Darkness upon the Land

“DOWN!” He roared as he rolled toward the ditch on his side of the highway.

His order had been unnecessary. The bicycle tried to tangle around her feet as she dived toward the road’s shoulder on her side. Another shot made her scramble over the edge. As Alexia plummeted into the damp channel she glanced back as a third crack burst from the house. Reuben was nowhere in sight.

She pressed against the shallow embankment and hissed a controlled breath through her teeth. The tenuous tingling she felt in her chest confirmed she’d had an outburst, but at least her mad dash to safety limited its effect. Still, she had to calm the pounding adrenaline throbbing through her system if she didn’t want to become a liability.

No more shots came from the home. She barely peeked over the shoulder of the road and saw their bikes lying twisted in the middle of the thoroughfare. Reuben continued to remain out of sight. She had to subdue another pulse of anxiety.

“Rube!” She hissed.

There was no response.

“Rube!” Her call was soft but tense, slightly louder than the first.

There was nothing consoling from the other side of the highway. He didn’t call back or signal in any way. It didn’t even look like he was positioning to shoot back, even though he only had a pistol and those shots had to be from a rifle.

“Oh, God,” Alexia moaned under her breath as she battled another wave of emotion. Please, please, don’t let him be dead or dying. His demise would be bad enough, but somehow it seemed worse that after he had survived flying shrapnel and vicious hoodlums and an exploding gas station, he could now be taken down so quickly.

She realized how poor her cover was compared to his because she was on the same side of the road as the house. It was obvious what should be done. She should try to keep under cover and work her way back to the security of their approaching backup. But what if he was lying there wounded? If she left, he might be totally vulnerable, and she just couldn’t bring herself to do it.

No, she would not abandon him to the mercilessness of their ambusher, but what could she do that would help him? Getting shot in an attempt to reach him wouldn’t do either of them any good. Maybe she should back off a bit, staying under the meager shelter of the embankment, and then cross the highway that looked wider than ever before so she could backtrack to him.

“Don’t move, Baldridge, or I’ll plug the girl!”

Alexia froze as the man’s shout came from the house. Immediately someone stepped from behind it and began approaching them. She recognized his voice.

“I’ve got a bead on her from here!” Baron actually had the rifle aimed across the highway as he continued to advance upon them. “Don’t try anything funny!”

Why was he shouting to Reuben? She doubted the malefactor could see him. Maybe … maybe Baron suspected he was still alive and was using her as a hostage to obtain his cooperation.

“You! Alexia!” He continued to watch where Reuben had disappeared. “Get up and go over to him!”

She doubted he wanted her to offer assistance. “What are you going to do?”

He paused for a few seconds in the middle of the right lane and swung the rifle toward her while his attention remained on the other side of the road. “I’m going to blow your head off if you don’t do as I say!”

His statement didn’t ring true. If he wanted her as a hostage to control Reuben, he wouldn’t risk killing her before confirming her partner was dead. Evil by its nature was short-sighted, yet at the moment of its want it could become exceptionally shrewd.

“I can start off with winging you!” It was as though he read her mind when she didn’t move. He resumed drawing nearer, moving swiftly but smoothly.

“I … I can’t.” Alexia tried to stall for time, to give their approaching entourage a chance to get here before the worst happened. Her inspiration to lie occurred easily. “I hurt my ankle.”

“I don’t care if you crawl! Get over there and get his gun!”

So that was it. He didn’t want to risk a shoot-out with Reuben even though he was the one with greater firepower. That meant he suspected his opponent was still alive and capable of fighting back – and of matching his level of subterfuge. She was quite possibly caught between two men who were both as cunning as a serpent. But although one wanted to be as gentle as a dove, the other was content to be the snake.

He reminded her of Reuben … only darker.

Rage managed to ripple to the surface of her apprehension, and she had to rein it in. “It was you, wasn’t it?” She did sit up a little, showing just enough cooperation to avoid that flesh wound he had threatened to give her. “It was you who told my mom you needed help, only to get her ambushed by Hooter and Jake.”

“Shut up and do as you’re told!”

She absolutely had to hinder his attempt to procure the pistol, because once he got it they were both as good as dead.

“What difference does that make to you?” She staggered to her feet and realized her right shin, among a few other scrapes, was actually throbbing. It was going to be easy to favor that leg. “It’s obvious he can’t hurt you now.”

For a split second the idea occurred to her to inform him they had help on the way, but just as quickly she dismissed the notion. It wouldn’t make him turn tail and run, and it might just encourage him to finish his business with them now, only to disappear again to wait for the next opportunity to get the jump on Mѐre.

“Shut up and keep moving!”

“Are you that scared of him?” She took one faltering step up the embankment. Her clothes were mud-stained and that added to her disagreeability. “Is he why you never came back to our place after your first attack?”

“Don’t confuse scared with prudence,” he growled.

She purposefully stumbled and landed on the shoulder of the road. “So how did you find out we’d come back, and about Hooter and Jake?”

“Keep moving!”

She hobbled back to her feet and appreciated the width of the road, although now it appeared far too narrow. “Was it your connection to the council? Did they tell you that Hooter and Jake had disappeared?”

“Those idiots Kyle and Evan came in with a report that Gautreaux’s daughter was back home and brought some bozo with her. They were of the impression he wasn’t much of a threat because they easily disarmed him.”

Kyle and Evan must have been the guards at the clinic who confiscated the trade-goods from Reuben. “So they didn’t know Mѐre had already been attacked?”

“They just answered to the council. They didn’t know anything about Gatreaux or the Carvels.” He halted about ten yards from where Reuben vanished.

She continued to limp very slowly. “How did you get in so tight with the members? Were you friends with that son of a former member? The attacker at the infirmary?”

“Nosy little wench, aren’t you?”

“Can you blame me? I’ve been living under the threat of exactly this ever since I got home.” Alexia was no longer suppressing emotions. She started to cultivate them. “I know you double-crossed the council. That you were probably supposed to be at the house when Hooter and Jake came back from making their first delivery. But you took off with your own plunder of our provisions, didn’t you? How were you going to explain that to the council?”

“We were just going to pacify Gautreaux, sit on her for two or three days until she would admit she needed the council’s protection. Jake wasn’t even supposed to have a gun. He damn near shot me. When he wounded her, I knew even though it wasn’t the council’s original plan, they’d confiscate her place while she recovered or died. And they didn’t know what all supplies she actually had.”

“So you told Hooter and Jake to take a delivery in and admit to the members what happened while you helped yourself? What were the Carvels to think when they came back and you weren’t there?”

“I already told them I wasn’t going to be there, and those two dopes wouldn’t have missed a thing.”

She hesitated and winced dramatically while gingerly rubbing around her right ankle. “So you were going to come back until you heard about Rube the next day?”

“The fact he came into town proved something happened to the Carvels. Keep moving!”

“So the council had to change their plans yet again. I still want to know how you were going to work around them, to keep them from discovering your treason.”

He kept the rifle trained to the left. “It was simply a matter of waiting for the gangs to come in. I knew they wouldn’t keep their agreements, and with the council rendered ineffective it was no longer a concern.”

She was beginning to reach the stripes painted in the middle of the highway. The cavalry probably wouldn’t get here in time. That left her only one option, so she allowed her anxiety and irritation to build.

“Was it Kyle or Evan who came out to our place for the next attack?”

A sneering grin altered the shape of his mouth slightly. “Evan still thought Baldridge would be a pushover. The dog was a problem, but your stupid, hungry mutt was easy to bait away from the house so we could dispose of it.”

“So you were with them?”

“I got rid of the dog so they could stage the takeover. But then none of them came back, and that confirmed I needed to get Baldridge out of the way.”

She purposefully stumbled again. “Rube wasn’t even at the infirmary when that gunman killed the guard and ran in.”

This time he scowled. “I heard how he was supposed to return after the explosion, so the plan was to make it look like the lot of you were just more casualties from the battle. But he was later and later about coming in, so I finally figured he’d been taken care of for me. We still needed to get you out of the way, though, in case you were an element in this I hadn’t realized yet.” The frown deepened. “Things do seem to happen around you.”

He had no idea. “So you distracted the guard, didn’t you? That was how he got shot in the back and the gunman got in.”

“Right smart deduction. But it doesn’t make any sense that Gage would’ve tripped over chairs. He wasn’t any klutz.” His attention shifted more to her and less toward Reuben. “There’s even debate over how you threw a book at that nut case.”

“You weren’t involved in that one too, were you?” She was nearing the shoulder but still couldn’t see Reuben.

“Not with the fruitcake. Myra was supposed to dazzle Baldridge and lure him off to someplace private. Then I could take care of him while he was otherwise engaged.”

Alexia allowed her irritation at Myra to blossom. “All this time you dangled our place like a carrot on a stick in front of all those people, didn’t you? You stayed in the shadows while they were the ones who were put in danger. But you’re running out of minions, aren’t you? Now you’re having to do it yourself.”

“Hold up.” His regard shifted back toward Reuben. “Come up to me a few steps first.”

She was grateful for the request because she realized why he had made it. Baron wanted to maneuver her between the two of them. It bought her more time, and it also put her closer to her target.

“You know you don’t have to go through with this.” She tried to limp even slower. “From what I’ve heard, you’ve motivated killers, but you never killed anybody yourself. For your own good, don’t start. It’s obvious you’re a smart guy. We can work this out.”

“Nice try, but you’re not going to fool me with that baloney.”

“It’s not a trick. We’re open to forgiveness. You can still turn back from this destructive path you’ve started down.”

He sneered. “Keep your Catholic hocus-pocus to yourself.”

She was stalling for time, but surprised herself at how honest her words were. “When we worked together at the infirmary, you were helpful and efficient. I’d be willing to bet that before the solar storm you wouldn’t have ever considered killing another person for your own gain. You don’t have to decide to do that now.”

“Look around you, dummy. The world works on kill or be killed. Now shut up and keep going to Baldridge!”

Because he had a rifle, she wondered if she should aim for his legs instead of the weapon. And should she try to hold something back, or hit him with everything she had left? Reuben’s condition would probably help her to make that determination. Alexia neared the embankment.

“Get his gun and toss it over to me!”

She leaned forward as she approached in order to see into the ditch. Reuben was lying belly down against the slope, and her heart skipped a beat. The pistol was gripped in his left hand.

When he turned his head, relief flooded through her. But immediately dismay descended again when she spied that blood covered his face. He made eye contact with her, however, and his blood-stained right hand lifted slowly from the wrist into the stop position.

So he was doing exactly what Baron suspected he was doing. And he would have counted on her life being spared the whole time. The crafty little twerp – she hoped they lived through this, because later she was going to kill him.

“Get the gun!” Baron’s voice had a ring of harshness again.

She didn’t have to fake the concern in her voice. “He’s bleeding.”

Reuben then pointed to her. Next he jabbed his finger downward and he wiggled the pistol in his other hand.

So she was supposed to take cover while he engaged in a gunfight that would be the equivalent of an economy car taking on a semi-truck. No, she wasn’t going to cooperate with that plan. She had to see to it that he had an unfair advantage in this fight.

“Get the damn gun! Now!”

Whereupon he would kill both of them and then go to her home and kill Mѐre. Or he might keep her as a hostage a while longer in order to get to her mom. Regardless, they would all be doomed, and she embraced her mounting tension to unleash the power he could never suspect.

She swung her right arm toward Baron and barked “NO!” as she also darted to the left.

Diligent Reuben immediately leapt to his feet as their opponent was thrown off balance, his rifle swinging wildly to the side. Both men began firing simultaneously. Baron jerked his weapon back into position while both of them stayed in motion.

As she threw herself into the ditch Reuben just vacated, she saw him swing around in a crouch and Baron totter as both kept firing. Each was trying to make himself a more difficult target by staying on the move. But the rifle was moving closer to her partner’s position.

She didn’t know how much she still had within her, but if she didn’t use it Reuben might still wind up dead.

Alexia flung her hand out again. “Stop!”

This time when Baron staggered he collapsed to his knees. Reuben fired off one more round – probably his last – and when the rifle shot again, it was pointed at the asphalt. Then Baron slumped over.

Alexia did the same. She lay at the top of the embankment with her arms across the shoulder while Reuben sprinted toward him and snatched the rifle away. As he shoved Baron down to the roadway, his attention shot to her.

“Are you crazy?”

She was every bit as annoyed with him, but didn’t have the energy to respond with the same vigor. “No more than you.”

He rolled Baron over and quickly procured the pistol from its shoulder holster before striding over to her. “You didn’t do anything you were supposed to do.”

Her frustration was probably what helped her to remain conscious as he gingerly pulled her to a sitting position on the side of the road. “I couldn’t leave you alone.”

He pulled the spare package of pemmican from his pocket and offered it. “He could’ve started to shoot at you instead of me.”

“My blood is no redder than yours.” She accepted the food with one hand and started to reach toward his face with the other. “Speaking of which –”

He grasped her hand and lowered it to the pemmican. “It’s a scratch. Face wounds bleed a lot.”

“What about Baron?” She reached into the bag to pinch off a bite.

“I unloaded the whole clip. He’s not dead yet, but considering current circumstances the operative word may be yet.”

“Thank God it’s nearly over,” she murmured, and then a sudden recollection struck her.

Reuben’s reasons for staying had been eradicated. He would be able to head for home sooner rather than later now.