Chapter Thirty-Six
Krysty lifted her right foot and kicked out at the back door of their prison hut, the heel of her blue Western boot smashing into the smoldering wood, just below the lock. The whole structure shivered but didn’t yield.
“Again,” Mildred gritted, glancing over her shoulder through the thickening smoke. “Wolfram and the Magus are nearly here.”
Krysty balanced herself and struck again, whispering a hasty prayer to the Earth Mother, Gaia, to give her extra strength to break out. This time the lock splintered away, and the door swung open onto the compound, close by the kitchen block, which was already well on fire.
The two women were in such a hurry to get out that they bumped into each other in the doorway, nearly stumbling down the stairs at the rear.
But there was no time for apologies.
Krysty grabbed Mildred by the arm. “We can double around the side and make for their rooms.”
“Get our blasters?”
“Sure.”
At that moment a young unarmed sec man, his eyes streaming from the gas fumes, came around the corner of the building and ran straight into Mildred. He threw a clumsy punch, dealing her a glancing blow on the shoulder.
“Bastard!” she snapped, bracing her wrist and smashing the heel of her hand into his face. Using all her strength, she struck him at the base of the nose, splintering the cartilage and septum, driving razored shards of bone upward through the back of his skull. The power of the blow sent them through the soft tissue, into the forepart of the brain, chilling him instantly.
The woman pushed the slumping corpse out of her way. “So much for my healing hands,” she said quietly.
“Keep low and move around the front,” Krysty warned. “Need to get our blasters.”
JAK HAD MANAGED to get Doc out of the burning building and into the semidarkness of the open space by the kitchen block. A handful of sec men had gathered near the rear entrance of the fortress, looking as though they were deep in clinical shock. They were huddled in a tight little group, paying little attention to their escaping prisoners. Beyond them, waving gently in the breeze, Jak could see the great globe of the balloon, tethered among the trees, its steel-coated surface reflecting the ruddy glow from the fires.
For a moment the teenager took stock of their situation. Wolfram’s domain was ruined forever. That was certain, with flames gathering strength, leaping from hut to hut, the tarred roofs blazing with a bright orange ferocity, the smoke thickening above the surrounding pines.
Jak squinted through the murk, looking beyond the ruined wag, seeing a couple of familiar figures. “There’s Ryan and J.B.,” he said.
“Where?”
“There.” He pointed with one of his throwing knives. “And there’s Krysty and Mildred, hiding by building where were locked in.”
“Are those dear fellows, Master Wolfram and Brother Magus, anywhere to be seen?”
Jak shook his head. “No. Mebbe done runner.”
THE INSIDE OF THE HUT was burning fiercely. The Magus led the way, the barrel of his blaster probing at the flaming walls like the tongue of a rattler. Wolfram, hand over his face, a kerchief pressed across his mouth, was coughing at his heels.
“They’re gone” he spluttered.
“Not far. Still a chance to retrieve them and tuck them up our sleeve.”
“I’m worried about” He stopped in the middle of the sentence, letting the words trickle away into the crackling inferno all around them.
“About what, my moist partner?” the Magus asked. “Nothing to do with stickies being attracted by the noise and fury and fire? Could it be that, Gert?”
“Yes. Yes, fuck their mutie souls! We know they’re out in the woods.” His swollen tongue stumbled over the words in his growing terror. “Hundreds of the sick bastards. They’ll come. The gates are down. The fence destroyed. Men dead. Everything lost to the flames. We must get away, Magus, before they come running and find us helpless.”
Behind them one of the main roof timbers collapsed in a shower of bright golden sparks. The Magus wiped a glowing splinter of wood from the steel lens over his right eye. “The back way out seems best,” he said quietly. “Now.”