RDR2: Faithless

34: The King's Son

The trees surrounding the convoy toppled, spooking the horses and trapping the soldiers in the valley. At least it had started off well, nobody had been hit by a falling tree. That was the only positive I could find, however.

"Put your hands up," Eagle Flies immediately made himself known, "You're surrounded. Nobody need get hurt, your humiliation of us has gone on quite enough."

"You are making a mistake, boy," one soldier warned as Dutch stepped forward.

"No, you're making a mistake," he yelled down, "Put your hands up, soldier. Take a little humiliation and leave these fine folks alone."

"Who are you?" the soldier yelled.

"A concerned citizen," I shook my head, Dutch was making trouble again.

"They're being ambushed," a yell came from beyond the valley, and we all stared towards the noise.

"We need to move," I said quickly.

"Get ready to fire!" the voices were getting nearer.

"No, no, no, not yet," Dutch held his hand towards me, "Soldier, you and your friends going to tuck tail and run off? Run!"

"Excuse me?" the soldier replied.

"I'm getting bored of this," Dutch grumbled, but he didn't have time to act before gunshots were going off in our direction, "Your friends fired first, soldier!"

We ran for cover, retaliating to the attacking soldiers. They fired first, yes, but we had trapped the other convoy in the pass! It was hardly as if the attack was unprovoked.

"My father won't be happy about this," Eagle Flies said as we tried to defend ourselves.

"They fired first, son," Dutch told him, but I knew this was exactly the noise he wanted.

The soldiers seemed to come in a never-ending stream, there were only eight of us, and things weren't looking so hot. I kept one eye on Dutch as I tried my best to stay alive, so much for just a harmless prank.

Somehow, we managed to take out both regiments without any casualties, but I was sure more soldiers were on their way.

"You fools, you damn fools," I growled, "It's the army!"

"It is one regiment of pastry chefs and bullies, watch your goddamn mouth," Dutch said angrily, leading the way into the valley, "Take whatever you can find, and then we'll get outta here."

"Why aren't we getting outta here now?" I growled as the others began searching bodies.

"They might have information on them," Dutch replied simply, getting to work.

I did as I was told, albeit grudgingly. The Indians were having a hard enough time as it was, now because of Dutch, things would be worse.

"Find anything?" Dutch called out.

"Yeah," I said, dropping another body and waving a letter, "Some poor fool from New Jersey. These boys ain't the problem, they're only kids."

"Keep looking," Dutch told me, when an explosion went off to my right, throwing me to the ground.

I scrambled to my feet, Dutch dragging me with him, as we ran for cover yet again, a trumpet indicating the arrival of reinforcements.

"Shit!" yelled Dutch, "Everyone keep your heads down! We're gonna get out of this!"

Once again, we were left fighting for our lives. If we'd only left when we had the chance, we would have been fine! We had the better vantage point, which worked greatly to our advantage as, despite their artillery, they couldn't get a shot in.