Axler, James - Deathlands 66 - Separation

by Separation [lit]

  Mildred nodded. "Guess you were right to shadow them, then. I just wish you'd told me."

  "Couldn't." Ryan shook his head. "You were with Sineta and Markos when we had to go for it. There was no way we could safely tell you. Believe me, that's all it was."

  Mildred pondered that for a moment. "Okay, it's easy to forget that these people have got a lot to learn and they've got to learn it the hard way. I just hope there's enough of us to cover their asses and ours when the shit hits the wall."

  THE PILATAN SEC POSTS had been remanned and the patrol had returned to the central camp full of their victory. Despite the best efforts of the sec chief, the people of the camp had celebrated their "victory" over the outsiders and were still sleeping when the sound of wags could be heard roaring across the plain.

  Markos was instantly awake and found that the only ones prepared to meet the intruders were the companions, all of whom were awake and fully armed. Rearming his H&K, he hurried across to them, kicking awake Pilatans as he passed.

  "You knew this would happen," he said to Mildred. When she nodded, he added, "You never made the point."

  "How could I?" she countered. "I heard you try to make the same point, and no one was listening. So why do you think they were going to listen to me?"

  He conceded the point with a shrug. "No matter now. It sounds like a heavy force, many wags…but I doubt they'll be able to get them through to here."

  Ryan shook his head. "Probably just for transport. The ville seems to be a long way off. But then they'll pour through the woods, and they could be coming from all angles. And remember, they know this area probably better than we do. I think I'd have preferred it if they could have driven right up to us. At least we'd know where they were."

  Markos spoke grimly. "I'll divide us up into parties, send them out to counter any actions. Will you help me rouse the people?"

  Ryan nodded, and the companions separated, moving among the sleeping and half-awake Pilatans, rousing them as they went. Their actions were greeted with a mixture of fear and hostility—fear at being attacked and some residual resentment that it was whitelanders who were telling them to get up to prepare for battle.

  Markos sent scouts out to the sentry posts to see what was happening and to recall those sec men so that they could be briefed. The job of the scouts was to send back reports with the returning sec men, then keep a roving brief, so that they could plot the progress of the outsiders.

  Swiftly, the mood in the Pilatan camp changed. As they fully awakened and could hear the arriving wags, the Pilatans realized that they were in for their first taste of a firefight on the mainland. They rapidly checked and primed their blasters, and assembled in front of Markos, who received the reports of the incoming sec force. He turned to the assembled Pilatans and the companions, and spoke concisely, rapidly.

  "They come from the one area, across the plain where the skirmish took place last night. There are ten wags, with approximately five or six people on each. This means that we outnumber them, but they appear to have machine blasters. They may have grens, mebbe even rocket launchers. We cannot know their firepower, therefore must assume the worst.

  "I will divide you into small groups and assign posts. We will concentrate our efforts in the direction from which they will come, but also have outlying parties to flank them. You must be alert and shoot to chill. Use the natural cover. They undoubtedly will."

  With which, Markos moved among the Pilatans, dividing them into groups and mixing some of them with the companions. "They have experience of firefights in the whitelands—listen to them," he told the relevant groups. But despite this, J.B. and Krysty were put into small war parties where there was hostility from diehard separatists who weren't comfortable with the idea of listening to pale ones.

  Before the groups set off into the woods, J.B. managed to snatch a few words with Ryan, telling him of the residual resentment. "Another thing—I don't like the idea of so many people with blasters wandering about in such a small wooded area, blasting at anything that moves."

  Ryan agreed. "I know. We should be drawing the enemy out where we can get a clear sighting of them. It'll be too easy to blast our own out there."

  "Yeah, I'll go with that," the Armorer agreed grimly. "Good luck out there."

  The war parties were about to move out when a scout returned with further information. The wags had rolled to a halt and discharged their cargo of heavily armed men, with a guard of four left to cover them. The men had fanned out and were now in the woods.

  "We outnumber them heavily, so the odds are on our side," Markos added when he relayed this to the baron, "but we need to proceed with caution."

  Sineta agreed, clutching her blaster. She turned to Mildred as Markos gave the order to move. "I fear I shall not be of much use in the conflict to come."

  "You concentrate on keeping alive, sweetie," Mildred told her. "We're a far-flung group, so the chances of you being risked are low. Markos has made sure of that—"

  "But I must lead my people," Sineta protested.

  "You can't lead them when you're chilled," Mildred countered, cutting her short. "He's done the right thing in the circumstances. Now just stay close to me and don't argue about it, all right?"

  The Pilatan war parties moved out into the woods and straight into trouble.

  The wooded areas they had to traverse were thick, and it was impossible for them to move stealthily. The same was also true for the incoming attack parties, but the sounds by which they could have been tracked were obliterated by the noise of the Pilatans. Blasterfire filled the air in staccato and irregular blasts, and the air became thick with cries of surprise and pain.

  Leading his party, J.B. signaled them to halt, as he was sure that he could hear the enemy approach.

  "Why are we stopping?" questioned a separatist who had bridled at the Armorer taking the lead.

  "So I can hear what's going down," J.B. whispered, adding, "and keep your voice down, for fuck's sake. Don't need to give away our position."

  The separatist took a step forward.

  "What are you doing?" J.B. whispered.

  "You may be frightened, pale one, but I am not," the separatist replied. "And I take no orders from you."

  An astonished J.B. watched the man move openly through the wood, then signaled to his party. "Follow. We'll have to cover him."

  Cutting a swath through the foliage, the separatist came across a group of outsiders as they tried to make their way stealthily through the woods. It was hard to know who was the more surprised at the sudden confrontation.

  The separatist looked at the stunned war party. They consisted of a white man, two blacks and a Hispanic. Addressing the black men, he said, "But you are my brothers. Why should I make war with you? We can talk about this, can we not? I would rather—"

  He was cut short by the startled exclamation of one of the blacks, who was the first to snap out of his stunned reverie.

  "Nuckin' hell! Take the freak down before he stops talking and starts firing!"

  And as he spoke, the black opened fire with his Uzi, the slugs cutting the separatist almost in two with a neat line of fire across his abdomen. The sound of the blasterfire galvanized the others in the war party and they all began to open fire. Blasterfire was directed at the already chilling separatist, who was hit in the chest, head and stomach, his body reduced to a spray of blood, ribboned flesh and splintered bone, suspended in an upright position only by the momentum of the slugs that poured into him.

  "Take them out, now!" J.B. yelled, swinging his Uzi around and firing through the chilled separatist as he swung an arc of hot metal across the gathered war party. The stunned Pilatans behind him snapped back to reality and took aim, also beginning to fire.

  The offensive war party retreated rapidly into the woods, leaving behind two chilled—the white man and one of the blacks—and J.B. certain that at least one of the others had been hit and was losing blood.

  "Let us pursue them," snarled
one of the Pilatans, now roused to anger and, like the others, realizing for the first time what combat could entail. But J.B. stayed him with an arm.

  "No, let them go. It's too easy for them to rig an ambush out here. Fall back."

  "Retreat? Like cowards?"

  "No—like people using our brains," J.B. replied. "We pull back and lure them into the open."

  With which, the Armorer started to track back toward the clearing where the Pilatan camp had been established.

  As they reached the campsite, they found that more parties were following this course. Certainly, all the companions had encountered similar problems to his own, and the talk among the Pilatans was of other separatists who had met the same fate as the man in J.B.'s force. Their confusion was partly echoed by Markos, as he came over to where the companions had gathered.

  "This is a completely alien situation to me," he began without preamble. "We have lost several of our people, although we have made dents in their personnel to compensate. But my people cannot adjust to the idea that other blacks will fire on them. Surely we have solidarity that runs over any other consideration?"

  "Keep that attitude up and there won't be any Pilatans left to make a new home," Mildred said harshly. "I've tried to tell you—it doesn't matter what color you are out here, only that it's your ville against the rest. Whatever it takes to survive. And you're going to have to get used to shooting blacks as well as whites and Hispanics and whoever else. Got it?"

  The Pilatan sec boss nodded shortly. "But I am out of my depth now."

  He turned to the one-eyed man. "Ryan, I would like you to take over the action. Then we may have a chance. I am not good enough—"

  Ryan cut him short. "Markos, cut the self pity. You're a good sec chief who's never had this kind of experience before, so learn from it. You're still the boss, but take advice when it's offered…like now." Markos chewed his lip and assented, so Ryan continued, outlining his strategy.

  "I see your point," Markos said briefly. "Let's put it into action."

  Ryan charged Jak and Mildred with relaying the plan to the individual groups along with Markos. The albino and Mildred were the two companions in whom all the Pilatans had trust, and this wasn't a time for any last residual traces of resentment to surface. As soon as they had finished, the Pilatans sprang to action.

  Small groups ventured to the lip of the woods and established sentry posts up in the trees. While they did that, others formed a small circle of covered wags in the center of the clearing, with the livestock gathered inside, some of the Pilatans remaining to make it seem as though a full scale retreat into the center had been ordered and implemented. The remainder of the Pilatans, along with the companions, then made their way to the sentry posts, where they established a series of positions in the upper reaches of the foliage.

  From the reports of the different parties, Ryan had realized that the opposing forces had retreated when faced with the onslaught. They'd had time to regroup and would be making a second offensive. They would be suspicious that they were meeting no resistance as they moved through the woods, but when they caught sight of the covered defensive position, with the Pilatans within arranging things to look like the whole community had pulled back into cover, they would attempt to rush the wags, leaving themselves wide open to attack from above. The key would be keeping silent and still until the right moment.

  Jak had volunteered to scout the woods to try to bring back advanced warning of any encroaching parties. The albino had disappeared silently into the undergrowth sometime previously and Ryan now could feel the tension and suspense spreading through the Pilatans as they were—literally—suspended from the foliage.

  Jak appeared suddenly and without warning, seeming to melt like a shadow only to reform to shinny up the tree where Ryan was waiting.

  "Coming. Down to mebbe forty-five, forty-six. In one party. Not all men, either. They have one woman."

  Ryan smiled slowly. It was working out better than he could have hoped. The opposition was seeking safety in numbers and was traveling in one phalanx that would keep them together and all nicely in one place for the ambush. It was puzzling that no one had spotted the woman before, and odd that she should be the only one as sec forces that used women usually had a more equal mix. But no matter. She was still the enemy and that was all that counted.

  Jak moved from tree to tree, spreading the message. Ryan settled in to wait. There was no longer that air of apprehension. Action was coming, and soon.

  Within minutes it was possible to hear the outsiders moving through the undergrowth, their mass making more noise than previously. Slowly they came into view. In a pyramid formation, watching the area around them closely and never thinking to look up. Ryan caught sight of the woman. There was something familiar about her that he couldn't place. He put it from his mind as the two men in front reached the lip of the clearing and saw the people gathered in the center.

  "They pulled right back, man, easy pickings," the front man whispered, the words reaching Ryan's ears, he was waiting so close to them.

  "Let's charge them, get it done, before they have a chance to open up and fight," came another voice.

  And then the action began. The outsiders charged into the clearing, opening fire on the covered wags. The Pilatans inside began to return fire. It was a calculated risk, as they had padded the walls of their enclosure as much as possible, but were still at risk from injury or buying the farm from heavier caliber blasterfire. But they had only to hold out until the offensive party had come completely into the open.

  Which was now.

  At a signal from the one-eyed man, the Pilatans in the trees dropped to the ground and began to fire at the outsiders. In the sudden confusion of noise and the hail of fire that hit them, many of the offensive party didn't realize what had happened. Those who did whirled around and tried to return fire, but realized that they were in no position to defend themselves.

  The phalanx broke apart, as the offensive party made a break for the woods, trying to circle the Pilatans while still returning covering fire.

  Very few made it to the woods. The clearing was littered with the chilled corpses of the offensive party, caught up in the crossfire of the two Pilatan groups, with some also suffering at the hands of their own as the confused party tried to return fire in opposing directions.

  The Pilatans broke, also, following the opposing force through the woods. Some escaped, starting the wags and speeding across the plain to wherever they had come from, but most were still and chilled either in the clearing or in the woods.

  When they were sure that the woods had been secured, the companions and Markos assembled the Pilatans in the clearing, moving the corpses.

  "We have done well and we have learned much today," Sineta said to the assembled throng. "We must move on now, before we invite further hostilities, which would be unnecessary on both sides. We will attempt to find ourselves a place where we can build our own ville, and then perhaps we shall not be treated with such disdain."

  "Well, I wouldn't bet on that," Dean murmured to his father as they split into groups to bury the chilled and prepare for departure. There were only a few Pilatan casualties, but Sineta wished them to afford their enemies the same respect.

  "Neither would I," Ryan replied as he began to dig. "But mebbe they've learned a lot about the mainland in one nasty, quick lesson. What do you reckon? Dean?" he added, when his son didn't reply.

  Ryan looked at his son, who was staring in open-mouthed disbelief at the edge of the clearing. Following his son's gaze, Ryan could see the woman from the war party standing at the edge of the clearing. There was something familiar about her, but more importantly, why was she still there when the others had long since departed?

  "Dean, what is it?" Ryan asked again.

  Dean shook his head in disbelief and said only one word by way of explanation and reply.

  "Rona…"

  Chapter Fourteen

  "Sharona?"

&
nbsp; Ryan couldn't believe that his son was correct. The woman at the edge of the clearing seemed much older than Dean's mother would be, if she had lived. But she had bought the farm. Rad sickness was why she had sent the boy away from her. This woman appeared gaunt, different than he remembered. Although there was something about the eyes… Perhaps that was why Ryan had looked twice at her, with an uneasy sense, when he had seen her in the war party.

  But why had this woman remained behind?

  Even as those thoughts crossed Ryan's mind, the woman was stepping forward into the clearing, so that both he and his son could see her clearly.

  "Dean…" the woman said softly in a voice that sent a chill up Ryan's spine, a voice that dragged up echoes from the past.

  "I knew you were coming," Dean stated flatly. He didn't know what to think. All those dreams and that sense of longing.

  She walked forward slowly toward the younger Cawdor. Dean broke from beside his father to run to embrace her.

  Ryan watched, still stunned at the sudden reappearance of a woman he had long since believed chilled. Away to one side, both Jak and Krysty stopped in their work, seeing what was occurring.

  "Who's that?" Jak asked.

  Krysty shook her head, feeling her hair tighten to her as she did. "I don't know, but I've got a feeling it's going to be nothing but trouble."

  MILDRED, DOC AND J.B. had no idea of what was taking place on the edge of the clearing as they were esconsced in the center of the activities taking place where the Pilatans were preparing to leave. They were helping to load the livestock with their packs when Sineta and Markos approached them.

  "Leave that for a second," the baron said, "we have something we wish to discuss with you."

  "Ah, joy, surely you wish to inform us of your impending nuptials," Doc announced happily.

  Markos furrowed his brow and gazed at Doc, not sure if the older man was being humorous.