James Axler – Rat King

swollen and spilling over the top of his boot, “let alone right here.” She

prodded with a surprising gentleness at the area ringed by the remains of the

snout. J.B. flinched, even though she never made contact.

“Need get teeth out,” Jak commented, coming over to look. “Now. Meds left?” he

asked of Krysty and Mildred.

The black woman shook her head angrily, her beaded plaits swinging around her

head. “Those asswipes at the redoubt took just about everything when they

stripped us. We might have got the blasters back from the armory, but they

weren’t kind enough to leave everything else in there.”

But even as she spoke, her hands were restlessly searching through every pocket

of her coat, opening flaps and probing into the corners of cavernous folds of

material. With an exclamation somewhere between amazement, disgust and relief,

she came up with a sealed roll of medicated bandage and a small bottle of pills.

The label revealed them to be nonspecific antibiotics. She worried about a

potential allergic reaction, but had no choice. They might help fight whatever

rad-altered infections he could pick up from the vicious teeth that were

embedded in his leg.

“It’s not much, but it’ll have to do,” she said grimly. “The teeth will have to

come out.”

“Leave to me,” Jak said, producing another of the leaf-bladed knives from within

its patched hiding place. With no further comment he set to work, prying the

teeth from the wound.

The two mute sec men had moved into position behind the Armorer, and took a firm

grip on him, holding him steady as he writhed and twitched in pain.

Ryan looked away, scanning the horizon. “How far now?”

Mac joined him, just away from the group. Despite his impassivity throughout the

whole of their trip, he actually looked a little sick at the operation Jak was

conducting.

“Not far. Mebbe carrying your friend will slow us down,” he speculated.

Ryan glared at him. “We still outnumber you, friend.”

Mac gave him a weak smile. “Okay. If you can carry him at a pretty normal pace,

then just about twenty minutes more. It’ll be past sunfall now, and that’s

always a danger. But I guess those weird things have had enough for now.”

Ryan studied the path and brush around them, littered with the corpses of the

mutie squirrels. “I hope so,” he said shortly before turning back to where J.B.

lay.

Dean and Krysty were preparing lengths of the medicated bandage to bind the

wounds, while the mute sec men had J.B. in a firm grip. When they caught Ryan

looking at him, both seemed to communicate a kind of sympathy through their

eyes.

Jak had almost finished his task, under the watchful direction of Mildred. The

bloodied remains of the snout had been sliced away, the knife paring the fur and

flesh from the bone so that Jak could get a better view of how the teeth were

embedded in J.B.’s leg. The bone was almost as clean as if it had been boiled.

The teeth were firm in the jaw sockets, so there was little opportunity for Jak

to pry loose the bone before extracting the teeth from the wound. He cursed to

himself, knowing that this would make it more difficult for him to cleanly

remove the teeth.

Jak grasped the bone carefully but firmly in one hand, while he began to pry the

teeth loose with the other. Mildred kept a close watch on J.B.’s leg, using a

piece of bandage to wipe the dribbling blood from the localized area as the

teeth moved in his flesh. With the blood wiped away, it was easier for Jak to

see what he was doing.

“Fuck mutie bastards,” he cursed, as the jawbone seemed to take forever to pry

loose. Finally it came away in his hand, and he tossed it over his shoulder,

moving rapidly out of the way to allow Mildred to take over.

Mildred didn’t have much to work with, but she used another length of medicated

bandage to clean around the deep puncture marks. She wiped away the dribbles of

blood from the wounds. It was fortunate that the teeth had been sharp, as the