The Killin' Fields (Alexa's Travels Book 2) (23 page)

The bodies next to him, half eaten, jerked the fighter to his feet and put his gun in hand.

“Easy,” Alexa murmured, standing a groggy watch nearby. Mark and Edward were next to her, with David and Billy close by, both emptying their guts. Daniel was the only one still unconscious and Jacob stayed close to him, automatically taking over for Alexa. He would assist their final man upon waking, freeing her to help the others. Which meant she had only woken right before him, and Jacob wasn’t comforted by that. It was another confirmation that she was ill. They ate together, slept together, bled and killed together. With the new awareness she’d given them all, if one of them hadn’t noticed it by now, they didn’t belong in this group.

Jacob was studying the mess of tracks around his feet, trying to figure out how long they’d been out, when Daniel jerked awake and into a low crouch an instant later, gun ready and eyes wild.

“Easy,” Jacob muttered, not staring at the carnage. Merrik himself appeared to have only been snacked on lightly.

“Brian isn’t here,” Daniel stated slowly. “And Merrik’s face is half gone.”

Must taste bad,
Jacob thought, noting the other bodies had bites and gouges all over them.

The men observed Alexa kneel down by Merrik’s body and begin removing objects.

“You’ve given me something I needed,” she told the very dead Captain.  “We’re even now.”

She tucked the items into her pockets and then stood at the edge of the corn, away from the death and insects. Her men followed, after striping the rest of the soldiers of their guns and ammo.

Alexa stared at the corn and the foggy landscape behind it, not speaking. They could detect the edge of a house through the next massive field and none of her men wanted to go in there.

“Neither do I, my pets,” Alexa admitted lightly. “And right now, we have no reason to. Let’s go.”

Alexa turned them toward Lincoln, keeping to the bank of the river, and her fighters were relieved. They’d had as much of the corn and its secrets that they could tolerate. Another two days in the fields and some of their sanity would be missing.

Alexa understood. She also knew they could take much more than what they’d been given so far.  The going hadn’t really gotten tough yet.

Alexa led them straight toward Lincoln, not bothering to go back and search for the other travelers. It was the wagons she mourned, but if luck led them quickly enough, they might still be a part of the trade. Why they needed to, she still wasn’t sure, but instinct said whoever got the wagons and the boy to Roscoe first held a needed advantage, and Alexa wanted it. She didn’t know what was going on it Lincoln, but if it were as populated as the rumors implied, then the secrets being kept there could be important. Not to their quest, but to the future of their country. If Roscoe was dealing openly against the government, then the government had already reared its head, as her father had predicted so long ago.

Alexa flashed to that conversation.

“They’ll be a space of time where the government isn’t heard from for a while and people believe they’re gone. Don’t fall for it. They’re regrouping and planning how to come out in a way that returns control over us. When that happens, get people together and fight.”

“Fight the government?”

“Yes, as hard as you can, with every breath you have. If they come up and reassert their control unopposed, we’ve lost it all again.”

Alexa thought about how fast the world had collapsed, and the growing number of soldiers they’d been running in to. It appeared that the time was nearing to help their fellow Americans make a stand. The problem was that Alexa didn’t think there were enough true patriots left to handle such a battle, and even if there were, Adrian was the only one who could bring enough people together to win. Without him, everyone else was doomed.

5

“We’re being followed. Again.”

David’s observation was met with resigned sighs.

“It’s the thief,” Paul commented.

Paul had been the second one to wake up. When he joined Mark on the watch without talking, the convict had been surprised and glad. Mark didn’t like Paul and didn’t want him along, but when he’d woken to discover all the bodies and blood around him, he’d been eager for any of their group to wake, even the rabbit.

“Should I collect him?” Billy offered. “I’ll be gentle.”

Alexa waved him on and Billy darted into the weeds alongside their faint dirt path and disappeared.

Edward scanned and found no one watching him. He quickly scraped off the bug goop the girl had smeared on and was astounded to find the deep slice almost healed.

“Wow.”

“Yeah, the old world would have charge for that. Here, it’s free.”

Edward hadn’t heard Jacob come up behind him and he controlled the flinch that came from being sucker punched twice by the same fist in one trip.

Less than five minutes later, Billy reappeared with his prize, bound and gagged.
The thief had picked up a black robe and boots that gave him the appearance of a monk when he was set on his feet.

Alexa motioned for the gag to be removed, but kept them rolling forward. She wanted to be in Lincoln ASAP.

“Why are you following us?”

The thief beamed happily. “Got what you want. Need protection.”

Alexa’s voice lowered into coolness. “You’d change the terms of our deal now?”

The thief shook his head, tongue shooting out to run across his cracked lips. “You can’t give me to Roscoe.”

Alexa raised a brow. “No?”

“Please, he’ll kill me and I didn’t do none of it!”

The loudness of his protest drew an immediate reaction from Mark. He replaced the gag.

Alexa didn’t stop, mind working on the newest choice, and her men made sure the thief stayed in the center where he was protected and also under tight scrutiny. If Alexa decided to accept his terms, they would be doing it anyway.

Paul was scowling thickly at the new guy and the thief made a face at him as if to say
, “What are you lookin’ at?”

Paul spat towards the thief, wiping away the sloppy grin, and the thief muttered through his gag. Impossible to tell what he was saying, all of them quickly tuned him out.

“Why weren’t we killed too?”

Paul’s question was one all of the men were wondering about and they waited for Alexa to answer instead of shushing the scientist.

“Did we have some sort of protection…because of you?”

Alexa sighed. She’d done more talking on this trip than she’d done in years. “Partly because of my father, but mostly because of the unspoken rules. We protected them, fed them. A debt isn’t something to leave unpaid these days.”

“It felt like more than that,” Paul insisted. “Like we were protected.”

“The wagon drivers weren’t killed,” Billy reminded them of the tracks they’d found at Merrik’s slaughter. “They didn’t help the old woman.”

“Our guy paid a fee,” Edward stated tonelessly, now realizing what it had meant. “A couple of us saw him give them a pouch. I thought he was being generous.”

“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.