Tears track down Katherine’s cheeks, and she dashes them away. “Jane, I cannot imagine what you have been through. But coming all this way, tracking down Gideon for revenge, it is—”
I shake my head, and it silences her. “Callie, she . . .” I consider telling them about the feelings between me and Callie, how close we’d grown over the past year, but I decide not to. Some things just ain’t for the telling, and even though Callie is gone, I want to keep the memory of our time together for myself. “She eventually tried to talk me out of it, said getting my revenge wouldn’t bring anyone back. And I know she has the right of it, but I can’t stop. I’m like poor Miss Duncan now, I have to just keep moving in that direction. Because if I don’t, I will just lie down and die from the despair of it all.”
“But what about your mother, Jane?” Katherine says. “The wagon train is going to Haven. That is the town in your momma’s letter! You managed to rendezvous with us against nigh on impossible odds. If that is not the workings of the good Lord, I do not know what is. It is obvious He would rather have you find your mother than Gideon Carr. There are always going to be bad men in this world, men who trample everyone in their path for whatever their foolish heart desires. But you cannot kill them all, Jane. Leave Gideon Carr to God, Jane, and see to the ones you love.”
I laugh, the sound hollow. I consider for a moment seeing my momma, filling her in on my adventures for the past few years. I’d embellish the tale, make myself a hero instead of the fallen woman I’ve become. It would be exploits of glory and derring-do, and I’d make it sound like a lark instead of a trial. She’d clap her hands with delight and be so proud of her daughter, a girl so audacious and refined that no one else could compare.
Just the thought of it is exhausting.
“I think that the good Lord might have his hands a bit full at the moment, and I am willing to step in and take up the burden. It’s the only thing I want now, to see Gideon finished, to see him realize that he is beaten. Besides, that girl is gone, Katherine. She died in Nicodemus. I’m a revenant now, and the only thing I want is to kill the man that murdered me before he can hurt any more people. Now, I think that’s enough talk of revenge for one day. Tell me how you all came to be in California.”
Katherine and Sue exchange a look before Katherine tells me of leaving Nicodemus and how her friend Carolina Jones had helped her, Sue, and Lily escape Fort Riley on the eve of her wedding.
“You ran across the prairie in a wedding dress?” I ask, because if anyone could do it, Katherine could.
“Well, we rode horses. Of course, the poor things were lost to the first pod of undead we ran across, but we escaped unscathed. Carolina said we should make our way west by boat—he had a lead on a sea captain looking to cater to a Negro clientele, and so we headed to New Orleans and stayed with some friends of mine.”
“So, is this Carolina sweet on you?” I say, asking the obvious question. It’s worth it for the horrified expression on Katherine’s face.
“What? No, absolutely not. Carolina does not prefer my type of company, if you know what I mean.”
“What, bossy?” I say, even though I know exactly what she means. She shoves me playfully, but just as quickly as it arrived, the moment is gone.
“So what happened to Callie?” Sue asks.
“She left me back in Monterey. She seems to have found some charity in her heart for murderers. Just not for me.” I’m surprised by the amount of hurt that comes through in my voice, and Katherine sighs.
“Oh, Jane,” she says, and I realize I’ve given away more than I wanted to.
“I ain’t seen Lily,” I say, deftly changing the course of the conversation.
“She’s around,” Katherine says, and now it’s her turn to sound guarded.
“She good?” I ask.
“As much as can be expected,” Sue says, and I get the feeling that there’s something they don’t want me to know.
Thankfully, people start screaming, distracting Katherine and Sue away from any more story time and halting any further potential for exploration of my feelings. But the shout that goes up ain’t any kind of good news.
“¡Casimuertos!” Tomás says, running toward us full tilt. “Miss Jane! ¡Casimuertos! They’re coming for us!”
The bounty and safety of the West has made clear that every good Christian should abandon the East, foresworn as it has become, and build a new Eden upon the prairie and the mountain, sharing the gospel with those who need it most.
—Pastor Jonathan Smith, 1870
—KATHERINE—
Chapter 36
Notes on a Troubling Sign
Jane’s small helper and scruffy dog run toward us, the dog barking excitedly and the little boy yelling in a mixture of English and Spanish.
“Hurry, hurry, Miss Jane! They’re in the river and coming right for us. There’s more than I’ve ever seen before!”
The poor child is wide-eyed and shaking with fear, but Jane is as calm as a sea captain navigating familiar waters. She directs the boy back toward the middle of the wagon train, giving him instructions in a low voice, as Sue and I draw our weapons and turn toward whence the boy came.
Our group had decided to take a route that paralleled the Sacramento River rather than the more direct roads. There were two reasons for that. First, because it was easier to make any long trip with a reliable source of drinking water nearby, and although steamships and barges navigated the Sacramento River, it was still potable. If our group had any kind of funds we could have made the entire trip via steamship, but walking was infinitely more affordable than negotiating passage with a boat captain. The second reason was that this route was much less traveled. Bandits and thieves worked the roads with higher traffic, and, generally speaking, when it came to traveling as a colored person, the less attention paid to your movements, the better.
Of course, none of that prudent planning is going to save us from a surprise encounter with the restless dead.
Jane keeps pace with Sue and me as we head toward the river, but our progress is stopped by Carolina and Juliet heading away from the direction the Californio boy indicated.
“There’s too many of them,” Carolina says. “I don’t know that the three of you will be able to put them down in a melee.”
“How many are we talking?” Jane asks, drawing her falchion. It’s a fine blade, and even Sue gives it an admiring glance as she readies her broadsword.
“At least fifty,” Juliet says, visibly rattled. “It’s the most I’ve ever seen in the entire time I’ve been here. The train will have to make a run for it.”
“Are they all in the river?” Sue asks.
Carolina nods. “I’m wondering if a ship was somehow infected and overrun upstream. Either way, once they make the bank they’ll be a real threat.”
“Keep the wagon train moving,” Jane says, and points northeast. “It looks like there’s a bend here. If you can get everyone past this spot, it should be clear upstream.”
She is right. The river travels quickly here, the water wide and deep, but its course makes a sharp turn, which the dead have bumped into in their trip downstream. I watch as a few wash up and scrabble out of the water, lurching through the reeds and bushes that grow thick along the bank.