Axler, James - Deathlands 61 - Skydark Spawn

by Skydark Spawn [lit]

  Here were breeders acting as he would, as the baron. The men in the photos were the slaves, happy to be humiliated, punished, physically injured, by the wickedly evil breeders.

  The baron wondered if he might be able to experience such a thrill. It was unlikely, since he was the baron and if he let himself be dominated by any of his breeders, it would be looked upon as a sign of weakness. He'd been able to keep Grundwold in line, but if the man detected a weakness, he could use it to his advantage.

  Perhaps, the baron thought, he could subject himself to such breeders, and then chill them, so that they would take what they knew of the baron to the grave with them. It was certainly a possibility, one that would prevent Grundwold from learning that his baron could be controlled under the right circumstances. Just then there was a knock on the door. "Enter," the baron said. He'd been expecting Norman Bauer, but was surprised to see a sec man enter. "What is it?"

  "Breeders, Baron," the sec man said nervously.

  "I never asked for any breeders," the baron said, putting the skin mag aside for now and rising from his bed.

  The sec man let the two breeders enter the baron's quarters. They were attractive, perhaps on the heavy side, but good breeders. Good rutters, too, the baron admitted, as the larger one had visited him before. "Sec chief Grundwold sent them, sir."

  "What?"

  "He knows you've had a stressful day and could use some breeders to unwind."

  "He said that?" the baron asked, the anger rising within him.

  The sec man, obviously frightened of the baron, simply nodded.

  "He hasn't caught the one-eyed outlander yet, has he?"

  The sec man shook his head.

  "Triple-stupe fucker," the baron shouted. "And he thinks I'll just forget about his incompetence by sending me a couple of breeders."

  The sec man stood still and silent.

  The two breeders were trembling in fear.

  "I was hoping he'd show a little imagination in his search, but he's just as triple-stupe as the rest of you." The baron went over to a dresser and pulled open the top drawer. In one fluid motion his hand slid inside and came out with a blued steel 9 mm Luger blaster. He turned to the sec man. "Find the sec chief and tell him to meet me in the nursery."

  "Yes, Baron."

  "And find that redheaded gaudy slut of an outlander and bring her to the nursery, too."

  The sec man ran off to carry out the baron's orders.

  "If the sec chief can't find the one-eye, then maybe we can use his friends to draw him out."

  The two breeders remained.

  "You two wait for me here," the baron said. "I'll be back."

  THE SUN WAS GONE from the sky.

  The raiders had just finished building a pair of wooden ladders that would help them get over the fence and into the compound.

  "All ready?" Ganley asked.

  "Ready," the raiders answered in a jumble of voices scattered over several seconds. "Then let's move."

  J.B. TAPPED HIS FINGER on the key, waiting for word to come from the back of the wag that everything was secure and the rest of the group was ready to move.

  When Jak and Dean were in position behind the .50 calibers, Doc was in the wag's bed overseeing the cannon shells and Clarissa was riding shotgun with J.B.'s Uzi at the ready, J.B. grabbed hold of the wag's key and turned it.

  The starter motor turned over weakly, the engine sputtered and then stopped.

  "Want us to push?" Clarissa asked.

  "Not yet," J.B. answered. He turned the key again and the starter let out a series of slow protesting groans. The engine sputtered once more, but this time it suddenly roared to life.

  J.B. beamed proudly as the work he'd done on the engine over the course of the day had paid off. The engine was running more smoothly than it had in the morning, and he was confident it would keep running for as long as he needed it to.

  "Hang on!" he said, then put the wag into gear. The wag lurched forward.

  J.B. drove slowly in darkness, not wanting to try the wag's lights. If they worked, it would help with the driving, but it would make the wag a good target for the farm's sec men. As it was, all they had to shoot at was a sound in the darkness and such things were hard to hit at the best of times.

  Their plan was simple.

  They would use the 37 mm cannon to take out the farm's electric supply. That would shut off the lights, shut down the electric fence and generally create chaos within the complex.

  Then they'd use the weight of the wag to break through the front gate.

  Once inside the complex, Clarissa and Jak would head into the main building to look for Ryan, Krysty and Mildred. J.B. would select strategic targets for the 37 mm cannon, such as sec towers, wags and emergency electricity and lighting while Dean and Doc would use the .50 calibers to keep the sec force under cover.

  Depending on how the wag stood up, J.B. would stay with the wag they had, or they'd try to take one of the baron's wags from inside the barn.

  While all this was going on, Ryan, Krysty and Mildred would be working their way out from the inside of the complex, splitting the sec force, chilling sec men and distracting other sec men from the front gate.

  Add to that the muties, who would be streaming in through the gate and over the fence, taking out sec men and eating them raw, and the slaves themselves who would have been warned about what was coming and would be all too eager to escape or chill their former masters.

  Organized chaos, J.B. thought. He'd have preferred to sneak in with a precision strike, but the electric fence made that too difficult, and they had the firepower to go in with blasters blazing. So why not go with their strengths?

  And it was all going to start going down in less than five minutes.

  THE DOOR to the nursery burst open and Baron Fox strode in, a blaster in one hand and an electric cattle prod in the other.

  "Grundwold," the baron shouted.

  The sec chief stepped forward. "Yes, Baron."

  "You're no longer sec chief."

  Grundwold's mouth opened to utter words of protest.

  But the baron didn't give him a chance to respond. He raised his Luger and shot the man in the shoulder, sending him flying backward against a supply cabinet.

  "Anyone else have anything to say about Grundwold's demotion?" the baron demanded.

  No one said a word.

  Mildred moved toward the sec chief to see if he'd been fatally shot.

  "Leave him!" the baron ordered, then turned. "Fillinger!"

  "Yes, Baron."

  "You're my new sec chief now."

  "Yes, Baron!"

  "Take this fire-headed gaudy slut outside and have her walk the grounds in the lights of a wag. Put two sec men on her, a blaster trained on each side of her head. Tell the one-eye either he comes out of hiding, or we'll blow her pretty little head clean off her shoulders."

  "Yes, Baron!" he said with obvious glee.

  Mildred moved closer to the bassinet that held her blaster.

  "C'mon, Red, let's go for a walk," the baron said.

  Krysty remained where she was. Mildred inched still closer to the bassinet.

  "I said let's move."

  Suddenly a loud boom thundered from somewhere outside. Several glass containers in the nursery shook. Babies were awakened from their sleep and began to cry.

  The noise was followed by several seconds of silence.

  "Find out what that was!" the baron ordered.

  Sec men began running up the stairs.

  A second loud boom sounded, and then all the lights went out. The entire building was shrouded in inky darkness.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  J.B.'s first shot had missed the tall wooden pole that held the power lines bringing electricity into the complex. He adjusted the wag slightly, moved in closer and the second blast from the cannon cut the pole down better than any ax ever could.

  The pole had toppled slowly, and it took several seconds for the lines to snap
and the lights to go out inside the complex. There would likely be reserve or emergency lighting coming on at any moment, but J.B. didn't wait around to find out for sure. He threw the wag into gear, circled back around toward the front gate and was now speeding toward the chain-link fence.

  "Hang on and cover up!" he cried.

  He expected spotlights to catch the wag as they headed toward the main gate, but the complex was still in darkness. Maybe there was no emergency lighting after all.

  The fence was in front of them.

  "Three, two, one!" J.B. counted down.

  The front of the wag struck the fence. The vehicle slowed; and for a moment it seemed as if they might be stopped dead in their tracks, but the steel gave way and they burst through the gate with plenty of speed.

  J.B. also expected to be under fire at this point, but the sudden plunge into darkness had caused confusion among the ranks of sec men. Many searching the orchards were now caught in the dark.

  As they charged across the courtyard, a sec man came out from around the corner of the main building. Dean saw him first, cutting the man down with a sweep of the .50 caliber.

  "Shorter bursts," J.B. shouted to Dean.

  "Sorry."

  J.B. slowed the wag rather than stopping it, deciding a moving target was much harder to hit than one that was standing still. "Go," he told Clarissa.

  She jumped out of the wag, followed by Jak.

  A moment later they were gone.

  J.B. turned the wag in the direction of one of the sec towers overlooking the courtyard and main gate. "Doc?" he said.

  "Ready when you are, Captain," Doc answered.

  J.B. pulled the trigger. The cannon let out a loud thud. The air around the wag smelled of cordite. Then the sec tower was suddenly without one of its legs.

  It slowly began to fall—toward the wag.

  "Uh, might I suggest that we move our vehicle to avoid an unhappy circumstance," Doc said.

  J.B. didn't answer. He was too busy trying to get the wag out of the way of the falling tower.

  WHEN THE EMERGENCY lights came on, the baron was gone.

  And so was Krysty.

  But there was little time to dwell on that with so many sec men in the room.

  In the dark, Mildred had retrieved her ZKR target pistol, and when the lights kicked in she was ready. She fired two shots at the sec men at the door to the nursery, hitting the first in the head, blowing a chunk of skull off the top of it. She caught the second in the throat, and he fell to the floor clutching at his neck in a futile attempt to staunch the flow of blood.

  Grundwold was still moaning in pain on the floor, trying to get to his feet despite the wound to his shoulder. Mildred lowered her blaster and put a round into his heart before he had a chance to get onto his knees.

  "What's going on in here?" asked the old woman, who up until now had been taking care of the newborns in another part of the nursery.

  "Liberation," Mildred said. "We're getting out."

  "These people don't know anything about freedom," the old woman told her. "I remember it, but most don't know any other kind of life. In fact, some even like it here."

  "Well, maybe now at least they'll have a choice."

  The old woman shrugged. "I suppose. Good luck to you. I've got children to tend to."

  Mildred reached down and took the Persuader 500 pistol-grip longblaster from the holster of the dead former sec chief. "Here," she said. "It might come in handy."

  The old woman took the blaster and hefted it in her hand. "It might at that."

  Then she picked up Krysty's Smith & Wesson from its hiding place and tucked it into the waistband of her jeans. Obviously Krysty had been taken hostage by the baron and his new sec chief.

  The two men might as well have signed their death warrants.

  WHEN THE FIRST BOOM sounded, Ryan thought it might mean that J.B. was near. When there was a second boom and the lights went out, he was sure of it. "That's it," he told Maurice. "Time to move." The two men left the cabin and headed for the main building.

  SEC CHIEF GANLEY had been first over the fence at the onset of darkness and was now helping others climb down from the wooden ladder.

  In the distance, something boomed like a cannon for the second time.

  The sound startled one of the raiders who was at the top of the outside ladder and crossing over to the one on the inside of the complex. The man faltered and was forced to reach out with his hand and grab at the fence. He screamed loud and shrill in anticipation of the electricity that was about to flow through his body.

  But nothing happened.

  "The fence is down," Ganley called out, realizing they'd just been given a lucky break. "Everyone over as quick as you can."

  Minutes later the raiders were roaming the orchard freely, hunting for breeders.

  HUNGRY MUTIES POURED IN through the broken front gate like water through a sluice.

  And when they realized the power was out, they began climbing over the fence, too, surging into the complex from all sides.

  In the eerily dim glow of the emergency lights, sec men raised their blasters at the charging muties, but hesitated when they saw how many of the hunger-mad creatures they were up against.

  Some sec men fired; others ran, as far as the front gate and beyond.

  Most ended up as meals for the starving mutants.

  The lucky ones were chilled quickly.

  The unlucky ones were eaten alive.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Ryan left the cabin and, along with Maurice, ran to the main building. The sec men in the area didn't seem all too concerned with their progress as the thud of a large-bore weapon and the crackle of heavy-caliber machine blasters had them all scrambling for cover.

  As Ryan turned the corner on the building, a familiar flash of white caught his eye.

  "Jak!" he shouted.

  The spot of white reappeared in the blown-out hole where the front doors used to be. Jak waited for Ryan and when they met, the two shook hands.

  "Good see you," Jak said.

  "Likewise." Ryan nodded.

  Clarissa came up behind Jak. Maurice was standing by Ryan's side.

  "This Clarissa. Friend of muties. Helping us."

  "Maurice," Ryan said, gesturing with his head in the slave's direction. "Friend of mine."

  "There's the one-eye," someone shouted.

  Blasterfire suddenly began slamming into the wall behind them. They all dived for cover, scraping and cutting their hands on the shards of glass scattered around the building. Ryan found himself pinned behind a column supporting the building's second floor.

  Jak and Clarissa had also gained cover, but Maurice had been caught by the sec men's blasters. His body jerked as he was torn apart by rounds coming from somewhere high up and out of sight. He stood for several seconds, then finally fell to the ground a bloody mess.

  "He was going to take me to the nursery," Ryan said. "That's where Krysty and Mildred are."

  "I can take you there," Clarissa said.

  Ryan wanted to move, but they were still being pinned down by sec men on the roof of a nearby building.

  But just below the sound of blasterfire came the grinding of a wag engine, low at first, but growing louder by the second. Without warning there was a boom that shook the ground, followed by a small explosion.

  Men screamed, debris filled the air and the rain of blasterfire abruptly came to an end.

  "Lead the way!" Ryan told Clarissa.

  The three of them entered the building.

  RYAN, JAK AND Clarissa hurried down the steps, taking them two at a time. They all had their blasters at the ready, expecting a sec man to turn the corner on them at the bottom of the stairs and they'd have nowhere to turn.

  But they made it down without incident.

  "Left or right?" Jak asked.

  "Right," Clarissa answered.

  A crack of a blaster echoed from down the hall, and all three took cover against the w
all of the stairwell.

  After several seconds of silence, a second shot rang out, followed by a groan and the sound of a falling body.

  J.B. was best at recognizing the sounds various blasters made and could sometimes even identify the type of ammo being used, but even Ryan knew enough to identify the sharp crack of a .38-caliber Czech-built ZKR. It was possible that a sec man was now using Mildred's target pistol, but the spacing of the single shots and their accuracy told Ryan all he needed to know.

  "Mildred," he called out in the direction the shot had come.

  "Who wants to know?" came the response.

  "Me, Ryan."

  She turned the corner, blaster raised in case it was some sort of trick, and smiled. "It's good to see you, Ryan, and I have to admit, I would have even been happy if it were Doc instead of you."

  "I'll have to tell him."

  "He'll never believe you."

  Ryan was done with small talk. "Where's Krysty?"

  "The baron took her hostage when the lights went out," Mildred reported.

  Ryan turned to Clarissa. "Where would he have gone with her?"

  "Depends what he wanted to do with her."

  Ryan thought about it for a second. "To get away?"

  "Then he'd go to the barn and try for a wag."

  "Then we head back outside."

  Ryan and Mildred began moving back up the stairs, but Jak and Clarissa remained where they were.

  "What's wrong?" Ryan asked.

  "Sister prisoner in basement," Jak explained. "Promised rescue for help."

  Ryan understood. "All right. You go with her, Jak. Mildred comes with me. If you're not outside in twenty minutes, we'll come back in looking for you."

  "Won't have to," Jak said. "Not be there."