Deathlands 46 Gemini Rising by James Axler

Author:James Axler [Axler, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-03-28T20:22:07+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Clouds of acrid smoke drifted over the battlefield at BullRun ville. The dead

and the dying lay everywhere, destroyed wags and crushed horses burning under

the fiery sky. Even the fortress itself, barely visible above the line of trees

separating the ville from the war zone, had several large holes punched through

its thick granite walls.

Standing amid the destruction, a large blond woman in ripped Army fatigues dug

loose 5.56 mm rounds from her shoulder bag and hastily thumbed the bullets into

the exhausted clip of her repaired military blaster. When it was full, she

grabbed the M-16 leaning against her leg, slammed in the clip and worked the

bolt with practiced ease.

The predark M-16 was a mismatch. The barrel came off an MR-4, the recoil spring

was cut down from a Stoner, the carrying strap made of horsehide and the

replacement stock hand carved by a local carpenter. But the deadly blaster

functioned smoothly, and that was the most important thing.

Blinking the sweat from her eyes, Baron Susan Markham started to walk through

the destroyed cornfield. Dead sec men and residents lay everywhere, many of them

missing arms or legs. She wanted to avert her eyes, but forced herself to look

at each and every one of them. These were her people, and their deaths were a

personal matter.

Scattered among the locals were the dozens upon dozens of Oriental men dressed

in black. Even their faces had been masked, leaving only a tiny slit for them to

see through.

"Baron!" someone called.

Susan spun on a heel, and exhaustion almost made her fire purely on reflex.

"Chatty, is that you?" the baron demanded.

Out of the billowing clouds came a small man wearing a garage mechanic's

jumpsuit, the loose pant legs tucked into hiking boots. A bloody tourniquet was

wrapped around his right arm, the hand tucked into his belt to keep it still.

Fresh blood trickled down his cheek from a shallow gash in his scalp. The

leather bandolier crossing his chest was empty of rounds, the knife sheath at

his hip empty and the staggering man carried a shotgun with a bent barrel. But

he was still standing and seemed fiercely proud of the fact.

"Did we get him?" the baron asked anxiously.

Sec chief Charles Chattington nodded wearily. "The bear traps we laid killed his

horse, and the archers put enough shafts into him for us to use the bastard as

kindling."

"What about the bomb he was carrying, that satchel thing? I heard a blast, but

it sounded distant, muffled."

"It was. We sank a butcher's hook into the samurai, tied it to the saddle of a

horse and whipped the beast until it galloped off a ravine. Hell of an

explosion."

"Hell of a fight. How did that happen?" the baron asked, gesturing at his broken

blaster.

"I found one of our sec men wearing their black, figured he must be the traitor

and decided to convince him what a bad idea it had been to rat us out," Charles

said. With an effort of will, he forced his fingers apart and the weapon dropped

to the ground with a clatter. "Take my word on it. The matter is settled."

"Good," the baron said, handing him the reloaded M-16 hybrid.

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