exhausted shamble and Stigi, prancing from pride, bringing up the rear.
After about a half a mile, they stopped for a moment to get their bearings
and let Mick catch his breath.
“Were those more of your people’s creations?” Karin asked.
“The only place I’ve seen stuff like that is on Saturday morning
cartoons.” He caught her puzzled look. “No, we don’t have anything like
that.”
“The enemy then.”
“Whatever they were before it’s a safe bet they are our enemies now.” He
looked out at the dust clouds in the distance.
“I’ll bet they are not alone either.”
“Probably not,” Karin said in a small voice. Then she put her head up. “We
must go more carefully and quietly,” she added more firmly.
“What we must do,” Mick told her, “is get the hell out of here while we
still have the opportunity.”
“You are free to go.”
“Look, we dodged the bullet this time, but only barely. What do we do if
we meet a bigger force? And another thing. That unit is going to be
missed. This place has about as much cover as a billiard table and when
they start looking we’re going to stand out like bugs on a plate.”
“We must find out more,” Karin said stubbornly.
Mick threw up his hands.
“All right, but if we’re going to commit suicide, let’s at least do it
intelligently. Let’s find some cover and rest while we work out the best
approach.”
Finding cover turned out to be easier said than done. Finally they
discovered a deep wash that offered some protection from ground level
observation. Stigi hunkered down against the bank and made like a rock and
Karin and Mick sat in the shade near his head.
“We had best move only at night from now on,” Karin said as she dropped
down next to Gilligan. “That way they cannot see us.”
“Don’t bet on it. There’s a real good chance at least some of that
equipment has infrared sensors. At night we will stand out even better.”
“What do you suggest then? Aside from turning back?”
“I think we’d better look for cover. The land’s been getting drier ever
since we left our old campsite, so I don’t think we’re going to find any
forests. But its also been rising. I’d be willing to bet that there are
places not far from here that are cut up by arroyos and canyons. That’s
not as good as trees but it will give us some cover.”
Karin nodded. “Since the land rises off to the east, that is the way we
should go then.”
She stopped and frowned. “What is that sound?”
Gilligan’s hearing was damaged from years around jet engines, but he heard
it too, a low, hissing whine. Unlike Karin he knew what it was.
“Get down!” he shouted.
The black bat shape glided over the gully without stopping or turning.
There was no time to hide. Mick and Karin froze where they were. Stigi
opened an eye and for an awful moment Mick was afraid the dragon would
stick his head up to see what was going on, but there were no interesting
smells or sounds so the dragon decided it wasn’t worth the effort.
Eventually the flier meandered off to the south and finally over the
horizon. They stayed frozen a long minute more and then relaxed.
“A scout?” Karin said shakily.
“Probably. Trying to find those things we knocked out.”
“Then we had best move quickly. Perhaps we can reach those hills you spoke
of by nightfall.”
She signalled Stigi to his feet and Gilligan shouldered his pack.
“What the hell is that?” Mikey demanded. He had taken his time coming in
answer to Craig’s urgent summons and he obviously wasn’t happy about being
called to give a second opinion on a piece of metal.
“I think it’s an arrow. We found it sticking in the hull of a burned-out
tank on the edge of the wargame area,” Craig told him. “I don’t know how
it works yet, but it’s magic somehow.”
“And all metal, too. What have you got out there? Robot Indians?”
“Whatever it is did a number on one of my Troll class tanks and three