Chapter Twenty-Four
Their usual party of five set out for the
Campbell holding a bit before dawn. Veronica didn’t bother wearing
a bliaut this morning because, if worse came to worse, she didn’t
want to run into any issues over cumbersome clothing. The heavy
black cloak she wore over her Matrix attire was burdensome
enough, but with the snow still falling it was a current
necessity.
Victor had insisted upon joining her,
Lachlan, Finn, and Ramsay on the journey despite Veronica’s wishes
to the contrary. The entire reason she had traveled cross-country
from Los Angeles to Apple Creek had been to protect her brother.
Now here he was putting himself in harm’s way in what could turn
out to be an all too familiar situation. She didn’t speak to Victor
for a good hour into their ride.
“Come on, Nica,” he said, riding his own
horse this time like she was. Luckily they had grown up in the
country so both of them were great equestrians. They weren’t used
to riding for hours on end, but they’d make do. “You never know
what can happen. Maybe the virus underwent a metamorphosis just
like it did in the future or maybe it didn’t. I need to be there in
case it did.”
“What will you do if it did?”
“I don’t know yet. I need to be there to
assess the situation.”
“It’s my job to protect you,” Veronica
ground out. “It always has been. Your life means more to humanity
than mine does.”
Victor sucked in his breath. Lachlan’s eyes
widened at her words. Even Finn and Ramsay glanced over to her with
worried looks.
“Do you really believe that?” her brother
asked.
Her jaw was firm. “I do.”
“How can you say that, wife?” Lachlan
angrily asked. “Your life means everrathing.”
“Not compared to Victor’s.”
“Who told you that bullshit?” Victor
demanded. She wasn’t accustomed to her brother showing his temper
so it took her somewhat aback. “Who?”
“Mom,” she quietly admitted.
Silence.
“Nica…”
“It’s okay, Victor. I understand my role. I
always have. I was born to keep you alive so you can continue your
work and expand humanity’s knowledge.”
“I feel like I’m going to vomit. I can’t
believe mom would say that to you.”
“She didn’t. At least not outright. It was
just something I picked up on from a very young age.”
Veronica’s life flashed before her mind’s
eye. Their mother had loved them both, yes, but she’d also made it
obvious by her constant bragging on Victor’s educational
accomplishments that her baby brother was intrinsically more worthy
than his older sister. Knowledge meant everything to their
scientist mother and was the standard by which she cast her
opinions on a person’s value. She had likely felt it was their
father’s duty to protect her and Veronica’s obligation to caretake
for her brother. It’s just the way it was. Everybody had their
place.
“Nica, whatever mom did or didn’t do—said or
failed to say—she was incredibly proud of you and understood your
value.” When she said nothing to that, he plowed on. “For whatever
it’s worth, I always felt like I could never live up to the
standards set by my big sister in dad’s eyes.”
“That’s crazy,” Veronica insisted. “Daddy
knew your value. It was the same as mine, just different.”
“And mom understood that as well. I know
that to be a fact. She always raved about your talent concerning
everything from the martial arts to target shooting. Well, come to
think of it, she raved behind your back rather than to your face,
but rave she did.”
“Really?” Veronica’s heart stirred in her
chest. “She did that?”
“Yeah. All the time.”
She smiled. The newfound knowledge meant
everything to her. “Daddy did the same about you. He always said
you would change the world.”
“He did?”
“Pinky swear.”
Victor grinned. “Then I guess we’ve both
been carrying around misconceptions since childhood.”
“It appears we have.”
“’Tis happy I am you have set the other
straight,” Lachlan growled. “Never let me hear you speak thusly
again, wife.”
Veronica looked over to him and searched his
face. “I’m sorry. I won’t.”
He grunted, but looked appeased. “Leastways,
we shall take a break at our usual resting place betwixt the groves
of trees. We are but an hour’s ride from the Campbell holding now
so whoever needs must piss you are to do so afore we arrive.”
“I dinna ken if I can,” Finn said, pulling
his cloak tighter. A braided lock of black hair showed from under
his hood. “’Tis nigh unto as cold as a witch’s tit out here.”
Veronica grinned at him for the first time
since his faux pas at supper. He grinned back, looking reassured by
the fact she was acknowledging his presence once again.
As it turned out, Finn was able to relieve
himself despite his fears to the contrary. Sitting on a felled tree
stump next to Lachlan, she looked away from the peeing warrior and
toward the horses drinking from a stream that hadn’t completely
iced over yet. She absently handed her husband a wedge of cheese
Maisie had packed for them. Lachlan thanked her and made the wedge
disappear in two bites.
“Have you any more wedges?” he asked while
still eating the last bite. “Other than the one for yourself?”
She fished out another wedge. The smallest
of things made her husband content. “Sure do.”
He held her hand overlong when she handed
him the wedge. “’Tis glad I am Victor found me that I could find
you.”
Lachlan always knew just what to say. Better
yet, she recognized the sincerity of his claim. She loved him.
Completely and hopelessly. “Me too.” She placed her head against
his shoulder and sighed. “Me too.”
*****
During the final hour’s ride, Lachlan
couldna take his gaze from his wife o’er long. In truth, she had
nigh unto broken his heart when she’d matter-of-factly insisted
that Victor’s life meant more than her own. Dinna the woman ken how
much she meant to him? Hell, how much she meant to so many, Victor
included? He prayed to the saints she understood it now that she
and her brother had gotten everything out.
In truth, he kenned his thoughts should be
on the Campbell holding and what they might find there, yet they
kept straying back to his wife. He dinna want her here anymore than
she wished for Victor to be in their party. The thought—the
hope—that she might be with child was at the root of his
hesitation. He knew verra little aboot pregnant wives, which left
him feeling unsettled.
Resigned, Lachlan acknowledged that Veronica
would never agree to stay out of the fray if it came to that.
Praise the saints his sword arm had never been better honed and
ready to strike. As he had vowed to his wife, he was wearing
leather braies and his arm bangles. His wife had warned him ‘twas
the arms and the legs an eater went for first for reasons
unbeknownst to her.
His memory returned to the eve prior when
first Veronica had told Lachlan of her love for him. Nay, he
couldna lose that love now. ‘Twould be a grief from which there was
no recovery. Somehow, someway, they had been destined for each
other. He kenned that now. Mayhap he always had.
Lachlan forced his thoughts back to the
mission at hand. He wanted to believe ‘twas the snow that had kept
Douglass and Cameron from returning to the Gunns, yet their party
was managing to traverse it with little fanfare. The snow was still
falling in billowy clouds all aboot them, yet the ride was taking
slightly less than an hour longer than what was considered normal
for getting to the Campbells.
Lachlan sighed. He dinna have a care for
this. Not at all.
*****
By the time they reached the Campbell
holding it was clear that something had gone horribly wrong here.
Veronica palmed one of her guns and kept the others in her satchel.
Grenades were strapped onto her belt, a sword and machete in her
bag. She had knives concealed in the sides of both her boots.
Thinking more on it, she bent down and enabled the mechanism that
put her boots into auto-activation mode; now blades would spike out
of her heels when and if she lifted a foot to kick.
All the men save Victor drew their swords as
they entered Campbell lands. For as far as the eye could see there
was smoke plumes and eerie silence in the village whose huts lay
scattered around the base of the Campbell keep. She realized this
was definitely not a good sign. She’d seen this many times in the
future, just with modern domiciles in lieu of huts.
“It’s been abandoned,” Veronica murmured to
Lachlan. “It looks like the villagers took shelter elsewhere.”
“Mayhap within the keep’s courtyard,” Finn
pointed out. “I can see from here that the portcullis has been
lowered.”
“Aye, I see it too,” Lachlan softly
concurred. “I also see men atop the battlements.”
“Oh boy. And I thought I needed to come
here,” Victor muttered.
Veronica turned to look at him. “Second
thoughts?”
“And third and fourth and fifth.”
“’Tis too late now,” Lachlan harshly
whispered. “Stay near to Finn.” He frowned. “And dinna get
bitten.”
“That’s excellent advice,” Victor rasped.
“Damn, but I’m a fucking idiot. If I don’t make it out, be certain
Catriona knows how much I love her.”
“Don’t talk like that!” Veronica chastised.
“Just keep your eyes and ears open. You’ll—”
The first eater lunged at Veronica’s leg
from seemingly out of nowhere. She did a roundhouse kick with her
left leg and foot, slitting the infected’s throat in the doing. She
then aimed her gun and shot the thing through the forehead to be on
the safe side. It fell before it could reach her, but not before
her adrenaline spiked. She could feel her heart beating out of her
chest, the thumping of blood in her ears.
She saw Lachlan’s jaw tighten. “Should we
dismount or will they wish to eat the horses too?”
“Dismount,” Veronica said. “They don’t want
the horses, only us.”
The group took to their feet, but didn’t tie
the horses down to a hitching post. They let them wander freely in
case they felt the need to bolt. Veronica worried over the