Bloodfire

As the machine went berserk trying to find its prey, the companions used the shattering glass to cover their retreat to the rear door. While J.B. oiled the bolt and hinges, the companions kept cover with their blasters as Ryan took a mop from an empty bucket and dabbed it into the liquor covering the floor, then used his butane lighter to set the stringy head of the mop on fire.

The droid paused at the sound of the crackling flames, and Ryan threw the burning mop like a spear across the store. It landed near the front door with a clatter, and the droid attacked as blue flames rose from the igniting alcohol and began to quickly spread, soon covering the droid in flames. As it spun about mindlessly, more bottles began to explode from the spreading conflagration.

Easing out the back door, the companions raced away for several blocks, before climbing the ladder of a fire escape to reach the top of a motel. Then they hurried across the salty roof to jump to the next structure, and then did it again. Several blocks away, the friends finally paused to catch their breath and frantically reload weapons.

“Mother always did say that alcohol was bad for your health,” Doc muttered, starting the laborious reloading process of the LeMat. It took about five minutes for the man to properly purge all chambers in the cylinder, then compress black powder, ball and wad using the attached hand press.

“No sign of the machine,” J.B. announced, lowering the Navy longeyes and compacting the tube. He tucked it into his munitions bag and began reloading a clip for the Uzi from a box of spare rounds.

“Thank Gaia that worked.” Krysty sighed, then suddenly realized she was still carrying the Holland & Holland. With virtually no chance of ever finding more ammo for the elephant rifle, she placed it gently on the roof and checked the load in her .38 S&W revolver.

“This just bought us some time, nothing more.”

Ryan growled, thumbing fresh single rounds into a spent clip. Tucking the clip away, he started on the next. “You know these machines are triple tough to chill and never stop hunting their prey. If the machine comes after us again,” Ryan went on, working the slide on the SIG-Sauer to chamber a round, “aim for the other blade. Once that’s busted, we’ll have a better chance to escape.”

“Escape, not chill,” Jak said with a frown.

“We’re going to need something other than blasters to stop this droid,” Ryan stated bluntly.

“I can make us some Molotovs,” J.B. suggested, removing his glasses to clean them on a pocket rag. “But those only confuse and don’t do any real damage.”

“Pipe bombs?” Dean suggested.

The Armorer replaced the glasses. “Unless we find a National Guard armory, I’d say that was our best bet.”

“A sec hunter in a civilian city,” Doc said thoughtfully in his deep bass, holstering his piece. “There must be something here of military value.”

Furrowing his brow, Jak got the idea. “Means mil blasters.”

“Unless it was for a missile silo outside the city,” Krysty suggested pragmatically. “Or an escort for some big gov type riding through.”

“True enough, dear lady.”

Somewhere distant there came the sound of cannons, or mebbe only a series of fast explosions.

“Trapped in a burning city, with no way out, and a sec hunter on our ass,” Mildred grumbled. “Plus, the Core and Gaza waiting above.”

“Mebbe not waiting,” Ryan said, studying the edge of the cliff rising above the city. “We’re going to do this by the numbers. First we get more ammo, then we try for the big stuff.”

Moving with a purpose, the companions hit the streets. Finding a bank with unbreakable Plexiglas windows, they located a phone book not eaten by the salt and got the address for a sports store, since there didn’t seem to be a military base or National Guard armory in town. A police station was useless, as cops never kept their extra ammo sealed to make it easier to use in case of trouble. Which meant the dead air would have corroded every round. But sport stores usually kept their stock of ammo sealed in plastic wrapped boxes to prevent pilferage. Moving fast and silently, they reached the store without incident and found a wealth of ammo under the counter, securely behind a steel lattice. J.B. easily unlocked that and everybody filled their pockets, taking a few spare boxes of a size used by some mil blasters, just to be sure. In the camping department, they found some MRE packs in acceptable condition, a lot of dehydrated food completely inedible, plus some underwater flares and other items that J.B. happily tucked away into his munitions bag.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *