“Tell me, Doctor,” Doc began suddenly, breaking into Mildred’s reverie, “do you honestly think that we have a chance?”
“Of stopping the Illuminated Ones or saving ourselves?” Mildred countered.
Doc shrugged. “Either, or, neither, nor…”
“I don’t know,” Mildred said after some thought. “I reckon we can whip their asses, frankly, but I really couldn’t call it over whether we survive.”
Doc nodded, almost to himself. “I would have said the same. I just hope that, at the very least, we can be in at the kill…as it were.”
In an attempt to make this deadline, the recon party had now reached the edge of the ville, where Nita came to meet them.
“What’s happening?” Tammy asked without preamble.
The tall blonde looked at the small warrior and shrugged. “A lot of nothing, by the looks of it.”
“You fuck-wit, don’t talk in riddles, just say it,” Dette screamed at the blonde from another horse.
“Look, get off my back—” Nita began before Tammy cut in.
“Shut it, both of you. Save that shit for if we ever get time.” The Gate number two raised an eyebrow toward Krysty that spoke volumes, before continuing, “Now tell me what’s happening in the ville, and keep it brief.”
Nita nodded slowly, taking a second to compose herself before beginning. “Okay, well, the sec posts have either been deserted or wiped out this end, as the wags just swept in. I dunno about the other three roads. But the wags are in the center of the ville, down the main drag. They’re just sitting there at the moment, picking off the enemy and soaking up the Crossroads fire.”
“What about the ville sec and the inhabitants?” Krysty asked.
“Far as I could tell from where I was, they’ve just all grouped together along each side of the drag and are trying to blast the wags without realizing that they can’t hurt them.”
Tammy thought about this for a moment, looked up at the position of the sun, then turned to the others.
“Okay,” she began, “by the time that the main party gets here we’ll have a couple of hours of sun left before nightfall. They shouldn’t be that long, but I want a full report ready for Gloria. We need to know the full situation for all the sec posts around the ville, so we’ll split into four and take each point of the compass. Report back here soon as can.” She then divided the recon party into pairs to take each sec post position on the four blacktops before adding, “Nita, saddle up with Dette…and you put up with it and keep your mouth shut, lady.”
She turned to Krysty. “That should keep those two quiet. Now let’s do it.”
The recon party split and headed at a gallop for the sec posts that were situated at the edge of the ville on each of the four blacktop roads. Leading by example, Tammy headed for the farthest, whipping her horse into a gallop, closely followed by Krysty. At the point where they had met Nita on the road, they were about half a mile from the sec post on that particular blacktop road, and so traveled around the ville at a half mile radius to the sec posts at each point in and out. It gave them a degree of safety lest anyone be manning those posts, but made the journey longer. It also made it hard to tell what was happening in the ville, the distant sounds of blasterfire that drifted across the empty arable pasture being drowned out by the sound of the horses’ hooves.
Krysty felt her hair blow free, billowing out behind her as the horse galloped toward the sec post. The very fact that her hair was so free flowing at this point suggested to her that they would find no one present at the post, and nothing to suggest any danger about to befall them.
“It’s over there,” she shouted toward Tammy, pointing across the empty fields toward a clump of vegetation where the signs of a sec post were clearly visible. The fact that the camouflage was so poorly disguised at this stage suggested that it was deserted. Nonetheless, both women slowed their horses and drew their blasters, ready for any eventuality as they approached.