Alarum (Walking Shadows Book 1)

by Talis Jones

  “Good point,” I murmur. Connors is always the man in charge and now that he’s not it’s making him antsy. I’d laugh at the oddness of his prickly energy but his discomfort unnerves me a bit. “So what is this place?”

  Jaycen shrugs. “Just an abandoned little farm. There’s a house just a hundred feet or so from the barn.”

  I bob my head. “Cool.”

  “So,” Yuri begins, swallowing his food before continuing. “How did you two come to meet?”

  Connors smiles seeming to sink back into his easy self, although I still spot his fingers fidgeting. “I was lonesome traveling the road on my own and she was lonesome staying in one place. Seemed like a good fit and after a bit of training she’s proved a good partner to have along.”

  “And Sanctuary?” Jaycen wonders. “How did that idea cross your path?”

  “He told me about it,” I say, tilting my head towards Connors beside me. “I figured even if it’s all a bedtime story I didn’t have anything better to do than chase it down.”

  “It’s not just a story,” Connors chides friendly-like. “When the world we were born into fell apart there was nothing but talk of doomsday. Part of me isn’t sure that it wasn’t exactly that and that those of us left behind are the sorry fools with something left to learn before moving on.”

  “Crazy preachers,” Yuri mutters.

  “Everyone was fleeing the coast so I gathered my family and we headed inland, we didn’t know what to do so we kept moving west. I pushed further and further west until I was empty and alone, then one day a crazy old woman told me about Sanctuary. I’d sure thought she was crazy but her words picked me up and stuck me on a horse and I’ve been chasing that blessed Sanctuary ever since.”

  Crackling flames entranced our eyes and snapped in our ears. Silence settled among us with nothing but a raging storm outside, creaking wood of a battered barn, and the ear-splitting shouts of memories surging through us of times long gone.

  With a sharp eye Jaycen pins Connors across the fire. “You know where it is, don’t you?” He grins pointedly. “You know how to find Sanctuary.”

  Connors meets the man’s interrogative stare but says nothing. Yuri drops his spoon against his tin bowl making us all jump. Hopping to my feet I go around and gather the dishes, stacking them in a tidy pile to be washed in the morning. When I sit back down they’ve all reclined like nothing had happened. It makes me feel unsettled.

  “How close are we to the border or wherever that place is you’re taking us?” I ask trying to inject some warmth and camaraderie back into the group.

  Yuri turns to Jaycen, questions firing like gunshots in that look. Jaycen faces me and answers with gruff sleep in his voice. “We should be able to get there before sunset tomorrow.”

  “Cool.”

  “Time for bed,” Connors breaks in. Climbing to his feet his large form stretches and crackles. I follow him to our gear and we unroll our bedrolls, placing them closer together than usual.

  I curl up in mine gratefully but sense Connors wide-awake beside me. Not until the others have stretched out on the other side does he even pretend to sleep and not until the barn hums with deep breaths and growling snores does his own breathing even out. With his tension unraveled by sleep I turn over and finally succumb to the blissful mercy of dreams.

  CHAPTER 26

  The morning sun rises and the earth’s silence rings loud in my ears as I step outside. With the storm long over everything is eerily still and quiet as if the land still reels in shock. Now that the air has cleared I can see the small farmhouse not too far away. Leaving the others snoring behind I stomp my boots over the flat land to the simple home of wood and stone. Some long dormant part of my brain has me stomping my feet on a badly weathered welcome mat before entering.

  Inside looks like a miniature storm took place. Glass litters the floor, furniture moans on its side, dust covers everything, but what I notice most is the mournful weight in the air. A chill rakes up my spine. Taking a few steps further in I practically jump out of my skin when my foot catches on a fallen lamp causing me to tumble into a table only for my foot to slip on a fallen picture frame landing me square on my rump.

  Sitting on the ground I wait for my pulse to return to normal before reaching for the broken frame. Inside sits a picture of a happy looking elderly couple. They look advanced in years yet strong enough to dance and smile. I know this will sound strange but I’ve never seen a really old person before. Well, I’m sure I must’ve when I was a kid before the world went topsy-turvy, but I have no memory of old people. None much older than Connors dare traverse this world in the day if indeed they’re even around.

  Curiosity fills me as I take in the wrinkles at the corners of their eyes and their mouths, the softness of their faces where the skin has begun to stretch away from their bones. Snow-white hair crowns the old man’s head and long braided silver tresses fall over the woman’s bony shoulder. I decide I like them. I store a memory of their faces away to play with later when we’re on the road again. I would imagine what their lives might have been like, their childhoods and how they met and what their names were.

  I hoist myself up and continue exploring the ruins of a once happy home. More broken objects. More broken hopes. In the bedroom I find a small vanity table. For a reason I cannot explain I find my body seating itself before the cracked mirror. Swiping a hand over its surface to clear the dust I gaze at my face. Sharp features stare back at me. I look tired but not quite starved. Dirt remains embedded in my skin and a haunted gleam lurks within my mossy green eyes. My dark hair is a far too long tangle of filthy silk strings. The bath I had in the last town has been scoured by the storm.

  Rummaging through the vanity drawers I find a pair of scissors and a hairbrush. Taking a careful look in the mirror I hold the scissors just above my heart and chop a hunk of hair off, snipping until I’ve cut it all. My head bobs from the loss of weight that has been anchoring it down. When I’m finished I use the brush and wage war on the knots in my hair, tugging and swearing until there are tears in my eyes.

  Ages must have passed but at last my hair separates like a silk curtain between my fingers. Thanks to my crude haircut all the ends stick out at different lengths but at least it hangs in wide waves instead of the rat’s nest it was. I take a curious peek into the closet that sends me sneezing out the room.

  I’d noticed a door to a back garden earlier and as I reach for the doorknob I can’t help but hope there are flowers that had somehow survived. Swinging the windowed door open I step outside. Feet sinking in barren land I keep walking, eyes searching for some defiant flicker of life. Nothing, nothing, nothing…something?

  Two mounds like flowerbeds rise up a little ways from the withered garden and I head towards them. The closer I get the slower I move. These mounds are hasty and weathered, a hurried pile of dirt and weeds blanketed in dust. As I stand between them I sink to my knees. Resting one hand on either earthen tomb I wish them peace.

  A glass breaking jolts me to my senses and I dash back into the house. Darting into the front room I see Jaycen shoving glass shards aside with his boot.

  “What happened here?” I ask quietly.

  “The natural course of things.” With a wave of his hand he ushers me out the door. “Time to get moving, kid.”

  I don’t stop thinking about the happy old couple in the photo. As the day stretches before us I spin stories in my mind about them.

  I name them Nancy and Todd. Todd used to annoy her in class because Nancy was so smart and beautiful but Nancy always had a crush on Matthew, a boy a whole year older who was really good at baseball. Then one day Matthew made fun of Nancy’s science project so Todd punched him right there in front of everyone at the school science fair and from that day on Nancy and Todd loved each other forever and ever.

  They had a wedding full of lilacs and daisies, they adopted a dog named Goober, and they lived happily ever after. The world didn’t fold itself inside a hand basket
with a one-way ticket to Hell, and their home wasn’t destroyed, and they didn’t rot under a crushing weight of dead soil with no one to say goodbye or shed a tear with care.

  CHAPTER 27

  An invisible border marking the end of Nebraska and the beginning of South Dakota stretches far from east to west but for all its proud declarations I see no difference between the silky sands here or there. No storms chased us this day but the landscape is pockmarked with scars of half-buried cars and smashed up homes from storms that began long ago.

  We hadn’t left as early as we’d planned so night is falling quickly. I’m grateful because my limbs hang like lead. In truth I won’t mind parting ways with Yuri and Jaycen either. Men of few words they’ve drawn Connors into a silent stupor that I just can’t decipher. I miss his singing.

  Even when Yuri tells jokes or Jaycen strums his guitar Connors remains tense, like he’s walking down a path and he knows where it leads and he’s dreading every step. But I keep puzzling over why he’d let them tag along if he didn’t like it so much. Maybe he didn’t know how to shake ‘em off now that we’d set out on this journey. Or maybe he just couldn’t let go of even a small chance that their help will bring us closer to Sanctuary. Whatever is bothering Connors I keep my mouth shut and my eyes open.

  Except right now…because I’m…really sleepy…

  I wake with a jolt. A hand clamps down hard over my mouth and panic freezes my veins. The sun had barely begun to rise but adrenaline snaps any strings of sleep tying me down. Sleeping with glasses on is uncomfortable and risky but to sleep blind is even riskier so I’m glad I’d taken up the habit as I look into brown eyes and scratchy red hair. Confusion overtakes me and my thoughts sprint to Connors with wild worry.

  Silently Jaycen lifts a finger to his lips and I nod understanding the signal to keep my trap shut. I make my body relax with obedience but there’s a strange glint in his eyes that I don’t like. He wants something and he plans on taking it. Well, whatever it is he isn’t gonna get it.

  Convinced I wasn’t gonna thrash about like a wild boar he removes his hand but the moment my lips are free I jump up and let out a beastly yell I know Connors will hear even from the depths of his bear-like slumber.

  Connors bursts to life reaching for his gun. This time it’s Jaycen’s turn to panic but he doesn’t freeze up. Swinging his hand he hits me. Hard. Stars burst in my eyes and I go down barely registering the pain of smacking my head on a rock before darkness takes me over.

  An urgency taps me in the brain. With a moan I roll over and blink my way back to consciousness. Like putting a torn up letter back together the past events come back to me until with a sudden rush I panic. How much time has passed since I’ve been out? I try to sit up but a roaring pain throbs near the back of my head. Rawness pulls at my wrists. My panic grows.

  With just enough sense to keep quiet I try and think. First I need to cut the ropes around my wrists. I have a knife in my boot.

  Rolling onto my side I bite my tongue to keep from throwing up. Voices wash over me from a distance but I ignore them as I shuffle my body further and further into a backbend until my fingers can slip the knife out of my boot. Snapping my tense spine back straight I quickly flip the switchblade open and begin working on the rope. It’s an awkward process, slow and infuriating, but I don’t stop until the bindings are severed.

  With a satisfying snap my wrists spring apart. Sitting up I rub my swollen skin briefly before staggering up onto my feet. Dizziness sweeps through me but I stay still until it passes. Glancing around I see that Jaycen had dragged me a ways from camp. I wonder why Connors would have let him when I remember Yuri. Friendly Yuri who just wanted some company on the lonely road.

  I have no weapons but I have no choice. Following the voices I shuffle my way back to camp. It’s not too far away but with enough wits to realize waltzing in unarmed would be a foolish thing to do I crouch low by a withered shrub. What I see does nothing to ease the panic churning in every cell of my body.

  Connors, Yuri, and Jaycen are standing in a triangle each with a gun trained on the other. A Mexican standoff. The smallest of hopes whispers that maybe they’ll all agree to go their separate ways, but as the angry sun rises a bit higher and burns my back I know that hope will die. I push all these flustered voices back and try to listen.

  “—roamers, man,” Yuri bursts, desperation a surprising undertone in his voice. “What did you expect?”

  “This world may have withered and died but I’d hoped that the souls of humans would have been stronger than to die with it,” Connors spits angrily, his left gun gesturing violently but never leaving its target. “Now you tell me where she is.”

  “Not until you tell us where Sanctuary is!” Jaycen’s face is filthy and wild made somehow fiercer by the gravity-defying tangles of his hair. “You know the truth and you’re going to tell me!”

  “Jaycen,” Yuri starts, his desperation turning towards his partner now. “Sanctuary is just a story. It’s not real.”

  “It is real!” he roars.

  Fear is settling in Yuri’s eyes. “No. It isn’t. Let’s just fleece ‘em and run. Yeah? Like usual, man. We pick ‘em, we isolate ‘em, we take their gold, and we leave ‘em behind. Alive.”

  “You don’t get it, Yuri,” Jaycen pleads furiously. “You. Don’t. Get it.”

  “Give me the kid,” Connors interjects causing everyone's hands to stiffen on their steel weapons of insurance. “And you give her to me alive,” he growls.

  “Just give him the kid,” Yuri asks frustrated. “We’ll take whatever we can carry and be out of here.”

  “No! I want the kid! I want Sanctuary! You don’t get it!” Jaycen howls with the plights of insanity tainting his ferocious demeanor. “She’s the key! I know it!”

  “You’re talking crazy!”

  “Give her to me!”

  “I’ll never give her to you!”

  “Give her to him, man! Just give her to him! Come on, give her to him! Give her—”

  “Where is Sanctuary?! Where is Sanctuary?! Where is—”

  “NO.”

  BANG. BANG. BANG.

  Drop. Drop. Howl.

  I crouch there. Eyes wide. Breath stopped. Brain stuck. Feeling gone. Ears empty.

  Slowly. Slowly. Slowly my brain takes my hand gently and explains what my eyes saw, what my ears heard, what my mind doesn’t want to know but must know all the same.

  Yuri, worked up into such a frenzied panic fired both of his guns, but while his bullet missed Jaycen his other landed square in Connors’ chest. Drop.

  Jaycen in his unhinged fervor fired his gun to shut Yuri up. It hit. Drop.

  Connors, too slow on the take, unable to predict the actions of men lost to panic fired both guns but took the hit from Yuri losing his perfect aim so he missed Yuri altogether and only grazed Jaycen’s arm. Howl.

  Drop. Drop. Howl.

  Red. I hate the color red. Red stains all the good people in this world. Red rushes out like a river come to sweep the people I love away from me. Red is the color of the angry sun. Red is the color of the defeated earth. Red is the color of endings. I hate the color red. I will bathe in the color red. I will embrace the color red and learn to love it because I am tired of fearing it.

  My eyes become fixed on Connors’ fallen body and his name rips from my throat before I can stop it. Jaycen’s head snaps in my direction. His crazed brown eyes lock onto mine and slowly I stand. Jaycen raises his gun and its barrel stares me in the heart without a quiver of doubt. Weaponless. I am weaponless and I have nowhere to run. I will not run.

  Something Connors once told me plays through me and I seize it. It fills me with coldness and strength and I do not run. I walk. Forwards. I hear Connors’ words: Do what ya gotta do to live, to survive. You keep fighting until the price gets too high and then you make sure you live or die on your own terms. People can give you life and people can take it away. But they can’t take your death. You own that. You own y
our mind. You own how you go out.

  I stand not ten feet from a murderer, staring him down with my own guilty gaze. I feel the heat of the red morning sun cresting the horizon lighting me from behind. I face down a murderer with all the light and shadow and fury of an avenging angel. The red morning light bathes me in red just like I knew I would be when I draw my last breath. Weaponless. I am weaponless. But I knew that already. I tilt my chin, hold my head up high, stand steady on my spread feet, hands loose by my sides, and I look into those cold muddy eyes with my own, so shadowed by the bright sun that the green has turned black.

  His hand lowers halfway.

  A breeze whips the hair across my face but I make no move to push it back.

  His eyes chip at the ice crusted over them.

  I wait patiently.

  The ice is too thick to break through. A man drowns behind them and wild resolution raises his arm— BANG.

  I. Do. Not. Flinch.

  Jaycen’s body wavers for a moment, taken by surprise. Red bubbles from his heart ready to wash this sinner away. Red leaks from his open mouth. Drip. Drip. Drop.

  I stare at his broken body now lying crumpled and lifeless at my feet. The same coolness that soothed my nerves in the woods of Missouri trickles through me once more and I crouch down to pry the gun from his fleshy hand.

  A rock clatters and I whip upright the gun pointed at the intruder’s chest and I find myself staring into the dark eyes of the reaper. I shake my head a little as dizziness from my head wound starts to surge back slowly. The face is not twenty feet away and he holds his hands up in the air in a gesture of surrender. He must have been the one to shoot Jaycen.

  My head tilts as I take him in. Dark eyes, brown hair, skin tanned deeply from the sun, dressed in black as if the angry sun has burned the dreams inside him, and a gun nestled by either hip. He looks not much older than me. A subtle spark of recognition flickers in me but it fades quickly as the pounding in my head snags back my attention.