10 Chapter 10 - In Which Only A Simple Sprout Appears

"Alright..." Judas started as the flies continued to buzz around them, attracted by the stench of rotting flesh that was slowly starting to make Lozen sick. "We don't know that's because of the body. I mean, Beatrice has been dead for much longer."

"Judas."

"Yup?"

"Shut up."

"I'm just saying, if I was a betting man, I'd say the walking corpse would probably smell a lot more than-"

While he talked, Lozen drew her pistol, swung it around and fired in shot directly into his skull before he could finish whatever horseshit he was spewing. He let out a scream of pain as his head flew back, a sound that was oddly satisfying for her and made the wasted bullet feel less like a lose. Even the horse seemed to get some joy out of it as it let out a series of neighs that, either because of the heat stroke or sepsis from the corpse, sounded a lot like laughter to Lozen.

"Owww!!!!! Jesus tap dancing Christ!!"

"Quit your whining. You'll live."

"That still hurts!!!"

"I know." Lozen said before bolstering her gun. Beatrice let out a few more grunts to which Judas said "Why the hell are you taking her side?! And what was with the ammo wasting!!? I thought you were all about survival or some shit!!?"

Lozen replied, readjusting the reins in her hands as she did "Besides the fact I have enough ammunition to equip an army, our deal stated that you would be the one who attacked whatever resistance we meet. Not make that resistance shot itself in the head and cause 10 tons of rock to fall on our heads!!!!!"

"Wha....you're still mad about that?!"

"Yes!! Because your galavanting almost got me killed!!!"

"Yeah! Almost! But now we've just got an amazing story to tell which you're welcome for by the way!"

"You're welcome. You're welcome!!" Lozen cried out. She pulled on the reins until Beatrice came to haunt and then spun around on the stead to face the passenger.

"Do you understand what happens if I die?!"

"Yeah. A dark deathless oblivion from which no hope of salvation can persist. I thought I already-"

"Shut it!! I'll tell you what happens, you empty headed buffoon!! 46 women and children will starve to death in the middle of nowhere!! Then people like you will wander over they corpses and take everything that isn't nailed down!!! We won't just die, we will be buried, forgotten as if we never existed in the first place!! So let me make this one more time! If you ever do anything to endanger my life again, I will drag you down with me on the way to hell!! Is. That. Clear?!"

Her words seemed to have made her mark since Judas's non existent eyes had widened more than she had ever seen from him. His posture had also straightened out like he was a child being scolded, even the skeleton inside him somehow seemed ashamed.

With her companion thoroughly understanding the point, she turned back around and snapped at the reins. Beatrice resumes strutting through yet another massive expanse of dust and sand with her dead master having finally been silenced.

Though there wasn't much else to do out here. Beatrice was indeed racing across the landscape at a speed Lozen was surprised a literal corpse could sustain, but the problem was that there was just so much of it. No matter how far they ran, it never seemed to get them anywhere. She would have been annoyed, but....no. She was annoyed.

Not only that she was stuck out in the middle of nowhere with cuts that were almost certainly infected after spending a good chunk of the day near three corpses. The insects buzzing around her were insistent to, landing dangerously close to her wounds for comfort, but she didn't need them to know there was something wrong with her cuts. Most of the pain was gone. Most. Her joints felt dangerously fragile and everything else was already broken, but she had to keep going. She didn't trust that moron behind her not to send them careening down into a canyon just for laughs.

Her internal map was difficult to imagine at the moment, but it served her well enough to keep her on the right track. If she was correct, then they should be arriving at a small town that hopefully had a sheriff's office or something she could use to turn the body in before it started rotting anymore. At the very least she knew there had to be a general store where she could buy bindings.

The horizon was empty for the longest time, a sight that caused the starvation and thirst drying out her throat to magnify. Even Beatrice's rotting meat started to seem appetizing, but thankfully something came over the edge before the heat sickness made her do something stupid.

What were first only black shapes slowly evolved into a modest display of civilization assembled in a neat line that faced out towards them. She could see maybe three or four storefronts that looked about as empty as she expected for something this far out into nowhere to be. A breath of relief escaped her as she saw it, but the deadman behind her said "Well, it's about time. Maybe we can buy some perfume for-"

"Shut it." Lozen cut him off as she pulled in Beatrice's reins, causing her to come to a grinding halt. "Get off and carry the body. If there's a sheriff's station, you will go in and not say a word. Got it?" She continued as she dismounted the beast.

"Fine. But I-" He started before Beatrice cut him off with a disgusted neigh that he screamed at "Why're you taking her side?! Since when were you two such good friends!!?"

The mare neighed.

"You're a walking cadaver in the middle of Texas!! Of course you're going to smell like literal horse shit!"

Lozen rolled her eyes as she heard that before cutting short what she was certain was going too end badly.

"Just take the body and let's move. I don't want to have to spend more time than necessary out here." She said before she started marching off to the town, not waiting for the deadman to follow. However, she had about ten seconds of peace before she heard her companions open his infernal tongue "Hey, let me ask you something. Was he digging for Injun gold down there?"

"If I answer you, will you please just stop talking?"

"That's a hard maybe."

"Fine. Yes, I think it's safe to say. No, that's not what was actually down there. Happy?"

"Wait. So he-"

"If you start laughing, I will chop off your limbs and bury you alive."

"That's fair."

"No. That's me being generous."

"And why might that be?"

"Because I haven't already done it."

He stopped talking after that. She could hear the sound of him literally dragging the body across the ground behind her, but she was just glad he was doing something that wasn't going to get her killed.

They continued on there way, the scene of the tiny gathering started to grow with one detail above all else catching Lozen's attention. Running right behind the rows was a railroad track that ran right behind them with one of the buildings revealing itself to be a makeshift platform made from old wood and rusty nails. She was surprised to see a station this far out, but supposed it made sense. There was no reason to be out here at all apart from setting up a connection track between the major railway networks.

To the left of the station, there was a small building that had just a tiny sign atop that read "law office". She made a bee line right for it, shouting behind her "Cover yourself up. We're getting close." as she did and then marched the rest of the way up to the sheriff's office.

The interior wasn't too dissimilar to the one in Dist Trove, except it was much smaller and there was only one desk in the center of the building. It was seated by a pudgy man in an almost comical sheriff's outfit that for some reason included a sleeveless vest the same color as dirt. He was wearing a hat, something she had noticed long ahi was a bit of a trend in these parts, and appeared to be sleeping at his desk.

She sighed before walking up to the desk and slamming a fist down right next to his head. The man jumped up and let out an alarmed series of vowels that didn't constitute any form of language. He seemed to calm down once he realized he was in someone else's company and straightened out his posture before saying "Can I help you?"

"You take bounties?"

"Uhhh....well, yeah, but where's-" The Officer started before the front door came swinging open and in came Judas judging from the sound of a dragging body. After taking a second to ignore considering what lead that sound to be familiar to her, Lozen stepped aside to let the supposed officer take a look at her quarry. "His name's Tobias Moore. Bounty 150 dollars." The man's eyes widened as he saw the corpse and he asked in a trembling voice "I-I-I-Is he dead?" Before Lozen could answer, Judas said "Oh yeah. He's dead. Funny story too. You see-" Before he could keep talking, Lozen interjected "We brought him here, which means the bounty is ours. So hand it over."

The man swiped his gaze between her and the body for a moment before opening another drawer that he began rummaging around in. He started pulling out random bags that clinked as they landed on the desk and didn't stop until ten of the containers were removed. Lozen could see his lips twisting as he counted the bags before saying "There should be 15 dollars in each of those. Will that do?"

Ignoring the fact that an officer of the law had just asked a stranger that, Lozen quickly snatched up as many of the sacks as she could, saying in the meanwhile "Yes. Judas, leave the body and start-" He cut her short however "Wait. I need to get something first." Terrified and angry at what that might mean, Lozen spun around, but thankfully all she saw was him rummaging around the corpses pockets. "There we are. " Judas cried out as he pulled out a tiny, leather pouch. He swung it like a bell, letting the coins insides jingle for a moment before taking a peek inside.

Lozen expected some bombastic display of gratitude or disappoint as he looked inside, but all she saw was him give a small nod before pocketing the tiny sack. "Alright. He's all yours." The deadman said as he stepped up to the desk and snatched up the bags Lozen couldn't carry. With that, he started making his way out of the station as if there was nothing else to do and while Lozen felt tempted not to do the same, the body was starting to rot and she didn't want to contaminate her wounds anymore.

She quickly followed him out, glanced around and then started marching off towards the general store she had seen from Beatrice's back. "Hey, where're you going? Beatrice, is that way." Judas yelled at her to which she said "And the medical supplies are over here."

"Then why're you going there?"

"Because that's what people do when they survive a cave in!!" She shouted at him the second she opened the front door. Her words echoed through the interior, but at this point she didn't much care about who or what heard her. The store itself wasn't any special, shelves lining the walls that were mostly barren apart from a few stripes of jerky or jars of some supposed medicine or other. In the center were four tiny tables almost as barren the rest of the shop, but she noticed a few roles of bandages and a bristle of some sort of plants. She snatched up the cloth roles and started making her way towards what she saw appeared to be a counter in the back only to stop when she recognized the plants.

Only after picking them up to did she approach the counter and make eye contact with the portly man on the other side. He was dressed in clothing that looked like it may have been very formal at some point with a black vest and white under shirt, but the years of dust and wear had clearly deteriorated it. The man himself also didn't seem like he was in the best shape. His belly stuck out and the skin on his face dagger past his neck, but he seemed alive at the very least which was all Lozen cared about at the moment.

"I'm tempted to ask what that little commotion was about." He said in a grizzled voice that took no effort to hide it's years. "Do yourself a favor and just ring me up. You don't want any of this." She replied.

"Sounds like neither do you."

"If only you knew."

"Hey, I've had my fair share of years. Maybe I do."

She sighed and then said "My partner is an undead, immortal gunslinger with a carnivorous, equally undead stead and not two hours ago he almost got me killed by causing one of the five outlaws we're hunting across Texas to shot himself, knock over a lantern, and ignite a cluster of dynamite, which caused a cave in that nearly killed me."

The man stayed silent for a moment before saying "Again?"

"Pardon?"

"Mister, if you think that's enough to satisfy my curiosity, you're gonna have to do a lot better. You're not the first guy to claim he's got someone who came back from the dead. Now what're you really hiding?"

"Is that necessary for you to sell me this?"

"Do you know how often this little station get's visitors? All we do here is unload the stuff that comes by train, but no people are actually stupid enough to get off. I need something to keep my mind stimulated."

Lozen gave him a tiny glare before taking out a handful of the coins and tossing them on the counter before saying "I work in a mine and mishandled dynamite. Is the Jimsen Weed gonna cost extra?"

The man chuckled before saying "Yeah, that sounds about right. That'll be three dollars."

Lozen started shifting through one of the bags she had been awarded only to stop for a second when something clicked in her mind.

"Is that station still in operation?" She asked as she placed the coins on the table.

"Oh yeah. A train passes through here everyday. Should be arriving pretty soon actually."

"Does it take passengers?"

"It's a train."

Lozen paused for a moment, debating a few things, before asking "And does it connect to the Rita Line by any chance?"

"No. But it does lead to an intersection up north. You should be able to catch a train there. Why do you-"

"Thanks for the supplies." She cut him short with as she snatched up the supplies and quickly rushed out of the store before he could get another question out. However, she froze the second she stepped out, seeing who had apparently been waiting the whole time.

"Wow. That has got to be the worst delivery of a good action thriller I've ever seen." Judas said to which Lozen let out a tiny growl before she started making her way back towards the station outside.

"It has to be a good thriller first." She spat back.

"And what's that to you?"

"One where I don't almost die!!"

"Jesus. Will you calm down about that."

"Calm down!! You mean about almost getting me crushed!!?"

"Again, almost! Almost got you crushed! Besides, so what if you die? Your little colony'll be fine."

"No it fucking won't!!! Have you been listening to nothing I've been saying!!?" She exclaimed as she arrived at the platform. It was little more than a wooden platform, three benches, and a tiny overhang that mercifully blocked out the sun.

"No. Because you haven't said a whole lot."

"And why were you in league with-"

"Okay, okay, okay! Fine. It was still an awful performance."

She say herself down on the bench before she said "Will you please shut it with all that performance crap!? This isn't a game!! I could die!"

"And does it look like you're in danger right now?"

"Maybe!! Maybe there's another band of gun tooting outlaws just over the horizon! Maybe ones of these wounds are infected! Maybe you're going to kill me when we find the rest of your little crew!!! Maybe it'll be none of that and I'll get bitten by a snake and left to die out in the middle of nowhere while my people spend their last days wondering where I was!! Do you understand that?! Is that a good enough story for you?!"

"Come on. They'll send someone else out if you don't come back. No one's that helpless."

Lozen paused when she heard that, for a second that lasted an eternity. A few memories were pulled back up from her mind, an encampment surrounded by endless hills of sand and dust, people starved until they were barely even skeletons, and the smell of rot as the only strong ones decomposed in the fields. It didn't sting to remember or burn or inflict any sort of pain, but she still pushed it down the second she recognized it. Something constructed around her heart as she did with venomous thorns that made her feel so much smaller than she should have been. She tried not to recognize what it was and pretend she was as naive as everyone else, but the thought slowly creeped inside her.

However, she spoke before she could think. "Yes they are." She shoves the Jimsen weed into her mouth and then set to work binding her arms even as her companion spoke. "Bullshit. They're just scared."

"That's enough."

"No it's not. Even those stuck up yuppies in Dust Trove were...okay, mostly lazy, but they were also scared and look at them. All it took was a galavanting warrior to stand up for them and-"

"I know."

"What?"

"I know. I know about this. So will you stop explaining it. I know about heroes and stories and all that. I was told them as a children. Everyone was. So stop talking about it like it's so new. There's always heroes that are supposed to save you in your darkest hour, but they don't. You can wait until the sun falls from the sky, but nobody comes over the horizon. All the legends are too busy being legendary and strolling into towns worthy of their presence."

"Oh come on. Quit being so melodramatic."

She paused again, tying off the bindings around her arm before continuing "Do you remember the town we first meet in?"

"Yeah?"

"Why didn't you fight off the bandits there? You just let them push you around and then killed a few, but at Dust Trove you slaughtered them all and even put on a big show to 'inspire the people'. What changed?"

"Well, why would I waste all that time on some boring old town no one's even heard of?"

That was all she needed to hear, but she continued banging herself without another word. "What?! Who wants to hear a story about how a dirty gaggle of coal miners or some drunk guy in a town made of rust where inspired by a strapping, handsome horseman!?" He said in the whiny tone of a toddler, but Lozen only replied in a solemn voice "There should be a train arriving any moment now. We'll ride it all the way to a major junction. From there, we'll take another train to the Rita line and start trying to find Alberta Finch."

She let silence cover the platform after that and just tried focusing on treating her wounds. Much to her surprise though, Judas took the hint and finally shut up, she heard the bench creek as leaned against the side opposite to her, silent as could be. She kept expecting him to continue jabbing and insulting her, but still nothing came. Though, she expected to enjoy it a little more. The constant pain coming from her wounds as she applied the bindings made it impossible to maintain whatever joy she had.

Though it wasn't as awful as when the quiet came to an end and she had to hear Judas's voice again. "I can go." He said, but Lozen still ignored him. "Aren't you going to ask....nevermind. Look, if no one else is gonna help your town, then if you die, I'll go get the bounties to them."

She stopped her work when she heard that, but dismissed it immediately at some excuse to get her to listen to him. "Look, don't believe me if you want, but I'll do it. Heroes honor. You're tribe won't starve."

She didn't believe him. Not by a long shot and not after everything. "Why would you do that?" She asked, discontent saturating her voice.

"In all honesty, I want to prove you wrong."

Lozen only responded with a glare.

"Not in that way. Well, sorta. When I come riding over the horizon to your little town, the first thing they'll see is the smile I'll have as I imagine the look on your face. But mainly because, I think you're owed some insurance. You know, after...pretty much everything."

She....she was surprised to find that she didn't entirely hate him. She doubted he would actually do it, but there was a part of her that could imagine him doing all of that just to shove it in someone's face. Another image also came to mind as she thought of the sight. If he actually did roam into her town with all the money she might win, it might do them some good. At the very least I'd keep them alive for just a little while longer.

Although, she still didn't trust the unhinged maniac. Not by a long shot, but his offer was an inch in the right direction when she hadn't expected to him to even look down that road. "And how would you even find them?" She asked.

"Easy. I'll just track them down across endless waves of sand using only my wits and knowhow to-" He didn't even finish that sentence before he burst out into laughter again. Though, it wasn't the same maniacal bout of hysteria Lozen had been subjected to back at the mound. It was quieter for one, less like an outburst of more like a pleasant chuckle than anything else and was pleasantly refreshing to hear. So much so that she felt tempted to join him. The laugh was tiny, soft, and barely worth a second thought, but it didn't sting or burn like what Lozen had become accustomed to and she felt ashamed that she felt so drawn to it. Then again, in a field full of thorns, even the tiniest sprout is divine.

So she smiled. Not enough for him to have noticed, but enough for her to feel her checks contort. It felt decent. No horrible pain, no great triumph. Just decent. It wasn't much, but she didn't need it to be. Right now, it was just a tiny grin and at that moment, that was enough. She just hoped it didn't stay that way.

"God, even I couldn't buy that! I'm so bad at this I'm pretty sure the edge of the world was created just for me to wander off it!!" Judas continued as his laughter died down. "But seriously. I'll find them. I've got all the time in the world after all. I'm sure I'll stumble upon them eventually." He continued and Lozen responded in a somber tone "Yeah. One day. But you'll definitely be stumbling."

"Don't gotta tell me."

"No. You don't understand. There won't be any parading or heroically riding over the horizon. When you arrive, I know what you'll do. You'll aimlessly wander into it one day and leave without sparing a word."

"But I'll be there. I mean, with all the talk of surviving you seem to love so much, isn't that your dream? Wouldn't that be enough?"

Lozen paused once again, thoughts running dry as she realized what she was saying. It was enough. It had to be enough. So why did the thought make her angry? Not spiteful or large by any metric, but it was still there and she didn't know why. It couldn't be there though. The money would be enough. She just had to keep telling herself that.

She sucked in a small breath of air as she pushed the lukewarm wrath down and returned her focus to the bindings around her body before saying in as controlled a tone as needed "Yes...Yes it would."