Blood & Dust (Lonesome Ridge Book 2) (6 page)

Connor stood up and held out his hand. “Philip, thank you for stopping by and sharing this information. As sheriff of Lonesome Ridge, I take my job seriously and I’ll look into everything you’ve said here today.”

The other man stood up and shook his hand. “Thanks, sheriff. I know it sounds crazy, but I can only tell ya what I heard, right?”

Connor gave him a tight smile. “Right. Robert, would you kindly show Mr. Smith to the hotel? Tell Miss Susy to set him up, on the house of course. Stick around for a couple days, Mr. Smith. I may need to speak with you again.”

Philip’s grin grew. “Mighty kind of you, sheriff. Mighty kind. I appreciate that.”

“Think nothing of it.” As Philip headed out the door, Connor gripped Robert’s arm gently. “Don’t let him leave until I get back,” he whispered. “And try to keep him away from other people.” Robert gave him a quick nod and headed after the other man.

“Shit,” Connor whispered as he ran a hand through his brown hair. Just what he needed: more undead and a destroyed train. There could only be one train, he knew. It was the one that ran through Lonesome Ridge and left during the attack the week before. He hadn’t heard word of it and had no idea what happened to it, but he assumed they got away and headed to their next destination. Now it was sounding like the train didn’t make it, and the only reason that would happen was if the undead managed to get on board before it pulled out, or it was attacked by a stray band of Indians, which was no better. “Shit,” he mumbled again.

Connor heard Jasper coming before the young man entered the building. He had Hannah and Abby in tow.

“Abby said you asked for me?” Jasper was a smart young man and he didn’t need anyone to tell him that something was wrong.

“The train that left here during the attack? It blew up a bit outside town according to a visitor that just stopped by. I don’t know how far, and I don’t know why. I just know this can’t be good. I gotta go out there and check it out.”

Jasper mimicked Connor’s reaction. “Were those things on it? Do you know?”

“I don’t know. But if they were, this could be a whole lot worse than we think it is. It could be a lot more widespread.”

“People are going to start to panic,” Abby chimed in from the corner of Connor’s desk.

The sheriff shook his head. “They’re not going to know. Not until I know what’s going on. Jasper, I’m leaving you in charge. I’m going to head out, find the train and figure out what’s going on.”

“You can’t go alone. Take a group with you,” Abby said.

“I’ll move quicker by myself. The more people that go, the more likely it is that word will spread. Some people had family on that train. I don’t want anyone to worry until I know what really happened.”

Abby crossed her arms as best she could. “I still say you can’t go alone. I’ll go with you.”

Hannah’s mouth dropped as she stared at her sister. “Abby, you can’t!”

“I’ll be fine, Hannah. Connor can’t go alone, and he can’t take Jasper with him. But he needs someone to watch his back.”

Both men cocked an eyebrow at Abby, but neither said a word. Connor was secretly relieved that someone had stepped up and offered to go, and Abby was a crack shot, even with half an arm. Her will and determination was greater than almost anyone’s, as well.

“Okay,” Connor said. “We’ll leave after dark. I want as few people as possible to see us go. We’ll go out the side gate, follow the tracks west until we find the train. It’s gotta be out there somewhere. Can’t hide something that big.”

“What do we do when we find it?” Abby asked.

The sheriff shrugged. “No idea, but we’ll worry about that when the time comes. For now, it’s business as usual.”

Jasper and Hannah left, and Abby picked up the jacket again. She settled back into the chair to finish stitching it up before they had to leave. Dark would arrive soon.

CHAPTER 8

Connor and Abby went out a side gate near the tracks under the strict watch of Robert, Jasper, and Hannah. They made sure Philip was tucked away in the hotel under the keen eyes of Miss Susy before they left. Their horses plodded quietly in the night, unaware or unconcerned about the dangers that could be lurking around them. Connor didn’t trust the horses when it came to the undead. With most predators, they were aware, scared. But the undead were new and the horses had not yet learned to fear them. Connor wasn’t sure they could tell an undead human from a live one.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

Connor was glad the moon was waning and it was dark enough that Abby could not see him jump at the sound of her voice. “Just figurin’ out what we need to do, s’all.”

Abby nodded and they fell into silence again. Not much was said between them as they followed the train tracks west from Lonesome Ridge. The horses kept moving forward and Connor dozed off in the saddle a bit. He was used to long treks and could sleep sitting upright. Abby was not comfortable with spending long hours on horseback and dark circles formed under her eyes as the sun began to rise.

The train tracks passed not far from a small stream with a wooded edge. “Let’s stop here for a couple hours, take a rest,” Connor suggested. He wanted a break, but he knew Abby needed one. She wouldn’t last much longer in the saddle.

The look on the young woman’s face was both grateful and regretful. “We have a long way to go still,” she argued, though there wasn’t much force behind it.

Connor shrugged. “Won’t get there no faster if the horses die from exhaustion.”

A small smirk pulled at the corner of Abby’s lips. The horses weren’t the ones who were exhausted. They were going at a steady pace, but not a fast one, and they were built for long rides. The horses would have been fine for quite some time. Connor tied them to a tree near the stream so they could drink as he and Abby unloaded their bedrolls and some food.

After they ate, he pointed to Abby’s bed. “I’ll take first watch. You get some sleep.” Again, she looked like she wanted to protest, but she bit back anything she was going to say and curled up. Connor let her sleep. He dozed off and on, sitting up against a tree. There was nothing more eventful than a squirrel who ran down to try to sneak a piece of bread. Connor let the little fellow have part of his crust.

Hours later, Abby woke with a jerk. “How long have I been asleep?” she asked as a mix of fear and concern splashed across her face. The sun was sinking rapidly in the sky.

“You needed it.” Connor pushed himself to his feet and stretched. “I’m not sure what we’ll have to face once we reach the train, so I’d rather not have us both so tired we can’t see straight.”

Abby cocked an eyebrow at him, but she just nodded and tucked her shotgun into the holder on her saddle. Arguing now wouldn’t change anything. They ate a bit more and headed out. It took them nearly another day to reach where the train met its final resting place. The corpses of the wooden cars looked like low houses from across the plain.

“Is that it?” Abby asked as she pointed with her only hand toward the black shapes huddled on the horizon.

Connor pushed his hat up and squinted. “Looks like it. It’s by the track, whatever it is. And it’s big, so my money’s on it bein’ the train.”

Abby’s lips pressed together in a tight line. “That’s not good.”

The sheriff agreed. “No. No, it’s not. Come on.”

They stayed near the tracks as they moved toward the wreckage. Wide expanses of land spread out on either side of them, filled with swaying grass. Connor’s eyes darted from side to side. Nothing moved, but he didn’t take that to mean nothing was around. As they drew near, they dismounted and led their horses in. A long, skinny piece of wood had wedged itself into the ground at an angle and they tied the horses to it. The beasts sniffed the air, found nothing of concern, and lowered their heads to eat.

Connor wasn’t as trusting. He removed one of his pistols from its holster and double-checked it. Abby did the same with her shotgun. He looked at her and she nodded.

They moved through the wreckage of the train as quietly as possible. Most of it was a mass of burned lumber and twisted metal. The cars had split apart, revealing their blood-covered innards to the world. The occasional mutilated body could be seen here and there, but for the most part, they just found pieces of arms, legs, and organs strewn about.

“This wasn’t just from the crash,” Abby said as she poked at a boot that still had the foot in it.

“No, it’s not,” Connor replied.

A groan sounded somewhere off to his left. A quick search proved that it came from inside a train car that was still mostly intact. The wooden box listed dangerously at a forty-five degree angle with the bottom corner crumpled into the ground. The outside was scorched and burned, but it had survived the impact relatively well. The windows on the near side were too high up for Connor to see into, so he bent over to look under the side that was near the dirt. Several of the windows were cracked and many were destroyed completely. The groan came again, further down the car, and a hand stuck out one of the open windows to scratch at the blackened grass.

“Are they alive?” Abby stood further back with her shotgun at the ready.

Connor swallowed and stood. “I don’t think so. That moan doesn’t sound natural.”

“What do you want to do?”

Connor chewed his lip as he thought for a moment. “We can’t leave them in there, even if they are one of those things. It’s not right.”

Abby nodded.

Connor jumped up on the back of the train where the platform met the door. He balanced himself on the metal railing and looked into the window. Several forms were pulling themselves over the seats toward him.

“I see three of them inside.”

Abby raised her shotgun. “Can you take them?”

Connor watched the nearest, a young woman in a ripped dress, as she climbed clumsily over a seat halfway down the car. “Yeah.” He pulled the door open. His aim was careful and sure and he put a bullet in the woman’s head before she was over the next seat. She dropped like a rock even as his next shot took out the man behind her. The final bullet found the skull of a little girl who couldn’t have been more than twelve as she snarled and hissed. Her leg was trapped beneath one of the seats and relief flooded through Connor as she dropped out of view.

“I think that’s it,” he said, but he waited a few more minutes in the doorway.

Both of them listened to the sounds around them, but all they could hear was the wind whistling past the cars and the gentle huffs of the horses as they ate. They checked the rest of the wreckage, but found nothing of interest aside from several tracks leading off toward the hills.

“Do we follow them?” Abby knelt by the dozens of footprints and stared off toward the hills.

Connor sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know. What do you want to do?”

Abby was silent for a moment. “We need to follow them. Find out where they go. There are dead horses over there, so someone came to check this out. We need to see if there’s a village up there that needs our help.”

Connor bobbed his head in agreement and reloaded his gun. He didn’t want to tell her that the blood was at least a few days old. He didn’t want to tell her that any village they found would already have been overrun.

He didn’t need to. “I know,” she said. “They’re probably already dead, but we have to check. It’s our duty.” She turned to look up at him. “And if they are dead, we have to do something. We can’t let those things run free.”

Connor pressed his lips together in a tight line. He’d been thinking the same thing, but he didn’t want to admit it out loud. Not yet. “Let’s get the horses,” he said instead and walked back along the trail of destruction.

It didn’t take them very long to find the place they didn’t know they were looking for. The storm that had hit Lonesome Ridge a few days before didn’t touch the area, so they were able to follow the trail of footprints and blood right back to the low hills. Nestled at the base, right by a path that lead up into the hills, a tiny cluster of houses and other buildings stood surrounded by fences and gardens. Smoke trailed from the burnt-out remains of one of the houses and animal parts lay scattered across the grass.

Neither Connor or Abby felt much like talking. They dismounted without a word and wrapped their horses’ reins around a fence on the outskirts of the small homestead. Connor pulled out a Peacemaker and walked up the dirt path leading to the largest house. Abby was right behind him. He paused at a small, single-story building and checked inside. It was empty, save for some barrels of potatoes and a bag of wheat. As they approached the two-story house that served as the main anchor of the small plot, a woman shuffled out onto the porch. Her body was cocked at an unnatural angle and her mouth drooped open. Abby didn’t wait for Connor’s command. She walked swiftly toward the house and stopped a few feet from the steps. The woman raised her hands, reaching for Abby across the distance. Abby raised what remained of her left arm and propped her shotgun on the stump. She aimed carefully and pulled the trigger. The boom echoed off the hills as the woman’s face disintegrated. She fell into a twitching lump on the porch.

More sounds emanated from inside the house. More shuffling, more groaning. Connor and Abby stood at the bottom of the steps and waited as more bodies moved in front of the windows. A small head appeared in the doorway. The little boy couldn’t have been more than four. He snarled and spit as his hands groped the air. Connor’s forehead creased and he raised his gun. He took the shot before Abby could. He didn’t want her to have to live with that. He already had enough demons. He could handle one more. Four more undead found their way to the door. One was a woman, the rest were children. They were easy to take out and none of them made it further than the first step beyond the entryway. Once the shuffling inside stopped, Connor and Abby reloaded.