Days of Future Past - Part 1: Past Tense
Page 17
"Paul, catch!" I heard and turning behind me, I saw Heather, with her duster on, tossing me a belt of magazines for my rifle. Catching it, I slung it over my shoulder and ran over to the picket line for the horses, firing on another one of the wolves and his rider as I did so. I hit the rider, who fell off of its back, but I missed the wolf, which dodged around.
Then I came around the horses and saw one of our sentries, Glenn, fighting for his life against two of the little men, as well as their two wolves, plus the third wolf whose rider I'd shot. The little men were on their feet and they were using some sort of hatchet to attack him, and he had been reduced to using his rifle to try and block, but I could tell he wasn't going to last much longer and was already wounded and bleeding heavily.
I shot one of the little men in the back, dropping him with a three round burst, then switched to the wolves as the other man circled to the other side of Glenn and two of the wolves turned to attack me.
I shot the first wolf immediately, the second one I shot point blank as it lunged forward and got me in the right leg, just below the knee. I swore, not because it hurt, it didn't hurt at all, yet. But because I was standing outside in the freezing cold, stark naked in the middle of a battle.
I shot at several of the riders charging around the outside of the camp as I moved closer to Glenn and shot the wolf attacking him, then I ejected the magazine as the bolt locked open and fumbled with the magazines in the belt over my shoulder, dropping the first one, but getting the second one locked and hitting the release just as three more riders charged in at me.
I waved the barrel back and forth pulling the trigger over and over again, they were too close for me to take the time to aim, and I got lucky, hitting two of the little men, and wounding their wolves as I dodged the third, my bolt locking open again.
I kicked the wolf he was riding in the head, and swung the rifle around like a club, batting the little guy off the wolf's back, then dug out another magazine, reloaded and shot the wolf as it staggered around. Someone else shot the little man, and that was when I noticed Heather was now standing besides me, slowly picking off riders with her pistol as they rode around us.
I turned to look at Glenn. He was down, but so was the little man he had been fighting and Geoff was tending to his wounds.
Looking back past the horses and into camp I could see there were several dead wolves and those little men, but nothing else. So I turned back towards the riders and started to pick off their mounts, half of which were now riderless. Sarah hadn't been kidding about Heather's abilities, she was quickly and calming killing the little guys with headshots.
After another minute of that they suddenly grouped up and started to ride away from us.
"Rifle!" Heather yelled at me and held out her hand dropping her pistol.
I handed it to her and watched as she flipped the selector over to single shot and then started to pick them off, one at a time, as they rode away. I dug out another magazine and handed it to her when the bolt locked open and watched in amazement as she reloaded faster than I would have thought possible and continued to pick them off, even though they had to be a hundred yards away and retreating fast.
That was when a lightening bolt suddenly came down out of the sky and landed right in the middle of them, blinding all of us temporarily, but I think it killed whatever was left of them.
"Took you long enough, Sarah!" Heather called out, safing my rifle and handing it back to me.
"I didn't want to spoil your fun!" I heard Sarah call back.
"Glenn's hurt," I told Heather, "we better carry him back to Dianne."
"I'll help Geoff; you might want to go put some clothes on nature boy!" Heather said smirking at me.
I realized my teeth were chattering at that point.
"Yeah, you're right," I said and started to stumble back to the tent.
"You okay?" Heather asked concerned.
"I'm fine, just a bite wound."
"Well, have Dianne look at it," she said and picking up her pistol from where she'd dropped it, she went over to help Geoff.
I went back to the tent and got my duster from where I'd dropped it, and quickly put it on, then huddled a bit inside it, trying to warm up.
"Are you okay?" Sarah asked.
"Just freezing is all," I said, still shivering.
"Whose blood is that on your leg?" she asked, looking me over.
"Mine. It's just a bite, nothing serious."
"Shit," Sarah swore and grabbed my arm, dragging me over to Tim's wagon.
"Dianne! Got another bite wound!" she said and pushed me towards the back.
"Get them in here!" I heard Dianne call out.
I grabbed the edge of the tailgate and pulled myself up. Or at least I tried to. I threw up all over myself instead.
"Tim!" Sarah yelled, "I need help!"
I felt hands under my arms then and someone hauled me up into the back of the wagon.
"Where were you bit?" I heard someone, Dianne I think, ask.
"Leg," I mumbled.
"Okay, this should only take a minute."
"Glenn's hurt bad, take care of him first," I said, slurring my words now.
"Don't worry about Glenn."
I nodded and then I felt my stomach trying to heave up again, so I turned my head to keep from choking. When I was done I felt something pressed to my lips.
"Drink this, it will help."
I opened my lips and swallowed down something hot and vile tasting. I was going to complain, but at that moment I passed out.
I woke up, feeling rather good, which was a lot better than I expected when I recalled my last thoughts. Opening my eyes I slowly started to take in my surroundings as I realized that I was in my sleeping bag, with a heavier blanket over me. As the ground under me was moving slightly and made of wood I guessed that I was lying in the back of Tim's wagon. Turning my head I saw that Glenn was lying next to me with Terry lying next to him. They were both out cold, but they were breathing fine and Terry's color looked okay, though Glenn was very pale.
"Good morning," Dianne said, and sitting up slowly I looked behind me and saw her sitting there, with a canteen in her hands.
"Here, drink this," she said and passed it to me.
I nodded and taking it from her, I drank. It wasn't water, but whatever it was, it tasted good, so I drank as much as I could and passed it back to her.
"What happened?"
"You got shot with a poisoned dart," she said.
"What?" I looked down at myself, I was still naked apparently, "I don't remember that, I only remember getting bit!"
"It was the cold, and all the excitement I guess. After Sarah dragged you over here for your leg wound, you collapsed and started showing signs of being poisoned. When I got you out of your duster, I found it sticking in your lower back."
I ran my hand down my back as she mentioned it, and I winced when I found the spot, just below my left kidney. It was tender and sore.
"What about them?" I asked and motioned to the others.
"Terry got stabbed with a poisoned dagger. Glenn has about a dozen bite wounds on his legs and several deep gashes on his arms, and one in his side."
"Let me guess, poisoned, right?" I sighed.
Dianne nodded, "Yes, the Fey Folk are nasty little bastards, evil too. They poison everything. They'd poison the teeth of their wolves too, if it wouldn't kill them."
That made me stop for a moment. "I thought the fey were elves?"
Dianne shook her head, "No, though I have heard from the elves my mother knew that it is a common misconception among some people. People often confuse them with fairies as well, but fairies all have wings and are actually somewhat shorter than the fey."
I nodded slowly. "So, are they both going to be alright?" I asked, motioning towards Terry and Glenn.
"Terry should wake up fairly soon. Glenn will not wake until tomorrow; he took a lot more poison and lost a lot more blood than either of you. But he'll be fine."
I sighed in relief at that, I didn't know them all that well, but they were technically working for me, so I would hate for anything to happen to them.
"Where are we?" I could feel the cart was moving.
"We broke camp as soon as the sun rose. I have your clothes here, if you'd like to get dressed?"
I stared at her, "And why wouldn't I?"
"Oh, I don't know, running around naked like you did last night, I thought maybe you preferred it?" she said with a perfectly straight face.
"Do you play poker?" I asked.
"Never."
"What a shame, with a straight face like that, you'd make a fortune."
Dianne smiled slightly, "Everyone else took the time to put their armor on first, Paul. You should have done the same. If you'd been wearing your duster, that dart would not have hit you."
"If I'd taken the time to put on my duster, Glenn would probably be dead," I replied.
Dianne paused a moment to consider my words.
"That is a fair point, however I do not think it will stop the others from teasing you."
"Eh, I'll survive. Can I have my clothes now?"
She nodded and passed them to me. It took me a couple of minutes to put them on, getting dressed while laying in a rocking wagon on my back wasn't easy, and I had a dressing on my leg as well as the dart wound on my back, which didn't help either.
"Is it okay for me to ride my horse, or walk around?" I asked her after I finished dressing.
"Wait until after we stop for lunch."
"Okay," I said and carefully crawled up to the front of the wagon, and then joined Tim as he sat on the front bench, steering the team.
"Ah, you're awake!" he said smiling at me.
"Yeah," I nodded, "when's lunch?"
"Oh, soon as my dad finds a good place to stop."
I noticed Sarah looking back at me, so I waved to her and she smiled and waved back, then she poked Heather, who turned and waved as well.
"What the heck was that loud screeching noise last night when we were attacked?" I asked him, sitting back and trying getting comfortable, the dart wound wasn't making it easy.
"Oh, that was the ward being broken. Sarah likes to make it loud, it scares off most predators and it will damn near wake the dead!" Tim laughed.
"Scared the hell out of me," I said.
"Nobody can believe you ran out there naked, with just a gun," Tim said, still laughing.
"They were already inside the camp when I got out of the tent," I said and shrugged.
"Oh, you're the guy that dropped that one by your tent?"
"Yeah, and after that, well I thought we were going to be overrun, so I just ran out, gun blazing."
"I can respect that," Tim said nodding.
"So where the hell did those things come from? And why the hell were they riding wolves?"
Tim shook his head, "No idea. I don't think anyone has seen wolf riders this far south of the Nev wastes before. I've heard they've seen them a few times outside of Paradise, but they've never come down as far as Havsue, much less this far.
"Dad's pretty worried about it; he and Sarah had a big argument."
"Argument?" I asked, "Over what?"
"He wanted to ride back to Blythe to warn the people there. Wolf riders this far south means that there has to be some kind of larger force running around. Maybe even a small army."
"What did Sarah say?"
"That if there was, we'd probably run into it, and not survive. That we'd be better off telling the folks in Glamis, who could spread the word, and that if he didn't like that, well then she'd take the expedition the rest of the way and he could go warn them himself."
"Wow, really?"
Tim nodded, "She's right of course and like it or not, Dad eventually had to agree with her. If we ran into a scouting party, then the main force would be to the north, and running into them would be suicide."
"Still, I thought he was in charge?"
"That may be, but she's still his boss, and she isn't afraid to lay down the law on him, or on anyone else who works for the Alder family. Sarah's a tough cookie, there's not a lot she'll back down on."
"You been working for them long?"
"All my life, Dad's been working for them since he was eighteen, Mom started working for them after she met Dad. She used to work for a different outfit, but switched over when they married. Good thing too, the other outfit got wiped out, almost to the last man, about a year after she left."
"That must have been rough."
"Not for her it wasn't," Tim chuckled, "They were a small outfit and went after the more risky ventures, unlike the Alders."
"I'd think that going to the coast would be considered risky."
"Not all that much, compared to the other things we do. Risky is going up into the Nev wastes, or the Yellow volcano. Those are the high-risk places. As long as we stay well away from the LA wastes, we shouldn't have too many problems.
"Besides, the greater the risk, the better the treasure, right?" Tim said with a laugh.
I chuckled and shook my head, "Yeah, no guts, no glory."
"So just what is this place we're going to?"
"A pre blow-up armory."
"What's in it?"
"Some very special weapons."
"Oh? Like what?"
"You'll find out when we get there, I guess," I said and looked around. "Where's my horse and stuff?"
"Oh, your horse is tied to the back with mine and Terry's. Keri's riding back with Geoff and Dean."
I just nodded and leaned back and relaxed a bit, or tried to at least. It was a lot warmer out in the sun, and I noticed there wasn't any snow on the road anymore.
When we stopped for lunch, I ate more than I normally did, and was happy to see Terry join me. We both got back on our horses afterwards. Four hours later we rode into Glamis, and while Jack went off to talk to the town leaders about what had happened, Sarah led us to an inn and got the horses boarded and all of us rooms for the night.
After dinner I went outside and took a walk around the town, with Sarah and Heather. Glamis had a palisade built around it that was about ten feet high, but only on three sides. The part of town that abutted up against the sea was only fenced in enough to make it hard for anyone to simply swim or wade around the wall.
The town itself was of a fairly decent size, not that I had a lot of experience in judging these things yet. If I had to guess I'd say over a thousand people lived here, it was definitely bigger than Blythe, and twice we passed places where the previous wall had been when the town was smaller.
I endured quite a bit of teasing from both Heather and Sarah over my running out to join the fight naked, but Heather did admit that if I hadn't, Glenn might not have made it. They both also expressed some surprise and some concern about the wolf riders being this far south.
"The storm might have caught them out in the open and forced them south to survive," Heather eventually suggested.
"Still, they would have to have been pretty far south to start with, to have gotten here," Sarah pointed out.
"It just means that we'll have to take the southern route back," I told the both of them, "and be pretty careful about it when we do."
"Yes, if they are running around the Salt Sea road, that will not be safe until they have been dealt with," Sarah agreed.
"So the fishing here must be pretty good," I said changing the subject as I looked at the docks, which looked extensive for a small town.
Sarah nodded, "I have been told that only in the last hundred years has the fishing increased. Local history says that the lake used to be too salty for fish to live in, but that it has been slowly getting less so since the river changed its course some three hundred years ago and opened a passage to the gulf when the water rose up to the current height.
"The river is slowly flushing out the salt water, in a couple of hundred years; this may even become a fresh water sea."
"How deep is it?" I asked.
"Let's check out the docks," I said and dragged them off that way.
"Still hoping to find someone to take us across the lake?" Heather said.
"It would save us a lot of time," I pointed out.
"Yes, but no one has ever run a ferry across the lake here," Sarah replied.
"Why not? The road runs directly here, and if you went almost straight across, you could pick up the old highway on the other side."
"Because most of the people coming this way are headed to New Mexical," Sarah told me. "There is only the road on the far side."
"So why is there a ferry at New Mexical? Why don't people just continue around?"
"Because no one has been able to build a bridge across the river there that will last. The spring floods have always washed it out, so they maintain a ferry about a mile north of the city at one of the narrower parts of the lake where the current is slow," she explained.
I shook my head and sighed, "Well someone owes me a ferry," I grumbled and looked up at the moon and the stars.
"Right, sure they do!" Heather laughed.
We did find the dockmaster's hut, and there were actually a couple of people hanging around it, so I asked them about passage across the lake. There were a few boats that could take several of the horses, but there was nothing that could take all of them, or the wagons.
"It may not be a great idea, but it was still worth checking out," Heather said and gave me a kiss.
"How long a ride is it from here to the ferry?" I asked.
"A day and a half," Sarah said as we walked back to the inn. "And they will not run it at night, so unless we make good time, or there is no line, we will have to find a place to stay the night and then get in line in the morning."
"There's a line?"
"Usually. It can take several hours to get on board, and then it is about an hour to sail across. So we will probably end up staying the next night in Calex."
"What it Calex?"
"It is the name of the town where the ferry lands. It is not very large. Mainly it is a place where people wait for the ferry. But from there we can pick up one of the trading roads which eventually runs into the old highway, and take that up into the mountains."