Darrel Sparkman - After the Fall

“Then kill me.” He watched the uncertainty wash across the man’s face and it was like reading a book. The seeds of doubt were starting to grow. To make it worse, the other soldiers were watching. There just wasn’t any way he could back down.

“Benson, get out of there.” Gunny’s voice was bullhorn loud, blasting over the sounds of the river like a pounding fist. Walking up to the soldier, Gunny repeated. “Move, soldier, or I’ll be taking a personal interest in makin’ you suffer.”

Benson’s eyes shuttled between Trent and Gunny. Grumbling, he finally sidled away toward his side of the camp.

He spoke levelly to the sergeant. “That was close.”

“Ah, hell.” Gunny grumbled. “You probably should’a just shot him. Save one of us the trouble later.”

The lieutenant coming over to them, his boots scrunching in the gravel, interrupted their conversation. “What’s the trouble, Gunnery Sergeant?”

Trent answered for him. “Your man Benson was out of line, Lieutenant. I also couldn’t help but notice you sitting over there doing nothing about it.”

“Gunnery Sergeant? I was talking to you.”

He glanced at Trent before he answered. “I’ll take care of it, sir.”

The lieutenant looked across the fire at Katie. “Very well. I don’t think the—” he paused and looked her up and down, “— lady was in any actual danger.”

Trent’s fist cracked against the lieutenant’s jaw, lifting him off his feet. The man’s shoulders made a scrunching sound as he hit the gravel. Oblivious to the cocking of weapons all over the camp, he reached down and jerked the man to his feet.

“Don’t you e ver speak to her in that tone, Lieutenant. Not ever. Is that clear?”

Gunny took over. “Benson, get back over here and take the lieutenant to his bedroll. He must have tripped on something over here. The rest of you men go back to whatever useless things you were doing. Stanton and Ashe, take first guard. Move it.”

Coming back, Gunny said to him. “Must be the humidity. Tempers are kinda short around here, and me not even having chow yet.” He looked pointedly at him. “You’d do well to get that girl out of here. She’s trouble, even if it’s not her fault.”

He’d been thinking the same thing, and grumped at himself for leaving her with the soldiers. He walked over to her. “Are you all right?”

“Sure. I can take care of myself, you know. I’m not helpless. That really wasn’t necessary.”

He ignored the bravado, his eyes full of concern for her. He reached out and brushed her hair from her face. “From now on, don’t get so far from your weapon. Don’t ever go unarmed. Even when you think you’re among friends, or if it’s just a call of nature. It might make the difference.”

She smiled and batted her eyes at him. “Yes, father.”

“And don’t be a smartass.” He couldn’t help but smile.

“Don’t you be so protective of it, Mister Marshal, sir. I’ve decided it’s already yours.”

She seemed to love watching him turn red. He pondered that with a smile while he sat down to talk with Gunny.

Gunny spoke first. “I heard you were out looking for me?”

His gaze pinned his friend a moment. For a fleeting instant, he wondered about that. They knew each other. Friends might be going too far. “We thought you might be lost.”

Gunny looked at him seriously. “No point in looking for me, boy. There’ll never be a day you could find me out there. You should know that.”

He watched as Gunny abruptly got up and walked away.

Now what was that all about?

Katie and Trent lay in their bedrolls on opposite sides of the fire. With their heads close together, their conversation was soft and quiet. He told her about the other killing. She lay mute, thinking about it. “I don’t understand the kind of person that would do that.” Her voice was mildly plaintive in the night.

He could understand her problem. Maybe that’s why a killer like this is so successful. “I know it’s hard to get your head around. I did some reading on it. Even if we do know the type of person that does this, it probably won’t put us any closer to catching him.”

She abruptly rose up on an elbow. “Wait a minute. You were reading? Seriously”

He grinned at her. It was true that many people couldn’t read anymore. The only schools were back east or in the few established settlements scattered around the country. “You don’t think I can read? Do you remember the side trip I mentioned? I went to the library in one of the abandoned towns we passed. I didn’t find much, the place was a shambles, but there were a few books left that didn’t go to the local outhouses.” He thought a moment. “Mainly they broke the killings down into four categories; visionary killers—people that hear voices and have visions, mission-oriented—getting rid of a certain group of people, hedonistic killers, couldn’t find a dictionary to look that one up—they kill for sexual gratification and usually mutilate the victim, and the power-oriented killer—they like to control and dominate.”

“This guy may fit all four,” came her musing reply.

“I know,” he said around a yawn, “but we’ll find him. One way or another.” Katie was already asleep. Great, his explanation put her to sleep. Bet she wasn’t the only one to sleep through that class. He stared at the stars, showing through the hole in the canopy of trees above them, for a long time. Once, he saw a shadow moving away from them between the boulders. There was nothing to hear.

The predawn light slowly appeared as a white envelope of humidity and fog. Cooler air moved in during the night, and the dense growth and damp ground gave up its moisture in surreal fingers slowly lifting toward the canopy of leaves above. Water dripped from the leaves, shook loose by a few twittering sparrows grumping sleepily at the new day.

The hilltops were seeing the tip of the sun as it came up, but the valleys between the hills remained shrouded in the gloom of shadow and night.

John Trent came awake with instant awareness, listening to the sounds of the forest as he opened his eyes. Something was wrong.

With awareness came action, and he silently snaked out of his blanket into the darker shadow of the huge boulder next to him. Breathing shallowly, with his mouth open to give his ears a better chance at hearing, he strained his senses into the dawn.

Turning slightly, he looked at Katie lying a few feet away, and saw that her eyes were open and staring at him. He made a slight hand motion, and after a startled glance around, she slowly started moving toward him. Once she gained the shadows, she quickly came to him.

He hadn’t realized she slept with her rifle, something he needed to file away for future reference.

Without taking his eyes off the forest, he pointed toward one of the sentries. Sitting on a rock and slumped over, his posture could easily have been mistaken for slumber.

“What’s wrong?” Her breath was soft and warm in his ear and he heard the nervousness in her voice. He hoped she wouldn’t panic, but suspected there was a lot of iron in this girl.

“His gun is missing.” He looked across the clearing and could barely make out the sleeping patrol. Gunny had spread his blankets away from his men, around a bend in the clearing. He hoped he was awake. He reached out and pulled Katie to him, as his hand unconsciously caressed her hair. His senses filled with her as he whispered. “Raiders. And they’re inside the perimeter.”

With hand signals, he had her cover the clearing to the left. He would take the right.