by Payne, T. L.
Rank pointed to her holster. “You be careful. Keep your head.”
Maddie sighed. “Why does no one believe me that the guy drew first? Do you all think I’m some trigger-happy vigilante? The guy put his hands on the girl. I wasn’t going to stand by and let that shit happen. You should be praising me for putting that rabid dog down. Someone has to do something about Nelson’s hired henchmen. I know they’re your friends and all, but…”
“Okay. I hear you,” Rank said. “Just watch your back.”
“I will. I’ll see you in a day or two,” Maddie said.
Rank picked up his pack and slid his arms through the straps. “Oh. If you come across any razors…”
Maddie smiled. “You thinking of shaving that rat’s nest?”
Rank shook his head. “They’re not for me.”
Maddie knitted her brow. Rank knew she had no intentions on getting anything for girls at the bar. If she found razors at the market, she’d be keeping those for herself and all the other ladies at the farm. He knew that. He just liked giving her a hard time.
Rank threw his leg over Bluejeans’s saddle and followed Lugnut down the driveway. As they rode, Lugnut filled him in on the guy they’d found on the highway.
“What has you so sure the guy is on an official mission?” Rank asked, catching up to him. “He could be just one guy passing through.”
“One guy passing through with fifty thousand dollars’ worth of military equipment. I’ve never even seen some of that shit in person. Have you?” Lugnut asked.
“He could’ve stolen it when he went AWOL. They’d be a nice pieces of equipment to have. I wouldn’t have left that gear behind if it was me.”
Lugnut wore a grim expression. He looked even more concerned than during the prison riots. “We just need to check it out. I have a feeling it’s something bigger.”
While they waited for Ritchie to replace Jaxon at the checkpoint, Rank and Lugnut went through the rest of the dead man’s gear.
“That’s an impressive loadout, I’ll give you that. If we have some sort of special ops mission going on near us, I can’t think of what their objective here might be,” Rank said, handing the binoculars back to Lugnut.
“We’re near a military installation. That could have something to do with it. Maybe their wanting to reestablish the base. We just won’t know until we trace back to where that guy came from and find out who shot him and why,” Lugnut said.
With Ritchie on duty at the checkpoint, Lugnut led Jaxon and Rank back to the spot where they’d found the body in the ditch along Highway 63. Rank did his own survey of the site before declaring he agreed with Lugnut’s assessment that the guy's troubles didn’t start there.
“You followed his trail back toward Fugitive Beach?” Rank asked.
Lugnut pointed over his shoulder toward the south. “Yeah. I found his horse caught up in the thicket over by Steadman’s place.”
“Should we head toward Fugitive Beach and start there or do you need to follow the trail yourself, Rank?” Jaxon asked.
Rank normally had a hard time tolerating Jaxon. He came off as a cocky know-it-all Army guy around the rest of the group. But Rank saw that Jaxon toned it down around him and Lugnut because it was obvious to all three of them that Jaxon was full of shit. It wasn’t an Army versus Marine rivalry thing. Jaxon just didn’t know as much as he thought he did, so he wound up simply following their lead.
“I trust Lugnut. Let’s head to the lake,” Rank said.
As they passed Fugitive Beach, Rank tried to imagine the man-made lake filled with happy people enjoying a summer swim. It had only been nine months since the world had gone to shit. Everything was overgrown. It was amazing how fast nature reclaimed abandoned spaces.
They traveled south on Highway 72, stopping frequently and checking for signs that the dead man had traveled that way. Deep ruts in the soft shoulder just north of Old Highway 72 caught Rank’s attention. “There,” he pointed.
“Looks promising,” Lugnut said as he dismounted his horse.
Rank handed Bluejeans’s reins to Jaxon and joined Lugnut to examine tracks left by a wagon with a heavy load. Lugnut went north and Rank went south, looking for signs of a struggle or gun battle. Within fifty feet, Rank found what they were looking for. “Lug. Over here.”
Lugnut bent over and picked up a rifle casing. “I’m thinking these belong to the dead fella.”
“He wasn’t alone,” Rank said, pointing to a set of boot prints in the dirt. “Looks almost like a kid.”
“Or a woman,” Lugnut said.
Lugnut knelt and studied a dark spot on a rock.
“Blood?” Rank asked.
“Looks like it to me,” Lugnut said.
“I’m not seeing a special forces unit here, Lug. I’m still thinking he wasn’t here on official business.” Rank touched the ground. “They were likely loaded down and heading to the trade fair. Look at the ruts in the dirt.”
Lugnut didn’t respond. He continued to push farther south along the road. A moment later, he turned down another dirt road. “Looks like they were ambushed by a half-dozen shooters. Where are the rest of the people who were with the dead man?” Lugnut asked.
“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Rank asked.
Lugnut nodded and headed back toward the horses. “Traffickers?”
“Yep. Damn slave traders,” Rank replied. “Let’s go have a talk with that sheriff and get him to finally do something about it. We’re not ever going to be able to move safely if we don’t.”
Chapter 3
The Henson Farm
Texas County, Missouri
July 11th
“You don’t need to go,” Larry said.
Maddie raised an eyebrow and glared at him from across the table.
“I know I don’t need to. I want to go. We need the supplies.”
Nine months ago, when she and Emma had fought their way out of Chicago, she’d thought that was the hardest thing she would face. She’d been wrong. Since the day of the EMP, she had watched beloved members of her group die. They had lost Ron, Roger, Jason, and many others. Jacob had lost his father, uncle, and grandmother. They had fought their way to the cabin in Texas County, Missouri, only to have to fight the Jewell family, dangerous convicts, and even a whole prison just to begin their new lives there. In the end, it had been mother nature that had run them out of their home. They had lost her stepfather, Jason, in the tornado that wiped out the cabin. They were just starting to rebuild their lives. She aimed to see that progress continue. To do so, they needed to trade for supplies to keep moving forward.
Larry half-shrugged and turned back to examine the map. “We can all go when Lugnut and Rank get back.”
Maddie wasn’t in the mood to debate the issue again. They had already gone over and over it. She understood his concerns. Jacob had expressed the same ones. This would be her first time attending the bi-weekly trade fair located at the Rolla National Airport since the incident with Clark Nelson’s former foreman. Certain people were still sensitive about her opening fire in the middle of the crowded market. But it was only one shot, and a well-placed one at that. Besides, he’d drawn first. She was just quicker. She didn’t need Lugnut and Rank to babysit her.
Maddie heard the back door open and turned. Jacob slid his boots off and set them on the mat just inside the door.
“That heat is unbearable already. I think I need to get up before daylight and work by headlamp,” he said, eyeing the glass of water in Maddie’s hand.
“Here,” Maddie said, handing him her drink. “I’ll get you a cool cloth for your neck.”
“I saw Lugnut and Rank leaving. Are they closer to figuring out where that guy came from?” Jacob asked, pointing to the map.
Larry shook his head. “Not really. They’re heading back to the highway where we found him to see what they can find out. They hope to pick up his trail and follow it.”
Jacob pursed his lips.
“What�
��s Maddie say about that?”
“I said I thought it was risky,” Maddie said, walking back into the room.
“That’s likely,” Jacob said.
“She’s planning on heading back out to the trade fair,” Larry blurted.
Maddie turned to him and raised an eyebrow. It was clear to her now that Larry did indeed have an issue with her going.
“You are?” Jacob asked.
Maddie smiled.
“I’ll behave—as long as Nelson’s hired goons keep their distance.”
Jacob furrowed his brow. “You sure about this?”
Maddie nodded.
“Okay,” Jacob said. He kissed her on the cheek and turned. “I need to take a cooler of water out to your mother’s crew. They’re going through a lot of water this morning already. Do you think you could have Fred or Harding boil about ten more gallons? It should be cooled enough to drink by the time they need it this afternoon.”
“You’re not coming with us?” Maddie asked.
“Do you need me to? We have to get a jump on the weeds before they take over the whole garden,” Jacob said. “I’ll go if you need me.”
She knew what he was doing. He could pretend all he wanted. She wasn’t going to back down.
When he turned to go, Larry reached out and placed a hand on Jacob’s shoulder. “You should go with her.”
“She’ll be fine,” Jacob said as he closed the door behind him.
Maddie turned to Larry. “Would you like to tell me why you have a problem with me?”
Larry picked at his fingernails as Maddie pulled a chair away from the table, spun it around, and straddled it. She placed her arms on the back of the chair, crossed them, and leaned forward. Her head was swimming. Whether it was from the sweltering early July heat or the prospect of losing more people to Dempsey’s men, she couldn’t be sure. They had avoided areas to their northeast after Lugnut had led a team to obtain medicine from St. Louis. Roger had died. Rank had been tortured and would have been killed too if Lugnut and Maria hadn’t rescued him. Although he’d recovered physically, he had never been the same. Lately, however, Maddie had seen signs of his old personality. Just not as often as she’d like.
Although Larry had been with the group for several months now, Maddie realized she didn’t really know the man. Not really. And this was the first time they’d had a chance to talk. She’d always felt some kind of disconnect between them. She was glad to have the opportunity now to clear the air. She had her suspicions as to what his issue was with her. She intended to confront him about it.
“So…” Maddie said.
“They’re selling women like cattle at the Port of St. Louis,” Larry said.
“What?”
“There’s a slave market at the port. They’re shipping people up and down the river.”
Larry’s hazel eyes glistened with tears. Maddie couldn’t wrap her head around what he was telling her. Yes, there had been rumors of sex traffickers taking women, but a slave market? What the hell would such a thing even look like? Her imagination went to movies she’d seen of the slave markets of the seventeen and eighteen hundreds, where Africans were shipped in and sold like cattle at auction blocks.
Maddie’s brow furrowed. She narrowed her gaze.
“You know this for sure—actual, physical markets?”
“Dean Winston and his boy tracked Dean’s daughter to one down at Cape Girardeau. He captured one of the traders and got the locations of two more in Missouri, one in Illinois, and another in Memphis,” Larry said.
Maddie lowered her head, took a deep breath, and exhaled loudly. She removed the hair tie from her and ran her fingers through her long, blonde hair before twisting it into a tight bun at the back of her head.
“How many? How many locally?” she asked.
“Six, plus Dean’s daughter. There aren’t all that many females left. Dean said they’re paying very high for the younger girls.”
“Sick bastards,” Maddie said through gritted teeth.
“That’s why I don’t want any of you ladies leaving the farm. It’s just too big a risk.”
“I understand that, but we have to get supplies and things. We all know how to handle ourselves,” Maddie said.
“They’re well-armed. They’re trading flesh for weapons and ammo,” Larry said.
Maddie glared at him. “Why am I just now hearing about this? Why have we not had a meeting to discuss it with the group?”
“We wanted to have solid intel about the extent of their operation before we alarmed everyone.”
Maddie shook her head. She felt her face flush with heat. She grew angrier by the second.
We. Does everyone but me know?
To have some evil men prevent her and the other women of her group from leaving the farm for fear of being taken as slaves infuriated Maddie.
“Harmony and Maria are planning on going down to Eminence to round up that herd of wild horses,” Maddie said.
“That area is protected by the Cullum family. They’ve been patrolling looking for these slave traders. Max Cullum was at the Salem trade fair a week ago. He said his group brought in a couple of slave traders who had a wagon load of male slaves. They said they were heading to Illinois. They’re using the men for the large farm operations in Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin.”
Maddie swallowed hard. “We have to do something. We can’t just sit here on the farm. We need to join with this Cullum group and run those bastards out of Missouri.”
“I think we should have a meeting when Harding, Aims, and I get back from the trade fair and see if we can get everyone on board. In the meantime, I think…”
“No! I’m not cowering here. I’ll stick close to you guys. I won’t let them stop me from doing what I need to do for our group.”
Larry took off his boonie hat and ran a hand across his thinning hair. “If you just give me…”
Maddie stood abruptly, and the chair banged against the table. “Larry, I’m going.”
“Whoa, am I interrupting something,” Bo said, backing back out the door he had just entered.
Maddie huffed.
“No. I guess we’re done,” Maddie said. “What can I do for you, Bo?”
“I was visiting with your cabin building crew. They’ve got a lot of logs felled and debarked already. But they could use some old axe heads and metal pipes to speed up the process. Brad said you were heading out to the trade fair. Could you keep a look out for those? We still need Borax powder too,” Bo said.
“I’ll keep an eye out for them,” Larry said.
Bo adjusted his cavalier hat with the long feather hanging out the side like a fishing pole. “Great. Has Gene figured out a way we can retrieve that rebar from up near Plumb Level’s place?”
Maddie smiled at the man. She had met many eccentric characters since the lights went out, but Bo was the most unusual by far. He seemed to live and breathe log cabin building and appeared to relish helping her group build them.
“I don’t think it’s going to be feasible to make a trip that far. Since you guys are using the gasifier from Ron’s old truck on your telehandler to lift the logs, and we can’t spare any of the biodiesel we’ve saved for the tractors. We really should search for some closer to home,” Larry said.
“We need a shit ton of that stuff. I’m sure there’s some around, just not in the quantity we need. Locating enough could take months. I thought you wanted to be in the cabins by winter?”
“I have an idea where I might look. After I…” Larry looked over his shoulder to Maddie. “After we get back, I’ll have a better idea about whether we need to plan on making the trip to get the rebar you found.”
“Sounds like a plan. You know where to find me,” Bo said, backing out the door. He tipped his hat and gave Maddie a crooked grin.
Maddie nodded. “See ya, Bo.”
Maddie scooted back and leaned against a stack of crates. She could smell the pine needles packed around the jars to keep them from
breaking. The wagon was still loaded with bottles of Fred’s moonshine. Dustin placed a crate filled with fresh eggs into the wagon and hopped in. Since so many people would be off the farm in the next few days, they’d need fewer eggs to feed those staying behind.
“To make sure we get top dollar for those, we should label them hatching eggs—they’re fertile,” Maddie said. She shuddered recalling her latest run-in with their evil rooster.
Dustin gave her a quizzical look. Even after months of living on a farm, he still had no clue about how the food he ate was produced. His special skills as a soldier kept him in high demand, securing not only their farm but the community they’d established with surrounding neighbors. Maddie was sure Lugnut hadn’t pulled Dustin off some important mission just to escort her wagon to Rolla. Dustin was there to babysit her.
Jacob threw his pack up, and Dustin caught it. “Whoa. What’s in here?” he asked as he stuffed it in between the moonshine and crate of eggs.
Maddie smiled. She knew he would change his mind and come with them.
“Nothing,” Jacob said as he climbed on board. He pushed aside a crate of beeswax candles and took a seat.
“That pack will be too heavy if you need to un-ass the AO,” Dustin said as he dangled his legs over the back of the wagon.
“Harding and Aims are washing up. They’ll be out in a few,” Jacob said, ignoring Dustin’s critique of his rucksack. Maddie had an idea about what was in Jacob’s pack. She wasn’t sure why he was hiding it, though. The books were his. He could trade them away if he wanted to. No one would care. He had something up his sleeve, she was sure of it. That had been the excuse he’d given her for changing his mind about coming with them—that along with Larry’s continued urging.
Aims climbed onto the front with Larry as Harding hopped into the back of the wagon. As they rode down the driveway, Maddie looked out across the recently-planted field. It was their future. The crops were coming along. If their good fortune continued through harvest, they’d be set for winter—they may even have enough to help their neighbors. Maddie leaned her head against Jacob’s shoulder and looked up. She loved seeing that bright blue sky.
