“Line up, boys,” said a big sec man who sported a bushy mustache that he stroked lovingly. Oddly, he stood a bit away from the others. “We can each have a turn with the slut!”
The sec men eagerly formed a line to the right, slapping one another on the back and making vulgar comments.
“Officers first,” a lieutenant stated, unzipping his pants.
“Sure,” said the sec man and, leveling the blaster, he hosed the lieutenant with a stuttering burst of rounds. Shifting the barrel, he then moved quickly down the row, spraying them in a classic figure-eight pattern. The last few tried to grab their weapons, but to no avail. At that range, the rapid-firing Kalashnikov assault rifle tore them into pieces.
Disoriented, Krysty could only stare in wonder at the man, as he slammed in a fresh clip and shot the blue shirts some more just to make sure everybody was dead. When he was done, the sec man shouldered the AK-47, drew a knife and started sawing at her bonds.
“Have you free in a tick,” he grunted, putting pressure on the blade. The knotted hemp rope was thick and didn’t cut easily.
“Why?” Krysty whispered, staring at the man. It was the only question she could think to ask. He was so close she could smell Ms sour sweat and the stale smoke on his breath.
“The name is Orin Wyndham, ma’am,” he said as the first rope parted. “I hold the rank of sergeant in the sec force of this ville’s lawful ruler, Baron Nathan Cawdor.”
“A brown?” she gasped, rubbing her aching wrist. The skin was rough and sore, but not bleeding.
“Never heard of spies before?”
The second rope parted, the knife blade hitting the armored hull of the LAV with a clank, then the sergeant knelt to work on the lower ropes. “There are six of us in Overton’s troops, miss. We’re not quite as dumb as he thinks.” The lower ropes didn’t offer anywhere near the resistance of the early bonds, and in seconds the man stood and turned his back on Krysty so she could get dressed.
There was a rustling of cloth for a few minutes, then a hand grabbed his shoulder and spun the loyalist.
“Thank you,” Krysty said softly. She knew the words were completely inadequate, but what else was there to say? “Ithanks.”
Twitching his mustache, Orin bowed slightly, then stood with the gun belt of the dead officer in his hand. “Let’s get the fuck out of here,” he suggested.
As her own weapon was nowhere in sight, Krysty belted on the bloody leather and checked the handcannon in the holster. It was a .357 Magnum Smith amp; Wesson with a four-inch barrel. Cracking the cylinder, she found it fully loaded with homemade dumdums, and the ammo pouch on the belt held several reloads, both .38- and .357-caliber. That confused her for a moment, until she remembered J.B. once mentioning that certain Smith amp; Wesson revolvers could take both cartridges with perfect safety. That made it a near perfect survivalist blaster, as that feature doubled the type of ammo a person could use.
Krysty took a longblaster off the floor, then slowly went along the row of corpses stuffing her pockets with extra clips. One private also had a nice thirteen-inch knife that she took and shoved into her boot as a spare.
“Sounds quiet out there,” Wyndham announced, ear pressed to the garage door. “Don’t know if that’s good or bad.”
“It’s too soon for either side to have won, so it probably means everybody is digging in,” Krysty said, pointing at the interior door. “Where does that go?”
“It’s a storage closet, filled with wires and cables, and odd predark things. Don’t know where he got them.”
Krysty stared at the blank door. So that was where they hid the electrical supplies brought in by Stephen. The cables had to be very important to Overton for him to guard the equipment so well.
The sergeant studied her for a moment. “Are you okay, miss? You’re very pale.”
“It’ll pass, and the name is Krysty,” she snapped irritably, a flush immediately rising to her cheeks. Mother Gaia, she was still too weak from summoning the Earth Mother’s power to charge into the streets and do anything but get chilled. However, an alternative plan offered itself.
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