Blood & Dust (Lonesome Ridge Book 2) (16 page)

“Oh, look,” Charity cried. “Dinner.”

A house sat on the horizon, alone but just off the road they followed. Charity beckoned the others forward. She gave no instructions on how to treat those inside. Her only order was to attack.

Jeremiah waited outside as the others flooded into the house.

“She’s a good queen,” Bill said over the screams.

Jeremiah looked sideways at him. “Ya think so?”

Bill nodded. “Of course. she knows what we need. She provides for us everything we could possibly want. We’ll be just fine with her in charge. She’s going to build a great kingdom.”

Jeremiah grunted noncommittally. He worried about their fates, but ever since Norma’s death, Bill had been clinging to Charity like a love sick puppy. The boy was just as blood-thirsty as she was and he encouraged her dangerous behavior.

“You don’t think so?” Bill was looking at him with suspicion in his gray eyes.

Jeremiah glanced at the young man again. “Don’t think what?”

Bill stared at the house as a man tried to run out onto the porch. charity was right behind him and bore him to the ground. “You don’t trust her,” Bill said.

Jeremiah laughed. “Of course I trust her. I’ve trusted her since the beginning, since I first met her. She kept me alive. She’s my queen, my one and only.”

Bill raised his eyebrows and eyed Jeremiah. but he didn’t say anything more.

A little while later, Charity walked over to them. She ran her sleeve across her face to wipe the blood from her lips. Her eyes shone with that creepy light again and she beamed at the men.

“That was refreshing,” she cooed. “I needed that.”

Jeremiah gave her a tight smile. “I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

Bill was right there, too. “There weren’t enough people in there for the whole army,” he said.”

“No,” Charity agreed. “I was able to get a little information from that man just before he lost his throat so inconveniently. the city is that way, just a couple of miles.” She pointed over the low hills. “I want to wait for these to turn and then we’ll head on.”

Bill grinned. “You know just how to lead us,” he said. Jeremiah groaned beside him.Charity’s grin matched Bill’s.

After the undead turned a few hours later, she called the others from the barn where they were munching on cattle. “Let’s go! We have more important things to do.”

The undead formed up behind her in a loose, disorganized herd and she moved forward toward the town. It wasn’t long until the city came into view. Bigger than Lonesome Ridge, but it was also more sprawling, hugging the base of the mountains. Bigger also meant more people, more food, more potential undead.

Jeremiah eyed Charity as they walked along the road leading into the city. “Do we have a plan?” he asked. “Hit from all sides, like before? Sneak in and do as much damage as we can, then get the heck outta Dodge?”

Charity raised her eyebrows at him. “This is our last change to leave a mark on this side of the world, Jeremiah. We’re going to him them hard and we’re going to hit them fast, with everything we have.” She turned to the undead behind her. “Like that town we destroyed before. Turn them if you can, kill them if you can’t. Burn it. Destroy it. Make them fear us, make them fear the wrath of our pain.”

Bill clapped and the other undead moaned. Jeremiah forced a smile onto his face and tried to remind himself that he just had to get her over the mountains. That’s all. Just over the mountains.

“Ready, Jeremiah?” bill nudged him with his elbow and gave him a wink. The kid was getting irritating very quickly.

“Jeremiah grinned. “Hell yeah, Billy boy. Stick with me, kid, an’ I’ll teach ya a thing or two. Them livin’ folk’ll be tellin’ stories about us before this is over. Jeremiah and the Kid. Sounds good, don’t it?”

Bill returned his grin. They let the undead swarm around them as Charity led the way into the small city. The street lamps were lit, but it was so late that the only people awake were the saloon regulars.

Jeremiah and Bill made a beeline for where he assumed the saloon would be near the middle of town. It was far enough away from the main attack that the screams could not be heard that far down the street with all the noise inside. The pair stayed to the shadows and approached the saloon with caution.

A man was standing on the porch, peeing off the side when they arrived. Jeremiah walked up the steps, not trying to be subtle at all. He motioned for Bill to stay down below. “Hey there, fella,” he said as he nodded to the man. The drunkard tried to nod back and fell into the railing.

“Damn floor keeps movin’,” he grunted as he tried unsuccessfully to straighten himself. “Boss man needs ta fix it or sumpin’.”

Jeremiah gave him a toothy grin. “Could be, fella, could be. I can help ya with that, if ya like. Here, come over here.”

He held out his hand and the man stumbled toward him. The man slung an arm around Jeremiah’s shoulder and leaned heavily against him. “’At’s mighty kind ‘o ya, fella. Mighty kind.” He leaned closer and squinted at Jeremiah, then down at Bill who stood at the bottom of the steps. “Hey, you boys all right? Ya know, ya look a little off. Not sick or sumpin’, are ya? I don’t want none that influenza or nothin’.”

Jeremiah’s grin grew. “No, no. We’re just fine, my good man. We’re just fine.” He wrapped his arm around the man’s neck and drew him close. “We’re just fine,” he repeated as he squeezed.

The man’s hands slapped feebly at Jeremiah’s arm, but his liquored state sapped his energy and destroyed any strength he might have had. He sagged against Jeremiah and the bigger man let him drop to the floor with a thud.

Bill looked up at Jeremiah with awe on his face. “That was great,” he whispered.

“Your turn,” Jeremiah said as he stepped aside and waved a hand toward the saloon door.

Bill’s eyes glowed as he mounted the stairs and headed for the inside. Jeremiah stepped up behind him and grabbed his head in both his hands. He jerked Bill to the side so they were out of direct line of sight of any of the saloon patrons and twisted Bill’s head quickly. Bill dropped to the wood in an instant. For good measure, Jeremiah brought his book up and slammed it down on Bill’s skull until blood and brain matter spattered the porch and nearby railing.

Satisfied with his work, Jeremiah walked back down the steps and moved up the street, back toward the main body of the attack. The music inside the saloon trailed behind him. the occupants were none the wiser.

CHAPTER 22

“We’re close,” Connor said as he rolled the man on the porch over with his boot. the drying blood was still sticky and glimmered in the light from the half moon. the cool air kept the flies away.

Abby looked at the bloody footprints scattered across the porch. “How many are there?” she asked, her eyes a little wide.

Connor poked his head into the house. “Dunno. A lot. From the tracks we’ve been following, I’d say at least fifty. Maybe more.”

“Not as many as Lonesome Ridge, then.”

“No, but these people they’re hitting are unprepared. They don’t know what they’re up against and they don’t know they’re coming. They don’t stand a chance.”

They didn’t bother to check the rest of the house. Nothing had come out to greet them when they knocked and the carnage visible from the door was enough for both of them.

“Where are they going?” Abby mused, not for the first time. It seemed to both of them that the horde of undead was moving with a purpose, toward some end. What that end was, they weren’t certain.

“If I had my guess,” Connor began. “I’d say they were moving toward the mountains, or up north. Dunno why, though. Maybe they mean to live there? Away from people?” He shrugged. He wasn’t convinced anymore than she was.

Abby’s lips twitched. “I doubt that. They haven’t tried to hide at all. They’re not afraid of people. Why would they bother hiding now?”

Connor shrugged. “No idea. Just a guess. But if they are, there’s one place up here that most use to get through the mountains. It’s just on the other side of Cherbank..”

“Think that’s where they’re headed right now?”

Connor stiffened. “Could be. If it is, we’re not far behind. We need to move.”

They both mounted up and kicked their horses into a run. They didn’t bother trying to track. The prints were clearly visible in the dirt that served as a road.

They raced through the night and it wasn’t long before the city came into view. Screams bounced off the mountains and found their way to Connor and Abby’s ears not long after. Connor pulled to a stop just outside of Cherbank. Abby rode up beside him.

“They’re still here,” she cried. Her hands shook and her horse danced as it fed off her nervous energy.

“Yeah,” was all Connor responded.

“What do we do?” She stared at the flames that licked the night sky.

Connor’s eyes danced over the town before them. Buildings nearby burned brightly. People stood in the street and cried or rand and screamed as undead shuffled along behind them.

“We help,” he said and pulled his pistol out.

“How?” Abby cried. “How are we going to stop that?” She waved her stump at the city, but pulled her shotgun from its holder even as she did. “There are only two of us and dozens of them.”

“That may be,” Connor said. He spurred his horse forward. “But right now, we’re the only two who know a thing about those things.” He rode toward the nearest undead with Abby on his heels. “We’re the only ones who stand a chance,” he shouted.

The closest undead dropped as Connor’s first bullet found the woman’s skull. The pair of hunters rode their way through the town, taking out undead as they went, stopping only to reload.

A woman off to their left screamed as Abby raised her shotgun toward a group of three advancing on a pair of men. Each of the men had their pistols out and were firing.

“Aim for the heads,” Connor shouted at them. “I’ll be right back,” he said to Abby before spinning his horse around and kicking it toward the sound of the woman.

He found her in a small alley between two buildings, pinned against the wall of a dead end. A sickeningly familiar man advanced on her.

“Stop right there, Jeremiah,” Connor shouted as he jumped off his horse.

The man froze and did a slow pirouette toward him. The woman cowered behind Jeremiah and whimpered.

“Come on out, sweetheart,” Connor said. His eyes stayed locked on Jeremiah’s gray dead ones. The woman skirted around Jeremiah and ran past Connor, screaming as she raced back into the streets. Her screams came to an abrupt halt. Connor winced, but didn’t want to see what had happened.

Jeremiah was trapped. Houses blocked him on either side and a high wall rose up behind him. Connor’s gun was pointed right as his head.

The scraggly-looking undead man raised his hands. “Sheriff McClane,” he said. “Funny seein’ you here.”

“Not funny at all, Jeremiah.” Connor took a step forward. “We’ve been following you and your crew ever since you slaughtered the folks of Lonesome Ridge.”

Jeremiah’s face fell. “Yeah, sorry ‘bout that, sheriff. Ya see, there’s this woman--” he began.

“There’s always a woman with you, isn’t there?” Connor’s nostrils flared and his lip curled as he cocked his gun.

Jeremiah’s hands went up a little higher. “No, wait. Connor, please. Ya gotta listen to me.”

Connor eyed the outlaw-turned-dead-cannibal. Despite the fact that he knew for a fact that Jeremiah was a killer--the blood on his shirt and his advances toward the woman proved that very fact-- Connor saw something in the strange eyes, something more, something still human.

“Talk fast.” He left his gun cocked, but lowered the barrel just a touch.

Jeremiah’s eyes danced between the gun and Connor’s face. “Like I said, there’s this woman. She’s undead, like me. Crazy as a loon, too. Remember Crazy Cathy, that one hooker Neil had? Well, she’s like her, but worse. This one kills everyone, even other undead. No one’s safe around her. Thinks she’s a queen, even. Wants to build her own kingdom, with slaves and everything.” Jeremiah took a step forward. “I need to get her out of here, Connor. I need to get her over the mountains, to Callyfernya, where she can have her kingdom and be away from this place, and far, far away from Lonesome Ridge.”

Connor’s hand wavered. “You’re full of shit, Jeremiah Gaines.”

“I know, sheriff. I know it sounds like a pile of horse honkey, and it is. None o’ this makes any sense at all anymore. But I gotta do it. If you kill me now, there’s no one else to control her, no one else to stop her.”

“I’ll stop her.”

Jeremiah’s eyes fell to the dirt. “How’s...” His voice faltered. “How’s Jas?” He wouldn’t look up. “Did he survive?”

Connor cleared his throat. “He’s fine. I made him the new sheriff when I left.”

Jeremiah’s head shot up and his eyes brightened. “The new sheriff? My little brother’s a real, live sheriff?”

Connor nodded. “Yep. I couldn’t keep the position, so I gave it to him. He and Hannah are doing just fine.”

“That’s great. Just great.” Jeremiah grinned. Connor had forgotten just how brown the man’s teeth were. He wondered briefly how they hadn’t rotted clean out of his head. “And Cora? How’s she? Still gettin’ up to her ol’ tricks, I bet.”