James Axler – Gaia’s Demise

“Me,” a familiar voice said.

Sensing trouble, Ryan padded across the room and unbolted the door, letting Mildred slip through.

“What’s the matter? Is the baron planning on robbing us?” Krysty asked, stepping into pants.

“Worse. The old coot freed the slaves,” she said quickly.

His chest glistening with sweat, Ryan inhaled deeply. “I expected as much. Do the sec men know what happened?”

“Not yet, but they will soon.”

Ryan laid the blaster on the warm bed and started to get dressed. “Wake the others and get the horses.”

“Already done. They’re downstairs packing food.”

“Let’s go.”

Hurrying downstairs, the companions mounted their horses and rode casually to the front gate. The guards were snoring on the ground, and they passed through without hindrance.

Once outside the walls, they pressed the horses into a full gallop.

“Which way are the slaves heading?” Ryan demanded.

“The freed prisoners,” Doc said, stressing the words, “are dispersing into the forest.”

“That’s east,” Dean said, tightening the reins on his mare. “Good, because we’re going north.”

“West,” his father corrected.

“But the closest Shiloh is in Tennessee,” J.B. said, holding on to his fedora.

Just then, barking hounds sounded from the ville and a bell began to clang.

“I’ll explain later,” Ryan said, urging his mount to greater speed. Privately, the one-eyed man wanted to be furious at Doc for causing this unnecessary trouble, but he couldn’t find a good reason. They had been planning on leaving in the morning anyway, and to be honest, Ryan had briefly considered freeing the slaves himself. He supposed there were just some things a man had to do no matter what the consequences.

Chapter Twelve

Dawn was breaking on the horizon, the indigo clouds of night lightening into the purple and orange of a new day. Sleepy people rose from their cots and beds, stumbling out of their cottages and huts, shuffling across the dirt to start another long day in the bitter fields. The rains had come late this year, and the soil was yielding poor crops. Many of the plants grew twisted and wrong, the grain inedible or deadly poison. Game was scarce, and few cans of predark food were found these days, so farming was the only hope of surviving another year.

Suddenly, the roar of a powerful machine broke the morning stillness as an open-topped wag full of armed sec men drove into the middle of the ramshackle ville. The machine was closely followed by a line of trucks draped in canvas. Armored and bristling with weapons, the war wags stopped with a squeal of brakes in the middle of the gawking crowd, the population backing away from the fearful machine. Some of the smaller children started to cry, clutching their mothers, while burly men with callused hands stepped forward brandishing sickles and axes.

“What are you doing here?” a towering giant demanded, squinting in hostility. “Go away!”

In the vehicle, a clean-shaved lieutenant in a crisp blue shirt stood and raised a small cone to his mouth. “Greetings and salutations, my fellow Americans.” His loud voice boomed across the motley collection of huts. “I bring you great news from the baron of the United States!”

Instantly, a few men on the outskirts of the crowd dropped whatever they were doing and raced into the field. But black shapes plowed through the summer weeds to cut them off, and the men found a dozen more Hummers encircling the little ville.

“Return and obey!” a loud voice ordered.

Most of the escapees turned and skulked back to the crowd. But two bolted past the war machines, nimbly racing for the forest. The deadly whine of autofire sounded, brass shells arcing into the air like a golden rainbow. The stuttering line of tracer rounds reached out to sweep across the escapees, and the dead men tumbled to the ground, torn to pieces from the heavy-caliber bullets.

“As I said,” repeated the sec man in the first Hummer, “greetings and salutations. We have come to offer you a once-in-a-lifetime chance to help feed your families and assist in rebuilding our wounded nation into the glory it once was! America reborn from the ashes! And only you can help!”