to be the reason you’re chilled. First sign of trouble, you think of yourself.”
“Like you would?” She raised an eyebrow at him.
Despite the pain, it still raised a smile from the Armorer. “Mebbe.”
Looking ahead of her, Mildred could see that already a gap had opened up between
them and the rest of the group. Ryan wasn’t setting that fast a pace. It was
more an indication of how J.B.’s ankle was slowing them.
Mildred was about to call to Ryan to wait for them when it happened.
There was a sudden silence from the brush, as though all the hidden life within
had, at a silent command, ceased to move. A moment of eerie silence was then
broken by a wild screeching that began as one animal and increased as more and
more joined in the cry, a cacophony of screeching that drowned out the fading
noise of the storm.
“Fireblast! What the—?”
Ryan’s shout was interrupted by the explosive crack of Dean’s Browning Hi-Power
as the boy sighted one of the mutie squirrels springing from the brush.
The creatures had incredible power in their heavily muscled back legs. It was
almost as though the creature had taken flight, its jump describing a sharp arc
as it achieved a height of just over six feet, starting to descend with its
elongated jaws distended, teeth flashing as it headed straight for Ryan’s good
eye.
Dean was a good shot. He fired at the creature, judging its airspeed in a
fraction of a second. The slug from the Browning ripped through the top of the
creature’s skull, entering through one eye and exiting just behind its flattened
ear, taking a chunk of the skull with it. Its trajectory thrown off by the
impact of the bullet, the creature spun in the air, landing just in front of the
one-eyed warrior.
Ryan would have appreciated Dean’s fine shooting if he had the chance. But he
was far too busy taking evasive action against another of the squirrels, which
had emerged from the brush behind him. He turned quickly on his heel as the
sound of the disturbed brush reached him.
The mutie was coming at him from a lower trajectory, its front paws tearing at
the air with its wickedly sharp claws as it sprung toward his groin, looking to
tear into his flesh. Ryan crouched and lowered the SIG-Sauer, loosing off a
round that tore a chunk of fur and flesh from the side of the creature, spraying
a fine mist of blood behind it.
The mutie squirrel bared its teeth in a squeal of agony as Ryan sidestepped the
flailing arc of its trajectory and stamped on the skull, his heavy combat boot
crushing the bone and smearing the brain on the earth. He was unwilling to waste
ammunition when he was unsure of how many of the creatures were lying in wait.
There could have been a few, or hundreds. He couldn’t allow the latter option to
occupy his mind.
Bedlam had broken out around them as the creatures sprang from the brush in
attack. Krysty fell to one knee, keeping a still poise about her as she picked
off as many of the creatures as possible before having to take the chance of
reloading and being temporarily defenseless.
They seemed to have a group intelligence about them, as they concentrated less
on her the more she put down. So when she had to reload as swiftly as possible,
she was granted the respite she needed.
Mildred, too, was having no little success in picking off the creatures. She
adopted a classic firing stance and peppered the air with slugs from the ZKR,
shooting fast and accurately—and thereby buying herself time to reload.
The two mute sec men weren’t faring so well. Neither was an excellent shot, and
they were missing more of the flying squirrels than they were hitting. As their
blasters ran out of ammunition, they found themselves using the rifles as clubs,
both reversing the blasters and swatting the creatures out of the air. They were
marginally more successful in this, as the number of stunned squirrels littering
the path attested. Fortunately most of those hit had their spines or skulls