Chapter Text
You climbed onto the driver’s seat of the family sized wagon and helped your mother up. She had the biggest smile on her face. A new start, she told you. She was so excited. After spending your entire life sharing a house with strangers, sleeping in one tiny room between the three of you, your father had finally managed to give your family a new life – a piece of land, in Jackson, Wyoming. Your family will have your own land to work on, your own house to live in, your parents will have their own room, and you, yours.
You were 20. An old maid, by the society standards. But you hadn’t wanted to marry. Your parents had you later in age, and they were not getting any younger. This move had been talked about for as long as you could remember, and getting married would mean separating from them, particularly if your hypothetical husband had a big family. You didn’t want that. Despite the possibility of being viewed as unwanted or defected by the society, you felt that you were thick skinned enough to face it, so long as you and your family were together.
And if this new life, in plot number three in Jackson, could bring you new adventures, or even a suitor, you wouldn’t fight it too hard.
Your father climbed aboard, taking the reins. You were seated on his left, your mother on his right. What little possessions your family had were all packed and arranged in the wagon, your two horses patiently waiting for his go ahead. The families you shared the house with gathered outside to say goodbye to you. Your father looked at the two ladies in his life and put his arms around each of you. Both you and your mother gave him a big, tight hug. His smile was infectious.
When he let go of the two of you, he took the reins in his hands again, tipped his hat at the gathered families, and clicked his tongue at the two faithful steeds. They began to move, and your family was off to start your new life.
It took two whole days to get to the next town, where the wagon train to Jackson would be gathering. Your family arrived very near night time, and your tired bones left no ability for any of you to do anything but to crawl into the wagon and shut your eyes.
**********
The sounds of a spoon being banged against the bottom of a pot stirred all three of you, still fully dressed from last night. You could hear the stream running nearby, quickly getting up and filling a bucket with some water for your parents’ morning routines, cleaning yourself as best as you could before bringing it back to the wagon. Your mother had already begun to prepare breakfast, your father having started a fire for her first thing.
He needed to meet with the organizers before breakfast, the aim was to move immediately once breakfast was over. He sent you to town for some quick supplies, and since time was of the essence, you took off running. You quickly got the items your parents had asked you to get, and hurried back to the meeting point, arms laden in packages.
You turned a corner and ran straight into someone. Your packages knocked off your hands, you off your feet, landing on your back, your skirt flying right over your head. You immediately got back on your feet, desperately trying to get your skirt back down, horrified that your drawers were out in the open. Alas, it was all to no avail. Your skirt had caught on to the pin on your hat and you couldn’t get it down no matter how hard you try. You were starting to panic, until a pair of hands stopped you, and a deep, low baritone told you to calm down.
Weirdly, while you realized that a man was speaking, you immediately calmed down. The man unhooked your skirt off the hat pin and lowered it immediately. Your sight was restored to him standing so close to you, having covered your modesty from public view with his own body.
“Are you alright Miss? I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there.”
His eyes were averted from you, but you felt yourself blush. This man saw your drawers. You kept your gaze down, embarrassed by your own thoughts. He immediately bent down and picked up all your packages. You kept your eyes off him in your flustered state as he carefully placed them all back in your hands. You braved a glance at him.
He looked to be about your age. Tall, strong looking, broad as all hell. His strong jaw peppered with a rather unkempt beard and moustache. His brown eyes slightly veered away from yours. He was a good looking man. Good looking enough to make you avert your eyes again.
You mumbled a thank you and sorry, and quickly made your way back to your parents. You helped your mother pack the supplies quickly and got back up front into the seat. The wagon train began to move into position, apparently waiting for one more to join the group. You didn’t have to wait for long. The last wagon, a single one, came rolling around not a few minutes later.
And just your luck, the driver was none other than the man who saw your drawers.
The idea of travelling with him for two weeks was enough to make you retreat back into the wagon, just so that he wouldn’t see you. You could do that, right? He didn’t need to know you were in the group, right? It’s only two weeks, when you arrive in Jackson he won’t even know you exist. Surely, you could hope?
That hope was quickly squashed at lunchtime, when your parents decided to sit with him and his family. Apparently, he was travelling with his brother and his wife, and his two cousins. He seemed gentlemanly enough, not mentioning anything about your encounter. In fact, he didn’t mention anything at all. He didn’t speak. At all. His brother and cousins did the talking. His name was Joel, apparently, his brother, Tommy, travelling with his newly wedded wife Maria. His cousins were Will and Benny. They’re the Millers. The men were former soldiers, fresh out from the war, which was how they got their lands. Will and Benny were both engaged, their fiancées already living in Jackson, which was the reason they decided to move there. Tommy and Joel tried their luck and managed to secure lands for themselves, so here they were too.
This was when you discovered Joel’s land would be your family’s next door neighbour. Great, you thought. Any hope of staying away from him was now lost.
A cry from Joel’s wagon got him off his stool. He climbed on and re-emerged with a baby in one hand, a bottle in the other. Maria got up and tried to help him, but he shook his head. He walked away from the group a little, cooing at the baby who was hungrily suckling from the bottle. His family watched him, eyeing each other, worried looks silently exchanged. The baby, a girl, was barely six months old, Maria told you.
You didn’t know why, but the knowledge that he had a baby with him made you a bit sad. Would the mother be joining him soon? Or perhaps she was already waiting in Jackson like his cousin’s fiancées? He wasn’t wearing a ring, but then again, a lot of men didn’t. Wedding rings were not exactly cheap these days.
After the baby fed, she began crying. Joel immediately seemed flustered, rocking the baby back and forth, clearly not used to the situation at hand. The Millers got up and tried to help him. But the baby was still crying, the group seemingly clueless on what to do. Joel was getting more and more visibly distressed.
You mother immediately got up and gently asked for the baby from him. She tried to soothe the baby, burping her, rocking her slightly, but she was still crying. She then passed the baby to you, telling the others that you had more experience with babies, having taken care of the children at the house you lived in since you were old enough to change a napkin.
You immediately checked the baby for whatever may be causing her discomfort. Her napkin, her clothing, her hat, her tummy, and finally, you ran your little finger in her mouth. Her crying eased slightly. She was teething. So, you ran your finger on her gums, gently massaging them, easing the pain slightly, and before long, she fell back asleep. Your mother suggested that she ride with you, so you could keep an eye on her, but Joel quickly said no, quietly thanking you for helping, before taking her back into his wagon.
**********
The wagon train consisted of ten wagons altogether. The lead and final wagons belonged to the agency the travelers had hired to map out the journey, providing food and safety throughout. Four single wagons belonged to the Millers, while the other four were family wagons, yours being one of them. The other three belonged to two different families, the middle aged couple with their three children, and their elderly parents, who had another wagon of their own, and a childless couple, probably newlyweds.
The journey was long and slow moving, but everyone got the hang of it after a while. After about ten days on the road, there were only seven wagons left, the other three had left, having arrived at their destination, two towns before Jackson. You, your mother and Maria had gotten along swimmingly, spending time together on the breaks. Joel still didn’t talk much, only mumbling a few words whenever necessary, preferring to spend time with his daughter, whose name, you found out, was Ellie. He asked you to help him out every now and again whenever he couldn’t soothe her, but other than that, he kept to himself.
The other Miller men were friendly, simply the opposite of Joel. Will was a bit quiet, but nowhere near as quiet as Joel. Benny was a chatterbox, basically a puppy with too much energy, and indulged your father in war talks and politics.
Despite Joel’s reserved mannerism, the group actually got along well together, which was probably a good thing, seeing as you would be neighbours when you arrived. With your father getting older by the day, you were glad the Miller men were around. They seemed helpful, all of them, even Joel, very willing to help whenever needed.
During one of the quick stream baths you, your mother and Maria shared, your mother asked her about Ellie’s mother. Turned out, Ellie was not Joel’s daughter. Her mother had been his sweetheart, who came from a troubled home. He had planned to marry her when he came home from the war. But when he didn’t come back as planned, her parents had forced her to marry someone else. He got her pregnant, and made her life a living hell, coming home drunk, stealing from her, beating her half dead. When she went back to her parents for help, they turned her away, unwilling to bear the shame of having their married daughter run away from her husband, not to mention the added cost of having her back plus baby. He ended up beating her to death just after Ellie was born, claiming that she died in a robbery.
Joel returned from war two months later to the news that not only was his sweetheart married, but she was also killed. He was at the bar, drinking his sorrows away when her useless husband walked in, drunkenly bragging about sleeping with so many women who pitied him for his wife’s demise. He proceeded to inform everyone of his poor wife’s final moments, admitting to killing her himself. He got so rowdy, so belligerent that he was fighting half the bar for telling him to shut up. Joel was so close to killing the man with his bare hands when the sheriff himself arrested the man for being too drunk, as well as for murdering his wife.
By the next morning, his body was sprawled in front of the sheriff office, shot in the back, having tried and failed to escape jail.
Ellie’s grandparents didn’t want to keep her and was sending her to the orphanage. Joel quickly decided to adopt her, not wanting her to live unloved, the way her mother was. She was officially his two days before the departure.
This bit of news made you feel like you knew him a bit better, the kind of man he was, despite his stiff demeanor. You and your mother vowed to help him as much as you could, knowing that the man would need all the help he could get.
Two days before the scheduled arrival in Jackson, the train stopped at a valley for the night. The day had been a particularly long one, and everyone was tired. Joel was nodding off as he fed Ellie, Maria quickly taking her away from him, asking him to rest so he would be alright for the journey the next day.
Dinner was quickly had and packed away, and before long, everyone was sound asleep, save for the two security men from the company, who stayed up to keep watch.
**********
You were startled awake by a sudden shake of the wagon, muffled shouting and scuffling surrounded it. It was slightly light out, as if the sun was beginning to peek its head. You sat up quickly, finding your parents already awake. Your father quickly took the gun he had kept hidden and your mother, a big metal rod she had always kept as a weapon behind the door. They signaled for you to be quiet, and you worriedly nodded.
The sounds of silent fighting quickly evolved to louder ones, people running around, and before long you could hear full on shouting, the Miller men’s voices among them. Your father told your mother to stay in the wagon with you as he quickly jumped out. You peeked through the gap in the canvas and saw Joel fighting a man off Tommy, who was on the ground. Your father shot the man, and Joel quickly picked up his own gun off the ground, and suddenly there was a lot of gunfire.
Your mother placed her hand on your back, Ellie, she whispered. If Joel was out here, who was protecting Ellie? You quickly wrapped a shawl around your body, and snuck out the front, hiding between wagons and shadows to get to his wagon.
A man took hold of you, and you screamed. There were so many men around, the men in your train outnumbered at least two to one. You struggled to get out of his hold, when suddenly you felt him drop. When you turned, your mother was standing behind him, having struck the heavy metal rod she was holding directly on his head. Go, she told you. You ran to Joel’s wagon and got in, Ellie nowhere to be seen. You ran back out, going to Tommy and Maria’s wagon, where you saw Maria hiding under the built in bench, Ellie in her arms. She immediately gave Ellie to you before climbing out herself. You wrapped Ellie in your shawl, tying it to your front before running out into the bushes to hide with her, your mother right behind you, telling you to get Ellie to safety.
The gunshots and fighting and screaming slowly got quieter and quieter as you got further and higher, and finally, you found a spot where the rocks were high enough and far away enough to hide the four of you.
But when you and Maria settled, the two of you turned to see that your mother was no longer behind you. You began to panic and got back up to get her, but Maria pulled you down just as several gunshots sounded again, one of them hitting the rock you were hiding behind. Ellie began to cry, but you pressed her close to your chest, and thankfully, she seemed to get the message, the smart child. You and Maria peeked through the rocks, and saw some men go into her and Tommy’s wagon, feeling thankful that the two of you had decided to vacate it.
You saw Joel go in after the men, Tommy close on his heels, and came back out with the two men pulled out by their collars, before both were shot dead by Will and Benny. The four men looked around before being joined by the agency people, minus the two who had stood guard the night before.
It was now light enough to see. Joel shouted for Maria and you, and the two of you quickly stood up before carefully making your way back down to the valley. Joel and Tommy ran up to meet both of you, Tommy hugging his wife, relieved she was alright. You quickly untied your shawl off your body, and Joel immediately took Ellie off your hands, smothering her in kisses, holding her close to his chest, his face the definition of a worried father. He then asked you if you were alright, to which you nodded, and he helped you down, Ellie firmly held in one hand, your arm in the other.
Will, Benny and the four remaining men from the agency were checking the fallen men. Raiders, Joel told you, they were trying to rob the train. To say you were relieved the train held four former soldiers was an understatement.
Your thoughts were suddenly struck by something else. Where were your parents? You looked around, running to your wagon to see if they were there. They were not. Your turned to look elsewhere, when Benny appeared before you, a look on his face told you what you didn’t want to know. You violently shook your head, and ran in the direction he came from, only to find the rest of the men standing over two people, seated on the ground, your mother being one of them, held tightly in your father’s arms. Both had their eyes closed, their bodies still, too still to be asleep.
And that’s when you clocked your mother’s dress, soaked in red, and your father’s pajamas covered torso, blood richly seeping from it onto the ground.
The ground was shaking and still at the same time. The world fell silent. There was nothing left in it. All had emptied. Your vision was spinning. Your head light. You stomach churning. You heard someone say your name, and before you knew it, your world had turned dark.