Grunting and laughing, neither sec man noticed the presence of the sweaty slave until he was upon them. Scarface slammed the nearest man with the fist weighted with iron. The overseer’s face caved in, pinkish brains smearing over the cannie’s armored hand.
“Black dust!” the other cried out, and pulled himself free to reach for his blaster. But his pants were down around his ankles, the folds of cloth tangling around the wheelgun. Scarface tipped over the table, tumbling the girl onto the sec man. They both fell to the floor in a tangle of naked limbs.
Rushing forward, the cannie wrapped the chain around the neck of the blue shirt and pulled it tight The sec man gasped for air, punching weakly at the massive arms of the coldheart, his straggles growing weaker by the second. Finally, he resorted to clawing at the cannie with his nails, raking bloody furrows into the tan skin. Annoyed, Scarface jerked the chain once, and the sec man toppled over, his eyes distended and hanging loose on limp white stalks of slimy ganglia.
“Who are you?” the girl whispered, drawing her rags protectively closer. Blood dribbled down her thighs, and one eye was swollen shut.
“Just an escaped slave,” Scarface said, stripping one corpse and then the other. Their clothes were ridiculous small for the giant, but he draped a gun belt over his shoulder as a bandolier and checked the load in the wheelgun. It was clean and serviceable.
“Thank you,” she whispered, and rushed forward to hug the killer. “Oh, the things they did to me! I’ll never feel clean again.”
“Not a problem,” Scarface said, taking her head in both hands as if about to bestow a loving kiss. Then he savagely twisted his grip. Her neck bones snapped, and the dead girl slumped to the floor on top of the bleeding overseers. A peg on the wall held a ring of keys, and Scarface easily found the one that unlocked his chains. Wrapping the spare blaster in the two uniforms, he opened the door of the shed and looked outside. Slaves were working in the quarry, the overseers watching the slaves, but not one another. The fools.
Beyond the quarry, he could see green trees, and, rising above those, was the dish, the shiny bowl dominating the valley.
Scarface looked again, wondering why it had caught his attention, then he saw the machine was moving, rotating slowly. Curious. Some sort of radio—that much he knew. But who were the whitecoats talking to?
Crawling to the edge of the platform, Scarface dropped the bundle to Snake.
Rummaging through a small bookcase in the corner, he found a pack of cigarettes, matches, a knife, a whistle and a pistol with a signal flare inside. There was also a lever-action longblaster of a type he was unfamiliar with, and a shotgun, both with extra shells sewn into loops along their straps. Mighty useful indeed.
Stuffing the weapons into a bag, he slung it over his shoulder, then paused and returned to the dead. Lifting the girl onto the table, he chose a spot and bit in deep, his pointed teeth tearing away a mouthful of tender flesh. He chewed the bloody gobbet quickly and swallowed.
“Fresh meat” he said, sighing. “Been too damn long.”
There was movement at the door, and he spun with the blaster ready. Scarface relaxed as the rest of his crew came inside the shack and closed the door. Snake and Cooler were dressed as overseers. Mad Dog was pale and dripping sweat but held on to Digger and stayed upright.
“Now what?” Snake asked.
Scarface passed over the shotgun. “Gonna get us some transport for Mad Dog. Ain’t leaving him behind.”
“We steal a wag, they follow us forever,” Cooler warned, testing the edge on the knife. “And they got some machines like I never seen!”
“That doesn’t matter,” Scarface replied coolly. “Nobody can track us if they think we’re already dead.”
“Dead?” Mad Dog whispered.
“Not just us,” Snake said, smiling in understanding. “You mean everybody is dead.”
“Exactly.” Working the lever on the longblaster, Scarface inspected the round, then inserted it into the side port of the breech. “Help yourselves to the meat, but don’t stuff your bellies. We’ll have to move fast when the chance comes.”