The Steam-Powered Sniper in the City of Broken Bridges by Cassandra Duffy

Author:Cassandra Duffy [Duffy, Cassandra]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 1477509372
Amazon: B008741XXY
Publisher: Day Moon Press
Published: 2012-05-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20:

Found Beyond the Vale.

Claudia stood on the other side of the line for a moment, mostly to catch her breath, but also to collect her thoughts. The sun dropped swiftly in the west, casting the last of the light of the day across the hills, creating long shadows of the smoke. If it was just a raid, she could find another tractor to return on. If it was more than a raid, as she supposed it to be, the Slark line likely stretched quite a ways in either direction. Alfie had said the coast was to the west and the freeway to the east. The freeway and the ruins of San Mateo likely had traffic of Slark and probably mutants, but the coast could be rocky and impassible if she didn’t know the way, and she didn’t. Plus, if the setting sun was at her back, she’d be harder to spot by any Slark she came up on. East was the best of two iffy options.

She took off at a light jog, rifle slung across her back. Her stamina in running, which used to be marvelous, was long gone from easy months and whatever damage she’d done to her lungs from the radioactive dust in Yuba City. She was walking soon, slowing even further when she started spotting the spires of unburned lasher trees. She considered briefly heading into the woods, but with twilight coming on fast, she suspected it would be a fantastic way to have all her limbs torn from her body by an unseen lasher tree that could be as tall as redwoods by now for all anyone knew.

Toward the top of the highest hill in the area, which took nearly everything she had to climb, she turned back to look down on the grasslands behind her that were nearly fully engulfed in flames and smoke. The already burned areas were scorched, black smudges across the landscape. A light wind had turned the fire to the west, further supporting her already made decision to head east. She was glad for the bit of luck for her fleeing men that they at least wouldn’t be pursued by the fire and even happier that the western edge of the Slark line would likely burn or have to retreat for a time.

Gunfire and shouting drew her away from her inspection of the inadvertently brilliant fire the Hungarian brothers started. She was well away from the tree line now without much cover. She crouched low in the grass and snuck up over the crest of the hill. With any luck, anyone in the vale below wouldn’t be able to see her with the setting sun fully at her back. She knelt at the apex and slid her rifle from her back to look through the scope. She spotted the Slark first, running in their strange gait after something that clearly had them confused and disorganized. Two of them ran past a lasher sapling and for some reason the tree opened

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