Horrible Harvest

I looked to Felix and seen a stream of tears wash over his cheeks. I leant into him and whispered, “I told you to get, goddamn it. I told you plain as fucking day, go.”

“The throats, gentleman,” the captain said. “Slit the throats.”

“This one’s kicking up a fuss,” Evers said as he struggled to get Mr. Tanner under control. 

“Mr. Tanner, why are you fighting the inevitable?”

“Let my girls go.”

Captain Doc give a groan. “Fine. If you cease to struggle and stand placidly for your execution, I will let your daughters go.”

Mr. Tanner looked at the captain, not believing a goddamn word he said.

“On my honor as a Confederate officer, sir. They will be freed.”

Relief come to Mr. Tanner, and he stopped struggling against Evers’ grip. “Thank you, Captain.”

“Now, Mr. Hughes.”

Without nary a second of hesitation, Evers run his blade across Mr. Tanner’s neck, cutting him to the bone.

The girls shrieked. They was nothing but wailing bundles of terror and torment.

I let go my quarry and pulled Felix back.

“We are not done here, Mr. Jeffries, Mr. Tennyson.”

I turnt to him. “It’s done, sir. Man can’t get no deader.”

“It’s not done, corporal. The girls. They stand in wait for the completion of their sentences.”

“But you told their daddy – ”

“I told him a lie to calm him. I gifted him a moment of peace before his execution. Still, a lie is a lie. I suppose it is another sin for which I will seek forgiveness. The girls. On my mark.”

“No, sir. We’re done. You swore on your honor – ”

“Mr. Tennyson, if you refuse my order, you will face a firing squad upon our arrival back at camp – Mr. Jeffries, as well.”

“I’ll get it done, captain,” Evers said, wiping the blood from his blade with the tail of his jacket. “Ain’t no need to set none of us in front of no firing squad – ”

“Failure to follow orders and not do one’s duty is all the need that is required – ”

Felix give out a mad cry and thrust his knife into the neck of the girl standing in front of him.

Startled, Yates jumped and cut the throat of the girl who he’d been holding onto.

Captain Doc barked out, “On my mark – I said – I did not give the order – ”

The girl standing in front of me gasped. Her mouth grew slack, and she couldn’t draw in a clean breath. Her eyes met mine, and I could see her giving me a plea. I could feel it. She didn’t want to live no more. Grief and hate and fear had gobbled her up whole. She’d never know peace in this world again. Her family – All of’em was gone, and she wanted gone, too – To be with them. I moved in behind her, set the blade to her throat, and give her what she wanted.

“I did not give the order,” the captain repeated. “This was not my – Decorum, gentlemen. We must not abandon it. They were Southerners. They deserved death with dignity. We made a tragic mess of this execution.”

He said nothing about the slaves – the contraband being slaughtered at his back. Their screams and pleas and rage against their murders was nothing but noise to him. A nuisance. He considered not their dignity. Far as he was concerned, they had none to honor.