Valhalla
Page 54
* * *
The bulldozer lurched over pulverized tree branches. Managarm gripped the bottom of the seat to keep from sliding around the cab as David ground the machine’s gears.
“I’d like to get there in one piece,” Managarm growled, but he’d scarcely gotten the words out when a crash of thunder rolled across the sky. Managarm leaned forward, trying to look up through the cab’s windows, just as a crossbow bolt came flying through the air and crashed into the windshield.
Managarm jumped back in his seat, staring at the arrow point lodged in the glass that had been just inches from his face. He grabbed the radio and pressed the call button. “Rita! Report!” he shouted. There was no response. “Rita! I need to know what’s going on.” Still nothing.
With an apologetic shrug, David took the radio out of Managarm’s hands, turned the power on, and handed it back to him.
Managarm glared. He depressed the radio’s talk button and glanced out the window at several of his Berserkers sitting on the ground, stunned, as the bulldozers rolled by. “Rita! What’s happening up there?”
The radio erupted with a blast of static and confused voices.
“I don’t know what else to do!” Managarm heard Peter shout from the lead bulldozer where he sat with Rita. The sound of the dozer’s large engine screeching and clattering squealed over the radio, and then fell silent.
“I don’t know what’s wrong!” Peter shouted again. Managarm could hear the grinding of dead gears and fists pounding on the controls.
“Oh, I don’t believe this . . .” Rita’s voice trailed off.
“RITA!” Managarm screeched.
“Yeah, we’re at a standstill. All three bulldozers in the lead just sort of conked out,” she replied more calmly. “We’re trying to figure out what’s gone wrong—”
“Look!” Peter shouted beside her.
Managarm glared at the radio for several tense seconds, wondering what in the world was happening on his front line.
“Holy cow!” Rita practically whispered. “She’s alive! The Moon Witch is alive!”
“WHAT?!” Managarm tried to leap to his feet and smacked his head on the top of the cab. “Impostor!” he screamed into the radio. “It’s a trick! Take her out, now!”