Read Alexa's Travels: A Prelude for Free Online

formation, waiting.
    After only another few seconds, she looked as if nothing had happened - even the torn shirt was mended - and Alexa glanced at each of them with an expressionless face that held no trace of the Demon lurking inside.
    “I go on.”
    Edward spoke for them all, in awe of her, “As do we.”

Four
     
    1
    The mountains loomed near enough to touch, and the group stayed alert as they entered the clearing from the main road, already finding signs.
    Rotting tires, trash, and tents molded to tree trunks gave them plenty to look at, and yet, in their hearts, each of Alexa’s men knew these people were long gone. The ocean was close enough for them to smell the salt in the wind. If there were survivors nearby, they would be able to hear them, see the smoke from their fires. There was no Safe Haven here.
    They found what was left easily. The base of the mountains had once held thick forests of lush trees, but now, only dead, brittle trunks rose from the sandy ground. No grass or anything green remained, and their view was unblocked.
    “They fled.”
    Alexa nodded at Billy’s comment, “See the pall in the air? They had no choice.”
    The refugee camp was spread out in front of the cave entrance where cords still swung in the heavy wind, their light bulbs absent. The doorway they had once lit was dark and empty, as was the rest of the camp.
    The weary travelers saw boxes of dust-covered supplies next to rusting animal pens, many with graying skeletons inside. There were personal items set up for use, construction equipment covered in grit, and even spotlights still plugged into huge generators hung from poles staked deep into the ground. These people had left everything, and that only happened while running for your life.
    Alexa moved away from her men, “Find the message. Spread out… and watch your six.”
    They moved with space between them, trying not to let tent poles and dusty equipment block their view of each other. Pieces of debris moved with the wind, and each of them walked with their hands ready.
    “There. Left side of the cave,” Daniel called.
    The men gathered around the sign with a calmness that belied pounding hearts. Was their quest now over? Would she leave them? Could they let her go without trying to follow?
     
    Radiation Zone! Get out!
    And below that, in hastily chiseled letters, was what Alexa had come for, what deep down, even before finding the notebook, she’d known.
    7/2013
    Pitcairn Island
    60 Lat, 120 long.
    Pitcairn Island… Safe Haven had gone on that merciless ocean.
    The silence was thick as each of her men considered what that meant. Nothing had halted their mission thus far, not storms or fires or even the wolves they’d had to fight their way through in the bloody fields of Nebraska. Alexa was as relentless as the ocean itself.
    The woman surveyed their surroundings, again seeing the mutations and areas of poison. This land was contaminated. No true life would grow here, and really, was there any other choice? She’d spent her life following him. She would not stop now.
    As if in reward for her indifference and determination, the wind shifted, and all of them were suddenly seeing a different refugee camp. No longer was it lifeless!
    The ghosts of people past swam into hazy view, becoming clearer, sharper, and each of the fighters stared, spellbound, at what they’d come for… Safe Haven.
     
    2
    The dust storm bore down on the refugee camp like a swarm of insects, first invading with fierce winds that ripped tent pegs from the ground and then hitting them with a thick wave of sand and grit that blanketed everything.
    The sky darkened as it neared and then turned almost black as it came over the last ridge, swarming over the land and farms like darkfall, and they watched in amazement as huge parts of buildings were ripped away, sent flying.
    It raced toward Safe Haven like a missile looking for a target, and Adrian felt his stomach clench even as his heart thumped. He