We the People vol 2: Liberty or Death

Thane found a faded buckskin shirt, stiffened with age, that was long enough to function as a tunic if she belted it at the waist. The only Red in the unit who had left behind boots small enough to fit her feet had been the Lieutenant. The riding boots reached just below her knees, and they had been well cared for, shined to a level where they gleamed.

Her tattered and bloodstained dress she burned, because she was afraid of leaving even microscopic pieces of herself behind. She hoped that Chui had been able to decipher the rest of the Zimmyr writings.

“You look funny, Thane,” Faraday said, grinning ear to ear.

“Shut up, Hannah.” Thane was laughing all the same, but she was a bit embarrassed by her odd ensemble.

“I think you pass muster,” Stark said, rubbing his narrow chin. “Most will assume you to be an Indian scout.”

“Are you sure this guy’s an American, Thane?” Faraday asked.

“An....a what now?” Stark’s eyes narrowed when they focused on Faraday.

“Ixnay on the Mericaay, okay?” Hissed Thane. “She’s from...a faraway land, General.”

“I see,” Stark said, turning a frown toward Thane. “It would seem that the British did not see fit to leave behind any living horses for our own use.”

“Wait,” Thane said, a gleam in her eye “did you say ‘living horses’?”

“Indeed, there are two corpses blown asunder by the explosion that frightened off the Reds.”

“You killed horses, Faraday,” hissed Thane under her breath.

“I didn’t know they were there!” Faraday whispered back. “Anyway, they’re just horses. It’s not like they were people.”

“Killing isn’t...” Thane sighed. “Killing should only be done when...damn I don’t know what to say, Faraday! I haven’t been around but a hiccup compared to the rest of you. I just don’t think that you should take killing lightly, ever. That’s all.””

Thane blinked, realizing she’d been speaking at full volume. John Stark was wearing a half-smile.

“Well said.” Stark’s eyes widened, and his hand went to the saber at his side. “Do you hear that?”

“Yeah,” Thane said “hoof beats. We’re out of time.”

Thane stepped to the splinter-strewn resting place of the two slain equines. At her request, Faraday kept Stark busy hastily collecting skins of water and hard tack rations. Without ceremony, she crouched down and laid her hand on the horse’s torn, legless torso. It would be easy, because it hadn’t died all that long ago. Animals were usually easy. Not so much people...

She forced that memory out of her mind and set about her task. Thane learned by accident two years ago that she could reverse death. Almost on instinct, she picked up the sundered corpse of a squirrel and had breathed onto it. Seconds later it was up and bounding away into a tree.

For a short time, she had felt like a god. Then she tried the same thing with a hobo she’d come across, frozen to death, on train tracks in Nebraska. The resulting abomination still haunted her, and served as a reminder of her limitations.

Animals were different. Maybe because they didn’t have souls. She’d certainly never had to guide a cat or a dog to the afterlife.

Or a horse. Sinew knitted back together, muscles regrew, and a fully-fleshed chestnut mare rose to its hooves. For some reason, animals she raised were no longer skittish around her, and it even nuzzled her in the face.

“Hang on, big guy. Got to get your buddy up.” Thane glanced around, straining her ears. The hoof beats were much closer now, and she could hear voices raised in alarm.

Once both horses were living again, Thane brought them around to be saddled. She ended up riding double with Faraday, who wasn’t pleased.

“I don’t get it, Thane. Why not make a zombie horse?”

“A what?” She breathed a sigh of relief when they passed through the fort’s gates and were galloping along the road North.

“Like when you raise people-”

“Shh,” Thane hissed “not with Stark around. Raising people results in a mistake. I wouldn’t do that to a human, and I wouldn’t do that to a horse either.”

“Are you sure, Thane?” Faraday turned her head until one eye was locked on Thane. “Maybe you can raise people from the dead, but only if you get their soul to go back in their body at the same time.”

Thane opened her mouth to tell Faraday to shut up, then closed it. What if the autistic girl was right? Maybe she was supposed to have saved all those people rather than getting them to move on...

She dismissed the notion. There was something that felt very right about sending people where they belonged, even if their final destination was the dark mouth of damnation. If there was a purpose to her tortured existence, maybe that was it.

Stark pushed their mounts hard, and he knew the terrain well, but they were fleeing experienced trackers. Thane caught glimpses of them through the trees as they zigzagged through the woods, leaving the road behind.

“Fine mounts you procured for us,” shouted Stark with a grin. “Great stamina!”

“They will get tired eventually,” Thane said “I don’t think we can outrun these guys.”

She looked behind them again, scanning for their pursuers. Tall, robust men with ruddy skin and long black hair drove their short-legged ponies hard. On the open road, their own mount’s longer stride would have given them the edge, but Stark had made a mistake by leading them into uneven terrain.

“Those are Indian scouts,” Stark shouted. “The two of you ride on. They’re after me.”

“NO!” Thane cursed under her breath. She had to keep this idiot free and alive so he could do whatever it was history said he was to have done. Thinking about it gave her a headache, but letting him die or fall into enemy hands was unacceptable. “You and Faraday ride on. Take him to Bast and the others Faraday. You understand?”

“Got it, Thane.”

“You don’t have to sound so damn cheerful,” griped Thane. Before Stark could protest, she reached up and grabbed a branch thicker than her leg with both hands. She was pulled off the horse’s back and used the momentum to swing in a complete circuit until she was crouched on top or her new perch.

The lead Indian was almost right under her when she got her bearings. Quickly, she sprang off of the branch and dove at him. Unfortunately, her attack angle was off, and she smacked her skull into the pony’s with a meaty thunk. Both of them fell to the mossy turf, though only the pony was dazed. The scout screamed, his leg badly twisted under his mount’s weight.

“Sorry, buddy,” Thane said, shaking her head. She grabbed the man’s musket from the ground and turned toward the next pursuer. “Aww, man!”

Two scouts rode past their comrade’s plight and continued after Faraday and Stark. The last jerked hard on his mount’s reigns and turned sharply to charge at her. Thane raised the musket and fired. The gun leaped against her shoulder, a white plume of smoke and flash of fire heralding a badly aimed shot. A few leaves twenty feet to the left of the scout’s head were torn asunder by the lead ball.

Then he was upon her. He brought a rusted cavalry saber down in a vicious arc. Thane used the Musket to parry it. The air filled with dull impacts as the wooden stock absorbed most of the sword’s energy, swing after swing.

“Okay, that’s enough of that,” Thane said. She reared back and unleashed a vicious roundhouse punch...right into the horse’s face. The equine’s eyes glazed over and it fell with a heavy thud. This scout was luckier, or faster, and managed to keep from being crushed. Thane ended his resistance by grabbing his jerkin and throwing him thirty feet through the air to crash into a tree.

The hair on the back of her neck stood up, and she knew that Faraday was about to do something. A few seconds later, there was a crackle and rumble like thunder, so loud she could barely hear men and horses scream over it. She took off at a dead run along their path. It wasn’t hard to follow their trail, because the horses were tearing up the foliage and leaving prints in the soft moss.

She came across Faraday’s victims and had to chuckle. Thane had seen people tazed many times before, and that’s what she would have guessed had happened to these poor fools. They laid on the ground, very much alive, twitching and spasming as they tried to move their helpless bodies.

Thane came across her companions a half mile away, watering their horses at a little shaded stream.

“You made it,” Faraday said, smiling.

“You too, sweetie.” Thane glanced at Stark, found him icily silent. “What’s wrong?”

“He saw me do special stuff,” Faraday said with a shrug. “Did I do bad?”

“No, we had to keep him from getting captured.” She sighed and tried to smile at Stark, but he just turned his back on her and brushed down his mount. “Well, we just have to get him to Bennington. He don’t have to like us.”

“But he’s seen what I can do. Won’t that alter history?”

“Only if he tells someone. And who’s going to believe him?” Thane bit her lip. “Probably a lot of people. He’s pretty well respected, from what I understand. Maybe we should go full disclosure and let him in on our time travel situation.”

“I don’t know, Thane. Franklin already knows. What if we’re changing things too much?”

Faraday was voicing a fear Thane felt herself, but she tried to put it aside.

“We can’t think like that, Hannah. We’re still here, right? So whatever bad thing that’s supposed to happen hasn’t happened yet. Besides, if these harbingers show up, who’s to say we can’t kick their butts?”

Faraday nodded.

“Like the guys on TV. Zap, pow, right?”

Thane grinned. “Zap Pow, Mother-trucker!”