Hellbenders

“It’s a simple plan because simple is best. Make it too complex, and everyone has to remember what the fuck they’re doing in the heat of battle. Make it too complex, and it’s hard to adjust if something happens that we don’t expect. But I’ll tell you one thing—it’s simple enough for us to chill the fuckers and finally gain vengeance.”

As he finished, a roar swept the room, along with cries of hate against the barons and their villes. This seemed to spur Correll on, as he yelled above the noise, “We’ve been screwed for too long, we’ve waited too long. Lives have been destroyed, people we love have been chilled, lives we wanted to live have been denied us. Now we can take all that back and show them that they had no right to take it away from us. We’re hell-bent on vengeance and we will have it.”

The room was deafening as the cheers and whoops rose to a crescendo.

Ryan and J.B. exchanged glances and looked around the room. The only people whose eyes weren’t lit by the fires of fanaticism were those of their fellow travelers…and also Danny, who looked distinctly uneasy with the whole affair. It was Danny whose crestfallen and bemused expression summed up their feelings as Correll spoke again.

“I hate the fact that the fucking chem storm threatened to ruin the whole plan. I hate it that the fuckers we’ve got in those villes can’t tell us shit because of rad interference stopping transmission. I hate the fact that we’re going into this blind compared to what it should be, but I’ll tell you all something—we have right on our side, and that’s what’s going to see us through and help us defeat those bastards and avenge all those we’ve lost. Now let’s get this show on the road,” he yelled, whipping the enthusiasm and fire of his people into a frenetic state as they began to filter out of the room and down to the wag bays, where they would pick up the last of their traveling supplies and gun the wags into action.

The companions were among the last to leave the room. Mildred made her way over to Ryan and whispered urgently to him.

“I don’t have to tell you, do I?” she began. “I’ve seen that so often in the old days. Papa Joe is about as unstable as you can get, like a volcano about to blow. Trouble is, we’re going to be right in the path of it this time.”

“Yeah, I know that,” Ryan returned in an undertone, “but what can we do? We’ve got to roll with it for now.”

“Listen, if he carries on like this, I wouldn’t like to bet on our chances of reaching the interception point in one piece with him in the lead, let alone winning a firelight.”

J.B., who had heard their exchange, interjected. “It’s no use worrying about that, Millie. Ryan’s right, we can’t back out now. We’ve got to run with the pack and then play it by ear. Thing we’ve got is that we can stay cooler than them. They’re all as fired up as Correll is. We’ve got to trust to our reactions being better.”

Mildred fixed the Armorer with a sardonic stare, her eyebrow raised. “John, don’t you realize that the last thing I’m worried about is our ability? We’re not the ones giving orders, and he’s got superior numbers. What I’m worried about is the few of us having to fight on three fronts instead of two. That could be stretching things a little too thin.”

“We’ll have to see,” Ryan replied. “We don’t have any other option.”

With which decision, the one-eyed man led them after the retreating Hellbenders, toward the wag bay.

Chapter Fourteen

In the wag bay, the heat, smell and noise were intense. The Hellbenders were checking the wags, loading up the last supplies of ammo and grens, and settling themselves into the variety of vehicles in order to begin the trek to the ambush point.

As the companions entered, Jenny approached them.

“Papa Joe wants you and Krysty to go with him,” she said to Ryan. “J.B., he wants you to go in the second wag with Mildred. I’ll be in that one, too. Dean, you and Jak and Doc are to go in the third wag out. Each of the first three will form a lead point for the different parties when we reach the destination. He values your experience in different environments, and wants to spread you out to be as effective as possible.”

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *