We're Dead, No Redemption

Parties Have Been Crashed and Trust is Forming

It's so hot out here. The sun's always in his eyes. And the fire-god, the smell of food over the fire...
During the move to Horseshoe Overlook, Kieran's captors had made it very clear that they think he knows more than he actually does. They think he knows all of Colm's plans, his backup plans, his backup-backup plans...It apparently hasn't occurred to them yet that Kieran was telling the truth when he said he hated the man. He was just a horse boy in the wrong place at the wrong time!
Now he spends his days tied to a pole, left in a perfect spot to be cooked by the sun during the day or freeze half to death at night. If it wasn't for the kindness of a lady named Mary-Beth he probably would have been dead by now.
At least they kept Branwen. Don't ask him why, but they did. Maybe because she's a Tennessee Walker? Though those aren't exactly rare horses...
Footsteps walking over to him jerked him back to the present. The lovely dirty-blonde lady he keeps seeing off and on stood in front of him with a bowl in her hands.
"Hello, Kieran," she greeted him gently.
"H-Hello, Mary-Beth..."
The lady giggled and came closer, clearly just as nervous as Kieran. She cleared her throat awkwardly.
"I, um...Brought you a drink!" She held out the bowl she was holding, which Kieran could now see was filled with water. "I wanted to give it to you, because...Um...It looked like you were gettin' real thirsty."
Kieran brightened up hearing that. He couldn't help leaning forewords a little. "I-I am, thank y-"
"You can water him later, Mary-Beth," a gruff voice said. One of Kieran's captors put a hand on the woman's shoulder and steered her away. "First, we're gonna have a chat with him."
Mary-Beth's eyes widened. Kieran, for his part, was now shivering despite the heat. The gang didn't smack him around half as often as they used to, but them doing nothing to him was somehow even worse.
"You got some speakin' to do, boy," the gruff-voiced man growled. "About that old gang of yours."
"I said...I told you..." Kieran took a shaky deep breath to try and calm down before speaking again. "I don't know nothing."
"That's what I thought." The man crossed his arms and started walking away. Kieran felt limp with relief, a feeling shared by Mary-Beth-as evident by the smile she gave him. She started coming towards him again-
"Not just yet, miss Mary-Beth." Another man walked up, causing the gruff-voiced man to turn around. "I was thinkin' Mr. Williamson could have a word."
Kieran recognized this man as the leader. What was his name? Dutch? Whatever it was, he seemed to hate Kieran the most. This was the second time he's spoken to Kieran during his time at the camp, usually he just glared at him.
The man Kieran recognized as Beardy stood behind him, rotting teeth showing as he smiled with glee. Kieran tried to back away from him, only for Beardy to come up way too close.
"You ready to talk, boy?" He growled. Kieran leaned away from him to get a little personal space.
"I-I told all of you, I don't know nothing!" Kieran protested. "They ain't no friends of mine! I just rode with them for a while!"
"Horseshit!" Beardy exploded. "See, we've heard that part, so how about the truth?!"
Kieran locked his teeth together and shook his head. Beardy turned to his leader. "Dutch, what'd you want me to do?"
"Hurt him! So the next time he opens his mouth, it is to tell up what's goin' on!"
Kieran eyed Dutch fearfully, getting a sadistic little smirk. The gruff-voiced man from earlier seemed to look a little bit concerned as Beardy rolled up his sleeves and got too close to him once more. Kieran tried again to back away and pressed up against his tree.
"Dutch, please," Mary-Beth spoke quietly. "He didn't do anything. Just let him go."
"Quiet!" Dutch snapped at her, then turned back to Kieran. "Who am I kidding? If one of O'Driscoll's boys opened his mouth, he'd tell a lie. Screw it, let's just have some fun."
Beardy backed off a little, to Kieran's relief. It was short lived when Dutch smiled darkly at him. The two words he said made chills run down his spine: "Geld him."
"Okay, Dutch, I think-" the gruff-voiced man spoke up, then cut himself off. Dutch gave him a curious look as Beardy walked off (presumably to get some gelding tongs).
Kieran started shivering again, so hard he was practically vibrating. Mary-Beth looked doubtfully afraid as she seemed to argue with herself over what to do. Beardy returned with a large pair of gelding tongs, red-hot from a fire.
"Don't worry!" Beardy crowed as he yanked Kieran's pants down. "They're only balls, boy!"
Kieran tried backing up again, Beardy's taunting laugh ringing in his ears. He finally worked up the courage to spill the only secret of Colm that he knew.
"Okay! Okay! Listen! I know where the O'Driscolls held up."
Dutch held a hand out to Beardy, calling him off. Beardy growled and regretfully stepped back.
"H-He's at Six Point Cabin!" Kieran continued. "I'll take you there. Serious. I don't like him. I mean-I like him even less than I like you, no offense."
The "no offense" was mostly added for Mary-Beth, who looked taken aback. The man with the gruff voice drew a knife and moved behind Kieran.
"Okay," he said, "why don't you take a few of us up there, right now?"
It was more of an order than a question, but it was followed by the feeling of his hands being freed from the rope. Kieran hurriedly pulled his pants back up and almost fell over in his attempts.
Dutch led the way to the horses, Beardy and Gruff not too far behind him. Kieran looked back at Mary-Beth for a moment as they walked and gave her a shy wave. The woman simply turned away and dumped the bowl of water onto the ground.
Kieran winced slightly and continued watching her, resulting in him walking into a horse. Lucky for him, it was Branwen. His mare gave him a funny look when he landed on the ground and bent her neck to sniff him.
"Sorry, Branny," he apologized. "I, um...Got distracted."
"Let's go, O'Driscoll!" Beardy shouted at him. "We don't got all day!"
Kieran pulled himself into Branwen's saddle, which was warm from recent human use. He ignored the feeling and turned her towards the path, kicking her into a gallop to take the lead.
He hoped he didn't screw this up. If he played his cards right, they'd trust him. They wouldn't give him such a hard time. Hell-maybe they'd even let him out of the ropes permanently!
'Keep dreaming, Kieran.'

A short ride later, Kieran and the group of men-Dutch, Beardy (or Bill, as Kieran learned his name was) and Gruff (or Arthur)-were crouched in the shelter of some trees. A group of O'Driscoll men had their backs to them, doing a terrible job at standing watch. Kieran swallowed hard and gripped his gun, raising it to aim at them-then paused when a hand rested on it's barrel.
"Don't alert them," Arthur whispered to him. "Who knows how many of your men are here."
"They ain't my-"
"A stealth kill would be a better choice," Dutch agreed, cutting off Kieran.
"Who's gonna do it, Dutch?" Bill asked. "Me 'r Arthur?"
There was a moment of tense silence as Dutch paused to think. "Arthur," he said at last. "He's quieter."
"W-What about the other two?" Kieran asked, wincing slightly at his stutter.
"If they get alerted...That's on you."
Kieran swallowed thickly and nodded. Arthur drew a hunting knife and snuck towards the two men, grabbed one from behind and slit his throat. This alerted the guards, whose gunshots alerted the other guards, whose shouts alerted the rest of the O'Driscolls in and around the cabin.
The battle was on after that. Bullets went everywhere, the smell of blood was overpowering, the cries of falling men mixed with the frightened horse's whinnying. Kieran never liked gun fights mostly for this reason-they were LOUD.
It was impressive watching the men he was with, though. They would wait until an O'Driscoll was dumb enough to re-load out in the open and pumped him full of lead right then and there. It was made very clear then that Kieran was lucky they decided to spare him-if they did kill, they tried to make it painful. Bill in particular wasn't very careful where he shot or who he shot at. 'Who thought it would be a good idea to stick a gun in that madman's hands?!'
Finally, after a few minutes of shooting, the area fell quiet. Kieran watched as the group of men he was with pause to listen. After about a minute, Dutch motioned Arthur inside the cabin to look around while he and Bill looted the O'Driscoll bodies.
Kieran leaned back against a tree to watch-then spotted movement out of the corner of his eye. One of the O'Driscoll bodies was getting up again. Two of them, actually-no, three. Three O'Driscolls were getting back onto their feet, one more steadily than the other two. A loud banging noise from the cabin swiftly drew their attention and sent the steady O'Driscoll charging inside.
Before he knew what he was doing, Kieran gave chase.
The O'Driscoll managed to lose him in the cabin...For all of five seconds, until he heard Arthur yell in surprise at the other door. Kieran rushed over and found Arthur pinned down by the living dead O'Driscoll. It was a struggle he was quickly losing, since one of his hands had gotten trapped under the man's body when he landed on him.
Kieran raised his gun and blew the O'Driscoll's head off without hesitation.
Arthur and Kieran stared at each other for a moment. Kieran swallowed hard and was the first to find his voice. "Are...Are you alright?"
Arthur nodded slowly. Kieran holstered his gun and offered him a hand up.
"Arthur!!" Bill rushed onto the scene, his gun drawn. He quickly pointed it at Kieran. "What happened here?!"
"Bill, put the gun down." Arthur's voice shook a little as he spoke. "I'm fine. The O'Driscoll-"
"What did he do to you." That was Dutch, arriving soon after Bill with a goods-laden bag over his shoulder. Kieran smiled nervously and took a few steps back.
"He...Saved my life."
Silence. Bill's angry look changed to one of surprise as he lowered his gun.
"Okay, um..." Kieran glanced out the door nervously, noticing a group of previously dead O'Driscolls shambling through the cabin after them. "We're gonna have company, so-can we leave?"
"Oh, shit..." Arthur muttered. It seems he noticed the O'Driscolls too.
"What?" Dutch started walking over to join them, only for Arthur to almost push him back as he speed-walked back to their horses.
"No time to talk, Dutch," he said. "We've gotta get out of here. Now."
Kieran rushed to follow him, nervously stumbling over another O'Driscoll body. He heard a shriek of anger as Dutch and Bill followed as well, getting soft swears from both of them.
What was making the O'Driscolls walk again, Kieran didn't want to know. All he did know is that Arthur had given him a weirdly genuine smile before mounting his horse.
It felt good, getting a genuine smile out of one of those men. He felt a little safer.