[Winter - Moonton]

Each squirm singed from within his muscles, as the younger Lou Cooper was held frigid in ice. His own water Agi frozen at his feet by J.J., his efforts remained futile. Cracks within the ice were evident, yet the escaped prisoner was stuck donating an ear to Jennings.

“I saw you forgot about me in the middle of our little dance, now didn’t ya’?”

Lou stopped struggling and focused on Jennings’ face. His expression flushed, as the anger was beginning to settle. His breathing heavy, it was an animal cornered, one pushed so far as to lash out against an easy enemy. J.J. knew the feeling too well.

“Pardon me for some dead-lawmen. Knowing what I know about you J.J., I did us both a favor.”

He spat at the floor of the debris-ridden passenger cart, covered in a layer of mixed slush and solid ice chunks like icebergs along the surface. Jennings had advanced forward, now only an exhale away.

“I didn’t ask for that kind of help. Where’s Anette?”

“Ane- who?” Lou’s face shriveled.

“Anette”

J.J. cups his firm grip around Lou’s neck. His perspiring forearm showed bloody-cuts, throbbing veins, as adrenaline continued to rush through the riled outlaw. Each passing whip of wind that slashed across their faces reminded him of the train’s fate, and theirs with it if he failed to extract the information he needed quickly.

“Some female? Really J.J.? We’re in the middle of something special and you’re over-here thinking bout’ her-?”

The train car swayed violently to the left- then back in the opposite direction. Stern, J.J. grew tired of the long-winded quips and petty wit. His grip from behind wrinkled the skin around his dirty fingernails as his veiled anger grew. Lou was forced to grin, however he embraced it. Jennings stumbled from the next tremble of the train. He quickly regained his stance but noticed a deep crack in Cooper’s containment Agi.

“End the bullshit shenanigans! We don’t have much time before this train takes us both out.”

A metal crack was heard from beneath. Lou had chosen to fight back, conjuring a bubbled foam, it was slightly too late. The rumbling from below grew into metallic grinding, intermittent with chopped screeches. Neither criminal was prepared for the abrupt, derailed crash. The cart split in half, a metal beam swept Jennings aside with the gushing wave of overflowing water, off the railcar and into the wilderness. Lou slams bottom-first into the roof, Jennings' head hits the side of the structure before the duo are dumped, ejected from the train, frail to the elements and unconscious..

[Winter - Moonton]

Sitting alone on top of a cut-price cot, legs hanging off the edge, Penny grubbed from her bowl.

“I’m sure we’re close,” she crept the optimistic words through her half-full mouth.

Buck chose to ignore her lack of manners, shrugging away and smirking at the masculine mannerisms he could only incorrectly assume were inherited from her pariah pal. He paced near the door, his subconscious spoke, but he had already committed his attention toward her deed. She wanted to find the most wanted outcast in the West, and his heart had him undertake that dull-witted task.

The last spoon left Penny’s mouth, returning into her bowl. The wooden utensil was slathered in sauce, causing her insecurity to rise as she covered her mouth with a nearby cloth, staggering off the bed and toward the barrel of wash-water on the other side of the occupied room. Buck began to offer a hand, but realized she’d taken the lead herself.

“Excuse me. Was a bit famished.”

Buck smiled.

A crash broke the roof, as the mass landed on top of the cot, creating a pile of debris where a man lay, motionless.

Buck’s expletives fused with Penny’s paralyzing shock. They fell back, startled and shot by splinters. The eerie quietude that followed any explosive noise ensued and brought back their forgotten senses. Seconds felt elongated as they slowly, methodically removed small chunks of debris from their grounded selves, coughing.

Buck and Penny were scrapped, but unharmed. They gather their sense and inch toward the crash site.

Bloody, covered in dust and debris, J.J. had found them, unconscious atop the pile.

Penny and Buck stand stationary over the dazed, waking Jennings. Patient, silent, responsive. Now stirring, the elapsed pain resurged with a vengeance through J.J.’s threadbare body as any adrenaline stopped flowing, he shouted.

“Ahhhhh!”

“J.J.!”

“Ahh. Damn-”

Penny clutched her friend into her embrace as the outlaw regained his bearings. The pain subsided for him temporarily, as he realized what’d occurred. Shards and splinters of wood composite lay across what easily could’ve been his corpse. He pushed back, apprehensive to offend the affection from Ms. May, but eventually succeeded with the dissection.

In the background Buck observed the vitality. He had witnessed the sudden crashing of a body through the roof of their temporary abode. It was a quant one, still without much in the way of obstacles between the two of them and comfortable rest. Yet, he flew off a train and fell right atop of them, just the man they sought. Buck tossed his belt to the floor, as it’d now become a concern to help J.J. get to his feet.

Buck and Penny wrap their colleagues' extremities around their shoulders, as they slowly inch Jennings out of his pit of thicket. The collision and subsequent pummeling into the structure had just missed the previously eating Penny, instead slamming onto the only cot the timber shed offered. The mess was plenty, but he watched as his support became obsolete quickly. Jennings had regained his strength as quickly as he’d extended an invitation.

“Bit creeky, but- hey pal’ I reckon you watched over Ms. May here.”

The handshake was returned dutifully.

“Pleasure’s mine, I’m Buck. Buck Floyd.”

“Good for you…”

Jennings collapsed to the floor, Penny wailed and helped. The duo had now propped Jennings into a corner of what’s left of the hut. The sun casted a canvas of light for Jennings to deject for the shadows. His scar from the events of the Rainy Day Festival was pulsating a bluish-hue. It was as if the section of flesh missing had been obfuscating his broadcasted mood, but that was false.

Instead, a reserve of energy had been tapped. In place of bemoaned injuries, the man would shake off a few more broken bones and sit-up straight.

“I couldn’t find her.”

Penny scrambled her memory, remembering J.J.’s determination to find Anette. The guilt he had worn was infectious. He had used his recovered flow of Agi to perpetuate his sense of failure. Emotions covered his face in a similar form to that of the shade he sat in.

[Winter - Moonton]

Wolf, on foot, displayed signs of his own conflict. Tattered clothing, ripped, with slight scratches, he followed the tracks on foot, knowing he’d be a while before he caught up to the noise he heard. Instead, he chose to pace his energy, having already incapaccetated a few wayward henchmen.

The railroad was simple to follow. Gravel crunched beneath his boots.

Next to him, a vibration could be heard along the tracks. What started as a humanoid-blur, focused itself on three men dressed in outlaw attire retreating on a hand-cranked cart in the opposite direction of the thunderous noise. The only man revealing his identity and lacking a bandana mask was the beaten Lou Cooper, locking eyes with Wolf the stranger as he passed.

Wolf absorbed the passing instance as they cranked the hand cart and increased in effort.

Now with a brisk pace, Wolf continued uphill further. Sweat dripped and immediately evaporated against the hellish landscape. The urgency lied hidden within each trepidation-riddle step, yet his humanitarianism led the charge. Checking brush lines for clues of any nearby life, he shifted his attention forward to a lump of horse lying in his path. It was the fatigued, possibly injured Poni, failing to stand over-and-over. Its limbs trembled and stiff, unable to attain a comfortable stance. Wolf called out to his travel partner.

“Please, steed! Let me help.”

Poni gave into the sensation of rest, unconscious by the time Wolf had reached him. The Native man figured the horse had succumbed to the exhaustion from flailing. Wolf sat on the ground next to Poni, content with the decision to rest and recover himself before returning to find Jennings.