Red Equinox

Chapter Thirty-Six

"Not that long to dawn," Doc said, glancing at the sky through the crooked timbers of the roof. Old beams, fire-marked, some with the original shingles, were still nailed in place.

Nearly a half hour had passed since the explosion of the mag-gren and the butchery of the killing pack of teenagers. There'd been no sign of any further hostile activity from the dark fields, though Ryan was certain that there was a sizable force hiding out there. Probably less than a mile away.

Only Krysty remained down in the basement with Rick. The work on the gateway was nearly done. The main wiring had been repaired, and the damaged metal hammered and pressed back into something approximating the proper shape. Some final work remained replacing lock plates and checking the fittings on the main gateway contacts. Krysty could handle that with some guidance from Rick.

Jak and Doc had joined J.B. and Ryan on the upper floors of the rambling dacha, each with his blaster at the ready. Both J.B. and Ryan had fetched their assault rifles, hoping to deter an initial attack before it got too close.

"Light'll help us more than them," Jak said, squinting at the distant village. He was wearing his fur coat, and his white hair floated about his shoulders like living frost in the cold wind that winnowed in from the east.

"Sure. We can pick them off from cover. If they don't use any heavy-ex they'll have to get close to shift us." Ryan glanced at the secret door, knowing that once they retreated inside it, their options became limited.

They could make the jump successfully, surrender... or die.

"Send them in," Zimyanin ordered. "Hold the sec patrols in reserve back by the wags. I want to keep the chillings to a minimum among our men. Tell them to hurry. It'll be first light before long. Then the advantage will lie with them."

"Here they come," J.B. said. "From toward the river. Anything on any other side?"

"Nothing," Jak replied from the rear.

"No." Doc's voice floated from the attic. "Not a creature is stirring. Not even a mouse."

"Nothing this side," Ryan added. "Looks like a one-in, all-in attack then. How many?"

"Around thirty or forty, straggling. Can't see sec men. Most got muskets and old blasters. Don't seem in too much of a hurry."

Ryan walked around to the front and called Jak to join him and J.B., leaving Doc to watch the other sides from the roofless attic.

"Zimyanin's using stupes as a first wave to draw fire, use up ammo. Mebbe take one or two of us out if they're lucky. Cold bastard!"

Zorro, tucked inside Doc's fur coat, whimpered.

The peasants were strung out across the field in a rough skirmishing line. They had proved so reluctant to follow the wolf pack toward the sinister dacha that Zimyanin had been forced to use a handful of his precious trained sec men to push the villagers along with the threat of a bullet in the back.

He watched them begin to advance, then turned to order the heavy wags to warm up their engines and to have the two gren launchers broken out and set up. He suspected that they might soon need them.

"Time to slow 'em," J.B. said. "They're inside six hundred paces."

"Close enough," Ryan agreed.

His Heckler & Koch G-12 caseless rifle bragged a laser-enhanced sniper scope. He pressed the butt into his shoulder and squinted along the barrel, seeing the slow-moving serpent that wound its way toward them. A faint mist was rising from the river, drifting lazily across the fields. It enveloped the feet of the advancing Russians, rising to their waists, so that they seemed to be wading through water.

J.B. fired his H&K MP-7 SD-8, the integral silencer making each round sound like a dainty sneeze. The rifle also had a laser-optic sight that made the targets as clear as day.

Both men had their long-range blasters set on single-shot, not wanting to waste any ammo on triple-burst or full-auto. At less than half a mile, against such passive victims, single shots were all it took.

"By Lenin's tomb! They will kill them all, long before they reach the house."

Zimyanin nodded. "I think so. I hadn't known they had rifles. Such men would be skillful with such weapons. Yes, Comrade, I think you are right. Pass the order."

"To retreat, Comrade Major-Commissar?"

"No. To advance on the double."

"But..."

"But what, Comrade?" His voice was like a steel blade caressing the jugular.

"They are being smoothed away by the blasters of the terrorists."

"Correct. And the terrorists will not have that much ammunition. The more they waste on that stinking offal, the less they will have to shoot at our sec men when they go in. Carry out my order, quickly, will you, Comrade?"

"Yes, Comrade Major-Commissar."

"And bring up the gren launchers. We shall be needing them soon. Very soon."

The bodies flopped to the freezing mud at regular intervals. Zimyanin's planning was partly correct. Neither Ryan nor J.B. had a limitless supply of ammo. Both men found it hard to believe that the Russians kept on coming. Indeed, after a couple of minutes they began to move faster, their ambling walk speeding to a clumsy trot. And they began to return fire with their antique muskets, though none of the shots reached the dacha.

In the first two and a half minutes, firing steadily and taking careful aim, Ryan and J.B. had put down over a dozen of the peasants, most dead before they hit the ground.

"How much longer before they quit?" the Armorer asked as he paused to wipe his glasses.

"I figure we'll chill every one of them before they get close enough to do us any serious harm. Looks to me like the sec men are driving them on."

"Mebbe we should lay them down first?"

"More we chill, the less there are to come at us again. Let them come, J.B., and we'll oblige them with a trip to the coast."

Rick had been sleeping for several minutes while Krysty ran up to the top of the stairs to recce the situation. The freezie woke to the sound of her boot heels clattering on the steps as she came back down into the gateway control room.

"We winning?" he asked.

The woman told him what was happening and he nodded and smiled.

"Remember the Alamo," he croaked, coughing with the effort of speaking. "Ryan Crockett and J.B. Travis. Guess I'm like Jim Bowie, wounded down here. But I'm ready to take some of the bastards with me. Blow these gas cans to hell and back. Got a pyrotab, Krysty? Give it me."

"Don't be triple-stupe," she replied. "When we go you come with us. You don't need a pyrotab for anything."

The smile of the dying man grew broader, tearing at Krysty's heart. "Now who's... who's triple-stupe, lady? I know where I'm going, and... there won't be nobody on the road with me. Give me the firelighter. I can just make it, even with my fingers fucked."

Krysty reached in the pocket of her pants and handed him a small pyrotab. All Rick had to do was flip open a catch and he'd have instant ignition. With an effort Rick managed to grip the tab in one trembling hand.

"Thanks, sister. Hey, Santy Anna, we're killin' your soldiers so near, so the rest of Deathlands'll hear. And remember... remember..." Another coughing fit made it impossible for him to carry on. Krysty knelt and helped him take a sip of water.

"They're running."

"Stop shooting," Ryan ordered. "Once they're broke, there's no profit in chilling any more of them."

The dawn's pale light was creeping across the misty land, throwing shadows ahead of the fleeing men and boys. By now the fog had filled in all of the hollows, so that most of the corpses lay invisible in the swirling whiteness.

"How many dead, Comrade Corporal?" Zimyanin asked. "You watched through the glasses?"

"Yes, Comrade Major-Commissar," answered the young, smooth-chinned noncom. "I counted twenty-three fall, of which all but one failed to..." He lost the thread of his sentence through his fear of the blood-eyed officer.

Zimyanin smiled thinly. "You mean that twenty-two are dead and one wounded?"

"No, Comrade Major-Commissar. The wounded man rose and was shot immediately and fell again. He did not rise a second time."

"Thank you, soldier. Time for the final wave of the attack, I believe. Bring up the wags and ready the gren launchers. They are to fire only at my personal command."

"They come again?"

"Course they will, Jak," Ryan replied. "It's coming down to the gun. Russkies know we're here. Know we can't run."

"But we can jump," J.B. said. "Now the gateway's nearly ready."

Doc had been listening from the damaged floor above them, with Zorro cowering at his side. "The door is nearly completed, gentlemen. That is perfectly true. But I fear that it doesn't mean we will necessarily find the chamber working when we attempt it. The only way to test it is to use it."

"What could go wrong, Doc?" Ryan asked.

"Who could know that, my dear friend? Who knows the face that launched a thousand ships and something something the topless towers of somewhere or other? If you take my meaning."

"No."

"Tarnation! The mat-trans might simply not function at all and we shall look pretty fools sitting there waiting for our Communist friends to pop us in their bag. Or, it might work a little."

"Then fucking what, Doc?" Jak asked.

"Then we might all occupy a little space somewhere between the stars. A smudge of displaced molecules positioned roughly between eternity and infinity. I do not believe there would be much pain in such an ending."

"Thanks, Doc," Ryan said. "Sure gives us all something to chew on for a while."

"You're most welcome, my dear chap."

"Send them back to their hovels. I want them out of the way before the final assault."

"They are unhappy, Comrade Major-Commissar. So many lost."

"They are not lost, you mumbling, fish-fucking cretin! If they are simply lost we can wait until the sun rises properly and burns away the mist. Then they will be found again. They are notlost! They are out there dead."

"The claims for..." the local commander continued, torn between fear of Gregori Zimyanin and the knowledge that the survivors would probably assassinate him for his part in the massacre.

"It will come under Industrial and Allied Pension and Personal Injury Claims, Comrade. Arrange for the appropriate forms to be handed out tomorrow."

"Yes, Comrade Major-Commissar."

"And tell the sec patrols we attack in precisely fifteen minutes. I want the one-eyed American in my hands within the hour."