The Killin' Fields (Alexa's Travels Book 2) (20 page)

3

Alexa sat down near the single center fire and eased off her boots, like she did most evenings. Taking care of their feet was a priority for a group who traveled on them.

The others, seeing things were okay for the moment, gathered around her. They ate, cared for themselves, and waited in longing.

Alexa let them wait. She was aware that evenings had become story time and she didn’t mind that, but the chores would be finished first.

“Two senior soldiers on sentry up high, three on constant patrol.”

The soldiers reluctantly followed her directions when Merrik remained silent. He and his female slave were sitting as far from Alexa as he could get, glowering while the tall slaver woman took care of his multiple injuries. He’d suffered scrapes and bruises from dealing with Alexa’s men, but he’d also gotten a gash on his cheek from the wagon.

Edward and Daniel quickly organized the sentry posts while Billy watched Brian and Paul; glad there would be little wind to interfere with hearing. They too had been anticipating more of Alexa’s past. Little of it mattered now, but it was still fascinating.

Alexa took her time, being sure they were all on edge before beginning. She knew how to help a legend flourish.

“When they came for us, my father and I were in the bunker area, using the small range. We’d finished the shooting and he was telling me about controlling my reactions. To this day, I still regard it as one of the most important things I was taught. The entire day was a guide for the rest of my life.”

Then

“Pay attention.” Adrian’s thumb was gentle as he swiped a tear from his only daughter’s soft cheek. “I’m going to teach you control.”

“Will that help me shoot better?”

Adrian smiled, flashing love and understanding. “Yes, but you need it for more than that. Control, when used correctly, can move mountains.”

Alexa tried to concentrate, to get what he meant. Some of their conversations were easy, like hunting and evading, but sometimes they were so deep that he had to explain it to her in a few different ways before she was satisfied. He said her brain required a complete picture, that he’d been the same way about subjects.

“One example is a man trapped in a burning building. If he controls his emotions and thinks, he may be able to find a way out. If he panics, he’ll die. A second definition would be when someone makes you angry. You’re a killer. Never doubt it. With that comes responsibility. You can’t kill someone for any reason, except for there being no other choice. Without being able to control yourself, you would kill them no matter what.”

Alexa couldn’t argue that point. She had been hard as a child, but training under her father had brought out the ruthless side. There had already been times when she couldn’t stop herself from reacting to one of his goads during a defense lesson. She hated it when anyone got a hit on her and the fact that the men were only tagging her like a goal post made it worse.

“A more complicated form of control is over other people.” Adrian’s tone was knowing. “You’ve gotten a good deal of experience with that one, so I know you’re clear.”

“I’ve only ever used it to help other kids like me. I don’t know the rules there.”

“That’s an area we’ll have to get into another time. It has a lot of little details that we’ll miss if we try to fit it in here.”

Alexa suddenly shivered with dread and sadness. “What about when you leave? How will I know these things?”

Adrian opened a kit near their chairs and handed her a thick notebook. “I have hundreds of these. You’ll read my words when you can’t hear my voice.”

Alexa grabbed him for a hug that Adrian allowed himself to enjoy. She was so much like him. Being the oldest, he had expected that up to a point, but her gifts were stronger than his were and he had chosen to start her training early. Normally, they wouldn’t have had much contact before she was of age, but the world was changing and there wasn’t time to let her grow up.

Adrian started to push her into the chair and pulled her onto his lap instead. “Your mom wanted me to wait until you were safe before I told you anything about her. She was afraid you wouldn’t be able to control yourself.”

Alexa left her head on his shoulder, loving being with her dad. He was perfect. “What did she think I would do?”

“Cause the end of the world.”

Alexa sat up, face paling. “I dream about the end. It’s coming. Soon.”

“Yes,” Adrian agreed gravely. “And nothing you can do will stop it or cause it. Your mother assumed you would be our weakest link because you were stolen from us so soon after birth, but even with five years at my side, your brother Elliot has that honor. Beware of him.”

“I will,” Alexa promised, shivering again.

Adrian gently slid her into her own chair. “It’s in the notebooks. And there are copies, typed and sent out for all of you. Keep to our kind.”

Alexa paled further. “They’re here.”

Adrian sighed, now kneeling at her feet. “If I stay with you, they’ll keep coming and you won’t have time to learn this, to become what our country will need.”

Alexa held the tears, but threw her arms around his neck. “I love you, daddy!”

Adrian held onto the bittersweet moment with a mumble of powerful words that sent bright green light curling around their embrace. “You’ll always be a part of me!” he swore.

Alexa let him set her back so he could stand up. “Get your vest on. Take your safety off.”

Alexa hurried, suddenly furious that her time with her father was being interrupted. She wanted to spill blood.

“Good,” Adrian approved. “So do I. Got that vest on?”

Alexa let him tighten it, hearing heavy footfalls coming down the hall that weren’t their light-footed protection.

Adrian slid the gas mask over her face and quickly donned his. He pulled the pin from his smoke grenade and pitched it into the hall as the enemy neared.

Shouts and coughing echoed, and Adrian waved Alexa into a far corner.

Alexa slid against the wall and went over her lessons while she waited to kill her first man. Before her father gave the order, she opened fire.

Bang!

Adrian stared in shocked admiration as the first soldier through the door fell to his knees, blood oozing from the wound in his forehead. Then he started firing too, and neither of them stopped until nothing moved except smoke and small rivers of blood.

Now

Alexa stopped talking long enough to get a drink and few hits from the smoke that Edward tossed to her from his place atop the lead supply wagon. She stretched, listening to the field around them, but it seemed like even that predatory threat wanted to hear the rest.

“When it was over, we’d won. My father’s men were still the best I’ve ever seen and they drove the government troops off of the island.” She sighed. “But we had to leave. Burning it kept the enemy from finding any clues, but it also drew more soldiers and they attacked whoever they could reach-the island residents. I forced myself to watch it. I controlled myself until I didn’t feel anything except the hate and vengeance I nursed every day after that. The feeling of losing my father, of being robbed, has never faded.”

“Did you see him again?” Paul broke the moment with his too-loud voice.

“Once,” she answered, standing. “It’s time to be sleeping. Dawn comes again soon.”

Alexa’s men were almost in shock. They’d never heard Alexa speak about emotions or show as much of herself to strangers as she had tonight. It was surprising to hear her talk of youthful insecurities and scarring events. It was also intriguing to have these newest pieces to her puzzle. It explained more and more for her men, and made it easier to figure out why they followed her. She’d been battling and surviving like this her entire life. It was all she’d ever known.

4

“Incoming! Everyone up!”

“Lookout!”

Everyone in Alexa’s tent snapped awake instantly, grabbing for guns, except for Mark. He’d only been asleep for an hour and he rolled onto his feet with a bitter anger. “I’m getting really sick of this place.”

Alexa’s crew began shooting the bats and wolves as they spotted the chaos, and a few of the soldiers joined in, but it only took a couple minutes to understand that the colony of bats had simply been going overhead, not attacking. Alexa had given the last shift to Paul and Edward, and she faced them angrily.

“I couldn’t get my damn hand around his mouth quick enough,” Edward explained in disgust.

The growled words cleared him of the actual mistake, but he was in charge and he’d let this get out of control. Even the wolves still pacing their perimeter hadn’t been attacking, only defending.

Paul cringed into the ground as Alexa moved toward him, but she kept going to Edward.

The horseman waited tensely.

Alexa placed a hand on his arm, again shocking her men. “We’ll be shed of him soon. Keep trying.”

Edward managed a nod to confirm the order, feeling even more uneasy without the punishment. Her illness must be worse than they’d thought.

Short Ride, Wrong Side

1

“Ten minute break!”

Alexa’s call was unexpected and brought Merrik by her side almost as fast as Paul was.

Alexa pointed to the rough walls of a small town that had appeared. “I’ll be in there.”

She signaled for Edward to take charge and headed for the stone barrier that clearly hadn’t defended its people. Skeletons were hanging over the guard towers like gruesome ornaments.

Paul stayed behind her, hoping she would allow him to come, and Mark only let the pair get a few feet away from him. He’d made a private vow to be her shield and he couldn’t do that if he followed orders and remained with the wagon train.

Alexa didn’t care about the two males trailing her. She needed something from inside these crumbling walls and she would have it.

Mark stopped Paul from going inside with a heavy hand to the shoulder that the scientist cringed away from in surprise.

Mark held a finger to his lips and pointed to Alexa, who was currently stomping on the skull of a skeleton with pale tatters of clothing and little else.

Alexa knelt down to fill her pouch with the small chunks of bone, and then filled another with the dust inside. She repeated this step several times as she explored the town’s small courtyard.
This town had no damage that Mark could see, only bodies, and it was eerie. It was as if something had swooped down, killed everyone, and then left the remains.

Mark and Paul gave Alexa plenty of space. They stayed by the break in the two walls and kept Merrik from bothering her.

Recognizing her guards (Zale’s killer and a convict), Merrik marked the site as someplace to check out after Alexa was in custody, Brian and the wagons had been delivered to Roscoe, and the rewards were claimed. Merrik had drawn hope from the future. Alexa had the upper hand right now, but that would soon change.

Merrik spotted Brian talking with Billy, who’d had charge of him the entire time. With Alexa’s men, Brian looked almost happy and it was salt in Merrik’s open wounds.

That boy’s a problem
, he thought. Merrik didn’t like the voice in his mind but he listened to it. Right now, it said between the three of his required captures, Brian might be the most important.

Busy thinking, something he didn’t do much of, Merrik didn’t realize he was shorter on men than when they’d first stopped. He noticed it as Alexa came from the walls with a pouch in her hand, and dismissed it as his bad counting.

2

“Where are we?”

Peters shrugged at the question. They’d seen a little girl with blood on her and tried to help. Now, they were totally lost and couldn’t even hear the wagon train.

“Come on. They’re going due south and we’ve got compasses.”

Private Nicholas eyed the corn and the shadows. “Did we really see her?”

Peters shrugged. “No idea at this point. Let’s move. We’ll catch right up.”

But they didn’t.

Fifteen minutes of hard running still gave them no hint of where the wagon train was and both men didn’t pretend there was an explanation. They slowed to a march with their guns in hand, trying to decide what to do.

Neither of them heard the shuffling feet over their own heavy steps, nor the faint moans over their own conversation. When the hand came through the stalks, it was able to grab one of the panicking soldiers before they could react.

The undead were thin and runny, rotting with every shuffle forward, but they still had enough life left in them to chase a meal.

“What the…shoot it!”

Nicholas screamed as the teeth sank into his arm and Peters took off running in blind panic.

Alexa’s lips tightened as the screams continued, sounding near enough for them to see the person being hurt.

“That’s one of my men!” Merrik shouted, stomping toward Alexa. “Help them!”

“What are they doing out there?” she inquired coldly.

“I don’t care. Help them!”

“What will you give me?”

Merrik shouted a curse and spun around. “I’ll do it myself!”

Alexa didn’t stop him and didn’t motion for her men to, either. The sooner Merrik was dead, the better.

Merrik reached the corn closest to the screaming but before he could enter it, a bloody man came barreling out of it and slammed into him. Both males dropped in a heap of shouts and groans.

Alexa sent David to check out the bloody man and it wasn’t until the blacksmith dumped water over him that they all recognized Peters.

“It was dead! It walked and got Nicholas, and it was dead!”

Merrik shoved the blabbering man toward Travis and turned to yell at Alexa, but she was already ahead, getting their convoy moving.

“Wait! I have a live man out still out there!”

“Not if he was bit,” Billy stated as he and Brian passed nearby. “Good as dead, and better for you if he were.”

“What do you mean?” Merrik demanded snottily.

“They like to haunt their old friends and employers,” Billy taunted with a sneer. “I’d guess that being soldiers together would make you like his family, right?”

With that hanging in the air, Billy increased his pace and got away from Merrik. He didn’t like the man, but he didn’t really enjoy sticking it to him yet. He still had a small hope that Merrik, like Paul, could learn and change.

Brian caught up with Billy, drawing Merrik’s attention.

“I want the boy now!” Merrik called out suddenly.

Billy sighed. He’d given the man too much credit.

“Talk to the boss,” Billy answered. “You get him when she says so and not a second before.”

Merrik was stopped from chasing her by the gunfighter this time, the only one who had made it this far. He and the mapmaker were no longer smiling.

“Leave her be before you get all of us killed,” the remaining gunfighter ordered in a hard gravelly tone.

Merrik wanted to argue, but he’d witnessed the brothers practicing their techniques on the wolves before Alexa arrived and knew he couldn’t match it.

“When it’s all over, I’ll remember!” Merrik swore, jerking the slave’s leash away from Travis to march her toward the opposite side of their wagon train.

The gunfighter grimaced. “Me too, son. Me too.”

3

The river wasn’t a welcome sight, not after the creek, and everyone surveyed the murky green liquid as if it were deadly.

Alexa led them through the trees to where they would be able to board small boats to carry them the rest of the way Lincoln.

Alexa stopped as the dock came into view, a bad sign, and it sent fresh tension through the wagon train.

“Wait here.”

Alexa’s order was obeyed by everyone except the soldiers and Mark. The man on Alexa’s side made sure he stayed close to her as Merrik and his men followed.

“Oh, shit.”

No one echoed Merrik’s expletive, but they were all thinking it. The boats were there, as was the dock, but the men guarding it and those running it, were in pieces. Blood washed over the dock with each as the wave high enough to reach and Alexa cautiously began the short descent.

“What happened here?” Travis asked, pulling his bandana up to cover the smell.

“Wolves?” Merrik offered.

“No way, man. Their heads have been severed!”

The scene was gory enough to make the soldiers dread the dock. None of them wanted to set a foot there. Bodies, and pieces of them, littered the wood.

“Anyone here?” Merrik called loudly, hand cupped around his mouth to add volume.

Alexa’s glare said if Merrik made one more mistake, she would have to handle him.

Travis, reading the moment, stepped in front of his friend in an attempt at distraction. “What do we do now?”

Merrik scowled at Travis for asking her, but Alexa was encouraged. Merrik’s men weren’t all the fools that he obviously was.

“Clean off the dock, load the boats, keep moving,” she answered tonelessly. She didn’t say to burn the bodies or to bury them, sure these men wouldn’t, but it didn’t honestly matter. Left here, their skeletons would provide a bit of dust for future travelers, as well as a warning of the dangers that lived and roamed here.

The wooden dock was lined in flat-bottom boats that bobbed lightly on the water. The front two even had canopies over their center and Alexa didn’t bother having them clean the rear barges. There weren’t enough of them to fill three now.

“Let’s get going,” Alexa directed. “My men will guard the wagons. Yours will work.”

Merrik thought to protest, but her men were harder, more likely to save the cargo waiting behind the corn, and he gave in resentfully. “What’s first?”

“Make brooms, get cleaning detergent from the wagons, and scrub when the water flows over.” Alexa moved toward the corn and pulled long stalks that she bound together to use for a broom. When she stepped onto the dock without hesitating and started sweeping at the blood, the soldiers joined her. When they rolled bodies into the water without a thought, she didn’t tell them to anything differently, but inside, she protested. Not burying them seemed wrong even when it wasn’t wise to waste the manpower.

4

It took them two hours to clean the dock and boats enough to use and the wagon train enjoyed the break from her relentless pace through the corn. They ate and rested, and surveyed the water for signs of life. There were none, but the death of Merrik’s two men hadn’t been forgotten and everyone stayed clear of the bank. When the call finally came to load the boats, sunset was nearly upon them.

Alexa supervised the loading of each, directing people, vehicles, and animals into the proper places for good balance. She didn’t argue or give anyone a choice, just pointed and expected them to do as they were told. Eager to get on the water, where he would have control again, Merrik didn’t argue.

Their animals didn’t like the smells of the new area, nor the water. They shied at being led across the narrow ramps and Edward ended up being the one to do that chore. He had Billy, Paul, and Brian now sheltered beneath Mark’s annoyed protection.

The mules were the easiest to handle, as they’d been through rough places before. The injured mule driver was able to control his own wagon, but he brought up the rear of the supply wagons, swaying in his seat. The loss of blood and lack of sleep was taking its toll on him. The man would recover in time, but for a few days, he’d be miserable.

Edward allowed the mule drivers to assist as the wagons were loaded, aware that they were old soldiers with supply and animal experience. The fighters were relieved to have them along. The wizened old men knew how to take care of things. The other travelers had animals that shied nervously and bucked against the reigns trying to take them onto the water. Their natural instinct said they belonged on land and it was obvious they preferred to be there.

Tension thickened when the largest of the horses came across the bridge. The stallion had already nipped the gunfighter who rode it and reared up when the saddle was removed. Ten hands high, it was still the width of the horse that was impressive. Stocky and nervous, Edward waved Billy off as soon as he had the reigns in his hand.

Edward stayed still for a moment, gently stroking the horse along its nose. “Easy, baby.”

Everyone stopped to stare as Edward calmed the horse. The tones of his voice and the waves of peace were strong enough to have an effect on all of them.

Alexa blinked. “Edward.”

He turned to discover the entire group of travelers yawning, rubbing at their eyes. They were all dazed.

He flushed. “Uh, yeah, sorry.”

He led the now docile horse onto the boat and reloading resumed while the remaining slavers once more approaching Alexa about buying her men.
The slave males weren’t doing well. Of the five heavily made-up males the slavers had started out with, only two were still alive and looked broken as they sat quietly grieving for their comrades.