James Axler – Starfall

“Gonna have to do some wading if you’re gonna sleep on the bank,” Morse said. He sniffed delicately. “Course, I don’t see that it’s gonna hurt them clothes none.”

Ryan agreed. The thing that bothered him most was what the river might hold. Then and later.

“FUCK!” DEAN BELLOWED as he pushed himself out of the water and up on the other side. He pulled up a shirtsleeve. “Leeches! Bastard bloodsuckers!”

Ryan pulled himself up to wading distance, cutting through the water as quickly as he could while helping Krysty. He could already feel the leeches moving through his clothing, as well, tiny whispers of damp, cold movement that wouldn’t be denied. The woman, Mary, screamed that they were crawling in her ears, which caused some consternation on her husband’s part. The couple flailed in the water as he tried to ease her panic and check her ears.

“Dumb fucks,” Jak commented, looking out at the pair. He’d brought their boy ashore after Ryan had assured Mary the albino could swim like a fish and would be safe with him. Neither Mary nor her husband, Jim, could swim well, and it showed. “They fuck around, drown.” He put the boy on the ground and started stripping him out of the wet clothes.

The boy tried to squirm away.

Jak grabbed his young charge by the hair of the head and forced him to his knees. “Stand still, stupe!” the albino ordered. “Run into brush, might end up in something’s belly. Get leeches off before make sick.”

Reluctantly, obviously giving in to the pain, the boy stayed on his knees and didn’t fight Jak.

The albino slipped out one of his leaf-bladed throwing knives and slid the point under one of a half-dozen leeches attached to the boy’s back. He flipped them away with prac­ticed ease, tossing them into the dirt and stamping them to death under his boot heel. He made occasional forays across his own body, flicking away leeches that came out into the open.

Mary and Jim finally had to be towed in from the water by a rope Bud threw to them. Sandy and Dean pulled them in, then used it again to draw Doc and the orphaned little girl across as quickly as possible.

J.B. came across with Mildred, dragging an oilskin pouch after him that Ryan felt certain contained the blasters he’d found. Morse ordered his boys into action, getting them to help him tie down the sailboat. Her rigging pinged metal­lically against the masts.

“Noise is going to give us away,” Ryan said to Morse. He started skinning out of his clothes, Krysty stripping down beside him. Modesty was cheap in the Deathlands, and the companions didn’t have a problem with it even in front of strangers.

The sailor grinned. “Might draw some of the two-legged varmints that ply these waters sometime, but it’ll chase the four-legged kind.”

“I must confess,” Doc hollered as he pulled off his frock coat, “that those creatures that stalked us earlier have been somewhat worrisome on my mind.”

“Wharf rats ain’t nothing,” Bud called out as he shinnied out of his clothes. “Purely come out at night. And they see the first sign of light, they go away. Put up a campfire, they stay away, too. Seen them eating dead things, but never attack nobody could take care of their self.”

Stripped down, Ryan used a small knife to pluck the leeches from Krysty’s fair skin, taking time to remind his lover with his touch that he hadn’t forgotten about her. Everybody paired up, with Dean and Jak taking care of the two youngsters, then trading off on each other. Doc paired up with Elmore, while Morse had his sons strip him clear.

“Leeches are particularly bad this time of year,” the sailor said. “Just into the breeding cycle for them, and ain’t been any good floods yet to wash them away. Expect them anytime, though.”

Ryan took charge of the camp, dividing the chores among the group. J.B. stayed at the campsite and cleared the brush so they’d have a defensible position and nothing would interfere with their line of sight. Ryan marked the area he wanted cleared with the panga, slashing through the heavy growth and small trees. Morse had brought over three machetes in his equipment, as well as ring pulls to cook with. He and his boys joined J.B. in clearing the un­dergrowth around the camp’s perimeter, though the old sailor was vocal in his opinion that it wasn’t necessary. One look from Ryan, though, and he’d gone straight to work.