Dark Reckoning by James Axler

Kicking open the back doors, the blues charged onto the street and started to chill every male they saw, young and old. Many tried to flee for the woods, but they never reached the trees alive.

Firing his Kalashnikov at the scurrying figures, Campbell laughed in delight. His troops were tired from being bounced around in the APC for days and needed some exercise. This mud pit would do fine for some Ramp;R until they left for Virginia to hunt for the next dish.

Separating from the howling mob, a scraggly white-hair dashed into her rickety hut and came back with a huge handcannon. She cocked the hammer and pulled the trigger, but the big bore blaster only made a soft bang and sprayed out some pretty sparks. A laughing blue shirt shot her in the hip and stomach. As the whitehair fell, she fired again, the weapon booming in discharge. A round slammed into the turret just below Campbell, missing him by an inch.

Snarling, the sergeant flicked the cannon into operation for a moment, the old woman and her hut vanishing in thunder and flame.

The slaughter was over within minutes. The blues herded the surviving women into the middle of the ville, making them stand in the muddy hole. Ruthlessly, they weeded out the ugly, the old and the pregnant, the lifeless bodies splashing into the dirty water.

“Please, not my daughter,” a woman begged, hugging the whimpering girl. “She ain’t never been with no man!”

Brutally slapping her hard across the face, Davies grinned as he pulled the mother out of the mud by the collar of her tattered dress. “Good! I like them fresh,” he said, leering. “Going to do you both, so you better show her how it’s done right, or I’ll hurt her real bad!”

Striding from the LAV, Campbell started for another girl in a tattered white dress, when an older woman darted from the crowd and grabbed him by the leg.

“Take me. I ain’t much with looks,” she pleaded, “but I can do things no young’un can. Dirty things you never thought of. Make a gaudy slut gag.”

Campbell hauled the woman to her feet and ripped open her dress, her bare breasts spilling into view. The woman made no sound as he squeezed her soft flesh until tears filled her eyes.

“Yeah, you’ll do,” he said, pinching a nipple. “Okay, boys, take what you want and ace the rest. This slut is mine.”

As the sergeant pushed the woman toward the wag, the other blue shirts forced the remaining females into the ruin of the dish. Laughing and jeering, the men forced the women to strip each other naked and tie themselves to the tables and beds with then’ own clothing. Soon, only the sounds of muffled sobs and the slap of wet flesh could be heard in the isolated ville.

TWO HOURS LATER, the companions gathered in the control room of the redoubt near the door to the mat-trans chamber.

“Made straws for teams, draw,” Jak said, holding out a fist. A collection of plastic broom bristles jutted from his pale hand.

Scowling, Ryan shook his head. “Too risky. We go in balanced teams. Two each, point and anchor. J.B. with me. Krysty with Dean, Jak with Mildred.”

“Who goes first?” Dean asked.

“Ryan or me always take point,” J.B. said, polishing his glasses. “Same goes for here.”

“And what about me?” Doc asked.

“Jumps hit you too hard,” Krysty stated, brushing back her waving hair. “We can’t take the chance of you passing out for hours. The LD button only works for thirty minutes. We’d lose you forever.”

“Besides, one of us should be fully awake here just in case of trouble,” Ryan added gruffly. “I want that damn cannon of yours ready to cover my ass in case we come back with a sec droid chasing us.”

Doc said nothing for a few minutes, then relaxed his tense stance. “Then, you may consider me, Paris,” the man pledged. “None shall breech these gates of Troy.”

Arming themselves from the meager supply of weapons, Ryan and J.B. each took a Kalashnikov, one extra clip and two grens. Except for their knives, the men left behind their other weapons. There was no sense carrying deadweight when they would need every ounce free to haul back supplies.