Red Dead Damnation (Van der Linde gang x Male Reader)

Part. 57

(F/N) volunteered to go first, it was pitch black by the time the boat finally got back to land, thankfully the group had something going for them. (F/N) had to fight Dutch and Arthur, just so he could go, they thought he looked 'awful'. He had sworn up and down he felt fine, but nothing could be farther from the truth, every muscle in his body felt drained, he was sweating even though he felt like he was freezing, and his throat was the worst of it. Every time he took a breath it felt like he was inhaling sandpaper, he struggled not to cough with each breath, he truly felt like his body was killing itself. But he pushed through it, he wanted to get back to his family.

He ignored all the pain and exhaustion he felt, as he was rowed back to the shore by one of the captain's first mate, it was dead silent out. As (F/N) hopped onto the dock, he looked around, he was expecting Pinkertons to be waiting for him, but he didn't see any. So he moved on, he tried to recognize the town he was in, it had a bunch of rundown buildings and had an old lighthouse. The young gun was probably somewhere around Manzanita trading post. (F/N) waved to the first mate, he ignored the pain in his legs as he ran across the dock and into town.

(F/N) took a deep breath as he ran over to the horses that were by the saloon, he looked around, the roads were empty and the saloon was loud, and he needed a way out of there. He quickly untied a white horse from the hitching post, his muscles were screaming as he pulled himself onto the saddle. He took one last look at the saloon, then he looked back at the dock, the rowboat was headed back to the ship where everybody else was.

(F/N) sighed, he needed to get going, he clicked his tongue and smacked the reins, "Work you damn nag!"

The horse immediately went at full speed and galloped out of the town, but the horse wasn't good by any means. (F/N) could only think of the dirt road ahead, but as he rode, his mind drifted to his real horse, he missed Bullseye. (F/N) slowly lost focus on where he was going, as he wondered about everyone else.

(I would start the music)

(F/N) missed the way his horse would fight with him, how he was there when he was in a bad mood, and always giving him a hard time. Bullseye was like a brother to him, in a way he was the only one he could really rely on, the only one who never asked for anything but food, water, and to be treated right. (F/N) kept riding through the woods and down the road as everything got blurry, his mind kept wandering, he missed him...him and the rest of his family they were all that mattered. He needed to find them soon.

He missed the way, Swanson smelled after he took to much morphine and liquor. He missed how Miss Grimshaw would shout at him to work harder even when he was working as hard as he could. He missed how Uncle would tell campfire stories about his life before the gang. He wished he could be back drinking with Karen or playing Dominoes with Abigail. He would have given anything to be talking to Mary-Beth right now. He really did love almost everyone on the gang like they were his own flesh and blood.

(F/N) stared ahead, he could hear the muffled animal sounds, even his horse neighing. He thought of all the people that were gone, Hosea, Lenny, Kieran, Sean, Davey, Mac, Jenny he missed them most of all, but he would never see them again. He kept moving forward as he rode through the swamp, he could see the light from Saint Denis ahead, he squeezed the reins as he thought of the bank robbery. At that moment he knew that this had to stop, the running, the hiding, the death, it all had to stop, he couldn't take much more of it or he was gonna go crazy.

(F/N) snapped the horse's reins again, he was tired of it all, tired of the Pinkertons hunting them like animals, tired of how they were running out of places to hide, and most of all tired that the gang was losing its faith, he could sense it. (F/N) gripped the reins tighter, he prayed that they were still out there somewhere, they were all he had, he would fight for them to the very end. He would do anything to save them, the family needed to stay strong.