The Killin' Fields (Alexa's Travels Book 2) (19 page)

“She said we couldn’t eat them!”

Peters had begun to get loud, unaware of the moment he’d interrupted or Merrik being mia.

“Why is it okay for her to?”

“We wanted to sleep in peace,” Daniel sneered down, angry at the disruption. “Sleeping is over.”

Realizing they’d been made fun of, the soldiers proceeded to disturb the morning with round after round of gunfire that took down the cranes that were too slow to take to flight. Feathers, shit, and squawks of terror filled the air.

Alexa didn’t reprimand them but she did toss her birds to Jacob, wipe her hands, and begin checking her guns.

The soldiers noticed, realized they’d made yet another mistake, and followed her lead.

Billy took over the watch, leaving Brian with Edward, and Alexa waited for Daniel to get close enough to speak privately. “Where’s Merrik?”

She followed Daniel’s line of sight to the wagons and spotted a slumped form under one of them. She was able to discern that Merrik wasn’t bound and was still breathing, and didn’t need to know anything more. He’d gotten out of line and her men had handled him. It was what their job.

“We leave twenty minutes after we’ve eaten. You crash for at least half a shift in a wagon.”

Alexa had caught all of his exchange with Braids, and she grinned. “Doesn’t have to be alone as long as there’s sleep at some point.”

Blushing at the teasing, Daniel went to get coffee. He saw the males slaves take the dead cranes the soldiers shot and to clean them for the old woman, who would be paid well for providing a meal with fresh meat in it. The soldiers wouldn’t have to pay since they’d shot them, but they wouldn’t have had to anyway, since all government workers got everything free. It was one of the few benefits of being government staff now.

Breakfast was quick but peaceful, with biscuits covered in gravy for a side to the fried crane, and without Merrik’s negativity, it was enjoyed by all of them. The group chatted lightly, the kids played, and the tension was absent for the first time on this trip.

“Who the hell snuck up on me?!”

Alexa sighed as Merrik’s ugly shout shattered the peace. “Time to go. Load it up.”

Then, And Now

1

They reached the river around noon and the cloudy green water wasn’t a welcome sight.
The grass and straggly corn along the muddy bank blew in the light breeze like normal foliage, but underneath, the same layer of bugs waited. Immediate grumbles broke out when people realized there was no bridge. No one wanted to enter that area.

Alexa paralleled the bank for a while, picking a good place to cross, and it caused impatience in the soldiers.

“Where is she going?” Peters asked, motioning for Travis to watch over their bound woman while he went to Merrik. He handed over the leash without noticing Edward’s eyes narrow in anger. He didn’t like slavery on either side.

“No clue,” Brian lied from his place with Billy. Lack of common sense was something Brian didn’t tolerate well.

“It’s shallow here,” Merrik stated, motioning two men forward. The bruises on his neck stood out glaringly. “Cross on over and throw a rope. We’ll tie it off and have a grip.”

“I wouldn’t do that.”

Alexa’s warning was heeded by the two soldiers, but Merrik turned on her with rage in his voice. “Stay out of this! You’re not the leader here!”

He was still wound up over being strangled and had conveniently forgotten that he’d been trying to do the same to Alexa when he was caught.

Alexa’s face didn’t change, but her air became cold. “Fine.”

She continued down the faint path and many of the group went with her. They’d learned the lesson.

Merrik hadn’t. He forced the soldiers to go into the water.

The two men inched across slowly, feeling out the lightly rushing creek, and made it to the other side with relief.

“Alright, let’s go.” Merrik ordered.

His boots sank into the mud and he looked down to see the water turning red. He lunged onto the bank and gawked in shock at the bleeding men on the opposite bank.

“Help me!”

“It hurts!”

“What is it?” Peters shouted.

Merrik saw streams of blood running from the legs of both falling men. It flowed steadily to the ground and into the water where small air bubbles told him something was alive in there.

The screams faded quickly as both men slumped to the mud.

Merrik growled. “Damn it! Must be poison.”

He glanced to where Alexa was almost out of sight and angrily stomped that way, leaving the two men where they’d fallen.

Alexa heard them rejoin the group and didn’t say anything. Inside however, she was growing more and more upset with the way he was sacrificing his men as if he had an inexhaustible supply. He should already know that every set of hands in this new world was a blessing to be protected.

Birds fled ahead of them, disturbed by their noises, and all over the travelers braced for more vicious butterflies.

None came and they continued in nervous apprehension.

2

Alexa marched them through the corn without a stop or break and the grumbling stayed low. It was clear that they were in another bad area. The stalks had gone to solid, wet black and the dirt under them was sunken in, like something very heavy had been here for a long time. That tempting smell was gone, replaced with a mildew odor that said all the dryness wasn’t to be trusted.

“We’re nearing the center of the fields now,” the mapmaker stated lowly from his place on the cart. The two grieving gunfighters sauntered around him in tense silence.

“What’s in the center?” a slaver asked from the wagon next to them.

“Giants, I heard, but who knows for sure? Something bad,” the mapmaker answered shakily

“That why you brought such strong help?” the slave woman asked, eyeing the man’s big arms and wide shoulders.

The man flushed and his face withdrew into itself. “Don’t mind my help and I won’t mind your slaves.”

“In a few more years, your kind won’t be free either!” the slaver spewed, feeling the sting of his scold.

The man straightened his shoulders. “Well until then, I am, so slam you!”

The woman angrily slapped her whip across her horse to get ahead, and the two gunfighters shared smirks. The brothers didn’t usually befriend those they escorted across this broken country, but Jim had been the exception. They’d already stayed with him for double the amount of time they’d spent on their longest job. They liked his boldness in a world that was now mostly female leadership. They also wanted the reward he’d sworn to hand over.

Jim, a former bank executive and rock climber, was aware of having their loyalty because of more than a promised payment. He was careful to maintain the image they expected to see, and after escorting their prisoner to Lincoln, he hoped to stay with them.
Waiting on enough travelers to gather had been hard on the mapmaker. He’d grown more bitter every day the thief had been in his custody and no longer wanted to rebuild his old life.

Alexa motioned Edward, with Paul in tow, to the Point position and let her pace drop to where the mapmaker was now flipping through old sketches of this area. She stayed next to him, ignoring the gunfighters that moved closer for his protection.

Jim became aware of the tension and was a bit startled to find the real leader of their wagon train by his cart. He also spotted their new guide and then discovered Alexa having a bite to eat while they traveled, as many others in the group were doing. He swallowed a sharp remark.

Alexa didn’t miss any of it and she held out a slice of pumpkin bread that Billy had made a week ago. The old bakery they’d found had a can of pumpkin under the cabinet and after declaring it still good, the driver had treated them all to warm pumpkin bread and strong coffee from his personal stock. It had been a wonderful evening.

“Are you sure?”

Alexa nodded, mouth full, and Jim slowly reached over to take the smallest corner. He was leery of anything pulled from someone’s pocket like a tissue.

He nibbled a corner of the bread and immediately grinned. “Hey! That’s good.”

Alexa took a swig from her canteen. “One of my men has cooking skills.” She delivered a stunning, rare grin to the mapmaker. “Maybe we can trade some?”

Jim, now starving for his wife’s pumpkin bread, didn’t answer right away. He’d missed Elaine for every day she’d been gone and it was always the tiniest things that could trigger an awful moment of heartache and frustration.

Aware that he was drifting, Jim looked over to tell Alexa yes and found her gone. A generous slice of the bread was lying on a foil square by his leg and he ate it slowly, uncaring that tears were occasionally rolling down his cheeks. The flashes were very vivid, painful, and he wouldn’t have stopped them even if he could have.

“What did she do to him?” Peters asked lowly from next to Merrik.

Merrik shrugged. He didn’t care. “Beats me. Got ammo left?”

Peters wasn’t about to give up any of his supplies. “Two mags. That last hit wiped me out.” Peters stepped over a deep rut. “Why? You out?”

Merrik snorted. “Me? Out?” He lowered his voice. “Just making plans. You ready?”

“I’ve talked to the boys, but they won’t help until we’re on the boat.”

Merrik spat into the corn, nearly tripping over another of those deep, scratched ruts. “Figures. You tell them if they don’t support me, we can’t finish this job and that means we don’t get back on the inside.”

Neck and face bruised, occasionally rubbing his shoulder and head, Merrik looked rougher than everyone else in their convoy. He clearly wasn’t adjusting well.

“I’ll tell ‘em,” Peters grunted.

“You don’t sound like they’ll care.”

The Private wasn’t going to be drawn into betraying confidences. “Let me talk to them and then I can answer that.”

Always angry and unable to do anything about it, Merrik spotted Alexa walking nearby and verbally attacked her again. “Where are you taking us? We should be at the dock by now!”

Alexa, in the middle of enjoying the last slice of her bread, gave him a glower as she finished chewing and swallowed.

“No pumpkin bread for you. Asshat.”

She dropped back to the wagon and hopped onto the seat next to the driver before Merrik could recover.

The driver sped them up a bit, so she didn’t have to be there when Merrik finally came up with a response.

Listening from behind them, Mark snickered. He loved being with Alexa. She knew how to put someone in their place in such a way that they had almost no defense against it.

Mark scanned the corn to his right and slowly rotated, making sure he met the gaze of every member of their team. It was an alertness that all of them had learned from Alexa and it was effective under these circumstances. Every few minutes required eye contact. Mark often did his early, as did Edward. Jacob and David were still forgetting it sometimes and were often smacked with small stones to get their attention for a check-in. It was taking time but they were getting it.

Paul, however, had interrupted their lessons. Alexa wasn’t teaching them much right now, though escorting these people certainly was. Often something unexpected, Mark already missed their special session where Alexa showed them something they hadn’t know existed or gave them a new skill to add to their already impressive resumes.

Mark watched Alexa slowly slide from the wagon to walk alongside the prisoner’s cell. She showed a small foil square to his guards and got their approval before holding it through the narrow bars.

The man took it gratefully and wolfed it down like he was starving. Not particularly fat or thin, the prisoner stared at Alexa with a slick gaze.

“Some more?”

Alexa rewarded the begging with a second foil and the man grinned. “What chu need, lady?”

Alexa raised a brow and the man laughed cruelly. “Don’t nobody talk to me unless it’s an order. A gift like this? Never.”

Alexa shrugged. “You have nothing on you I want.”

Sly, the man settled back into his cage and enjoyed small bites of the bread. Between swallows, they chatted lightly.

“If you make it to where you’re going, you’ll be hung?” she asked.
The thief’s name hadn’t been brought up, and Alexa had no idea what to call the sly man who peered at her through the bars. Thief? Prisoner? Walking dead man? All of them fit.

“Knifed on arrival is more like it,” the thief stated shamelessly. “I ain’t got no friends in Lincoln.”

Alexa let that stew and started a new pot. “Are you sorry for your life of crime?”

“Nope. Got rich stealin’. Also got caught, though, so maybe it ain’t even. Hard to say at this point.”

“And why is that?”

He grinned, showing perfectly white teeth. “Cause I ain’t there yet, of course. There’s always hope til then.”

“Papers some people carry still give hope, as well,” she hinted.

“Things from the old days? Sure.”

Seeing she had his full attention now, Alexa flicked her eyes to the messengers, to their chests. The three hunting buddies had signed up to be mail carriers for the excitement, but once here, they’d realized how dangerous the job was. They stayed twitchy, hands always ready to pull the switches to the explosives strapped to their chests.

Alexa didn’t say anything else to the thief, just stayed there until Edward sent Paul to tell her there was a silo and the outline of a barn ahead of their convoy.

As she left the prisoner, Alexa gave him a quick glance and got the single nod she expected. She paused by Mark.

“Is he guilty, my pet?” Alexa asked in a low murmurer.

“As sin, lady,” Mark snorted harshly. “Shoot him now and save your headache.”

“In due time,” Alexa responded, easing his concerns.

She kept going and joined Edward in the lead. The challenge she’d given the thief was one he wouldn’t be able to refuse, not if he was as good as she thought. Very few pickpockets were worth the trouble of a barred wagon and guards. If a man was so violent to need all that, he was usually shot and his body dragged back as proof of punishment. Life had changed drastically in America and it wasn’t finished yet.