I awoke with a splitting headache from all the crying I'd done the previous night. Today will be easier, it has to be I told myself. I quickly ate my last can of peaches I'd been saving and mounted Lady, getting ready to head back into the forest going south.
"Hey wait, Amigo!" A man called from behind me. My blood ran cold. I did not expect to be running into anyone this far off the trail. Maybe I wasn't as far off the path as I'd thought. I didn't dare turn around. Whoever it was couldn't identify me if they didn't see my face. A million thoughts ran through my mind
Run or pistol? Sean's rifle? Maybe they just need help. Yeah right, unlikely. Can I make it down this hill fast enough to get away? Should I stay and just shoot him? No, run. Always run.
"YAH!" I yelled at Lady. She took off so fast I almost fell off. We darted through tree branches and bushes. I could hear the stranger calling after me, following me. I drew my pistol and started blindly taking shots behind me in hopes it'd scare him off or by some miracle hit him.
"Adeline! Wait!" He yelled.
Oh fuck he knows my name, too.
"Leave me the fuck alone!" I yelled dodging a low hanging branch.
"Wait! Sean sent me to look for you! He's been looking everywhere for you!"
Sean? "Whoa girl," I said pulling back on her reins to get her to stop. She skidded to a halt and I turned her around to face the man. He was young-ish, Mexican, and had long hair like Sean's that was put up into a low ponytail. He sat atop a gorgeous black and white horse.
I kept my pistol drawn unsure if trusting this man was the right move. "How did you find me?" I asked keeping the pistol pointed at his lower half.
"Can you not point that thing at me, please?" He replied holding his hands up to show he meant no harm.
I lowered my gun to the ground. "Answer the question."
"Well, you're certainly not an easy woman to find," he replied annoyed.
"How do you know Sean?"
"He's in our gang. With Dutch Van der Linde? You know him?" He asked.
"I've heard of him."
"And Arthur. Arthur Morgan? He found you two at a cabin East of-"
"Ok that's enough, I believe you," I said not wanting to reminisce about that awful encounter.
"Where is Sean? Is he ok?" I asked suddenly worried that he was coming out here to tell me something had happened to him.
"Sean is fine. Very heartbroken, but fine." He offered me a smile before continuing. "The patrols have died down, he wants you to come back. Now, I can't make you do anything you don't want to but Sean is..well let's just say you'd be doing me a favor if you came back and at least spoke with him."
We stared at each other for a minute, not speaking. I holstered my pistol. "I don't want to cause any trouble for him. I can't go back, they'll hang him. They'll hang you if they find us out here right now."
He looked around and shrugged. "No one here but us. Look, why don't we start making our way back over there. We can camp somewhere tonight and you can think it over. If you decide you don't want to, you can head out to wherever in the morning and I won't stop you. I'll tell Sean I couldn't find you. Deal?"
I thought about it for a moment and nodded. "Ok." I let him take the lead. "What's your name?"
"Escuella. Javier Escuella" He replied. He cut through some trees and started to head downhill.
