“Some kind of sec scouting machine?” J.B. asked of no one in particular.
“Whatever it is, it’s got us out in the open,” Ryan replied. “Take cover. Spread and keep moving until you find it. Don’t give them a chance to take us as a group.”
He had no doubt that the craft would be armed, and this assumption was confirmed as they scattered. The whine of the aircraft was punctured by the staccato burst of a machine blaster, and the soil around them was ripped up by a hail of shells.
“Fireblast!” Ryan exclaimed, diving and rolling for the cover of a clump of bushes as the shells tore at his heels. Coming up for air, he could see that J.B., Mildred and Doc had found similar cover, while Krysty, Jak and Dean were headed for more outlying clumps.
The pilot of the sec machine had to be distracted while they attained that cover.
“J.B.! Try and take out the engine,” Ryan yelled, taking the Steyr rifle off his shoulder.
“Okay, but wait until it drops a little more. Won’t hit it otherwise,” the Armorer returned.
Watching the craft turn and start to fire on the three still heading for cover, Ryan felt a gnawing impatience. He wanted to stop his people from being fired upon, but knew that J.B. was right. To fire now would be nothing less than wasting ammo, as the aircraft was still out of range.
Blasterfire strafed the ground around Dean, Jak and Krysty, firing in a wide arc that still encompassed all three.
“Now!” J.B. yelled to Ryan as the biplane came closer to the ground.
The one-eyed man and the Armorer both stood up from their cover and took aim. J.B. had favored his M-4000, and both blasters roared almost simultaneously.
Ryan had aimed for the front of the craft and the engine; J.B., with a load of barbed metal flechettes, had aimed for the body of the craft. Knowing it was made of fabric stretched over a metal skeleton, he reasoned that the flechettes could rip through and take out the pilot.
Both weapons achieved their aim. The engine coughed and spluttered as dense clouds of black smoke began to rise, and the flight path of the plane dipped and swerved as though the pilot had momentarily lost control. The machine blaster also ceased.
The biplane turned and headed off shakily, the course erratic and the engine spluttering.
The companions regrouped, watching it recede into the distance.
“Well, at least we know there’s a ville near here,” Mildred stated. “We just need to follow the trail.”
“And I’m certain we’ll be assured a warm welcome,” Doc added with more than a little sarcasm.
Chapter Two
They followed the direction of the retreating biplane, which took them away from the course they had originally planned. The prospect of finding some kind of ville, some kind of life, was too good to ignore, even though, as Doc had pointed out, they were unlikely to receive a warm welcome.
After an hour spent trekking over the rotting arable fields, they came to the remains of a two-lane blacktop road that stretched into the distance. The biplane was still visible, its oily smoke trail etched in the sky. J.B. looked toward the west, where the plane was headed, shielding his eyes from the glare of the sun.
“It’s holding up well,” he muttered, “and not dipping.”
“Which means?” Dean queried.
“That the ville it came from is still some distance— good dozen miles, I reckon.”
“Let’s still head for it,” Ryan suggested. “We’ll try and keep good time, but stay triple red. Nearer we get—”
“—more likely to be sec patrols,” Mildred finished. “We hear you.”
They strung out in formation and proceeded along the side of the road, ignoring the smoothed surface in preference to a rutted drainage ditch that ran along the side. It provided cover for them in the event of hostility; and, more importantly, would do the same for any sec ambushes. So to prevent being taken by surprise, they would flush out this territory as they traveled along.
After the first four miles, the only sign they had of any kind of habitation were dirt roads that would lead off the blacktop at semiregular intervals. J.B. queried where they could lead, and both Doc and Mildred told him that they could be access roads to fields, or tracks leading to old farms from before skydark.