West of Hell Omnibus Edition (West of Hell 1-3)

by Brant, Jason

  “Do you not see this thing on the ground here?” Karen asked. She pointed at the skinned moaner. “Do you not understand that if we don’t all band together, we’ll die alone?”

  He looked down at the dead creature, but didn’t look convinced.

  “Do you have any family in Sheol?” Karen asked.

  “I got my son and that’s it.”

  “Do you want your son to be eaten alive?”

  “How dare you—”

  “I didn’t think so. Now stop being an asshole and get us what we need! I don’t have time to argue with each of you individually!” She turned to the old man without waiting for the fat one to respond. “I need you to gather as many good men as you can and send them to every house, business, and farm in the area. We need everyone to gather back here. Make sure they bring every single weapon they own! If they have ammo, tell them to bring it all.”

  “What if they don’t have any guns?” the old timer asked.

  “Get them to bring knives, axes, or anything they have that can puncture bone. And tell everyone to wear thick clothing, leather if they have it, no matter how hot it is. If one of these things bites you, you’re dead.”

  “What’s that?” Mike asked. “We die if they bite us?”

  “You’ll be dead within a few minutes of being bitten. That’s how the disease spreads. Then you’ll turn into one of them and betray your friends and families.”

  Murmurs spread through the crowd again. Karen could tell many of them didn’t believe her, and there would be no way of convincing them. If they couldn’t be convinced by a man that lived through being shot and skinned, then there was nothing she could say that would change their minds. Not until they saw their loved ones get converted, and they then tried to consume them, would they see things her way. She knew that she couldn’t do anything about it, so she continued on.

  “Gary, I need you to get a bunch of wagons and horses. We’re going to need to transport all of this stuff into the field between the city and forest.”

  “What are you planning?” Gary asked.

  “I’ll explain when I see what we have to work with,” Karen said. “Now let’s get moving! We have a lot of work to do and not a whole lot of time to do it in.”

  Everyone stood in place and gaped at her.

  “Go! Hurry!”

  The people dispersed, finally, and went in different directions. Karen went with Gary, needing to get a horse that she could use to get around the town and make sure things were getting accomplished. That, and her plan wouldn’t work if she wasn’t out there by the trees when the horde came stumbling through.

  They walked side by side for a block in silence before Gary finally turned to her. “Who are you? You speak too well to be someone that would pal around with a criminal like McCall. You use words I’ve never heard of.”

  “McCall’s not what you think he is. He might be a big, quiet oaf, but he’s brave and thoughtful. He’s sticking around here, trying to save all of our necks, when he could be hightailing it out of here.”

  “I didn’t ask about McCall. I want to know who you are.”

  “I’m no one. Before all of this I never did a single thing of consequence in my entire life,” Karen said. Though it pained her to speak of herself in such simple terms, she knew it to be true. While she considered herself an educated woman, even if in an informal sense, she’d never actually used it for anything of consequence. Helping Ellis to squeeze more money out of his brothel didn’t strike her as a noble use of her intellect.

  “Well, how are you so smart? I’ve never met a woman who was so learned.”

  “You have a lot of free time on your hands during the day, when you’re a prostitute,” she said. “I spent most of that time reading any book I could get my hands on.”

  Gary gaped at her. “You’re a whore?”

  “I was, but I guess those days are behind me now. You don’t have to look so damn shocked about it.”

  “I’m sorry, I just didn’t expect to hear that,” Gary said, closing his mouth. “You’re just so... smart.”

  “You already said that.” Karen laughed when she realized that she was now answering questions the way McCall did. “Besides, if I was so smart, I wouldn’t have almost died back there. If McCall hadn’t come, I’d be swaying in the wind.”

  Karen could see a barn further down another street as they walked. Its tall, sloped roof appeared behind a series of homes on the left, standing a full story higher than them.

  “There are some horses in the stable up ahead,” Gary said. “How did this start? When did you see them the first time?”

  “I don’t know how it started. I was in a saloon when two men started eating a woman in the street.”

  “That’s it? You were in a saloon and all hell broke loose? You can’t remember anything happening before that? Two men just started eating someone?”

  “That’s—” Karen stopped herself mid-sentence, trying to think of what she’d been doing when everything started. She could remember a man storming out of the saloon, pissed off at her attitude. Ellis had yelled at her as she came down the stairs. But what happened before that?

  She couldn’t remember anything. Her first memory of that day was walking down the stairs. She could remember things happening in the weeks or months prior to that day, but nothing from that morning. “What the hell?”

  “What?” Gary asked.

  Karen shook her head, trying to remember anything from earlier in that day. “Nothing,” she said to Gary. “I’m just tired – my mind is slipping.”

  “Well don’t let it slip too much, we need you.” He rounded the corner of a house and turned left. “Here it is.”

  The large barn stood behind a final house, its front double doors ajar. Gary walked through them and immediately started pulling saddles from hooks on the walls. He placed them in a row, just inside the doors, and then walked further into the building.

  Karen came in behind him, breathing in the smell of hay and horse shit. She could see stables on the other end of the barn and followed Gary toward them. He had the first wooden gate open before Karen got there, and he was walking a horse through it. She appreciated the speed with which he moved – he seemed to be one of the only other people in town that understood how dire their situation was.

  “This one will be yours,” he told her. “She’s not the biggest mare in town, but she can run like the wind. I figure it’ll be easier for you to get on and off her because she isn’t too tall.”

  The horse’s coloring consisted of almost all white with a splotch of brown on the left side of its neck. Its well-muscled shoulders flexed as he brought the animal to Karen. It bowed its head and angled its dark eyes at Karen, looking her over as Karen did the same.

  “She looks like a fine animal,” Karen said. She ran her hand down the horse’s dark mane, stroking the hair with a gentle touch. “What’s her name?”

  “Uh, Muriel, I think,” Gary said.

  “Muriel? Isn’t that a boy’s name?”

  “Hell, I don’t know. She ain’t my horse. You said to get horses, so I went to the biggest barn around.”

  Karen patted the horse on the shoulder. “I’m going to need a lot from you tonight, Muriel. I hope you’re up to it.”

  They walked Muriel to the front of the barn where they put the saddle on her. Gary gave Karen a lift onto the horse’s back and she adjusted herself in the saddle. The seat felt harsh against her aching muscles, but she adapted to it quickly. She enjoyed the extra height she had, which would allow her to overcome her short stature when speaking to groups of people. She hoped that the added size would help give her a bit of a psychological advantage over any of the men that wanted to continuously challenge her.

  “Where are the wagons?” Karen asked, looking around the barn.

  “A couple of blocks over.”

  “Do you need help? We’re going to need them to transport everything to the field soon.”

  “I’ll get a co
uple of the neighbors to help me out in a minute,” Gary said. “Go do what you gotta do.”

  “Don’t wait for me to come back. When the first wagon is ready, send it over to that asshole’s store and start loading up the kerosene. Do the same for the booze and black powder.”

  “Yes ma’am. You think all of this is going to work?”

  “Probably not,” Karen said. “But at least the fire will allow us to see them coming.”

  She gave Muriel a small nudge with her feet and they took off, galloping toward the main street. The horse had a smooth stride and Karen found her easy to ride. They rounded a corner and Karen gave the reins a small tug, slowing the mare down. They went along the street at a slow trot with Karen looking around for places where they could get a strategic advantage as the night went on.

  The slight breeze that blew across her face as they rode helped her relax. The stress of not only the last few days, but also the oncoming hours, weighed on her. She felt like the world hinged on a plan she concocted on the spot, and it probably did. If she failed, the world as they knew it would cease to exist. It felt preposterous for her to think with such finality, but the more she considered their options, the more she realized that her apocalyptic thoughts had merit.

  “Hey lady! Over here!” A man on the right side of the street stood in the door of a tavern, waving his arms to get Karen’s attention.

  She led Muriel over to the building where she brought her to a stop. “What do you need?”

  “We’re bringing a bunch of barrels of whiskey out front right now, but we have no idea what you want us to do next.”

  “Some wagons will be coming by shortly to pick everything up.”

  “Ok, where are we taking them?” the man asked.

  “I’ll have some spots picked out by then. Just get everything ready and I’ll let you know.” She nudged the horse forward and continued down the street without waiting for him to ask more questions. The sun continued to descend on the horizon, and her sense of urgency grew with every passing moment. If the moaners were just on the other side of the forest when Bill came back, they would be here earlier than she expected.

  McCall came through an alley ahead of her, also riding a horse, guiding it in her direction. His animal stood almost a foot taller than hers and had muscles stacked upon muscles. Its black skin was in stark contrast to the white animal she sat upon. She didn’t know how he had found the largest, darkest horse in the city, but it felt fitting to her. They came up alongside each other and shared a smile.

  “Great minds think alike,” Karen said.

  “That they do. So what great plan have you come up with?”

  “I was hoping to find you so I could run it by you,” Karen said. She desperately wanted McCall’s opinion on her strategy. He had experience in fighting and evading and she figured he would know better about this than anyone else. She tried to discount her feelings for him as a part of her desire to get his approval, but she knew that they played a part in it.

  He just stared at her as he was wont to do.

  “You don’t have to give me that weird look every time you’re waiting for me to speak,” she said.

  He didn’t respond.

  “Goddamn it, McCall. Anyway, I figure they’ll get here soon – probably right around dusk. If they hit us full force in the night, we’re dead. We can’t fight what we can’t see. My plan is to stock at least two piles in the field with as much black powder as we can and then lure a bunch of them in and blow ‘em to hell. I want to run two or more lines of kerosene and whiskey through the field and set them afire when the moaners are about to cross them. The flames should light their clothing and make them plainly visible to all of us. After that, we take out anything that moans and is on fire.”

  McCall sat on his horse and mulled her plan over, rubbing his chin as he thought. “That’s pretty damn smart,” he said, finally.

  Karen sighed with relief and let her shoulders relax, not realizing she’d been so tense while she waited for his endorsement. She thought she’d come up with a decent strategy, but she half expected him to poke holes in it.

  He looked around at the people rushing past them in every direction. “It looks like you’ve got everyone listening to you.”

  “It’s kind of a weird feeling,” she said. Several of the passersby gave them quick looks, but no one spoke. Most of them were armed. “We’re in deep shit, aren’t we?”

  “Yup.”

  “You could at least lie to me.”

  “How do you plan on getting them to go after the black powder?” he asked, ignoring her comment.

  “I figured you and I would go out and lead them in,” she said. “Then we could light it up and get out of there.”

  “You want me to be bait?”

  She stared back at him, giving him a taste of his own medicine.

  He gave her a small grin when he realized what she was doing. “Sounds like my kind of plan.”

  Chapter 9

  McCall sat atop his horse and looked over the rabble of an army before him.

  The residents of Sheol stood on the edge of town, weapons in hand, and waited for him to give them orders. He wasn’t much of a speaker, and he knew that he couldn’t give them any kind of rousing speech, but he had to tell them something. Their death was imminent, and judging by the looks on most of their faces, they knew it.

  Most of the citizens of the city hadn’t bothered to show up. Even as McCall looked back at the houses and business, he could see many heads silhouetted in their windows. Cowards. Rather than stand up for themselves, they shrank in the comfort of their homes, hoping that everything would be all right. The amount of people that stood before him now were so few that he wondered if they should just run away while they still had a chance. If they had somewhere else to go, he would have considered it.

  The stench had wafted through an hour ago while they were setting up Karen’s plan. It reeked of meat that had been left in the sun for a week. McCall felt his gorge rise when it first hit his nostrils, and it didn’t help when those around him emptied their stomachs. The smell of death walking across the desert for two days wasn’t something he’d anticipated.

  Even now, after an hour of acclimating to it, he still found it hard to breathe at times. It seemed as if a shroud of foulness had covered the entire area. The stench put everyone on edge as well, as if they hadn’t quite convinced themselves that something was coming beforehand. It sunk in for them when the smell came.

  Karen sat upon her horse to his right. Even she looked at him, waiting for some great speech. Everything had been set according to her design and yet she still looked to him to gather the troops and prepare them for combat. Had everyone forgotten that he was merely an outlaw? For years he’d done nothing but look after himself, acting entirely in a self-serving manner. Now, they expected him to be on the hook for their lives.

  He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath through his nose, trying to ignore the reek of decay all around him.

  “Do you smell that? That’s death and it’s coming for you. You can’t run from it and you can’t hide from it. It’ll find you, and when it does, you best be prepared. I can’t tell you that any of us will make it through this, but I can promise you that no one will survive if we don’t make a stand here. I’d tell you to pray, but I don’t think anyone is listening. Pick your shots and aim for the head – anything else is a waste of time. If anyone is bit, put them down, no matter who it is.”

  He looked over at Karen. “That’s all I got,” he said with a shrug. His words felt lackluster as they came out of his mouth, but he didn’t know what else to say. He liked to keep things simple.

  “All your anger, all your hate, all your shame at the things you’ve ignored in this town... turn it into wrath and unleash it at the army knocking on your door. This is your chance at redemption – take it.” Karen turned her horse around and took off across the field, heading toward the forest.

  McCall watched h
is ragtag group of fighters for a moment and saw their fear. A few nodded their heads as Karen spoke, but most of them looked at the ground. At that moment, McCall knew that there would be no salvation for Sheol. Perhaps a few could redeem themselves, but most would die on their knees, as they’d lived.

  He spun his horse around and followed Karen. She brought Muriel to a stop halfway across the clearing, by one of the piles of barrels and kegs they’d created. The smell of whiskey around them helped drown out the smell of rot, but only a little. He coaxed his horse a little closer, hoping it would enable him to breathe a bit better. The barrels had been stacked ten feet high and more than twenty feet wide.

  The sun had just set behind them and darkness had begun to envelope the area. Pre-lit torches were staked into the ground around the barrels to help McCall and Karen see, and to lure the moaners to them. Soon they would be providing all of the light in the field; until they blew half of the area up.

  Every candle and lantern they could find had been lit and placed along the streets of the city. McCall looked over his shoulder at it, content with the amount of light they would provide. He knew that the incredible number of the dead marching toward them would probably long outlast any of those candles, but he hoped that the light would provide the people with some temporary courage.

  Karen reached across the gap between them and grabbed his left hand, squeezing it. He looked into her eyes, reading the concern in them like an open book. He understood the emotional turmoil inside of her, because he was experiencing the same feelings.

  “McCall, before this starts, I want you to know that—”

  “I know,” he said. “I know. Me too.”

  She gave him a small smile. “Are you ready for this?”

  “Hell no.”

  “Me either. I feel like I’m going to puke.”

  McCall reached down and pulled one of the torches free, lifting it up. Karen did the same. “If this goes to hell and you can’t get out of the town, get to the jailhouse,” McCall said.

  “Why there? It’s right in the middle of everything.”