“Might be,” Clem agreed, pausing to spit again. “That is, if this be a weapon and not some bizarre natural effect of the Deathlands. We be mighty close to the Washington Hole. All sorts of crazy stuff happens there.”
“Hey, look at this,” the lieutenant said, holding up a small gray object. “It’s an intact bullet.”
Leaning over in the saddle, a sec man glanced around closely. “Say, there’s lots of them. Over there, and there!”
“Weirdest thing,” the lieutenant said, frowning. “It’s not damaged in the slightest.”
“Oh, nuke me!” Clem exclaimed in sudden understanding, and he hawked out the whole chaw. “They must of been shooting at the sky, and the slug fell without hitting nothing!”
“The sky,” a sec man whispered. “You mean, a plane?”
“Or a bomb?” another asked in a hoarse whisper.
“Fucked if I know!” Clem wheeled his horse about. “Everybody, back to Front Royal! We got to warn Baron Cawdor before this thing strikes again!”
“Wait, sir!” the lieutenant shouted, waving.
“What for?” Clem demanded hotly, the reins tight in his hands.
The sec man took the reins of his own mount and handed them to a surprised Clem. “It took us two days to get here with full supplies. If you drop everything except your blaster, and take my horse as a spare, you can get there in one day.”
Clem tied the reins to the pommel of his saddle. “Smart thinking. See ya back the Front Royal!” With a war whoop, the chief of the sec men kicked his horse into a full gallop. Yards away, his saddlebags dropped to the road, then his water bag, the bedroll and then he was gone from sight over a hillock.
“One day,” the lieutenant said. “I just hope it’s enough time to evac the ville.”
“To do what?” a sec man asked. “Run away?”
“And what else can we do against a plane dropping bombs?” the sergeant retorted.
The rest of the brown shirts didn’t reply as the lieutenant climbed on the largest horse behind a private and they started riding southward to their homes. Hopefully, the ville would still be there when they arrived.
SMOKING A CIGAR in the morning light, the blue shirt watched the road winding down the side of the steep hill through his binocs and fought back a yawn. It was another two days until his relief came, and he could go back to the complex for hot meals and slave girls. Sniper duty was boring. Anybody he saw was fleeing the Tennessee River valley, and he wasn’t allowed to loot any food or have a woman. The survivors might meet Ryan coming along on the road and give away his location.
The mined bridge over the river was clear as always. Horses and people could cross safely, but Major Sheffield said that if a big wag like an APC or a Hummer tried to go across, the whole thing would blow sky-high. He’d liked to see that. It would help relieve the boredom.
To the south rose the foothills of the big mountains. They were little things, only a couple hundred feet high, hardly worth calling a hill. More of a mound, really. A dirt road wound down the steeply sloped side, zigzagging along to finally go over the top near the peak. Personally, the sec man didn’t think any wag could travel over the rocky terrain without busting an axle, or worse. It was for walking, or horses, not wags.
Which meant he was here for nothing, doing nothing. He took another drag on the cigar, and blew a smoke ring into the air, contemplating randomly shooting at folks as they passed by just to watch them dance.
Then a speck rose over the crest, and he took a look with the binocs. Probably just some more greenies from Georgia, or stickies. Focusing the military glasses on the hill, he followed the roadway until reaching the tiny dot again. The cigar dropped from his mouth, and he leaned forward, nearly falling from his perch in the tree. It was them! Holy shit, it was Ryan and his gang!
THE ROAD DOWN THE HILL was covered with rocks, making driving almost impossible. The Hummer scraped bottom more than once when it rolled over broken chunks of granite. The view was spectacular, although the trees lining the serpentine road blocked most of their view of the valley below. But they could catch glimpses of a river, and seemingly endless forests of blue pine carpeting the landscape to the horizon.
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