Innocence Lost

Chapter 1

The snow capped mountains looked kind of pretty, if you were looking at them from a distance. It was different if you were knee deep in snow, which they were.

Dutch Van Der Linde looked down from the vista of the mountains, to the snow covered ground, which was littered with dead O' Driscolls.

He was pleased, a camp of dead O'Driscolls, and the plans and equipment for the next job.

"C'mon mount back up, Lets get moving," he yelled.

"I'm proud of you boys, not a man down."

Arthur Morgan, mounted his horse, and glanced up the snowy cover hill.

"Hey Dutch, what about that cabin up the hill a ways, there's smoke coming out the chimney?"

Dutch reined in his horse.

"Ok boys, you head back to camp. Me 'n Arthur will go check out the cabin."

The rest of the gang nodded, and galloped off towards the camp.

Dutch dismounted. "Ok son, lets go check this out. Best leave the horses here, just in case."

Arthur nodded in agreement, as they both made their way up the short incline.

Both men drew there guns, ready for anything that might be inside. Not expecting much after the recent firefight, but you could never be too careful.

Arthur Morgan gave the door a mighty kick, which almost knocked the door of its hinges. He raised his gun, and went inside. Nothing...wait, his eyes slowly adjusted to the dimly lit cabin.

"Oh shit," he muttered. "Dutch," he yelled, "you better come in here..."

Dutch walked through the door, with his gun at the ready. "Whats the..."

The sentence hung on the air unfinished, both men stood in the cabin transfixed with the scene in front of them.

The cabin, though dimly lit, was just like any other with the exception of the far corner. A metal ring attached to the wall, and hanging off it, a rope. Attached to the rope, were the two slender arms of a young woman, the body was covered in blood.

"Is she..? Dutch asked. He didn't need to finish the sentence. The two men knew each other too well.

Arthur Morgan walked over to the limp body, and removed a glove. He put two fingers to her throat, feeling for a pulse.

"Shit, she's alive...I don't know how!" He quickly remove the knife from his belt, and cut the ropes.

Gravity allowed the girls arms to fall, which appeared to somehow revive her. She tried to drag herself  into the wall, to try and escape. A scream of agony left her lips, her eyes wide as saucers, in fear and pain.

"sshh its, ok miss." Arthur tried to reassure the young woman, like some spooked horse. But she had already slipped back into unconciousness.

He slowly moved towards her, to remove the remains of the ropes from her wrists. A quick glance over her prone body, and he knew it was bad.

He shot a look at Dutch," I think her leg is broke, and...well you better take a look...it ain't pretty..."

Dutch walked over to the almost naked woman, her breath coming in rasps. "What the fuck..."

Her back was covered in welts, oozing blood and pus. She looked pretty much as if someone had tried to flay her alive.

"Fucking animals..." He screamed.

Arthur took another look, "I don't think she's gonna make it, Dutch."

"Maybe, but we have to try, wrap her in a blanket, while I go get the horses."

Arthur picked up a blanket from the bed, as he did a piece of paper fell to the floor.

He picked it up, and scanned the writing, "God-damn it..."

Dutch had barely made it to the door of the cabin, "Whats the matter?"

Arthur walked to where Dutch was standing, and slammed the note in his hand, then quickly walked back to where the young girl was, and proceeded to wrap her in the blanket.

Dutch looked at the note, "God-damn Bastards..." Dutch yelled. " I can't believe what I'm seeing, what I'm reading!"

"C'mon son, lets get outta here."

He walked out the cabin, and whistled for The Count. The horse immediately came trotting to the door of the cabin. He mounted up.

In the meantime, Arthur picked up the young woman, he took a closer look at her face. She couldn't have been more than maybe 19 or 20. Why would you do this to someone. She looked real pretty too.

"Here son, give her to me. I'll carry her in front of me, we need to get her back to camp quickly if she's gonna stand any chance at all."

Dutch cradled the young woman in one arm, and held his reins in the other hand.

How the hell had such a beautiful young woman ended up here, like this.

Arthur whistled for his horse, he hadn't decided yet whether to keep her, so hadnt thought of a name yet. He quickly mounted.

"C'mon Dutch, lets get the hell outta this hell-hole."

They both spurred their horses on, both wanting to get away from the grisly scene as fast as they could.

Dutch looked at the young woman on the front of his horse, only now just seeing how beautiful she was. He thought, as he spurred The Count on faster, what sort of a world were they living in, where one human being could do this to another. He pushed the thought out of his mind, he had to concentrate on saving this poor unfortunate soul who had fallen into his care.

As they rode on, the snow started to fall, even through the snow Dutch spotted a lone rider ahead.

"Hey Arthur, that fellar up ahead, wasn't he at Colms camp?"

"Yeah I think so, leave him to me." Arthur responded.

Dutch looked at the lone rider with a steely glare.

"Make sure you bring him back alive. I wanna find out why those bastards did this to this girl!"

"Ok, I'll see what I can do. I'd quite happily throttle the little bastard if he had anything to do with this though," Arthur replied, through gritted teeth.

"I know son, and don't worry, if he had anything to do with this, he will pay..."