by Kim Cleary
The shot jerked me backward. The bullet entered the back of his head and blood, bits of brain and bone exploded out of the exit wound. Spatters of blood hit my face and chest. His head jerked forward, and his body drooped over the seat. The ringing in my ears reached a new crescendo of pain.
When he first shoved a gun in my hand, Glynn made me imitate his stance. He told me, ‘if you take aim be prepared to kill’. He’d told me to expect recoil, and my ears ringing for hours. I wanted Asher dead to stop him from hurting Owen and his people, to stop him from hurting Glynn. Now, tears rolled down my cheeks. Shaking, I dropped the gun and sagged to my heels.
Come on girl. I slapped my thighs.
Glynn might be injured not dead. I still had my healing wand. If it took the last ounce of my strength, maybe I could save him.
Glynn still lay motionless on the tracks. I leapt from the cart, ran to him, and ripped open his bloody shirt.
The blood on his clothing wasn't his own—the bullet hadn't hit him.
Tears welled. I blinked them back. His breaths came in shallow gulps.
His breaths.
He was unconscious, not dead. I sat back on my heels and explored his body with both hands. The bullet nicked his amulet. It must've ricocheted off. It didn't pierce him. Maybe the force of it pushed him backward and he banged his head and knocked himself out. I felt the back of his head, where a lump the size of an egg had already formed. My hand came away clean. He wasn't bleeding from the wound.
I hadn't even told him I loved him.
I kissed his forehead, then his mouth. No point in trying to hold back the tears now. Droplets trickled onto his cheeks and rolled into the corners of his mouth. Blubbering incoherently, I begged him to wake up.
He half opened his eyes. He blinked a couple of times and pushed himself into a crouch. His mouth moved but I heard nothing over the thundering in my ears.
"It's a train station." I touched my ear. "You banged your head. Everyone else is dead."
He wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug. I slumped against his body, pressed so close I felt his heart hammering next to mine.
Too soon, he released me. He kissed me quickly, pushed me behind him and stepped to the body of the soldier he'd used as shield. The man's torso was riddled with bullets, his eyes open and lifeless. Asher's body still hung over the back of the cart, the gaping wound on the top of his head still dripping blood. We walked to the cart hand in hand, and Glynn confirmed both Simon and the other soldier were dead. He pulled Asher’s body back onto the seat.
"Who shot him? You or Simon?" Glynn spoke slowly, articulating each word close to my ear.
"Me." A quiver started in my abdomen and shook up to my shoulders.
Glynn hugged me again. "You saved my life. Don't feel bad about taking his."
"I'm not sure I feel anything now." Except my teeth chattering, the movement rattled my jaw and shook my whole face.
"You'll be okay." He gently kissed my forehead. "Will they all come back to life?"
I shrugged. We’d moved away from the ley line, but not everyone at Echo Den died next to the ley.
Glynn rubbed the back of his head and grimaced. "We need water. Should be a working fountain on the station platform."
He holstered the gun, grabbed the water bottle Simon delivered to me and led me to the station. He gave me a leg-up to the platform and climbed up after me. I wanted to wake up and discover everything had been part of an intense, irrational nightmare, but my ears still rang with the sound of gunshots. Glynn led me to a seat under a shelter and left me to find a water fountain. I slumped my head into my hands and sobbed.
He returned with water, and a wet handkerchief. He let me gulp most of the water from the bottle, and then used the handkerchief to gently wipe dried blood from my face.
"Hold still while I pull a small splinter out. Might sting a bit babe, I'm sorry."
I didn't feel a thing. My whole body was numb.
Sitting next to me, he raked his arm around my waist. "First gunfight is always terrifying. You never really get used to it. Just learn to force your body into professional mode." He fingered the amulet.
"It's damaged now." Talking was difficult. I pointed at the crystal, the pointed end shattered and cracked. "I'll make you a new one."
"I don't want a new one." He kissed the top of my head. "This one saved my life."
I pressed into his chest and held on tight. Tears bubbled behind my eyes again, the memory of almost losing him too real, too raw. I squeezed them back, we still had work to do. "I don't know if any of them will turn into living dead."
"Asher has no brains left. It's hard to imagine him coming back."
"I shot him. Did I already tell you?"
He rubbed his hand along my arm. "Yes. You did what you had to do. I'm sorry."
"You've nothing to be sorry for."
"I should have got him. It would have spared you some pain."
I hugged him harder. "I thought he'd killed you. I'm not sure if I shot him to protect myself, or because at that moment I hated him more than anything else in the world. What now?"
"Rest and rehydrate for a few moments. " He kissed my forehead again. "Can we still get to Owen?"
"At least it's downhill." Better to focus on the next steps rather than dwell on what just happened. "I know which track to take. What about the bodies?"
"Even though Asher is unlikely to come back, I don't want to leave his body here."
"We've moved away from the ley line, I agree though, let’s not leave any of the bodies here. Let’s take them to Saltpetre Way for burial or burning or living again if that's what the two soldiers want. Simon can't come back because he was already an undead, at least I don't think so."
Glynn hugged my head to his chest. "Sit here for a few moments. I'll grab the guns and join the carts together."
I needed to shake off the fog of indecision. First gunfight or not, with Prescott taped up in his office and Asher MIA as far as the base knew, we didn't have long to get this mess sorted out.
I watched him working for a few moments, then joined him with the water bottle refilled. Three bodies already lay in the second cart, Glynn only had to manhandle the dead man used as target practice into place. We set off again, the two of us working the hand pump back to the tunnels and the intersection so we could take the correct track to Saltpetre Way and Owen.
The sun still hid behind a thick layer of white clouds. Thank everything holy, while Brimbank stood on a small hill, Saltpetre Way nestled in the valley. I rested every fifteen minutes or so, while Glynn pumped the cart in a steady descent.
"How far is this place?" Glynn stopped to wipe sweat from his eyes.
"About forty miles?"
"It can't be far then." Glynn glanced at his watch. "We've been pumping for almost three hours."
"You've been pumping for that long." I stood and joined him at the lever. "You've let me rest for half of that time."
"You needed it. You were exhausted. And in shock."
"My ears haven’t stopped ringing." I could still see bits of brain and bone flying too, but I wasn't ready to talk about that. Bone wearying fatigue had replaced plain exhaustion long ago. But hope lived in my heart. This unnecessary war needed to end. Fingers crossed, they'd sort it out without me needing to intervene and bang their heads together.
Brown farmland gave way to more frequent houses, but no signs of life. The houses looked abandoned, the fields and farm buildings around them unkempt. I kept glancing back at the second cart we towed, the bodies lay unmoving and quiet.
"We are approaching a town." As I spoke we passed a mileage sign, SW 2. We beamed at one another.
We pulled into a small station signposted Saltpetre Way. The station platform remained, though all the buildings but for a shed at the end of an offshoot track were burnt to the ground. We climbed onto the platform and gazed across the road to what remained of the hotel and church. The stone walls of both buildings held one another up
like a set of dominoes.
"It looks like the place was firebombed." Glynn gazed at the devastation. "What do we do with these bodies?"
I stretched out my senses and the ley line scampered to me. Like Echo Den, Saltpetre Way sat at a crossroads of ley lines. No point in worrying about it. If anyone knew about dead bodies rising to become the living dead, it was Owen and his people.
Glynn glanced towards the second cart. "Can we leave them there?"
I shrugged. "Asher can't rise. And you've got their guns."
"Not much good to anyone. No ammo left." He grinned and gripped my hand. "Let's find Owen."
I pulled him back. "We can't leave them in the sun to go all stinky."
"Is that the technical term?" Glynn pointed at the sky. "Sun's not out."
"I'm not leaving Simon to become part of a crispy pretzel of fried flesh once the sun burns the clouds away."
Glynn pulled off his cap and shook the sweat from his head. "Let's check that shed. With a bit of luck, it will be empty."
It wasn't empty. But we shoved and dragged a collection of old bicycles, broken umbrellas and battered bags to one side to make room for the bodies. We maneuvered the cart back along the track until we could detour to the offshoot, the line took us straight into the shed.
"Good enough. I can't face lugging another dead body around today."
"Help me move Simon." I gripped Glynn's arm.
"He's in the shade."
"But he's not comfortable." Simon lay with one arm caught behind his back, one leg twisted in an odd position, touching Asher's body.
Glynn lifted his eyebrows. But he grabbed Simon under his armpits. "Where do you want him?"
I lifted Simon's feet. "In the corner. If he wakes up, he will be seated comfortably."
Glynn shoved him against the corner of the shed. Simon's head lolled onto his chest, blood stains drenched the front of his shirt.
"What's the likelihood he's going to get himself undead a second time?"
"Up until this week, I'd have said little chance. But I just felt another ley line crossroad."
"Shit." Glynn's eyes tightened. "What about Asher?"
"His head." I gulped, best not to think about the red explosion as my bullet made contact. "I shot him in the head." I shrugged again. "Should be no chance, but I don't know how this stuff works."
"Jesus. I wish I had a cartridge. Just one would do."
"If he’s going to rise, shooting him again will probably make no difference." I grabbed Glynn’s hand. "Let’s find Owen."
We found Owen’s people in the hotel cellar. The sounds of furniture and machinery being dragged across stone and brick floors announced the arrival of newcomers to the neighborhood. Open double doors led from just below street level into a huge cavern teaming with activity.
Glynn hammered on the open door and called out Owen's name.
Liliwen drifted to us.
"Can you see her?" I touched Glynn’s arm.
"A white mist. Like Evie," Glynn said. "Tell her I want to see Owen."
"I want to see you too, Buckley." Owen walked towards us. "Though I'm not happy Meagan brought you here."
Glynn stepped in front of me, as if to protect me from Owen Maddox. "I've given my word to Meagan. Your location is secure with me. No one else knows." He held his palms up. "As you can see I'm unarmed."
The two men circled one another like wild dogs. Hackles up, eyes narrowed, their bodies angled away from one another.
"I didn't know about the testing. Nor the torture."
"Would you have stopped it?" Owen paced with his arms tight against his sides.
Glynn glanced at me. "I don't know. We are desperate for medical improvements. We're desperate just to get back what we knew."
"Did you know they captured me?" Owen shot a hard glance at Glynn.
"No. I don’t condone it." Glynn stopped pacing, he stood with his legs spread and relaxed as if ready to fight or flee. "You know what it's like. You know how quickly a shot kid bleeds out when there is nothing to speed up clotting and get the wound sealed. You know how quickly infection sets in, especially in this heat, and in the bitter cold."
Owen stopped pacing. He jammed his hands on his hips. "My people bleed, they hurt, and they suffer, just like yours."
"You've forgotten. You and yours are all dead."
This was not going well. I tried to swirl my own power. Nothing happened, I was completely drained. Even surrounded by the living dead, my own power stayed hidden. I called the ley line to me, and massed its sparkling energy in my body. No doubt there would be a price to pay later. My body wanted to rest, not play games with the ley, bubbling like frothy yellow champagne
"You died." Owen spoke quietly." I brought you back on the battlefield, so medics could take you away and heal you."
"That's not the same. I was unconscious for what, seconds?"
"You stopped breathing for four minutes and thirty-seven seconds."
Glynn blanched. He stared at me unblinking, curled his fists to his sides and strode to the door.
Chapter 28
"You're not undead. It is different." I chased after Glynn. "Owen is making a point. You and many others would have died if you hadn't been treated on the battlefield. You didn't, thanks to help from a mage such as Owen. Owen's people have been dead for longer, and they returned to life thanks to ley lines rather than an army mage. But, you and countless others are living thanks to an intervention. Why shouldn't the people living here, thanks to the intervention of the ley lines, get a second chance too?"
"I owe him, is that what this is about?" Glynn's voice trembled. "He saved my life so now I owe him, what? What exactly do I owe him?"
"He did his job. You did yours. It's not about owing anyone anything but respect."
"I know this is important to you, but—"
"No buts."
Glynn rifled his hands through his hair.
"I know this is important to you too." I touched his cheek. "Let's find an alternative to hurting anyone."
They both glanced at me. Owen laughed. Glynn lifted his eyebrows. The truce was temporary, they started circling again.
"Don't make me bang your heads together." The ley power coursing through my body almost lifted my feet from the ground. The two men focused only on one another. Neither paid me any heed so I raised my voice. "Do you think I wouldn't?"
"She means business, Buckley. She commands me with magic. You with your heart."
I widened my hands, brought them together with a sudden thrust and pushed both men to their knees facing one another. "Too many people have died. Bill, Simon, all the people who couldn't move here. All the twitchers, murdered and used so callously. The two soldiers with Asher, following orders. It's enough already."
Owen pushed himself upright. Glynn crouched like a tiger, ready to spring.
"Trust me. I can get madder." I folded my arms, glared at them.
Glynn stood, offered his hand to Owen. "Truce?"
Owen took Glynn's hand in his firm grip. "I don't know where this will lead, but let's talk."
"Don’t make me do that again." I stifled a yawn. "Half these people are engineers, scientists, doctors. We can resolve this with logic and reasoning, plus compassion."
"It's this ley line, isn't it? Keeping you alive, living even though dead," Glynn said.
Owen nodded. "We assume so, magic is difficult to assess scientifically—"
"Simon and the others." I gripped Owen's elbow. "With you two clashing like alpha wolves I forgot to ask you about the bodies we brought with us."
"Bodies?" He snapped his attention to me.
Glynn explained in a matter of seconds.
Owen's lips curled at the mention of Asher's name. "I can't answer because I don't know. But we shouldn't leave them unsupervised."
I bolted to the door. Glynn called out after me. I ran outside into painfully bright sunlight with two pairs of feet chasing after me.
I jammed the army ca
p onto my head, the bloodstained side crisp and scratchy against my ear. It did little to change the heat, but it kept the sun’s rays from frying my face. Glynn, Owen and I arrived at the station together. We ran alongside the track to the shed, Glynn in front, Owen at his heels, me a few feet behind.
Glynn leapt across the tracks and jumped into the shed. He darted back out with his fists clenched at his sides. "He's gone."
Owen cursed. "We need to find the bastard. Is he armed?"
"No, we ran out of ammo. What's he likely to do?"
"You know him better than I do." Owen glared at Glynn.
"I hardly knew him alive. He isn’t alive anymore."
"Stop glowering at one another like teenagers." I ran past them into the shed.
Two bodies lay on the cart where we left them, but no Asher and no Simon.
"Where is Simon? Don't argue. Find Asher. I'll find Simon."
Glynn grabbed my arm. "Get back to the cellars, Owen's people will protect you."
I shook off his hand, kissed his mouth hard. "No, I'm finding Simon. Don't let Asher get away. Go."
The lines around his eyes tightened, but he nodded briskly.
"I'll head down there." Owen pointed to the left.
"Call out as you identify each area clear." Glynn barked out his orders, ever the army officer, and darted right.
With both gone, I searched the shed. The dust was rutted, as if something shuffled along dragging their feet, or perhaps crawling. Simon or Asher could have made the marks.
Yeah, well. Nausea filled my mouth with a foul taste. I wasn't likely to easily forget the sight of bits of brain exploding into the air. I spat it out. I'd killed the bastard once. I could do it again.
I followed the marks along the railway siding, until I found Simon leaning against a battered tree trunk. Dear Haebeth, please help him accept this as a sign his time here was not over. Dead branches provided little shade. I darted back to the shed, grabbed the biggest and least broken umbrella and ran back to Simon.
"Hold this." I shoved the umbrella handle into his hand. "What are you doing? Cooking yourself in the sun?"