Mí amor: A Javier Escuella story

The heist

As I walked down the steps of the gun shop Javier called out to me, already sitting on the wagon with the reigns in his hands. " you done?," He asked me. "yeah, do you want to see it?"
"Sure," He said while holding out his hand. I quickly climbed up into the seat next to him and gave him my new gun. Javier checked it out and handed it back to me. "That's a fine gun. Take care of it. It could save your life one day." I looked at him and said;
"Why do you think I got one? To eat?" We looked at each other for a few seconds before laughing. Javier urged the horses forward, still smiling, and said to me, "no, I thought you were going to use it as a spoon." We laughed again.

When we got back to camp, Javier took the supplies and put them where they needed to go. Meanwhile, I unharnessed the horses and left them to graze with the others. As I was leading the second one to the rest of the horses, Dutch came up to me. "Ah Victoria, I was looking for you." He said. "What do you need?" I asked.
"We got a tip about a train carrying some Rick folk and I'm sending some of the boys to rob it. I want you to go with them." I let the horse go and graze and looked at him fully. "Finally some good fucking news. How much do you think we'll get from it?" I asked. "Hopefully $5000 but I'm hoping for more. So you'll do it?"
"Sure, why not. It'll be fun. I haven't done anything for a while." I said with a smile. "Good. Go talk with Arthur. He's the one leading the heist." He returned my smile and patted me on the shoulder. "He should be by the fire."
"Okay. Thanks Dutch"

"Oi, Arthur!" I shouted at him when I had gotten closer. He turned to my direction. "Dutch said I'm to join you on your little escapade." I said.
"Yes he did mention that. Well wait for nightfall. It should be passing through West Elizabeth at around 10, so get some rest." I looked at him.
"I'm younger than you. If anyone needs rest it's you, old man." I said while picking up a bottle of beer. "Very funny, Adams" He said unamused.
"So," I inquired, changing the subject. "Who else is joining us on our mission?" Arthur sat down next to me, also holding a beer. "Lenny and Sean. This is going to be fun." He said with a sarcastic tone. "Hey! You were our age once!" I exclaimed. "And anyway, you're not that much older than us."

It became night quicker than I thought it would. Me, Arthur, Lenny and Sean saddled up and rode out to the site of the robbery. We had to wait for about 5 minutes, over which Arthur explained the plan. We saw the train coming around the corner and got into position. "Good luck everyone," Arthur whispered. The train got closer and we put our plan into action, riding after and then jumping on it. As we got closer, bullets went flying past us. It was the Pinkerton's. "Damn! It was trap!" Shouted Lenny.
"Everyone stay calm! We can't even get close, let alone steal from it! We need to get back to camp!" Arthur shouted at us. We managed to dodge the bullets while galloping along the cliff edge. My horse suddenly threw his head back, almost hitting me in the face, and started limping. I looked down and blood running down his leg. I was falling behind the others but I didn't want to push my horse too much because I didn't want him to collapse. Suddenly I felt a sharp, white-hot pain course down my leg. It then started gushing blood. I looked ahead, my vision blurred from the pain, and saw my friends little more than specks on the horizon. The Pinkerton's had lost all interest in the rest of the group and had focused entirely on me. My horse then fell over down the cliff with blood squirting out the side of his head, taking me with him. Everything went black.