Donner Party

"You heard it?" Storm asked Tender. He was referring to the distant sound of hoof beats.

"I heard it," Tender responded. The hooves got louder and louder and soon, a chant could be heard along with it.

"The black, the black, the black wagon!" the riders chanted. At last, said wagon arrived.

"Ready to go, gents?" one of the riders asked, offering a Marked arm to the two men. They nodded and vaulted inside that bad old wagon. "Alrighty then! This week's stop, the Donner Party!" the rider declared.

"Hyah!" another man replied, then the horses took off, leaving the Six Mile Inn in the snowy dust as it headed west.

On the first stop, the black wagon found itself at a little camp. People of all kinds were huddled in old tents around tiny fires.

"Not exactly the pretties of places," Tender smirked. Storm laughed grimly in reply. The pair exited the black wagon and took a look around as the black wagon careened back into the shadows. Already, something was off. The camp seemed eerily quiet in some places and the two men noticed a hilltop a bit away from camp.

"Smoke coming from the lean-to," Storm noted, gesturing to the hilltop. "Let's explore."

"Well, if you have to go out, take a gun and a lamp," a woman said suddenly. She had overheard Storm's words and she brought a rifle and lamp.

"Thanks," Storm said. The woman gave them a mournful look before ambling back over to her place by one of the many, pathetic campfires.

"Let's roll," Tender shrugged when Storm continued to stare at the strange lady in confusion.

"Alright," Storm came back to his senses and he and Tender made their way up to the hilltop, armed and ready.

But they didn't even need to go to the peak to know what was going on. As sad as it was to say, they knew what human flesh smelled like. They had spent enough time around James. The only difference was that James only killed when necessary and he had the capacity to love. Whoever this was killed because he preferred the taste of human to beast and if the feminine cries of pain were any indicator, this man hadn't had a shred of love for his family. Whoever was responsible for this evil was a man far worse than James.

"Looks like there's a devil in camp," Tender muttered darkly. The name written above this devil's cabin read: Herr. Lewis Keseberg.

"Awoooo," Storm offered a soft, mocking howl in reply. "Let's get back to camp before I get sick."

"Good idea," Tender responded, then the two men ran. The gun and the lamp were returned to the woman but she seemed no happier.

The next morn, some of the Donner Party set out, attempting to find help. 19 souls left camp. Two were Indian guides, 12 were part of the Donner Party, and five were five young women. Alas, only seven lived. All five women and two men, one of whom was named William Eddy. All the others died and were eaten up. William was lucky. But things weren't much better in camp. Keseberg's appetite was insatiable, as evident by the steadily decreasing number of campers. At last, one woman and her two children were taken. A day later, this woman's, Eleanor, husband returned. It was William. In anger, he attempted to kill Keseberg, but Keseberg was just a bit stronger. The camp began to grow restless.

"Fool! We're lost!" Reed snarled, referring to how everybody was frozen and starving. "The rescue mission failed! They're dead!"

"Don't you call me a fool!" Donner shot back with equal venom. "It was your idea anyway! You and that lying book!" the men continued to quarrel while Storm and Tender simply watched the two men fight. They were starting to thin too and although they had resisted so far, the smell of cooking meat got more and more tempting every day. But at last, the fight between Donner and Reed reached physical violence and Reed ended up killing a man. So vicious was the killing that even Keseberg vouched for Reed's execution. Donner forbade it, however, and sentenced Reed to exile from the party. Not a single person came to his defense and Reed was sent away to die. But it didn't matter in the end because, ultimately, everyone else died too, including Donner.

"I guess it's just you and me," Storm sighed, having visions of the others, white and red men both, and the mysterious five sisters.

"Let's just keep going," Tender replied, thinking about the old Devil in camp and Donner and Reed and all the others who had fallen. Their numbers were almost zero by now. Storm faced his partner with a heavy sigh but obediently got to his feet and together, they carried along the trail. Sometimes, they were certain they could still hear the voices of their fallen comrades swirling in the frozen air.

The next night, the men set up one final camp. In the one of the far corners of their last wagon, Storm found something. A book from another lady from way back. It wasn't Eleanor or any of the five sisters, but it was still clearly somebody from the Donner Party.

"I know that you'll do what you must to survive," Storm whispered as he read the lady's dark entry about her and her spouse starving to death and how many had already turned to cannibalism to survive. Tender, hearing Storm's whisper, looked up. Wordlessly, Storm tossed him the old diary.

"We're the last Americans," he read aloud. Then he scoffed. Though this wasn't technically true and he did understand the metaphor, the idea of him and Storm being the last Americans was kind of funny. Seriously, if they were all this country had left, this country was doomed! But then again, this country wasn't exactly anything to be proud of. Tender tossed the diary into the snow and Storm didn't bother to pick it up. Instead, they would let nature do with it what it saw fit.

The next morning, the men left the shambling remains of camp. Now it was their turn to head west, but they weren't going for help. It would be too late to send it, even if they survived. The journal lay behind them in the snow, freezing over, preserved by ice. Along with that journal lay the memories of all the other fallen men. The cry of the banished horseman had since receded into the savage night. The pair was continuing west not because they were hoping to save any of the fallen travelers, but because it was part of their mission from the Black Wagon. They had to reach Oregon! And lucky for them, they did. Tender and Storm had survived the Donner Party trail, unlike everybody else.

"We did it!" Storm exclaimed in relief and pride as he vaulted from their wagon, or what was left of it.

"We did," Tender agreed with dark satisfaction, taking his first steps in Oregon.

"And just in time too!" a voice cried. The men turned to see the black wagon careening towards them, their chant still being bellowed by all the other murderous riders. "Are you ready for your next adventure?" the driver asked. Tender looked at Storm and both gave a sly smirk.

"Yes. But not just yet," Storm answered for them both. "We'll be ready in a week, I think. Come back then and we'll continue our adventure on the Donner Party." The rider bowed his head in reply before cracking his whip and urging the black wagon away.

"Hyah!"

AN: This basically writes out the EP and goes with the idea that Tender and Storm have left the 1816 era for the 1846 era (the year of the Donner Party). The Black Wagon acts kind of like a Magic School Bus/TARDIS in the sense that it causes them to travel through time to experience the Donner Party without fear of them being eaten (though all the others aren't as lucky).