Miss Morgan

Thirty-Two

May 1899
-John-

White hot pain seers through my right thigh as I ride back to camp with Dutch, Bill, Javier, Micah, and Charles, along with Davey who is in and out of consciousness and losing blood fast. Hopefully, Lenny and Jenny are already back at camp where hopefully, they already told the others to start packing up.

Hosea and Arthur catch up to us on the road outside of Blackwater. "What the hell happened?" Hosea yells out, noticing the blood on my leg and Davey damn near dead.

"It's bad, Hosea. We got overrun. We gotta go, now!" Dutch yells back.

Arthur looks at all of us. "Where's Ivy? Mac and Sean?"

"Still in Blackwater, they'll have to find their own way out. We can't go back." Dutch answers.

"Goddamnit, I ain't leavin' without her, Dutch!" Arthur shouts then turns Boadicea back into town.

"You'll get killed in there, son!" Dutch calls out after him, but there's no stopping Arthur.

We get to camp and we're met with concerned eyes from the others. "We gotta go right now!" Dutch yells. "You have about ten minutes to grab the essentials and get movin'! Go on, quick!"

Strauss manages to patch up my leg real quick. It'll need fixed proper once we get where we're going but at least for now it's cleaned and bandaged to get me there. I make sure to grab the photos from Arthur's tent while everyone works to load up the wagons.

We start out on our journey and Arthur is running to us on foot. He hops up onto the back of the wagon with Dutch, Hosea, and Charles. I ride Jenny's mare alongside the wagon while Micah, Bill, Lenny and Javier all ride around the caravan to keep watch for anyone suspicious.

"Didn't find her?" Hosea asks Arthur.

"No, I barely got into town before they killed Boadicea." He frowns at that. He loved that horse. "It's real nasty in there."

"It is. We gotta get outta here and fast." Dutch explains. "We're headed up north. We gotta put distance and mountains between us and that mess."

"Dutch..." Susan calls out. "Jenny's gone."

"God damnit." Dutch grumbles.

"No..." Arthur hangs his head.

Jenny's dead. If Ivy manages to get back to us, it's going to be so hard on her. Davey doesn't have much longer either. Mac is a vicious bastard on a good day, I don't know if we're going to be able to handle him when he's grieving his brother.

What a goddamn mess.

"John, Micah," Dutch calls out to us "you boys ride on out ahead up into the mountains. See if you can find a spot for us to get set up, preferably a cabin of sorts."

Hosea hands me a map. "Looks like there's something on the map if you can get to Lake Isabella and follow Spider Gorge north from there."

"I'll go too, but I need a horse." Arthur adds.

"Sure." Dutch nods.

"Take Taima." Charles offers.

Arthur, Micah and I ride out ahead of the caravan, sticking together for a bit and riding in silence, mostly. Micah makes stupid comments and Arthur just tells him not to speak to us. I still refuse to talk to that son of a bitch after what he did to Ivy before joining us.

When we reach the mountains and the snow begins to fall, we split up and ride off on our own in search of shelter for twenty people.

I manage to find Lake Isabella like Hosea showed me on the map and as I get to the creek on the north side of it, I hear a wolf howl somewhere in the darkness. Snow is blowing so hard around me and it's so dark out here, I can't see more than maybe ten feet out. I stick to the river, trying to remember the map Hosea showed me and hoping those wolves don't catch my scent.