His Name Was Isaac (Completed)

4. A Storm Is Coming

LATER THAT DAY

AURORA BASIN

"You ever wonder about eternity?" Mrs. Downes' voice echoed in Arthur's head, ringing like a distant bell.

"...You should."

These days, it felt like that was all he could think about. With Hosea dead, Marston gone, and Dutch's life hanging by a thread, Arthur often found himself pondering what awaited them in the near-future.

Their gang was pretty much done, despite how much Dutch tried to deny it. He may have acted as if they were still in their prime and running around like in the good ol' days, but with both the Pinkertons and Skinner Brothers crying out for blood on the horizon, Arthur didn't see much of a future for them at all. If anything, the only thing he saw coming for the Van der Lindes... was an end.

They were already living on borrowed time as it was. Their gang had experienced so many close calls and damned so many lives, that Arthur figured they were due to pay for their crimes sooner or later.

He had lived long enough to see that there was no such thing as getting away with a sin, and considering how things had been going for them lately, he assumed that their time would run out before they even realized it.

Civilization was the new foundation for America... and without anywhere else to run to anymore, Arthur only hoped he'd be able to wake Dutch up before it was too late.

Otherwise... he didn't know what they would do.

Scribbling down a few more lines into his journal, Arthur threw together a simple portrait of Dutch as he quietly relaxed by the campfire, allowing his mind to drift away with the soft crackling that emitted from the flames.

He had just finished his heated conversation with the old man and left him to rest in the cabin, but even after calming him down, Arthur couldn't deny that he was still on edge.

The way he acted back there... it was nothing like the Dutch he knew. In Arthur's head, he still pictured the outlaw as a paternal figure. He saw Dutch as someone who cared for others and dared to question what everyone else accepted as their perpetual reality.

He was a guardian. A father. A dreamer. A lost soul trying to find his way back home.

But the man in the cabin? ...He was nothing but a stranger to Arthur. His mind and mannerisms both remained a mystery, and the added layer of insanity on top of all that did nothing except further his paranoia.

His life revolved solely around greed and pride these days, and if Arthur didn't know any better, he would've said that Dutch himself didn't even care anymore.

They both knew their life as outlaws was done for. That much was obvious. But the difference was -- only one of them was willing to accept it.

"Spoke with Dutch about the robbery today," Arthur wrote next to his drawing. "...It didn't go so well. His illness keeps getting worse, and his mind ain't doing much better neither. He's deranged. Lost. Nothing but a memory of his true self."

"It just makes me wonder how life is gonna be after he passes. I didn't say it to Dutch's face back at the cabin... but one of my biggest fears in life is the idea of being left alone. Family's pretty much the only thing I live for nowadays, and without anyone else to stand by my side, part of me wonders if the world is just gonna stop turning when Dutch dies."

"I don't even know if I'll want to stay with the gang at that point. I suppose I could try to make contact with John and the others once again. Try to live a normal life. But knowing Abigail, she'd probably want nothing to do with me. They have Jack to take care of, after all, and it's no secret that Abigail despises anything to do with criminals. Not that I blame her."