Scoundrels' Jig (The Chronicles of Eridia)
Page 35
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John Grommet was the next to arrive in Ghost Gulch. He was caked in dirt, bruised over ninety percent of his body, and his clothes were torn to shreds. He had lost his right boot and the sole of his bare foot was raw and bloody from his long trek through Umperskap and Dead Man’s Wood.
Despite all this, his determination to see his mission through remained firm. He had to help his poor mother, avenge poor Rosabelle, and teach that bastard Bastard Jack a little something about justice and rightness. And he would do it. He knew he would. He was a good man, trying to do good things, and his mother had always told him that even though bad things sometimes happen to good people, the good people always win in the end because goodness trumped everything else in the universe.
He was walking along thinking these thoughts when he spotted the Zombie Hill Boys up ahead. Their backs were to him as they eyed the still, silent robot and conferred quietly among themselves, apparently making plans.
John ducked behind a boulder and watched them while they talked. After a few minutes they split up, Daddy Vermin heading left, the rest right. As they advanced toward the robot in this pincer-like fashion, John crept forward from boulder to boulder, maintaining a constant distance behind them.
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Behind him crept the gorgim—Slobog, Hetchiglingum, Gojan, and their leader General Blood. They had arrived shortly after John, spotted him watching the Zombie Hill Boys watching the robot, and quickly decided to sit back and let the idiot humans engage the metal creature and whatever else might be guarding the buildings. Then they would pick off whoever was left standing.