We're Dead, No Redemption

This is Your New Home, Like it or Not

"Hi, Branwen! Who's a pretty girl?"
Branwen nickered at the sight of her favourite human. Kieran grinned, rubbing his mare's forehead and feeding her a little carrot.
"Yeah, it's you! The bestest girl in the whole wild we-"
"KIERAN!" A rough voice barked, startling both man and horse. "Get out here! We're about to plan the biggest heist in history and I will NOT let you sit out on this one!"
Kieran groaned, thunking his head against the stable wall. Branwen sniffed in his ear before snorting, as if saying: 'Good riddance!'
"I know I'm lazy, Bran..." Kieran whined. "I don't like havin' to kill innocent people for the Hell of it! I want to-"
He stopped, worried the man outside could still hear him. Branwen stuck her pink nose into his hand. Kieran smiled and rubbed her forehead, lowering his voice.
"I want to go back to living a normal life," he admitted. "A life where I don't have to worry about you getting shot and killed from under me. Maybe when we-"
"KIERAN!!!" The man outside screamed again. Branwen tossed her head and stamped her feet. Kieran sighed and fed her another small carrot before heading to the barn door. The man grabbed his arm and yanked him out as soon as he opened the door.
"I knew we shouldn't have let you keep that horse," the man snarled. "I told Colm you'd be all over it every day, but no! You needed a mount and didn't have the money to get a better one. You can't keep up, you can't chase trains-"
"I'm sorry," Kieran mumbled, already starting to tune him out.
"Once we get the cut of this money, you're getting a better horse, do you hear me?!"
"Sure, mister."
"Michael." Another man walked up, riding on the back of a black horse. "Let him go. I want to talk to you."
The man holding Kieran let go. He backed off quickly, knowing better than to get in the middle of someone's conversation with Colm.
The camp was buzzing with excitement, which is why Kieran hid in the barn in the first place. He learned quickly that excited O'Driscolls were more likely to pick on their weaker ranks. Today was no exception-he was shoved around at least twice more trying to get back to the barn. Branwen's welcoming nicker made the young man's bruises seemingly fade away.
"Hey pretty girl." Kieran rubbed his mare's forehead when she bowed her head. "You're pretty chatty today, hm? What's with all the noise?"
Branwen tossed her head, sending her mane flying everywhere. Kieran laughed at the action and slipped into her stall to start braiding it. Braiding horse manes was like a kind of therapy to him-it let him focus on one thing and forget about the downhill spiral he was heading into.
There was no way of telling how much time had passed. Man and horse were happy being quiet, Branwen munching on hay and flicking her ears as Kieran talked to himself and her. Things were calm until their little moment together was rudely interrupted by the sound of an earth-shattering explosion.
Branwen reared, throwing her owner to the ground. Kieran scrambled to get away from the flying hooves and peeked out of a nearby window. A group of men had gotten into camp, most of them shooting every living thing in sight.
"We've gotta get out of here," Kieran told his strawberry-roan mare. Branwen pricked her ears at the sound of her master's voice and settled down enough for Kieran to get her saddle and bridle on.
Kieran had to fight to stay calm in front of his mare. Barely past the façade he put up, he was excited and nervous-he finally had a shot at getting away from the gang! This was something he'd been hoping for for days on end, and now-despite the part of him screaming that Colm would kill him when he got the chance-he was making it a reality.
Sneaking out of the camp was so laughably easy he wondered why he didn't try to do this before. It helped that half of the people around him were either dead or mortally wounded. While before they could easily keep up to and overcome the scrawny man, now he (and his mare) was the one stepping over them and ignoring their pathetic pleas for him to help them. It added a good boost to his ego and added another spring to his step...Until a familiar horse made his heart plunge into his stomach.
Usually horses don't have that effect on him. Usually his heart goes the other way when meeting horses, new and familiar. But this horse in particular was familiar in the worst kind of way.
About a week ago Colm had followed another gang (one Kieran never got the name of) out into the cold. After losing them and failing to convince his own gang members that they weren't lost, he gave in and let them choose a spot to take shelter. Kieran instantly found himself riding with a ragtag group of fiends shooting the shit out of a fancy house out in the middle of nowhere. The other men didn't seem to care what they shot on their way in-humans, cattle, even horses. Kieran barely managed to rope one and hide it in the barn amidst all the confusion. He intended to keep it-for what reason, he didn't remember-until the group split in two and he found himself heading back to Colm. The stallion had completely slipped his mind until now...And obviously the horse didn't come back to thank him.
Panic took hold again. Against his better judgement, Kieran jumped onto Branwen's back, yanked her to face the other way and kicked her into a gallop. His freaked-out mind reasoned that by the time the other men were done and discovered that someone had gotten away, he'd be long gone.
He'd forgotten a few things:
1. By galloping in a straight line, Branwen was unintentionally plowing a path straight to him.
2. Horses can't run forever. He'll have to rest his mare eventually.
3. Branwen was also in heat, which would most likely drive the stallion mad and make him more eager to run.
4. He didn't know his way around the area.
Luckily for him, these things didn't come to light until a few moments later. Unluckily for him, they came to light just as the other horse's rider was almost on top of him.
A rope brushing Branwen's tush grabbed his attention. The rider wasn't trying to shoot him, so that was a relief, but he also clearly wasn't about to let him go. 'What do I do?!'
"Okay, Kieran," he said under his breath, urging Branwen to go faster before looking behind him again. "The way I see it, you have two choices. Stop, surrender and hope to god that man's just a random rider that just so happened to come along, or-"
The sound of rushing water met his ears. A river was coming up, one with haphazardly-placed large rocks. Option two was now made clear to him. Kieran quickly mapped out the idea mentally and tightened his grip on his mare's reins, guiding her towards the first rock.
Branwen obviously objected to such a suicidal idea. She instead opted to turn to the side and run alongside the river. Kieran got as far as the turn when he felt his pursuer's rope tighten around his middle and yank him out of the saddle. Branwen, bless her, skip to a stop and turned around to try and get him back.
"You get out of here, girl," the other horse's rider said. "I don't want to hurt you. Go on! Git!"
Branwen tossed her head and trotted away a few steps. The other rider hog-tied Kieran and put him on the back of the stallion Kieran had seen earlier. Kieran mentally begged his mare to not get stranded and almost fell off the rider's horse in relief when she starter loping after them, making little worried nickers.