Early Byrd by Phil Geusz

Author:Phil Geusz
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: adventure, guns, aliens, space, first contact, postapocalyptic, rebellion, phil, geusz, artemu

15

Tim continued to drool and retch as we made our way back up the tunnels to the entrance. That had to be distracting for him, so I looked things over twice as closely to make up for his inattention. Where the tunnel branches came together, I carefully attempted to go the wrong way.

"No, Robert," Yukon urged. "That's a dead end, and there're dangerous places too. It's not like this part we've fixed up."

"And this way?" I asked, keeping my tone as innocent as possible while pointing down another passage.

"Don't you worry about that one," Yukon answered, his eyes hardening. And just like that, I knew where all the really important stuff was located. Including, more likely than not, Rapput and Li.

The anteroom—the above-ground part of the complex which was all that showed from the outside—still housed two armed guards, and I gulped. They weren't the same two we'd seen earlier, so therefore I was forced to raise our enemy count to at least seven. Seven was a lot more than five, in practical terms at least. But what could we do? Rapput and Li had to be sinking every hour.

"Call of nature, gentlemen," Yukon explained to the guards. Then he pointed to Tim. "Plus this one isn't feeling well. We could be out a little longer than normal."

"Right, boss," the larger of the two agreed with a slight nod. His face was mostly covered by both a shaggy red beard. "Standard password?"

"Yes," Yukon agreed with a final nod. Then he leaned on the door. It swung open . . .

. . . and the prettiest, most inviting beam of sunlight I'd ever seen came pouring in through. A bird was singing, and the nearby river burbled and gurgled mere yards away. The cabin would've been a really nice place to relax and hunt or fish from under other circumstances.

Yukon nudged me forward. "Follow the path."

I nodded and went first, even though where I really wanted to be was behind him. "Wow!" I said, looking around. "Where are all the animals?"

"Oh," Yukon replied with a smile. "They're around. It's not like you see on the cartoons, though, where they just walk up to you and act cute. In real life they hide as much as they can from humans and aren't usually nice at all." He hefted the super-short pump-action shotgun he kept eternally slung on his left shoulder. "Bears can especially be a problem up here. That's why you should never visit the latrine without a guard carrying one of these."

"I can shoot!" I countered. "I have a BB gun!"

"Heh!" he replied. "Well, that's a start!"

The outhouse was a two-holer, and Tim was still gagging and choking as Yukon opened the door for him. So I stepped closer and examined Yukon's weapon more carefully. "Is that a rifle?" I asked at last. "Or a machine-gun?"

"Not exactly," he began. "In fact..."

I was still listening to the technical details with wide-eyed attention when Tim screamed like a little girl. "Eeeee! Help meI

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