by Angela White
“They knew the whole time!” Billy realized angrily.
“We didn’t have a deal for anything more than a ride,” Alexa pointed out. “And it doesn’t matter anyway. They’re coming.”
They all turned to discover the wagons slowly rounding the farthest bend behind them.
“How did you hear that?” Paul asked in wonder. “I still don’t.”
Alexa didn’t answer. She’d felt them, not heard them. The driver in the lead had spotted her and his relief had been a loud shout of devoted joy.
“Don’t scold them for leaving when they woke,” Daniel directed toward Paul. “They came back. It’s enough.”
Paul nodded. He didn’t feel like yelling anymore, only sleeping. The weariness had settled over him suddenly and he wasn’t sure how much walking he could do despite being rested from their boat traveling. Fighting the water had worn him out.
The wagons stopped by Alexa and she allowed a smile when the lead man waved a hand at the seat next to him. “Thank you.”
“My honor, lady,” the man gushed.
Alexa climbed up and peered into the wagon. She spied Brian’s violet eyes lit with contentment as Mark and Edward greeted him like friends.
She turned around without responding to the good feeling now flooding her men. They thought the worst was over. She knew better.
6
The ride through the nighttime wasn’t calm and pleasant. The fog and shadows were thick, small chittering forms scurried between the feet of the mules and made them snort nervously. The drivers handled them as if they’d made this trip a hundred times. For all the others knew, maybe these tough older men had made the trip that many times. Or more.
Alexa stayed in the driver’s seat of the front wagon when the drivers needed a break and her men took over the vehicles behind her. The drivers had to have rest, but their mules were fine to keep going until daylight and Alexa wasn’t stopping before that unless she had to. There was a feeling, a pull toward a small orchard, and she planned to spend a few hours resting there.
As the night wore on, Alexa slowed their pace to give the mules a small break, and when the shadows thickened and the huge animals twitched and snorted, she sang to them. The words and tunes came from childhood memories and the mournful notes drifted over their convoy like a mist.
In the rear, Edward and Paul listened to the faint, haunting song with silent appreciation. In front of them, Billy and David shared grins and a smoke. Directly behind Alexa, Daniel and Mark listened with increasing worry. They were close enough to hear the song. It was about accepting death, not fighting it.
“When are we going to talk to her again?” Daniel asked.
Mark loosened his hold on the reigns as the mules started to calm down. “Not sure, honestly. She isn’t open to personal questions and observations, you know?”
Daniel snorted. “Yeah.”
The words of the chorus came to them and they listened in dismay.
“We’ll travel far, travel far
We’ll reach a star, reach a star
We’ll hold our guns and give our sons
We’ll bleed and die
We’ll touch the sky
Our quest undone…”
Mark sighed. “I’ll try again.”
“I’ll take a go at it,” Daniel offered.
Mark didn’t argue. He hated confronting Alexa on anything. It wasn’t fear of her temper or even of being cast out. He’d never respected anyone as much and it felt wrong to question her. He hadn’t cared for anyone his entire life, until her, until these men. And now it looked like she was dying.
“Lights ahead.”
Alexa sent the alert softly, sure that her men were listening. Dawn was still a couple hours off and they were all exhausted. Sometimes the sound of a voice after so much quiet could bring alertness as fast as a gunshot. Voices usually meant trouble.
Alexa didn’t stop or consider steering around. She suspected whom those lights belong to, but even if she were wrong, they had to stop. The sleep spell hadn’t been restful and it felt like they’d been traveling for weeks without a real break.
The path they’d been on had narrowed and the result was a once-again limited view through the corn. Alexa was sick of it. She’d just as soon set it all ablaze and fight the smoke instead.
The light ahead became brighter and low mutters came to them over the clip-clop of the tired mules.
“Who is it?”
“Is it her?”
“I told you she’d be comin’!”
The other travelers hadn’t fled far before stopping. They’d felt naked without Alexa’s protection, but they’d also felt a loyalty to her that had allowed them to agree on waiting one day to for her to catch up. They’d spent the time resting and listening for her Colts.
“It’s her!”
Alexa’s wagon was surrounded as she entered their small camp, and she was pleased to find them all sharing one fire. The deaths had bonded them. They would fight together now if need be.
Out of the original hundred plus people in the convoy, Alexa only counted two dozen here now and hated herself for not saving more of her people. She tolerated the greetings and gentle touches, but inside, she cringed in shame. So many of them hadn’t made it!
Mark and Edward understood what she was feeling. They eased the people back, telling them she needed to sleep. Alexa let them lead her to a small, but clean tent and she surrendered to the darkness where there were no accusations of failure from the dead.
7
“How long to Lincoln?” Jacob asked as he and Billy stood guard outside Alexa’s tent.
“If we leave at dawn, we’d be there by nightfall,” Billy answered quietly. “But we’re not going at dawn even if she orders it. Tell the others.”
Jacob didn’t argue. He went to where Edward was standing watch over the most vulnerable side of the small, long ago emptied orchard. Near them the mules and drivers were settling down. The thief had been forced into the mapmaker’s wooden cell shortly after they’d arrived and Alexa’s men hadn’t protested. They didn’t trust the sleaze either, but also knew he was carrying something Alexa wanted and they made sure he wasn’t hurt.
“Billy says we’re not leaving on time, no matter what the boss says.”
Edward pulled a face. “And who gets to tell her that?”
Jacob shrugged. “All of us, I assume.”
“And it still won’t be enough to keep her here if she decides to go,” Edward pointed out. “You know that.”
“I do, but Billy was pretty sure.”
Edward ran a tired hand over his face. “Might as well nail her on the bite too, find out what we’re in for.”
“Agreed,” Jacob gave his support eagerly. “There’s gotta be something we can do for her.”
“I also think, if we’re gonna do this, that we should do it all the way.”
Jacob’s brows drew together in confusion. “I’m not sure…”
He followed Edward’s line of sight to where Paul was curling up in a bedroll under the wagon next to Alexa’s tent. She’d gone out quickly and all six of her men had denied Paul entrance to the canvas. She hadn’t asked for him or anyone else, and unless she woke with a…”
“Ahhhh! No, you won’t!”
Alexa’s roar disturbed the entire camp and brought their animals to panicking alertness.
“Damn,” Edward cursed their oversight, grabbing a mule’s lead as it tried to get by. “Get someone in there!”
“I’ve got it!” Daniel yelled between Alexa’s hoarse shouts and screams.
He ducked into the tent and used the method she’d taught them to wake her when she was dangerous. He talked to her, keeping his distance.
“Alexa, Safe Haven waits for us.”
Alexa’s shouts ceased and her lashes slowly opened.
Daniel sighed in relief and eased down onto the bedroll with her. “You were…”
“Screaming,” Alexa finished.
She shut her eyes and the preacher was horrified to watch tears roll from beneath her lashes.
“Alexa?” Daniel was lost. He hadn’t thought she was capable of crying!
Alexa’s tears were a waterfall, and the biker instinctively gathered her into his arms and held her. He couldn’t think of anything else to do.
Daniel came from the tent a bit later and waved Paul inside. “Feed her.”
Paul did as he was told. Her screams had been blood-curdling and he never wanted to hear them again for as long as he lived.
Daniel joined the small group of shaken travelers around the fire, waving off their concern. “She had a nightmare. Who doesn’t have those in afterworld?”
The travelers understood that all too well and returned to their beds to wait for sleep’s second visit.
8
Daniel waited until they were the only ones awake, and then gestured to his teammates. When they were all gathered close enough to hear, he put them into Alexa’s back-to-back watch formation for the conversation.
“She’s said she’s changing, inside,” Daniel told them. “She’s weaker during the day, stronger at night when she’s fed. She needs to have a transfusion, something only the government can provide now.”
“We could break into a bunker,” Billy suggested after a minute of thought. “Maybe find a scientist who knows how to get it done?”
“Too risky,” Edward stated. “And even if it succeeded, we’d never get her back out.”
“What about keeping her fed and accepting the fact that she’s now a fucking vampire!” Mark hissed lowly. “We’re can’t cure her and I’ll strangle any man who says we have to kill her. Nothing else to do.”
There was a thick silence for a long time as they stood watch and contemplated those awful words. They’d only had her to themselves for a short while and the effects of the quest were already interfering.
“There has to be something else,” Daniel complained lowly. “We just don’t know about it.”
“We don’t, “David said suddenly. “But we know someone who might.”
Edward frowned. “If you mean the troll, how would we contact him? We don’t have her…skills.”
“Do you suppose getting rid of the infant…killing it, would cure her?”
That question earned Billy five nasty glares that only resumed sweeping the landscape after the driver lowered his head in shame for suggesting it.
“Sorry,” he muttered. He was. He didn’t like the idea either.
“I don’t know,” Edward forced out around the need to strike his teammate. Alexa would leave them if she found out they’d thought of something like this, let alone discussed it. “But I do know it’s not that way. Who else?”
The six men stayed close as dawn slowly approached, coming up with ideas and then shooting them down until each of them was weary beyond more words.
When daylight came, the mule drivers took up guard positions without being asked or told, and Alexa’s men all piled into the tent with her for a few hours of much-needed rest. They hadn’t settled on an idea. They didn’t have a clue what to do for her, other than make sure she got the food she needed. Right now, that seemed to be Paul’s blood. Later, when she needed something harder, they would talk again. Leaving her side wasn’t discussed, despite the dangers she would pose to each of them. They’d been risking their lives with her all along. It was a part of the job and inside, each of them knew they would die on this quest. She’d as much as told them so upon picking them, and yet, they were all here. It was fate and there was little point in fighting what each of them had secretly hoped for in the first place. Men without a death wish wouldn’t have signed up for this quest.
Chapter Twelve
Lincoln
1
Lincoln, Nebraska was a welcome sight to only a couple of the travelers.
The wind that had haunted them for the entire trek fell silent as they stared at the skyline. Grand Island had been something to view, but these towering buildings and deserted overpasses were impressive. The feats of the old world were easy to marvel at when facing structures that rose into the green haze.
Those tall, slowly eroding buildings were a symbol of a world gone, yet still longed for. Most of the group understood it was dangerous even after all this time, and braced for trouble as they topped the last miniscule rise and saw the way into the city.
The path was long, allowing those in the city a clear view (shot), and Alexa motioned her fighters into the same formation and cover they’d used when she collected David and Jacob from River City.
The path was narrow dirt, kept clear of weeds and corn by being used as a garbage dump, and Alexa waved at the drivers to walk alongside it instead of trying to force the mules to ignore all the rotting scraps. It clearly drew a lot of wildlife, the scat was abundant, and Alexa admired their hunting grounds, even as she hated it being so close to the city gates. Garbage encouraged diseases and there were few doctors left.
“Bring him up,” Alexa ordered.
Mark brought the thief to the center of their formation, ignoring the mapmaker’s protests. He did shove the thief to keep him rolling and prevent their line from being broken.
As the path wound down the tiny incline, it gradually widened and connected with two other small dirt and garbage roads. All three paths led into different areas of the city.
Alexa surveyed the thief as they reached the intersection. In the distance, the city was still and silent, foreboding in its absence of expected chaos.
“Straight ahead for Roscoe,” the thief answered her silent question. “Left for black, right for white.”
Alexa and her men didn’t like those words, but race issues were still as ugly as they’d always been, and desegregation was becoming more frequent.
Alexa led them straight, not ready to fight either side of that war. She had both black and white among this group, along with Chinese and Mexican. This group probably wasn’t welcome at all.
“We’ll get to Roscoe Street about half a mile in. You’ll know it when we get there.”
“Traps? Guards?” Mark questioned.
“Soldiers?” Edward asked.
“No, to all three,” the thief answered. “Roscoe wants people to come into the city. He trades with everyone and then sends them on their way.”
“So, there will be soldiers,” Edward pushed, not liking their guide one bit.
“No. He makes them come in on foot, in pairs. They have to camp outside the city limits, like any other armed group he deems to be dangerous.”
Alexa and her men immediately began examining the terrain for the best vantage point to camp at when Roscoe declared them unsafe to bed down inside.
“So what’s the plan for me?” the thief demanded of Alexa, moving to her side.
Daniel shoved him over and stayed between them.
“Where are my other messages?” Alexa asked, slowing but not stopping.
The thief slowly took a roll of faded, wrinkled papers from his pocket. His thin face was covered in fear and mistrust.
“You’ll save me from him?”
Alexa’s voice was cold. “Yes. Roscoe will not kill you, nor will his men.”
The thief was happy. Her kind wasn’t allowed to lie. “Here then and good luck. I don’t know that code.”
Alexa stopped to scan the papers, uncaring that they were in plain view of all three roads. She didn’t want to kill anyone here except Roscoe, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t.
Paul knew the code and a quick glance over Alexa’s shoulder gave him inside information on the second letter that she opened as they walked. The third missive she tucked into her cloak, disappointing them all.
“Any idea what that means?” the thief asked curiously. “I’ve read a lot of codes, broken a lot too, but never saw one that used so many full words for each letter.”
Alexa had recognized it immediately. It had taken her years to learn it. “The government was making first contact with
Lincoln. They wanted to know who had control, how things were being run and they were requesting a full city inventory. Its dated before the destruction order.”
“Wait ‘til he hears that!” the thief crowed. “Just what he wanted.”
Alexa understood the thief knew a lot more than he’d let on and chose his future right there. “He’ll pay for you; lock you up for the night. We’ll get you out.”
The thief frowned. “He might kill me as soon as he spots me.”
Alexa didn’t change her plans. “I’ll handle Roscoe.”
The thief didn’t argue further, but it was obvious from his face that he didn’t like her plan.
Alexa was counting on that, as she was counting on Roscoe not being what everyone said he was. She wasn’t going to promise to kill a good man to save a thief, even if he was useful. Alexa had little doubt that the thief was guilty of everything he was wanted for, and she would always take something like that into account. He’d lied to her, to her face, and she wouldn’t forget it.
When he didn’t think it would be noticed, Edward took Paul’s arm and slowed them a bit. “What was it?” He and the others were slowly learning the code, but Alexa refused to have them write it down except for teaching moments in the dirt. It was taking them all longer than they were happy with.
Paul shook his head and Edward tightened his grip until the scientist’s face turned red.
“Fine!” Paul snapped lowly, jerking away to rub his newest bruise. “It’s a bounty order for Alexa Mitchel, daughter of the most wanted fugitive on American soil!”
“But he isn’t here anymore,” Edward said, confused.
“No shit,” Paul agreed sarcastically. “Now get us into place before the eyes in the back of her head open up and I get blamed for this too.”
Surprised, Edward did as he’d been told.
As they neared the signposts, it was easier to detect the racial divide that waited inside for them. The sign on the white side had a skeleton hanging from it. The black sign had the same, only there was a pile of old bones beneath it.