Bone Dust & Beginnings (Alexa's Travels Book 1) (6 page)

His eyes went to hers, and his mind replayed their meeting, that vivid bolt of blue light. She’d… recharged from him. Understanding fell into place. These were carriers of the light. They couldn’t feed from an unclean source like those holding them captive, and it kept them weak, under control. Now, these kids would be able to seek out new energy sources and regain their own health.

Alexa smiled patiently. “We are
His
descendants, and
He
needed his people… as we do. Without others to love us, to follow us, we are desolate. With those things, we have enough hope to save the world.”

His eyes met hers. “That’s the true quest.”

Alexa’s face became a determined wall he didn’t doubt. “We were born to this time and place to help rebuild and fix the errors of the past. The War was our fresh start. We need only take it.”

“And Safe Haven?”

He eyes darkened with a powerful longing.
“Holds the key to it all.”

“Adrian. Adrian. Adrian.”

The younger kids chanted it, drawing Alexa’s attention. She smiled generously, sending a wave of light through the room. “Yes. With Adrian, we will create a future to be lived in, not just survived. We will prosper and fill this dead world with our love.”

6

Leaving was just as hard for Edward as he’d thought it would be. His protective heart demanded he stay until each of these fragile-looking children had someone to care for their needs, and he lingered in the doorway that Alexa had already gone through. Here, he could help. Out there with her, he was only a food-source. Finally understanding it came with a sickening feeling of being raised for the slaughter.

The children looked back without expressions, letting him make his own choice. If he wanted to stay, he was welcome. He had come with Alexa, and that gave him the right, but…

“Would you stay, Horseman, or go with me? Make your choice now.”

Her tone wasn’t unkind, and he looked over the kids again, searching harder. Did they want him to stay?

“No… and yes.”
Alexa began moving away from him. “You are a connection to me, but you are also a killer, and they fear that rubbing off. You have little use to them except as someone to train or entertain.”

Flushing, Edward spun on her. “And what am I to you beyond an energy source and servant?”

The warrior woman stopped, slowly turned to look at him with glowing blue eyes that promised he already held value to her.
“A dangerous tool to be wielded against the darkness.”

Alexa didn’t use her gift, waiting, letting him make his own choices. To sacrifice his life for these children’s safety was not unworthy at all, and that he felt the same need, won more of her respect.

Edward glanced back to find the crowded room behind him now empty. He hadn’t heard them leave, and it made his choice. Clearly, they were stronger than he was giving them credit for. They would be a fascination to be delighted in for sure, but would he look at the night sky and still long to be at Alexa’s side?

Yes. They’d only been together for days, and he already knew more about the world than he had before. Life with her would always be hard, thrilling, exhilarating…
real
.

The fighter pulled up his hood and stepped out of the bunker door with grim excitement filling his stomach. He’d just chosen to leave these children to follow Alexa to his death. The first heavy guilt-cord settled onto his shoulders, and he held his head up in response. Her goals were worthy. She wasn’t settling for helping one group of kids – she wanted to save them all, and that could only happen when they found Safe Haven.

Edward caught up quickly, falling into the place she’d put him for the trip here. She didn’t wave or even look at the kids as they stared from the upper windows and neither did he. The quest had truly begun now. There was no turning back.

7

“Attention!”

The static-filled radio blared through the truck of soldiers scouting the edges of the mountain for signs of Alexa.

“There has been a level 5 breach of compound K! All troops are required to report to the nearest base immediately!”

Corbin froze. K was their compound, the one he’d denied Rab the safety of.

Level 5.
No survivors.

The radio crunched again. “Report all sightings of captives directly to base!”

Corbin’s hand wasn’t quite steady as he turned the radio off
. All the work he’d done there! All his potions!

Driving, Shane opened his mouth to question.

Protecting his new friend from Corbin’s wild rage, Rab shook his head. It was a result of the experiments to a degree, but mostly, the Commander was ill. He had been all along. How else could he be such a monster to children?

Struggling to accept it, Corbin already had no intentions of going back to the nearest base. Alexa wouldn’t stay with the kids. She’d done it to send him a message, to tell him that he wouldn’t stand in the way of the quest… but she’d also made a mistake, hadn’t she? All those kids would be easy to find, and they would have new information, wouldn’t they?

Corbin’s sudden, harsh laughter spilled out, surprising the listening men. When Corbin laughed, it meant death was coming. They instinctively began to prepare for it - checking weapons and gear.

“Take me to compound K, but don’t use main roads. We’ll see how many of her children we can round up.”

May, 2016

1

Before the War, he had been afraid… of roller coasters.

Daniel realized it with a start, allowing the quiet dirt bike to come to a slow stop on the twisting incline. Scarred and gouged from his reckless lifestyle, his sweaty legs braced the bike easily despite the angle. Set into the side of a mountain, Suicide Cliff was no easy ride, and there was really only one way down, from this far up.

“I hated amusement parks!”

It was a minor revelation compared to the others he’d made since the war, to what he was about to do, but for a California boy whose family had run a carnival, it was a door to understanding the past that brought him to this point of no return. He didn’t care about the result, only wanted to understand why he was doing it, before it was done.

Daniel and his family, all nine of them, owned the Ocean Walk Carnival. It had been great most of the time. He’d learned to do the performances his parents and older siblings wanted him to, and eventually developed his own skill to contribute to the family legacy - stunts.

There wasn’t a bike on the planet that Daniel couldn’t ride. He’d been on them all during his years in the public view… and grown reckless as the thrill faded. He’d been hurt more times than he could remember, but it had never stopped him. There was little in life that Daniel had feared before the War. From flaming hoops to long gaps over cars, he’d jumped anything they put in his path… but he had been terrified of roller coasters.

“Why?” he asked crankily of the complete darkness among the scraggily trees and sharp boulders. “It wasn’t the height…”

Daniel got the dirt bike rolling again, not being particularly careful on the two foot trial that was blazed in the stone. Where he was headed, careful didn’t matter.

“Was it being out of my comfort zone?” he wondered suddenly, aware of a tiny humming sound coming from the west, but not looking that way. The Wastelands made odd noises, often. It wasn’t a reason for concern on a good day. On this night, it mattered even less. If the final gates had fallen, his end would come quicker, that’s all.

Unfazed by the thought, Daniel sped up again, and went back to his mental dissection. Why had he hated roller coasters? His brothers and sisters had spent their work breaks in line for the biggest one that they maintained - always filling the dinner table with tales of how they’d rode the front car of the Python with their arms held high…

Daniel had never done that. Every time he got in that front seat, (or any of those behind it) his stomach knotted up and he worried over being sick before the short ride could end. His armpits dripped sweat, and the nervous gas had the other kids laughing, teasing. When the car chugged up the hill, finally reaching the summit, the best he could manage was a weak yell with his eyes closed and his hands clenched tightly around the lap-rail. It had been a large source of embarrassment during his childhood… then humiliation, as he grew older
.

“The Dare-devil’s afraid of a little thing like riding a roller coaster! Ha-ha!”

Daniel pushed the bike faster around the last hairpin turn, letting gravity carry him through it. Gravity was something he could count on to always be there, something he would experience in a just a minute more.

“It wasn’t the idea of falling, or the death waiting if the coaster flew off the rails...”

Daniel found the answer as he neared the summit, the small, clear area where he planned to end his life.

“It was control!”

If he had been driving the coaster, it wouldn’t have haunted him, but because he could only raise his arms to whatever the Python wanted to dish out, he was captive, unable to even do that. He hadn’t been able to surrender control.

Daniel slowed the bike as he reached the almost level ground at the top of the cliff. He didn’t see the mysterious beauty of the glowing apocalypse sky, nor the shadowy forms of two people walking steadily toward him from the west.
All the
biker saw was freedom from his torment.

“One last
ride
…”

“The Daredevil’s afraid of a little thing like riding a roller coaster! Ha-ha!”

His rage flared to life, brighter than any of the explosions that had destroyed the world.

“Not anymore. That world,
that
Daniel, is dead.” The War had seen to it with a few seconds, and a single stray bullet during the chaos.

Pain rushed him in waves, and Daniel hit the handle, sending fuel rushing into the bike. It jumped forward eagerly in response.

As the bike neared the edge, Daniel’s hands slowly crept into the air, surrendering control for the first time in his life. He managed to keep them there as the bike went over the cliff, but his eyes didn’t open.

Feeling it would be enough. He didn’t want to see it, too.

2

Alexa darted toward the man’s broken body, and Edward kept pace, eyes watching the barren landscape that surrounded them. Why they were wasting their time, he had no idea. Anyone who fell from that high up wasn’t getting back up.

Alexa increased her speed, and Edward was unable to stay at her side. She streaked across the parched desert floor, leaving him behind.

Edward hurried to catch up. As he went, he suddenly thought maybe he understood her hurry. She was hungry…

Alexa was kneeling near the body before he got there, and Edward turned his back to her, watching their discouraging surroundings. They were in plain view, backs against the wall of the mountain. Edward pushed the worry aside. If they were attacked, Alexa would handle things like she had the other times they’d faced danger since leaving Lexington.

They had been together for a month, and the trip had been smooth. Not quiet, though. Twice, they’d been spotted by soldiers, and been in gunfights to get away. There had also been a rough hour of crossing a river in a small skiff, using oars to push away the awful debris. Black, anxious snakes had paced them the entire time, not hissing, but gliding along the water next to the skiff with a watchful menace.

Edward looked back to see Alexa’s head lowering, and found himself turning away without much concern. She needed energy, and if the man was dying anyway…

Alexa concentrated, drawing her strength.
“Your name!”

Daniel opened his eyes, unable to do much more. He didn’t feel pain exactly, but that sense of fading was clear enough. He’d had his one last ride.

“I offer a second chance...”

“Let me die.”

Stung by his desolation, Alexa shoved herself into his thoughts.
“I seek Safe Haven.”

Daniel’s eyes widened… slowly began to fill with red tears. Even the angels wanted to be there.

Daniel understood that he was in the process of dying, and was grateful to see a woman’s hard countenance rather than his childhood demons. He only hoped the pain didn’t start before it was over. Being numb was preferable to reality. Isn’t that why he’d done this in the first place?

Alexa leaned closer, deep in his mind, seeing what had caused him to do this to himself. “I need your strength for the Quest, Daniel. You did not outlive your child to die in vain!”

Her tone brooked no argument.

Drawn back against his will, Daniel blinked, trying to really see her.
Safe Haven… a quest.
Adrian!

His body arched suddenly, eyes foggy, pupils starting to dilate…

“I will have an answer!”

Alexa’s roar in his mind brought the world back into focus, and Daniel gave the only response he could through broken, bloody lips.
“Master.”

Alexa slanted her mouth over his, the blood ignored. Instead of the inhale Edward was expecting, she blew into the man’s lungs - returning life instead.

Edward tried to stay focused on the watch, but the screams of the biker were terrible to hear. Every breath she blew into him seemed to scrape away another layer of his paralysis, his injuries. It was slow work.

He’d thought she was ending the man’s pain, but instead…

“
Aaahhhhhhh
….”

The horseman grunted, moving a few feet away. It would be a rough night for all of them, and there was no telling what the noise would bring. “I’ll be up high.”

Alexa didn’t respond, and Edward’s jealous heart was appeased a bit. She trusted him to stand the watch properly. It would be a while before the new man was allowed that honor.

3

“His name is Daniel.”

Edward looked at the pale man sitting against the cliff that had nearly taken his life. He was grateful the screaming had stopped, but in no hurry to welcome the handsome biker. He had enjoyed his time alone with Alexa.

“As did I, but now, the quest grows more dangerous, and we have to, as well,” Alexa stated firmly. “Alone, we will not reach Safe Haven.”

Edward hung his head. Despite it being a month, he still wasn’t guarding his thoughts from her.
“Whatever you need.”

Alexa’s response was quick. “
He
needs to be trained, as I have you thus far.”

Edward’s head snapped up. “Me?”

Alexa met his surprised look with a raised brow. “Would
you
lead, while
I
teach him?”

Edward flushed, hating it that he spent so much time in the wrong, but loving it that she always called him on it. A leader didn’t explain, they taught, and he had already been learning. “When shall I start?”

There was silence for an answer, and the horseman obediently rose to his feet.

Alexa watched him move towards Daniel with pleased, tired eyes. She was near to being drained again, shriveled hands deep inside her cloak to be out view. In a day or so, when Daniel was able to defend himself for a few minutes at a time, she would reward Edward for his obedience and enjoy a much needed meal.
Until then…

Alexa took up the watch, eyes scanning the apocalyptic mountains around them. Right after the War, the destruction zone had encompassed the three farthest western states. Then the gates had opened and begun spreading the Wastelands.
 
Now, it was 300 miles beyond that, and steadily creeping east. Mother Nature wanted all of her land back. If the Descendants didn’t do something soon, she would succeed.

“How long have you been with her?”

Daniel was extremely curious as to what the quest had been like so far. Almost succeeding in taking his own life had given him a new outlook, a new courage he hadn’t known he possessed until he was over the edge of that cliff.

Edward was already feeling the need to jealously guard those memories, especially the one after he’d proven his loyalty by following Alexa from the bunker. She’d made him hers that night - in more way than one.

“Since Lexington,” Edward finally answered, watching the man’s scarred fingers twitch like his body was being denied something it craved. Edward noticed that the biker didn’t react to the healing twitches, even though the pain had to still be bad. Parts of bones and veins were prominent under his skin - clearly not where they should be. Except for his face, Daniel was covered in scars and ugly mementoes that said his life even before the War had been troubled.

“But, that’s almost the heart of the Wastelands!” Daniel exclaimed, admiring the man’s courage. Of Alexa, he was in awe.

“Yes.”

Edward didn’t want to accept the new man, but he did want to please Alexa. He held out a leather kit. “You’re never to be without this, even when there is nothing in it.”

He waited for Daniel to take empty carry-bag, and then continued. “Until she says otherwise, you’ll do what I do - down to where and how I step. Copy me at all…”

Ggrrrr
…

The loud rumble from the west had Edward on his feet. The rats were back. “Shit!”

He spun toward Alexa’s post, but turned back just as quickly. He leaned down into Daniel’s confused face, delivering his first real order of the quest. “You will get into the nearest tree, and still be alive when she comes for you!”

Daniel gave a quick nod, and watched Edward take off running. Trouble was coming and he would be no help. Gritting his teeth, the battered biker slowly began dragging himself toward the closest moldy trunk. Life mattered again, and Daniel was grateful.

Grimacing at the feel of dragging his broken legs across the rough ground, the man was determined to do his share as soon as he could. When his injuries had finished mending, he would make sure they both saw how useful he could be.

4

Alexa motioned Edward under cover, and waited tensely to see how many dogs had been put on their trail this time. The last two attempts had been small teams, but this sounded like a convoy of government trucks.

Not asking if Daniel was hidden, Alexa drew her gun, and was glad when Edward followed her lead. She was low on energy to be facing so many. His help was definitely needed.

Edward watched the trucks crest the rise, the dirt clouds trailing behind them for as far as he could see. Five team trucks… No, nine - roughly thirty-five men. The trucks spread out as they neared the base of the cliff, like they were herding prey, and Edward looked to Alexa in concern.