The Killin' Fields (Alexa's Travels Book 2) (30 page)

Aaron slumped to the dirt with a fresh hole in his chest.

Alexa scanned the captives while reloading, noting her men had killed half a dozen of them in the rush. One each wasn’t nearly good enough for the situation, but she didn’t let them know that. It took time to build the type of skill she needed. What they could do would have to be enough this time around.

Alexa picked out another Captain and stared at him. “Where were you going after grabbing me?”

Captain Wells swallowed nervously. “Into Lincoln, to resupply.”

“And where was I headed?”

He clearly didn’t want to say, but when Alexa’s hand went toward the Colt she’d holstered, he changed his mind. “West. Three of us were supposed to keep you sedated for the trip to the base.”

“And my men?” she asked in a deceptively civil tone. “Killed?”

Wells slowly nodded. “If they wouldn’t join the government. They need men.”

Alexa waved a hand. “Go to Lincoln and tell them what happened here.”

She took the path she’d picked out and her men followed, keeping an eye on the surprised soldiers who clearly weren’t sure if she meant it.

No one told them that she did. The soldiers would figure it out when she hit the cornfield and disappeared from sight. As far as they were concerned, if she could see them, she could shoot them.

6

Alexa ran them for the next hour, getting to the river in less than half the time it had taken to get to the city. Not having to care for anyone else made a huge difference.

Grand Island was small and relatively clean compared to other places they’d been. They walked down Plaza Square and Alexa led them by the tall, apartment building style hospital where she was sure people remained. What type of people, she didn’t know and wasn’t keen to find out, thus the reason for strolling down a main street. A good view of her would convince people to stay hidden.

Alexa stopped in front of a decrepit old building with no readable signs or wording.

Alexa waited, listening, letting her men catch their breath. They were much stronger now than when she’d first picked them up, but still not at her level. She didn’t expect them to be. She’d had decades of training for these moments.

“We’ll be inside for five minutes. Any longer, come in,” Alexa stated as she put Mark and David on sentry duty.

Alexa led the others around the back, to the broken window that she’d spotted. She smashed out the rest of the dust-grimed glass and then hopped inside with four men on her heels.

The bike store smelled bad. Rubber, rot, and a hint of fish odor permeated the building, and all of them pulled their bandanas up over their mouths and noses as they moved through the broken, fallen shelves and piles of molded items. It didn’t appear that anyone had come through here since the war and Alexa set them to gathering what she wanted in large bags that she took from under the register counter. Inner tubes, basic bikes, spare chains-they grabbed everything she told them to, offering small suggestions as they went.

Mark and David kept watch the town and corn uneasily. The far wall of this building was lined with rusting hulks of bikes. Being on wheels would give them a slight advantage if they had to get away from wolves.

Mark took the bags and handed them to David, securing the gear, and then they spent the next half hour replacing inner tubes and chains on the bikes. The new supplies would be divided and repacked into their kits later.

All solid red, the mountain bikes were sleek and sweet even though they were dull from time.

Alexa swung a leg over, not asking them if they knew how to ride. It was something she assumed everyone knew. “Let’s go.”

The bike ride was pleasant. If not for their mission, it could have been a fast ride on a cool morning. Alexa kept them rolling quickly, but it wasn’t so fast that her men got the impression that she was rushing in to save the kids. In her mind, those captives would have already been transformed. All she wanted to do was eliminate the master of the house. Time would have to heal the rest of this state’s ugly wounds.

Paralleling the swelled river, made it easy to keep track of where they were, but the soggy ground made riding their bikes a challenge in some places.

Alexa led them around most of the worst areas, but also forced them to roll through some of it so that they would have the experience under their belts. She’d used bikes many time in her adventure, but she doubted the same was true of them. It was another skill to be brushed up on.

7

By the time the dim sun began to set, Alexa had them within hours of the house. They stopped and stashed the bikes with fondness, each man hoping she would let them use the quiet wheels for the return trip to Lincoln. They left them under an overturned dumpster in an alley of Grand Island, all hating the way their boots echoed on the cracked concrete. They’d gotten used to being on dirt roads and this wasn’t a welcome change.

The damaged and weathered stores they passed held no signs that people had been through recently, and Alexa made a mental note to make a stop here if it was convenient. There was a lot of gear she could take. Most of it would have to be prepared first, but she had a feeling that after handling the master of the corn, she and her fighters would be ready for a long break.

Mark and David, still on sentry duty since they hadn’t been verbally removed from it, stayed to each side of the walking team and kept their eyes on the dark doorways and shadowy alleys around them. There was only a little wind to disturb things and each sound that echoed was one they worried over. The wolves could be lurking and so could the old woman and her evil kids. Hard men walked with hands on the butts of their weapons, ready to shoot the first thing that acted like a threat.

The fork they were coming up on veered to the left and right. One appeared to wind back the way they’d come, and the other headed into the tall, moldy corn.

Alexa didn’t wait for the path. She stepped to the left, making her own way through the corn and her man did the same, widening it with their wider, heavier bodies. The ground here was drier, harder, and it jarred them with each step, as if to warn them not to continue.

A gust of wind came from nowhere and pushed against them violently, another warning, but Alexa laughed harshly. “Is that all you’ve got left, old woman?”

There was an angry screech that swirled through the sky like a solar blast, and then there was stillness and silence again.

Alexa’s taunting smirk stayed on her face as they topped a small rise and entered the next field. Tractor parts and long since mildewed buckets of corn ears lined this field and the fighters stayed clear of the small shadows that likely held a predator of some kind.

“Smell that?” Billy asked, bringing his bandana up.

The others sniffed and found their stomachs growling from the tempting odor of freshly roasted corn.

“Damn,” Mark muttered. “Thicker this time.”

“Closer to the source,” Alexa replied. “Her manifestations, her minions, will have greater powers here.”

“How did she get here? What is she?” Daniel asked respectfully. “We need to know how to kill her.”

“Those are questions for later,” Alexa stated firmly. “The first two, anyway. As for how she can be killed, you’re wearing it on your hip.”

It was a relief to know that the master of the house could be stopped with bullets and the men felt their confidence rise to full levels again. Being knocked out had clearly rattled them. Not in the faith that Alexa could handle it, but in the belief that she had them along for more than energy. If they weren’t a help in the fighting, they didn’t want to be here.

The house that appeared below them as they reached the end of the massive cornfield was more than simply intimidating. It wasn’t right.

The layers of fog weaving though the cornfields that surrounded it shouldn’t have been there in these conditions. Nor should the second floor tilt and the third floor appear to be caving in. The roiling black sky didn’t fit with the serene blue dimness that appeared in every other direction. The columns holding up the three-story, Victorian-style plantation home were too thin to hold such weight and it looked as if there were a solid black oak tree growing through an upstairs window.

The entire property was like that. Fences were upside down, roots of weeds were waving among the moldy stalks, a grain silo was shaped like a horseshoe, and Alexa let out an annoyed sound. “Wait for the real house. This is the decoy.”

Her men trusted her and waited a bit impatiently for something to happen.

It came all at once, a thick cloud that obscured the entire property and then lifted to reveal a busy city hotel.

People, happy and wealthy, roamed the expensive grounds, laughing and drinking. It was clearly from before the war and no one moved.

The next fade was to a pitiful home with a bamboo roof and a swampy landscape that didn’t fit in the middle of Nebraska.

“That’s it,” Alexa stated. “The next one is how we get in to her. Stay by to me. She’ll split us up if she can and I won’t be able to help you.”

“If we get split up?” Billy asked, checking his guns like the others were now doing.

“Meet at the very top,” Alexa answered.

Confused, the males would have questioned her, but the mirage in front of them changed again, this time becoming a castle wall with a single door.

“Let’s roll.”

Alexa took off at a fast clip, and her men tried to do the same. She was incredibly quick.

Alexa let a large gap come between her and the males, hoping to take the first hits alone. She wasn’t disappointed as two large wolves came from the corn in front of her. They charged her way with thick snarls and Alexa killed them both with a vicious swipe of both knives across their leaping faces. The animals fell, howling, and Alexa kept going. Her men would finish them off.

She picked up speed as she spotted the next pair of angry animals, going into that place where only she and her guns existed. She fired twice, taking down both animals and she didn’t slow as she saw the pack waiting for her.

“Hurry up!” Mark ordered, pulling more speed from his body.

Alexa began shooting the pack of two dozen, flying toward them as they did the same. Rapid gunfire ruptured the air as Alexa cut straight through the center of the pack, killing six of the twenty-four. Three of the lunging animals were hurt when she ducked and let them collide overtop of her. She rolled, and was on her feet as she reloaded.

“Keep going!” David called, aiming. “We’ve got this!”

Alexa did exactly that, heading for the castle door again. The birds came from the corn next and Alexa battled her way through with hard swings, using the butts of her gun as a hammer. The large crows tore at her clothes and scratched her exposed skin, but there was no stopping. She darted up the three concrete stairs and yanked the door open.

Reloading on the move, Jacob thought of the massive flying creature with the vivid yellow eyes as he brought up the drag position and then pushed it away. He wasn’t a hog and couldn’t be carried off.

The fighters didn’t stop as everything vanished, but there was no helping the pause in their step, the unsteady stride. The crows, fog, and wolves disappeared, leaving only the castle wall, the open door, and the corn.

8

“It’s not a wall.”

David’s comment would have drawn argument, but the other men were too grossed out to respond. What they’d all mistaken for a high castle wall was actually a barrier of rotting bodies and long since grayed skeletons. It was three bodies wide from that they could see and each peeling, gory face glowered at them in horrid warning.

“How many…” Billy trailed off, but it was already out and everyone tried to estimate it.

“Ten thousand,” Alexa answered, sounding choked. “About the population of elderly and kids that would have been taken from Lincoln in four years. And a lot of travelers who tried to brave the corn.”

“That can’t…” Daniel spun to lean on the wall and threw up.

Mark and Edward flanked Alexa, who still stood in the doorway, and the other four men slowly drifted over, faces green.

“Why don’t we smell it?” Billy asked suddenly.

“Glue,” Alexa answered. “It holds the bodies together while nature melds it all into a wall. If it stank, it would draw predators and be torn down each time a hungry wolf dragged off a fresh body. The glue is stronger than the rot, sealing it.”

Alexa was still looking through the door and the men gradually had their fill of the view as well.

Instead of the inside of a castle or a courtyard of a palace, there was another wall, this one with seven tall doors. Unlike the first wall, this one was made of brick and that at least, was a relief. The path to each of these doors were dirt, lined in corn, and flooded with ominous gray shadows.

“Rats?”

Everyone heard the revulsion in Billy’s tone, and Alexa took it into account. “Anyone else?”

It was only one of them with a phobia of the rodents this time, and Alexa made the driver go first. “Time to conquer that.”