by Angela White
Bullets slammed into the stairs around the fighters, splintering the wood.
The senior men returned the favor, using the sweeping pattern they'd been taught.
"Uugg!"
A grunt in the darkness, followed by a whooshing noise of a body falling, then a harsh thud as it landed.
"Damn!”
Another lucky shot in the fog and then Alexa was holding up a hand.
Her men stopped firing, all crouched protectively around Mark, who now had Jacob slung over his shoulder.
Footsteps came again, moving away, and Alexa's voice cracked out. "Deny them, Ferryman, and the reward shall be great!"
The bridge trembled as the Ferryman responded with a sudden mist. The enveloping fog, the muffled thuds, and then shouts below, had Alexa’s mocking voice ringing out. "Trapped like the rats you are, Card Player!"
There was no answer.
"Here we come, traitor! Prepare yourself!" she openly mocked and waved only Edward forward as she headed straight down the stairs.
Knowing what she wanted, he ran with her, stabbing at shadows to be sure no one hid in them as they had done.
"Coming to make a man of you!" Alexa roared, her steps no longer light, but shaking the bridge as they descended.
The intimidation worked well, sending them the sounds of two fresh crashes as the Rick's men deserted him.
"And they flee their Master! Mine will never do such, and mine, you shall never be!"
Rick’s fingers fumbled for another magazine, heart thudding in his chest.
"Here we come, traitor! Prepare yourself!"
That tone! It was the blond leader from Safe Haven!
Rick shoved the clip into place, flashes of the past invading. He’d been one of Cesar’s Slavers right after the War, the wolf sent in among the sheep to kill them all. And he’d failed.
"Coming to make a man of you!"
It was Adrian finally seeking retribution for all the death!
Rick heard his men abandon him, and didn’t think to follow. Of all the things he’d been, a coward was never one of them.
"And they flee their Master! Mine will never do such, and mine, you shall never be!"
Rick crouched low, aware he was about to die and ready for it. This time, he’d take the blond leader with him!
Lost in his own mind, the traitor saw the fog part to reveal an angry, glowing man wearing dog tags and a ferocious grin of razor sharp teeth.
“I sentence you to death!” The blond vision bellowed, thundering down on him.
Rick emptied his gun wildly. “Die, damn you!”
Instead, the blonds’ mouth opened, and the spiked teeth quivered in anticipation as he lunged.
“Nonononono…NO!”
Crunch! Thud!
Fire blazed at the base of the stairs, the screams of the man matching that of nature as the bird finally plummeted to the ground. Its skeleton hit the murky water below and shattered into bone dust.
The wind picked up, grew into a furious blast that ripped up huge, dead limbs. Sprays of water pelted the bridge with an angry barrage that the fighters could only endure with tight grips on ropes and quick reflexes.
A minute later, there was silence…
Before any of them could speak, Jacob stirred from the wetting. Confused at being slung over Mark's shoulder, the preacher paused to glare around, his tone annoyed. "Are we there yet?"
Alexa lips twitched, laughter snorting out, and then the sound was echoing from the men as well.
"Aye, rookie," Edward drawled, slapping Billy on the shoulder in recognition of a good battle that sent mud spraying in a thick splash, "the ground lies just below."
4
“Do we follow?
“At your own risk.” Corbin snorted in response to the guard’s uneasy question as they listened to the gunfire echoing down from the glowing stairs. She’d been easy to track so far, but they would have to wait her out this time. If they attempted to cross that arching gateway, it would collapse, he was sure.
“Should we update? Tell them she has six men now?”
“At your own risk,” Corbin repeated the threat.
Shane wisely fell silent. Clearly, Corbin didn’t want her recaptured yet.
“Why don’t you personally take them a…brief report? Rab will write it up for you.”
Shane nodded, eager to tell those in charge what they’d been expecting to hear, what they were paying so well to know. The Commander had decided not to go back to the complex or the rule of the government… at least, not until he had Safe Haven’s location. After that, he could name his reward and they already knew what he wanted - Alexa.
Corbin looked around. His very human soldiers would be of little use until she was back on the ground. “I want watch towers. They’ll have to come out of there to continue the quest.”
5
The fighters stepped indifferently over the smoldering pile at the base of the stairs as they left the bridge, but the senior men knew Edward would have a story to whisper later. The crunching noise was one they wouldn't forget.
The Ferryman had come to the bottom of the glowing steps, covered in layers of sweat and worry. He hadn't wanted the woman to die, had wanted to warn her of Nature's guardian wings, but his ways and laws were set in the seal. Break them, he could not. The early disembarking call was all he'd been allowed on his own. Denying the first four an exit had only been possible because she'd asked it of him.
Alexa strode confidently from the bridge, ignoring the Ferryman's surprised pleasure at seeing only her party. She tossed him another heavy pouch that he stashed away without viewing its contents.
"I was..."
Turning from his wasteful words, Alexa paused at the edge of the glow from the stairs, sharp eyes evaluating. The Ferryman had brought them down within sight of nothing, and after another moment to let the men have their look as well, Alexa led them into outer edges of Laramie, Wyoming.
Ten
1
It wasn't the same here.
They noticed the differences easily. Instead of dying trees and swampy fields, Laramie was more like a lush jungle now than a cattle town, with odd, uncommon sounds. An owl hooting, frogs croaking softly, it was another world. Isolation hadn't hurt things as badly here, had maybe been able to keep some of the poison from sinking in.
The wildlife they’d missed so far on their trip was also here in abundance - from small shapes of darting rodents and hares, to the wide clouds of insects that hovered around the fruit trees. Their eyes couldn’t keep up with all the movement.
"On your right, rookie!"
Jacob ducked, and the thin green snake hissed angrily as they went on. Curled around a moldy limb, the reptile had been nearly invisible, but not to Alexa's sharp eyes.
The men moved a bit closer to each other and to her, away from the thick trees and weeds that bordered the path she’d chosen. Alexa however, showed no such worry, moving easily. It was her way.
"Last call, one and all. The bridge closes."
The fighters couldn't see it anymore, and there was a slight unease among them when the muffled clacks and thuds came to them. The Ferryman was taking down the bridge. They were securely inside Laramie, with no way out.
"There is always an exit, my pets."
Alexa comforted, and all six of them pushed aside the tension. Now was not a good time for it.
The fighters saw the light at the same time, heard the moan.
"Help... mercy."
Alexa and her hard-asses found him around the next bend of the trees, and they approached the rat carefully despite the left leg bent behind him at an ugly angle. Mosquitoes were currently eating him alive in tiny plunges.
"Mercy, lady?"
The blonde ran quick eyes over the other corpse that had deserter the Card Player, gun still holstered, and her tone was unnaturally gentle. It made her men brace.
"Aye, pawn. You've earned it now, I think."
His eyes filled with relie
f too soon.
Crack!
Calmly reholstering, Alexa turned back to the faint path. "’T'was a bullet more than you deserved."
Each of the men moving to catch up felt the reminder, the warning that deserters would be dealt with harshly, but it was not a great concern for any of them. They knew their own minds, and there was no other place, no matter how safe, they would rather be than with her.
2
The dawn's meager light was nearly an hour away when the woman stopped them with a silent hand.
Now free of the insect clouds that had been hovering, they waited patiently, hunters’ eyes seeing rabbit, deer, and wolf tracks. There would be fresh meat if one of them could get a clear shot with their blade. Wasting bullets to hunt was against the blonde's rules. If they missed with a knife, then they ate whatever they were carrying for such a time or nothing at all.
Alexa made a sharp left, moving into the thickest part of the jungle, and the land grew silent around them. On the trail now, she went a bit faster, still making no noise. Her men tried hard to do the same as the thick, damp branches clung to their cloaks and dove under their muddy boots to trip them.
"Tracks."
The men's eyes were unable to make them out beneath the half a decade of debris, but doubt her, they did not. After a moment, they too could feel the metal rails under their boots. She'd found a train track to lead them to the station. In the distance, the bridge noises had stopped.
The jungle thickened as they walked, becoming a nuisance to get through, and the ground grew damp. They were nearing the edge of the flood plain.
"Someone go to higher ground."
Edward gestured to Billy, who scaled a nearby tree like he was part monkey. Agile, he made motions that Edward translated in the dim light now creeping over the horizon.
"Woods for two more clicks in our direction… then a building, rectangular, one floor… can't see around it for the trees." There was a short pause. "Ripples to our right by one click and again to our left by triple that."
There was silence as they waited for Billy to come down. The driver spoke softly. "There might be the wall of a town beyond the building - hard to be sure."
Alexa turned them back to the track path in time to spot another danger. "To your left, rookie."
This time it was David who ducked a dark shape flying at him. Caught off guard, the blacksmith flushed, loathing being embarrassed. A second later, the large bat went crashing into the forest behind them.
Ahead, Alexa's voice was overflowing with triumph. "Excellent."
Not sure exactly how he'd brought the bat down - he hadn't even moved except to duck - David fell back into formation, content that he'd at least pleased her somehow.
The two clicks went fast, mud now squelching, pulling hard on them.
The jungle ended abruptly, cut off by a crumbling wall of bricks they moved over carefully. Ahead of them, lay what they'd come for.
The station house itself was a dark, vine-covered shape in the distance, and the layers of train tracks spread out across the area in front of it like a web. But, on those tracks, was nothing. No railcars, no maintenance vehicles, no other signs that the old world had ever existed - just tracks and water.
Alexa's eyes swept the small station, seeing how the murky liquid was slowly covering the ground around it. "Underwater, all of them."
The train cars were in the far corner, and the stagnant water rippled gently over top of them. Car after car, glinting occasionally with the movement of the debris-laden liquid.
"I assume we all swim?"
The rookies nodded, her senior men's skills already proven, and she led her group forward.
Alexa moved toward a single line of cars that were away from the others. Mostly buried in muck rather than water, the mud pushed up to their ankles as they neared it. Dark, ominous slop shifted under their boots, and Alexa halted them, free hand bringing out a pouch of dust.
She tossed it ahead of them, and instantly, the marsh grass burst into life. As it grew, the ground under them seemed to tighten, firming up enough to stand on without sinking. She threw another handful, stepping forward, and they made their way closer as the bone dust caused the quickly growing greenery to drain the water in their life spurt.
Alexa threw a last handful on the ground outside the large railcar, and the water receded a full foot, showing them the edge of a door.
"Use your own pouches to knock it back a bit further, but carefully. Too fast and it may sink deeper."
The men sprinkled it under her watchful eye and the earth under their feet grew, groaned, and became solid.
Now partially uncovered, half of the car remained buried in the mud and would have to be dug out unless their fearless leader had another trick up her sleeve.
She did. The blonde had drawn on her carry bag and calmly ate one of the juicy apples they'd gathered. Around them, the lush weeds were dying as fast as they could, becoming instant, absorbent mulch.
When she was down to the core, Alexa placed it behind the railcar's door and then dumped the last of her dust over it.
Like its parent, the tree grew fast, and the roots began to shoot through the mud like arrows.
Crack!
The boxcar moved, lifted by the apple tree roots growing under it, and then the fighters were moving back as the rest of the seeds burst into life.
Bang! Thud!
The adventurers retreated several yards, watching as each seed absorbed the dust. The men waited resignedly for the dying to begin, but were surprised when there was only silence and the thick smell of ripe fruit.
"On seeds, dust gives quick life that remains, but the fruit rots the instant it is picked."
Always teaching, Alexa plucked an apple from the nearest branch and bit into it. Before she could chew, it turned to a black dust that fell from the corners of her mouth and hand.
She gathered enough saliva to spit with. "Edward and Mark – up. Billy and Daniel, down."
That left the rookies, and neither of them hesitated to go after her when she pried the door open and disappeared inside the sloppy darkness.
Very aware of how much noise they'd just made and unwilling to admit to how much it bothered them to let her get out of their sight, the four men on guard stayed very alert, each hoping the rookies were all that Alexa's choice of them said they were.
3
Despite being mostly underwater, the skids of supplies were neatly stacked and though dirty, not all damaged. Molded, paper-thin material covered the area that was no longer underwater.
Alexa stepped carefully through the ankle-high debris, glad this car was still half buried in the mud. It would muffle their noises from the animals now calling this swampy station home.
"Seven of each. No more."
Alexa moved toward the farthest stack of cans, soupy brown water rippling away from her boots, and the rookies moved uneasily toward a nearby skid as she faded into the dimness. None of them liked being split from her, no matter the distance, and then there was the way she didn't make any sounds. It sometimes made them wonder if they'd imagined her. The new men, already under her spell, felt it more strongly than those who knew this was reality now, but it was an uneasiness that was strictly hidden.
The skids nearest to the door were useless, crushed cans that had exploded in the heat, and the faint scent of tomatoes now floated to those waiting outside, wishing they would hurry.
The rookies carried armloads of their find out of the railcar one at a time so Alexa was never alone, and the men watching were pleased. It wasn't that they were afraid she couldn't handle what came or even that she might vanish and leave them defenseless. It was more a feeling of duty to watch out for her in exchange for her letting them come along.
The small stack of cans and jugs grew steadily and with Alexa's load, it nearly doubled.
"Get it split up. We'll lay it by when we make camp."
Each fighter took one of everything, placing it in a single, bulky
duffle bag they pulled from their belts. Later, when there was a fire, they would verify the goods were still edible and then smoke them to reduce what they would carry.
"No water."
Edward's comment drew a nod from the woman, "We'll need to keep searching."
"Which car?"
That was the problem, and she didn't answer the Edward's question.
It was impossible to tell what the submerged railcars held, and there was only enough dust left to help uncover one.
"David will choose."
The blacksmith was surprised, but didn't hesitate to step forward and run his eyes over the sunken tracks.
"We'll hear your thoughts, too,” she instructed. It was his turn to teach them something. It was how they’d already made it this far. What one of them could do, the others could as well.
"The weight of the train has to be evened out. Things that are very heavy will either be split among every car, which is unlikely, or there will be a number of heavy cars together."
David looked around carefully. "Bottled water was very popular before the War. Most trains would have been carrying it, no matter their destination, and these are clearly packed for a trip out..."
His sharp mind calculated the distance of water they could see. "Only 5 cars on this one... can't be sure." He moved around the side to stare at the next row. "Maybe."
The rookie kept moving, fully into the process of elimination, and Alexa waved two of her men after him, staying with the tree-bound snipers.
Minutes later, all four were moving quietly back to her, the new man in the lead.
"Ten rows up, the cars are deeper, heavier, I think. A few hundred yards in, the cars almost vanish from sight. Very heavy. I want to go under to see the markings. I'm almost sure it's a liquid goods lineup."
"Three hundred yards. We don't have enough dust for even a quarter of that," Edward stated, knowing Alexa would never send them into water of any kind, without a better reason.