Redemption: Episode 1—Prologue

Author's Notice: Unfortunately I do not own either Red Dead Redemption or Red Dead Redemption 2. Everything in those games, from the places to the characters, are the sole property of Rockstar Games.

Prologue: A Stormy End…

Somedays Arthur Morgan felt as if he was constantly being pulled in several directions by his makeshift family. Whether it's helping Reverend Orville Swanson get back to camp safely, getting into a bar fight with the largest and ugliest bastard in Valentine, saving Sean MacGuire from a gang of bounty hunters, or even helping little Lenny Summers relax after narrowly escaping the law in Strawberry, it seems that whenever Arthur thinks he has a free moment to breath another member of the gang approaches him and asks for his assistance.

And now, after begrudgingly helping Micah Bell, one of the most irritating and reckless members of their little "family", escape from Strawberry's law enforcers in the middle of a storm, all Arthur wants is to return to the relative safety of the gang's camp, eat some of Pearson's stew, before going to his tent and sleep for the next couple of hours.

"So you ain't headed back to Dutch?" he asked Micah, raising his voice over the loud claps of thunder.

"No, I've been a bad boy, Arthur." Micah said, briefly patting his horse, Baylock, before looking up. "I ain't seeing Dutch till I bring him a peace offering." As Baylock reared a bit, he looked back at the gang's lead enforcer and gave a small "Bye now." before heading towards his camp past Strawberry.

Watching his fellow gang member ride until he couldn't see him again, Arthur shook his head before turning his Tennessee Walker, Barkley, in the general direction of camp. "Let's go boy."

Less than an hour later Arthur approached the thin treeline that hid the Van der Linde Gang's camp from prying eyes. As both him and his horse made their way down the small dirt path leading towards camp they suddenly heard a voice shot from behind one of the trees, "Who's there?!"

Recognizing the gruff tone anywhere, Arthur shouted at the top of his lungs. "It's me, Bill. You dumbass."

The heavy set figure of Bill Williamson came out from behind the trees, his Bolt Action Rifle held in his hands and lowered. Scoffing, he looked up at Arthur. "It's 'bout time you got here, Morgan. Was beginning to think that you and Micah got into trouble at Strawberry. Where is he anyway?"

"That bastard is heading towards a camp he set up near Strawberry. Says he will come back to camp with a 'peace offering' for Dutch as a way of apologizing. But that idiot! I swear, anything involving Micah Bell somehow seems to lead to disaster."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that when I came to rescue his sorry ass Micah decides that his guns were more important than getting out of town alive. Damn fool had me join him on a rampage, killing almost half of Strawberry, just to get his guns."

Bill whistled. "Damn."

"Yep." Arthur said before another blast of thunder erupted over them. Looking up both men noted the dark clouds hovering over them and the short bursts of lightning arcing within the clouds. "Look like ol' Mother Nature is fixing to unleash a hell of a storm. We better get back to camp before the rain starts to really pour."

"I hear ya, Arthur." agreed Bill.

They both approached the center of the camp where they witnessed a bunch of activity taking place. John Marston and Charles Smith were helping Simon Pearson load all of their food into Pearson's wagon, Susan Grimshaw had the women putting all of their clothes and washboard into their wagons, Leopold Strauss and Lenny were packing all of the gang's medical supplies in the back of Strauss' wagon, while Sean and Javier Escuella were loading all of the ammunition and guns the gang had into the back of Arthur's wagon. Even Kieran Duffy, the former O'Driscoll, was helping by moving the horses to a spot under the large oak.

Arthur was impressed. "Guess Dutch isn't taking any chances with this storm rolling." he commented.

Just then Kieran spotted both men entering and made his way over to Arthur. "Arthur, Dutch says to get inside. I'll put your horse with the others."

"Who are you to be giving him orders, O'Driscoll?" sneered Bill, shooting the man with a hard glare.

"I keep telling you," Kieran said, his voice sounding tired. "I'm not an O'Driscoll."

"Would you two not do this. We have bigger problems right now than a petty argument between you two." Arthur ordered, getting off Barkley and handing her reins to Kieran. "Bill go and see if Sean and Javier need any help loading the ammunition. Then get everyone in the wagons."

"You got it Arthur." Kieran said, grateful for the man's interruption and lead Barkley to where the other horses were.

Bill narrowed his eyes for a moment before relenting. "All right, Morgan."

Arthur walked towards Dutch's tent, opening the flap to see his two father-figures standing by the Dutch's phonograph, young Jack Marston sitting on one side of Dutch's cot, Uncle napping on the floor and, surprisingly, Josiah Trelawny sitting on the other side of the cot.

"Arthur." Dutch van der Linde, his first father-figure, greeted.

"Dutch. Hosea. Josiah." greeted the enforcer.

Trelawny smiled at Arthur. "Fancy seeing me again, Arthur."

"Of course. After we last saw you, I thought you were going to hold up in some fancy hotel, or at least at the small inn in Valentine."

"Well, I decided to stop by and see how everyone was after we rescued dear Sean from those bounty hunters. When we saw the storm, old Dutch offered to let me stay with you lot until it passed." the English con man explained.

"Of course he did." Arthur said, shaking his head before looking at his two father-figures. "How are things looking?" asked Arthur.

"Fine. Everything's almost packed. Once all of our supplies are stored, we'll wait out the storm in the wagons until the weather clears." Hosea Matthews answered.

Just as he finished speaking another bolt of lightning erupted overhead, lighting the skies above the camp, followed by thunder three seconds later. The noise was so loud it startled Uncle awake. "Wh-What's going on?!"

"Storm's getting closer." noted Dutch.

"Are-Are we going to be okay?" Looking down, Arthur looked at Jack who had began to curl himself and wrapped his arms over his legs in fright.

Kneeling down to the four-year-old's eye level, Arthur offered Jack a small smile. "Oh, don't worry Jack. Everything will be just fine. Once your ma and pa are done with putting our supplies in the wagons they'll come in and keep you safe until the storm's over."

"You-You're sure, Uncle Arthur?" asked Jack.

"I'm sure." assured the older man.

Eventually all of the gang's supplies were loaded into the wagons and everyone hopped into the wagons. While it was a little crowded for them, everyone was happy to no longer risk being outdoors during the storm.

"How long do you think the storm will last?" Mary-Beth Gaskill asked, seated next to Karen Jones; Tilly Jackson, Molly O'Shea, and Sadie Adler sat across from them in their wagon.

"Hard to say for certain," Charles called out, looking at the dark clouds hovering above them. "Could be an hour or it could be all night. Only Mother Nature knows for certain."

"Yeah, well I wish she would stop soon." Karen said, gripping a bottle of beer in her right hand.

Suddenly a large bolt of lightning struck the dead tree behind Pearson's wagon, igniting the dead wood in an instant. The horses were spooked by both the noise and the flames, rearing up and attempted to jerk their reins from the hitches Kieran had placed under the oak, attempting to escape from the scene.

"Oh, God, the horses!" Kieran shouted. He quickly grabbed his hat and coat and was about to jump out of the wagon when he was pulled back by Arthur.

"Don't be a fool!" the enforcer exclaimed.

"Let go of me!"

Just then the group heard a horses cry. Abigail stuck her head outside and gasped. "Barkley's free!"

Arthur's eyes widened. "What!?" he cried out. Looking outside, he could see his horse racing into camp, rearing up and frightfully neighing. "Shit!" Jumping out of his wagon, Arthur ran towards Barkley, much to the shock of everyone present.

"Arthur! Get back to the wagon!" shouted Dutch.

"It's too dangerous, Arthur! Get inside!" Hosea called.

Arthur ignored their calls as he began to approach his horse slowly, trying to act calm despite the circumstances. "Shh. It's okay, boy. Easy. Easy."

Slowly the Tennessee Walker began to calm down and no long rearing up in fright, though Arthur could tell that he was still spooked by the storm. "That's it boy. Just calm down." Slowly reaching until his hands wrapped themselves around the horse's reins, Arthur continued to comfort his four-legged companion. "That's a good boy."

However, before Arthur could coax the horse back to the others, another clap of thunder roared over them, followed by a crack of lightning that struck outside of the gang's camp. This startled Barkley again and caused him to begin rearing up, this time with Arthur holding onto the reins.

"Arthur be careful!" John called out, watching the entire scene in front of him.

"What the hell do you think I've been doing!" yelled his "brother", holding onto the reins while trying to calm Barkley down.

Everyone in the wagons watched with bated breath as Arthur wrestled with his horse and tried to calm him down. Meantime, while there attention was focused around the man and horse, no one noticed the lightning flashing between the clouds glowing brighter and brighter.

"Easy! C'mon Barkley, work with me will you!" Arthur shouted. He knew that he shouldn't be yelling at the horse but with the storm blasting above them it was impossible for the Tennessee Walker to hear him if he tried to speak softly.

Just then Barkley began to rear up on his back legs again and flailed his front legs in the air. Everyone in camp was startled: if Arthur didn't get away from that horse then one of the his legs would most likely hit him in the head and possibly kill him!

"Arthur!" John cried, jumping out of his wagon and racing towards his "brother".

"Son!" Dutch shouted, his face stricken with fear as he and Hosea watched.

It was at that moment, as it seemed that the horse would strike Arthur in the head, that a stray bolt of lightning struck where Arthur was.

The entire area was filled with a blinding light, bolts of lightning encircling the camp and the horses. Arthur could only stand there, stunned, his legs gave out from under him and his mind began to spin. Before he fell completely to darkness, Arthur, for the first time in his life, prayed to God that it would all be over soon.

Micah was livid as he rode out towards the gang's hideout.

Three days after the incident in Strawberry he waited for any of his fellow gang members to ride out and help him with the stage robbery that he had planned. Sean, Charles, Bill, hell he would've settled for even Arthur. Any of them would've been perfect in helping him execute his plans.

And yet none of them even showed up.

Impatience getting the better of him, he put his saddle on Baylock and began riding out towards Horseshoe Overlook. After almost two hours of riding, periodically stopping to rob a random rider who had the misfortune to be going down the same road as he was, he reached the outskirts of the camp.

"Hello!" he called out, letting the person who was on guard duty that he had arrived.

However no one responded to his call.

"Hey, anyone out there!" he bellowed, frustrated. When he didn't hear anyone responding, he decided to head in and see why no one was on duty.

"Dutch! Everyone! It's Micah!" he shouted from the top of his lungs. What the hell was everyone doing?

It was when he had reached the campgrounds that Micah was greeted by a sight he didn't expect:

The entire camp, everything that they had—Dutch's tent, all the wagons, the hitching posts for the horses, the two large tables everyone used—and everyone who lived there, was gone!

He got off his horse and approached the site, slowly. The entire area was completely barren of any activity or life. The only remnants that there was any human activity at all in the area were the remains of the two campfires they had.

"What the hell happened here?" Micah asked himself, bending down to check the closest campfire.

"That's what we'd like to know Mr. Bell." said a voice behind him. With fast reflexes the blonde man drew his pistols and quickly turned around. It was then he received another surprise.

Standing under the large oak tree the gang used to shade their horses were two gentlemen. One of them was a tall, lanky man while the other was more stocky with a large mustache above his lip. But what really captured the outlaw's attention was the sawed-off shotgun in the stocky man's hands and the badges pinned on their suits.

He'd recognized them anywhere.

"Mr. Milton. Mr. Ross." Micah said, lowering his guns though he didn't holster them. As the two men approached him, he then asked, "What the hell is going on?"

Agent Andrew Milton looked at his fellow Pinkerton before looking at the outlaw. "Like I said before, that's what we'd like to know."

Tell me what you guys think. I always loved stories like this and after playing RDR2 I can't help but wonder why there aren't enough stories like this. Please comment and get ready, as Dutch's Boys are in for the adventure of a lifetime.