We're Dead, No Redemption

My Valentine Town

(See that? That horse up there? That's a blue roan Ardennes. "Steel grey" my ASS, ROCKSTAR)

It's been two weeks since the Van Der Linde gang moved to Horseshoe Overlook. Many of the gang members happily settled into their jobs-feeding the people, keeping watch or thinking up plans. Several others, meanwhile, were going stir crazy.
Arthur was one of the latter.
"Arthur!" Uncle called. Arthur turned from watching the horses as the older man walked up to him.
"I noticed you were moving a bit stiffly." Uncle tried to put his arm over Arthur's shoulders, despite the man being about a foot taller than him. "Usually, that means you're bored."
"You know me so well." Arthur shrugged off the other man's arm. He noticed Uncle's mare, Nell II, raise her head at the sound of her rider's voice. Almost all of these horses paid attention when their rider was near them, except two: Bob, Sadie's new Golden Dapple Turkoman stallion, and Arthur's horse Gunner. The former had a better reason than the latter-Charles had just brought in Bob, so he has yet to have bonded with Sadie. Gunner, however, simply didn't mesh with Arthur at all. The high-strung stallion was better suited to Javier. That would be great...Had Javier not already had a horse. Gunner was too frail to pull wagons and didn't mesh with anyone else, so Arthur was at a loss of what to do.
"Why don't we go into town?" Uncle's voice pulled Arthur back to the present. "We need some supplies, you need to get out, and Hell-it'd do those animals some good to stretch their legs."
Arthur hesitated, then shrugged. "Alright, sure."
"YES!" Uncle grabbed his horse's reins and led the way to the wagon, apparently having already hitched up two horses. Arthur took Gunner and followed him.
The two men apparently caught Karen's eye as they tied their respective horses to the back of the wagon. "Hey, Arthur!" She called. "If you're taking that old man into town...Could you take us too?"
"I'll leave them to you." Uncle headed off to the front of the wagon.
'Thanks, old coot,' Arthur thought sarcastically.
Karen walked up to him, now being trailed by two other women from the camp. "Whatcha got planned?" He asked.
"Oh, something. Maybe some robbing, maybe some fuckin' around." Karen gave him her best 'make their hearts melt' smile, something that Arthur was-thankfully-immune to. "We'll think of somethin'. Us women usually do."
"We're bored out of our minds!" Mary-Beth spoke up, stepping beside Karen. "Karen's about ready to murder Grimshaw."
"She's bein' nastier than usual!" Karen squawked in protest.
"Come on, Arthur..." Tilly walked up, putting her hands on her hips. "We may find a few leads. Maybe get some money while we're at it."
Arthur paused in thought, looking at the pleading faces of the women before him. They looked like a pack of dogs begging to go outside after being cooped up for too long. The comparison alone was almost enough to let them come, but one more thing nagged at him. "Did you finish your chores?"
"'Did you finish your chores?' Come on, Arthur!" Karen exclaimed, copying Arthur's rough tone of voice. "A few young, healthy woman want you to go take them robbing and you're worried about chores!"
"If I have to do any more chores then I'll be the one to murder Grimshaw," Tilly complained.
"Please, Arthur? Just for a little while?" Mary-Beth walked over to the cowboy, coming a bit too close with a soft smile on her face. The woman behind her traded smiles and giggles as they watched the flustered cowboy back up into the wagon.
"Just let 'em come, boy!" Uncle called, turning around to see what was going on. "We're losin' daylight!"
Arthur gave in, moving aside to get away from Mary-Beth. "Fine," he growled. "Get in."
"Wahoo!" Karen cried, climbing into the wagon eagerly. The other two followed her, Mary-Beth deliberately slipping so Arthur would catch her and help her up.
"You are sneaky, Mary-Beth!" Karen scolded her as Arthur climbed into the wagon's driving seat. "Imagine taking advantage of Arthur like that!"
"A girl can't help if she slips," Mary-Beth growled playfully.
Karen rolled her eyes. "Oh, please, like you didn't do that on purpose!"
"Shame on you, accusing me of that! Don't you know better than to start rumours?"
Tilly sighed, listening to the two women play-argue back and forth. Her eyes met Arthur's. They shared a smile as Arthur turned his attention back to the road, chuckling slightly.
"Stop your arguin'!" Uncle shouted, cutting them off. "You're givin' me a headache..."
"How about a song, then?" Karen offered.
"Fine, just...No more arguin'."
There were a few scoffs and snide remarks until Mary-Beth got a song started-one of Uncle's favourites, a sort of sung poem about a series of prostitutes a man had in several towns. One of which, coincidentally, was Valentine. Karen kept singing a few lines wrong and laughing in the middle of particularly ridiculous lines, Mary-Beth occasionally (and dramatically) gasped at a few overly vulgar lines, Tilly once laughed so hard she almost fell out of the wagon, Arthur and Uncle started humming along at some points and the girls tried goading them into joining the song. The horses were in similarly high spirits, tossing their heads and trying to sneakily move from a lope to a gallop.
The group was halfway to Valentine when a carriage pulled by two Shire horses exploded out of the tree line. Arthur yanked harshly on the right rein to turn their wagon as the Shires turned as quickly as they could to avoid a collision, causing their leather harnesses to snap from the pressure. The two horses ran off in fear as their wagon crashed into a stone jutting out of the ground.
Uncle grabbed the reins from Arthur and held back their horses, letting him climb down to calm them. The cowboy gave the frightened prey animals a wide berth and came to the head of the black Morgan.
"Easy, boy..." Arthur soothed, stroking the horse's neck. "Take it easy. Everything's just fine."
The stallion didn't look like he believed him. Arthur kept stroking his neck and muttering soothing words until he calmed, then did the same to his buckskin companion. Only when both horses were more relaxed did he go to check on the women in the wagon.
"You ladies okay?" He stood on one of the wheels to be at eye level with them. Mary-Beth and Karen looked shaken, but they both nodded. Tilly was holding her head and groaning.
"I-I think Tilly hit her head," Mary-Beth spoke, her voice shaking. "She went down hard..."
"I'll look after her, Arthur. You'd better check and see if there was anyone in that carriage." Uncle climbed over the back of the driving seat towards Tilly. Arthur nodded to him and walked over to the now horseless carriage.
Something inside was making shuffling noises. It could have been as something as mundane as a pet dog, but there was also the chance of a cougar or some other wild animal somehow making it's way in. It would explain the lack of a driver, after all. Arthur's hand went to his pistol as he slowly reached towards the door and gave it a tug.
A gory scene met him inside. The remains of a man and woman were strewn about, bloody handprints covering the opposite door's windows. A blond teenaged boy in fancy clothes was busy snacking down on his father's arm. Thankfully, he hadn't noticed him, more interested in his disgusting meal.
Arthur slammed the door shut and backed away. The boy finally noticed Arthur and lunged at the same time. The door caught it's latch first, causing the boy to slam into it. He snarled at Arthur and clawed at the door's window.
Arthur backed up to the wagon, refusing to break eye contact with the boy until he couldn't see him anymore. "What did you see?" Uncle questioned. Arthur blinked, looked up at him and shook his head.
"N-Nothing." He climbed back into the driving seat of the wagon, ignoring the women's curious stares. "C'mon, we have a town to visit."