by Angela White
Alexa waved a hand and her men fell in behind, pulling Paul aside as they all gaped at the undead child.
Alexa used the brief moment to see who the girl had once been. The child wore a long dress made of simple wool that declared her origins after the war had been poor and untraveled. There were still enough old world clothes around to outfit a country, but those who controlled those items were ruthless in their pricing. The only other way to outfit a family was to scavenge for it, but this child’s clothes were handmade, suggesting a life in one place. Bare, scarred feet implied the same and Alexa wondered only at the braces still on the girl’s rotting teeth. This child hadn’t always been isolated or poor. Once upon a time, she’d had a life. It was heartbreaking.
“May we pass?” Alexa asked sadly. She already knew the answer.
The little girl bared gleaming fangs, hissing, “Never!”
Sighing resignedly, Alexa pulled her gun and shot the undead child in the forehead.
Blood poured down the small ,face, a fatal wound, but the child only hissed again in anger and darted into the corn.
“Word of our presence will spread now,” Alexa said in the stunned shock that had fallen over her fighters. “Go quietly, and watch your six.”
She hadn’t wanted to reveal her presence yet, but there was only one way to deal with such a threat-forcefully-and as a result, her hand had been forced. There was little doubt that it was intentional.
Her fighters recovered quickly, but David had to bump Paul on the elbow to get him moving again.
They fell back into their normal march-like formation, none of them surprised when Alexa sped up. The encounter had been unsettling and all of them scanned the abnormal corn for the child to return.
“What was she?” Paul asked, trying not to trip over the thick roots and sharp rocks in the path.
“A guardian,” Alexa answered. “They protect the places where reality has ripped open.”
“That’s a lie!” Paul protested. He began to roll out the same lines he’d heard Corbin use so often. “There are no gates. The government does not control or encourage the destruction of reality. There are no monsters in the…”
“Shut up!” Edward had stopped and spun around, grabbing Paul by the jacket. “Don’t ever do that again!”
“What?!” Paul squeaked, bracing to take the blows.
“Call her a liar,” Jacob said. “Or any of us. You’re the only liar here.”
“And you just saw a monster, you idiot!” Mark snapped. “Wake up!”
Mark shoved Paul and Edward let him hit the ground.
“We’ll be tolerant, but we will not let you restart that old shit, not in this group,” Mark insisted. “Black is black and white is white. There is no damn gray.”
The men hurried to catch up with Alexa, and Paul came along more slowly, now bringing up the rear. He refused to believe the child had been shot. Alexa had missed.
Alexa spun around and rushed toward the scientist before he could think to flee. She punched him in the mouth hard enough to send him back to the dirt.
“I didn’t miss! Tell me what happened! Now!”
Paul opened his mouth to spew his false beliefs, and Alexa slapped him. “What really happened?”
“You shot her!” Paul cried out. Then the damn broke. “And she wasn’t dead! She hissed! She would have killed you if she could! They lied to me!”
Paul began to sob at her feet, and Alexa recoiled in disgust. “Don’t make me do that again or I’ll leave you behind. I have no time to waste fixing your broken parts. Do that yourself.”
It was something she’d said to each of her men at one time or another, and they realized she was giving him a break by not demanding he confess his sins to one of the other men It was also another sign that he wasn’t going to be one of her fighters and it eased the tension a little.
Paul pulled himself together and cautiously stood up, not sure if one of them would hit him again.
“How do you kill a guardian?” Billy asked, hating the tension, but wanting the information more than to fill the awkward silence. He couldn’t help Alexa fight these battles if he didn’t know how to kill the enemies.
“You can only disable those like her for a while and kill their creators,” Alexa answered, resuming their walk.
“Disable?”
“Creators? Like vampires?”
Alexa used their interest to allay their fears of not being able to kill the dangers around them. Sometimes blood spilling wasn’t possible or even needed. They were learning that.
“Vampires die easily enough, that’s a myth. Guardians are different. They’re an extension. You have to disable the ability to send them out. To do that, you would normally use the same disbelief that Paul clings to.”
“Normally?”
“This creator is a fair bit tougher than most. The average conjurer can send a shadow of themselves to spy, but little else. They’re weak. Those who’ve perfected their craft are Masters. The shadows they send are capable of everything that a person is and more.”
“How do we…”
“You don’t,” Alexa stated firmly. “I do. You’ll handle the blows sent to stop me from succeeding. Those can be killed with exactly what I’ve given you.”
It was then that her men realized they were here for more than just tracking down the next Safe Haven clue. It felt as if Alexa had a livelier target in mind, and the men had just been handed their assignments.
Satisfied they were now in the right moods and frames of mind, Alexa quickened their pace. “Let’s move.”
2
“There’s something back this way.”
Edward’s words were passed up to Alexa, and brought the group to a halt again two hours later. He’d been sniffing for such a place, hoping to be free of Paul’s weight for a while. The scientist would never be able to keep up.
Alexa joined him to survey whatever it was he’d found. Edward had a nose for stashes, and Alexa saw no reason not to follow the possibility. “You lead, we’ve got Paul.”
That was something she hadn’t allowed or even hinted at before, and Edward tried to be perfect as he took over Point. The sense of food being hidden here somewhere was clear, and he found himself falling into the tracking zone without Alexa’s order. She often used words to trigger their mood changes and actions, but it wasn’t needed here. He’d watched her loosely every time and after months, it was almost natural now.
“Be careful here,” Edward called over his shoulder. “Some sort of wall.”
The corn and weeds had mostly taken over the concrete wall that bordered the property, but the large ranch house appeared in decent shape. Only a few of the bricks were crumbling and of course, the glass in the windows was gone, but other than that, from the outside, the home was intact. Even the front door was undamaged.
Edward stopped, considering, listening, feeling. “There.”
He pointed them toward a wide building that ran alongside the ranch house. It was covered in thick vines that didn’t belong in this arid landscape and the horseman waited for Alexa to tell him what to do.
The front of the storeroom was cleverly hidden by a large tree, two small bushes, and a trellis with a type of climbing ivy that had spread itself around since the ar. The vivid green vines covered the roof and sides, leaving only outlines of doors and filthy plastic windows.
“Keep leading,” Alexa stated from the bodyguard’s place.
David and Daniel kept Paul close, while Jacob and Billy watched the dark shadows of the house that was now between them and the corn.
Edward used a light hand on the knob and pushed the narrow door open, wondering if this storehouse had another entrance. It was hard to imagine people carrying boxes through that tight opening.
Edward went inside, Alexa right behind him to check the dark corners with her penlight, and the horseman whistled in surprise.
The cool room was lined with shelves and filled with a stash that many other survivors
might have killed each other to possess. The concrete walls and floor were covered, plexiglass windows and ceiling in good shape, and Alexa slapped Edward on the back. “Nice.”
Edward glowed at the praise, and Alexa called the others inside and shut the door.
Once they were all in, it was crowded, but not in a bad way. It made it more obvious to the men that Alexa’s strengths weren’t always clear upon a first meeting. She was petite compared to the stature of her men, but when the fighting began, the blonde became a hulk of wrath and vicious intelligence. It was a skill she’d been given over her lifetime, and Edward was sure that Alexa would use it on this quest. She liked the element of surprise as much as he did.
“Inventory. Hit me,” Alexa ordered.
“Bottled water.”
“Jars of canned corn.”
“Toilet paper rolls!”
“Some kind of juice. Can’t read the first word.”
“Five cases of canned items-no labels.”
The list took a while and Alexa gleaned a lot from the find. If this stock had been here long enough for the labels to have eroded or worn away, it meant there hadn’t been people here. No one in their right mind would leave a stash like this untouched, but there wasn’t a single print in the thick dust.
“I found something,” Jacob said. He’d been searching for manuals or instructions. “Emergency relocation supplies for preparedness capabilities Extraction Plan. Lot four of seven. Re: Item SAM23145 for coordinates. Radio upon confirmation. Proceed to pullout location Alpha.”
Jacob paused, and Alexa motioned for him to continue. They all wanted to hear it.
“Take the path cleared by Recon and set the charges according to the map. To ensure proper timing, the explosives are prewired and timed. Follow alarming instruction to the letter.”
Jacob handed the paper to David to read, unable to take anymore. He’d already scanned the next lines and almost couldn’t believe it.
“When the city is at the height of fire, release the valve on the chamber in the safe. Wear masks with respirators or death will occur within seconds. Once chemical is released, evacuate area of all personnel and rendezvous at final coordinates within 21 days.”
Speculation and horror ran through the group.
“This is a joke, right?” Paul question, the only one who still didn’t think the government would do something so awful. “Or a mistake?”
Alexa waved Edward to handle him and went to help Jacob dig through the other crates. They were doing it carefully now that they knew there was explosives and deadly chemicals, and the other men stayed back.
“Sit down over here and pay attention,” Edward told Paul, taking him by the arm to the empty corner of the storeroom. “And be quiet.”
Paul wanted to ask questions, to argue with the orders, but Mark’s glower discouraged it.
Feeling he’d been hit enough, Paul closed his sore mouth. He didn’t like being with these other men. They weren’t like him and Alexa.
“It’s here,” Jacob whispered. “Both of them, right here together.” The preacher was pale under his scars. “If this blows, the chemicals will be scattered on the wind.”
“Can anyone remove it?” Alexa asked.
No one said anything and Alexa gestured Jacob back. “Leave it alone.”
“We can damage the door,” Billy suggested. “Make it hard to get in here.”
Alexa stared at the medical crate and the cloth satchel thoughtfully. She didn’t want to give away their location to anyone, but it would bother her too much to leave these things out here for anyone to get a hold of. They would have to handle whatever came from here.
“We’ll take the explosives and burn the rest. Clear out everything that we can use.”
Satisfied the dangerous weapons wouldn’t fall into stupid hands, Alexa’s men worked carefully and quickly had a large pile of new supplies outside the door. Paul stayed in the same corner that Edward had placed him in, absorbing the lesson he wasn’t getting.
Jacob and David were being instructed on prepping a few of the goods they’d found and Paul memorized the instructions. Once he’d seen it done, only lack of strength or tools could stop him from repeating the actions. It was another of those gifts that Corbin had exploited.
Alexa looked over as she caught the thought. “Have you learned to pack it?”
“I’ve watched a lot,” he answered slowly.
Alexa took pity on him. “Come over here and help with the explosives.”
Paul moved too quickly, once again tripping over his own feet and Mark was there to grab the man before he fell directly into the gun rack.
He pointed the cringing scientist toward the more dangerous items hesitantly. “Slow down!”
Alexa had a pouch out. “Hold this.”
Paul not actually touching anything sent relief through the room and the group continued their chores as if it were a normal day. For them, gathering supplies, traveling, learning, and occasionally fighting, was now a way of life. Each of them enjoyed the quiet and the solitude. Only a bit of their daily time was spent bonding and talking. Alexa was guiding them back to nature, to peace, and they longed for it. Paul was a disruption of everything they’d come along for.
Alexa kept Paul’s hands busy while they were inside and then put him to work once they moved outside. Mark and Daniel were on guard duty, while the rest of them sorted and packed. Paul was told to close the pouches tightly and nothing else. A simple chore, Billy went behind and secured each carelessly sealed pouch. Couldn’t the scientist get anything right?
Alexa met Billy’s eye for a moment of shared sympathy for the Rabbit. No matter who his group was, he wouldn’t survive. They would do all they could to keep him alive, but in the end, it would never be enough.
“And there’s no way to change that?” Billy asked.
Alexa shook her head and though she went right back to searching the corn without another word on the subject, Billy knew her mood had taken a hit and she was dwelling on it. Always good with a quick retort, Billy caught her gaze again. “Imagine the havoc he created in a lab.”
“It’s what keeps me walking,” Alexa cracked back. “That, and the wonderful view.”
Before Billy could do more than chuckle, Paul’s loud voice came from the pile of bags and pouches.
“I thrived in the labs! The women used to ask for me instead the others.”
Silence.
Then laughter.
Paul reddened, but wasn’t wise enough to stop there.
“It’s true. Many of them paid their allotments to pick me.”
Now the laughter was uneasy, fading into disapproval.
“You charged prisoners to rape them?”
Mark’s tone was icy and Paul quickly said, “I wouldn’t do that. The women are breeders. It’s all they do. They’re treated well.”
Alexa signaled for the packed pouches to be loaded up. “They’re not treated well, Paul. They’re prisoners.”
The scientists understood their point, but wasn’t sure they were understanding his. “They have to have it once they get pregnant. You know? If not, they get out of control. And we can’t sedate them-it interferes with the gifts.”
All of them were staring like he was insane now and Paul shrugged, heading for his pack. “Fine. Whatever.”
“You mean they crave…physical contact when they’re carrying?” David asked, unable to help himself. Unlike the preacher, the blacksmith had been the opposite of abstainer. He’d indulged in the locals, the towns around, and any travelers who’d come through. The two weeks without had been the hardest part of this quest for him so far.
“It’s better than that,” Paul confided, grinning. “They have to have it or the offspring won’t develop gifts. But it has to be with another descendant. Cases are almost nonexistent where a child develops gifts from only one parent with powers.”
Alexa rolled her eyes and went to stand watch. She motioned the two males who were supposed to
be doing that to go and help load. The sooner they got this over with, the sooner she would have her fighters back. Unless the bullets were flying, nothing else distracted a man like talk of sex. They would spend hours comparing notes if left to their own devices.
“What type of scientist were you?” Jacob asked curiously. He wasn’t interested in the female knowledge as much as the others-he’d been with Alexa and thought no other woman would ever be enough for him-but there was still the sense of being lied to. How could this…nerd, be a lover-boy?
“I supervised several labs,” Paul said arrogantly. “The reproductive wing was my side-job. I covered Corbin’s research division.”
“Research about descendants?” Billy conformed.
“Yes, and their offspring.”
“So you assigned partners, took notes. That sort f thing?” David guessed.
“At first, but for the last year, I’ve been one of the subjects as well,” Paul told them bitterly. “My father wanted fresh dna for his experiments and I had just reach age and started showing signs of my lineage.”
It was such an incredible story that all of the men had already dismissed it. There was no way the government had been using Paul for breeding purposes. It was too much to believe.
“You mean you took part in these…tests?” Daniel asked, relieved that Alexa wasn’t angry at the conversation, only impatient. “And they were willing?”
“And asked for you?”
“Repeatedly,” Paul boasted, then realized he was being taunted, and stood up. He grabbed his now refilled kit and swung it over his shoulder. Not ready for the new weight, the kit pulled him over and he went sprawling.
The men burst into fresh laughter, even Alexa unable to contain a low chuckle, and Paul went scarlet. He scrambled to his feet, opening his mouth to shout, and Alexa cut him off with a sharp whistle.
“That’s our cue,” Daniel stated dryly. “Let’s go, stud.”
Paul’s lips drew in further, but he did as he was told. They didn’t have to believe him. He had the memories and if given enough time, he’d have Alexa begging for his touch as well.