A Rage for Revenge

41 Day of Blood

But what if she was right?

What if I had fallen off the deep end?

That's the problem with being crazy-you have to take other people's word for it, because it doesn't look crazy from inside. I strode up the street. Some of the kids were playing a game, the object of which seemed to be to see how much noise you could make while moving a soccer ball up and down the road. I crossed to the park to get out of their way. I could smell honeysuckle and pine and roses.

Maybe I should trust B-Jay. I didn't want to leave here; I liked it here.

But it was a trap. There was no place to run to. If someone was determined enough to come over the hiking ridge, they could surprise the whole village. A pride of Chtorrans could sweep the length of the peninsula in minutes.

What would it take to make this place safe?

We could mine the hiking ridge, we could bury booby traps the whole length of it. But that still wouldn't be sufficient. Nothing short of blowing up the isthmus would work. And we couldn't do that, because all of the service cables for the phones ran through the isthmus, as well as the power cables that fed electricity to Santa Cruz. Somewhere out there were five great turbines, churning silently in the ocean current.

What else could we do? We could evacuate.

Betty-John wouldn't even consider it.

And she was right. Where else in the world could she find facilities like this?

No, the only alternative was to move everyone to the south end of the island and establish very tight security, constant patrols, and hold regular classes and drills for every person on the island. We should start teaching the teenagers how to use grenade launchers and torches.

But B-Jay didn't want the kids growing up in a police state. "That kind of stuff creates an atmosphere of fear and paranoia." Behind me, I could still hear the children screaming and hollering. They sounded happy. B-Jay was right, they didn't need fear and paranoia.

But was I wrong? They needed to be safe! That was where the argument had started. Dammit. I couldn't get it out of my head. The sentences replayed themselves in endless loops.

And all I wanted was for us to be safe!

I knew what was happening inside my head.

It was that survival mind that Delandro had talked about. The mind is a computer. It wants to survive. It will do whatever it perceives as necessary to survive. There are no limits to what it will ask for. The more you think you have to protect, the more vigorously you will try to defend it.

It's neither good nor bad, it's just the way the mind works. And I wanted to protect my kids.

I realized I was walking down to the hiking ridge again. I wanted to see if any more of the worm lines had been disturbed. I wanted to see what else I could do. Every problem has a solution. There had to be one here.

Behind me, the screaming grew louder. And suddenly took on a shrill sound. I whirled around to look.

The children were shrieking and scattering in all directions. I heard it before I saw it.

"Chtorrrr! Chtorrrrrr!"

Three Chtorrans broke out of the park, a squad of men and women running with them!

Huh-?

And even before I asked, I knew what had happened.

They'd come over the ridge and gone straight into the park. Not down the street, they'd have been seen immediately. They used the park as cover and went to the heart of Family.

The Chtorrans plowed into the children like bulldozers. I yelled. I started running toward them-

-then zigged into the park and started heading for home. And the Jeep.

The alarm went off as I was running. It was a flat double-note wail, rising and falling. I hurtled down a grass slope, over the little Japanese bridge that crossed the brook, and up the opposite side. There were children standing confused, trying to figure out what the siren meant.

I pointed ahead. "Run for home! Get out of the park! Get out of the streets! Do it as fast as you can!" Where were my kids?

As I came charging out of the park, I saw Holly standing in front of the house staring down the street. There were sounds of rifle fire coming from the village. Dammit.

I scooped her up in my arms and went charging through the front door.

"You have to hide, sweetheart. This isn't a game anymore!"

"No, Daddy! No!"

I went down on one knee and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Listen to me, I love you! And you have to hide!" God forgive me. I shoved her into the closet and locked the door. I grabbed my torch and ran.

The Jeep whirred to life and leapt forward. I swung it around in a tight turn, going up over the curb and ripping out a bush as 1 hcaded south. I would meet the Chtorrans at the plaza. The rifle tire had stopped now. But I could still hear that dreadful purple screaming.

As I headed toward the south curve, one of the Chtorrans came Ilowing around to meet me. It stopped in amazement. It hadn't expected to see a Jeep coming barrelling down toward it. I stood on the brakes and came screeching to a halt a hundred meters away from it.

"Come on, you big red slug! Come to Poppa! I'll give you a one-way ticket to hell!" I was standing on the seat now, just hulling the torch tanks onto one shoulder. I unlocked the safeties and double-checked the charge. "Come on, you slimy red bastard! "

The worm cocked its eyes at me, one high, one low. It chirruped a question. It hesitated. It probably wanted to back up, but it didn't dare. It had been sent this way as a scout.

Its behavior was atypical. This was no ordinary worm. The wild worms would have screamed and charged. This one could recognize the threat I represented to it. This one wanted to survive. The question came up in the back of my head: did Chtorrans have minds too? Or was it only the tame ones?

"Come on, you bastard!" I challenged it again. It was still out of range. I couldn't drive and fire the torch at the same time. The worm couldn't attack. It was a standoff.

It couldn't last. Sooner or later, the others would come around that curve. I didn't think I could burn three worms at once.

I heard footsteps behind me. Before I could turn and look, Little Ivy was sliding into the driver's seat of the Jeep. "Move over," she said.

I grabbed hold of the top of the windshield and braced myself. "Go slow," I said.

She eased the Jeep forward. The Chtorran began backing up. She increased our speed. I steadied myself and braced the torch. I would only get one shot here.

The worm reared up abruptly, issuing its challenge. "Chtorrrrr! Chtorrr!" Then, it came down flowing.

I burned it before it hit the ground. The jet licked out and touched the purple and red horror. The flames exploded around its body. The creature raised up again, whirled in the air and came down writhing and twisting across the road. Its screams were horrible. It was like watching a man die!

And then it wasn't alive anymore, just a burning thing, greasy and rubbery and sending huge clouds of black smoke into the air. "All right, let's go!" I pointed to the road beyond the worm. Little Ivy backed up so she could go around it-and saved our lives. The grenade carved a hole in the street where the Jeep had been. I saw the flash-was slammed down in my seat by the concussion-felt the Jeep lift off the ground, then drop back-felt the gravel and pieces of road spatter down from the sky.

Four men and three women were just running around the curve. Two Chtorrans were moving with them. They were a perfect skirmish line. For a moment I could only admire the military beauty of the operation. Humans and Chtorrans together-the effect was devastating.

Then-moving automatically, I was standing again with the torch-I was still too dazed from the grenade to be conscious. They saw me and scattered sideways.

Another Chtorran came around the curve then, and four more humans. I recognized the Chtorran. I don't know how I knew-whether it was his shape or his coloring or the way he moved-but it was Orrie. And the humans. I recognized Marcie. And Delandro.

Marcie was carrying a rocket launcher. She went down on one knee

Little Ivy was already backing the Jeep. She swerved and the burning Chtorran was between us. Our view was obscured by the cloud of greasy smoke.

Ivy put the Jeep into forward and pointed it into the park. She stood on the pedal and we leapt over the curb and down the slope. Something exploded behind us. I had a glimpse of trees splintering and flying through the air. I hung on for my life. We bounced and skidded across the grass and into the stream, then up the opposite side. I looked back; I couldn't see them any more.

I pointed ahead. "Head for the road. We'll come around behind them- " I scrambled around to try to reach the grenade launcher in the back of the Jeep.

We bounced up onto the pavement again. There were bodies lying in the street. There was red blood flowing in the gutters, pooling into dark puddles. There were children standing, dazed or crying. There were people running. We skidded around them and kept going, around the south loop, around the curve, past the burning Chtorran again.

They were heading northward-up toward my house-where Holly was locked in a closet! I fired the first grenade at the fat Chtorran in the rear. The explosion sent it flying, tumbling, rolling across the lawns. The explosion scattered the humans. Two went down. The others broke for the trees and the park.

They were met by a hail of gunfire. I saw Jack and Dove step from the trees, each carrying an AM-280. The laser beams stabbed and pointed. The guns burped molten fire and carved holes in the men and Chtotrans they touched. Two more renegades fell.

And then Orrie was upon them. He fell across Jack and leapt for Dove. I didn't see what happened next. The renegades charged into the trees after Orrie.

The last huge Chiorran was just whirling around to charge toward me. He raised up for a challenge. I fired the second grenade, but the shot was low, the explosion went off in the street. The concussion hurled the Chtorran backward, knocking it ass over teakettle and slamming it into a house. My house. Windows shattered.

The first Chtorran was getting up now. Black blood was flowing from its wounds. It was limping across the street toward the safety of the park. I fired the third grenade; it imbedded itself into the Chtorran flesh and there was a muffled thump. For just a second, the Chtorran seemed to puff out, then it disappeared in a ball of flame.

There were two more grenades. I sighted on the last Chtorran again, it was peeling itself off the wall. The Jeep hit a blast hole in the road and the grenade went wild, exploding the roof off the rear of the house. The Chtorran charged for the trees and was gone.

"Go after them!" I pointed. Little Ivy said something I didn't catch. I looked at her. Blood was dripping down her face and shirt. When had that happened? "Go on!" I screamed at her.

She gulped and drove. We bounced up and over the curb and down into the park again. We slid and skidded down the slope, carving up the grass and trees. Two robot gardeners were trying to mow across a path of chewed up ground where an injured Chtorran had dragged part of itself. We careened into one of the robots and sent it spinning across the grass and into the stream. We slid to a halt

"Which way?"

I pointed ahead-

The Jeep lurched and slid. I saw something purple. I fired the last grenade-the explosion was a ball of orange that toppled trees and left a smoking crater that we had to swerve around-I'd missed the worm.

They plunged down the slope ahead of us-Oh, God!-there were children still at the swimming hole. They were clustered together, naked, by the big rock, all huddled and scared looking.

Orrie hit them like a torpedo. The bodies went under him like kindling wood. Their screams were horrible. I held my fire. The humans went charging after Orrie, leaping over small bloody bodies. Little Ivy was swearing next to me, a stream of invective that would shatter glass. Still I held my fire. The second Chtorran disappeared over the rocks after its companion.

Little Ivy let the Jeep slide to a halt before the carnage. She leapt out and ran to the children. Shit. Just when we had them. I slid over into the driver's seat and stood on the pedal. The Jeep skidded out and I went around the big rocks. Something exploded behind me. I came around the rock to see Marcie just standing up, the smoking launcher in her hands.

I aimed the Jeep directly at her. She leapt sideways, the rocket launcher went spinning. The Jeep plunged into the water. I put it into reverse and tried to back up. A spume of water sprayed out from the wheels. I had to ease it out. I started swearing. Marcie was getting away. "Come on, Jeep!" I banged the dashboard. It leapt backward. "Thank you!"

But the renegades were gone. The Chtorrans were gone. They'd disappeared into the thickest part of the park, where the Jeep couldn't follow.

No problem. There was only one way out. And I was going to be waiting for them. I backed up, turned the Jeep around and headed for the street. I wasn't through. Not yet.

The Jeep banged out of the park and skidded and swerved across the road. I pointed it north. There were people running toward me and pointing behind them. I couldn't hear what they were saying. I must have been deafened in one of the explosions. I recognized Birdie. There was blood streaming down her face. I waved her out of the way. I moved the Jeep ahead.

There were more bodies here. My God-what had they done? It looked like there had been a killing rampage here-but I had seen those Chtorrans. I saw how they moved and reacted. This was no feeding frenzy. This had been deliberate. This had been punishment.

This was the worst thing I'd ever seen.

North-to the north end of the loop. They had to come out of the park there. And I'd be waiting for them. I couldn't hear the siren any more. Was it still going?

I switched on the Jeep siren. There were more people heading south toward me on the road. I didn't want to slow down-I swerved to the right and headed past them on the sidewalk. Then hack down on the street and around the curve.

-and there they were, just disappearing over the crest of the hiking ridge! I hadn't been fast enough.

I fired my rockets anyway. I blew the top of that hill away. I didn't know if I hit anything. I wasn't going up to look.

And then there was silence.

It was over. And there was no such place as Family any more.