May 1899, Ambarino
It was freezing in the mountains. Snow was blowing in sideways and Arthur Morgan was getting worried. He had to find shelter for the rest of the gang and fast. It was only a matter of time before the wagons got stuck and the others could freeze to death. His horse was already struggling through the snow. He'd never seen weather like this at this time of year. The hazard of escaping up into the mountains, but maybe that will keep the Pinkertons from following.
A movement ahead of him cause him to stop. He raised his lantern for a better look. Through the dense snowfall, he could see a horse, a blue roan appaloosa with a white face. He wondered how it got all the way up here, and how it's survived in this damned blizzard. Maybe there was shelter nearby.
The appaloosa turned to him, snorted and pawed the ground, then turned away at a trot. Arthur urged his own horse to follow. A short bit later he saw a light and the silhouettes of some buildings. A small town of some sort. The appaloosa stopped next to the building with the light. He could see the fireplace lit up within.
"Hello?" he shouted. There was no answer. He dismounted, removed his pistol, and cautiously opened the door. There was no one. God, that fire felt warm. A shelf nearby held a number of tinned food. Someone had to be here. He walked out and looked around, but there was only the appaloosa.
"Where'd your owner go?" he asked it. The appaloosa snorted and pawed at the ground again. As he neared it, the horse reared and galloped away into the night. Arthur checked the rest of the buildings, the others were empty and cold. Well, whoever lived here, they were about to get some new tenant whether they liked it or not. He mounted back up and hurried back to lead the wagons in.
The gang hurried into the building to warm up by the fireplace. There was still no sign of anyone else. Davey Callendar had died from the gunshot wound in his gut, while the others were nearly frozen. Despite this, Dutch insisted he and Arthur head out to try to find John and Micah, who had gone ahead sometime earlier. As much as Arthur didn't want to go back out into this awful weather, he agreed.
We have been running for weeks. The job they was pulling in Blackwater, robbing that ferry, it turned into a disaster.
Young Jenny got killed, poor thing, while Sean and Mac both got arrested or killed, nobody seems sure which.
Then, as we were fleeing east over the Grizzlies, an almighty storm hit us.
Davey Callendar, who got shot in the gut on the raid, passed away, it was brutal to watch, and the rest of us nearly froze, but have we found shelter and have been resting here in some old (abandoned?) mining town while we await the thaw. Fire was already lit like we were expected. No one's showed yet.
Seems Colm O'Driscoll had the same ideas as us. He's been hiding up here. We bumped into some of his boys at some farmstead they was robbing, found that poor woman whose husband they had murdered and she's now riding with us as she ain't got no place better to be.
That fool Marston got himself lost. Thought he ran out again, but Hosea insisted we look for him so Javier and I rode out...
"Did he even come out this way?" asked Arthur after they had ridden further up the mountain. "We lost the trail some time ago."
"I don't know," replied Javier, "But we should check anyway."
They heard a whistle and looked. The blue roan appaloosa Arthur had followed to the abandoned town was ahead with someone on its back waving to them.
"Is that John?" asked Javier.
"If it is, that ain't his horse," said Arthur, taking out his binoculars. Through them he saw the rider was a young woman. She waved at them and beckoned. "Seems she wants us to follow her."
"Maybe she knows where John is," said Javier.
"Well, we don't have much else to go on," Arthur put his binoculars back in his bag. Was she the one who lit the fire and left the food for them? If so, why? And where was she staying?
They rode towards the woman and her appaloosa. She turned and led them further around the mountain, always keeping herself far enough ahead of Arthur and Javier to prevent them from catching up. They reached a large hill where she stopped.
"Look, isn't that the horse John was riding?" Javier pointed at a dead horse off the trail. It had been mauled by animals, wolves maybe.
"Yeah, but where's John?" asked Arthur.
"Seems she knows," Javier pointed up at the woman who had now dismounted her horse and waved at them to follow her. They dismounted as well and followed. The appaloosa galloped away.
"Shit, her horse!" Arthur started after it, but Javier stopped him.
"Don't worry about that now, we need to find John."
Arthur nodded, noting that the woman didn't seem to mind that her horse had ran off. They continued to follow her as she still managed to keep her distance ahead of them. She whistled loudly again and they could hear faint shouting.
"Help! Over here!"
"Sounds like John," said Javier.
The woman seemed to effortlessly climb up ledges and through the snow. Arthur and Javier tried to keep up, but she eventually disappeared through a small crevice in the mountain side. They tracked her footsteps in the snow until they could hear John more clearly. They followed his shouting until they found him, badly injured but alive, on a lower ledge.
"Never thought I'd say this, but good to see you, Arthur Morgan," said John.
"Yeah, well, you've got your friend to thank for that," said Arthur as he jumped down to help lift John up to Javier.
"I thought she was with you," John said, grimacing in pain, "She stopped here, said 'Your friends are coming,' then left."
"She wasn't with us," said Javier, "We were just following her."
"Well, maybe you've got yourself a guardian angel, Marston," Arthur lifted John on his shoulders, "A strange one, I might say. Best not tell Abigail. You're in bad enough shape as it is."
Don't know who that girl was, but John owes her his life. Strange thing, I'm sure it was her horse I saw trying to find this place. Don't know where she lives, not much around out here. Hope she ain't giving us away.
Saw her again while hunting with Charles. Almost think she might be a ghost.
The food situation was starting to get dire, but the weather was now clear enough to be able to go hunting for food. Pearson complained that he had sent Lenny and Bill out but they had found nothing, but Charles insisted on going out with Arthur to find some deer. Normally Charles would go out on his own, but due to his injured hand, Arthur would need to be the one to shoot.
Arthur managed to kill two deer with the bow Charles had lent him. It should be enough for all of them for a little while, hopefully until the snow thawed.
On the way back, they saw a black bear digging in the snow and decided to give it some room. While the bear could provide even more food and a large pelt for warmth, neither had enough space to carry the carcass back. They were about to cross the creek when something caught Arthur's eye. He stopped his horse.
Amongst the trees, he saw the same woman who led them to John the other day. She was standing knee deep in the snow and feeding her appaloosa.
"Hey! Watch yourself, there's a bear 'round here," he called out. Charles stopped his horse and looked back at Arthur.
"I know, Arthur," he said, confused.
"Nah, I was talking to the girl over there," Arthur said.
"What girl?"
Arthur looked back to wear the woman was, but she was gone. He looked around, but there was no sign of her or the horse.
"You must be getting hungry," Charles said.
"Yeah, must be," Arthur reluctantly agreed. He was so sure of what he'd seen. He looked back to where he had seen the girl, wondering where she had gone and who she was and why she seemed to be following them.
Seems Colm O'Driscoll had the same ideas as us. He's been hiding up here, scouting out a train he wanted to rob.
Then, Dutch being Dutch and his hatred for Colm being just as powerful as ever it was, whole bunch of us went to pay him a visit in his camp, but he escaped.
We grabbed one of his boys. Poor bastard ain't spoken yet, but he will once we freeze him a little, then set Bill on him.
We got the plans on that train and robbed it ourselves. Nearly missed it when Bill's explosives didn't ignite, but we got on the train anyway. Found some stocks of this Leviticus Cornwall company.
Then after the others had left and I had sent the train on, I saw that girl again...
Arthur hopped off the moving train and whistled for his horse. Just as he trotted up, something caught his eye. The girl was on her appaloosa standing on a nearby hill, watching him. He couldn't risk her running to the law, so he jumped on his horse and kicked it after her. She turned and galloped down the side of the hill.
"Hey! Wait a minute!" he shouted, chasing after her. She zig zagged through the trees, gaining distance from him. "You! Stop right there!"
Arthur then realised she was heading straight for a deep ravine. "Stop!"
Her horse leapt over the ravine, landing cleanly on the other side. She stopped and looked back. Arthur slid to a halt at the edge of the ravine, briefly looking down at the shrubs and rocks below. It seemed an impossible jump to make. He looked across at the woman who smiled and waved, before turning her horse and trotting away.
He wiped his face, then turned to head back to camp. He hoped she wasn't about to go to the law, but somehow, he knew that she wouldn't rat them out. But who was she and why had she taken an interest in them? Not that he was complaining much, since so far without her they may not have been able to find shelter or find John in time. He had a feeling he would see her again.
