"See anything?" Bili asked.
We all shook our heads 'no'.
"Okay, let's go," he said and we started heading east, staying off the streets and moving through the ruined backyards of the houses, using the cover of the trees. A moment later I large shadow passed overhead and I looked up, one of the dragons was circling, high above.
"They're looking for us," I grunted.
Bili stopped and glanced up, from under a tree. "Good, guess they got the message then."
"Looks like," I said and continued on.
Ten minutes later, Bili signaled us to stop. We were behind a building that was still standing, mostly.
"Okay, everybody gather round and make it look like we're arguing," Bili said. "Keep your ears open, I suspect we'll hear something."
We did as he said; I made a few arm gestures and pointed north, while he pointed east and one of the others waved towards the west. But we didn't say a word, just listened.
And then we head it, people running.
"Okay, let's move," Bili said and we started on the first of the attempts to circle around the incoming enemy troops, who suddenly got very quiet.
"They know we heard them," I said.
"Yeah, the shooting will probably start anytime now," Bili agreed.
As soon as we started to turn north, they opened fire on us.
We turned and ran south a block, then cut east again, and started trying to circle around. We didn't even make it to the point Bili had marked when we ran into even stiffer opposition.
"Damn, they're really afraid of us!" I said as I started to return fire.
"Hell," Bili swore, "Run for it!" he said and we turned and all five of us ran off down the road, as fast as we could.
"Duck!" Came over my headset, and I hit the ground, the others all following and a dark shape swooped over us, a set of wicked looking talons hitting the pavement just ahead of me.
I rolled over and fired a burst at it, all of the others doing the same, as it banked away with a loud screech.
"Up, keep going," I yelled and this time I ran for a building, the others following as we took cover.
"That didn't work as well as I thought it would," Bili grunted, while we all caught our breath.
"Well hopefully we hurt it enough that it won't get so close next time," Goma laughed.
I looked out the front of the building, there were orc troops trotting down the street after us. I opened fire with my gauss rifle, and swept the muzzle back and forth a few times, burning a full magazine and dropping several of the orcs while the rest scattered.
"Time to play hide and seek," I said and we ran out the back, and continued our retreat, only a little slower now.
We spent the next twenty minutes engaging in small firefights when suddenly Goma dropped to the ground, she'd been shot in the leg.
"Shit," Goma swore and Gimgin picked her up and threw her over his back.
"Simri, you're with Paul now," Bili ordered and we moved off again, with Goma taking pot shots from Gimgin's back as he carried her, along with the half dozen rockets he had slung there.
The next place we stopped I looked out the window, panting, they were still coming on. I grabbed one of the rockets that Goma had and pulling the arming pin, I extended the tube, aimed it at a large giant that was in the front lines of the enemy and pulling the trigger I damn near cheered when it hit his chest armor and blew a hole right through him.
Simri stepped out then and let off a long burst and the front rank went down, but they weren't slowing down, they were maybe a hundred yards.
"Everybody, run for your lives!" Bili screamed and I took off west with Simri hot on my tail, while the others ran to the south.
I had no idea where we were in town now, I'd lost track of that some minutes ago. We'd run for thirty seconds, stop and fire a burst to scatter them, then run for another thirty, and do it again. We did this four times, and on the fifth one, Simri pulled off one of his rockets and fired it instead.
That made them pause for a moment, but they were fifty yards away at that point and we came to an open field. I almost swore, but as we ran out onto it, rockets started to rain in from the south east of us, as well as rifle fire. Bili must have gotten to the vantage point he wanted, and the others were pouring it on as the enemy exposed itself on the field.
The orcs ducked to the south, still chasing, but getting some cover from the fire, and I turned northwest slightly and opened up a bigger lead on them. I started to hear something beeping, and it was getting louder as I ran.
"Drop the pack!"
"Huh?" I said and I saw Coyote was running next to me.
"Paul, drop the pack! Drop it, Now!"
I didn't think to ask him why the hell he was telling me this now, so I just dumped it off my back, happy to be ten pounds lighter as the beeping receded.
"Paul!" I suddenly heard Simri yell, "You dropped it!"
"Leave it!" I yelled at him, and looking over my shoulder I saw he had scooped it up with his left hand and was holding it in the air, like a trophy for all to see.
"LEAVE IT!" I yelled, and just then, a dragon came swooping down out of the air. I could see it was taking fire, bullets were deflecting off it from the rear, I guess the gauss rifle couldn't punch through the scales at range. It was also taking fire down its back, but those shots were slow and measured. Each one left a little mark in the scales along the back, but I guess it was thicker there, because none seemed to be going through.
I watched as it opened its mouth and I started to dive out of the way, but it wasn't about to breath. Instead it snapped its muzzle over the backpack, as well as the end of Simri's arm.
It started to drag Simri along then, until I heard a loud 'snap' and Simri fell to the ground, blood welling from the stump of his arm. The dragon pulled up then and did a roll to the right, no doubt trying to get away from all the shots that were hitting it.
And then its head exploded with a loud bang, a big flash, and one hell of a lot of smoke.
Everything stopped. And I mean everything. The orcs were all just looking at it as they skidded to a halt. The dragon's body tumbled through the air, a lifeless hulk now, and then crashed into a bunch of buildings, a cloud of dust.
Simri scrambled to his feet, clutching his stump and started to run again, using his remaining hand to pull the sleeve down and twisting it to cut off the bleeding.
"Run you idiot!" he hissed at me as he went by.
I looked at the orcs, and they looked at me.
"That was the grenade bag!" I said and pointed to the other one on my back, "This is the bomb! Stupid dragon!" I yelled and ran off after Simri, quickly catching up with him.
"Think they bought it?" I asked, panting.
He looked behind him, "Oh yeah, they bought it."
We dashed across a main road then, and I realized we'd made it to McCarran. Now if we could just get them to stop chasing us, everything would be fine.
I heard a very loud 'whoosh' then and glancing behind me, I could see a wall of fire had suddenly sprung up, fifty feet into the air, up and down McCarran. I could hear the screams of the orcs as they plunged into it, unable to stop, their bodies burning as the magical fire stuck to them. Grabbing Simri's good arm, I helped him pick up the pace, looking left and right, for a sign, any kind of sign.
"This way!" I heard Heather yell, and turning to the north I saw her waving at me, with Sarah standing besides her holding my railgun.
I ran to them and they led us into a building, then Sarah put a tourniquet on Simri's arm while Heather and I guarded the door.
"What are you two doing down here?" I asked, still panting, "Aren't you supposed to be up on the hill?"
"What, no 'thank you for saving my ass,' Hon?" Heather teased.
"Thank you for saving my ass," I said and patted her on that nice butt of hers.
"We are protecting our investment," Sarah said, tying off the tourniquet.
"What the hell happened back there wit
h the dragon?" Heather demanded.
"Are we safe here?" Simri asked looking like he was about to pass out.
"Yes, they can not see us. I warded this place when I saw what direction you were headed," Sarah told him.
"Good," Simri said and passed out, falling back against the wall.
"So, what happened with the dragon?" Heather asked again.
I shook my head, "Damned if I know. Coyote told me to drop the thing, so I did. If Simri hadn't picked it up, he'd probably still have his arm."
"Well, he did kill the dragon with it," Heather chuckled.
"At the cost of his hand," I said shaking my head.
"Still, I'd love to know what happened."
"Riggs detonated it," Coyote said, suddenly sitting on the floor in the middle of the room.
"Wait, I thought that was a practice device?" I said.
"No, it was a simulator," Coyote corrected me.
"What's the difference?"
"A simulator has ten pounds of low grade explosives in that red cap on the top. They're meant to go off with a loud bang, a bright flash, and throw up a lot of smoke."
"But the counter on that should have had an hour to go!"
"Yes, but Riggs saw his opportunity and had already prepared his attack. He just needed everyone to see the cloud of smoke as the signal to start."
"If I had been wearing that, it would have killed me!" I gasped, rather shocked that Riggs had set me up like that.
"Oh, I suspect he thought you were already dead. Not that he would really have cared much either way. However he probably thought you had read the manual on it, and realized that once it started beeping, you had thirty seconds to get clear before the charge blew. If the cone hadn't been pointing back down towards the dragon's brains when it went off, it probably would have survived."
I shivered and thought about that.
"So we don't know for sure that Riggs was trying to kill him?" Heather said in a very unpleasant voice.
Coyote shrugged, "I can't be sure, but you have to understand that while Riggs is starting to respect Paul, he still is rather jealous of the fame Paul seems to be gaining. After all, he did maneuver the chief's son into committing suicide, even though the range on the bomb remotes was enough that he could have done it from a safe distance."
I shook my head, "And here I thought he was worried about Tse poisoning him."
"Riggs is immune to poison. Part and parcel of what the gods gave him. No, Tse's maneuvering and politicking was starting to detract from Riggs' own personal glory. Though to be totally honest, Tse did deserve what happened to him, even the gods were starting to become unhappy with his behavior."
"What about Riggs' behavior?" I asked.
Coyote laughed several of those bark-laughs of his; I could see he actually found it to be extremely funny.
"I told you Paul, we gods can be temperamental children! They see Riggs' behavior as perfectly normal and acceptable. Now, you all need to head back to camp, and get moving to the north. I want you to be ahead of the retreating orc army."
"What do I tell the others?" I asked.
"That you have another mission to do, of course."
And once again, he was gone.
"I swear I'm going to kill that Riggs!" Heather grumbled.
"And I am going to help you," Sarah said, surprising me and making Heather smile.
"Well, let's wait until he's defeated the enemy first, okay?" I told them and got out my canteen to take a drink.
"Is he still alive?" I asked, nodding towards Simri.
Sarah nodded, "I do not think I can wake him however, you are going to have to carry him."
"Ugh, he must weight a ton," I sighed, getting up and walking over to him.
"Hold still," Sarah said and then proceeded to cast some kind of spell that ended with her touching me on the nose. Suddenly I felt like I weighed absolutely nothing.
"What did you do?"
"Temporary strength enhancement. It will last long enough for us to get back to camp."
I reached down and grabbed Simri's good arm, and I was able to easily pick him up and sling him over my back in a fireman's carry. I handed his remaining rocket to Heather.
"Is the shooting done outside?"
"No, it's worse than before, but at least it's not near here," Heather said.
"Okay, you girls lead. Let's get out of here.
It took us two hours to get back to our camp. Meira and Lylor were still happily sniping away at the enemy from the rise until we got well past them, then they simply packed up shop and headed back to camp as well.
We got Simri settled down and he regained consciousness shortly after Meira and Lylor joined us.
"Did you see what happened to Bili and the others?" I asked Meira.
"Last I saw, they were headed south to hook up with the rest of the army that was coming north to block off the forces you drew out of the towers."
"How did that work out, by the way? Could you tell from where you were?"
"From what we could see, I think it worked. The army was coming up north rather quickly, and I suspect they blocked off the enemy. We shouldn't stay here, any enemy deserters fleeing the fight are likely to be heading this way."
I nodded; the girls had finished saddling up the horses.
"We have to head north; can you make sure Simri gets back okay?"
Meira nodded, "Another mission?"
"Yup, another mission."
Lylor looked over at Simri who was looking at the stump where his wrist used to be.
"I can't believe you sacrificed your wrist to kill a dragon," Lylor was telling him, "that took a lot of nerve."
Simri looked up at me and I smiled at him, "You did do it, so you might as well own it."
"Yeah, but it wasn't exactly what I was thinking at the time."
"It never is," I laughed, "it never is.
"We better get going." I said and I mounted my horse, both Sarah and Heather had already mounted theirs.
"Be well," I said and waved as we rode off.
- 21 -
We rode down out of the hills, found a good spot to cross the Truckee River fairly quickly, and then just went north until we hit the mountains, then east until we picked up the northern end of McCarran.
The entire time you could hear the fighting going on, but it was well to the south. Up here it was deserted. Any patrols or guards that there might have been, had either been recalled for the fighting, or had fled.
When we finally left McCarran and stuck off into the wilderness, I wasn't sure where we were going; I just had an urge for a direction to head in, so I did. The horses were fresh, and the ground was mostly rolling countryside, so we were able to ride them at a fairly brisk pace and keep it up until the sun finally began to set.
We found a nice sheltered spot a little ways up the side of one of the hills and made camp. We'd just finished dinner when I noticed Coyote was sitting there watching us.
"Now what?" I asked.
"The wizard Khasan managed to escape Reno."
"And that's a bad thing, how?" I asked.
"If he makes it back to Aybem's stronghold, Riggs may not be able to take it quickly when he finally marches on it. That could give Aybem's allies time to come to his aid."
"Okay," I nodded, "and just what do you want me to do about this?"
"The road he is retreating down just happens to be on the other side of this hill."
I sighed and looked at him, "You want me to take on a wizard? One that I suspect is incredibly powerful?"
"No, of course not," Coyote shook his head, "I want all three of you to do it."
"Wait, what?" I said looking at him; both Heather and Sarah were staring at him as well.
"He's exhausted right now, he burned up a good deal of his power escaping Reno and he's not in his tower, or a place of power."
"I could just shoot him," Heather said.
"Unfortunately no, he's in an APC," Coyote said.
I
looked over at Heather, "You still have that anti-tank rocket I handed you?"
She nodded, "Of course, Simri didn't need it anymore."
I turned back to Coyote, "How many men does he have with him?"
"He has fifteen with him. Eight are on horseback, the rest are in the APC with him."
"What is an APC?" Sarah asked.
"Armored Personnel Carrier," Heather and I said together.
"With any luck, the rocket will kill him," I said. "So how long before he shows up here?"
"About two hours."
"And how far behind him are Riggs' men?"
Coyote shook his head, "They're not. He got away clean. This wasn't supposed to happen, Khasan was not supposed to escape. There were something else I was going to have you do, but when I noticed this I had to change plans."
"What do you mean," Sarah asked, looking at him, "that this 'was not supposed to happen?'"
"It would seem that Khasan is stronger than any of the gods believed. I surmise that he must have found or discovered something during his time in Reno and has hidden it from us rather well. The only other way would be if someone was helping him in ways that none of us would appreciate."
"Us?" I asked.
"The other gods," Coyote said.
I just shook my head and looked at Sarah and Heather, "You two up for this?"
"I do not see how we have any other choice," Sarah sighed and got to her feet. "This war will not end until one side or the other is defeated, and I would rather it be theirs and not ours."
"Yeah, what Sarah said," Heather got to her feet, "let's get our gear."
I looked at Coyote and sighed, "Does this stuff ever end?"
"Sadly, Paul, not in almost five hundred years."
I got up and got my gear as well, and then the three of us trekked up and over the hill in the moonlight.
Heather and I spent the next hour digging trenches. The first set was for the three of us to use for cover. The second set was purely to trip up any horses that might try to come up the hillside to attack us.
Then we settled down to wait.
Days of Future Past - Part 2: Present Tense Page 23