Jem Swift; 'Knights of Tin and Lead' by Emily Hayse

In the aftermath, it's only the memories that remain. Everything I've been through, the men I rode with, the men I've gunned down. The land we fought for. It's different now, this land, and those hard times are passed into legend along with the rolling thunder of gunfire and hooves in the canyons. I've lost, and I've lost much. Not as much as some, I reckon. Or maybe more than most. The pain of these memories makes me wish I'd died with them, or that I would leave this place, and thus leave behind the memories it holds. But I know that I shouldn't. I will stay, stay and grow in this land that they left us. And, with those of us who survived, I will protect what they died for. Still, to die where they died, bleed where they bled, laugh with them again in those glorious fields... Survivor's remorse, I suppose. Reckon every one of us has felt it at some point.