Hell Follows After (Monster of the Apocalypse Saga)

by C. Henry Martens

  Cursing suddenly, Jody rose to her feet.

  “Dammit, it’s dark! I’ve lost track of the time!”

  Reclining and comfortable, Edge was not ready to let Jody go. He reached out, expecting her to take his hand so he could recapture her and draw her back to earth. But though she was tempted, starting to reach out herself, Jody drew back suddenly.

  “No, no I can’t… I’ve overstayed already. Cherry will already be asleep, and I was supposed to do the dishes.” The young woman looked about like she was confused, perhaps shaking the cobwebs of her attraction to Edge from her head. “I have to go.”

  She reached out this time with a quick grip, a firm, warm pressure to the hand still proffered, and then as Edge tried to hold her, she disengaged and ran from him.

  The fire providing little warmth, Edge suddenly noticed the chill of the summer air in this high mountain meadow. The thought crossed his mind that Jody had provided all the warmth he required. Glad they had the opportunity to finally speak for some time, he lay back with his hands behind his head and gazed up at the stars. The moonless night and the dark surrounding mountains focused the night sky over him. At this elevation there was little between Edge and the stars, and they seemed unusually bright. Edge mulled over what had passed between himself and this intriguing woman from a foreign city and decided he would pursue their friendship. From his perspective he was bound to be successful if he chose to. The interest of both was apparent. All he had to do was cultivate the relationship properly. Crawling under the wagon, he drew his soogans up around his chin and tried to sleep.

  On her return Jody found her camp bedded down and asleep. She poured water in the large bowl filled with dirty dishes and began to scrub them, making as little noise as possible. The night had been enjoyable, and if she caught hell in the morning, it would be worth it. She had learned much and had plenty to consider. Edge was the right kind of guy, there was no doubt, but she left room for indecision. The apprentice was hard working, that she could see as they traveled. He would supply security to a woman once he became a Master of his Trade. From the information she had gleaned, he came from a respected family in his community and wanted nothing more than to start his own. Jody wondered if she were ready to make that kind of commitment, cogitating on it and weighing the options. One of the things that had shocked her was when she found out that Edge and Arc were kin. The little man that had been hovering about her was Edge’s uncle, his father’s brother. Well… half brother. That thought gave Jody some pause. The two men had the same father but different mothers. There was that pesky polygamy thing. Something Edge saw as normal and natural. He would expect a wife to welcome other women into the family, wouldn’t he? she thought to herself.

  The dishes done, Jody spread them out to air dry in the night air. She climbed beneath the wagon and tried to sleep as she listened to Cherry’s light snores.

  §

  A warm morning dawned with the sounds of creaking wagons and jangling chain, loud pops from bullwhips and the shouts of men. An early start was going to help spread the load over the entire day.

  The two Smithies helped each other yoke the oxen and position the teams. Muffy made sure her cart was loaded appropriately with the heavier objects toward the front.

  The ox intended to draw the cart appeared but not led by either of her two male companions. The young woman, Jody, brought it up. She smiled big at Muffy as she approached, lead in one hand and a small basket in the other.

  “I’ve already done my chores, so I asked if I could walk with you to the top,” she explained. “I’d just be in the way otherwise with the big wagon.”

  Muffy noticed Jody’s eyes glancing quickly in the direction of her husband’s apprentice. She understood immediately and played along.

  “And glad for the company, I am, Miss Jody. The day will be made more sweet in the company of another woman.” She hugged the girl while the doe-eyed ox looked on.

  As the two women hitched the beast to the cart, they made small talk about the day to come and the people they traveled with. Jody offered a welcome diversion from man talk to Muffy, and the young lady was glad to be away from the fluff that she usually had to listen to from Cherry. Grown up conversation would be welcome.

  Manners demanded to Jody that she contribute to the day in another way as well.

  “I have a jar of pickles for lunch and some dry berries. And I made some oatmeal cookies.”

  The girl was looking for acceptance, and Muffy suspected that she was not getting much from the family she was traveling with.

  Muffy smiled and chuckled in her generous way. “Aye, that’ll be welcome, Miss, and I’ve some meat and bread to go along. We’ll have a proper picnic.”

  Thinking of her own baking, Muffy determined to hide it so the girl could share her own cookies. Muffy could always use the elderberry muffins the next day.

  The Company teams were well started, and the independents were beginning to move out. Jody glanced from lowered lids at Edge as he waited his turn.

  “Here, girl, take a drink to the men,” Muffy handed a bottle of sweet water to Jody. “They’ll have necessity of drink on the march. Perhaps you can make sure they are well supplied?”

  Taking the bottle, Jody grinned. “Oh, thank you, Ma’am, I’ll make sure. I was hoping to be useful.”

  The girl took the bottle to Occam first which was demanded by courtesy, but Muffy knew the girl would have anyway. She would want to spend time with the apprentice and not be rushed to get a drink to her husband. Watching, Muffy wondered why the two young people had stayed so separate. They seemed to enjoy each other’s company.

  As Edge stood waiting he inspected the woods beyond the two women. There was nothing of interest other than the girl he enjoyed looking at in his peripheral vision. When the young lady was offered the bottle and accepted it from Muffy’s hand, he glanced at them and made eye contact with Occam’s wife. She smiled encouragingly as though she knew something. He was puzzled by the look. It made him slightly uncomfortable, but the feeling passed as he anticipated the drink he would soon have from Jody’s hand. She seemed to glow in the morning light with the early sun backlighting the fine curls around her head.

  The wagons would pull out soon, and the two young people talked quietly as they waited for the Conestogas ahead of them to move past. Jody stayed with Edge until it was time to move out and then moved back to walk beside Muffy. The road ahead was broad, and they would stay alongside the front teams of the hitch. They could have followed behind, but on a steep hill there was always a chance of a wagon breaking loose. Besides, Muffy wanted to be available to the men she cared for on this climb. They would need water and maybe some other form of help. And now there was another reason. The young girl would want to stay close to the apprentice Smith. Feeling it entirely appropriate, Muffy made sure they would stay abreast of the young man at the head of the hitch.

  §

  The Rangy chestnut under Arc played out as the little man pushed him up and down alongside the different teams. The animals that would work hardest this day were not necessarily the oxen but the horses that the Wagon Master and the Ox Master rode. Already they were changing ponies and would throughout the day.

  One of the wagons was giving them fits with a wheel that seemed out of alignment. The hub had decided to hide its malformation until they were well toward the top of the summit and was now beginning to drag instead of turn on its axis. Had this been the wagon in the rear, they might have chocked the wheels and left it behind to be repaired, but it was the front wagon with two behind.

  With under a mile to go before level ground, the Wagon Master suggested they should unhitch and fix the damage, sending the teams back down for the next set of wagons. But Arc was in charge of the pull, and he overrode Till and admonished the men to continue on.

  Different teams and various loads determined the speeds at which each hitch moved. The wagon with the bad wheel was being passed by others and would soon be passed by
the first independent wagons. In his ego-driven haste, Arc valued getting to the summit more highly than he valued his men, the wagons, or the animals, and he yelled angry obscenities as he urged the crew driving the crippled wagon to stay ahead of the independents.

  There is always a weak link in any chain. In this case the weakness was not the men or the oxen. It was the wagon. Two things failed. The first was the axle. It snapped as the dragging wheel hit a clump of concrete forced up by frost heaves in winters past. As the rear corner of the conveyance twisted and dropped to the ground, the load behind was put under sudden strain, the shackle holding the tongue of the trailing wagon coming free. Two wagons, heavy with trade goods, were loosed on those below.

  Coming up on noon, Edge had consulted with Occam and the Vintner over when to rest the hitch and stop for lunch. Everything had gone so well, they decided to continue to the top and have a late meal at the summit. Another hour should see them there.

  Passing one of the long teams from Reno on their left, they had come abreast of the other and stayed with them for some time. There was no passing anything quickly with oxen. The cart with the single ox, and Muffy and Jody, were alongside their own team, also to the left. With the broad expanse of old highway, there was room for at least three others across the road, but there was no place to be safe from the cascading wagons picking up speed down the hill, especially as they had unhitched from each other and were now two deadly missiles.

  With wagon tongues dragging, the Conestogas tended to stay well focused on whatever path water would follow. But any bump could change their trajectory suddenly.

  Seeing what was happening uphill, Edge understood the danger. He had seen the destruction caused by an out-of-control load before. He yelled to warn the others and in an effort to get out of the way started to crowd his front team to the right and into those beside him.

  From all indications the loose wagons would careen to their left, but one suddenly hit a small undulation in its path and seemed to target the lead animals with Edge standing alongside. He looked to his left and noticed the women wrenching their ox away in an effort to get it out of the path of the hurtling, wheeled projectile. The other wagon following would make their effort like threading the eye of a needle. They would be caught between the two and in great danger. He yelled for them to abandon the cart and find what shelter they could as he tried to decide where he, himself, should go. The distances were too great, the wagons too close and fast, and there was no time to do anything but jump aside at the last moment.

  The wagon aiming at the head team changed course, taking a direction more downhill and missing the entire hitch and the wagons. Passing between Edge and the cart, thundering downhill, he tracked it as it looked like it would pass the next wagons behind as well. A loud noise brought his attention back to the second wagon.

  The wagon had hit something hard and changed course dramatically and across the face of the hill. As it skidded sideways to the slope, the downhill wheels caught and levered it into the air. When Edge looked back, it was already elevated several feet in the air and spinning as it tumbled sideways toward the two women and the cart. Boxes, once secured tightly with heavy rope, were being flung in wide arcs to land heavily. Shattering on impact, they spilled their contents as they made contact.

  Recognizing in the last instant what was happening, Jody tackled Muffy to the ground as the wagon bounced just ahead of them. Passing over the prone women, it took the ox chest high.

  Exploding on contact with the large animal, the wagon and what contents it still held filtered in pieces through the air to land in scattered chunks across the hillside. The front two wheels, still attached to each other by the steering mechanism, tumbled and bounced until they came to rest loudly against the front wagon of Occam’s hitch.

  The ox that had been hit landed a good twenty feet beyond the point of impact. It lay, unmoving and apparently dead within the splintered and flattened remains of the handcart.

  Edge looked to the women and saw Jody try to rise. She collapsed as though injured. Muffy lay silent next to her.

  Remembering screams, Edge recognized that this time they were not his own. The big Smithy, Occam, ran to kneel beside his wife.

  Chapter 12

  “Get the Apothecary, now!” bellowed the Master of the wagon train. “Bring up those trailing wagons, and get them hence. And bring a carriage to transport these women!”

  The Master had arrived just as the dust was settling. His pony had followed the unguided and out-of-control wagons at a full gallop down the steep incline, sliding dangerously to a stop at the point of impact. Till stayed mounted high in the saddle, his horse pivoting and up on its hind legs, until he saw the still careening wagon pass the last of the caravan members and knew them to be safe. Then he dismounted and started to yell instructions at the top of his lungs.

  Responding, Edge turned over the lead rope to the Vintner’s apprentice who just arrived. He ran downhill and grabbed the reins of the appaloosa.

  As he spurred the horse violently past and up to the head of the column, Master Till shouted one last thing. “Get me that son of a bitch, Arc!”

  §

  Riding in a light buggy pulled by horses, the two women were transported to Coalville ahead of the rest of the train. Even though the community was small, it had a medical practitioner. An older woman who split her duties between extracting teeth, mixing powders, and birthing babies, she pronounced that they would both live. But she made the determination only after they were both conscious, and that would be two days for Muffy. The old woman was relieved. She also acted as an undertaker, and these two women were lucky they would not require that service.

  A chain swinging wide as the wagon spun in the air overhead had wacked both women as they lay prone on the ground. Jody, having caught the whipping chain across the back, had cracked ribs and the air knocked from her and was conscious for most of the ride into town. Muffy had gotten the flying chain across the side of her head. Along the line of her jaw and up over her ear was a clear imprint of the metal links. She lay unconscious and unresponsive as people tended to her. Never leaving her side, Occam hovered as though he could keep the angel of death from her by his presence. Perhaps he did because as he was sleeping for the first time, dozing off while holding her hand on the second morning since the accident, her eyelids fluttered, and she opened them.

  She lay quietly, trying not to move as much for the pain that shot through her every time she did as for the comfort of the big man sleeping against the bed and gripping her fingers. She reveled in his sleep as though it was her own and in the deep rhythmic snores that emanated from her husband’s form. Not sure what had happened, on awakening she knew she was in good hands.

  §

  The wagon that was broken and scattered on the hill had been carrying boxed rifles, the pride of Roseburg’s industry. The one that had ended at the base of the pull was full of linens and clothing. Between what was left of the two and the wagon that had broken its axle at the top of the hill, all of the parts and pieces would make two good wagons. The loss of one of the Conestogas was a hard blow to the Company.

  After a swift consultation with the Master Carter, Till made the ride into town to discuss the issue of the lost wagon with Occam. He hated to do so in this time of the man’s burden, but Occam was the only one with a wagon not loaded with finished goods. Occam heard Till out and agreed immediately to the leader’s request. They would unload the old wagon acquired in Reno and being used for inexpensive raw iron and reload it with what expensive goods could be salvaged from the hillside.

  In the meantime, and after a thorough ass chewing, Arc had overseen the rest of the train up the hill successfully. The single day of effort that proved dangerous to save time, had turned into two days that would have assured safety to begin with.

  Between the trade in Coalville for an extra day due to the injured women, the extra day taken in completing the pull, and the Carter and his apprentice working t
hrough the nights to repair the wagons, everyone was busy. When Muffy awoke, all breathed a sigh of relief.

  The wagon with the linens provided a softer ride for the healing Jody and Muffy. Making a soft nest of unpacked linens, they felt the jolts and lurches of the road but were much more comfortable than being on an unpadded surface.

  Muffy was feeling well, other than a stiff jaw and vertigo every once in a while. The welts across Jody’s back burned like fire, though, and she tensed at every sudden motion.

  In order to take the younger woman’s mind off of her pain, Muffy ignored her own painful jaw and spoke of home. They discussed their local weather, specialties within the communities, and people they knew and appreciated… or not. Eventually, Jody asked Muffy about the strange practice of polygamy.

  “I just don’t get it, Muffy. How do you get over being jealous?”

  Muffy chuckled to herself. The young woman had touched on the most common and justified issue in sharing a husband.

  “Well, we be raised in homes with multiple wives, Jody. It’s not like we be introduced to it without prior thought. Besides, the ones that come after, the later wives, are come to a union with the full knowledge that there is already another woman in the home. It be most difficult on the first wives. But they are chosen well. For their toughness, and their loyalties, too.”

  Knitting her brows, Jody frowned in thought. “So you are saying that those tough women don’t object? That they just go along with it? That doesn’t seem very likely from where I come from.”

  “Well, it be a matter of contention in some houses, that be sure. But there be a shortage of eligible men. No woman of any intellect wants to go across the river.” Muffy hesitated. She realized that the reference was something Jody was unfamiliar with. “In our society, our city, those in town have advantage. Those across the river live outside of the laws that make for social order and that which provides for our children and our posterity.”