Deal with the Devil

Tall Trees, August 1896

Runs with the Wind had been woken up suddenly the sharp pain of a fist meeting his stomach. He opened his eyes to see the man he had met on the roof of the general store just a few hours earlier.

He tried to fight back but quickly realized he was tied to a tree. A group of men sitting around a campfire begin to laugh at his misfortune. He looks around and sees that he is somewhere in the middle of a forest. There’s a small cabin in a clearing surrounded by a company of tents and wagons. He guessed he was somewhere in Tall Trees.

A moment of panic washes over him followed by a chill down his spine as he hears one of the men speak.

“Take it easy, now. You’re not goin’ anywhere.”

It was Samuel Wyatt.

The group of men laugh again as Samuel gets up from his seat by the fire and walks toward Runs with the Wind.

Runs with the Wind tries to loosen his restraints before Samuel reaches him, to no avail. Samuel leans down to meet Runs with the Wind eye to eye. The contours of his face are hidden in the shadows created by the fire.

“Comfortable?” He says with a conniving smile.

“Let me go, why are you keeping me here!” Runs with the Wind answers back, the growing anger showing in his voice.

Samuel takes a few steps back from him so that the rest of the men can hear him as well.

“There I was mindin’ my own business tonight, meetin’ with a couple of folks at the saloon to talk business. While this is happening, you’re stationed across the street aimin’ a rifle in my direction. Now I don’t know what I’ve done to warrant such behavior from you, but I don’t take kindly to folks wishin’ to do me harm.

Samuel moves closer to Runs with the Wind and meets him eye to eye once again.

“I want you to tell me, son. What were you doin’ on that roof?”

Runs with the Wind didn’t answer him. He figured he didn’t have to; Samuel knew he had been there to kill him.

Samuel lowers his voice so the other men can’t hear him.

“He was your brother, right? It’s a real shame what happened to him, but revenge is a fool’s errand. He got what was comin’ to him, stealing from the likes of us.”

“Liar!” Runs with the Wind yells, his growing anger reaching its peak.

He tries to lunge himself at Samuel but is quickly reminded of his bond to the tree. Samuel connects the back of his hand to Runs with the Wind’s face, a jewel from one of Samuel’s rings cutting across his eye. Runs with the Wind winces in pain as Samuel levels with him again.

“Don’t you call me a liar, boy!”

“If you brought me here to kill me, why not do it now and get it over with?”

He figured that was the reason Samuel had brought him here, and he didn’t want to prolong the inevitable.  

“Kill you?” Samuel says inquisitively. “If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of bringing you out here. I don’t want to kill you; I want to use you.”

The wheels in Runs with the Wind’s head were spinning. Use him? For what? If Samuel had always planned on taking Runs with the Wind hostage, does this mean he was set up?

“Use me? How?” Runs with the Wind asks eagerly. Whatever Samuel had in mind he did not want to be a part of it.

“There’s a small group of folks like you camped out near Citadel Rock in New Hannover. They say that land belongs to their people and that it’s rightfully theirs. The problem is, a few weeks ago my brother Thomas discovered that there might be oil underneath that very same land. Land that Mr. Leviticus Cornwall would be very interested in purchasing to further our business dealings. Now Thomas has been a very reasonable man and has tried his best to negotiate a deal with them to vacate this land, even offerin’ them a very generous sum of money. But they’re very insistent on staying.”

Runs with the Wind doesn’t like where this conversation is headed.

“Now, if we had you on our side of the deal to convince them to leave, these people might be a little more willing to work with us.”

Runs with the Wind couldn’t believe what he was hearing. They wanted to use him as a pawn to aid their scheme of moving people off land that is rightfully theirs. Just like George Wyatt, the family patriarch, and Leviticus Cornwall moved his tribe off land that belonged to them to make way for Cornwall Kerosene and Tar many years ago.

He shuttered at the thought of working for them to accomplish the very same thing that was done to his own people. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t.

“So, you want to use me to make yourselves seem like fine, honorable men? What makes you think I would agree to this? Removing innocent people from their land like it’s yours to take, it’s dishonorable and unjust.”

Samuel began to laugh.

“Who are you to tell me what is dishonorable and unjust? Just a little while ago you were aimin’ a rifle at my head! Mr. Cornwall wants this land and I intend to give it to him by any means necessary.”

“All this, just to make a profit?”

Runs with the Wind knew the Wyatts were fueled by greed, but he had underestimated just how greedy they were.   

“What’s next, tearing down homes to build factories?”

“Look around you son, the world is changing! The old, simplistic ways of life are no more!”

 Samuel spoke slow and enunciated, like a preacher giving a sermon to a crowd.

“The world is progressing forward; soon these open lands will become ranches and cities. There’s a whole world of untapped potential out there. There’s land to be sold and business to be made, and I intend to be the one to capitalize on that. Your people have had control of these lands for far too long and have done nothin’ useful with them. It’s time for more civilized folk to take control; to give these lands purpose.”

Samuel levels with Runs with the Wind once again

“Let me make it very clear. I will strike down anyone who stands in the way of progress, Indians, outlaws, gangs, the lot of you. If you want to live to see another day, you don’t have a choice! You can either assist with this deal, or you can stay tied up to that tree. There’s plenty of predators that roam this forest, they’ll have your body picked clean by morning.”

Runs with the Wind wasn’t afraid of death. But dying for nothing, that is what he feared most. If he died now, he would never be able to seek revenge for losing his brother. Everything leading up to this moment would have been a waste.

He knew Samuel was wrong. These lands were sacred and should be left untouched. But the way he saw it, he only had one choice. He had to make a deal with the Devil.

“Alright.” He says finally, the air of defeat sounding in his voice. “I’ll help you.”

“I thought you might.” Samuel replies. “Now get some rest, we’ve got a long ride ahead of us.”

This is for You, Brother

Blackwater, August 1896

With a finger on the trigger ready to pull at any moment, Runs with the Wind sat waiting in the shadows on the roof of the Blackwater General Store. At any moment his target, Samuel Wyatt would step out of the Blackwater Saloon onto the dimly lit street and right into the crosshairs of his rifle.

For over a year, he had wanted to seek revenge on the man responsible for the death of his brother. Killing Samuel Wyatt wouldn’t solve all his problems; it wouldn’t bring his brother back and it wouldn’t give his people back the land that was taken from them. But he wanted Samuel to feel the pain his brother felt and wanted Samuel’s brothers to feel the pain that he himself had felt losing a brother.

His mother had always told him as a young boy that revenge was a fool’s errand, but he didn’t care. He had been through so much. His people had been through so much. All at the expense of the Wyatt family.

Runs with the Wind had received a tip from Eduardo Garcia, the fence in Thieves Landing, a few days earlier that Samuel Wyatt would be meeting with potential business clients in the upper level of the Blackwater Saloon.  It was not often that Samuel or any of the other Wyatts had meetings in public. Business meetings were mostly held in secure areas or at one of the Wyatt’s many homes and businesses in order to keep away unwanted resistance.

The Wyatt family had an aggressive way of handling business and would stop at nothing in order to make a profit, which created many enemies. Because of this, it had been hard for Runs with the Wind to keep track of his whereabouts and in turn to plan out an attack. He figured this rare occasion would be the best opportunity he would have to take out his revenge on Samuel.

Runs with the Wind spent the next three days scoping out Blackwater and the road between there and Thieves Landing to make sure he had a clear plan and escape route out of Blackwater. There was no doubt in his mind that Samuel Wyatt would be bringing armed guards with him to this meeting. It seemed as though Samuel had guards with him wherever he went.

He knew that once he took out Samuel, he would only have a small window of time to escape before Samuel’s guards would be on his tail. He planned to take out Samuel from the roof of the Blackwater General Store which was across the street from the saloon. It would provide him with the perfect cover and vantage point to take him out from either inside the saloon or as he left. Behind the store there was an alley which would give him an easy route to escape, unseen by anyone who would be roaming the streets at the time. 

Once he escaped Blackwater, he would make his way southwest to Thieves Landing where Eduardo had agreed to house him in the basement of his shop to avoid the law.

It was a perfect plan; one he knew his brother would be proud of. Losing his brother to greed had devastated Runs with the Wind. They had been so close growing up. Their father died when they were young due to a sickness that spread through the tribe, so his brother had been a father figure to him. He taught Runs with the Wind everything; how to hunt and fish, how to shoot a gun, and how to care for sick members of the tribe.

Losing his brother was like losing his identity. He felt that without his brother he was nothing. He knew that the Wyatt family had to pay for what they had done to him, and that taking out Samuel, the oldest Wyatt brother and current head of the family business was the best way to start.

As darkness began to descend on Blackwater, Runs with the Wind entered the town from the southern end where there was likely to be less foot traffic. He hitched his horse behind a row of houses to make for a quick getaway southwest to Thieves Landing where he would hide to escape the law.

He made his way to the alleyway behind the general store, careful not to attract any unwanted attention. People always gave him strange looks because of the color of his skin, and he didn’t want to give anyone even more reason to raise suspicion. Once in the alleyway he climbed up the stairs behind the general store, then on up the ladder to the roof to wait for Samuel’s arrival.

It wasn’t long after he arrived when Samuel Wyatt made his way to the saloon, armed guards in tow. Dressed sharply in all black, he looked more like he was attending a hanging than a business meeting. Samuel Wyatt had a menacing look about him, one that all crooked men had. With slick dark hair and a neatly trimmed mustache, he always looked as though he carried with him a dark secret. He was a wretched, vile man and he knew it.

Runs with the Wind watched as a man at the entrance greeted Samuel and his crew and turned to lead them upstairs. Not long after Samuel arrived at the saloon, two more sharply dressed men - presumably Samuel’s potential business clients - arrived. They were led upstairs the same way Samuel had been and Runs with the Wind watched through the scope of his rifle as the meeting began.

Runs with the Wind didn’t have the clear shot at Samuel that he had hoped for so he knew that he would have to wait until the men were leaving the saloon to be able to take him out.

It seemed like hours had passed before the men finally stood up from the table. He watched as they all shook hands and started to make their way downstairs.

Runs with the Wind aimed his rifle at the doorway and readied his finger on the trigger to take out Samuel as soon as he stepped outside. His heart was beating a thousand miles a minute. He could hear it pounding in his ears as he nervously waited for Samuel to step outside.

As Samuel and the other men neared the door, Runs with the Wind couldn’t help but feel emotional. “This is for you, brother” he said quietly to himself as he cocked the hammer and aimed down the sight.

He had been so focused on watching Samuel’s every move that he hadn’t heard someone come up behind him.

“Put down the gun, boy.” The stranger demanded.

Runs with the Wind quickly turned around to see a tall, brooding man aiming a shotgun at his face. His heart was somehow beating faster than it was before. He had waited all this time, could his plan really have been foiled so easily? He stood frozen in his tracks, unsure if he should make a run for it or if he should fight his way out.

“Did you hear me boy? I said put the goddamn gun down!” The stranger demanded again.

Runs with the Wind wasn’t sure if the stranger standing in front of him was with the law, part of the Wyatt gang or someone entirely different, but he wasn’t about to stay long enough to find out. 

As the stranger began to walk towards him, Runs with the Wind reached down to grab his revolver from its holster. The stranger reached Runs with the Wind before he could pull out the gun and with one swift hit from the butt of the stranger’s shotgun, all he saw was darkness.

Note from the Author

Note from the Author

Thanks for checking out the blog! This is the story of Runs with the Wind, a Native American character living in the world of Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption 2 online mode. A free-spirited character who goes where the wind takes him, Runs with the Wind embodies the characteristics of the Northern Wind which stands for hardships and discomfort but also the endurance to overcome these hardships. He has lived a hard life of moving place to place as the white man continues to push his people out of their lands and in deciding he can no longer sit idly by, he has started to take matters into his own hands.

This blog will be an ongoing series of posts to tell the events of Runs with the Wind’s life, both past and present. The first few posts will bring the reader up to speed on events leading up to the start of the game and then will progress into real-time events as Red Dead Online progresses. Stories of the character’s past will be told periodically through flashbacks so that the reader will get a view of the character’s entire life and the events that shaped him into the character he is now.

I will always accept feedback on the blog as a whole, as well as individual posts to know what works best and what doesn’t. You can find me on Twitter, Rockstar Social Club, and the GTAForums @RaigeGames (for all 3). Updates about the blog such as when new posts are published will be announced on my Twitter.

Thank you all for visiting, I look forward to sharing this story with you!

RaigeGames