by Pam Uphoff
Paer stuck the spoons through her belt. The archaeologists followed Ebsa and Vee. Finally got them trained! Or are they following the alien children, as the most interesting thing around? Who knows?
Ebsa walked carefully over a ridge of debris, glad they'd been this way several times, and he could see where the footing was secure. He moved as quickly as he could, unbalanced and his arms occupied with holding frightened children.
"I see more rats . . . One damn it, one of them has seen us." Paer's voice was steady.
Ebsa took a quick glance. She and Yeahza were at the crest of the little ridge, guns up ready to fire.
"Go for their eyes," Yeahza advised. "Here they come."
Ebsa turned and jogged through broken stone and brick as quickly as possible. Up a slab of concrete to the crest of the last debris ridge. "Rich, take the little girl, Ug, the boy. I'll cover Paer and Yeahza's retreat. Get in the ute. Get it turned around and ready to go as soon as we reach it."
He handed off the kids with frantic chirps and squeaks and turned to watch.
:: I've got your line of retreat covered. :: He felt himself slipping into a cool analytic state, everything slowing slightly.
Paer and Yeahza were shooting methodically.
:: Damn it, there's a couple of dozen of them. :: Yeahza sounded half panicked.
:: Right. :: Ebsa winced, then shut the last emotions off. :: Yeahza, break off and retreat to the base of the ridge. Paer, as soon as he's in place, you retreat past him. ::
Yeahza rushed and stumbled down the hill, his panic spiking.
:: Good, now get to the side where you can get a clear shot at the rats as they get to the top. Paer, come now. :: Ebsa raised the carbine. Dammit, what I wouldn't give for Ra'd's BFG right now!
Paer was halfway down before the first rat showed. Muzzle bloody, but not moving as if it was much damaged.
C'mon, there's got to be a brain in there somewhere. He started firing, heard Yeahza shooting, The rat twitched around, he got a good profile and aimed behind the eye. Three shots. The beast staggered, collapsed, rolled back out of sight.
Ebsa raised his aim. Two rats. . . a third. He started shooting.
Paer had sprinted past Yeahza, stopped and turned halfway to Ebsa. Dropped a magazine, slapped in another.
:: Yeahza, run for the ute. ::
One rat convulsed, spasming. Ebsa aimed for the next. Click. Drop magazine, insert next. He concentrated on the rat highest on the ridge. The lower rat, staggered, squeaking.
::Paer, go. ::
Yeahza passed her as she turned and sprinted.
Ebsa focused on the rat. Grouping his shots all over the head . . . maybe the skull is really thick? He raised his aim above the head, and fired at the humped back. But missing the spine means I hit nothing but muscle. The rat slowed, abruptly, rear end sagging.
He spared a quick glance the other direction. The others were getting into the ute, it hadn't moved yet.
Back to the rats. Only two in sight. He stepped up to a high point as Yeahza staggered up the hill.
"Get the ute loaded and turned!"
Yeahza didn't waste breath replying.
Paer slung her rifle and scrambled up the ridge. Ebsa emptied the magazine into the closest rat. It staggered, the other swarmed past it. Click. Click.
Ebsa reached . . . no more mags.
He dropped the carbine, unhooked the crowbar and as Paer raced past, he leaped. Reached for Speed. The world slowed . . . The rat was barely a meter behind Paer, its head turning slowly as his movement registered. Too slow to matter. With all his strength, at accelerated speed, the crowbar hit the back of the rat's neck and it dropped. Ebsa's foot landed on the paralyzed, dying rat. He turned, a slice spell slashing across the face of the next rat. It dropped.
He turned and jumped off the rat, scooped up the carbine. and raced down the ridge. At Speed, he could balance, dance off a loose rock before it fell . . . he checked his headlong descent, landed on flat ground, and let the Speed go.
He glanced back. More rats, but they were just looking, not coming down from the ridge. He loped after Paer, and reached the ute just as Yeahza got it turned around.
They threw themselves into the back. "Go."
Chapter Nine
20 Jumada 1408
Coastal Ruins, World X 22845
Ebsa yelped as his hair was pulled, and the little Elf girl half fell over his shoulder. He grabbed her hastily and got her turned around.
"Here, take this one, too. It stinks!" Ug boosted the boy over the backseat.
Paer shoved the guns under the seat and helped the boy down. "Ebsa?"
"They're both definitely smaller than the . . . remains. Which, from a distance, or lying flat, weren't small enough for me to have noticed they weren't human. So these guys . . . well, I think they just saw their families killed."
Ebsa hugged the girl tighter. She turned her head to look at Paer. "Squeaker, this is Paer. She's a nice lady."
Ebsa craned his head. "And you've hurt your ear, kiddo. Those ants get you?"
She glanced up at him, but didn't otherwise move.
"Junior shield boy here doesn't have a name yet . . . and he's also lost the tip of his right ear."
Ebsa exchanged glances with Paer.
"Just a coincidence. I hope." Paer reached to touch the boy, and stopped as he shrank away. "Right. Let's try some food. No telling how long he managed to hold that shield."
She pulled the spoons apart, and fished around. Pulled out a sandwich. Opened it up so the kids could see what was inside.
The boy took a piece of thin sliced vat meat, sniffed, tasted. Gobbled. Second slice went to the girl, third and fourth straight into his own mouth . . .
Ebsa looked forward. "Professor Coffee? There is no way the trailer could stand up to the attack of several rats that size. I recommend that we load everything, and head to the base. In four or five months, we can check again, and return if the wildlife has gone back to wherever they came from. By then you will have been able to study all the recordings from down in the cavern. You'll know just what you are looking for, and we can get enough people to secure the cavern and give you all the time you need to study it."
"But . . . " Coffee looked out the window and screamed.
The ute rocked as something large hit it, skidded, accelerated as Yeahza hit the gas.
Ebsa loosened his grip on the girl, collected power in his left hand, and threw as the lizard drew back from its first attack and lunged toward the ute again. The huge thing snapped at the fireball, shook its head and thrashed a bit, then twisted around and disappeared back into the ruins.
A faint voice from the front of the ute. "On the other hand, studying the recordings for a few months might just be a good idea."
"Yeah." Ebsa eyed their back trail. Too twisted to see very far back. Had that been a flash of white? "Don't dawdle, Yeahza. Is Ogly listening in?"
"Yeah, I turned the speakers down so I didn't get distracted by his cursing."
Ebsa bit his lip. "Tell him to take off the splint."
Paer's head whipped around. "Ebsa!"
"And not putting any weight on the broken leg, get the Brisbane Armory twenty millimeter out and load it. There may be explosive rounds. If so, use them."
Yeahza yelled back. "Are you insane? Fire a 20mm with a broken leg?"
"Just in case." Ebsa tried to sound reasonable. "If he takes it slow and easy, he can get up the ladder and open the hatch. Find a position to brace himself in. Kill any large critters that are following us."
"You're crazy! Do you know what sort of kick one of those things has?"
"On a badly broken leg!"
Faintly from the radio, "Shut up and drive. I'm being careful."
Ebsa tried to watch both sides, as well as behind. The first long straight stretch confirmed what he'd feared. The rats were on their trail.
"Paer? How's your ammo holding out?"
She looked up from unwrapping another sandwi
ch. "I'm on my last clip. Fifteen rounds left, give or take."
Yeahza handed his back over the seats. "Almost empty. Better than nothing."
Ebsa juggled the girl awkwardly—the boy reached and took the gun, hands carefully on obvious non-control parts. Ebsa nodded approval. Not that I have the faintest idea what a nod means to an elf.
Yeahza hit a fairly clear patch and sped up. "So do you do precog, Ebsa? Leaving the gate open this morning suddenly sounds like a brilliant idea."
"Ha! The fence won't even slow these guys down. Professor Coffee? Since we have at least four rats who apparently think we look yummy, I think we need to load up immediately and leave. Do you object?"
Hesitation, then a shaken head. "No. You are right. We've done all we can under these circumstances."
"Good. Now as soon as we get to the camp, Ogly will no doubt be taking care of these particular rats. Yeahza? Back right up to the trailer and hitch it up. I'll pull in all the extensions. Paer? Secure the kids in the crawler and get ready to drive."
"Right!" From both.
Yeahza slowed slightly on a slope. The rats closed the gap. They crested the hill and headed down.
Yeahza whooped. "I see the camp! Ogly, do you see us?"
"Yep. I'm up top and loaded for bear."
"Good. Shoot the big white thing that just crested the hill."
A sharp crack from a distance. The rat jolted sideways. Gore and intestines blew out the far side, the rat collapsed kicking, shrill squeaks of agony that had the girl burying her face in Ebsa's chest and screaming. The boy covered his ears, so Ebsa carefully covered the girl's. She clung to his shirt and whimpered.
Yeahza slowed, turned, sped up. Another crack. A third.
Yeahza turned through the gates. "Ebsa? Should we close them now?"
"No! Hitch up. Professor Coffee, you guys can ride in the ute or the crawler, but please get there fast, we're barely going to get out of here before we run out of ammo."
Yeahza swooped into a tight turn and backed up to the trailer.
Ebsa jumped down. "Squeaker? You need to let go. Paer's going to get you into a safe place."
It only cost him a little chest hair to hand her over.
The scientists were clucking about what they had to have, while Ebsa started pulling all the room extensions back into the body of the trailer and locking them down.
"Guys! We'll be back at the base before midnight! You do not need this stuff while we're rolling."
They all paused at the roar of the big gun. While he had their attention . . .
"If you absolutely must, take your comps. Vee? I think you and your shotgun need to be in the ute. Ogly in the crow’s nest with the big gun, and I'll be running around the crawler shooting out of various windows, if I need to. So one, maybe two of you can ride in the crawler at the most. But you need to move. Please! I want to be out of town before dark."
They paused again.
Ollie shifted uncomfortably. "Last night wasn't too bad . . . of course there weren't any rats . . . I'll ride in the crawler.
Rich sniffed. "Are those smelly creatures going to be in there? Can't you stick them in that . . . travesty of a bag of the Prophets?"
"Yes, they'll be there, and if worse comes to worse, they will be in the bag with everyone else."
There was a general shift toward the ute. Just as well, I won't be tempted to throw one of them to the rats when he hits my limit of insults to the kids.
Only Ollie limped for the crawler. Ebsa finished up the pull in, and trotted around the outside locking the extensions down.
"Yeahza? How's your head count? Including yourself?" Ebsa glanced back toward the Crawler. :: Paer? Do you have Ollie and Ogly aboard? ::
"I've got six." Yeahza grinned. "Including myself and the skeet champ. All the trailer lights are green. I especially checked that the brakes were working."
:: Two idiots, two elves and myself. ::
"Right. So let's get out of here." Ebsa jogged to the crawler.
Paer abandoned the driver's seat. "Much though it pains me to admit it, you're a better driver than I am."
"And you're a better shot than I am. All this logic from a woman, it confuses me . . . " Ebsa waved to the wide-eyed children in his bunk as he took the controls.
Two more booms from above, and cursing.
"Paer, can you bring me more ammo?" Ogly yelled from above. "I'm down to . . . " Boom. "None."
:: Yeahza. I'll lead out and turn up the road to the dome. You keep straight on and we'll shoot rats until you've got a good lead. :: Because towing the trailer, there's no chance you could outrun them.
"Everyone hang on, we're moving." He threw a glance over his shoulder.
Paer waved as she climbed back down from the crow’s nest, and he shifted all wheels forward and headed for the hill.
Two cracks from above. "Better move your ass if you expect to beat them to the turn!" Another crack, and cursing.
Through the gate, down the road at the crawler's top speed, which was not impressive.
"Hang on. The corner's going to be a bit tricky." Ebsa cranked the wheel over, slapped the right side wheels into reverse and gunned it. Scrapped around the corner, all wheels forward. He charged the rat that was half a dozen meters ahead.
It gathered itself to jump and Ebsa hit it, kept the accelerator down and pushed it back. It squeaked, turned and trotted away, the long tail whapped across the windshield. Ebsa stopped, watched it retreat into its pack as they milled around. Noses lifting and sniffing.
Why don't they just eat some cockroaches? Or lizards or toads? This is a pretty piss poor excuse for a working ecosystem!
Or is it working? Maybe it's been going downhill since the cataclysm a hundred and fifty years ago. Maybe this is all that's left, and it's still in adjustment. Or on its last gasp or something.
A rat advanced out of the pack, moving toward them.
A loud crack, and it flopped, thrashed. The other rats piled on, ripping and eating. More rats showed up, emerging from the ruins on either side.
Ebsa winced as a gun fired inside the crawler.
Ogly's startled curse. "Didn't even see it coming! Hey, Ebsa! Your girlfriend kicks ass, now get us out of here."
Ebsa's mirror showed him a snake thrashing on the ground. All wheels reverse. At the corner he angled as much as he could, right wheels forward and floor it to skid, slew a bit as they scraped around the corner, then all wheels forward and go.
"Ogly, anytime you need me to stop so you can pot a couple let me know."
"Hey! Are you insulting my shooting? I seem to remember a certain Junior newcomer to the Directorate School who'd never fired a gun in his life. You did pass the weapons requirement, didn't you?"
"Of course. Eventually." Ebsa slowed as he caught sight of the trailer. "This is going to be a slow trip up that hill."
Professor Olle snorted. "Wait until you see what they do to the corners."
Ebsa grinned. "Yeah, but the trailer's wheels are up further than the crawler's. This direction, they ought to be able to hang the rear end over the cliff below. Not nearly as fraught as scraping the rising cliff behind them as they unclamp the swivel hitch and hang the front end over the cliff."
Ollie looked skeptical.
"Stop a minute!" wafted down from the crow's nest. Three well spaced shots. "Go ahead."
Paer looked out and nodded. "Even Ra'd might give him a passing grade. The rats keep stopping to eat the dead and wounded. That's really disgusting. But it does work."
"I don't understand why they are so . . . desperately voracious. Have we arrived in the middle of a crisis?" Ebsa drove ahead, around a curve, and eyed the approach to the hillside. It looks even worse going up than it did going down. And the first section I'll have the door on the cliff side, and Paer will have to shoot through the windows, without leaving them open behind her . . .
"Paer, I'm going to back up the first section. Close all the windows on the right, in case of bugs on the c
liff side."
"Good idea. The left side is much easier to shoot from. Especially if I don't fall through the door." Paer grinned. "Mind you, I'm just going to ignore the bugs, for now."
Ebsa slowed, and watched the ute and trailer's progress up the first leg. At the first corner, a tight one, Yeahza swung as wide as prudent, and the trailer followed without difficulty.
"Huh. You were right." Professor Ollie climbed up into the left passenger seat. "Now how are you going to do this? The crawler's even slower than the ute without the trailer."
"But like the ute, we have lots of torque." Ebsa aimed the crawler into the rubble heap at the end of the ramp, put her into reverse and started backing.
"I see. Very interesting . . . driving." Ollie sat back and fell quiet.
Silence from the crow's nest. Paer paced and peered. Stopping occasionally to check the kids. Very silent children, looking out the window, side by side.
They must know everyone else is dead . . . Their parents were probably among those bodies down there. Who were they and what the One hell were they doing there with two children?
Ebsa backed into the first curve, and drove forward up the next leg. Stopped in the middle of the section until the trailer was clear of the next turn.
"What are the rats up to?"
"Eating. None of them are coming this way yet." Ogly called back.
Ebsa drove on. This curve was broad and short. He drove around it normally. Chugged along at a distance from the trailer. A tight fit, but doable. At least it got the door overlooking the drop. And then the worst corner. Yeahza cursing as he dragged the trailer up over the rough rocks of the center of the curve.
Ebsa maneuvered carefully into the curve, barely grazing rocks, slewing the crawler, and backing out of the curve. Backing around the next one. And the next. Finally seesawed again, and finished the climb moving forward.
"Well. That wasn't so bad. We'll be back to the base in four hours." He squinted at the sun, dropping in the west. "Probably not until after dark, though."