"Thomas." "What the hell was that?" "Why have we stopped?" "Excuse me." "Come on now." "Get in here." "Let me help you." "Thomas Durant?" "We gonna make them Injuns pay for derailing this train." "Right away," "I want you to get back to Hell on Wheels, rouse those useless drunken cavalry men." "Yes, sir." "And get Bohannon." "I want him to go with them." "Mr. Bohannon is a fugitive, sir." "A fugitive?" "From what?" "From whom?" "There was an incident in the saloon." "Mr. Bohannon killed one of our men as we was attempting to hang a Negro." "You were hanging a Negro in the saloon?" "He was caught with a white woman." " A white woman?" " Yeah." " You mean one of the whores?" " Yes, sir." "You were going to hang a Negro for screwing a whore?" "It seemed appropriate." "Those freed slaves work twice as hard for half the pay." "Have they deserted us?" "Only the one they was hanging." "Bohannon cut him loose and they rode off." "And I sent a posse in pursuit." "You have run off the man I wish to pursue the savages." "Nice work, Mr. Gundersen." "I am unarmed, please!" "I beg for your mercy." "No!" "No!" "No!" "Settle down, boy." "Hold still." "Mr. Bohannon." "What on earth are you doing?" "Have you quite finished?" "Mr. Bohan non!" "That's enough." "I need to see you back in Hell on Wheels right away." "Don't." "It's the engineer, he's badly burnt." "What kind of monster would do this?" "My God." "All is lost." " All is lost." " Don't say that." "I was a fool to believe that love could prevail over hate." "No." "You have to believe, now more than ever." "Pray with us, Father." "Pray?" "God has abandoned this terrible place." "Blood is God here." "Just as it was in Kansas and in Babylon in the old book." "As it always was and always will be." "No, Reverend, please." "They're sending soldiers to kill your people, Joseph." "I'm sorry I failed you." "My whole life..." "My life's become a ridiculous failure." "My whole life." "Jesus." "My Jesus Christ!" "Yes, Jesus." "Papa?" "What's wrong?" "Ruth." "Father?" "Father?" "Father?" "Father?" "Father?" " I didn't sign on to be no Indian fighter." " You didn't sign on at all." "I spared your neck from the noose because you told me that building a railroad was like fighting a war." "This is the war, Mr. Bohannon." "Are you telling me you want me to bring this Johnny Reb along?" " Yes." " No." "Hell, no." "I don't take orders from you." "But you do take orders from my good friend, General Dodge." "You are aware that he worked for me before the war, aren't you?" "I can always send a telegram if you don't believe me." "What about him?" "This is Joseph Black Moon." "He is willing to lead you to his father's camp." "Now, why the hell would he do that?" "Joseph will negotiate with his father for the handover of the renegades who caused the derailment," "for a guarantee." "No harm comes to the women and children." "What kind of soldier do you think I am?" "I don't know." "That's why I want your guarantee." "So, it's agreed?" "Agreed." "But I don't like it one damn bit." "Thank you, Joseph." "You may go." "What you asking me to do here, sir?" "We can't risk that hothead, Griggs, starting a war with the Cheyenne right now." "We haven't enough troops." "But I cannot allow them to continue to terrorize my railroad." " You want revenge?" " I want justice." "Different words for the same thing." "Kill the renegades, Mr. Bohannon." "What you doing back here?" "Lovely to see you, too." "What happened to England?" "I got a taste of England when I went to Chicago." "Must have tasted pretty bad for you to come back here and take up with the likes of him." "I'm not taking up with him." "Lily?" " If you say so." " Lily!" "I am not a kept woman, if that's what you're implying." "So what, you're trading in them satin sheets for a place out here in the muck with the rest of us peons?" "Lily, it's time for lunch." "Yeah, I'll take that as a no." "Mr. Bohannon, has anyone ever told you what an insufferable ass you are?" "Yeah." "All right, boys, let's get this spur finished." "Hey!" "That must be some fine tail if you're willing to risk your neck twice for it." "Things is different this time." "Yeah, well, look here." "Durant wants me to ride out with them Yankees and kill the Indians what derailed the train." "Them blue coats get to taking scalps, they liable to cut your rebel hair, too." "I know it." "That's why I'm asking you to ride with me." "You only asking because you still think I owe you." "No." "Our account's square." "I'm asking you because I trust you." "Right now, you're all I got." "No shit." "Walking boss need me." "All right then." "I need to visit in here first." "Don't stay too long just to impress me." "Hey!" "Pull up your britches and get out." "Give him his money back." "Don't you come in here running off my business." "Woman, I am your business." " Is that so?" " Yeah, it is." "Well, give me your dang dollar and let's get to it." " So, I gotta pay you before we start now?" " Yeah, that's right." "Because I figure you'll get yourself killed before we even get started." "Toole the one that got himself killed." "What?" "So, are you some kind of dangerous gunslinger now?" "Is that it?" "Maybe." "I'm fixing to be an Injun fighter, too." "Get out of my crib." " What?" " You heard me." "I don't want no dead man's trade." "Last I saw you, you barely escaped a neck stretching, and you ride on out of here, and I figured for certain they got you killed." "Now you come back, traipsing on in here like you own the place?" "I thought you'd be happy to see me." "I am happy to see you, idiot." "I just said so." "Now, give me that damn dollar." "How's your father?" "Very weak." "You'll have to tend to him." " Where are you going?" " I'm going to help them find my brother." "Your own brother?" "He has to be stopped before he starts a war." "Be careful, Joseph." "Will you just look at that?" "An lnjun, a nigger and a grayback." "We got ourselves a rainbow, boys." "Mount up." "There's no reason to panic, Lily." "I'm not, Thomas." "I'm simply moving out." "But where will you go?" "I still have our tent, Robert's and mine." "I'll find a spot." "Are you mad?" "Living amongst that rabble?" "And we're under threat of Indian attack." "It's too dangerous." "I won't have it." "That's not your decision to make." "I see." "I thought it significant that you chose to come back here with me, but I see I was mistaken." "I came back because I believe in you." "I believe in this railroad." "Together, we can get it done." "But not together." "I'm sorry." "So am I." "Taking you in, comforting you, salving the memory of Robert at every turn." "And for that, I am eternally grateful." "Please, Thomas, can we end this amiably?" "You played me like a fiddle, didn't you?" "Right under my nose, where I could see you, hear your voice, smell you every day." "I should go." "Could you have Henri help me with my things?" "No." "Carry them yourself." "Hold!" "We follow Little Bear Creek north for a day, then head west." "How many in your father's camp?" "Fifty, maybe 60." "Mostly women and children." " Where are all the braves?" " Out hunting." "What about this Pawnee Killer?" "My father will know where he is." "He better." "Think that was smart, telling him there's only women and children at that camp?" "What do you mean?" "What if your father don't give up Pawnee Killer?" "Lieutenant Griggs gave me his guarantee." "So the white man gave you his word?" "Lieutenant?" " How we doing?" " Fine." "Is that a Confederate sabre you got on your belt there?" "Yes, it is." "Where'd you get it?" "Antietam." "Spoils of victory." "You call Sharpsburg a victory?" "Antietam." "And, yeah, I do, a glorious one." "Mount up!" "That'll be six bits." "Six bits?" "Seventy-five cents, unless..." "Unless you got something else in mind." "What are you doing?" " You can put it on my account." " All right, Eva." "I'll be back for it later." "You know where I'll be." "Now fly." " Thank you." "I'll pay you back." " When?" "I have a small purse of coins somewhere." "Yeah, don't worry about it for now." "First thing I'd do is get you a carpenter to lay you some floor boards." "Otherwise, you'll be saying hello to Mr. Trench Foot." "I'm well acquainted with trench foot." "I have spent a year in the wilderness." "I reckon you're a good sight tougher than you look, ain't you, Mrs. Bell?" " Please." "Lily." " All right then, Lily." "I'd still suggest you putting in them floor boards, though." "Course, I had to throw my leg over that cross-eyed carpenter twice before he got mine right." "Tell us about your glorious victory at Sharpsburg, Lieutenant." "Antietam it is, then." "I was with the 51st Pennsylvania." "Me and my boys took the Burnside bridge." "We softened them Rebs up with a light howitzer from the east bank." "Then we stormed that bridge like hounds from hell." "Should have seen them graybacks run." "Yes, sir." "Them boys got the skinny end of the horn that day." "I was on the other side of the bridge that day." "Is that so?" "Yep." "You want to know why we retreated?" "We was out of ammunition from killing Yankees." "Now, don't get me wrong, they were some brave men." "Brave men." "General McClellan might just as well have been sending them up against a firing squad." "They kept charging, we kept shooting, like fish in a bloody barrel." "Time we was done, there was a bridge of bodies across that river." "Yeah." "That must have been when you finally come across." "When all the killing was clone." "Yeah." "We must've put down 500 Yankees that day." "So..." "You want to call that a glorious victory, you go ahead." "Five hundred," "1,000, 10,000, it doesn't matter." "Hey." "Hey!" "We won." "And you lost." "And I got the sword right here to prove it." "Yeah." "Well, I guess I'm just gonna have to take it off you" " and shove it up your ass, then." " Yeah, is that so?" "Listen to me." "Listen to me." "Sometimes you gotta bite your tongue and just take it." "Jesus." "Get up!" "Hey, hey, get up!" "Jensen!" "Jensen!" "Jensen!" "Sweet Jesus." " They took the horses." " What?" "Damn it to hell." "That damned father of yours is pretty clever, I'll give him that much." "My father had nothing to do with this." "It was my brother." " Your brother?" " This is his work." "What we saw out there, too." "This bloody renegade is your brother, and you expect me to act fairly with your father?" "Hey!" "We got more important problems." " As in we got no horses." " Yeah, I'm aware of that." "We need to turn around and go back." "The plan's unchanged." "We march into the village." "March?" "Are you crazy or just stupid?" "You are welcome to retreat, Mr. Bohannon." "We don't need you." "Let's move out." "Off the reel, gentlemen." "We need to go back." "Following this guy's gonna be suicide." "No." "We split up, we'll be easier targets." "It's what my brother wants." "Hey." "Hey!" "I need to know where you stand right now." "How you mean?" "Pawnee Killer's fighting a rear guard action, trying to buy some time for his village, which means they ain't left yet." "What if we get there and them Injuns still here?" "Griggs ain't gonna be in no talking mood, that's for sure." "Well, I sure as hell ain't gonna kill no women and no children." "You just be ready." "We might end up fighting them blue coats instead of the Cheyenne." "Father?" "I brought you some soup." "Mother told me this was always your one true love." "I was only little, but I remember the screaming at night." "I remember the bruises on her face in the morning." "After you left, she was always afraid you'd come back, but never stopped praying you would." "She never stopped loving you." "Have you nothing to say?" "Leave me alone." "No." "You're the one who leaves, remember?" "Here, let me." "Here, drink it." "I am not my mother." "I'm not afraid of you." "What the hell are you up to, son?" " What do you mean?" " It's just a different bend in the same river." "Skirted it twice now, back out, back in." "Pawnee Killer would have had time to tell your father about the derailment by now." "You're just buying time for your village to escape, ain't you?" "What do you care?" "You gonna get the rest of us killed out here, leading us in circles." "That's a risk I'm willing to take." "So you never intended to go after Pawnee Killer, did you?" "That's not true." "I just wanted to make sure my family was safe first." "Hey!" "Why the hell you dragging ass?" "We need to stick together." "Hold your fire." "Hold your fire!" "You're just wasting ammunition." " Why ain't they attacking us?" " They will." "Sooner or later." "This is my favorite day of the week, other than Monday, when I give my patooty a rest." "Hey, don't be shy, Deuce." "Hello." "The ladies call me Deuce because I got two of them." "Thank you, Deuce." "Hello." "Everybody stares at my tattoos, but nobody asks." "And, yeah, it don't wipe off." "Yes, I heard you were captured by Indians." "Yavapai." "Came upon us from the grass." "It was a sunny day." "They hacked up my mom and dad, scalped them." "Raped my little sister and smashed her brains out with rocks." "You gonna eat that?" "No, please." "But I was lucky." "I had the pox." "They wouldn't touch me, traded me off to some Mojave." "They was a cake walk compared to what the Yavapai would have been." "I have these terrible nightmares about the Indian I killed." "It's because his spirit's wandering." " It's reaching out to you." " Yes." "Yes, and in the dream, he..." "His cold hands clutch at my ankles." "Don't let him get you." "He's trying to drag you onto the path to the dead world." " It seems so real when it happens." " It is real." "When a woman kills a brave, it invites big magic." "Especially a white woman." "If the Indians don't attack us tonight, I want to start work again tomorrow." "Mr. Durant, Bohannon is a killer." "I can prove it." "Yeah?" "Look at these papers I found in his tent." "Right now, Mr. Bohannon is hunting the Indians who attacked us." " Your job is to get the men back to work." " Yeah, yeah." "In Washington." "In Washington, he killed." "Now, Johnson knew he killed, so he killed Johnson." "Mr. Gundersen." "We will post a relay of sentries out to the cut." "Arm everyone." " The work must continue." " No." "He is not done killing." "Now look at this." "He's looking for others among us." "Look at these names." "Listen to me." "Half the men out there are killers." "Half of them are accomplices." "They are all afraid of Bohannon." "He is an agent of progress, an asset to me in this endeavor." "Whatever his motivations." "Now you will feed this fantasy of revenge into the stove." "Tomorrow, God willing, we will resume work on my railroad." "Yeah." "Mr. Durant." "It's a long walk through Indian territory to Sweden, Mr. Gundersen." "Sweden?" "I am from Norway." "I am Norwegian." "Lily?" "Lily?" "They're gone." " Looks like we just missed them, sir." " You son of a bitch." "You knew this was gonna happen." "You planned this with your brother, didn't you?" "Lieutenant!" "He's just a kid." "No!"