As Jeremiah hoisted himself into the stable through the large window, Collin couldn’t help but utter, “This is quite possibly the worst idea a man could have.”

Slinging his other leg over the side, Jeremiah responded, “Please, what other option da’ we got?”

“We could buy the horses.”

“Oh, and where would we get da’ money ta’ get horses good enough ta’ take us ‘cross this side of da’ country?”

“They don’t need to be the best, they just need to be able to go long enough distances. Could you honestly not have thought of a less risky operation than this?” Jeremiah had already hoisted himself over the window, leaving Collin’s question to fizzle out in the misty night air. Sighing to himself, Collin paced back and forth around the cobblestone street that led into the stable his partner was currently stealing horses from. 

Settling to wait outside the fence around the stable, Collin’s dress shoes clacked on the recently rained-on ground. Collin was a bit more of a clean freak than the others he knew as he often spent his days as a child inside his mother's house reading. Collin found himself fixated on the mud that coated the cobblestone roads and sidewalks from people who couldn’t be bothered to clean themselves. 

Leaning his back against the recently drenched wood fence, Collin looked around the misted streets of Oatman. Few people were out at this time of night, making his job much easier and letting him focus on smaller things. Things like the way the street lights made it look like orbs were floating around them as they illuminated the mist. Things like how the smog from nearby factory smokestacks contorted as they ascended into the atmosphere, turning into men of smoke.

His short viewing session enthralled him so that it took a prominent sigh to jog his mind back to its rightful place. Quickly running back through the gateway and ducking behind the fence, he peeked through the cracks in the fence as a stagecoach driver was removing the rain that bound the horse to the coach. 

Oh, crap- Collin forced his mind to keep the thought as it was and for it to not pass his lips as he quickly ran to the same window Jeremiah hoisted himself into. Jumping with all the strength his old bones could muster, he barely pulled himself into the stable, landing just beside a fat pile of horse manure. Forcing himself not to gag, Collin pulled himself up and thanked the lord most of the horses were asleep. Exiting the stable we fell in, Collin looked around for Jeremiah, but he was nowhere to be seen. That was until he exited a side room of the stable, shoving something into his pocket that Collin couldn’t quite tell. 

Pushing that question to the back for now, Collin ran up to Jeremiah, “We must leave, now!”, he whisper-shouted. Jeremiah didn’t respond, sensing the urgency in his companion's voice, and quickly led Collin to the stable of two horses. One was black with a white stripe going down the front of its face while the other was reddish-brown with a black mane.

“So, which one you want?” Collin looked at him with a baffled expression before barging into the pen and barely managing to sling his leg over the side of the black one. Jeremiah had a much less difficult time getting on his horse before reaching into his satchel and taking out pieces of a rope before motioning to Collin to grab one.

Collin looked at him confused, “What’s that for?!”

“We needa way to steer ‘em.”

“Oh my god- we don’t have time!” Collin exclaimed with his voice barely low enough to be classified as a whisper. He tried to dismount the horse gracefully before falling on his face and getting a mouthful of dirt.

As Collin sputtered and brushed off his tongue, Jeremiah responded, “What are you doin’?”

Spitting, Collin replied, “A man is coming, we need to hide until he leaves!”

“Why didn’t ya open wit’ that?!”

Before Collin could respond, a third voice chimed from outside the door, muffled through the rotting wood, “Come on, boy.”

Jeremiah didn’t waste any time after that as he practically jumped off the horse, grabbing onto a nearby plank and, in a matter of seconds, scaling the wall and back into the rafters. 

Who trained this guy, the Lawman’s Angel?! The door suddenly opened, making Collin quiet both his breaths and thoughts. He grimaced as he forced himself into the ground, trying to avoid the lantern carried by the new man and, if that failed, at least try to blend in with the ground.

The stablehand walked the horse to a stable across the row where Collin was ducked. Luckily, the lantern he carried also worked as a beacon against the darkness, letting Collin track him. He tried his best to control his breaths, attempting to sync them with the horse which was now unleashed and resting in its pen. Collin hoped to the lord that this horse was a quiet one as the stablehand brushed its mane a bit before leaving through the stable’s side door.

Collin was about to signal for Jeremiah to leave the rafters but he quickly saw a pair of legs dangling from the roof above the brown horse. As carefully as he could manage, Jeremiah dropped onto the ground beside the horse.

“Where on earth did you learn to do that?!” Collin whispered.

Jeremiah responded as he opened the door of the pen, walking out and around to the end of the building, “When ya grow up wit’ a pa like mine, you gotta pick up at least a lil’ fitness.”

Collin also left the pen, standing just outside it as he questioned, “Where are you going?!”

“Well,” Jeremiah, “Now that no one else should be comin’ in here, I think we can get some halfway decent equipment.” He opened a nearby cupboard and pulled out two dark-brown leather saddles. Collin sighed before grabbing it and taking it to his new horse, “You even know how to put on a saddle, old man?”

Despite his mind shouting to be quiet, Collin chuckled slightly, “I’ll have you know I used to be quite the racer when I was a boy.”

As Jeremiah was digging through the cupboard, stuffing horse food, cleaning supplies and papers into his satchel, he made an “ooo” sound.

“What?” Collin asked, already sitting on his horse.

It was answered by Jeremiah pulling a large wad of cash off a shelf, flicking through the dollar bills, “Gotta be at least a hundred here.”

“Woah woah woah,” Collin said, making a “stop” motion with his hand, “Put that back.”

“What- why?”

“I’ve made a lot of exceptions to my moral code for helping you but I draw the line at just flat-out theft. Remember, just because you're not guilty doesn’t mean that you didn’t do it, just means we don’t have enough proof that you did. Now put that back.”

Jeremiah sighed before unceremoniously chucking the dollar wad back into the cabinet. 

“These  are just people trying to get by, we don’t need to steal their income on top of-”

“Alright, I get it! Jesus.” Jeremiah opened the stable’s doors, looking out and making sure no one was there before getting on his horse, handing Collin some of what he found in the cupboard, and they rode into the streets, their mount’s hooves clacking against the floor in a sound that pleased both their ears.

“I thank it’d be a lot better if the stables weren’t in the center of the city,” Jeremiah complained.

“Well, I don’t think they planned on an unruly convict and a judge robbing it.”

“Hey, what the heck?!” From where they just departed came another voice, making the duo look back and see the same stablehand who interrupted their heist shouting. “I’m being robbed, someone go fetch the police!” A few people exited the surrounding buildings to investigate and Collin even saw a few begin making their way to where he knew a police station was located.

“Dammnit, I told you we should have just bought the horses tomorrow!”

Jeremiah snapped his reins, making his horse speed around a corner, “Now ain’t the time ta’ worry ‘bout that- we gotta go!”

Collin had little choice but to follow, trying to make the transition to a higher speed as easy as possible for the horse. Soon, the air was filled with the cacophony of whistles and horse hoofs as the policemen swarmed around the city. The two tried to dodge through the alleyways and through any opening they could fit through. In the midst of running down one street, the sound of clattering hooves and raucous whistles rapidly approached.

Spotting an alleyway large enough, Collin shouted, “Hold it, duck in here!” he turned under the archway above the entrance, struggling a bit when he had to make the horse stop. Jeremiah pulled up behind him, dismounting his horse the same moment Collin did.

“So, you got a plan?”

“Well yes, but I’m not sure if it’s a good one.” Collin took a map out of one of his pockets, unfolding it to reveal a layout of the city and the surrounding landscape. Pulling a pen from his suit’s pocket, he began “Alright, if I know the layout of this city like I think I do,” he put a dot on where they were, “the easiest way to get out of the city would be across the railroad tracks; it’s a straight shot from there to our camp. It’s also not likely to be blocked by the police since they’re more likely to be crowding the streets.” Collin drew an arrow up across the map which followed the railroad tracks up to the cliffside where their camp was, “However, I think the best way for us to get out would be to go different directions, then rendezvous at the campsite,”

Jeremiah scoffed, “Well ya had me for a bit but then ya ruined it. How does splitting up help us?”

“Do you have any semblance of a clue how suspicious two shadowy men charging out of the city look? An old judge and a young businessman traveling at night on the other sides of the town are far less conspicuous. Do you have any other plan?”

Jeremiah sighed, “No, ah guess ah don’t.”

“Alright,” Collin pulled back onto his horse, “You take the passway up the railroad, I will see how it looks in the moment and plan it out from there. If anything happens to either of us, we’ll deal with it, but if nothing goes wrong, we meet back at the camp once we get out. Am I clear?”

Doing the same with his mount, Jeremiah responded, “Yes sir; see ya on the otha side, ol’ man.” They both took off in opposite directions, now leaving Collin alone in the hazy streets, the only sound being the far-off bellowing of whistles and his horses clacking down the street.

Slowly trotting down the street, the near silence allowed Collin’s mind to unfortunately stew on this night's events. Since the very beginning - despite the fact he truly believes Jeremiah to be innocent - the risks they’ve taken make him feel like it wasn’t worth it. First, they broke into his office building to steal papers on the potential location of records that could help prove Jeremiah’s innocence. He tried getting his boss to allow him access to them simply, but he was denied and quickly told to quit his search and cease helping Jeremiah. Collin was shocked; his boss was tough sometimes, sure, but this was the first time he’d been fowardly antagonistic. 

Perhaps this conspiracy runs deeper than I could’ve considered. Filing that thought away to be pondered later, Collin passed by two lawmen trumpeting down the streets to the stables. He didn’t care for it much - he was practically on the outskirts of the city now - before a shout was heard in the direction they were running.

“Get your hands off me!” Jeremiah’s voice screeched.

Collin quickly halted the horse’s progress and began zooming in the same direction as the lawmen. Not long after beginning, the silhouette of two men standing over a third one on the ground. The man on the ground soon revealed himself to be Jeremiah as his jet-black hair, almost unnoticeable against the black wash that the night gave everything else, soon flicked up and slapped one of the cops in the face. 

“Pardon me, good sirs, what is occurring here?” Collin asked, slightly tweaking his usual tone to make it sound more authoritative. 

One of the police officers, the older of the two, stood up and saluted him, “J-Judge Bass, sir, w-we believe this man has committed horse theft.”

“Mm, no sir,” Collin trotted up on his horse, “the horse this man was riding before you forced him to dismount was purchased for him by me a few days prior to this one. It was purchased in another town because of the horse show in a few days. I assume you are familiar with this, yes?”

“Y-yes sir.”

Collin reached into his satchel and took out the papers Jeremiah passed to him when they left the stables, “These are the papers that I received when I purchased these animals. Do you wish to inspect it or can we get on with it?”

The second man finally released Jeremiah from his grasp, “N-no sir, we’re very sorry to have kept the two of you, you two have a nice night and stay safe.” The two police officers climbed back onto their own horses and trotted down the road, looking like nothing more than clouds as they faded into the fog.

Jeremiah stepped to the side of Collin’s horse, “Wow, you’re smarter than I gave you credit for, old man.”

Collin sigh-laughed, “Guess, I’m just full of surprises tonight. Come on, we should be able to make it out of the city easily now.”

Jeremiah did as was instructed, hoisting himself back atop his steed and joining Collin as they joined, traveling out of the city. The cobblestone streets slowly faded into padded dirt pathways with the accompanying sounds. The sun was rising, bathing the two of them with orange light as it reflected off the water. Neither Collin nor Jeremiah could know the trials that awaited them, not a man on earth could, but the trust that they would need to place in each other would carry them higher than Icarus - but only the lord knows if they will get too close to the sun.