The Killin' Fields (Alexa's Travels Book 2) (2 page)

“Yeah,” Edward snorted. “Come on. She wants to be moving. Can’t you feel her impatience?”

Alexa turned toward the path she’d chosen and David took up the place on her right to cover for Edward, who would have a miserable few hours of trying to teach Paul the basics of their traveling formation that he should have picked up on his own by now just from doing it every day. It wasn’t hard, but it took concentration that the scientist didn’t seem to have. Paul was often causing them to stop while he examined some specimen that he’d only read about in the lab, or while he exclaimed over the hues of the sunset. It was as if he hadn’t been outside in his entire life.

For all they knew, he hadn’t.

“She’s getting ready to drill us,” Mark commented, making sure his gear was high and tight. The others did the same, muttering.

Edward’s frown grew as he shoved Paul into place. “Your fault, you go ahead of me.”

Paul started to protest,” What did I…”

Edward shoved the scientist forward. “Let’s go. Now!”

Ahead of them, Alexa was running.

The other fighters flew by Edward and Paul, and the horseman snatched the scientist by his jacket and jerked him deeper into the killin’ fields.

Remnants

1

“Get up!” Edward stopped and went back to the sweaty scientist, aware of his group getting further ahead with every second.

“The next time you fall,” Edward growled, hauling Paul’s cringing form to his feet. “I’m leaving you.

Gasping and pale, with bright red cheeks, Paul didn’t have enough air to argue with.

“Useless!” Edward pat, sliding his arm around Paul’s waist as the sound of boots faded. He hefted the man over his shoulder roughly and rushed to catch up as Paul cried out in pain.

Alexa heard the heavy steps, the crashing of two bodies through the corn that reminded her of their adventure on the bridge, and she brought her team to a stop. She waited for Edward to put Paul down and gave them a one-hundred count to catch their breath before she started walking at a quick pace. She kept it that way for the next hour, fighting the instinct that said faster was better. If slowing them down was the worst consequence of bringing Paul along, they would be fine.

“Feels like we’re being followed,” David stated. He changed to walk backwards, scanning. There hadn’t been much in the way of noise or sights today and it made the  blacksmith alert to the slight changes.

Not doubting him, Alexa signaled her men closer, but didn’t stop. After nearly three days, they were deep into the fields and well, trouble had to come sometime, didn’t it? She prepared herself mentally, hands falling into a comforting routine of checking her weapons and gear. She didn’t need to confirm that her men were doing the same, but she did glance pointedly at Paul.

Paul tried to copy the others, but didn’t feel like he was being given a fair chance to prove himself. They had no sympathy for the sheltered life he had led.

“Boss.”

This time, Alexa did stop. David’s tone said they had trouble and he wasn’t sure what to do about it. She turned to see a little girl of about seven, pale as a corpse, standing behind them.

Alexa waved a hand and her men fell in behind, pulling Paul aside as they all gaped at the undead child.

Alexa used the brief moment to see who the girl had once been. The child wore a long dress made of simple wool that declared her origins after the war had been poor and untraveled. There were still enough old world clothes around to outfit a country, but those who controlled those items were ruthless in their pricing. The only other way to outfit a family was to scavenge for it, but this child’s clothes were handmade, suggesting a life in one place. Bare, scarred feet implied the same and Alexa wondered only at the braces still on the girl’s rotting teeth. This child hadn’t always been isolated or poor. Once upon a time, she’d had a life. It was heartbreaking.

“May we pass?” Alexa asked sadly. She already knew the answer.

The little girl bared gleaming fangs, hissing, “Never!”

Sighing resignedly, Alexa pulled her gun and shot the undead child in the forehead.

Blood poured down the small ,face, a fatal wound, but the child only hissed again in anger and darted into the corn.

“Word of our presence will spread now,” Alexa said in the stunned shock that had fallen over her fighters. “Go quietly, and watch your six.”

She hadn’t wanted to reveal her presence yet, but there was only one way to deal with such a threat-forcefully-and as a result, her hand had been forced. There was little doubt that it was intentional.

Her fighters recovered quickly, but David had to bump Paul on the elbow to get him moving again.

They fell back into their normal march-like formation, none of them surprised when Alexa sped up. The encounter had been unsettling and all of them scanned the abnormal corn for the child to return.

“What was she?” Paul asked, trying not to trip over the thick roots and sharp rocks in the path.

“A guardian,” Alexa answered. “They protect the places where reality has ripped open.”

“That’s a lie!” Paul protested. He began to roll out the same lines he’d heard Corbin use so often. “There are no gates. The government does not control or encourage the destruction of reality. There are no monsters in the…”

“Shut up!” Edward had stopped and spun around, grabbing Paul by the jacket. “Don’t ever do that again!”

“What?!” Paul squeaked, bracing to take the blows.

“Call her a liar,” Jacob said. “Or any of us. You’re the only liar here.”

“And you just saw a monster, you idiot!” Mark snapped. “Wake up!”

Mark shoved Paul and Edward let him hit the ground.

“We’ll be tolerant, but we will not let you restart that old shit, not in this group,” Mark insisted. “Black is black and white is white. There is no damn gray.”

The men hurried to catch up with Alexa, and Paul came along more slowly, now bringing up the rear. He refused to believe the child had been shot. Alexa had missed.

Alexa spun around and rushed toward the scientist before he could think to flee. She punched him in the mouth hard enough to send him back to the dirt.

“I didn’t miss! Tell me what happened! Now!”

Paul opened his mouth to spew his false beliefs, and Alexa slapped him. “What really happened?”

“You shot her!” Paul cried out. Then the damn broke. “And she wasn’t dead! She hissed! She would have killed you if she could! They lied to me!”

Paul began to sob at her feet, and Alexa recoiled in disgust. “Don’t make me do that again or I’ll leave you behind. I have no time to waste fixing your broken parts. Do that yourself.”

It was something she’d said to each of her men at one time or another, and they realized she was giving him a break by not demanding he confess his sins to one of the other men It was also another sign that he wasn’t going to be one of her fighters and it eased the tension a little.

Paul pulled himself together and cautiously stood up, not sure if one of them would hit him again.

“How do you kill a guardian?” Billy asked, hating the tension, but wanting the information more than to fill the awkward silence. He couldn’t help Alexa fight these battles if he didn’t know how to kill the enemies.

“You can only disable those like her for a while and kill their creators,” Alexa answered, resuming their walk.

“Disable?”

“Creators? Like vampires?”

Alexa used their interest to allay their fears of not being able to kill the dangers around them. Sometimes blood spilling wasn’t possible or even needed. They were learning that.

“Vampires die easily enough, that’s a myth. Guardians are different. They’re an extension. You have to disable the ability to send them out. To do that, you would normally use the same disbelief that Paul clings to.”

“Normally?”

“This creator is a fair bit tougher than most. The average conjurer can send a shadow of themselves to spy, but little else. They’re weak. Those who’ve perfected their craft are Masters. The shadows they send are capable of everything that a person is and more.”

“How do we…”

“You don’t,” Alexa stated firmly. “I do. You’ll handle the blows sent to stop me from succeeding. Those can be killed with exactly what I’ve given you.”

It was then that her men realized they were here for more than just tracking down the next Safe Haven clue. It felt as if Alexa had a livelier target in mind, and the men had just been handed their assignments.

Satisfied they were now in the right moods and frames of mind, Alexa quickened their pace. “Let’s move.”

2

“There’s something back this way.”

Edward’s words were passed up to Alexa, and brought the group to a halt again two hours later. He’d been sniffing for such a place, hoping to be free of Paul’s weight for a while. The scientist would never be able to keep up.

Alexa joined him to survey whatever it was he’d found. Edward had a nose for stashes, and Alexa saw no reason not to follow the possibility. “You lead, we’ve got Paul.”

That was something she hadn’t allowed or even hinted at before, and Edward tried to be perfect as he took over Point. The sense of food being hidden here somewhere was clear, and he found himself falling into the tracking zone without Alexa’s order. She often used words to trigger their mood changes and actions, but it wasn’t needed here. He’d watched her loosely every time and after months, it was almost natural now.

“Be careful here,” Edward called over his shoulder. “Some sort of wall.”

The corn and weeds had mostly taken over the concrete wall that bordered the property, but the large ranch house appeared in decent shape. Only a few of the bricks were crumbling and of course, the glass in the windows was gone, but other than that, from the outside, the home was intact. Even the front door was undamaged.

Edward stopped, considering, listening, feeling. “There.”

He pointed them toward a wide building that ran alongside the ranch house. It was covered in thick vines that didn’t belong in this arid landscape and the horseman waited for Alexa to tell him what to do.

The front of the storeroom was cleverly hidden by a large tree, two small bushes, and a trellis with a type of climbing ivy that had spread itself around since the ar. The vivid green vines covered the roof and sides, leaving only outlines of doors and filthy plastic windows.

“Keep leading,” Alexa stated from the bodyguard’s place.

David and Daniel kept Paul close, while Jacob and Billy watched the dark shadows of the house that was now between them and the corn.

Edward used a light hand on the knob and pushed the narrow door open, wondering if this storehouse had another entrance. It was hard to imagine people carrying boxes through that tight opening.

Edward went inside, Alexa right behind him to check the dark corners with her penlight, and the horseman whistled in surprise.

The cool room was lined with shelves and filled with a stash that many other survivors might have killed each other to possess. The concrete walls and floor were covered, plexiglass windows and ceiling in good shape, and Alexa slapped Edward on the back. “Nice.”

Edward glowed at the praise, and Alexa called the others inside and shut the door.

Once they were all in, it was crowded, but not in a bad way. It made it more obvious to the men that Alexa’s strengths weren’t always clear upon a first meeting. She was petite compared to the stature of her men, but when the fighting began, the blonde became a hulk of wrath and vicious intelligence. It was a skill she’d been given over her lifetime, and Edward was sure that Alexa would use it on this quest. She liked the element of surprise as much as he did.

 “Inventory. Hit me,” Alexa ordered.

“Bottled water.”

“Jars of canned corn.”

“Toilet paper rolls!”

“Some kind of juice. Can’t read the first word.”

“Five cases of canned items-no labels.”

The list took a while and Alexa gleaned a lot from the find. If this stock had been here long enough for the labels to have eroded or worn away, it meant there hadn’t been people here. No one in their right mind would leave a stash like this untouched, but there wasn’t a single print in the thick dust.

“I found something,” Jacob said. He’d been searching for manuals or instructions. “Emergency relocation supplies for preparedness capabilities Extraction Plan. Lot four of seven. Re: Item SAM23145 for coordinates. Radio upon confirmation. Proceed to pullout location Alpha.”

Jacob paused, and Alexa motioned for him to continue. They all wanted to hear it.

“Take the path cleared by Recon and set the charges according to the map. To ensure proper timing, the explosives are prewired and timed. Follow alarming instruction to the letter.”

Jacob handed the paper to David to read, unable to take anymore. He’d already scanned the next lines and almost couldn’t believe it.

“When the city is at the height of fire, release the valve on the chamber in the safe. Wear masks with respirators or death will occur within seconds. Once chemical is released, evacuate area of all personnel and rendezvous at final coordinates within 21 days.”

Speculation and horror ran through the group.