“Stay here,” he says.
Red snarls at him, but she lets herself rest back on the seat.
“Get your asses out of the truck and help me!” Logan demands.
Merchant lets the truck door slam behind him but makes not move to step out from behind the light. The girl in Logan’s grasp screams and he yanks on her more, dragging her across the pavement.
“Stupid bitch. Shut the fuck up!”
Barnett drops his hold on her hair and slaps her across the face. Merchant moves out from beside the truck and lets the light fall onto his back.
“Get your ass off the ground and…,” Barnett stops as he turns back to Merchant.
No words pass between them. A moment of silence over the sobs and crying of the young girl, her face pale and stained with blood.
“How?” Logan stammers. He backs away, hands raised open and placating. “You shouldn’t be here. That bastard was supposed… That fucking prick. He said you’d be waiting for him.”
“I’ll deal with him later. Right now, my problem is with you,” Merchant says.
He lets his approach match with Barnett’s retreat. There is no reason to worry. No place out here could hide him. The fire in Merchant’s chest flares to life. A searing heat that fills the empty cavity and flows as quick as the pulse that carries it through his body.
“You like deals? I’ll make you one that you can’t turn down,” Logan pleads. “You saw everything that I have. Together we can have so much more. You and I. Fifty, fifty. We could rebuild the whole USA. What would you say to that?”
Merchant takes another step closer, this one closing a small amount of the distance.
“And what about those back in the village? Did they take your deal?”
The skin of Barnett’s cheeks reddens, and he firms his shoulders up.
“Look, I gave them every chance. They held a secret that could save us all. Can you imagine this world without the infected? No more war against these monsters. Just think of it!”
“There will always be war, Mr. Barnett. In the end, all that matters is what side you are on,” Merchant says.
He takes another step and Barnett stumbles as he tries to keep them apart. Catching himself, he tumbles slightly into the side of a car.
“How about I try again? Seventy, thirty. You and me. We forget about the village. We leave it alone and move on. We can even leave the girl here. Let her go back.”
She’s from the village?
Merchant turns back to where she remains seated on the pavement with an ankle swollen past the limits of her boots. A look of recognition crosses her face as her bloodshot eyes widen.
“Merchant, watch out!” Kelly shouts.
Spinning on his heels, Merchant brings his arm up, a flash of steel flicking in the light but the blow never lands. A shadow as fast as a cat blurs between them and Barnett goes stumbling back into the car before falling to his knees.
Red spins and falls herself. Her foot twists to the side and blood flows in a deep river from her forehead. She snarls and struggles back to her feet. Leaning heavily on her good leg, Merchant can hear the bones crack beneath her weight.
“Fucking monster,” Logan yells and lifting himself from the ground, he pushes away from the car with his knife in hand.
Red tries to side step the blade, but her knee buckles and she falls. The cutting edge draws a wicked line across the side of her ribcage, but her claws are enough to bring red welts across Logan’s face as she stumbles by him. Crashing on the ground, she rolls onto her back to look at him standing over her.
“Fucking little monster. See, Merchant. This is a plague on our world and that village of hers held the secret. They had no right to keep it to themselves, now everything depends on men like you and me. Only we can save those too weak to help themselves. We are the ones destined to lead this world. That is why we are,” Logan says as he raises the knife over his head.
The next words fall from a frozen tongue, ears ringing against the sound of the echoing gunfire. Barnett steps backward, knife still raised and chin dropping to his chest.
A red bloom widens inches above his belly. At first the size of a fat finger, but quickly it darkens and fills around where the cloth bulges over his round flesh.
“We could have,” Logan starts and another hole rips into his chest.
He falls onto his ass, dust and stones kicking into the air. Wet coughs follow and are chased by the snarls of Red as she tries to crawl her way over to him.
Merchant puts a hand on Red’s shoulder and she stops moving as he steps over her. More coughing escapes Logan’s body as Merchant stands over the dying man.
“We could have,” he starts to say.
“This is for Red,” Merchant cuts him off.
The last bullet of Red’s gun exits the back of Logan’s head taking half the skull with it. Smoke swirls from the wound and Merchant turns back to the two women sprawled out across the pavement.
“It’s over,” he says.
Without another word he stops and picks Red up off the ground. Her body barely weighs anything, a bag of bones with a skin leaking from a thousand holes.
“T… th… thank…,” Red tries to say.
“Shh,” he whispers and carries her to the truck.
Gently, he places her into the passenger seat and lets her rest with her head tilted back, a slow trickle of blood leaking from her lips. Turning back, he goes to Kelly still sprawled on the ground. She shivers in the early morning air. Her face is pale, covered in blood from a thousand shallow cuts and her body has been dragged through a wood chipper.
“You strong enough to get up?” he asks.
She turns her head to him. Her eyes are wide, bright with fear, and red from the terror she has seen these last few days.
“They are all gone,” she whispers, not answering his question.
Merchant nods and then turns to the road leading in the direction of the village.
“I figured as much. No hope to make it back in time. You strong enough to walk?”
He extends his hand. She looks at it as if it’s there to cut the life right out of her. Kelly glances back at the corpse and then his hand and with a weak grip, she takes it.
“Where are you going?” Kelly asks.
“The same place I’ve been going for a long time. West.”
Kelly looks over at Red. The woman moans as the blood makes roots of red down her neck and a world of gore across her torn and dirty shirt.
“Is she going to make it?” Kelly whispers.
Merchant shrugs his shoulders.
“Probably not. If the old priest is dead with the rest of them, then there isn’t much hope for her.”
Kelly turns away from the rising sun and lets her sight settle on the path still shaded in darkness.
“Brother George was like a father to me. Saved me when I had nothing left. Raised me like I was his own daughter. Never asked anything of any of us. Just showed us the path to God. He was the real miracle, Mr. Merchant. We believed, and we followed, but it was always him.”
Stepping closer, he lets her rest against him. The young woman is nothing compared to the burden still sitting in the back of the truck.
What kind of future does she have?
Her people are gone. Is she any different than anyone else?
Merchant lets the warmth of the coming sun spread the heat already running through his veins.
“He was a good man. Barnett paid for what he did.”
Wiping away the tears, snot, and crusted blood from her lips, Kelly slips away.
“What about those monsters who took my village?”
A cold shiver runs through Merchant and the blue ethereal smoke swirls behind the young woman. Snake-Eyes, his white suit, long cigarette and empty eyes lean back against the back bumper of an abandoned Chevy.
“And you thought you were done,” the ghost chuckles. “I can already feel the masses growing behind me.”
“They are gone,
Kelly. The same as this bastard here. There is nothing you can do to save them,” Merchant says.
The pale fists of the girl ball up and she rolls her shoulders back. Taking a deep breath, she stands up as straight as she can on her bum ankle, the top of her head hardly reaching his chin.
“We tried it our way. Through prayer and trust I watched as we were overrun and killed for sport and enjoyment. I can still hear the screams of the other women and girls. Their voices echo in my ears, and then there is…”
She trails off.
“Leave it alone,” Merchant says. “You are alive. Make the best of what you have left.”
Kelly bites down on her lip and the cheeks of her face go red as her eyes narrow.
“Easy for you to say. Traveling west with nothing but the road behind you. They took everything from me. My people, my home, my life! Even your friend, Red, was calling it home. Aren’t you going to do something about that?”
Merchant turns back to the truck. Snake-Eyes walks himself gingerly over to the door, making sure to avoid all the blood and muck before leaning against the door. With a wave of a finger he says NO and then flicks away the ashes of his cigarette.
“My work here is done. Barnett is dead and I’m getting back on the highway. If you want to follow, I can drop you off at the first sign of the next town or city. Your choice,” Merchant says.
“I’m done doing it everyone else’s way, Merchant. This world is fucked, and you know it. You tried to tell us, and we didn’t listen. But I’m listening now! Help me, Merchant. Help me like you did your friend, Red.”
He stops and doesn’t reach for the door. The ball in his chest is an inferno and the sight of Red, bleeding out slowly on the front seat puts a weight in his gut he hasn’t felt in a long time.
“What is it you want, Kelly? I can’t bring your people back. I’m not your Brother George and even if there is a God, I doubt there is much even he could do.”
With what has to be the last of her strength, the girl stomps her feet until she is right up in his face, the anger radiating off of her a heat that he knows all too well.
“Revenge, Merchant. That monster back there took them all. Killed everyone including Barnett’s men. I want them dead. Every last stinking one of them. Let them rot on the ground. Leave them as food for the buzzards. Send them back to the hell they came from because they’ve turned everything I have into hell already.”
Merchant towers over her. His dark presence nothing compared to the white rage of her hatred.
“You are free of this, Kelly. There is nothing down this road. I’ve walked it. I still walk it. Let the monsters lay and I’ll get you out of here. This is not a path you want to follow.”
She hits him in the chest. Not much of a punch, but it brings the tears pouring from her eyes. He is surprised she has any left to give.
“Fuck you, Merchant. There is nowhere else for me. You can drop me off at any city or village and it still will be a death sentence for me. I don’t know what happened to you in the past, but here, I lost everything. Have you ever been in love, Merchant? Have you ever felt the last breaths of the one person in this whole world you were excited to see every day? Even if you couldn’t find the courage to tell them. Ever seen the look in their eyes as their soul leaked out of holes ripped into their chest?”
Merchant doesn’t say anything, the vision of his wife and children’s corpses too quick to flash back.
“I don’t care if I die with them, Merchant. All I want is a chance to make things right. They deserve to die. Every last fucking one of them. If you won’t do it, I’ll walk there and kill that slimy monster myself.”
Merchant grabs her arm, a sudden gasp escaping her lips.
“You wouldn’t last a moment. It is suicide and you know it.”
“Then let me die with my family. You obviously don’t care. Drive me as close as you are willing and let me go my own way. This is obviously not worth your time,” Kelly says and then snorts back the snot dripping from her nose.
“Who was it?” Merchant asks as he looks to the road ahead.
“What?” she answers.
He does not look at her.
“You said they killed the one you loved. Earlier you called Brother George your father. It wasn’t him, who was it they killed?”
Red chuckles in the front seat, a wet gurgling that rolls her head to the side.
“He was my best friend. The others picked on him all the time, but he was always so sweet to me. I thought it was just because we were friends, but when they came that third time,” Kelly says through yet more tears. “Those bullets were meant for me. He ripped himself away from his mother to get in front of me. They shot him, Merchant. Like some kind of dog. I never got to tell him how I felt. All I can see is the look in his eyes as I held him. He was scared. But you want to know what he said to me before he died? His last words to me were a simple THANK YOU!”
Kelly falls into Merchant and sobs. He lets an arm rest against her. Whatever fight there was a moment ago is gone.
“You must have been a good friend to him,” Merchant says.
“Friend? I let him die for me and I never even told him how I truly felt! How was I a good friend?”
“He gave his life for you. No one does that for someone they don’t love,” Merchant says as he gently separates her from him.
“I need to give something back. Even the score. That is why I’m going, Merchant. With or without your help. I will kill every single monster in that village. I will die on my best friend’s grave if I have to,” Kelly answers back.
Merchant sighs.
“That is your choice,” he says before climbing into the truck. “I’ve been down that road, Kelly. There is no return from that dark place. Get in and let the air clear your mind. You’ll thank me when we are far from this place.”
“I’ll thank you if you help me,” she says stamping her one good foot into the pavement. “What do you want from me, Merchant? You obviously went a long way killing everyone in your path to save Red. What did she pay you? I’ll give you whatever you want.”
Kelly looks at Red and then back at Merchant. He helps straighten the dying women in her seat and then glance at the pistol still tucked into the belt of his pants.
“Is that it? That is all you want?” Kelly asks.
Merchant turns her way, a moment of confusion crossing his mind. The young girl reaches up to the last few buttons still holding her shirt together.
“Wow, this definitely got far more interesting,” Snake-Eyes adds as he materializes behind the mounted gun on the back, an oversized green Army helmet on his head and a cigar between his teeth.
“I am not as experienced as she probably is, but I’ve got nothing left, Merchant. If that is what you want to help me, then take what you will. I don’t care anymore for this world. Just don’t leave me here knowing I didn’t try to make amends for what happened to them.”
“Keep your damn shirt on,” Merchant growls. “I’m not interested in that.”
“Then what else? I don’t have money. What little I owned was back with everyone else. I’ll give you anything, Merchant. My body, my life, hell, the shirt off my back. Whatever you want.”
Merchant’s grip on the wheel of the truck tightens, the skin of his knuckles brightening.
“Where does this end, Kelly? I cannot bring your friend back from the grave.”
She redoes the button on the top of her shirt.
“With all of them dead. Every last monster who remains must die. We don’t stop until every last one of them no longer breathes and then I am yours, Merchant. Kill me. Take me. Leave me to die in the dust, the choice is yours. I only ask this one thing of you. Kill them all, Merchant.”
He turns on the truck and the engine roars to life.
“Get in.”
26
Sent Back to Hell
She can’t recognize any of it. In the darkness of night, everything had been hollow and empty. Now, the wor
ld she had grown knowing was a smoking ruin.
Ash and dark clouds circle high in the air. Bodies lay strewn in all directions along the road leading in. Every house and building is torn and gutted. The bodies of people she knew are lifeless next to soldiers she can’t recognize.
Buzzards circle high in the sky and the morning air has turned hot and muggy with the approach of the mid-day hour. The smell of death and decay is as thick as fog. Kelly can see the monsters meandering through the empty ruins of her life. Their broken shambling gaits. Fewer of them than she remembers.
“What are we going to do?” she asks.
Merchant says nothing, his hard eyes set and unwavering.
“Do you think there are any survivors?”
Even she doesn’t think there is anyone left. There can’t be. She can’t see them, but the fear pushing at her from this distance tells her they are waiting in the dark. Hundreds, thousands, even millions of the demons waiting on her to come down so they can claim her like they have everything in her life.
“Doesn’t matter what I think. They are down there and that is where I am going,” he answers.
The thought of going down there terrifies her. Where was that courage and hatred from a few hours ago? Burning through her like a sickness, the hollowness of her soul is wide and draining. This must be what Brother George always talked about. The emptiness of revenge and hatred.
“There is nothing to gain attacking those who have hurt you,” he always said. “It will bring you nothing and take from you everything.”
He may have been right, but he never had to look down at the ruin of his whole world. Dark streams of black smoke swirling in the air, the wind carrying away the remnants of everyone she has ever cared for.
“I will go with you,” she says, the words tripping their way over her tongue.
A feeling of ice trickling down her spine, the fear overwhelms, yet she will not turn away. If she does, the conviction of finishing this will wash away with the fading of the memories.
Traveling Merchant (Book 2): Pestilence Page 27