm doesn't give a fuck about his men. All he cares about is numbers. If you can shoot a gun, and ride a horse, kill without thought, you're in. Think how long some of you have been with me? I imagine Colm doesn't even know half the names of these fools.
As they continued looting, more O'Driscolls showed up and they were coming from the trees and surrounding the area.
"Oh, shit!" Dutch cried out. "Loot out, more of the bastards coming outta the trees!"
So the gang quickly took cover and started to defend themselves and shoot back at them but there's just too many to deal with.
"Shit, there's a lot of 'em," Dutch exclaimed and then he turned to Arthur. "What do you think, Arthur? Should we hold ground here, or go at them?"
Arthur quickly thinks about what the gang should do. Though he quickly got his answer when the O'Driscolls are coming rapidly and constantly shooting at them.
Oh, fuck it! Arthur thought. Might as well hold here.
"Reckon we're better off holding here," Arthur answered.
"Alright, pick 'em off as they come off the trees!" Dutch demanded.
So the gang stayed in their cover whilst gunning down each one of the O'Driscolls coming out from the trees. After 4 more minutes, the O'Driscolls realized that they were outgunned no matter what at this point, so they took the coward's way and retreat.
"The cowards are running away!" Dutch gloated. "Good work, boys. Back to the camp, we'll get what we need clear out."
So the others continued to loot more from the dead bodies and they regroup at the camp.
"Okay," Dutch said. "let's wait for Javier and Lenny they're coming down with the horses."
So Javier and Lenny arrived with their horses and look around the dead bodies.
"Nice of you two to join us," Micah said.
"Is everyone alright?" Javier asked them.
"I think so," Dutch replied as he whistles for his horse. "Good work, boys. Now, let's tear this place apart." He mounts his horse then turns to Bill. "Bill, you go search that wagon there. Micah, search that building. Arthur, you take that building to the left."
So the gang went to the locations they were told to search, Arthur goes to the building and notices a box of dynamite and opens it. Yep, that's definitely dynamite.
"Here, this looks good," Arthur said as Bill walked over to him. "What do you think Bill?" He gives Bill the dynamite.
"Looks fine," he replied, examining the dynamite. "smells good..."
After they packed the Dynamite, Micah comes back with a map.
"I found this on one of them," Micah told Dutch, handing him the map.
Dutch examines the map and he seems to take an interest in it, "Oh yeah. Interesting... this was something about the train they was gonna rob. A Mr. Levitcus Cornwall."
After he is done, he folds the map and stores it in his saddlebag.
"Mount back up," he ordered. "let's get outta here."
So the others mount back on their horses and ride away from the camp and back to their hideout.
"Proud of you, boys!" Dutch told them. "All of you. Not a man down."
"Good work, fellers," Micah added.
"Not back for a bunch of starving down-and-outs," Dutch said. "They can pummel us hard as they like, but we will always get back up and fight. That's who we are. Outlaws for life, fellers. Wait until we have John, Mac, Charles, and Sean back riding with us, and I believe... I know... they will all be back."
"You didn't get Colm," Arthur told him. "but this will hurt him a lot more than any bullet in the head."
"Especially when we rob this train, too," Dutch added.
Arthur laughed. "Yeah, I guess we'll see about that."
"Oh, indeed we will," Dutch agreed.
"You know..." Arthur spoke. "he'll come after us."
"Oh, of course, he will," Dutch agreed. "just like all rest. But we're going to stay a step ahead of them, make sure we're always know where they are before they know where we are. We allowed ourselves to get a step behind in Blackwater. That won't happen again."
They continued riding through the snow and the hills, while they were riding back to their own camp, they see someone in the snow ahead of them.
"Hey, you see that feller?" Dutch questioned and eventually recognized him. "Wasn't he at the camp Colm with?"
Knowing that this feller has more good information that he could use for the gang, Arthur decides to capture him for information.
"Leave him to me," Arthur offered.
"Alright, we're heading back. Just bring him back alive. He could be useful," Dutch told him.
"Okay, you got it," Arthur replied.
Arthur rides off and towards the man, the man sees this coming and quickly took off. The chase continued through the heavy blizzard and the man is trying his best to get away from Arthur but Arthur's new horse was just too fast for him. In the end, Arthur pulls out his lasso and hogtie him, pulling him off from his horse.
"You're coming with me!" Arthur growled at him.
"You got mixed up with someone else!" The man stammered.
Arthur ties him up and stows him on his horse and rides back to the camp.
"What's your name, boah?" Arthur asked him.
"I don't know!" The man denied.
"You don't know your name?" Arthur asked him again.
"It's Kieran," the named Kieran finally vented.
"Kieran what?"
"Duffy," Kieran finished. "Kieran Duffy."
"Well, I ain't gonna lie to you," Arthur told Kieran. "this is a real bad day for you, Kieran Duffy."
"Where are you taking me?" Kieran asked whilst being terrified of what's going to happen to him.
"Somewhere you ain't gonna like," Arthur smirk.
"Why?" He asked again, sounding terrified. "What are you gonna do to me?"
"Something you ain't gonna like," Arthur replied ."So I'd advise you to save your breath for screaming."
"Come on, mister, p-please!" Kieran begged.
"You better shut your mouth," Arthur told him sternly. "you little fuck, or I will shut it for you!"
"I've only been running with them a couple of months," Kieran protested. "I don't know nothing real about them, honest!"
"Are you trying to test me, is that it?" Arthur intimate him. "Because I will break every bone in your body!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry... okay?" Kieran cracked.
"That's two bones," Arthur said. "right there."
He eventually arrived back at Colter where the other gang members waiting for him.
"Here we are, you sack of shit," Arthur told him. "Let's introduce you to the boahs."
Arthur dismounts and carries Kieran over his shoulder.
"Don't hurt me, please!" Kieran pleaded.
"Oh, don't worry," Arthur told him. "they're real nice."
Arthur walks to the cabin as Dutch exits it, Arthur drops Kieran to the ground.
"You found that little shit, did you?" Dutch asked him.
"Yep."
Dutch walks over to Kieran as Arthur unties him.
"Welcome to your new home," Dutch told him sarcastically. "hope you're real happy here."
Arthur grabs Kieran by his shoulders to get him on his feet.
"Want me to make him talk?" Arthur asked him.
"Oh no," Dutch protested. "now all we'll get is lies." Just then, Bill and Uncle walked by and noticed the O'Driscoll member got captured. "Uncle, Mr. Williamson. Tie this fucker up someplace safe. We get him hungry first."
The two walked up to Kieran and grabbed him by the shoulders.
"I got a saying, my friend," Dutch told Kieran. "we shoot fellers as need shooting, save fellers as need saving, and feed 'em as need feeding. We're gonna find out what you need." He then walks away from them. "I can't believe this," Dutch chuckled. "An O'Driscoll in my camp."
Bill and Uncle started taking Kieran to another spot to tie him for now.
"No, I ain't no O'Driscoll, mister," Kieran denied. "I hate that feller!"
"Oh, whatever you say, son," Dutch replied sarcastically as he and Arthur watched Keiran being carried away.
"Well done, Arthur," he told Arthur.
"I'm just sorry we missed out on Colm," Arthur said.
"Oh, there's time enough for that," Dutch replied. "Now, I gotta figure out if we can hit that train." He walks back into his cabin.
Arthur walks back inside his own and seats by the fireplace to get himself warm. Now that they got good information about the train they were going to rob to earn some more money, and an O'Driscoll member, Kieran as their hostage for more good information against Colm and his men, Arthur felt that he had quite a day, so he rest up for awhile and wait for his next task to support the gang.