America 1883: The Western Homeland

Chapter 47 The Migrating Caravan: Courage Rekindled!

"What are you doing?"

"Thank God you weren't taken away?"

Tom's clear roar echoed across the camp.

"Don't forget where you are right now? This is just the beginning of a long, fucking journey! Scared?"

"Why did we come here? Just to wander around this godforsaken place?"

"In the end, will they abandon their own and their loved ones' remains in the wilderness, to become rotten flesh in the mouths of wild beasts?"

The roar that erupted from his frail body froze everyone in place.

"I don't like dead people! But the truth is—most of us have to die on this road!"

"Women without husbands become helpless widows! Husbands without wives! Children without parents! This is your fate!"

"Turned into piles of bones!"

"To hell with the American Dream! Your souls will only wander in this endless wilderness!"

"He doesn't even deserve to go to hell!"

Deathly silence. The entire camp was instantly swallowed by a chilling silence.

"You...you...you're lying!" Joseph's voice trembled as he stared at Tom in panic.

"Sorry, Joseph," Tom's eyes were icy cold, "I'd love to lie to you! But the truth is? Two are already dead! We're still in Texas, haven't moved an inch! Tonight might be the third! Tell me, by the time we actually get out of Texas, how many more will die? No, I should ask, how many of us will be left!"

Joseph forced himself to stay calm, trying to regain some confidence: "Shay... he... he'll... protect us!"

To prove himself, he practically screamed, "He took our money!"

"You're asking for it!" Tom's roar drowned out him. "From the moment you stepped out of Fort Worth, you've never known who you are! You're pioneers! Yet you don't even have the fucking courage to fight against nature!"

"You're afraid!"

"A bunch of complete cowards!"

"It was true before! It is true now! And the future? Ha, you have no future!"

These words were like a spark thrown into a powder keg, and the crowd instantly stirred up.

"We abandoned our homes and businesses to come here! We are not cowards!"

"No! You are not only cowards, but also weaklings!" Tom's roar made Joseph stagger backward.

"Joseph! Tell me, what have you lost? Courage!"

"Have you?" Tom's gaze pierced through me like a knife.

Meeting that cold gaze, Joseph felt as if he had been struck by lightning, a surge of heat rushing to his head.

"I have it!" he roared back at Tom.

"Joseph! Your fucking voice is like a mosquito's buzz! Like a spineless coward!" Tom's taunts were like a whip.

"I have--!!!"

Joseph's roar was like tearing his own throat, a desperate cry filled with blood and foam.

"And what about them?!" Tom suddenly pointed to the crowd.

Joseph's bloodshot eyes swept across the faces, which were filled with naked fear of the future.

"Tell me!" Tom's voice boomed like thunder again, "Did you abandon everything to come to this godforsaken place just to become a pile of rotten bones in the wilderness?"

"Don't you want to buy a piece of land in Oregon, and live a peaceful life with your wife and kids?"

"Don't you want your family to take root and flourish in Oregon?"

"Do you—want it?"

"Yes!!!" Joseph's answer exploded out, drowning out everything else.

"Do you want to?" Tom's voice was like a horn igniting a fuse.

"think--!!!"

The deafening roar, like a tangible shockwave, shattered the deathly silence and despair that had previously enveloped the camp.

This was no longer just Joseph's roar, but a simultaneous roar from dozens of throats, filled with resentment, anger, and the last vestige of the will to survive!

The cold mockery on Tom's face finally faded, replaced by an almost ferocious fanaticism.

He jumped out of the car and took a step forward, his boots slamming heavily on the hard ground with a dull thud, instantly attracting all the fiery gazes.

"Good! That's more like it!" Tom's voice was still loud, but it was no longer just anger; it carried a penetrating force of guidance and command. "Joseph! Now, tell me, do you want to make it to Oregon alive?!"

The roar shook the campfire violently, sparks crackling and popping as if accompanying this awakening will.

"Then get the word 'fear' out of your bones and throw it into this fire to burn to ashes!" Tom pointed at the roaring campfire, his sharp eyes sweeping over every face flushed with excitement.

He felt the gaze of the crowd, but instead of backing down, he straightened his back abruptly, like a sapling suddenly taut in a gale.

"We're not cowards!" A burly, bearded man standing next to Joseph, who had been silent until now, suddenly pounded his chest with a dull thud. "We abandoned our families and homes, not to feed the wolves!"

"Yes! We are not cowards!" A woman holding a child spoke in a sharp yet unusually firm voice, "For my child's sake, I will live!"

"Survive! Get to Oregon!" someone shouted again.

"Survive! Make it to Oregon!"

"Survive! Make it to Oregon!"

The slogans started off scattered, but quickly coalesced, growing stronger like a snowball, and eventually became a unified shout that shook the night sky.

Every face was filled with determination; the previous fear and confusion had been replaced by a ruthless determination to burn one's bridges.

Tom looked at the group of people in front of him who seemed to have been reborn, and a barely perceptible smile finally appeared on the corner of his mouth.

"Remember tonight! Remember every word you uttered!" Tom's voice, like the clash of metal, silenced the shouts of the crowd. "Courage isn't about not being afraid to die! It's about knowing you're going to die, but gritting your teeth, using your last breath to finish the damned road! To earn back the damned life you deserve!"

He surveyed the now completely ignited crowd, his voice lower but carrying even greater weight: "Now, all of you fucking go back to sleep! Get your energy back! Understand?"

"Listen carefully!!!"

The crowd began to disperse slowly, their steps no longer unsteady, their eyes no longer unfocused.

Although the road ahead remains fraught with danger and the shadow of death has not yet receded, something entirely different permeates the camp—it is the awakened fighting spirit, the determination to fight to the death, and the flame called "courage" that is burning fiercely in every heart, illuminating this cold Texas wilderness.

"Captain, isn't Tom going a bit...too far?" Thomas stared at Shay, waiting for him to explain.

"If my daughter were still alive, I would let her marry Tom!" Shay said firmly.

"With the team suffering repeated losses, morale is low, and panic is growing wildly in everyone's hearts. What they need most now is to regain their confidence, muster their courage, and, more importantly, to completely release the fear that has been pent up inside them!"

"Tom did it! And—only he could have done it!"

Thomas and Shea exchanged a glance, understanding dawning on them: this long journey of migration... has only just begun!