The four recruits looked a bit unsettled.
“I believe you all heard my command, did you not?” Constable Durand asked.
“Yes, sir. Everyone, follow me,” Ricky said.
The three others, including Lyudmila followed him outside.
When they had departed, Constable Durand looked at Arvin. He said to him in a gentle voice, “Governor Werner told me of what had happened out by Penza. I know you have heard the rumors as well.” He then paused for a bit and collected his thoughts. “My friend Arvin, we have known each other for many a year. What is your take on these orders from the CPO?”
“Constable, these orders, they seem like busy work, if I may be so honest. We already have patrols on the egress points, and many years ago the entrances were sealed and secured,” Arvin replied.
“Yes, that is true, yet the smugglers were able to come and go, and the quarantine was violated, at least in an absolutist meaning.” Durand stroked his mustache in thought. “The CPO never made much of an issue of that for as long as I have been alive, and there has not been an infected animal or, heaven forbid, a Roe inside the Woods for many a year.”
Arvin was perplexed. “So what has changed?”
“Arvin, I am not sure. What you say is true, something has changed, but what remains a mystery. Perhaps the smugglers have never seemed to be a vector for the Outbreak, but now the CPO knows differently?” The Constable again paused and just contemplated.
“Constable Durand? What is the truth about the brown water?” Arvin asked. He and the Constable had been able to speak freely to each other for a long while and they shared a mutual trust.
“Governor Werner saw the brown water himself. It was poisoned by some unknown thing. A half dozen vodnee automacubes were destroyed in Walled Depths, but our Governor does not know why. There are investigations going on right now. The brown water was confined, but is still poison in that part of the lake.”
Ricky came running back into the church. “Constable! Constable! Come quickly! There is something in the river! It is by the mill around the flume.”
From the look on Ricky’s face, both Constable Durand and Arvin knew it was an urgent and sincere plea for help.
They ran outside the church. Looking up toward the mill, there was a deep bluish-purple glow coming from the river. It radiated around the tall structure, and cast an eerie sheen even though it was daytime.
“Arvin, come with me,” Constable Durand commanded. “Ricky, you take the others and spread out around the village. Warn the people that something is happening and tell them we are checking it out. Do not frighten them. This is strange, but may have a simple explanation.”
The recruits ran off. Lyudmila looked back at her father as she ran away. He gave her a salute and a broad smile.
Constable Durand and Arvin ran toward the mill.
Blam!
“That is a scatter gun!” Arvin commented.
“This may be more dangerous than we thought,” Constable Durand said as he pulled a revolver out from under his long coat. “Or it may just be Bila scaring way the pigeons again.”
When they reached the mill, they saw that the flume channel was leaking badly and the permalloy which it was made from was cracked and broken. Part of the bright red waterwheel was visible at the edge of the building. The air was still and there were no bird, insect, or other animal sounds.
There were several people standing near the door at the top level of the mill. They were crowded on the deck that overlooked the river, sluice gates, and the flume. One of them was leaning over the side rail and fired the scatter gun again. She was aiming down toward the water on the far side of the mill.
Blam!
“Bila! Why are you shooting?” Arvin cried out as they reached the base of the mill. Bila was a small, pump, older woman who managed the mill. Her gray hair was tried in a bun, and the scatter gun she was using looked almost as long as she was tall. The other people on the deck retreated back inside the mill.
There was an enormous cracking sound. The mill itself seemed to shake a bit. The waterwheel stopped its slow turning. The wide double doors on the mill’s front burst open and people came running out in a panic. Their eyes were huge and they were screaming hysterically. They passed Constable Durand as he stepped to the side just in time, but they knocked Arvin down in their frenzy to get away. He fell to his butt and yelled at the mill workers, but they sprinted away without stopping.
Looking up, Arvin saw a section of the waterwheel come flying off of the mill. It crashed down with a loud thud. Its red metal was twisted and ripped. The rest of the waterwheel was shuddering. He could see some odd purplish rope-like thing wrapped around the part of the wheel which remained attached to the mill. Since most of the wheel was blocked from view by the building, Arvin could not see what that purplish rope was tied to, but then he noticed another one on a different section of the waterwheel. The bluish-purple ropes were tugging at the wheel. One uncoiled and then reattached itself in a different spot. ‘That movement was alive, and not from some rope,’ Arvin said to himself.
Blam! Blam!
Bila continued to shoot at something from her vantage point on the deck at the top of the mill. She was the only one on the deck now. A white glob of something flew at her from the far side of the mill. It exploded into her chest and the upper part of her body was splattered all around. Her legs and pelvis stood for an instant before falling over.
“What?” Arvin yelled as he got to his feet.
“Arvin! There are rusalki in the river!” Constable Durand hollered. He was standing at the corner of the mill. He pointed his revolver and fired as fast as he could pull the trigger.
Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang!
Arvin raced up to the Constable and as he rounded the side of the mill he saw something his experiences had never prepared him to see. He did not fathom what his eyes relayed to his brain.
“A rusalka?” He had pulled out his own revolver and was aiming it at the thing in front of him.
It was a round object, larger than a cow but of a far different shape. It was sticking up partway from the river. It had the long strands, rope-like, stretched out from it at numerous places. They were the purple things he had seen grasping, pulling, and shaking the red waterwheel. Arvin’s mind had trouble identifying what he was seeing. It shimmered a bit in the light from the sky tube and was sort of fuzzy and unfocused. The ropes were not really ropes, but seemed to be part of the thing itself. They moved with purpose as if they were some strange hands. His mind thought of a scorpion as he saw the ropes move, but he was not sure why. He just blanked as he stared that the foreign thing and was unable to identify what he saw.
Constable Durand quickly and efficiently reloaded his revolver with a speedloader holding another six rounds. He snapped the barrel of the heavy revolver shut and took careful aim.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
He began firing again.
Suddenly a whip-fast strand of purple came whizzing out of the water to the side of where Constable Durand stood. It cut down on his outstretched arm. The arm shattered in a number of places and the revolver fell to the ground.
“Constable!” Arvin yelled and raced to his side.
Durand withstood the blow which destroyed his arm, and staggering just a bit, he grabbed the revolver with his uninjured hand and began firing again. This time at the second thing which had surfaced in the water.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Click. Click.
Arvin also fired at that same thing, adding his own reports to the other noises from the weapons.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Another huge tearing sound came from the flume or wheel or the mill itself. Perhaps it came from all three places at once. The crunching sound echoed around as the waterwheel was broken apart further. Another large chunk was tossed aside as the purple sphere continued to rip the permalloy wheel apart.
Blam! Boom! Bang. Blast.
More gunshots rang out around the mill. A few
of the other citizens of the village had joined their Constable when the recruits had told them something was happening. They were using hunting rifles and shotguns, but none of the weapons seemed to have any impact on the attackers.
One man ran forward holding a bottle with a cloth sticking out from it. He lit the cloth and flames rose from the saturated makeshift wick. He tossed the firebomb at the sphere which was pulling apart the waterwheel. Flames rushed across the outside of the thing as the lamp oil spread and ignited. The sphere took no notice at all and just continued the demolition.
White balls, the size of melons, flew through the air coming from the things in the river as two more surfaced. One ball exploded into Constable Durand and his body was pulverized. The blast knocked Arvin up and away. He landed with a bone crunching jolt some ten meters from where he had been struck.
There were more explosions and cold icy fragments rained down all around Arvin. Trying to move, he found his legs would not respond. He lay still and had no choice but to watch what was happening.
The gunfire noise ceased.
Arvin tried to move, but now he could no longer feel his legs. His hand pointed, but the revolver was missing. His other arm refused to move and felt like a mushy, great heavy sack. He twisted his head to see what was happening and heard and felt grinding and popping sensations in his neck. He watched in horror as the sphere thing from the river sort of walked up and onto the ground. The side of the mill had been ripped apart and the mechanical drive shaft was twisted.
The other spheres also came on land and walked about. They had stubby odd looking legs, in addition to the long appendages from their central bodies. Even close, Arvin could not seem to focus on the things. He tried to wipe the blood from his eyes, but that did not help, His only working extremity shook, but he did slosh away most of the blood which had started to pool on his face. The glow from the bluish purple spheres was still fuzzy and blurry even as they drew closer to him.
Arvin felt on his belt for his multiceiver pouch. He fumbled it open and pulled out the multiceiver.
The nearest sphere stopped and then turned toward where Arvin was. It tromped toward Arvin as he yelled. He raised the multiceiver and activated it. He was unsure which mode to use, and his fingers were numb and felt far away as he stabbed them at the controls.
“All channels activated,” a voice came from the multiceiver. “Emergency multiband set. System wide call initiated.”
“We are under attack by these,” Arvin yelled and his voice did not sound as loud as he hoped. There was a strange airiness to it with a wheeze which gurgled. He pointed the display screen at the spheres.
“Father!” Arvin thought he heard Lyudmila, but it may have only been in his imagination. He thought of her and wished he could get up and take her home where she would be safe. He remembered holding her on his lap and reading her stories when she was little. A slight smile crossed his face.
Several spheres altered direction and headed for Arvin. He closed his eyes and thought of his wife and children.
“Run home!” Arvin commanded with all his might. His voice came out both louder and stranger sounding than he expected. “Go now!”
The sphere reached where Arvin’s broken body lay. His last thoughts were for Lyudmila as one of the feet of the sphere smashed down on his head.
***
While Arvin and Constable Durand took their futile stand against the spheres in the river, Lyudmila and the other recruits had run door to door. As soon as they heard the gunshots they began pounding and calling for people to come out. It only took a few minutes for them to alert everyone in the small village. A few people ran away, but others took up weapons and ran back to the mill.
“We need to join the fight,” Ricky ordered. “Perhaps Constable Durand has weapons on that cart he spoke about?”
The four recruits raced back to the church and found a nervous Haflinger horse hitched to a wagon. The horse was chestnut colored with white mane, forelock and tail. Its feet were also white as was the blaze down its nose. The recruits pulled the canvass off the back of the wagon and assessed its contents. There were uniforms, a couple multiceivers, some backpacks filled with food supplies, but no weapons.
The horse stomped its feet in agitation.
“I am going to see if I can help Constable Durand!” Ricky called out. “Come on!” The other two recruits followed him as he ran toward the mill.
Lyudmila also turned to follow, but then the horse kicked violently at the wagon and yanked its head back and forth. It was tied to the hitching post, yet it tried mightily to pull away. It was increasingly getting disturbed. It kicked again with its back legs and struck the front of the wagon. There was a slight tear in its leg and blood ran down from the wound.
“You poor thing,” Lyudmila said. “You are so afraid, and you will end up tearing your legs apart. Constable Durand would hate if that happened.”
She started to remove the harness. The fasteners were quick-release type so the wagon was detached in little time. Lyudmila took the reins and led the horses a few steps away while she stroked the horse’s nose to calm it down.
Suddenly from the wagon, all the multiceivers set off alert beeps. Then came Lyudmila’s father’s voice. The displays all flipped on revealing a visual which showed some bizarre thing which was purplish blue and moving right toward the sending multiceiver’s camera.
“Father?” Lyudmila said and grabbed one multiceiver with her hand while holding onto the horse’s reins with the other.
“Run home! Go now!” Her father yelled. The words came echoing around the church as well as from the multiceiver in her hand and the multiceivers in the back of the wagon. The words chilled her heart and made her stomach flip.
Looking at the display she saw the crushing blow come down and then the display went blank. All the multiceivers were now blank.
Huge explosions followed. They did not sound like any kind of detonation Lyudmila had ever heard before.
“I hope you are trained for the saddle, even though I have none,” Lyudmila said as she hooked the multiceiver on her own belt and threw her leg up and over the horse’s back. It bucked a bit, but she pulled the reins and the horse settled in. The harness, its collar, girth, and tug still in place, made the seating a bit uncomfortable and different than typically being on horseback.
She kicked the horse with her heals, wrapped the now excessively long reins around in a coil, and tucked one of the unneeded ends under her. The other she used to crack a strike across the rump of the horse. She yelled, “Go!”
The horse responded to her firm command. It flattened back its ears, and leaped away. She reined it around so that the horse ran toward the mill. Lyudmila locked her legs tightly around the horse and looked for her father.
The scene was chaos.
The mill was only a melting stump of permalloy about half its previous height. One of the spheres was standing next to it and a spray of white goo was coming from it and splashing across the top of the ruined mill. Everywhere the goo struck the permalloy it slumped and melted. The hardest metal ever created ran like melting butter under the hot sky tube.
“Father!” Lyudmila yelled.
There was another sphere ahead in the roadway that crossed in front of the mill. It had several long whip-like appendages which were pushing and prodding at things on the ground and in the road. Some of them were human bodies and body parts.
Kicking her heels into the horse, Lyudmila rode it toward the mill. Suddenly, the horse veered to the side and jumped.
A white ball of something exploded right where the horse would have been had it not taken its own head and moved.
“You knew that was coming?” Lyudmila said and patted the horse’s neck in admiration and surprise. She had not seen the white ball until just before it exploded.
The horse veered again and jumped an enormous leap. Another white ball exploded, but again the horse had avoided it. Lyudmila looked around and saw that several spheres
were now heading toward her and the horse. White balls came flying from them.
“Look out!” Lyudmila yelled, but the horse was already leaping and dodging around making its own decisions on evasive action. It seemed to sense the balls before they were launched and knew right where to run to avoid them. Lyudmila held on with all her might by wrapping her hands around the thick white mane of the horse and allowing it to go where it wanted.
The horse galloped in a heart pounding way as it weaved through the carnage and neared the mill. It passed right by a crumpled and managed mass on the ground.
“Father?” Lyudmila cried as tears ran down her face. She recognized the gamekeeper uniform which contained the devastated remains of his body.
The Colony Ship Vanguard: The entire eight book series in one bundle Page 143
