Oh, I've been excited for this chapter for a while! Colm is going to regret hurting one of Dutch's gang! In other words, the scene we wished we had in the game haha!
Chapter 51: Hanging Dog Ranch
"Is this the place?" John asked Charles, peering through his sniper rifle's scope at the run-down ranch from the woods above. Well, it was Arthur's rifle, but John hoped to give it back soon enough.
"It's the only ranch in Big Valley. Certainly enough men here."
"And I think I see enough green," John said, focusing on the neckerchiefs and vests. The ranch had a large barn, a smaller house and shed, and what used to be a cow pasture. There was more cover for an assault to the back and side, since the front of the ranch opened into an open field of purple lupine. "Hey, ain't that Isaac's horse."
The chocolate roan Dutch Warmblood was hitched next to some Kentucky Saddlers. "Yeah, that's Apollo," Charles said. "They've got to be here!"
"Let's get back to the others."
The gang was camped a little higher up the hill, and Dutch was still pacing when John and Charles returned. Most of the gang were checking their guns and packing extra ammunition into their gun belts, but they all stopped to hear the news.
"Is it them?" Dutch asked.
"Yeah. Isaac's horse is with them. I counted at least twenty men," John said. He explained the ranch layout and his advice for how to take it.
"Colm is probably in the house, if he's there," Hosea said. "He might be keeping Isaac and Arthur close."
"Or in the barn," John said.
"Were there a lot of them guarding in the back?" Hosea asked.
"No. More patrolling the front."
"It could be a trap to lure us into the barn," Hosea said.
"Well, of course it's a trap! But what choice do we have?" John said.
Dutch had been mulling over the information. "What if we attack from the front?"
"It's more dangerous," Annabelle reminded him. "We'll be more exposed."
"Oh, we can take them!" Dutch said. "If we move fast-"
"Or split into teams," Annabelle said. "Surround the place."
"I could go up behind the place with Charles. Try to take some out from behind while you draw their attention," said John.
"Once you set it off from the entrance, we can take control of the barn," Charles said. "There are several windows in the loft, so we don't want them getting their own sniper up there."
"Alright," Dutch said, nodding. "Everyone! We're moving out! We're going to take this ranch fast and overwhelm them! If you find Colm, leave him for me! Micah and Bill, you take the pastures. Make sure no one is hiding in those stalls. Sean, Lenny, and Karen, you will approach the barn from the front and meet John and Charles as they come down the hill. Sadie and Javier, secure the shed and the perimeter near the woods. No one is escaping, understood?" Everyone nodded. "Anna, Hosea, and I will take the house."
"I can't wait to burn that ranch to the ground," Sadie said, mounting Bob, her recently acquired Turkoman.
"No burning until we have Isaac and Arthur," Dutch said. "Then you can do what you want with the place. Let's move out!"
John and Charles made their way back up the hill, with Old Boy and Taima trailing behind. They took position behind a fallen log and waited for Dutch to make his move.
Dutch marched up to the front entrance of Hanging Dog Ranch, his two Schofield revolvers drawn, the rest of the gang following behind. "Colm!" he shouted.
"Oh, shit! They're here!" the O'Driscoll on watch said, and he died first. Dutch shot the second guard before ducking behind an outhouse for cover.
"Spread out! Find me Colm O'Driscoll!"
Several men ran out of the barn with weapons drawn, but they were quickly cut down, too. Colm always recruited based on numbers rather than skill, and he didn't care too much if his men died. Dutch knew his gang was strong and capable, and they immediately followed his plan. Even Sadie, who he was a little worried about because he didn't know her abilities, was cutting down O'Driscolls with a ferocity he'd rarely seen. It was messy, but Dutch trusted Javier to keep an eye on her as they moved forward.
Hosea gasped somewhere to the left of him. He whipped around, but Hosea waved him off. "I'm fine! Just got real close!"
"Watch out!" Annabelle shouted. "Gatling gun in the loft!"
"Take cover!" Dutch warned, and their gang dove behind crates and wagons as a spray of bullets left the gun and cut through the top of the outhouse. But it abruptly stopped, and Dutch risked a glance to see John standing in the loft and shooting more O'Driscolls from behind.
"Gatling gun is down, let's move!" Dutch said.
Just then, Dutch heard a muffled voice in the barn shouting, "I need help in here!" Charles, it had to be. Dutch hoped he hadn't been shot. Sean, Lenny, and Karen moved for the barn to help him, so Dutch focused on the house.
"Let's move!" he said to Annabelle and Hosea. The windows were boarded shut and the door locked, but Dutch kicked it down. "Colm! Get down here now!"
"Shit!" yet another O'Driscoll said, crouching behind the sofa. Dutch barely gave him a glance before putting a bullet in his head. He went up the stairs and saw another gun, but not Colm. And Dutch was getting impatient. He shot the O'Driscoll in the hand when he went for his gun.
"Where is Colm?" Dutch snarled, grabbing the O'Driscoll by the signature neckerchief.
"Don't kill me, please!" the O'Driscoll said, his voice shaking.
"Tell me where he is!"
"He- he went out the window, please don't-"
Dutch executed him just as Sadie began screaming outside.
"Find Colm," Hosea said. "I'll search this house for Arthur and Isaac."
Dutch and Annabelle went out the window and onto the roof, following Sadie's screams.
Charles moved down the hill with John after taking out several O'Driscolls from above. They stopped just outside the door to regroup.
"I'll take the loft. You good on the ground floor?" John said.
"Ready," Charles said.
John kicked down the door and shot the O'Driscoll right behind it. The barn was pretty empty, with most of the O'Driscolls concentrated on the front. One was going for a Gatling gun in the loft, so John quickly climbed the ladder while Charles kept moving forward. He checked in the stalls for anyone ducking down, raised his gun on instinct.
But he paused. Charles looked again at the unmoving figure lying in the hay, the sweaty mop of brown hair covering his eyes, old, blood soaked bandages around his shoulder and thigh, his legs chained to a post.
"Isaac!"
Charles dropped to his knees next to Isaac, feeling the fever radiating from his flushed skin before he even touched him. He gathered Isaac into his arms as gently as he could, but Isaac didn't make a sound other than his ragged breathing.
"I need help in here!"
John scrambled back down the ladder. "Oh, God," he said when he saw Isaac. "Is he…"
"He's alive," Charles said. "Can you get those chains off him?"
"Yeah, I got it," John said. "Hold on, son, we're getting you home."
John jammed a throwing knife into the lock and jiggled it around until it released. He threw them into the corner and hovered over Isaac, unsure what to do.
"Pa?"
Isaac shifted and mumbled something else, but he didn't open his eyes. "It's John and Charles," John said. "You'll be okay, I promise!"
Sean, Lenny, and Karen burst into the barn looking for O'Driscolls or injuries. "You alive?" Lenny said before he realized they found Isaac.
"You got them?" Karen asked.
"Where's Arthur?" John said.
"I didn't check the other stalls," said Charles. "I saw Isaac, and…"
The others searched the whole barn for Arthur, or any sign of him, but found nothing. Charles didn't want to think about what that meant, so he held Isaac closer, especially since Isaac was shaking through his high fever.
Hosea burst through the door next. "Is everyone alright? Charles?"
Charles brushed Isaac's hair off his forehead while John said, "We've got Isaac. I think the bastards shot him. Days ago."
Hosea's eyes widened in alarm when he saw Isaac. He knelt down and felt Isaac's forehead. "His fever is too high. We need to get him cooled down, and soon! Who knows how long they've left him like this. Charles, can you carry him to the creek?"
"Yeah, I've got him," Charles said. He wasn't ready to let go anytime soon.
When Dutch and Annabelle reached Sadie, they were relieved that she wasn't dying. She was stabbing a larger, bearded O'Driscoll again and again while Javier watched with a tied up Colm at his feet, both of them mildly terrified.
Sadie stopped only when the O'Driscoll stopped moving. Her entire shirt was covered in blood. "Are you alright, Mrs. Adler?" Dutch asked. "Any of that yours?"
"I'm fine," she said.
"Javier, why don't you take Mrs. Adler and see if the others need help. I'll deal with Colm."
"Of course," Javier said, heading to the barn with Sadie.
"Now, then," Dutch said. And then Colm had a different reason to be afraid as Dutch grabbed him by the collar and hauled him up. "Where is Arthur?"
But even while tied up and his gang dying around him, Colm still laughed. "He's not here."
Dutch punched him in the face once, twice, three times. But still, Colm cackled.
"Where is he?" Dutch shouted again.
"Somewhere you ain't ever reaching. Not without dying yourself," Colm said, flashing him a bloody smile.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Well, you never showed up to rescue him. He was waiting. Kept calling for you. Especially after what we did to the boy."
"Isaac. What did you do?"
"Boy didn't look too good last time I saw him."
Dutch dropped him on the ground, huffing and seething. "Dutch, how about I-" Annabelle started to say, but Dutch brought his foot down on Colm's knee with a crunch.
Colm screamed.
"What did you do?" Dutch asked again. When Colm kept writhing on the ground instead of answering, Dutch leaned in and whispered, "You are going to die, Colm. But if you don't tell me what I want to know, I will make it as slow and painful as I can."
Colm coughed, but still managed a smirk. "Don't matter what you do, I still win."
"What do you mean?"
"You was supposed to come for him, so we could capture all of you," Colm explained. "Hand you over to those Pinkertons for the money. Only you never showed."
Because the message was locked away in a shed on Boadicea. It didn't make sense.
"What did you do?" Annabelle asked.
"Agent Milton and Agent Ross were kind enough to take him off my hands," Colm laughed. "Now, I ain't read about any hangings, so that means they're interrogating him. You hear what they do to outlaws, Dutch?"
They had. Men were hurt and questioned until they broke or died. And Arthur had been with them for several days at least. Somewhere in Blackwater that they couldn't easily reach without getting captured and killed themselves.
If they were in Blackwater at all.
"Figured Morgan would hold them over until we got the rest of you," Colm continued.
"That didn't turn out well for you," Dutch managed to say.
"Damn idiots couldn't even hold this ranch," Colm said. "Don't matter. I still got the last laugh. Arthur Morgan is finally dead, or about to be."
Dutch yelled and began to beat into Colm, again and again while the other outlaw laughed. Dutch hit him until he stopped moving, and kept hitting him, then choking him, until Annabelle's voice broke through his ringing ears.
"Dutch, stop! He's dead!"
He blinked, and took in Colm's slack, bloody face and unmoving chest. He stood up, and unloaded all his bullets into him, just in case.
"Dutch?" Annabelle asked, a gentle hand falling on his shoulder.
His stomach rolled as he looked at Colm's corpse, and he threw up into a bush. Annabelle was a little green, too, and gave up trying to hold it in. Once Dutch was finished, he staggered away and collapsed on the ground.
"I promised him," Dutch said.
"Promised him what?"
"After the first time, I promised Arthur I'd never let Colm near him again."
"Oh, Dutch."
"He needed us to save him and we… I wasn't there!" Dutch sobbed.
She didn't have anything more to say. She just wrapped her arms around him and cried, too.
"We should, uh," Dutch sniffled, straightening up. "We should check around for graves or bodies. In case Colm lied."
"Yeah, okay," she said.
Dutch stood and gave her a hand up. "And we should check in with the others."
The ranch was quiet. The gang was crowded next to the creek, around someone on the ground. Dutch's chest tightened. Not another man down. He couldn't lose anyone else.
Bill was standing off to the side, holding Apollo and feeding him oatcakes. Micah was kicking rocks and looting bodies. Sadie was sitting alone. And he could see Karen and Sean holding each other, Lenny looking lost next to Javier, Hosea leaning over someone being held by John and Charles, so who-
Hosea sat back up, and Dutch saw Isaac.
His eyes were closed and his face was scrunched up in pain. Hosea had cut away his union suit to reveal and angry, infected shoulder wound. Dutch ran to them and asked, "What did they do to him?"
Hosea sighed. "It's bad, Dutch. Are you and Anna alright?"
"Yes."
"And Arthur?"
Dutch shook his head.
"We're going to search the grounds again," Annabelle said. "But Colm… he may have handed him over to the Pinkertons."
There were angry shouts from the crowd, but Dutch said, "I need some folk going through those buildings and back in the woods. In case we missed something. Give Isaac some space, alright? Let Hosea work!"
Dutch led the way back into the ranch, a good number of the gang followed.
But part of him knew already that they wouldn't find anything.
Annabelle stayed back with Hosea, working on the gash they found on Isaac's leg while Hosea focused on the shoulder. By itself, the gash wouldn't have been bad, but with Isaac already sick and weak, it could easily become a problem, too.
"We need to cool him down, then clean and wrap these," Hosea said. "Charles, John, get him up."
Charles and John placed Isaac in the shallow creek, and Isaac weakly thrashed and whined in the freezing water. Annabelle poured water on his forehead while Charles supported his head out of the water.
"Come on, sweetheart, wake up," Annabelle said, running her fingers through his hair. "Just a little."
Isaac groaned and leaned into her hand. "Stop," he muttered.
Isaac didn't seem fully aware, but Annabelle was glad he was responding at least. Isaac started shivering and tried to curl up, so John and Charles lifted him back out of the water.
"We need blankets," Hosea said.
"I'll grab my bedroll," John said.
Charles didn't move, didn't talk. He tucked Isaac's head under his chin. Annabelle knew he had to be struggling. Charles was close to Isaac as a friend as well as Isaac being his partner's son. A still missing partner.
"We're going to look after him, Charles," she said, giving his shoulder a squeeze. "Isaac is going to be fine."
He nodded.
Hosea dried and wrapped Isaac's two injuries before encouraging him to drink one of his tonics. Isaac coughed but was able to swallow some of it. Annabelle hoped that was a good sign.
Dutch and the others returned, and before she could ask, Dutch just shook his head. "He's not here."
"Let's get Isaac back home," Hosea said. "Patch him up, make sure we're safe. Let everyone rest."
"Alright. Bill, can you take care of Apollo for us?" Annabelle asked. "I'm sure Isaac will be happy to see him."
"Of course," Bill said. Apollo leaned into Brown Jack, and the Ardennes nuzzled his neck. Bill gave him some food to help get him home.
"I'll ride with Isaac," John volunteered. "Old Boy is strong enough for both of us."
Annabelle wasn't sure if Charles would let go, but Charles helped hoist Isaac into Old Boy's saddle. They took off back towards their camp, but Annabelle trailed behind with Dutch and Hosea.
Dutch sat hunched in the saddle, the reins loose around the Count's neck. "At least we have Isaac," he said.
"That poor boy," she said. "This isn't going to be easy."
"That fever might cause problems," Hosea said. "No doubt those O'Driscolls didn't take care of him properly. Not to mention whatever else they've done."
"What do you mean?" Dutch asked.
"I'm worried about his mind. What they did to him, how much he remembers… it might be better if he doesn't remember," Hosea said.
"We'll make sure someone is always in camp with him," Annabelle said. "One of us, and his friends."
"Do you think," Dutch said, hesitating. "How did Colm even find them?"
"Could have been random," Hosea said. "Arthur would have passed through New Hanover, and we know the O'Driscolls were spread throughout that area."
"But someone locked Boadicea in a shed," Annabelle said, catching on to Dutch's thought.
"Something isn't right," Dutch said. "We'll need to keep an eye out."
They caught up to the rest of the gang, each thinking through their newest problem. When the gang finally arrived back in camp hours later, they handed Isaac over to Susan and Reverend Swanson and updated everyone else on what they knew, and more of what they didn't know, about Arthur.
Many went to bed. Abigail led John back to their tent to distract Jack and keep him from investigating all the noise. Annabelle patted Charles on the shoulder and told him to get some sleep before she and Dutch went to sit in Isaac's tent for a while.
That poor boy… how were they going to tell him?