Ambarino, Plow Village.
The Van der Linde gang has been temporarily living here for half a month. Maybe it was due to luck, or maybe it was man-made. Compared with the difficulties when they first arrived here, this big family of twenty-two people is finally living a more or less decent life in this place. Life. Although it cannot be compared with life in the past, at least everyone can keep warm in the severe cold and eat delicious meat. At least everyone is still alive and well now - ah, not counting the unlucky John - at least no one can live anymore Pass away and live forever. The smile finally returned to everyone's face. Although they still endured hardship, at least they could see the hope shining ahead.
Except one person.
In the early morning, just after dawn, Sadie Adler woke up from a nightmare. When she woke up, there were still tears in the corners of her eyes.
She didn't get up immediately, but just lay on her back on the bed that was a little too hard for her waist, waiting for her tears to dry naturally.
This was not the first time she had been awakened by a nightmare. In fact, she had been tortured by the same nightmare for the past half month. She dreamed that she and her beloved husband worked together, hunted together, lived in a warm house in the cold snowy night, told stories, gossiped, and sometimes sang; then they came, violently smashed the door, and viciously In order to protect her, her husband half-forced and half-persuaded her into the cellar; then there was darkness, and only the ears could hear the begging, insults, and arguments; and finally the whole world became quiet, with only the dull ticking sound, She followed the sound and saw only a pool of scarlet liquid. Her forehead was wet. She wiped it randomly and her palms were stained red by the rusty liquid. Then the whole world was swept by the scarlet wave. She looked at the rippling crimson sky and sank, sinking again.
She recalled this all too familiar dream, which made her more painful, and the pain brought new tears. She thought she should have dried up her tears long ago, but strangely, the tears she shed for him seemed endless.
She wanted to lie like this forever, just like her husband lying in a carriage in the ice and snow forever.
"Maybe this way we can see him again." She couldn't stop the stupid thought.
Until Abigail's face appeared in her field of vision, she knew that no matter what, she should temporarily get out of her hysteria.
"Are you okay, Sadie?" Abigail asked with concern.
"It's okay, I just had a bad dream." Sadie wiped the corners of her eyes subconsciously and sat up straight.
Abigail put her hand gently on Sadie's shoulder, hoping to give her strength in this way, "Everything is going to be okay." Abigail said.
Sadie didn't speak, she just stared blankly at the ice flowers condensed on the window glass, a little lost in thought.
This kind of conversation is repeated almost every day at this time.
People who live in the wilderness rarely live according to clock hours, and the same is true for the Van der Linde gang. They work at sunrise and rest at sundown, which is quite an ancient custom. Of course, we cannot rule out the possibility that the current conditions are too simple to have fun, otherwise these restless rough men may keep making noises until midnight.
In fact, apart from sewing and helping in the kitchen, Sadie did not find out what other jobs the women in the gang did. Of course, this may also be the result of over-protection by the big men in the gang. Take Pearson as an example, because the kitchen in the camp is open-air. If there were not sometimes too much kitchen work, and those men who never spend any effort or thought on internal affairs could not count on it, the old fat man would not even let the lady They come over to help cook.
The other ladies in the camp actually found this kind of over-protection quite useful. Although they would inevitably complain a few words because they were so idle, they actually cherished this rare time that was all their own. The word "complete" is emphasized because under normal circumstances, if ladies slack off a little or take a break from their busy schedule, they will be lectured by Ms. Susan Grimshaw. But now, even Ms. Grimshaw herself has begun to When there is nothing to do, what position does she have to say that the girls are not doing serious things?
Only Sadie did have some issues with this kind of macho over-protection. When she was with her husband in the past, she and her husband had always had an equal relationship, whether at work or in daily life. The patriarchy that always existed in this world did not exist in their small family. Now she was forced out of her comfort zone and came to another group. She truly felt the unnaturalness brought about by this unequal relationship. It was inevitable that she would feel a little dissatisfied in her heart, although this kind of over-protection was more It's out of gentlemanliness and chivalry.
As for Yingying Yanyan in the gang, to be honest, she is not very good at integrating into this circle. After all, she has always been a woman from a good family, and most of the women in gangs grew up in dirty places such as gangs and brothels. They are completely delinquent young women. Except for Abigail, a woman who is already a mother. Apart from being able to chat for a few words, she really didn't know how to join in on other people's topics. I would like to ask, how can a woman who has been a good woman for more than 20 years join a topic full of theft, fraud, robbery and flesh business?
There was a faint sound of gunfire in her ears, which was a bit noisy, and she had to stop the sewing she was doing because she was really bored. The women in the gang didn't do anything strange because of this. I don't know if they were used to the sound of gunfire, or they recognized the enemy from the sound of gunfire. Of course, it is not ruled out that Sadie is more perceptive than them all. After all, Sadie is training. Exceeding marksmanship.
Out of curiosity and wanting to escape from those topics, Sadie put on a heavy shawl and walked out of the house. Within a few steps, she found the source of the gunfire.
In the open space in the center of the camp, Brandi and Lenny were practicing marksmanship, while their teacher Arthur was smoking a cigar leisurely, not looking like a teacher at all.
Seeing Sadie walk out of the house, Arthur politely held up the brim of his hat and said, "Good morning, Mrs. Adler."
"Good morning, Mr. Morgan," Sadie nodded in return, "Are they practicing marksmanship? Why don't you give them some pointers?"
"I've taught them everything they need to teach," Arthur said leisurely. "The rest is practice and practice. Practice makes perfect. The purpose of my staying here is to prevent these two boys from accidentally hitting each other with bullets." On the butt." After saying that, Arthur laughed.
Sadie didn't smile, but turned her attention to the two people who were practicing shooting.
The shooting method of the two men was not the ordinary horizontal shooting style, but the rapid waist shooting popular among Western cowboys. This shooting method is actually very dangerous, because no matter how much you practice, the shooting accuracy of rapid hip fire cannot be compared with the normal shooting method. However, in one-to-many battles or complex gunfight scenes, this shooting method can be very effective. Easily reverse the disadvantage and use firepower to suppress it.
Brandy and Lenny's shooting targets were two wine bottles placed ten meters away from them. If they used normal shooting methods, both Brandy and Lenny could easily hit such targets, but now, The two of them almost finished shooting the bullets in both bullet slots, but they didn't even touch the edge of the bottle.
"The hip shot looks cool, but why is it so difficult to use it?" Lenny complained as he loaded bullets into the magazine of the revolver.
Brandy faced his target and fired three shots with a "pop, bang, bang". Both his movements and speed were like a fast shooter. If there is any gap between him and a real fast shooter, it is only in accuracy. . He looked at the undamaged wine bottle in front of him and felt helpless: "Ensuring accuracy is indeed the most difficult part of shooting from the waist. Even for Arthur, shooting from the waist cannot guarantee a headshot."
"A gunshot to the head?" Lenny loaded the bullet and fired again. As expected, it failed. "Let's deal with the bottle first."
Brandi also loaded the bullets, put the gun back into the holster, and fired a quick waist shot again. This time it was not without success, and a wine bottle shattered into pieces with a "pop".
Lenny was not happy now: "Hey, I'll go and hit your own bottle. What's going on if you hit my bottle?"
"You think I want to, but I can't control it." Brandi was a little helpless.
"Hey! Brandy!" Arthur suddenly shouted, "Come here!"
When Brandi heard Arthur's voice, she stopped arguing with Lenny, ran to Arthur, saw Sadie beside her, and politely held up the brim of her hat: "Good morning, Mrs. Adler. Ya Se, what’s the matter?”
"How do you feel? Have you found the trick?" Arthur asked with a smile.
Brandi scratched his head and said: "Although the speed of drawing the gun has caught up, the accuracy is still not good. I always feel that something is missing, but I don't know what it is yet."
Arthur nodded and said, "It's good to have this feeling. After all, you have only practiced for less than half a day. By the way, Mrs. Adler seems to have something to ask you. You can talk to her. I'll go see Lan." Ni, don’t look at this kid who is good at reading and writing, but he is much stupider than you at shooting.”
