GOOD SHOT
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Abby had woken up earlier then usual this morning, and decided on sitting by the window once again. It was her favorite spot, considering it was away from everyone else. It also allowed her to silently drawing shapes onto the cold window, while still being able to keep watch. There wasn't much to do on this mountain, especially for the women. So when the girl took notice of the men gathering outside, she was quick to slip outside before Ms. Grimshaw noticed.
"Where are you guys headed?" She asks breaking the tense conversation between Arthur and Dutch.
"Findin' us some O'Driscolls!" Dutch informs the girl in a tone of excitement, causing her eyebrows to raise at the thought. "Then count me in!" Abby exclaims with a bright smile, clapping her hands together.
"No. Nope, not happening." Arthur intervenes causing the girl's smile to drop into an instant frown.
"Since when were you the boss of me?" She asks while placing her hands on her hips, and giving her brother an look of irritation.
"Since our pa' died—Now get back back inside before you catch a cold." Arthur raises his voice slightly, clearly getting fed up with the his sisters stubbornness. "No" She sternly tells the man, crossing her arms childlike.
"Will you children stop bickering?" Dutch orders the two siblings in irritation, now sitter upon his beautiful white stallion.
"Dutch, can I please come along? All I'm doing is sitting around! I want to help, and we all know you can use as many hands out there." She pleads to their leader seated upon his horse, while grabbing his hand, and giving him sort of puppy eyes.
"She does have a good shot' Dutch." Javier reminds their leader, while walking past the three, and towards his horse.
"Stay out of it, Escuella." Arthur grumbles angrily towards Javier, who responds with a raise of his hands in defense.
"Alright, fine. Abby you come along. But you listen to my orders, you understand?" Dutch says to the girl with a stern tone, immediately causing her smile to break out in a smile. "Aye, Aye, Captain." She playfully salutes towards the man, causing Arthur to let out a huff of annoyance.
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Once they saw smoke coming up from the other side of the mountain, Dutch stops leading the group, and dismounts from his horse. "Alright, This is it—Are we goddamn ready?" Dutch asks his men.
"Ready, Dutch." They all response back in sync.
"Good." He says, before turning to grab an item from his horse's satchel—a pair of binoculars.
"Now Mr. Morgan and I, were gonna head up here a little. See if we can get a sense of the layout of the camp. Mr. Williamson, Mr. Bell. You two take up a position just outside of the camp. Mr. Summers, Ms. Morgan, Mr. Escuella. You three hold positions here—Lets go." He barks orders before walking up the snowy mountain side, leaving the rest to do follow their orders.
"Can't believe Dutch actually let you come along." Micah comments whilst dismounting off his horse like the rest of the group.
"Stop nagging like Ms.Grimshaw, and follow your orders Micah." She responds back, unbothered by his lazy attempt to discourage her. Which only seems to irritate the man more, as he depends by mumbling profanities toward the girl while walking off toward the direction of Bill.
"Impressive, señorita." Javier says with an smile, which causes butterflies in erupt in her stomach.
"Yeah. You actually managed to piss off that old coot." Lenny adds, clearly impressed.
"Serves him right. Especially how he treats everyone around camp; especially you both." Abby tells the two men, expressing her dislike of his discrimination towards the colored folk.
"Yeah, well. You don't have to worry about that." Lenny tells the girl, trying his best not to get her involved, even if it was much appreciated.
"He's right; we can handle him."
"Alright—You two boys be ready to pick them off from up there. Abby you're with us, come on." Dutch barks his new orders, as they walked back down towards the others. "You got it, Dutch." She quickly responds, before swiftly grabbing ahold of the rifle on her back.
"Hey, make sure you watch yourself down there." Lenny reminds the girl.
"Same goes for the both of you." She says, eyeing them playfully once more before catching up with the two older men that already were making their way down the mountain side.
"Like you said, Arthur. Revenge is a luxury we can't afford..." She overhears Dutch tell her brother, which surprises her. The man loved the idea of revenge, especially when it came to the O'Driscoll's.
"Yeah, I just wasn't sure you agreed with me." Arthur tells Dutch, as they carefully shimmied their way to down the other side of the mountain.
"Arthur, Arthur... have you completely lost faith in me?" Dutch asked, almost offended.
Yes.
If Abby were being completely honest, she has been doubting Dutch for awhile now. She had sensed a shift within the man—which was about a month ago. Now, with what happened down in Black Water... it only confirmed it. Not only was there failure in the robbery, but so was there unnecessary bloodshed; revolving around a woman. Nobody really understood what happened on the ferry besides Dutch, Micah, and Javier. And Abby believed that the rest of the group would never know.
"...Our needs right now, our supplies, equipment, and our way out of here. Everything else, including Colm, can wait.—There's enough of those bastards to deal with as it is. Now come on." Dutch adds, before quickly leading them further down the mountain.
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As they all made their way down the hill, they managed to sneak into the O'Driscoll camp undetected. Once they spotted Bill and Micah, they quickly made their way over.
"So what are we doing Dutch? I can take this if you want?" Arthur tells him, while Abby grips tightly onto her rifle.
"Just make the call. You wanna take the lead? Go." Dutch instructs her brother, who peers over before firing his weapon.
As soon as Arthur makes the first shot, the rest of the gang began shooting their way throughout the camp. Abby was almost surprised to see many O'Driscoll's as there were. But that only meant she was able to take down more.
Every shot she fired manage to hit an O'Driscoll, never missing a shot. Just as she takes one down one a few yards away, she watches a man jump up from behind Micah, and take him down onto the snowy ground. Without hesitating she fires at the O'Driscoll wrestling Micah on the floor, allowing the man to scramble up from the ground. As soon as his eyes meets the eyes of his savior, he responds with a scoff, and passes the girl in aggravation. "You're welcome!" She exclaims, before rolling her eyes at the man.
Once the O'Driscoll's were taken care of, she makes her way over to Lenny and Javier who had led all their horses down the mountain.
"Still alive Ms. Morgan?" Javier teases while sitting on top of his horse, which makes her raise an eyebrow at the man.
"Of course, she is! Did you not see her take down that group of O'Driscoll's by herself?" Lenny exclaims to Javier, who just remains smirking down at the blushing girl.
"Will you both stop flirting with Ms.Morgan and keep a look out while they look for valuables?"
"Nobody is flirtin' with anyone." Abby says to Dutch with a roll of her eyes, before making her way towards Arthur.
They we're looking for any sort of valuables. Loot, Plans, or Info. It had took her awhile to find anything at first, until she comes across a big chest. Opening it, she couldn't help but smirk as it was almost full to the brim with Dynamite. Just before she was about to call some men over, Bill and Arthur make an appearance, who which both give her proud pat on a shoulder.
"Looks fine... Smells good." Bill says once inspecting the sticks weight, and smell.
"Alright, come on." Arthur says while packing the rest of the items, and heading towards the horses.
"Hey boss, found this on one of them." Micah says while handing the rolled up paper over to Dutch, who was seated like some sort of king on his white Arabian horse. "Thank you." Dutch says to the man while he grabbing ahold of the item. Just as he unrolls it to read it, Micah couldn't contain his excitement further.
"This is perfect!" Micah shouts, clearly already knowing what was on the paper.
"This is something about the train they was gonna rob.... A Mr. Leviticus Cornwall." Dutch informs the rest of them, while smirking to himself.
"Mount up, lets keep moving." He orders causing everyone to get return onto their horses, and follow their leader back up the snowy mountain together.
"Alright let's get out of here. I'm proud of you boys! And Ms. Morgan, of course! All of you. Not a man or woman down."Dutch exclaims in pure bliss.
"Not bad for some starving down and outs. They can pummel us hard as they like, but they will always get back up and fight. That's who we are. Outlaws for life, fellers. Wait until we have John, Max, Charles, and Sean back riding with us, and I believe... I know they will all be back." Dutch continues on his little speech, before the rest of the men talk amongst themselves.
"You didn't get Colm, but this will hurt him a lot more than any bullet in the head." Arthur tells Dutch, who just smiles at the man.
"Especially when we ride this train too." Dutch says laughing again.
"Yeah, I guess we'll see about that!" Arthur exclaims over the sudden wind that almost blew off their hats away. "Oh, indeed we will!" Dutch shouts back as they try to pass another hard wind current.
"You know, he'll come after us." Arthur reminds their leader, who nods at his comment.
"Oh, of course he will, just like all the rest. But we're gonna stay a step ahead of them, make sure we always know where they are, before they know where we are. We allowed us to get a step behind in Blackwater. That won't happen again." Dutch responds back to the man, before slightly kicking his horses to give more speed.
"Alright, dig in some fellers! Let's make some ground!" Dutch yells as they all try to ride back to their camp.
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Just when they were growing closer towards camp, Abby notices someone out in the snowy distance. "Hey, Dutch! Do you see that?" Abby asks the man riding in front of her, still managing to keep a close eye on the person of interest.
"Wasn't he the one with Colm?" Dutch suddenly asks Arthur, causing him to nod.
"Leave him to me." Arthur responds, catching Abby's attention.
"Alright we're heading back. Just bring him back alive. He could be useful." Dutch informs Arthur, causing the girl to ride her horse beside her brother.
"Last one to get him is a rotten egg!" Abby shouts before racing after the O'Driscoll on the horse. She could hear her brother shouts, but they obviously go ignored. Just as she catches up, she successfully lassos him, and pulls him directly off the horse.
"What did I do?" He cries as Abby dismounts her own horse. As soon as she successfully hogties the O'Driscoll from behind, Arthur finally decides to make an appearance.
"You're a child." He tells her causing her smirk in response. "You're just mad that I won—Now give me hand, and put him on the back of my horse." She instructs her brother, who immediately complies.
"You cheated—Got a head start before I even had a say." Arthur tells his sister while stowing the man on the back of her horse.
"Fine. Then how about another? Race me back?" Abby asks, causing Arthur to laugh. "Yeah. Yeah, Alright." Arthur agrees, while mounting his own horse.
This time she wakes until he gives her an nod, before readying herself.
"3... 2... 1... GO!" She counts down, only to quickly speed off throughout the snowy mountain.
"Hey! Hey! I'm gonna fall off!" The man on the back of her horse shouts out in fear, causing her to smirk.
"Stop!"
"Ouch! Please!"
"Stop this madness!"
"You're hurting me!"
"Not my problem!" She shouts back, causing him to cry out. His protesting only gets louder as her horse gains speed, due to the snow whiplashing and hitting him in the face.
Just when just she was growing closer towards camp, Arthur suddenly speeds up, and glides past her into camp; which makes him the winner of the race. Immediately she let's out a sigh of defeat, knowing she had lost. As soon as her horse slowly enters camp, Arthur couldn't help but go into fits of laughter.
"You're just lucky my horse was tired out from the first race." She mutters as she hitches her horse, making Arthur scoff while grabbing ahold of the hogtied man.
"Here we are, you sack of shit—Let's introduce you to the boys." Arthur says while throwing him ove his shoulder and making his way slowly towards the men's main cabin.
"M-miss, Miss, you got it all wrong! Just let me go." The man pleads while looking up at her with pleading eyes.
"Do you take me as an stupid woman?" She asks the man. "N-no, of course not." He nervously stutters out.
"Then I suggest you shut your goddamn mouth, before she does it for you." Arthur mutters to the man, before tossing him onto the cold snow floor in front of the cabin.
"You found the little shit, did you?" Dutch asks with a smirk, as soon as swings the door open.
"More like Abby did." Arthur informs their leader, who nods at the girl impressively.
"Welcome to your new home. Hope your real happy here!" Dutch tells the man as Lenny and Uncle pick him up.
"You want me to make him talk?" Arthur asks while glaring at the nervous looking man.
"Oh no, all we would get is lies! Uncle, Mr. Williamson! Tie this maggot up somewhere safe. We get him hungry first." Dutch orders the two, who nod in understanding.
"I got a saying my friend... We shoot Fellers that need shooting... Save fellers that need saving... and feed em' if they need feeding. We're gonna find out what you need." Dutch tells the O'Driscoll before the two men begin to drag him towards the direction of the barn.
"I can't believe it! An O'Driscoll in my camp!" Dutch shouts, almost proud of himself.
"No, I ain't an O'Driscoll mister! I hate that feller!" The man shouts as Lenny and Uncle drag him off somewhere.
"Oh, whatever you say, son!" Dutch shouts, clearly not believing anything the man has to say.
"Well done, you two." Dutch finally acknowledges the two siblings, who just silently nod.
"I'm just sorry we missed out on Colm."Arthur tells their boss, who just waves his hand slightly.
"Oh, there's enough time for that. Now, I gotta figure out if we can hit that train!" Dutch shouts before walking into his cabin, ready to figure out his next plan.
( Chapter. 2 : UPDATED 12/26/2022 )