...And Everything in Between

She didn't dream of Flagg after that night. She joined the grave digging team and helped haul bodies alongside her husband. Occasionally, she was with the teams that greeted new arrivals.

"Welcome to Boulder," Ralph said to the couple they were approaching. Landi's guts were in knots, something about this setup didn't sit well with her. She followed the farmer though.

"M-my name is Amy Baularo," the pale woman said. Her face had a couple of old bruises on it, and her lip was swollen, but she smiled at the two kindly.

"I'm Tyrone Simmons," the dark-skinned man she was with said smoothly. "Don't mind Amy, there. She don't always know her place."

"Is that supposed to be an excuse to beat her?" Landi growled. He approached her fast and growled when she didn't flinch or back away.

"You'd better watch your mouth, bitch. Flagg said he don't need you anymore, so you're free game. I can show you what a real man is like, instead of that honky deafmute you hooked up with."

"Why did you even come here if you were just planning to go to Vegas?" she spat at him.

"I came here to get one up on the boss man. If I show up with you as my bitch, he'll know I beat him. He'll have to take me into his inner circle!" A crow cawed overhead and he ducked in fear.

"If you want so much to be in his inner circle, why are you cringing at his feet?" The man slapped her and was surprised when spun on the floor and took his feet out from under him. She then kicked him in the face and backed off into a fighting stance.

Tyrone spat out a tooth and climbed to his feet slowly, glaring at her in equal parts fury and fear. "Bitch! You broke my nose! You ruined my perfect smile!"

"I'll break a lot more than that if you don't get the fuck out of here," she shouted, keeping her guard up just like her father had taught her. He went to punch her and a bullet pierced his fist. He screamed and both combatants looked over to see Nick standing with a gun trained on the newcomer.

"I see how it is," the man said, backing away. "You gonna protect this uppity bitch from Flagg's wrath, right? Well, you'd better watch yo back! The Dark Man'll have this bitch and you-"

"Keep walking. If the Dark Man could do anything to me, he wouldn't be sending fourth-rate little pissants like you after me," she said, still in a fighter's stance. "Take your bile to Vegas where it belongs."

He turned away from the bitch and glared at his woman, his eyes narrowing when she stayed frozen in place. He walked a little, holding his bleeding hand to him. Tyrone turned around to deliver a truly devastating parting shot and caught a bullet in the brain courtesy of the deafmute. He went down immediately. Amy screamed and ran to him.

"You killed him! God, you people killed him!" she cried, holding the dead body to her and sobbing.

Nick came up to his bride and she clung to him as he held her. He looked her over carefully.

"I'm okay." she said with a shake of her head. "I was taught how to deal with scum like that."

"He's dead," Amy cried miserably.

"Yes, he's dead," Yolanda said, approaching her. "He attacked me. From the looks of you, he's been beating the crap out of you. He threatened to force himself on me and worse, then present me to the Dark Man as a trophy. Of course we killed him!" Amy shook her head and sobbed more.

"He could be sweet sometimes," she said softly, touching what was left of his curly hair. "You have to help me bury him."

"Rapists and abusers don't get burials around here. Kick him over the cliff," Landi said cruelly. She was still rubbing her face where he'd slapped her. No one slapped her and got away with it! Nick put a staying hand on her shoulder and approached the battered woman. He knelt before her, putting his hand over his heart and pointing to the town. She clutched the dead body to her.

"Are you gonna k-kill me too?" she asked hysterically.

"Of course not," Landi said in annoyance. "It's not that kind of town. Come meet Mother Abigail. She can-" Amy surged forward and grabbed Nick's gun from where he'd had it in the front of his pants. She backed out from under Tyrone's dead body and aimed at the man that had murdered her man. Nick put his hands up and backed away from her.

"You people killed my protector! You were supposed to be good guys, but you killed him in cold blood. Who's going to protect me now? Tyrone was a little heavy-handed sometimes, but he was the nicest of the bad guys. I'm all alone now!" She turned the gun on herself before anyone could stop her and pulled the trigger. Nick grabbed the gun as she was falling to the ground. He looked at her in sympathy. Her last few sentences had said a lot about the life she'd lived since the end of the world. And possibly her life before it. A warm hand was on his shoulder where he'd gone cold in the afternoon sun.

"There was nothing you could have done to save her," Landi said gently. "That woman had been abused to the point that she identified with her abusers more than with herself. I don't think she knew how to be anyone without Tyrone. It wasn't your fault." He nodded and stood up from the ground. "We should… We should clean up this mess." Landi went to the woman's corpse and set it up, preparing to drag it off the road. What was left of its head turned to her and spoke.

"Did you think I had forgotten you, little one?" The corpses began giggling demonically. Landi scrambled back away from the woman she'd been about to pick up. Two more bullets - one in each head - ended the macabre display.

"Well, fuck that noise! We can leave 'em for the crows," she whimpered. She stood up and chafed her arms. There was brain matter in her braids now; she'd have to wash her hair again. But she tended to wash it daily anyway from the work she did. Ralph came over to check on her, so they both saw Nick's note.

What did they say?

Ralph and Landi exchanged worried looks and the farmer answered as she started kicking the bodies over the cliff.

"They said 'did you think I had forgotten you, little one?'. And they sounded like Flagg when they said it." Nick turned away and stomped. Landi personally thought that a well-placed curse was in order, but expletives were a little beyond her husband. She shrugged at Ralph and continued her mission. When she was finished, Nick handed her a paper towel to get the brain matter out of her hair. She tried a smile on, but the look on his face said that she hadn't quite made it, so she stopped with a gusty sigh.

"Two dead bodies just to send a message," she said, wiping her eyes with her shirt sleeve. He put his hands on her shoulders and looked deep into her eyes. Even through her distress, she felt her heart flip at how devastatingly handsome he was. That look deserved a response though.

"Oh, don't think for a moment that that asshole didn't send those two here to scare me! Probably put the delusions of grandeur in Tyrone's stupid head himself and poor Amy just got caught in the middle." Nick kissed her just the way she liked, hot and wet and deep until she relaxed in his arms. When she raised passion-glazed eyes to him, he handed her a note.

So, no more Greeter duties for you, little one. I don't think I could handle another episode like this one. You're beautiful, by the way. Even with brains in your hair.

Landi looked at him skeptically. "I have to wash my hair again. But I'm about due for a touch-up to my braids anyway. That means I have to go into seclusion until I finish."

Why's that?

"Because I look funny with my hair all up in clips and soaking wet," she said. He smiled at her in that way that made her melt and thank God that he was hers.

Maybe I'll take pictures.

"You wouldn't dare," she gasped, almost red from the idea of people seeing her in the middle of doing her hair. She pushed at him, but he dodged. She chased him around until Nick seemed to decide he'd had enough. He started moving away from the cliff face, then grabbed her and kissed her senseless.

"I uh… I called in the incident. Stu seems to think it would be best if Landi here didn't greet anymore."

"Yeah," she sighed. "Nick just said the same thing. I'll make myself useful on body detail. After I get that woman's brains out of my hair. I think I've had enough 'fun' for the day."

"That's probably for the best," the farmer nodded.

This is a transitional chapter. I'll get back to the main story next chapter, but I wanted to show a little of the aftermath of Landi's decision to marry Nick. See ya next chapter! Reviews are loved ^_^