In your eyes

Chapter 2: Who the hell are you?

Not long after I mounted, we arrive to the river. I place Belle a few meters away and grab my rifle from the saddle. Then I move on foot down to the river.
It's a pretty open space, except for some trees and rocks on the other side of the river. And a few tents as well. Which means, this man I'm looking for isn't alone.
But I cross the river anyway and crouch down behind a big rock. I peek out to get a better look at the place. I see a few men  sitting around a fire and one leaning against a tree, sleeping. And I'm pretty sure that the sleeping man is my man.
I grab my pistol from my holster and sneak forward to the men. I was just about to shoot one of them when a hand clamps over my mouth, stopping me from screaming out loud.
"Hey, we got a sneaky little one here, boys." He chuckles and I twist in his hard grip. The other men chuckles too and walk closer.
"Oh she's pretty. Wonder what we could do with you. It'a rude to spy, baby girl." One of the men says as he run a finger over my cheek. I snap after it and bite him hard as I kick my sharp spur into the leg of the man who was holding him. Both of them groan angrily before taking out their guns. I manage to shoot one of them but the other man shoots me in the arm.
The noise attracted the other men in the camp who now also have drew their guns. Which earned me two more bullets in my body.
I looked around quickly and a pistol was just about to be fired into my head when he earned one instead, falling down onto the ground. The men got distracted for a second and looked at the way the bullet came from.
I used that as an opportunity and slid down behind the rock I earlier sat behind.
I look at the way they now were shooting at, realising I'm not the only one who wants these men dead.
I see a black man with long hair hiding behind a tree, shooting at the men in the camp. I also see a red haired man and a black haired man.
I have no idea who they are and what they are doing here. Maybe they're also chasing this bounty. I pick up my rifle and start shooting the bounties along with the strangers.
If it only was those five men in the camp we would have been down pretty quick but more men was coming out from the thick forest up ahead.
The pain in my body from all the bullets make it hard for me to aim but I manage to get down a few.
And after a few more minutes all of them was down. Including the bounty that I was supposed to bring back alive.
I sighed and manage to stand up by holding a tree beside me.
I eye the men that were my allies in this case.
"Who are you?" The black haired man yell from the distance with a husky voice. I just stare at them.
"We are not going to hurt you, we just wanted them O'driscolls." The black man says and I throw a look at the dead men in the camp.
"Were you here for the bounty? You know they wanted him alive?!" I yell back irritated.
"You were here for the bounty? Which one?" The black haired man says as he walks closer along with the other two.
"That one." I say with a pointing finger at the priced man. "But now he's dead and I lost 80 buck, thanks to you." I snap.
"You wouldn't have survived a second there, darling." The red head said, and I could tell he was Irish.
"You don't know me." I spit. But deep down I know he's right. Usually there isn't gangs. Just one person who need to be dealt with.
The Irish just laughs at my words.
"He's right. Do you need a hand there? Those wounds looks pretty nasty." The black man says. He looks kind, with big brown eyes.
I shake my head.
"No, it's okay. I can handle myself." I say and start to walk back but my legs fail me and I would have fallen if the black haired man didn't catch me.
"You don't look so fine, Miss." He says and holds me steady.
"Let us take you to our camp and get you cleaned up. And then you can head off if you want." The black man says.
"Are you crazy, Charles?! We don't even know her! She could be one of those fuckers who's trying to turn us in." The Irish says.
I sigh and look down at my bloody pants.
"I don't think she's gonna do that. I think she as her own secrets she needs to hide." The man who I now know as Charles says and I look at him surprised. He looked right through my guard. No one has ever done that.
"Okay let's take her back to camp." The man who's holding me orders.
"Fine." I mutter, just as happy as the Irish feller.
The black haired man lead me to his horse, a brown Tenesse Walker, and lifted me up behind the saddle.
I whistle for Belle and she comes galloping directly and look suspiciously at the men and their horses.
We begin to ride and everything hurts now and I'm bleeding from god knows where.
"I'm John Marston. That Irish joke over there is Sean McGuire and that's Charles Smith." The black haired man says as we start to trot.
"I'm Rachel Collins." I reply tiredly. I'm not sure if I should have said my name, but right now I don't really care.
The ride to their camp felt like hours, but I think it just took one. I had held a loose grip around Mr Marstons waist and tried not to bleed out too much on his horse.

"You okay there, Miss Collins?" He ask me after a while. "Just a few minutes left."
"I'm fine." I mumble.
We turned left into a small path right into the woods and a few seconds later I saw a camp. It was quite big. And that's when I slightly regretted saying yes to this. Even if I didn't have much of a choice.
I don't know this people. They could kill me right away. I'm sure they don't want a bounty hunter in their camp. Hopefully they won't mention it.

Mr Marston stops his horse and mounts off. I swing my leg over the saddle, causing a pain to burn nicely as I slide off.
"Wow, easy there." Marston says as he catch me when I almost fall down to the ground.
"I'm fine." I mutter once again.
"Hey, we need some help here!" Mr Smith yells over to the camp, making a few faces looking our way. A younger woman and an older woman hurries to us along with a nicely dressed man. He looks like the leader.
"John, who's this?" He asks confused with a deep voice.
"We found her when we raided that O'Driscoll camp. She's pretty bad injured." John says and the older woman takes over Mr Marstons steady grip around me.
"We'll take care of you miss." She says calmly and I nod thankfully with a tired smile.
"Yeah, Miss Grimshaw and Miss Tilly will take good care of you." The leader says and looks at me with soft but wild eyes.

The women takes me to one of the tents and I can tell that I'm drawing attention because everyone is looking at me.
They put me down in a tent on a bed and Miss Grimshaw hurries to get supplies, I suppose.
"What's your name?" Tilly asked softly. She is a pretty girl with black skin and her hair up in a bun along with a cute yellow dress.
"Rachel Collins." I speak tiredly. I can barely hold my eyes open. Probably because of the blood loss.
"Well, it's nice to meet you. I'm Tilly." She says with a warm smile. I smile back to her. Or at least I try to.
As Miss Grimshaw comes back, they start examining my wounds.
"Oh, it's quite bad. I'm impressed you haven't passed out yet." Tilly says and I sigh. I would gladly pass out to skip this pain.
"This is going to hurt, Miss." Grimshaw says and looks at one of my leg wounds before she pours down some alcohol over it. And god it hurts.
I grab the side of the bed violently and squeeze my eyes and mouth shut to not scream.

An hour later they were done with treating my wounds and left me to rest. I wonder who's tent it was because it looked like someone lived in this tent.
The bed is quite hard but it's way better than the ground.
I look around in it. The tent is built from a wagon. With a little desk and a box in front of the bed. There is a barrel with a mirror on, in the corner of the tent. And then there ain't so much more.
I wake up from my thought when I hear steps coming closer. When I turn my head I watch the leader walk in.
"Hello, Miss. How are you feeling?" He asks with his head tilted.
"I've been better. But miss Tilly and Miss Grimshaw did a great job." I say with a small smile and look down at the ground.
"Good. Your name was Rachel Collins, right? John told me."
I just nod as an answer.
"Well, Miss Collins. What were you doing in that O'Driscoll camp?" He asks and I can feel his eyes piercing me. I look up to meet them.
"I chased a bounty. I didn't have a name, just a face. I didn't really expect such a big company." I say slowly not knowing how he'll react. Many people gets a bit awkward when I say I chase bounties. Which just marks that they are guilty of something. But he didn't react at all. He just continue to look at me, rather curious than feared.
"You chase bounties?" He asks and lean against the small desk beside the bed I'm sitting in.
"It's a part time job. I do it for the money, not for justice." I say, staring into his brown eyes. He chuckles.
"Well you sound just like someone we could need in this gang. I'm Dutch van der Linde." He says with a warm smile and I look at him a little confused.
"You want me to join you?"
"Well if you want. The boys that found said you had quite some skills in the gunfight." He pauses. "But you can think about it, of course. But it would be an honor to recruit you." He says and start walking out.
"Thank you Mr van der Linde. I will think about it." I say, my head now spinning with thoughts.
"Good. Now, get some rest." He replies with a smile before walking out of the tent.
Join a gang? Really Rachel? Are you going to do that?
They look quite like a family, the little I've seen. It could be nice with some company. But I'm still not sure. I don't want to be that much bossed around. I mean, I left my dad because I was sick of that.
I don't think about it more because my eyes closes heavily and I fall asleep on the bed.