Miss Morgan

Sixty

August 1899
-Ivy-

When I was busted out of my prison detail, I thought I'd never see Sisika ever again. I swear the massive prison stares back at me from across the island, taunting me for coming back willingly.

Focus.

I watch the guard tower off to the right, thankful that the guard has his back to us, watching over the work detail out in the field. Surely, it's a rare occurrence that anyone has ever tried breaking into the prison instead of out of it.

Goddamn, are we lunatics, but if we can pull this off and get John back, that's all that matters. My heart flutters with hope. Every second that passes is one second closer to getting him back. I can barely contain my excitement.

I almost feel bad that we're bringing him back to such a mess at camp. I thought I had things handled while the boys were gone but maybe I made things worse. Molly's dead and we're hiding in a cave previously occupied by cannibals. Dutch thinks I'm betraying him and now I'm about to go against his wishes and break John out of prison. He might actually kill me over this. Or maybe Miss. Grimshaw will take matters into her own hands and put a hole in my chest with a fucking cannon like she did Molly.

Focus. I take a steadying breath as Arthur pushes the boat onto shore.

We jump out and crouch low in the tall grass. "Let's head for that watch tower." I point. My heart pounds in my ears. I'm so close to John now, I can feel it. We just have to break him out of the work detail in the field on the other side of the watch tower then get back to the boat and get out of here. Easy peasy.

I silently follow Arthur up the ladder to the watch tower where he takes down the guard with his knife. I pick up the guard's rolling block rifle and look through the scope over at the fields, where I see a group of inmates working by a red barn. There's one guard on horseback to the left and one on foot to the right.

"Alright, where's John?" Sadie asks quietly.

I look at the inmates and see one with long black hair down to his shoulders. "I think I see him. There's a group in front of that barn, just to our right."

"Ah, yeah... I see two guards. Ok, take them out and let's go get our boy." Sadie answers.

"Don't miss." Arthur teases.

"Funny." I mutter, then I squeeze the trigger. The guard on the horse drops to the ground and the horse runs off. The other guard looks around frantically a moment before I shoot him down too.

"Nice." Sadie whispers.

An alarm blares over the prison yard and the group of inmates makes a run for it.

"Wait..." I watch the inmates look at us, one giving us a grateful wave as they run away. "Shit, I don't think that was John." I might throw up. "What do we do now?"

"Let's go over there and see." Arthur climbs down the ladder.

"Okay, I think one of those guards is still moving." Sadie says as we follow him down and across the fields to the red barn where the bloody guards lay in the dirt.

As we run, we pass the inmates and I see the one with the long dark hair, he most definitely is not John.

High pitched alarms wail over the yard as we reach the two guards. One is still alive, but struggling. I kick his gun away, anger getting the better of me. I point my revolver at the man's face. "Hey, mister... you know John Marston?"