“And what rope we have is too thick,” she added. “We could loosen the weave, but that could take a hell of a lot of time.”
“And the longer we sit still, the closer they get.”
“Well, we’re sure as hell not going to walk six hundred miles.”
“Might have to.”
“And mebbe not. Now it could just be this heat, but I got a crazy idea,” J.B. said slowly, tilting back his fedora. “Might work, might not, but I’ll need a really sharp blade, the best we got.”
“Mildred, bring a scalpel!” Ryan called, motioning the woman over.
“To fix a wag?” the physician replied, coming their way.
“What are you planning to do?”
“J.B. has a plan,” Krysty replied, stepping back to give the others some more space to work.
Reaching into her satchel, Mildred pulled out a small canvas bundle. The scalpel was really only an box cutter blade from a high school art department, but it was the sharpest, thinnest blade they owned. “Whatever you’re planning is going to ruin the edge,” Mildred stated, passing over the blade. Even though the blade was segmented, every portion was precious.
“Can’t be helped, Millie,” J.B. said, starting to loosen a retaining bolt with a big crescent wrench. After a few moments, Mildred could see what he was planning to do, and bent over the engine to lend a hand where she could, her slim fingers reaching deeper into the complex machine than his muscular hands.
“Okay, we’re not going anywhere for a while,” Ryan stated, moving away so he wouldn’t block their light. The dune was throwing a much needed shadow across the hot vehicle, cutting the harsh sunlight to a tolerable level. “We better get hard in case they come back. We’re going to need a lookout, and you’re the lightest, Dean, so up you go, son.”
“Check!” the boy cried resolutely. Grabbing hold of the exposed ribs of the tattered awning, Dean pulled himself onto the roof of the wag. Balanced precariously on the riddled canvas, the boy shaded his face with a hand to try to see into the eastern light if the bugs were still in pursuit.
“No sign of them!” Dean called down.
“Yet,” Doc added, removing his sword from its ebony stick and plunging the steel into the salty ground nearby for fast access.
With a breeze spreading his frock coat like dark wings, the scholar expertly purged the spent chambers of his LeMat and started the laborious process of reloading the black-powder weapon. Three chambers were still charged, but Doc never liked to have such a thin defense between himself and the world. Time and time again, the universe had proved it wasn’t on his side, and Doc never planned on giving it an even break.
Whistling to get Dean’s attention, J.B. tossed up his Navy longeyes and the boy made the catch. Extending the telescope to its full length, Dean scanned the simmering desert.
“Let us know if anything comes this way,” Ryan directed, thumbing another round into the clip to finish the reload, then returning it into the grip of the SIG-Sauer.
“Even if it’s just a whirlwind or a tumbleweed,” he added grimly. “They got the drop on us last time from underground, so stay alert.”
“Gotcha,” Dean answered, the brass length of the telescope held in both hands for a steady view.
“Use fuel cans,” Jak said from the rear of the wag, passing down a container. “Set perimeter. Bugs come, we shoot.”
“A firewall,” Krysty grunted. “Best we can do, I’m afraid. Here, pass one over.”
Holstering their blasters, Krysty and Doc started to help the others haul the cans of fuel into the desert, placing them fifty feet away and about ten feet apart. Hopefully, the cans were far enough apart that shooting one wouldn’t start a chain reaction and ace the companions along with the millipedes. But there was no way to test it, so they simply had to depend on a best guess.
“Still clear,” Dean asked hesitantly. “Just some dust blowing to the west.” Or was it dust? Hmm, the boy wasn’t really sure. Could that have been smoke? He trained the longeyes in that direction again, but whatever it had been was gone now, dissipated by the sluggish currents rising off the warming plain of hard salt. Then he caught it again, high in the sky.