5 Chapter 5 - Where Every Red Flag Is Ignored

"Alright, Judas, I will say this one more time. I am well aware of how difficult it would be to retrieve them. You made them painfully apparent. So I will ask this one more time. Where is my gun and dagger?" Lozen asked for what felt like the tenth time in the last hour and she wasn't certain how many other times she could keep bringing the question up.

The sun was approaching high noon and she had been stuck on the back of an undead horse for most if not all of the day, feeling all the muscles and bones in its back sliding across each other until she was ready to puke. If she had to keep going through that, she at the very least wanted her weapons back. They had to be somewhere close since they had left the camp without digging anything up, but between the literal skeleton and the horse, she couldn't figure out exactly where they were. And her peculiar new partner wasn't exactly being helping.

He snapped at his steeds reins one more time and continued humming some shanty tone to himself as if that excused no giving her a straight answer since dawn. However, he did say something, but it wasn't exactly helpful. "And what exactly would you use it on? The snakes? The dust? Or maybe the sand will make a worthy adversary? I hear it can smell your fear." He mockingly replied to which Lozen found herself unable to argue.

There were a few hills here and there with a tiny crop of grass resting onto, but other than that, there was absolutely nothing for miles around. Some of the outcrops made it difficult to see it again, but even she felt comfortable in saying there wasn't anything threatening around. Still, this exchange was starting to make her suspicious as to what exactly had become of her weapons.

"And you are immortal from what I can tell. Why would you care whether or not I have a weapon?" She replied to which Judas tossed back over his shoulder "Because we're point blank! I thought I said that in the saloon!! It still hurts if you do it close enough!" Lozen sighed and said "And why would I want to anger the immortal ghost warrior that could not only kill me rather easily, but leave me out in this wasteland miles from the nearest town?"

Judas answered "Okay, one, not like that stopped you at the saloon. Two, we're not miles from anywhere. Dust Trove is right up ahead of us."

Lozen knew the place and replied as she stretched a hand out to the left "No. Dust Trove is about ten miles in that direction. A distance I doubt I would be able to cover on foot in this heat." Judas fell quiet for a moment before he tugged at the reins and stopped the horse in its tracks. He then looked up into the sky, presumably at the sun before asking "That old thing rises in the north, right?" Lozen felt an eyelid twitch before saying "Just turn and keep the sun crossing over our heads until the grass turns green."

After a moment of awkward silence, the horse let out another snort before it, much to Lozen's amazement, follow her directions. It turned and started waltzing down the path she had pointed out. For a moment after it had started moving, Lozen merely stared down at the stallion, trying to figure out if Judas had kicked his spurs into it or the beast had actually heard and obeyed her. It wouldn't be the strangest thing to happen in the last day or so.

"Did your horse...." She started asking only to hesitate for a moment when she realized how absurd her question was, but resumed when she saw who was in her company "Did you horse understand me?" Judas replied in a voice that let her practically hear the smile on his face "You betcha. Good ol' Beatrice here's the smartest thing on four legs in the whole west." It snorted again to which the deadman somehow responded "How would you know! You've never been to the east!!"

Lozen raised an eyebrow at that and said "Can you understand it?" The deadman looked up again, this time as if in thought before saying "I don't know. It's kinda hard to describe. You ever had a horse before?"

"Numerous."

"And have you ever had that moment where you look into its eyes and you just sorta know each other?"

"I have had nearly two dozen different steeds and not once as that happened."

"What? I thought you of all people would understand."

She cringed at that before pressing on.

"My village is first and foremost a farming community. We don't use horses very often except for transportation."

"Well that's boring. I thought you people were in tune with nature."

"And I thought you people were in tune with god."

The deadman paused for a moment before shrugging and saying "Yeah, that's fair. Anyways, me and Beatrice go way back. She was my ride while I was with that yellow bellied bastard Iscariot. We got along like greed and gold and now that.....this" He waved to himself. "Happened, our connection has gotten a lot better. Before it was like I could always get here mood, but now it's like she speaks to me. Is that something your headless guy could do?"

Lozen answered "Maybe. It wouldn't be the most surprising part, but again, that's just a.....how would you put it.....bedtime story. I don't think it explains what's actually happened to you."

"Then how would you explain all this?"

"Fine. Now can you tell me what happened to my gun?"

Judas fell silent again, something that was starting to grate on Lozen and causing her saying with a little bit more venom than usual "Alright, let me make this simple. Do you just not want to give it to me or can you actually not?" He still didn't say a word for a while after, but did exclaim out of nowhere "Oh look! A town! Beatrice, giddy up!"

With that, he jabbed his spurs into the horses sides and, much to Lozen surprised and thanks, the beast instead froze in place. Judas let out what honestly sounded like a squawk before stabbing his spurs into the beasts hide again, but it still didn't move.

"Did you say giddy up?" Lozen asked, marveling at what she was hoping she hadn't heard and to her amazement, Judas answered "Yeah. There a problem with that?" She stared at him for a second longer before asking in all earnestly "Are you really not from a traveling show?" The horse let out a small grunt at that to which Judas seemed to reply "What? Do people not say that?"

"No."

"Do they know what I mean?"

"Well, yes-"

"Then why the hell aren't you moving, Beatrice?!"

The animal let out a tiny huff and sat itself down on the dirt with what looked like some sort of liquid seeping out of its gut as it plopped onto the ground. "Oh don't you dare start acting like that!! A hero's loyal stead doesn't pout!" Judas replied as he stabbed his spurs into the animals rotting sides until he tore two holes in its stomach, but it didn't move an inch. "Okay, fine!! I'll get you an apple or something! Now move!" He continued but the creature still didn't budge. "Alright, steak!! And raw, just the way you like it! How does that sound?!"

At that creature sprung back onto its feet and started outright galloping across the dirt with Lozen trying to process that last comment all the while. "Your undead horse eats?" She asked and Judas replied "Yeah, I don't understand it either. It's not like the dead have appetites. Though only one of us still had a tongue." Lozen glanced down at the creature one more time before saying "Alright, but steak?" The deadman quickly answered "Just don't ask! There is a story to that and trust me, you do not want to know it!"

Deciding that was probably for the best, Lozen buried the thought before saying "So then where are my-" However, she saw something besides dust and dead grass rise up over the horizon as the horse galloped along. They were the same dark dots she saw emerge from nowhere whenever she started approaching a town and these were only different on way. All of the buildings appeared to be much more spaced out than usual, but she expected that much.

Dust Trove was much more of a planned settlement than others with massive gaps between each of the structure where roads were. It was never a place like the ones she found herself stumbling across. Green grass encircled it, siphoning water from the reservoir below and allowing the people to build a fairly decent home when it comes to the west's standards. However, something dawned on her as she approached and she grabbed Judas's shoulders before saying "Stop your horse. We can't go into town."

Judas let our a small mouth before saying "You think I don't know that? I ride a horse that looks like the thing revelations talked about and look like someone who got kicked out of the graveyard. Beatrice-" The horse had already stopped by the time he started talking and Lozen had already slid off the stead, but Judas apparently didn't notice for a moment. "Good. Then I will ask this one more time. Where is my gun?" Lozen said as she walked a little bit ahead of the horse and after another annoying moment of silence, Judas said before sliding off his stallion "Okay. About time I come clean. You see, I don't got much in the way of storage space. So I usually make-"

However, before he could finish, Beatrice lurched her head forward and started letting out a disturbing gagging noise as her head bobbed up and down like she was about to vomit. Lozen raised an eyebrow as she observed this and asked "Is she okay?" Judas took a few steps away from the beast with a look of disgust in his face and said "Oh yeah. She's fine. Might wanna close your eyes though." Before she could ask, Beatrice lurched her head forward and a large glob of a foul smelling substance came spewing out of her mouth. It splattered onto the ground with a wet slap, sending pieces of some vomit looking substance exploding all over the place.

Lozen jumped back when the blob landed too close for comfort and felt a shiver crawl down her spine as she saw the puss infested bile soaking into the ground. It was a strange mixture of infected yellow and puke green that looked like it was going to burn through the earth itself, however in the center of it was something that was not only a solid mass instead of a liquid, but shiny. Like iron. Suddenly she realized what the horse had hacked up as well as where Judas thought it was safe to keep a firearm. She cringed at the thought and covered her nose before saying "Could you find no other place to keep that?"

"Hey! It was either that or the other end! You're welcome!"

"Could you not wear it?"

"Could you not steal if I did!?"

"From a living skeleton that can kill me with one shot?"

"Do you want your gun or not?!!"

Lozen rolled her eyes and edged towards the pile of bile until it was within arms reach. Then, with regret etched into every inch of her being, she reached out to the belt with her gun and dagger hanging off it. As she pulled it out, a thin layer of vomit was still stick to it with strands of the substance falling gently into the ground like mud covered maggots. It felt like it was burning her fingers even as she only clenched it with the tips of her digits and she could swear she felt something moving in it.

"Is this stuff dangerous?" She asked as she pulled her gun out of its holster and Judas replied "How should I know? I'm already dead and it's not like I have skin, clearly." Lozen shook out her weapon in an attempt to dispel the liquid covering the firearm only to see maybe a single droplet of the gunk fling off the weapon. She sighed once more before sliding her gun back into the holster and then started strapping the belt to her waist, shivering as she felt the puke soak into her pants. Only when her expectations of feeling her skin burn was proved wrong did she relax. It wasn't even the most uncomfortable thing she had felt, but the level of peculiarity to it was more than enough to make the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

Still, she pulled her attention back to Judas before longneck and saw that he was one step ahead of her. He was fumbling with the king rob that flowed from his back, pulling tiny ribbons of the garment out from the collar which he started wrapping his head up with. They did a remake or job at blocking the light springing from his skull, but there wasn't enough of it to cover every inch of him. The crop of glowing hair atop his head was still left for all to see.

"Judas, I don't think that's going to work. I've scoured towns like this before and know my way around them. Besides, I don't think my informant is going to enjoy meeting what a living ghost story and having his world view shattered." She said as she pulled out her weapon again and popped the cylinder out. "Yeah, which brings me to the first of many questions. Why exactly are we going after this guy?" He asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean why are we wasting our time tracking some whilly bastard in a town with the word 'dust' literally in his name?"

"Because that's how you track people down?"

"No it isn't. Don't people just taste the ground or wind or something and then track their scent?"

Lozen took a second to process that before saying "If you were a dog, maybe. Even then, how would track a scent across an entire state?"

"I don't know. Isn't that your job?"

"Yes. And I'm telling you, this is how it is done. Now, with that in mind, I think you should stay here for now. My informant can be a bit jumpy even without talking to a ghost gunslinger riding a dead horse."

"Oh hell no!! I'm not staying out in this hellhole picking sand out of my teeth!"

"Not while looking like that." She gestured to his head of exposed hair. "Then give me your hat!" Judas exclaimed, something Lozen was at first hesitant of. Her hat and bandana where all apart of her disguise, the one thing that has kept her alive on more than one occasion, but even she admitted it probably wasn't essential. The colonizers had this strange obsession with hair length, men always had short hair and women always had long, and Lozen kept that aspect of her on the short side in case wandering eyes saw past her mask. It wasn't preferable, but she supposed to could survive without it. Besides, disguises were to prevent trouble from arising in the first place and with an undying warrior that could kill in an instant, conflicts wouldn't be much of a problem anymore.

"Alright. But when we meet him, I need you to follow my lead." She agreed, plucking her hat off and tossing over to the deadman as he said "Yeah, yeah. You play your game, Low den-"

"Lozen."

"Whatever. But if that guy comes out guns blazing I will not hesitate." He said before the both of them started walking towards the town.

It wasn't as hellish of a hike as the one she had undertaken yesterday, but the combined high noon sunlight and the exhaustion leftover from the previous travel were weighing her down. Her spurs felt heavy and her arms seemed to start sagging after a mile or two while her lungs sucked in and spilled out streams of dry air like they were going to die. Sweat seeped in her clothes until she felt like she was going to die of dehydration and every bit of meat in her bones hummed in that manner that seemed to scream at her to rest. She even swore she started panting like some common animal at one point, but while she felt like she was about to die, her companion overtook her.

He marched in forward, fumbling with his cape so that it turned back into a cloak and acting like he was more bored than exhausted. She couldn't say she was surprised by this seeing as how the man or whatever he was didn't seem to have anything that could be physically exhausted anymore. It did however make her feel just to tiniest bit jealous at how easy this walk seemed to be who she was figuring amounted to little more than a child stuck with godlike powers.

Why had he been allowed to be relieved of this when he acted like a complete, attention hungry fool?

Whatever the reason, it was nothing more of an annoyance at the moment, so Lozen tried not to focus on it for long. The town in the distance slowly started to come into focus up ahead, the buildings taking shape and the grass that surrounded them started to turn a lively shade of green. Before she knew it, they had both started down a massive pathway craving right through the town and stepped into Dust Trove.

It was about well off as Lozen remembered it. Subtle green grass speckled the ground apart from two long trails of mud running parallel to each other down the main road where the wagons and horse tread. There weren't stop fronts running along the streets like in most other towns, simply buildings, sometimes with shear walls dotted only with windows facing the road. Sometimes they even looked professionally built with the strange, pointless architectural styles the colonizers lived so much embedded in every inch of them. Nothing was below two stories and everything seemed much more...she believed "civilized" war the word the eastern folk used. It was more similar to some of the major cities she had seen along the major rivers than the usual dust ridden shanty towns with even the air seeming more filled with life. She could taste moisture on the tip of her tongue and feel the mud rise up around her boots, both extremely comforting when compared to the expansive wastelands that surrounded the town.

However, there was one major problem that caused her hand to glide over her pistol as they marched down one of the main roads. The lack of people. This place wasn't the most active of town, but this was the first time she had seen absolutely no one around. "I know it's corny coming from me, but is this place usually this dead?" Judas asked and Lozen answered as her eyes darted down the road branching off from the streets sides "No."

"You sure? Because I think we should start worrying about it coming back to life."

Lozen continued searching the streets she saw branching off from the one they trodded down, seeing that they all appeared to be just as hollow as the others. She knew they were still people there judging from the shadows dancing behind the windows and the occasional burst of movement she saw near the doors, but they weren't on the streets. A fact that she made sure didn't go over her head. "Follow me and keep your eyes open. We need to get off the streets." She said as she picked up her pace and made a sharp left, following the map she had of the town to her destination. "Why?" Judas asked at first before saying "Ah. Right. Forgot you've got the whole mortality thing going on. Still, I think I'll stay outside."

"Why?"

"Because whatever's got everyone spooked is out here too."

Lozen paused for a moment to try and piece that together before saying in realization "Correct me if I'm wrong, but when you walk into a town of people terrified of stepping onto their own streets, your first instinct is to wait for whatever is terrifying them in the off chance you may kill it?" Judas replied as they took a turn to the right "Obviously. Caution's more of a suggestion when death is an impossibility." Lozen thought about it for a moment before deciding that having the walking skeleton wait outside where he couldn't be seen was probably for the best.

Her destination came up on the left, crushed between two massive hotels filled with people judging from the lights. It may have been the only building around with only one story for the entire top was made of a sign that said in big, white words "sheriffs". It was a simple place with a banister extending from the front shading a tiny, run down deck, but that was all expected. Dust Trove was a remarkably stable town when it came to security and order, so there wasn't much a need for lawmen. Most of the people had simply left the sheriff and his deputies to rot away in the decaying wreck of a place, seeing as how there was no use for them, but this left the men inside susceptible to other sorts of business. With nothing to do and no purpose or code to follow, they started doing anything that could pass the time. All they needed was the right price. And they had built up quite a debt with her.

"Stay here, don't draw attention to yourself, and if that something comes marching into town, give me a shout, but don't start shooting." Lozen called back as she stepped up onto the deck only to stop when she didn't hear Judas say anything. She glanced back, see him leaning up against one of the boards supporting the overhang and after he still said nothing, she called again "Did you hear me? No shooting." Judas called back in an obviously disinterested voice "Yeah, sure. Take your time by the way." Lozen rolled her eyes before making her way through the door.

The insides of the sheriff's office wasn't much better than the outside. It was mostly made of cells with eight big ones lining both the sidewalls and the back was just one big collections of guns strung up on a walk only to be trapped inside another cage. In between all that was an assembly of four desks arranged into two rows, all of which were manned by men who didn't seem to notice her entrance. They were all either counting bullets, coins, of these strange sheets of paper that looked like birth certificates. In the back however was the one man she had hoped to find, sleeping in a bed pressed against the armory door. He had a bottle clutched in his hands, but it was only about a quarter empty and judging from the skinny arms attached to the man, it looked like he didn't need much else to be knocked plain cold.

Lozen sighed at the sight, but nevertheless started walking over towards the bed with her eyes passing between the uninterested goons surrounding her. They appeared to be deputies judging from the formal outfits and badges, but it didn't seem to be doing anything close to lawful or even trying to hide it. Not that she blamed them though. Law abiding citizens rarely came through their doors anymore and the only people who ever did always wanted something scrupulous from them.

She stopped herself right at the edge of the bed, scanning over the scrawny drunk and debating what to do about his state. Her eyes spied the still full bottle in his hands and her hands managed to wrench the thing out of his own without so much as a murmur in objection. He squirmed a bit when she pulled it, but other than that didn't seem to notice. She raised the cork less bottle over his head and tipped it over, letting the contents come splattering down onto the man's face. With a burst of motion, he came back to life with his limbs flinging themselves up and a gargled cry failing to make its way through the gin.

When the content were empty and the man was fully conscious, Lozen tossed the bottle off the to side where it shattered against the floor and crossed her arms as the informant glanced up at her. His eyes were wide with fear and the sudden wave of activity crashing down on him and her presence didn't seem to be helping. "Loreli?!" He exclaimed, reminding Lozen she had used an alias for this informant, and she replied "Marcus. Are you awake now?" Marcus sat himself up and started whipping away the gunk from his eyes before saying "Well yeah. I mean.....it's nice to see you?" Lozen rolled followed up "Are you still drunk?"

"I don't know. I don't normally do this."

"Alright, let me put this another way. Are you conscious enough to help me?"

"Well yeah, but I don't think I should be."

"And what does that mean?"

"I don't know! I'm sorry!!" Marcus quickly rushed out and braced himself as if for a gunshot, much to Lozen's annoyance. She wanted to tell him to not keep cowering everytime she pressed a question, but at this point such a request was pointless. "Look, I have already done more than enough for you without payment. You people still owe me. Just give me what I want and I'll be out of your hair."

"I know! Believe me, I have not forgotten what you've done! It's just.....well, times have been a bit tough."

"I noticed. Did a lawmen come in here and put you on your toes?"

"T-Technically, we're also lawmen, you know."

"No. You're arms smugglers in sheriff costumes. Now can you help me or should I move on?"

"Ummm...Loreli, I know you've done a lot for us, but we.....we really can't give you anything right now. We're pulling in little ammunition as is."

"I'm not here for ammunition. I'm here for information. Though we will talk about that."

The man stared at her for a moment in what she couldn't tell was either amazement or relief, but neither was he swung his legs over the side of the rickety bed after he heard that. "Oh....okay then." He said as she stood back up, ignoring the booze soaking into his clothes and circled around her to make way to one of the desks. "Hey, George." Marcus called out to a man at one of the back most desks. "Can you...I don't know. Take a lap or something?" The man let out a small groan before saying "What do yah need?" Marcus nervously chuckled and took a small, yet still pathetic step back like Lozen knee she should have expected. She sighed and stepped forward before saying "I need to know the whereabouts of a few people." George cut her off in the came monotone voice he always used "Whatever your name is, we don't have time for whatever scavenger hunt you have planned. Unless you have something worth while, I suggest you fuck off."

Lozen froze up at that for a split second before reaching a hand down to draw the dagger holstered to her belt. She tossed it onto the table without another thought, thankfully managing to catch the man's attention before she hesitated. "What is this?" He asked as picked up the blade and Lozen answered "That is a black glass dagger. If you get it somewhere out east, the selling price can be as many as a hundred rounds." The man fell silent as he looked down at the dagger. He then picked up the blade, turning it side over side as he observed every inch of the weapon and said after a tiny, intrigued hum "Interesting. I hear some Injuns treat this stuff like gold. How'd you get your hands on it?" She doubted she could get a good price for it if she told him the actual story, so she lied and said "Found this battlefield a few years back. A bunch of marshals engaged a couple Cherokee warriors and left their corpses. I scavenged what I could and found that stuck in one of the bodies." Two months back, she had bought it off some Cherokee for half a jug of water and two shotgun shells, but that kind of story rarely helped price wise. The colonizers had some mistaken belief black glass was worshipped or something and while it was valuable, it wasn't that valuable. Still, she wasn't complaining. It excused the need for payment in a pinch.

"I hear these things are used for ritual sacrifices in some areas. That true?" George asked as he rested the blade next to the ammo he had been counting. Lozen felt the urge to shrug at that, but settled for saying "Sure." The man stared at the dagger for a moment longer before reaching down and opening a small drawer at the bottom of the desk. Inside Lozen could see a small collection of folder standing on end with names scribbled on tiny gland sticking out of their tops.

"You get five names." He said to which Lozen replied "Deal. Tobias Moore, Alberta Finch, Sirius Cane, Florentine Lorenzo, and Gregor Iscariot." The man was sent to work rather quickly, pulling out five folders from the collection and tossing them onto the desk. "Wow.....goin' after the big ones huh?" Marcus muttered to which Lozen said "Is that a problem?" He quickly replied "No! No, no, no." George cut in "Marcus, don't you have anything better to do?"

"Well....."

"I know the answer. My real question is why are you choosing now to act like even more of a spineless pig than usual?"

Lozen interjected "Does this matter?"

Marcus continued in his still uncaring voice "Yes. I'm hoping whatever story happened here is embarrassing enough to shut him up for good."

"Will it impact how fast you find those names?"

"Let's just say there's a reason I won't say."

Lozen sighed before saying "Nine months ago, a baron or something whose daughter this man had been in bed with. Literally. He ran out on the wedding and the father wanted to bring him back rather forcefully. I managed to get him out of the arrangement in exchange for him walking naked through the desert tied to the back of a horse all the way to the church. Said he was indebted to me afterwards. So here I am."

The man froze up for a moment and glanced over his shoulder at her with a look that very obviously didn't believe her. "Trust me, it was either that or he emasculation. And no one knew who to use a needle." She said, trying to repress the memory. George let out a tiny chuckle, a small smile coming onto his face before saying "Oh yeah. That'll do." He then turned back to the folders and said "As foolish as Marcus is-" Marcus cried out from the corner he had back into "It was one time!" George continued "If you say that, it wasn't. I'm assuming three?" Lozen cut in "Can you please just tell me where those people are?"

"Fine. Marcus does have a point though. Those are some big names you're going after. Iscariot and Lorenzo will be a bit harder to track than most. They stick together like flies and have more people under their pay grade than even that Pinkerton prick. Can't really say much about where they are though. Nomadic bunch that keep moving. Might have some luck near the reservations though. Cane is a lot easier though. He sticks to this mansion over in Denison. Alberta moves around a lot, but she's also pretty easy to find. Our ammo shipments to her can all be tracked to this railroad neck work up north. Just ask around for the Rita Line and you'll be pointed in the right direction. Now if you're planning to start somewhere, I'd recommend going after this Moore fellow. He's hold himself up in a copper mine about 50 miles south. Been there for the past three years judging from his purchases."

He glanced back over at her as he finished "That's all you get. Anymore and I'm gonna need another dagger." Lozen replied "No. That's enough. Although, I have a question." Marcus cut her off "Maybe I didn't make myself clear. Dagger or nothing. Is that simple enough for you?"

"It has nothing to do with what I've paid you for. This town, it's usually much more active than this. What's-"

She got her answer without her informants saying a word. When she was young, she had to get used to hunting when all the hunter left one day and never came back and the biggest part of hunting was being perceptive. Every tiny sound or scent could mean the difference between a stag and a wolf and she made sure it became a habit to keep an eye out for such signs. It usually came in handy when she was camping out in the middle of a region where outlaws had a bad habit of sneaking up on you in your sleep. Towns were much harder to make out sounds and smells in and the only times she managed to definitively detect something was if it was big enough. Leaving her in situations where she could only know if something was wrong only when it was as bad as it could have been. Stampedes, shoot out, and now, she could hear something similar in the distance, though the quiet of the office made it as bombastic as an explosion. Horse tracks. Dozens of them. And they were getting louder and louder by the second.