James Axler – Gaia’s Demise

Stiffly, Ryan rose from a crouch and leveled the SIG- Sauer. “Light them up!” he shouted, and started firing.

Steady on one knee, Doc triggered the LeMat four times, and a cannie flew backward to slam into the truck, his faceless corpse sliding to the road, leaving a smear of pulped organs behind on the crumbled metal chassis.

Lying on the berm, Dean was snapping off shots, and Mildred cut loose with the shotgun, the flechette rounds cutting a cannie in two.

Spotting his lost Colt Python in the dust, Jak dived for the blaster and came up firing, the .357 hollowpoint rounds blowing fist-sized holes in men and truck. Hit in the shoulder, a cannie dropped the ammo clip for his AK-47. In panic, he ran away but got only a few yards before reaching the blasting caps. The first blew off a foot. Crying in shock, he fell to a knee and that, too, was removed. The man collapsed to the ground and was torn into bloody pieces.

Then a large cannie lifted another as a shield and sprayed the companions with a Kalashnikov on full-auto, the machine gun fiercely chattering.

Hastily reloading, Krysty felt a tug on her bearskin coat, telling of a near miss. As she dived for cover, Ryan slapped in a fresh clip, stood and fired. The 9 mm round punched a neat hole in the forehead of the dead man, an explosion of blood and brains washing over the cannie behind him. Blind, the scarred man dropped the corpse and started to randomly shoot his blaster. Krysty hit him in the shoulder, but he didn’t stop firing. Dean got him in the thigh, and Jak buried a knife in his gut. Bleeding from a dozen wounds, the cannie dropped the spent blaster, drew a knife and charged, shouting insanely. Stepping out of the way, Ryan and Mildred both put lead in his chest, and finally Doc removed his head completely with a deafening discharge from the .63 smoothbore of the powerful LeMat.

The companions stood tensely, listening for any movement, waiting for another attack. Minutes passed slowly, and the fire under the truck died away as the fuel was consumed.

“Okay, it’s clear,” Ryan decided, holstering his piece. “Let’s gather the blasters and get going. That smoke is going to attract attention we don’t want.”

“Why didn’t the big guy die faster?” Dean demanded, removing the partially loaded clip from his blaster and inserting a full magazine.

“Went berserk,” Mildred replied, holstering her ZKR target pistol. “There was so much adrenaline pumping through his body, he could have continued fighting for quite a while. It’s rare, but does happen sometimes in battle.”

“He took that many slugs and stayed alive?”

“Oh, no, he was already dead. Just still moving.”

“Mutie?” the boy asked.

The physician sighed. “Quite the human thing to do.”

“Hey, look at this,” Krysty said, lifting a bare leg.

“There are shackle scars on his ankle. These men were slaves.”

“Escaped Silas,” Jak replied, recovering his blades from the dead men. He wiped them clean on the clothes of one of the fallen, then on an oily cloth from the pocket of his fatigues. One blade he slid up his sleeve; the other went into a boot.

“Which means overseers could be on their trail,” Ryan stated, finding the Steyr and checking the blaster for damage. It was dirty but otherwise in fine shape.

Slinging the longblaster over a shoulder, Ryan hurried to the Hummer. He started the engine and tried to drive it off the truck, but the wag seemed stuck on something underneath. Shifting gears, Ryan fought with the entangled wag, only making matters worse before admitting defeat.

“Sounds like a broken axle,” he stated, climbing from the Hummer. “We walk from here.”

A sloshing sound announced the arrival of J.B. from the river. As the Armorer walked onto the shore, he was holding another large lump of plastique. “Bridge is clear,” he told them wearily. “Not yet,” Doc said, pointing with his swordstick. “It is covered with blasting caps.”

Turning, J.B. snorted. “We can use some branches to simply sweep them into the river. No prob.”

“Unfortunately, the Hummer is out of commission,” Ryan said. “The front axle is busted, and the truck is dead. We forcibly removed the engine and burned off the fuel.”