“We will pursue these creatures. Six of us will go. The other four will defend the holdfast. We begin immediately.”
* * * * *
March, 1909, Near Fort Wingate, New Mexico Territory.
Rebecca Harding shifted in her saddle and pulled Timmy Gordon a little closer. He’d finally stopped whining about not being able to ride with his mother and now it seemed like he was dozing off. She was ready to fall asleep herself. The events of the last two days seemed like one long drawn-out nightmare which had left her exhausted. Sleep was the only way to escape this nightmare.
But she couldn’t sleep, they had to keep moving. They had been riding as hard as the horses could stand since the rescue that morning. The rescue! She still couldn’t believe it. She’d been convinced that they were all going to die in some especially awful fashion. Even the presence of her faithful Ninny was no comfort—he would just die, too. And then Sergeant Dolfen came up with his crazy plan to sacrifice himself to try to let the rest of them escape. It wasn’t going to work; she could see that as clearly as everyone else. But since they were all going to die anyway, she’d gone along.
And then, then men had appeared from nowhere, throwing bombs, and before she could even try to get away, the huge Martian machine was lying on the ground, wrecked and helpless. It had seemed impossible. They had been running from these things for weeks and they had been unstoppable. And yet this one had been stopped by a handful of men!
She’d dared to come back for a closer look and then that awful… thing had appeared! She’d suddenly been filled with an all-consuming rage. Somehow she’d never been able to feel anything but fear for the machines. They’d been like some elemental force. What point was there getting angry with a thunderstorm or an avalanche? But the machines had been driven by those horrible little things! Those she could hate! Without a conscious thought she’d pulled out her grandfather’s rifle and emptied it into the Martian. She could still remember how… good it had felt to do that. They could be killed! And even after she saw the little one attached to the bigger one, it hadn’t dampened her hatred. Hideous creatures! They should all be killed!
But they couldn’t stay to admire their handiwork. More Martians would be coming and they had to run again. The men had used up most of their bombs and they all admitted that they’d been very lucky their ambush had worked once. It wasn’t likely they could do it again. So they had to run. But Sergeant Dolfen hadn’t come with them! He’d gone off with that other man, the major. She still didn’t know why. But the big, gruff Sergeant McGill had taken charge and he’d driven them onward. She didn’t think she liked McGill, but she was too tired to really tell.
They’d ridden all day to get back to the hills. Nearly all of them were riding double so they couldn’t push the horses very fast, although they had the luck to find two of the horses that had originally been with them before they were captured. That had helped. Even so, they had to dismount and walk frequently, and once they’d put some miles between them and the ambush site, they had stopped to rest a few times. By afternoon they’d reached the comforting concealment of the forests which covered the lower slopes of the mountains. Looking back, some of the sharp-eyed thought they could see some Martians out on the plain, but they couldn’t be sure. Even the telescope on her rifle didn’t show much. She’d seen no sign of Sergeant Dolfen or the major. She hoped he was all right.
“Come on!” snapped Sergeant McGill. “We have to keep moving!” Rebecca sighed, shifted the boy a bit, and rode on.
Just before nightfall they came to the ruins of Fort Wingate. There wasn’t much left and Private Urbaniak and the others from the original group of soldiers were visibly upset. This had been their home, she gathered. She tried to remember her own home by the lake, but the only image that came to mind was a raging fire. They moved on another couple of miles to the east before finally stopping. Their horses couldn’t go any farther today and it would be too dark to keep moving through the wood in any case. From what McGill had said, they had another fifteen or twenty miles to go tomorrow to reach some mine where more of their men would be waiting. Sergeant Dolfen would be heading there, too.
They found a sheltered spot to build a fire and make a meal. They had recovered some of their ‘requisitioned’ foodstuffs from the store in Ramah on the stray horses and the soldiers had some stuff from the mine, so they ate pretty well. There was a bit more talk around the campfire that night than normal. The two groups had much to tell each other. A lot of it was grim telling: the destruction of towns, the slaughter of the 5th Cavalry, and the even greater slaughter of the main army. But the fact that they had destroyed a Martian machine—something it had taken a whole army to do—buoyed their spirits considerably.
“It’s just a matter of figuring out how to beat those bastards,” said one of them. “And we’re learning that now!” The others agreed heartily.
“And that was some mighty good shooting, Miss!” said another.
Rebecca blushed, but smiled. “Nothing to it. Close range and it wasn’t moving. My grandmother… anyone could have done it. You fellows did the hard work.” They all laughed at that.
“And I am going to have one hell of a story to file when I get back,” said the newspaperman, who had come with the new batch of soldiers. “You boys—and girls—are all heroes!”
In spite of their exciting day, everyone was soon ready for sleep. The poor soldier who had the broken arm was already asleep, although he seemed to be doing well. They were still short on blankets, so Rebecca found herself teaming up with Mrs. Gordon and her boy. But they had barely gotten themselves settled when the man on sentry duty called out: “Hey! Hey, look over there!”
The sky to the west, glimpsed through gaps in the trees, was a bright red. For a moment Rebecca thought it was just the sunset, but no, that had disappeared an hour ago. In an instant she realized what it was: “Fire!”
“The forest is on fire!”
“And the wind is blowing it this way! Smell the smoke?”
“Get up! Get your horses saddled!” shouted McGill. “We have to move!”
“They’ve barely had a chance to rest! Can they make it?”
“No choice! Get moving!”
They hastily packed up their meager belongings and saddled the horses. It was awkward and clumsy doing it in the dark and the horses clearly weren’t happy. Ninny looked at her with reproach. But then they were off.
On foot.
There was no possibility of trying to ride in the woods in the dark. Or at least no sane person would try it. Becca had done it with Ninny when they fled her burning home, but she hadn’t been quite sane at that point. But now they led their horses, and in a long line made their way through the trees.
Becca looked back from time to time. The red glow seemed to be getting brighter and she assumed that meant it was gaining on them. The smell of smoke was getting stronger too, and from time to time some glowing embers would float down around them. Sergeant McGill shouted something about breaking out of the forest soon, but to Becca it seemed endless. And their going was slow. Several times they came upon ravines too steep for the horses and they had to double back to find a new route. Once, the rear part of the group got separated from the rest, and precious minutes were lost linking up again. All the while the fire was getting closer, although without the light from the fire, the going would have been impossible.
Then, off to their left, to the north, they heard that awful sound—the sound of the Martian heat rays. They weren’t terribly loud, so they must be a good distance away, but shortly after, the red glow of fire was on their left as well as behind.
“They’re setting fire to the forest!” cried someone.
“Really? You think so?” replied someone else sarcastically. “Keep moving!”
They struggled onward, stumbling over rocks and tree roots. The horses were frightened and agitated, but at least they kept moving. Becca had been worried that they’d be too exhausted, but the fear of the
fire drove them onward. But how long could they keep it up? Horses and humans were nearing their limits. The new fires to the left didn’t seem to be getting any closer. The wind was from the southwest, so even though it was driving the original fire behind them onward, the new fires to their north weren’t spreading their way.
Suddenly there were shouts from the front of the column. Becca wondered what new disaster had arisen, but she was too tired by now to really care. Except the shouts didn’t seem to be shouts of alarm… She caught up with the others and gasped.
Two men were sitting on rocks. A quivering, foam-flecked horse stood behind them. In the wavering red light she could see that they were all blackened with soot. One of them grinned, white teeth standing out in the black face.
“What kept you?” he said.
“Sergeant Dolfen!”
* * * * *
Cycle597,843.5, East of Holdfast 32-1
The fire was… amazing. Qetjnegartis had noted the phenomenon before, but most of the earlier fires had been relatively small. The one they were setting now was enormous by comparison. Vast stretches of the tall native vegetation were engulfed in flames. It was spreading on its own with no further assistance from the heat rays; driven by the wind. Reports indicated that much of the planet was covered with vegetation similar to this. How did the prey-creatures avoid having their whole world burn up? Well, no matter; if it all burned, so much the better. Qetjnegartis swept its machine’s heat ray over another stretch and felt a sense of satisfaction as the tall central stalks exploded and the branches erupted in flames.
“Commander, the prey-creatures have surely been destroyed.” One of its subordinates was clearly growing impatient with this exercise.
“Nevertheless, we will continue. The creatures have been using this sort of growth to conceal their movements from us. We must eliminate any such approach to the holdfast.”
“As you command.”
* * * * *
March, 1909, Near Fort Wingate, New Mexico Territory
“I’m so glad you’re safe, Sergeant!”
Frank Dolfen looked at the girl and shook his head. “Is that what you call this?” He had to shout to be heard above the roar of the fire. The reunited party was making its way through the woods as quickly as it could, but Dolfen was afraid it wouldn’t be quickly enough. The fire was close behind and it looked as though there was fire ahead of them now, too.
“You know what I mean!” said Becca Harding. “I was afraid I’d never see you again, the way you rode off!”
“Had a job to do.”
“How’d you manage to get ahead of us like that?”
Wouldn’t the girl ever shut up? His mouth was parched, the smoke was getting thicker, and he didn’t feel like talking. “We were following you,” he rasped. “But the Martians spotted us and chased us into the woods. The trees were too close together for them to get through, so they just started burning everything. We couldn’t make very good time through the trees and we were afraid they’d get ahead of us moving in the open and all and cut us off. So we headed north to the edge of the trees and made a break for it. Ran the one horse into the ground and then we had to ride double. Just barely made it back into the woods before they caught us. But we’d covered a lot of ground and figured we’d gotten ahead of you. So we waited. Couldn’t have gone any farther on that horse anyway.”
“What… what was behind the wall?”
“Ask the major when you get a chance. Now save your breath and keep moving!”
She finally stopped talking and Dolfen moved ahead of her on the narrow path they were following. He was towing the horse he’d shared with the major, who was up ahead with Sergeant McGill trying to spot any familiar landmarks. Apparently they’d come through here on their way west. Of course it hadn’t been on fire at that time. They struggled on for perhaps another half-hour and then the front of the column stopped and the rest all straggled up to join them. The fire was maybe a half-mile behind them to the west, but it looked to have already crossed their path ahead of them. Off to the southeast there was a faint light of dawn in the sky. The whole night gone? When had he last slept? He couldn’t remember. He caught up with Comstock and McGill, who were standing on the edge of a deep ravine. It crossed their path, running down to the northeast.
“I think this is the way we came,” said Comstock.
“Are you sure, sir? I don’t remember anything this steep,” replied McGill.
“We probably got out of it lower down than this. But it’s going the direction we want to go and there’s hardly any undergrowth that will burn in it. We can use this as a safe road out of here!”
McGill seemed skeptical, but then he looked around and nodded. “No other way to go—unless you want to head up higher into the mountains.”
“All right! Everyone, down into here!”
Getting the horses down the slope was difficult, and there was no way in hell they’d get them back out again. If this didn’t lead anywhere, they’d have to abandon them. They continued single-file for a mile or so and Dolfen was having doubts about the choice of routes. The smoke was very thick and fire seemed to be all around them now. A wall of flames was catching up to them from the west and people began shouting that they needed to turn some other direction.
But the major and McGill insisted they keep following the ravine and they put Dolfen at the rear to make sure everyone kept moving. The roar of the fire became almost deafening and the smoke stung his eyes and choked his throat. The heat on his left side seared any exposed skin. He pulled his hat low and turned up his collar despite the fact he was sweating. Burning branches started falling among them and the horses were getting difficult to control as embers burned them. One of them broke loose and scrambled up the side of the ravine, which wasn’t so steep anymore, and galloped off—directly into the approaching fire.
The trees just to their left, up on the edge of the ravine, were burning now and Dolfen was sure they were done for, when suddenly the fire was diminishing; the trees on either side were just smoldering pillars, blackened trunks with most of the branches burned off. The fire had already passed by! The fire they were fleeing had been chasing them for miles, but the Martians had gotten ahead of them and set fires which had burned out, providing a safe path for them!
Safe, but still not easy. There were some small fires and burning branches in the bottom of the ravine and the smoke was still thick. Twice, entire trees had fallen into or across the ravine and they had to struggle up out of it, and then back down on the other side. The horses were getting balky and they were all exhausted.
But finally they got near the edge of the forest and found a covered spot where they could stop and rest. A tiny creek was at the bottom of the ravine now and the horses—and the humans—were able to drink a little and clear the soot out of their throats. They peered out from the refuge from time to time, looking for Martians machines, but they saw nothing. Had they given up? It was fully light although the sun was hidden by the clouds of smoke from the fire, which was still burning on the higher slopes. They decided to rest for a while, and nearly everyone was soon asleep.
Dolfen woke up a few hours later, coughed and spat, and painfully got to his feet. Gettin’ too old for this sort of thing. The sun was visible as a hazy orb seen through the smoke; it looked to be a couple of hours before noon. The only other one awake was McGill. Dolfen went over and sat down next to him. “Where do we go now?”
“If we hug the edge o’ the hills we ought to get to the mine about dark. There’s food and shelter and hopefully four more men there. We’ll need to rest up a few days after all this, but then I guess we’ll head east and try to join up with whatever’s left of the army. The major says he’s got stuff he needs to get back to Washington.”
“He’s quite the pistol, that one, isn’t he?” Dolfen gestured to where Comstock was sleeping. “How’d you end up with him?”
McGill shrugged. “After fifteen years in the infantry—not the US Infa
ntry, mind you—I felt I’d done enough marching for one lifetime. Once I got into the American Army, I wiggled my way into the Ordnance Department; figured there would be more paperwork and less marching. Turns out I was right—until the bloody Martians showed up. The major’s some bright young sprout that the top brass wanted to go have a looksee at the critters, and yours truly got the job o’ lookin’ after him.” McGill paused and the expression on his face grew softer. “He’s all right, though. There’s been a few times where a real idiot could have gotten us all killed, but here we are.”
“Yeah, here we are,” said Dolfen, looking dubiously at their surroundings.
McGill laughed. “Could be worse! But it’s time to get moving. We’ve been lucky so far and we wouldn’t want to press our luck.” He got up and started nudging the sleeping people with his foot. There were many groans and curses and a few protests, but the people got up. This was no place to stay and they all knew it.
The horses were still in a bad way so they made no attempt to ride them. At least not yet. If they had to make a run for it, they would save the horses for the end of the race. They left their shelter and wound their way out of the last of the still smoking trees. The ravine petered out about the same time the trees did and they bent their course to the east, staying as close to the foothills as they could manage. Looking back, Dolfen could see mile after mile of charred forest; only the trees on the higher slopes had escaped the flames.
The Great Martian War Page 26