The one-eyed man toppled over like a empty bottle, dropping his blaster to the roofs pebbled surface. The SIG-Sauer skipped away, landing out of reach near a burning patch of tar as he struggled to free himself from the mutie’s deadly embrace.
Its hands slid higher, feeling his legs and crotch, oozing the secretions that allowed their sucker-covered fingers to stick to almost any known surface.
“Stop moving or I’ll rip it off, norm,” the stickie grated.
Ryan decided he’d take that chance. Twisting onto one side, he drew his panga from its sheath, the keen blade sliding out with practiced ease. Swinging the razor-sharp edge from the elevation of a high arc, Ryan brought it down on the unprotected back of the stickie’s neck. There wasn’t enough leverage of weight behind the blow to totally decapitate the mutant, but the blade still sunk down into flaky, yellowing skin with a satisfying thunk.
Hot blood sprayed out from the bite of the blade as the attacked mutie yowled in shock and pain, reaching back with one hand at the injured area. Feeling the sucker-enhanced grip loosen around his lower legs, Ryan pulled himself and the panga free, rolling on his back now and kicking out explosively, shutting up the mutie’s cries of agony with the heel of his boot.
The creature’s head snapped back like a sprung trap, breaking its neck. A sharp crack was the only sound heard as the shrieks from its throat were cut off sudden and quick by the killing force of Ryan’s blow.
Behind Ryan, Jak danced lightly off to the right, hurling out a series of leaf-bladed throwing knives. The starlike blades zipped forward, one after the other in a rapid succession as quick as shots fired from an automatic weapon. The albino’s keen, ruby-red eyes were designed for this sort of fightingin near darkness with the only light for illumination coming from the crackling fires.
Like a feral creature, he was obviously delighting in regressing to a near animal state as he threw the blades. Like an arcane form of magic, a blade would appear in his hand, only to disappear with the flick of a wrist, then instantly reappear in the face or throat of one of the marauding stickies.
Still, more of the muties were coming, this time by rope ladder as far as Ryan could tell. Another smart move on the part of whoever had planned this attack.
And some of the muties seemed to have a brain between them since they were actually starting to lay down a covering of automatic-weapons fire, chilling Rollins’s last sec man quickly and effectively.
“Shit,” Jak spit from between clenched teeth, his Colt empty. “All out.”
“We’re getting outnumbered and outgunned,” Ryan bellowed. “We’ve got to retreat. There’s not enough cover to try and save the roof.”
A shot rang out, explosive and loud, a single burst of man-made thunder that broke into the stillness. Krysty was taking time to aim and shoot, conserving the ammunition for her hand cannon as she chose her targets.
Off to one side, Rollins had one of the stickies by the neck. The mutie had used its uncanny adhesive-tipped fingers to return the murderous caress as both of them screamed into each other’s face.
“Rollins, watch it!” Krysty screamed just as the two of them fell over the raised edge of the mall’s roof, struggling all the way down into the darkness.
“NICE BLASTERS,” Mike said.
“Thanks,” Mildred replied.
“They for sale?” Ike asked.
“Nope,” J.B. retorted.
“I didn’t ask you, four-eyes. Besides, I owe you anyway for bashing me over the head.”
“You deserved it. Just wish I’d hit you harder.”
“Seems to me, I’m the one with the bargaining power here.” Mike said, gesturing with his blaster.
“Seems to me, the two of you can’t come up with half a brain between you. So what?” J.B. replied, giving as good as he got.
“So mebbe I’ll take your blasters and chill the three of you.”
“Not too bright, even for you clowns,” Mildred replied, shaking her head, the beaded plaits of her hair swaying back and forth with the movement. “Have you been out in the mall? Triple-bad scene.”