My Outlaw (Arthur Morgan)

Colter

We spent the last few days riding through the frozen mountains in the middle of a terrible blizzard. The men were on horseback or driving the wagons while the women were in the wagons, tending to the injured. Among the injured were Jenny Kirk, Davey Callander, and Charles Smith.

Sean MacGuire and Mac Callander were the only ones left behind.

We were just passing through Spider Gorge when Miss Grimshaw spoke up.

"Excuse me," Miss Grimshaw said to no one in particular. "Jenny has passed."

The wagons stopped and the men came to the rear of the wagon.

"Alright, boys," Dutch said with authority. "We don't have much time, so we need to act quick. Let's get poor Jenny buried nice and proper, say a few parting words for her, and be on our way."

Immediately, the men got to work digging a hole in the frozen ground, which proved to be extremely difficult. Javier went off to make a grave marker for her. When the deed was done, we all said our goodbyes and we rode off.

Dutch sent Arthur ahead on horseback for somewhere we could stay and get warm. He sent John and Micah to scout ahead for supplies. Everyone else stayed with the group. Abigail was tending to Davey.

The entire time, I basically remained silent. All I could think about was my brother. What was happening to him right now? Was he in jail? Was he hiding? Was he dead? I couldn't bear to think about it, but I couldn't not think about it, either.

I guess the worry on my face was obvious because Miss Grimshaw looked at me, put her hand on mine, and said, "everything will be fine."

Abigail looked at Bill, "he's dying. Can you tell them?" Then she continued with Davey.

Bill got out of the wagon and walked toward the front. I could just barely hear the men over the wild blizzard winds. "Abigail says he's dying, Dutch. We'll have to stop someplace.

"Okay," Dutch acknowledged. "Arthur's out looking. I sent him up ahead."

"If we don't stop soon," Hosea began. "We'll all be dying. This weather, it's May... I'm just hoping the law got as lost as we did."

We slowly crept along for a few more seconds before Dutch spoke up. "There. Arthur! Any luck?"

I couldn't hear what Arthur was saying. He was too far away.

"Come on!" Dutch yelled as he forced the wagon to move faster in the snow.

A few minutes later, the wagons stopped and everyone started getting out. We had arrived in an old abandoned mining town, named Colter. Hosea took his lantern and checked inside the biggest building to make sure it was safe and secure.

"Bring him in here!" Hosea yelled out the door. Bill and Mr. Pearson carried Davey into the room and layed him on the table. Abigail went to him to help warm him up.

Miss Grimshaw immediately stepped in. "Miss Gaskill, get that fire lit quick. Miss Jones, bring in whatever blankets we have. Mr. Pearson, see what we have in terms of food."

Everyone was rushing around until Abigail spoke up, "Davey's dead."

"There was nothing more you could have done," Bill reassured her. "What are we gonna do? We need supplies."

"Well first, all of you are gonna stay here and you are gonna get yourselves warm. Now, I sent John and Micah scouting out ahead. Arthur and I, we're gonna ride out, see if we can find one of 'em," Dutch said.

Arthur pointed into the blizzard we just escaped from, "in this?"

"Just for a short bit," Dutch said, clearly not wanting to make another journey in the cold. "I don't see what other choice we have."

I was sitting on a crate in the corner of the room with tears in my eyes.

"Listen..." Dutch began a speech. "Listen to me, all of you, for a moment. Now, we've had, well, a bad couple of days. I loved Davey...Jenny...Sean and Mac, they may be okay, we don't know...but we lost some folks. Now, if I could throw myself in the ground in their stead, I'd do it, gladly. But we're gonna ride out and we are gonna find some food...Everybody, we're safe now. There ain't nobody following us through a storm like this one and by the time they get here, well, we're gonna be long gone. We've been through worse than this. Mr. Pearson, Miss Grimshaw, I need you to turn this place into a camp. We may be here for a few days. Now all of you, get yourselves warm, stay strong, stay with me. We ain't done yet!"

He turned to leave out the door," come on, Arthur!"

As soon as they shut the door, Miss Grimshaw began giving everyone something to do, "Alright, we got some work to do."

About an hour later, I heard a shout from outside. A few seconds later, I heard it again.

"Hey everybody! Dutch is back!" Lenny called. We all ran out to greet them and see how it went.

"How'd you get on?" Hosea asked.

"Micah found a homestead, but we weren't the first. Colm O'Driscoll and his scum, they beat us to it. We found some of them there, but there is more about apparently scouting a train," Dutch said.

"That's the last thing we need right now, Dutch," Hosea said, but I wasn't sure if he was talking about the train or the O'Driscolls.

"Well, it is what it is, but we found some supplies, some blankets, a little bit of food, and this poor soul, Mrs Adler. Miss Tilly, Miss Karen, would you warm her up? Give her a drink or something. Miss Riley, would you start taking these supplies in?" I nodded and walked toward the horses." And Mrs. Adler, it's gonna be okay. You're safe now," Dutch said.

I began unloading supplies from the saddlebags and carrying them inside. As I was walking away from the horses, my heart sank when I heard Dutch say, "they turned her into a widow." Damn O'Driscolls.