by Angela White
Merrik considered pushing it anyway, but was smart enough to let his pal lead him away.
The way they continued to whisper drew concern from Alexa’s men.
“That’s a coming issue,” Jacob predicted.
Alexa gave the ghost of a smile. “Soon, I hope. His voice makes my brain bleed.”
Her men snickered, and that seemed to be the cue for everyone to settle down. They followed the men to the new campsite and set things up or tended injuries. Those who were missing weren’t searched for, and it didn’t seem out of place. This was the killin’ fields and it was littered with bones. What was a few more?
5
The old woman and kids were digging beneath the layers of dead and decaying stalks, pulling up small handfuls of something that they stuffed into a grimy pouch. They hunkered along the ground this way from almost an hour before they finally returned to the wide center fire that Alexa had directed into place. Edward swept the two kids for injuries from the wolf attack, but didn’t view any and assumed the wounds were minor.
The boy disappeared into the tent behind the old woman, but the girl approached Edward and held out a hand.
Edward looked at the pile of bug corpses with revulsion. “What?”
The child motioned to his injury. She crumbled one of the beetles between her fingers and quickly smeared it over the wound.
Edward jerked away, grossed out.
“Leave it on,” Alexa ordered. “The antibiotic properties will prevent infection. It’s what they use here.”
“It heals?” he asked, controlling his stomach at the gory smell.
“Yes.”
The horseman forced himself to leave it alone, but he couldn’t stop a light shudder of disgust. He hated bugs.
“How did it happen?” Edward asked suddenly. He’d been worrying over it. “The wolves in our tent, I mean. We never fall asleep on watch.”
Alexa shrugged. She’d been studying the same question. “These fields have their own type of magic, I assume. I’ll take part of the night sentry chore until we’re out of here.”
That satisfied them, but the unanswered question didn’t lend comfort to the mood. Neither did listening to the cranes clean the ground of butterfly bodies. The constant crunching and cooing was quite irritating, but it was worse when Merrik and his men returned from going back for the wagon. They’d attached it to two of their horses and were beating the overwhelmed animal to keep it moving.
Edward rose in anger and Alexa reluctantly stopped him. “That’s not our problem.”
Edward tossed himself to the ground, not speaking, and Alexa understood. She too wanted Merrik dead, and it would happen before they left these fields.
6
Two hours after the attack, the travelers were all sitting or lying around the fire, their carts, wagons and gear between them and the corn. Alexa had four men (and two of Merrik’s) defending the convoy from atop the sturdiest vehicles. As the sky faded to black, weariness settled over the group. It was a perfect time for a new problem to rise.
“Damn.”
Alexa had spotted the shadow fleeing into the corn and so did Merrik.
“Get her!”
Merrik ran after the woman and quickly gained ground.
Only ahead by a little, Tabitha spun and threw her knife.
Merrik hurled himself to the ground, barely missing being impaled in the throat as the woman took off again. Her checkered red dress twirled around her as she spun for the cover of the stalks.
Merrik wanted to go after her, but Peters and Travis were there to take his arm and whisper lowly. No one could hear the conversation but it seemed to be going well until Peters picked up the knife she had thrown.
“That’s mine. If she’s done with it, I’d like it back.”
Everyone stared at David in surprise.
“You gave her a knife?!” Merrik roared, moving toward him.
David grinned coldly. “I’d have given more than that if she asked for it.”
The suggestive tone was enough to cause Merrik to leap at him, fist swinging hard.
David ducked and swung once.
The kidney shot was brutal and Merrik slid to his knees, gasping for air.
The big-armed blacksmith grinned again. “Stay down. The next one will hurt.”
Merrik didn’t hear. He was still trying to get his breath back, and David held a hand out to Peters.
Those bushy brows drew together, and Peters placed the knife in David’s palm reluctantly. He didn’t like Merrik, but he hated these arrogant assholes.
David waited to be scolded, but Alexa didn’t react except for a tired sigh.
The blacksmith frowned and went to get her a cup of hot tea.
Merrik slowly returned to his place on the opposite side of the fire from Alexa, glowering in hatred.
Once the cranes settled down into a group huddle, the night became quiet. Those enjoying the fire began to slip into their tent and bedrolls, worn out after a day with Alexa leading them. Even the blond female with the soldiers went into their tent early, showing only weariness. It was odd, considering that her cousin had run off. Peters had confided to the other travelers that Merrik had forced them into slavery to get them safely through the corn. While rare, woman as slaves still sometimes happened, but it all came down to the war.
The only reason slavery was possible at all was the drafts that took place around the world. Many of those women who’d been left alone had gathered and taken control of their lives. Then they’d refused to hand it back over to the few males who’d survived the bunker riots and starvation.
Alexa’s men took the next shift, Daniel and David up high, and most of the travelers drifted to sleep reasonably sure they would see dawn. A few of them stayed awake for personal pleasure or morning preparations, and then they too joined the others in sleep. After an hour of pitch black, the guards were the only ones moving about.
Daniel spotted the shadow creeping closer to where Alexa lay dogpiled between Billy, Jacob, and Mark, and waved at David to handle it.
The blacksmith moved silently to intercept and Daniel waited to discover if he needed to wake everyone.
7
David ducked behind a wagon, waiting and grabbed the shadow around the neck as it tried to sneak by.
“Hush,” David soothed, arms locked tight around the offender’s throat.
He recognized Merrik and grunted, “Guess you need some help getting to sleep.”
He tightened his hold and carefully strangled the would-be kidnapper until he sagged.
David made sure Merrik was still alive and then hefted him over one shoulder. He took Merrik’s unconscious form behind the wagons and placed him underneath the middle one. He would be reasonably safe, but if he sat up too fast, he might knock himself back out.
Snickering to himself at the thought, David climbed up and joined Daniel on the top of the first wagon.
“You’d think he would learn quicker,” Daniel commented. He’d enjoyed the show.
“”Didn’t hurt to remind him,” David gloated, making sure Alexa was fine before giving his attention to the corn.
Both men continued to protect the travelers until an ugly dawn broke, but listening for Merrik’s thud upon waking kept them alert and amused. It was an easy duty this time.
8
Dawn brought a dim sun and bright gunfire.
Bang! Bang!
Alexa’s Colts crashed twice, waking the entire camp.
Thud! “Son of a…”
Daniel and David, still atop the wagon, heard Merrik’s expletive as he jerked up and hit his head.
The guards broke into laughter.
Edward and Mark had jumped to their feet, but upon spotting Alexa, they realized what had happened and let the ignorant travelers mutter. They took longer to understand that she had killed four of the cranes with her two shots and was now cutting their heads off with her K-bar.
Daniel yawned, still chuckling, and his much-enjoye
d stretch brought him instant attention from the nearby slavers. Need and greed flashed in equal measures.
“Breakfast is from Alexa,” Daniel told the women, big arms coming down to rest on his guns. “I serve something else.”
The women weren’t sure if he meant that suggestively or not, and Braids found her courage.
“How much for a sample? In case what you’re serving doesn’t suit me.”
Daniel wasn’t usually shy or forward, just there, and it was a nice moment for his ego when she flushed and giggled like a girl.
The biker ran hot eyes over her, from dirt-layered boots to well-placed curves, and locked their gazes. “Samples are free.”
Braids immediately came toward him and David smirked as the biker’s face paled. Daniel hadn’t thought the woman would rise to his challenge.
Daniel held still, feeling lust, concern, and guilt war in his mind. He was supposed to be on watch.
Braids sensed his withdraw and stopped before touching him. “You sure? Lookin’ a little green for a big, bad legend.”
Daniel thought of how he’d died and how Alex had brought him back, and sighed. “See me when I’m off duty. I don’t slack.”
Braids liked his answer, sauntering to her surprised partner without promising it. But they both knew she would. It was in the air and sharp, sweet looks they would exchange for the rest of his shift.
“She said we couldn’t eat them!”
Peters had begun to get loud, unaware of the moment he’d interrupted or Merrik being mia.
“Why is it okay for her to?”
“We wanted to sleep in peace,” Daniel sneered down, angry at the disruption. “Sleeping is over.”
Realizing they’d been made fun of, the soldiers proceeded to disturb the morning with round after round of gunfire that took down the cranes that were too slow to take to flight. Feathers, shit, and squawks of terror filled the air.
Alexa didn’t reprimand them but she did toss her birds to Jacob, wipe her hands, and begin checking her guns.
The soldiers noticed, realized they’d made yet another mistake, and followed her lead.
Billy took over the watch, leaving Brian with Edward, and Alexa waited for Daniel to get close enough to speak privately. “Where’s Merrik?”
She followed Daniel’s line of sight to the wagons and spotted a slumped form under one of them. She was able to discern that Merrik wasn’t bound and was still breathing, and didn’t need to know anything more. He’d gotten out of line and her men had handled him. It was what their job.
“We leave twenty minutes after we’ve eaten. You crash for at least half a shift in a wagon.”
Alexa had caught all of his exchange with Braids, and she grinned. “Doesn’t have to be alone as long as there’s sleep at some point.”
Blushing at the teasing, Daniel went to get coffee. He saw the males slaves take the dead cranes the soldiers shot and to clean them for the old woman, who would be paid well for providing a meal with fresh meat in it. The soldiers wouldn’t have to pay since they’d shot them, but they wouldn’t have had to anyway, since all government workers got everything free. It was one of the few benefits of being government staff now.
Breakfast was quick but peaceful, with biscuits covered in gravy for a side to the fried crane, and without Merrik’s negativity, it was enjoyed by all of them. The group chatted lightly, the kids played, and the tension was absent for the first time on this trip.
“Who the hell snuck up on me?!”
Alexa sighed as Merrik’s ugly shout shattered the peace. “Time to go. Load it up.”
Chapter Nine
Then, And Now
1
They reached the river around noon and the cloudy green water wasn’t a welcome sight. The grass and straggly corn along the muddy bank blew in the light breeze like normal foliage, but underneath, the same layer of bugs waited. Immediate grumbles broke out when people realized there was no bridge. No one wanted to enter that area.
Alexa paralleled the bank for a while, picking a good place to cross, and it caused impatience in the soldiers.
“Where is she going?” Peters asked, motioning for Travis to watch over their bound woman while he went to Merrik. He handed over the leash without noticing Edward’s eyes narrow in anger. He didn’t like slavery on either side.
“No clue,” Brian lied from his place with Billy. Lack of common sense was something Brian didn’t tolerate well.
“It’s shallow here,” Merrik stated, motioning two men forward. The bruises on his neck stood out glaringly. “Cross on over and throw a rope. We’ll tie it off and have a grip.”
“I wouldn’t do that.”
Alexa’s warning was heeded by the two soldiers, but Merrik turned on her with rage in his voice. “Stay out of this! You’re not the leader here!”
He was still wound up over being strangled and had conveniently forgotten that he’d been trying to do the same to Alexa when he was caught.
Alexa’s face didn’t change, but her air became cold. “Fine.”
She continued down the faint path and many of the group went with her. They’d learned the lesson.
Merrik hadn’t. He forced the soldiers to go into the water.
The two men inched across slowly, feeling out the lightly rushing creek, and made it to the other side with relief.
“Alright, let’s go.” Merrik ordered.
His boots sank into the mud and he looked down to see the water turning red. He lunged onto the bank and gawked in shock at the bleeding men on the opposite bank.
“Help me!”
“It hurts!”
“What is it?” Peters shouted.
Merrik saw streams of blood running from the legs of both falling men. It flowed steadily to the ground and into the water where small air bubbles told him something was alive in there.
The screams faded quickly as both men slumped to the mud.
Merrik growled. “Damn it! Must be poison.”
He glanced to where Alexa was almost out of sight and angrily stomped that way, leaving the two men where they’d fallen.
Alexa heard them rejoin the group and didn’t say anything. Inside however, she was growing more and more upset with the way he was sacrificing his men as if he had an inexhaustible supply. He should already know that every set of hands in this new world was a blessing to be protected.
Birds fled ahead of them, disturbed by their noises, and all over the travelers braced for more vicious butterflies.
None came and they continued in nervous apprehension.
2
Alexa marched them through the corn without a stop or break and the grumbling stayed low. It was clear that they were in another bad area. The stalks had gone to solid, wet black and the dirt under them was sunken in, like something very heavy had been here for a long time. That tempting smell was gone, replaced with a mildew odor that said all the dryness wasn’t to be trusted.
“We’re nearing the center of the fields now,” the mapmaker stated lowly from his place on the cart. The two grieving gunfighters sauntered around him in tense silence.
“What’s in the center?” a slaver asked from the wagon next to them.
“Giants, I heard, but who knows for sure? Something bad,” the mapmaker answered shakily
“That why you brought such strong help?” the slave woman asked, eyeing the man’s big arms and wide shoulders.
The man flushed and his face withdrew into itself. “Don’t mind my help and I won’t mind your slaves.”
“In a few more years, your kind won’t be free either!” the slaver spewed, feeling the sting of his scold.
The man straightened his shoulders. “Well until then, I am, so slam you!”
The woman angrily slapped her whip across her horse to get ahead, and the two gunfighters shared smirks. The brothers didn’t usually befriend those they escorted across this broken country, but Jim had been the exception. They’d already stayed with him for double the amou
nt of time they’d spent on their longest job. They liked his boldness in a world that was now mostly female leadership. They also wanted the reward he’d sworn to hand over.
Jim, a former bank executive and rock climber, was aware of having their loyalty because of more than a promised payment. He was careful to maintain the image they expected to see, and after escorting their prisoner to Lincoln, he hoped to stay with them. Waiting on enough travelers to gather had been hard on the mapmaker. He’d grown more bitter every day the thief had been in his custody and no longer wanted to rebuild his old life.
Alexa motioned Edward, with Paul in tow, to the Point position and let her pace drop to where the mapmaker was now flipping through old sketches of this area. She stayed next to him, ignoring the gunfighters that moved closer for his protection.
Jim became aware of the tension and was a bit startled to find the real leader of their wagon train by his cart. He also spotted their new guide and then discovered Alexa having a bite to eat while they traveled, as many others in the group were doing. He swallowed a sharp remark.
Alexa didn’t miss any of it and she held out a slice of pumpkin bread that Billy had made a week ago. The old bakery they’d found had a can of pumpkin under the cabinet and after declaring it still good, the driver had treated them all to warm pumpkin bread and strong coffee from his personal stock. It had been a wonderful evening.
“Are you sure?”
Alexa nodded, mouth full, and Jim slowly reached over to take the smallest corner. He was leery of anything pulled from someone’s pocket like a tissue.
He nibbled a corner of the bread and immediately grinned. “Hey! That’s good.”
Alexa took a swig from her canteen. “One of my men has cooking skills.” She delivered a stunning, rare grin to the mapmaker. “Maybe we can trade some?”
Jim, now starving for his wife’s pumpkin bread, didn’t answer right away. He’d missed Elaine for every day she’d been gone and it was always the tiniest things that could trigger an awful moment of heartache and frustration.