Massacre at Lonesome Ridge: A Zombie Western (8 page)

Jeremiah reached for Nelly's reins and climbed into the saddle. Jasper followed suit. "Why are you telling me all this?"

Jeremiah shrugged. "Dunno. Just felt like the time. You's a smart boy. I never made nothin' a myself, not like Ma wanted me to. Maybe you can. Maybe you can get outta this hell hole an' make a life someplace nice. Someplace like New York City or Phillydelfya. Be a liar or a newspaper man or something."

Jasper laughed. "I think you mean lawyer."

Jeremiah grinned a big, brown grin. "Nope. I mean a liar. They always telling lies, Ma said. That's how they make they money. Lying. You gotta read them books so you know which lies to tell."

Jasper's laugh came out as a snort. "Well, if Ma said so, then it must be true.” He thought for a moment. “Nah, I think I'd rather be a professor at a college or something, though. No lying involved there."

Jeremiah nodded. "That'd be good, too." He appraised Jasper as the horses plodded along the path to town. "You know, little brother, I may be mean to ya, but it ain't to be mean. It's to make you tough. Someday, yer gonna be out there on your own. I won't be around no more. An' you'll need to take care of yerself."

Jasper opened his mouth, but closed it again when he couldn't think of a thing to say to Jeremiah's strange behavior. His older brother ignored him and continued on anyway. "When you was born, I was nine, Jed was eleven. Even then, Ma didn't trust him. She pulled me aside the night you was born. You was laying there on the bed, all swaddled up and sleepin'. 'You protect him, Jeremiah,' Ma says to me. She looked me in the eyes and gripped my arm so tight it hurt. She was a'skeered, I could see that well enough. 'You keep your little brother safe.' I knew she wasn't talkin' about protecting ya from wolves and stuff. She was talkin' about him, about Jed."

Jeremiah pulled his horse to a stop and looked Jasper in the eyes. His face was dead serious. "I'm doing my best, little brother. No matter what it takes, I'll protect you from him. I promise."

"Mad, Abby, bring the vegetables, please." Ma Crawford nodded toward the kitchen.

Her oldest daughters, Madeleine and Abigail rose from the game of checkers they played on the floor in the corner and walked to the side of the room that served as a kitchen.

"Did you see Amos the other day?" Madeleine gushed as they picked up two wooden bowls full of vegetables from the work table under the window.

Abigail rolled her eyes. Ever since their former schoolmate had been deputized barely a year ago, Madeleine had had her sights set on him. It didn't matter that the man was obviously in love with one of the saloon girls.

"What about Cora?" Abby pressed her lips together to hide her smile as Maddy set off into a rant. She just loved teasing her younger sister.

"I don't know what he sees in her. She's a saloon girl, after all." Madeleine put all the venom she could muster into the words "saloon girl", as if it was the worst profession anyone could possibly choose. To her, it was. "Amos is a good man. He needs a good woman. He needs someone who will take care of the house and keep her knickers on around other men."

Abby laughed. "You mean like you?"

"Yes," Maddy spat. "Of course like me. Can you get better than a teacher? I'm smart, I want lots of children, I am good at keeping house."

"I beg to differ on that last part." Ma smiled as she took the bowl from Madeleine. "Every time I ask you to sweep, it's like I'm asking you to chop off your hand."

Maddy scoffed. "I just don't like sweeping is all."

Ma winked at Abby as they set the bowls on the table. "Sweeping is a large part of living out here, my dear. Between you kids and your pa, if I didn't sweep twice a day, we would be living in a foot of dust."

"Anyway," Maddy said in an attempt to turn the conversation back to where she wanted it to go. "He needs a good woman."

"Bow your heads." Pa ignored Maddy's glare as the rest of the family bowed their heads and clasped hands.

There were six of them around the small table. Ma, Pa, Abigail, Madeleine, Wyatt, and Hannah. Ma and Pa had moved out west when Abby was two and Maddy was a newborn. Over nearly two decades, they built a nice little homestead away from the corruption and craziness of the east coast. They were half a day's ride from Lonesome Ridge. Madeleine worked as a teacher at the school. It was too far to travel every day, so she rented a room in town. On Saturdays, she borrowed a horse from the stable and rode out to the homestead to spend the weekend with her family.

“
Did you see Eva yesterday?” Hannah, the youngest of the four at barely seventeen, asked her older brother.

Wyatt stuffed a carrot in his mouth. “Yup. Mrs. Zane is making her dress, she said.”

Hannah sighed and stared off into space. “I can't wait to be a bridesmaid. It's going to be great.”

“
Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. Isn't that how the saying goes, Abby?” Maddy's wicked grin had her older sister blushing.

“
I've only been a bridesmaid twice, and I'm not in any hurry to get married, thank you.”

"Abby was thinking about going into teaching," Ma Crawford cut in as she passed the bowl of steamed green beans around the table.

Abigail rolled her eyes. "No, Ma. You want me to go into teaching."

Ma Crawford gave the exasperated sigh she had mastered years ago. "You have to do something, Abby. You can't stay around here all your life."

"Why not?" Pa gave Abby a small smile as they spoke over each other. She was his best helper and everyone knew it. Without her around, he would have struggled to manage all the chores.

"Don't encourage her, Abraham. She needs to start a family of her own before it's too late."

"Ma, do we have to have this conversation every time we eat?"

"Fine, fine. We'll talk about something else." Ma lapsed into silence with a scowl on her face, clearly uninterested in talking about anything else.

Silence fell over them for several minutes, broken only by the clanking of forks and cups.

"Mr. Bell says he saw a dead buffalo the other day." Wyatt poked at the beans his mother had forced him to take, but didn't eat any of them. "He says it was ripped apart, probably by lions."

Hannah rolled her eyes. "There are no lions in the west, Wyatt."

"How do you know? Maybe one escaped from that traveling circus that came through here a couple years ago."

"I doubt it."

His argument was cut off by a sharp scream from outside. Everyone froze until Pa cried out. "The cattle!"

He rose from the table so fast that his chair toppled over behind him. He snatched the rifle from beside the door and raced out into the dark. Abby was right behind him, grabbing her own rifle. She stopped at the door. “Get into the bedroom, Ma. Just in case.” Then she was gone.

Ma rose and shuffled the other kids into the bedroom. They huddled together in the corner between the wall and the bed, away from the window.

"Lions," whispered Wyatt as he gave Hannah a knowing nod.

"Shut up," she hissed back as she reached over Maddy to smack his arm.

Outside, Abby and her father were creeping toward the barn. Pa carried his shotgun in one hand and a lantern in the other. The lantern bobbed as they walked, casting strange jumping shadows over the ground. Pained screams still echoed out through the night, mingled with snarls and growls that were unfamiliar.

Pa held up his hand as they reached the door. Abby crouched beside it and held her shotgun at the ready.

The screams stopped short, but they could hear muffled grunts from inside. "What is that?" Abby whispered.

Pa scrunched his face up and shook his head. "I don't know. Stay here."

He pushed the door open and peeked inside. "Oh my God..."

The grunts stopped instantly as he spoke out loud.

"Shit." Pa took a step back. "Run, Abigail."

Abby rose and stumbled away from the barn. "What is it?" She raised her shotgun toward the door.

Her father stepped in front of her. "Go, Abby. Just go. Don't stop until you reach the house."

She took several stuttering steps and turned back toward the barn. A growling moan echoed from just inside the door.

Pa turned and saw Abby standing just behind him. He ran to her and gave her a rough shove. "Don't look back! Just run!"

The terror in his eyes got her moving. She took off at a run. Behind her, the shotgun barked once, twice. Then Pa screamed.

Abigail tripped over her feet as she tried to simultaneously move forward toward the house and turn back toward her father. The shotgun spun out of her hands and landed in the bushes next to the stairs.

The lantern flew from her father's hand and crashed onto the dry grass. Flames licked across the ground toward the barn. The growing flames silhouetted two men. At least, Abby thought they were men. Their skin was ashy gray in the orange light.

For a brief moment, Abby watched in horror as they bent over her father and tore chunks of flesh from his body. His screams pierced deep into her soul.

Then one of the men looked up. Her eyes met his. He snarled and rose from his crouched position with her father's blood dripping down his chin. He stared at her long and hard. Time froze as her heart stopped beating and her breath hitched in her chest. Then he took a step toward her.

That was all the urging she needed. She climbed to her feet and raced up the stairs, slamming the door closed behind her. She stumbled across the room and yanked open the door to the bedroom. Her sisters screamed as they scrambled over each other to try not to be in front.

"It's me. Shhh, it's just me." Abby whispered. She pressed her ear against the door. Slow steps thudded across the porch and the door to the house crashed open so hard the windows rattled on their frames. "Out the window." She urged her family up and to the small window.

Wyatt hoisted Hannah up onto the sill. Her eyes met Abby's briefly before she disappeared out into the growing night. Madeleine was already climbing up on Wyatt's knee before she was on the ground.

"Wyatt, go." Abby's eyes darted between the window and the door as her brother hefted himself up and out. She heard him grunt as he hit the ground.

The bedroom door rattled. "Abby."

Abigail turned from the window. Her mother stood with her back pressed against the door. She held a broomstick in her hands. "Go," she said.

Abby shook her head. "No, Ma. I won't leave you."

"You have to. Save them, Abby. Please. No one else can.” Tears welled in her eyes as the door slammed against her back again and again, trying to shove her away from it. “I love you. Go." Then she turned her back and threw the door open. With a scream, she launched herself at the man.

"No!" Abby stared in abject horror as her mother grappled with the intruder, torn between helping her mother and protecting the rest of her family. For one intense moment, he looked away from her mother and his eyes met Abby's. She gasped. His eyes were the dull emptiness of death.

"Abby, go!"

Her mother's cry snapped Abby out of her daze. She threw herself over the window sill. Her brother and sisters were huddled outside, waiting. Maddy was sobbing and Hannah was shaking with fear.

"Around the house. To the horses." The three horses were in a corral on the side of the house, away from the barn where the cattle had been. Pa's horse, the Crawford's old plow horse, and the horse Madeleine had borrowed from the stables were all snorting and shuffling in annoyed confusion when they arrived.

"Hurry." Abby vaulted over the fence and led Pa's horse back to it so Hannah could climb on as Madeleine got on her own horse. Wyatt mounted the plow horse and they were ready to go. She opened the gate and then swung up behind Hannah.

Madeleine led the way out of the corral, but in her heightened state of panic, she steered the horse toward the barn. The other man who had attacked Pa saw them as they exited and made a beeline toward them. His gait was slow and halting, but Madeleine’s horse fed off her fear. She had such a tight grip on the reins that the poor creature didn't know which way to turn. His instincts collided with his training and in the confusion, he reared back and threw her to the ground.

Madeleine’s screams rent the air, but they were cut short as she hit the ground. Her neck was bent at an uncomfortable angle and her eyes stared into the night.

“
Maddy!” Abby shouted for her sister as more men swarmed out of the barn, drawn by the noise. They descended upon the still warm body like a horde of dogs.

With tears threatening her vision, Abby steered her horse away from the barn toward the road. "Wyatt! This way!"

The boy made to follow, but his horse was slow and scared. The man who had been angling for Maddy was nearly at his flank. He lunged at Wyatt and latched onto his leg with a death grip. Wyatt shouted and kicked, but the man's teeth sank into his ankle.

Abby spun her horse around and raced at the man. As she rode by, she drove her foot into his head. He released his grip on Wyatt and fell to the ground. Wyatt kicked his horse into gear and they fled to the road. The men fell further and further behind until they were out of sight. Abby kept them running until the horses were slathered in sweating and breathing so hard she thought they might collapse. Only then did they slow down. Hannah sank against Abby's back and wept. Tears streamed down Wyatt's face. Abby buried her pain deep beneath the hate and anger that was growing in her heart.