Bone Dust & Beginnings (Alexa's Travels Book 1) (10 page)

The teacher turned his back and moved on.

The two men hurried to catch up, sharing rueful looks, but neither of them considered turning back.

"Do what I do - all the time. Start now."

Daniel began to move in a rotating watch pattern, and they tried hard to copy his movements exactly. As they went past the bunker hole, that glint of steel was noted again and ignored. There would be time later, if Alexa allowed it.

"We do everything one way - hers. You'll be my students, but she's the real teacher."

He led them through the trees at a fast
clip,
a bit disappointed he would miss the fight with the riders, but eager enough to help make her choices fit in. Daniel had only earned one ‘reward’ from Alexa in the time he'd been with her, not quite as fast or sharp as the others, but with a gun and a bike, he was lethal.

Hearing their steps, the rustle of their clothes, their breathing, he spun again. "You make too much noise!" he snapped, freezing them. "You'll get her killed."

With that awful warning, Daniel turned back toward the path. They, too, would have an apprentice someday, if the mistress approved it. Mark had been his first – he had been Edward's. They shared everything.

That sent his thoughts back to pleasing Alexa, and the biker almost frowned. It wouldn't please her that he himself wasn't focused on this task. He was the first to have two students at the same time.

Daniel stepped aside, waving a hand, "There's a trail here. We go on when one of you find it."

Six

1

Five once beautiful horses emerged from the knee-high fog, mouths foaming. Their riders talked openly, not worried about attracting attention. In this new world, Nazis were once again a powerful group, and only those not afraid of death challenged them.

"You sure?"

"Yes."

The group of bald riders moved closer.

"Didn't like the look of 'em."

"Me neither."

"Stop it, shut up," the leader demanded, his tone commanding obedience instantly. "Set up a perimeter. We're almost there."

"Where?"

"The bunker, idiot.
You
go in first."

"
Aww
, man."

The authority was shoddy at best, but when the dirty grubber in the center glared, the man on his far right nodded and looked away.

"Fifty feet northeast from where I'm
sittin
'. Find it."

Two of the men hurried ahead. Using small lighters to see by, their flames cast eerie shadows on the cactus and briar patches that surrounded them.

The hired hands were just that, extra fingers without brains, and the hard-ass leader watching them search swallowed his uneasy feeling. He'd left his regular men in Lincoln, not wanting to split this reward evenly but now, Donny was wishing he'd chosen differently. These four were basically useless for anything more than sniffing duty.

"Found it."

The metal hatch wasn't sealed, came open with only minimal effort, and that made their leader's stomach churn harder. Someone else had been here - recently.

"Guns out - torches and canisters.
You know the drill."

They moved slowly, clearly reluctant to venture into the stinking darkness.

"Can't this wait for daylight?"

"No. The dust storm slowed us up. We have to deliver the gas and vial to Roscoe in five days. He's meeting us in Lincoln, and we'll have to hurry to make it."

"But I thought we
was
..."

Tiring, Donny spun around and knocked the whining man off his horse with a single brutal blow to the temple.

"Get in there!" he growled.

The bleeding man crawled the few feet and disappeared into the ground.

Donny turned to the others. "You two get the perimeter set. Ben, you’re with me."

The leader let the other thickly built man go first, pausing to take a map from his belt. With a last glare of warning toward the two nervous guards, he also vanished into the ground.

2

"The rabbit.
A single shot each."

Knowing one of them to be unarmed, Daniel left his holster clear and immediately felt the rookie slide his Colt free and fire to the right.

The fat hare dropped with two bullet wounds, and Daniel hid his grin. She'd chosen well once again. Alexa was special, and the biker wouldn’t ever give up his coveted place on her left.

3

Donny froze on the long ladder as the two shots echoed, and the sound of a scuffle from the darkness below was little comfort.

"Give us some light, Ben."

There was no response, though he could feel the ladder vibrating and knew he wasn't alone on it. His eyes widened, realizing what that meant.

Donny fumbled awkwardly for his gun, but it was too late to stop the relentless hands that jerked him off the rope and sent him into the darkness below.

"
Aaahhh
..."

Thud!

“Give us some light.”

A single emergency stick flared and Alexa grunted her approval, eyes looking over the three new bodies as well as the dozens of skeletons. There were no survivors living here.

The signs of past radiation sickness were evident in the bottles of iodine and dust-covered stacks of used bandage boxes, but there would be more horror here before they left. Edward had made short work of the Nazi
guards
topside and soon, their bodies would be dropped into the hole too.

Full of cobwebs and dust, the spacious room they had found was clearly an escape hatch. The number of bodies directly below it suggested there hadn’t been time to get the new President out. Moldering furniture couldn’t hide the story of the awful ending that had occurred here - cartridge casings and bloodstains still glared at them from beneath grinning skulls.

"Five minute scan, in sight."

The other rooms sprawled out from this one, but they only needed to look in the first open door to know searching the abandoned complex was useless. The skeleton on the filthy couch was clearly mutated. Staying here was dangerous.

Eyes closing, Alexa concentrated, suddenly sure they'd stumbled onto something. There was a sense of peace here despite the nightmares filling these dark halls, a feeling of… safety.

The demon inside scented the stale, stinking air and caught a ghostly whiff of
Polo
that was instantly gone.
Adrian!

Alexa held out a thick torch and lit it with a mutter, brightening the enormous room around them… and found the message sprayed across the monitors in front of her.

All the fighters stared with stunned joy.

Safe Haven -
All
survivors welcome

NE-
WY
 
-
Channels 7 & 17

And along the bottom:

God Bless the United States and those we leave behind!

4

"Have a constant loyalty to New America, and you'll fit with us. Slack off, forget your place, endanger her intentionally or accidentally, and I'll remove you."

Not quite sure - neither man was willing to challenge that - Daniel's next words eased some of their tension.

"There will not be jealousy or attempts to control any part of her. She is not yours or ours. We are
hers
and we share everything."

Wondering, but not daring to ask if that included intimacy, both rookies continued to listen and do what he did.

"If you have questions, ask them carefully, respectfully. You can come to me or any of the others. We've all gone through the same training you're starting today," Daniel said this with little emotion, seeing them try hard to copy his steps.

"The quest matters to you for your own reasons, as it does to each of us, but don’t ever let your needs or desires come before hers. The rest of us will run you out before she has to."

The biker looked at them with hard eyes, "Do you understand these rules?"

They both
nodded,
very aware it now felt like a fool's quest without the woman here.

"Good," Daniel flipped a hand at the ugly preacher. "You're on my right, blacksmith on my left. No matter what else is going on, unless she says different, do what I do."

5

Two bottles crashed to the bunker floor in rapid succession, followed by a small torch. Firelight began to glare balefully up at them from the bunker hole.

Alexa waved a hand. "Cover it. The wind down there says it'll have enough fuel. No need to advertise where it started."

That sent her thoughts back to the other Nazis waiting in town. Would those come looking for these? After a moment of consideration, she turned away. It didn't matter. The best had come with their leader, and those hadn't been very good. The flunkies left would likely run, but somewhere, there was a bigger man, and it bothered Alexa to leave him unpunished. It was unlikely that Adrian would have.

These had said they were meeting their buyer, Roscoe, in Lincoln. Perhaps she and her men would get lucky enough to pass through Nebraska soon. To want deadly gases and chemicals, meant there was someone already in mind to use them on, and her American heart burned with fury. Hadn't all the hell of the War been enough to make men see?

Slightly off tune to her mood swing, the three men followed her through the darkness toward camp, wondering if she would give a reward. Granted, it had been only a small battle, but they had done well…

When they stepped into the firelight of camp, the three males shared smiles of resignation as hopes of being the ones rewarded vanished. What they'd done was nothing to what Daniel had accomplished in their short absence. If there was attention given tonight, the biker would be the lucky man to receive it.

Jacob and David were now dressed identical to the rest, their tools and gear being carried exactly like they should be, and it was easy to see the rookies approved of the new setup from the way they were working. Their hands didn't fumble, but drew needed items without looking as they quickly built side by side, smokeless fire pits in front of a one man canvas that appeared to have been set up, broken down, and repeated multiple times. Near these, was a larger fire with a medium-sized pot charring in the softly flickering flames. Fresh stacks of wood sat nearby, as did seven freshly filled canteens.

Alexa moved toward them with a lighter heart, her mood suddenly improving. They'd found the first message on the day they'd become seven strong. Fate had led her here. If it also took them away from Nebraska, so be it.

Daniel hand-signaled an instruction to the new men, then watched Alexa’s face as they hurriedly began serving the meal to the others now sitting in a loose circle nearby. She’d saved him, given him a new reason for living. Did she know how grateful he was?

The rookies were as careful as their teacher had cautioned them to be, also eager to show the woman they were serious, and the meal passed slowly, enjoyably. While they ate, the others filled Daniel in on the bunker and the clue they’d found. The talk quickly went to planning.

"We'll hit Cheyenne and try to stock up, unless anyone knows of a better place?"

There was silence, each of them enjoying the beans and biscuits Jacob had made, and Alexa waited patiently, looking over her men.

With a quick smile and a thick goatee, Billy was the quiet rebel of her group. He still favored colorful t-shirts under his fighting clothes - the kind with slogans best kept covered around strangers - and if there was a joke to be told, he was the first.

Next to the Driver, Mark preferred a clean-shaven scalp and spent time achieving it daily. The sexy muscles of his head and arms glistened in the firelight. Each of her men had their own addition to the uniform she’d given them. For Billy, it was the t-shirts beneath his clothes. For Mark, it was the cut-off sleeves of the black shirt that had allowed his skin to acquire a deep, beautiful bronze glow.

At his side was the preacher. Jacob’s concession to the uniform was the cross he still wore next to his heart. He was a contradiction, her religious killer.

After Jacob’s scarred face, Daniel was ugliest among them with all his battle-marks. He’d lived for the thrills before the War, and his body had paid the price in stitches, seared gashes, slashes, and gouges that littered his hands, arms, and legs. Only his face was unblemished, showing a handsome profile that had been protected out of vanity.

David, her future Magic-user, was taller than the rest of her men, both in size and nature, and carried an aloofness that matched her own.
Little was known about him other than his skills with metals, with a gun, and his ever-constant loyalty to their quest… to her.

Back to her side now, was Edward. Easily the most dangerous, the horseman was cool and calm when it was needed. Dependable and ever-loyal, he was also vain and a bit spoiled by his place as her first. He didn’t hold it over the heads of his teammates - he knew neither she nor they would allow that, but he flaunted it around strangers with no remorse.

Still, there was little she could ask of him that he couldn’t achieve. When she’d wondered if he were the perfect student, nothing had been truer. He soaked up her lessons and repeated them in exact detail. For all his small faults, there was no one better suited to her right.

Around them, the night moved, but no more so than usual. Shadows gathered, fought, retreated with information. It was happening everywhere, and as long as they weren’t attacked, Alexa permitted it. Mother Nature wanted all men gone, but that couldn’t be allowed to happen. Part of repairing the world included letting Nature see how much respect they had, that Adrian would retrain mankind to honor the planet. If that didn’t work, Alexa planned to do what she always had - fight.

"If we could cross the Little River, there's a rail yard within a few hours of Laramie," Billy finally offered.

"That's right. That area was so flooded, it's probably untouched." Mark slapped Billy on the shoulder, not caring that it was rumored to be a hunting ground for some type of mythical creature.
"Great idea."

"And the river?"
Alexa questioned, taking things from her kit. No one knew the area as well as Billy.

"The same way we handled the snakes, if we can find the right setup. Skiffs, if not," Edward answered, a hint of fondness in his usually expressionless tone. He still cherished the memories of their first month alone together.