The Killin' Fields (Alexa's Travels Book 2) (21 page)

“No.”

“But our stock has been mostly killed,” Braids complained.

“Then you’re not very good owners, are you?” Alexa asked coolly. “Get loaded or stay here.”

The big females were angry and offended, but knew better than to argue or delay, especially since there were only a few protectors still alive. When Alexa said they were leaving, she meant it, and no one wanted to be left behind at this horror scene. The flies and smells were awful, but it was worse to view the carnage. The bodies they’d dumped into the water were currently stacking up along the far side of the river bank like logs.

Alexa and David got the old woman and kids settled near the center and gave them vests. The orange life-wear was incredibly filthy and ragged, but still functional. The kids wore them happily. Their own clothes were little more than rags, sporting more filth and rips than when Alexa had first met the trio.

“Are you looking forward to being reunited with your daughter?” David asked the old woman, trying to confirm something that had been bothering him about her story.

Grammie nodded slowly. “A bit afraid, too. She doesn’t sound like she’s changed.”

David handed the kids a food pouch and then took the time to cover them with a blanket from his pack. “It will get chilly tonight on the water.”

He didn’t receive verbal gratitude, a rudeness, but he didn’t need any and let the insult slide. He continued with his questions, sure he had Alexa’s attention as she got the old woman’s tiny cooking stove lit.

“How long has she been gone? Time will occasionally allow true change.”

“Years,” the woman answered, settling back into the extra blanket that had been freed by David donating his. “And some days, it ain’t been long at all.”

The cryptic answer was one the blacksmith found hard to argue with or work around without seeming too curious. He went on carefully to pull himself out of that impression. “I have…had a daughter go missing during the war. I’m glad for you, to know yours made it.”

The expression that flashed on the old woman’s face said she believed his tall tale, and David gave her a small smile. “You look like my grandmother. Sorry if I’m bothering you.”

“David, enough chatting,” Alexa ordered, feeding into the impression he was trying to send. “Missing your family isn’t an excuse for breaking my rules.”

David’s voice dropped into defensive adoration. “I’m sorry, lady. Truly.”

“Yes, blacksmith. I hear your apology,” she responded easily. “Finish your chores and then the next.”

“Yes, lady.”

Alexa left them and David apologized to the old woman again. “I’m sorry. I’m a rookie.”

The old woman patted his hand in comfort. “You’ve been a help to me. Worry about it no more.”

David felt the wrongness when she touched him, but without a reason for it, all he could do was nod and smile.

David finished settling the family in and then helped Edward with the livestock. The chickens he was chasing didn’t seem to like his way with animals. They knew they were being taken onto the water and they wanted in it. The fact that it would kill them was hard to explain to livestock and the two men spent a few humorous moments chasing the chickens around the boat dock, clucking like fools.

Merrik’s black leather jacket was tacky with blood and he grumbled as he nervously dunked it into the river a couple times and hung it up on a nearby tree to dry.

While he loaded his boat according to Alexa’s direction, someone knocked the jacket to the ground as they passed the branch. And then someone kicked it into the water, where it quickly sank.
Alexa’s men watched this in amusement and then shared laughter when Merrik started to get aboard without remembering he’d hung it up in the first place. It was a lot less than he deserved.

“Uncrate your woman,” Alexa called out to Merrik, voice like a mountain. “No one goes on the water in a box unless they’re dead.”

“What about the prisoner?” Paul asked, drawing indignation from her fighters.

“Not my choice,” Alexa stated. “Criminals don’t have rights in afterworld.”

When all the animals and gear were finally loaded, the rest of the people were brought on board the two wide boats. Merrik, his pale female, and his men claimed the largest vessel and found themselves almost alone on it. They were except for the wagon drivers, who had no choice. They went where their cargo did.

As the last of the soldiers boarded, a shadow came running from the corn behind them.

“Hey, is that…look out!”

Peters and Travis turned around to find Private Nicholas, freshly undead, lunging toward them.

Alexa fired twice from where she stood, face unreadable.

“What did you do?!” Merrik screamed, seeing she had shot both Nicholas and Peters.

“He wasn’t undead!”

Alexa pointed toward the pile of bodies that Travis was crawling out from an under. “He would have been as soon as the poison sank in. He was bitten.”

Merrik couldn’t argue with the teeth marks on Peters’ horrified face, nor the bullet through his head.

“Let’s go.”

No one argued with her order.

5

Being loosened from the dock was an unsettling feeling and curses echoed as gear slid and balance was challenged. The current tugged at the boats, then jerked them into the current and they were under way.

Long and flat, the boats were much like the old barges used before the war, except their power was only the current and poles strapped to the sides. Enough men could propel it away from the banks, but for the most part, river riding was an adventure like the killin’ fields themselves. Merrik didn’t know that because he’d never been on one and few of them were surprised when he puked over the rail only fifteen minutes into the trip.

Alexa listened to him retching from the boat in front of hers, and sighed. “About halfway through, my pet. Halfway through.”

Mark, staying close now that they were back in confined quarters, heard the mutter and forced himself not to respond. He wanted to be out of here too, but he had the feeling that the second half of this trek would be the worst.

“It will,” Alexa confirmed. “The slaughter chute is about to narrow.”

Mark took a short cigar from his pocket and lit it. The rare treat was given envious glances by most of the travelers around them, but when he passed it around his group, those jealous tendencies increased. Everything these people had witnessed said a life with Alexa was rewarding enough to be worth the risk, but more than that, she cared about her men and they were devoted to her. How many people could say that now and be telling the truth?

The water under them was smooth and calm to start their voyage, and the exhausted travelers set up pallets and bedrolls almost immediately, eager to rest. The tugging of the water was relaxing. It lulled the soldiers and the weaker of their wagon train into sleep and caused Alexa’s men to become tenser than they’d already been. Letting their guard down wasn’t something they’d done much of during their time with her and it felt wrong, unnatural.

For Alexa, it felt normal. She’d spent too much of her life like this to be comfortable any other way and in time, the same would be true of her men. It wasn’t what she wanted for them, but it was what had to happen for them to survive and complete this quest. They were only months into a trek of a lifetime and she was toughening them up as quickly as she could.

“We have debris up here,” Daniel called, enjoying his place in the front of the boat. “Logs and branches, a few bodies.”

Alexa wasn’t worried over what they could pick out. It was what they couldn’t that was likely to hurt them. “Let me know if it gets bad,” Alexa answered.

“You got it.”

“Can we fill up around here?” he asked as she took a quick drink from her canteen.

“Not until Lincoln,” she answered.

“I’ve been wondering about the others. Shouldn’t they be getting low on food and water?’

Alexa nodded. “If we are, they should be.”

Alexa swept the snoring people, tensely settled animals, and felt the mental door open to the place where she was able to feel safe. This was as calm as it would get, the few hours before hell restarted in new ways, and she settled in eagerly. Sleep was something she couldn’t get enough of.

Two hours later, Daniel was the lone pair of eyes on their boat. Everyone else was asleep and the biker fought the drowsiness. He stood up to scan the shoreline and stared in shock, forgetting his duty for a moment. It wasn’t every day that he saw a raggedy band of women in loincloths with torches and spears.

Daniel shook his head and wiped at his eyes. “Must be getting slap-happy,” he muttered, fighting the urge to look over his shoulder. “Seeing shit again.”

6

Billy was near to the thief, who was now chained directly to the boat, and he was aware of the prisoner giving him hard looks. Billy was becoming their planner, often working directly with Alexa on travel routes and preparing rations. That pair had come up with half a dozen new plans to evade surprise attacks in just the last week and because of that, he suspected Alexa needed this man freed. It was why she’d given care of Brian to someone else for the night and placed Billy on this shift alone.

Once Billy struck up a conversation with the thief, it didn’t take long to find out that Alexa had indeed hired the man to do something, though the thief wouldn’t say what it was.

“Can I help in some way?” Billy offered. If Alexa needed it, she would have it.

The thief shrugged. “Maybe. Can ya let me loose?”

“I could,” Billy led.

The thief grinned, flashing neat teeth and a deep intelligence. “Don’t go worrin’, none. I got a date in Lincoln. I ain’t runnin’ off anywhere.”

Billy waited for them to be unobserved before using his knife to cut the man’s bonds. “I’ll hunt you if you run.”

The thief smiled bitterly. “Spent my life bein’ hunted. Soon, it’ll be the other way around.”

Billy disliked the man. “Anything else?”

“Could use a distraction, but I reckon the killin’ fields will provide that.”

Billy snorted. “Yeah, I’d guess so.”

The two men continued to chat lightly as the wide boat sailed the slowly moving river like no one had been here before them.

It was easy to forget that wasn’t true. The trees along the riverbank, no longer being trimmed, were now an intricately entwined canopy that protected them like a wicker roof. Birds in that canopy saw them pass in outraged shock, many flying off in protest and anger. A few of them dropped loads onto the boats, and made their upset clear by diving at the standing men. A quick peck and then a swoop put them out of range of the soldier’s unthinkingly drawn guns, and the noise was avoided.

Billy noticed that the debris continued to thicken as they sailed through the center of the wide channel, but his mind was on Grand Island. Things got narrow there in places, or so he’d heard from the few stragglers who’d made it west. What did Alexa have in mind for them?

He kept on the problem, hoping to be an asset at that moment, and missed the shadow at his side until the boots entered his vision.

Billy stifled his reaction and looked up coldly. The gunfighter had his piece out, aimed at Billy’s head.
The remaining gunfighter’s red eyes and shaky hands said grief was driving his emotions, not logic.

“Get away from him.”

Billy sighed. “Don’t make me do this. I don’t want to.”

It was a clear warning but the gunfighter, slowly breaking down from the loss of his brothers, shoved the gun into Billy’s face. “Now!”

Billy brought his hands up. “Sure. Step back, I’ll move. We’re all good then.”

The gunfighter retreated a step, and Billy rose up in a quick lunge. He wrapped his big hands around the gunfighter’s legs and hefted him over his shoulder.

The toss from the boat drew only a light splash, but the screams of pain and horror woke everyone on their boat.

Alexa’s blood-shot eyes focused on Billy’s face and he shrugged without regret. “Just dumping a bit of our load. Nothing we needed.”

Alexa nodded and went right back to sleep.

Jim, now a mapmaker without any protection, didn’t say a word. He understood his predicament.

So did the thief because he stood up and walked around the boat, trying to stretch his muscles. He’d been in that cage for a long time.

Jim glowered at Billy but again, didn’t argue. Billy could see that the mapmaker wanted to go for one of his many weapons and was glad when the man didn’t. Billy felt sorry for all the dandy-dressed scribe had gone through, but that was no excuse for stupidity.

“Why do you get to take him to Roscoe?” Billy asked the mapmaker, wanting to be clear on what the man had done.

“It was my wife he raped!” Jim snarled, eyes nearly filling with tears in his anger. “He’s lucky he’s not dead!”

Billy felt there was a lie in there somewhere, but wasn’t sure which part bothered him. It was another horror story from this new world, one that wouldn’t be investigated, filed, and tried by any court other than the one right here. Billy already doubted Alexa would allow the thief to be handed over to Roscoe. If she’d hired him for a job, he was hers now. That’s how it worked with Alexa. If you pleased her once, you did it repeatedly.