by Darrell Bain
Surrender really didn't appeal to Jeannie as an alternative, anyway, even assuming that it would be accepted. It went against the grain somehow, disturbingly deep. She didn't like to think about it. Wait! She suddenly remembered the dying pilot's words, giving their approximate location through the froth of his bloody lips. Had that signal gotten through? It would be wonderful if it had. Rescue might be only hours away! Whitmire had told her he would be sending another contingent of scientists and rangers out as soon as the floater returned. When it didn't, surely he would order a search, whether the message had gotten through or not. That possibility seemed to offer the best hope. She decided that as soon as it was light, she would move some distance away from the wreckage, but stay in the immediate vicinity for awhile and hope for rescue.
Having arrived at a decision, she began to settle down a little, but not nearly enough to sleep. The long night drug on, the longest of her young life.
* * * *
The large gray rat was having to scout farther and farther to locate sufficient food. The nearby rat town to which it belonged was gravid with unrestrained population, almost to the point of being driven by hunger to burst forth and flow over the land like a living flood, intent on food and nothing else, but not yet, not yet. The scout raised it's oversized head and sniffed the air. Yes, there, where freshly snapped branches were still oozing sap was the scent of food. It could detect the odor of human mixed with the smell, but it was faint, and overriding it came the smell of ripening meat, meat in quantity.
Cautiously, the rat crept closer, wanting to make sure. Yes, the human smell was there, but the odor told it that they had been dead for many hours. Now it must hurry and gather it's brothers, before other scavengers arrived. A feast such as this must not go to waste. It broke reluctantly away from the delicious odor and began scurrying back the way it had come. As it ran, it began salivating, thinking of the food which would soon fill it's belly.
* * *
CHAPTER 25
Jeannie had finally slipped into a restless sleep. The morning sun shining in through the transparent canopy at the back of the floater touched her dark curls but failed to wake her. It was only when rustling, squeaking noises penetrated her consciousness that she opened her eyes. She sat up and peeked over the barrier she had erected the previous evening. Her first wild thought was that the bodies she had so carefully covered had become animated during the night, a surreal horror right out of her darkest nightmares. Then the rats came into focus and it was worse than any nightmare. She shrank back and screamed loudly, piercingly, then again and again until her throat was raw.
The rats had come during the night and began dismantling the bodies. The odor from the bodies had masked her own presence. Jeannie's loud screams startled the rats almost as much as they had her. The gray squirming mass exploded like jumping fleas, squealing their high shrieks of surprise and fear. Several of them dashed over Jeannie's barricade in random flight, coming directly toward her. She batted at them ineffectively before even thinking of her weapons. “Get away, get away!” She screamed.
Had the rats realized that she was alone they might have overwhelmed her right then, but they were as frightened as she. By the time they recovered, she remembered that she was armed. She drew her laser gun and sprayed lances of fire and slugs in all directions, setting fire to the cargo carpets and other combustibles. The rear canopy shattered and fell around her head and onto the few rats still near her. The rest fled, pursued by laser fire as she wasted power prodigiously.
Once the rats were gone she tossed the burning carpets over the side and stamped out the other fires, although in truth, at that moment she would rather have burned to death than abandon the twice wrecked floater and face the rats on the ground.
The rats didn't move far. Once on the ground and away from the wild laser fire the more intelligent leaders halted the flight and evaluated the situation. They were too hungry to give up so soon, and before long they realized that only a single human stood between themselves and their meal, and a thoroughly frightened one at that. Given a little time to reorganize, they would make a meal of her, too.
* * * *
Jamie and Kristi were working their way through heavy brush and trees when they heard the screams. They halted and looked at each other. There was something in the frightened sounds which nudged both of their brows into puzzled frowns. Woggly rushed past them, almost bowling over Lady, who was coming back from her scouting duties for instructions. He woofed a single word as he passed them. “Jeannie!"
“Jeannie!” Lady repeated and took off after Woggly.
“Come on!” Kristi shouted as she began running. What in hell was Jeannie doing out here?
Jamie was thinking the same thing, but he didn't let it slow him down. He overtook Kristi almost immediately and plowed on ahead through the brush, ignoring thorns, brush and anything larger than a small tree. From ahead, Woggly gave a startled yelp, followed quickly by Lady's voice. In their haste, they had run right into the midst of the re-marshaled rat pack.
More screams and a burst of rapid shots rose over the fighting growls of the two dogs. Jamie broke through a newly made swath of torn and flattened vegetation and onto a scene of horror. Jeannie's head and shoulders were visible above the shards of a canopy floater, firing her laser gun as fast as she could with one hand and batting at rats swarming up over the edges of the destroyed canopy with the other.
The rats were coming from all sides, trying to overwhelm her with numbers. They were taking their losses with the sure knowledge that she couldn't stop them for more than a few minutes.
The dogs upset the rats’ plan. Woggly and Lady swirled like dervishes as they entered the melee on each side of the craft, biting and rolling, killing rats with their teeth and crushing others with their body weight. Fuzzy Britches streaked into action, swiping with clawed forepaws. His shrill fighting scream added to the squeaking, growling din of mortal combat.
Jamie would forever hold a picture in his mind of Jeannie's desperate screams as the laser powerpack and ammunition clip of her laser gun ran out at the same time. Rats were climbing her body, trying to reach her throat while she clubbed at them with her empty weapon and pulled at the ones clinging to her body with the other hand. He rushed toward her, crushing rats underfoot. He bounded into the craft with one leap and clawed away the rats covering her lower body, then swirled and began spraying laser beams in a half circle around them. Kristi arrived and added the fire from her heavier weapon. She was just in time.
“Behind you!” She yelled, seeing a swarm of rats coming from the other direction, but unable to direct her fire there; she was close to being inundated with the swarming rats herself.
Jamie turned and began pouring fire into that menace, mindful of Fuzzy Britches and the dogs who had also seen the new threat and were trying to stem the advance. He switched powerpacks faster than he had ever thought possible, not stopping to change clips in his gun. He fired the laser again and again until at last the swarming rats broke and ran. Meeting unexpected resistance, they reluctantly retreated, but they were not yet willing to leave the scene. They had found meat and they would have it, one way or another.
With the rats temporarily out of sight, Jeannie dropped her useless weapon and flung herself into Jamie's arms. “Oh, God, they were going to eat me alive,” she sobbed incoherently, clinging so tightly to him that it sent a twinge of pain through her still healing ribs.
Jamie held her close, but still kept his eyes open, watching for more rats. Kristi scanned the underbrush in the other direction, climbing up into the downed floater with them for a better view.
“Kristi! Oh, I must be dreaming. Are you really here, too?"
Kristi patted Jeannie's shoulder. “It's all right now. Rangers to the rescue. But what are you doing way out here? Whitmire told me he wasn't going to let you come out until we were settled in. Oh! This must be the floater we saw get shot down. I can't imagine why John let you come with it."
Jeannie was calming down somewhat, although she was still trembling and shivering at the close call. “It's my own fault, I guess,” she said. “Mr. Whitmire kept putting me off. I finally just forced him to send me. Jamie, I wanted to see you so bad, especially after Kristi told me you had been hurt. I just couldn't stand it.” She felt a warm furry body nuzzling her legs. “Fuzzy Britches!” She disentangled herself from Jamie and reached down to smooth the cat's fur, which was still ruffed out in a rainbow of colors. He purred under the petting, then assured that Jeannie and the other humans were unhurt, he moved away and began gnawing at the body of a rat, completely pleased with the outcome of the fight. What tales he would have to tell back in the Enclave! He would be the envy of every tom there, and wouldn't he be able to cut a swath through the female cats now? Princess came over and licked at a wound on his ear, then began daintily eating a rat herself. Well, perhaps she might have something to say about that aspect of things, but what the hell, as humans might put it, you can't have everything.
Jeannie raised up and hugged Kristi then, not saying anything, just holding the other woman in a fierce embrace. In truth, she was still nearly speechless. Three times now, death had brushed too near for comfort and it was still lurking, ready to try again.
Woggly and Lady barked almost simultaneously from opposite directions. Seconds later, they came rushing back and hopped up into the floater with the humans. “Rats still here,” Lady said. She and Lady wrinkled their noses and snarled, eyeing the underbrush.
“Kids, we may not be out of the woods yet,” Kristi said, trying to penetrate the dense woods with her eyes. I don't think the rats have left yet."
“Oh, no,” Jeannie said despairingly. “I don't think I can face them again."
“Can we run for it?” Jamie asked, looking around apprehensively.
“Many rats, all around,” Woggly said, licking at a wounded paw.
Jamie noticed Woggly's wounds and thought of how the rats had been climbing Jeannie's body as they arrived. Damn, he had been so busy hugging her, he hadn't even checked to see where she had been hurt. He took out his medkit and began wiping at the many superficial bites she had suffered.
“Hurry, Jamie,” Kristi urged. “Jeannie, pick up your weapon and get it loaded again. You too, Jamie. Your powerpack's on red.
Both dogs suddenly began growling and the cats fluffed out their fur to twice their normal size.
“Here they come again!” Kristi was already firing.
* * * *
Captain Masters didn't know why the attacking enemy had broken off contact the day before, long enough for him and his few survivors to elude pursuit, but he had taken full advantage of the opportunity, putting several miles between them and the last place where fighting had occurred. He had brought his few remaining troops to ground in an old building with a crumbled entrance, but with roof still intact, shielding them from the air. They holed up there for the night, then the next day he resumed the cautious withdrawal.
Judy walked beside him as they set out in the morning, still keeping carefully to cover. Masters sent Wolfgang on ahead in hope that he might intersect Jamie and Kristi's trail if they had indeed gotten away. He still had no idea if they had or not, but the possibility was worth trying for. He was also trying to think of some unobtrusive way to get a signal back to the Enclave, or to a floater; he was sure that Whitmire would be sending them out in force today, not knowing how badly things had gone wrong.
“Not exactly the way we planned for things to go, huh?” Judy said, her eyes constantly ranging around in a half circle in front of their path.
“We're not done yet,” Masters said emphatically. “Those crazy bastards blew up the spacecraft, but I have a gut feeling that Da Cruz and Kristi got away. If we can find them, we still might make something out of this shebang."
“Do you really think Kristi made it with him?” Judy's voice was plaintive.
Masters smiled to himself. He was well aware of Kristi's sudden change of affection from the plain faced corporal to Jamie Da Cruz. He was a little surprised at the switch; Kristi wasn't normally attracted to men. Nevertheless, he felt as much sympathy for Judy as his attention could spare at the moment, but he wasn't worried about her emotional recovery. In his long life, he had seen bonds between men and women change and change again, especially during the turmoil of the Enclave formation when so many mores had been shaken loose. He patted Judy's shoulder. “If anyone makes it, Kristi will."
“She really likes Jamie, doesn't she?” Judy said, unable to let the subject die.
“Almost everyone does, or so I hear. He's an easy man to like, even though I haven't had much time to spend with him. I guess I won't in the future, either, assuming we find him. He'll be an important man if we ever get him back to the Enclave."
“I suppose, but—Captain! Gunfire ahead! And I thought I heard a scream."
Masters halted and listened carefully. He had not heard anything, but he knew that the younger woman's hearing was more acute than his. Then he did hear the sounds. Screams and gunshots came faintly to his ears from the distance, barely discernible. Wolfgang came running out of the brush to his side. “Rats attack humans!” He yelped, dancing around, eager for action.
Masters reacted immediately. “Wolfgang, Lady! Go help! We'll follow. Hurry!” Could it be? There was no time to wonder. “Let's go, gang!” Masters shouted at his rangers. “Be careful, it could be the bad guys!"
Lady woofed eagerly and bounded away, followed by Wolfgang. The rangers hurried forward as fast as possible. More screams and gunfire sounded in the distance, becoming louder as they beat their way through the dense vegetation, not trying to find an easy route, only the quickest one. As they floundered through the brush, Masters wondered if they would arrive in time to help whoever it was.
* * *
CHAPTER 26
The rats swarmed to the attack again, driven by hunger and a raging desire for revenge. They were just intelligent enough to know they had been thwarted right on the verge of victory and now they came back with a vengeance. Jamie had set his spare power packs and ammunition clips beside him in easy reach. Now, as the rats attacked again, he fired in a sweeping arc, using only the laserbeam of his gun for the most part. Where he saw a concentration of rats, he pulled the trigger all the way back to send exploding slugs into their midst.
Jeannie's hysteria had passed by now, calmed by the presence of Kristi and Jamie and their pets. The rats still horrified and disgusted her, but she had seen that they could be easily killed and went about the task industrially, wasting power but causing destruction in the pack of attacking rats. She caught a momentary glimpse of the dogs as they fought. They never stopped in one place long enough for the rats to overwhelm and hamstring them.
The cats were out of sight. They were too small and too intelligent to jump into the middle of the fray. Instead, they ranged the periphery, contributing more to the defense with their yowling voices than with the number of their kills. The shrill wailing snarls made the rats shudder with a hereditary fear of their chief predators. It made them crouch and shiver, despite their intelligence, hitting them below the level of consciousness and holding them in place until they could shake off the paralysis.
Kristi was as busy as a woman trying to nurse quadruplets. She directed her fire to where she thought it would do the most good, helped Jeannie to reload, shouted encouragement to them both and all the while tried to spot the rat leaders and pick them off. As the fight went on, she saw that it was not going well. There were simply too many rats, and they were pressing the humans with a ferocity born of imminent starvation and a frustration at being twice denied their prey.
“I think we're going to have to run for it!” Kristi yelled over the fray. “Get ready, I'll point the way when it's time!” She began concentrating her fire in the direction of the fewest rats, trying to clear an escape route. She was just gathering her breath to call for the cats and dogs to break off and follow her lead when Wo
lfgang burst into sight, scattering rats in all directions, growling in delight at a chance to fight.
Masters was panting hard by the time he spotted the first rats, but he didn't stop; the firing was still coming from in front of him. He waded through the disorganized pack, sweeping a path before him with laserbeams and slugs. Seconds later he broke into the swath of mangled brush where the floater had come down and spotted the three besieged humans. He shouted in triumph at seeing them alive, even though they were still being sorely pressed by the attacking hordes. He shouted, “Kristi! Take the other side. We're coming!” Even as he yelled, Judy and the other rangers burst onto the scene, adding their firepower to the carnage.
It was too much for the rats. For the third time, they had been denied, and now they had had enough. With squeaks and squeals, they began to retreat.
Kristi and Jamie jumped down from the wrecked floater, leaving Jeannie safely within it. “My God, we're glad to see you!” Kristi breathed, reloading her weapon.
“Are the rats gone for good now,” Jeannie asked from her perch, looking around anxiously.
“I think so,” Masters said, still gasping for breath. “You can come down now, Jeannie. It is you, isn't it?” He had only met her briefly, back on the morning the Expedition had left the Enclave. “Whitmire told me you were coming out with Nhu. Where is he?"
Jeannie pointed silently to the covered bodies as she climbed down into Jamie's arms. Masters grimaced. More casualties, and yet, here was Da Cruz, apparently unharmed, though he looked a little white around the gills.
“Damn, I didn't know there were that many rats in the whole world,” Jamie said, trying to still his shaking hands. Adrenalin was still coursing through his body, even though the battle was over.
“Rats are the least of our problems right now,” Masters said, looking around at the heaps of gray bodies. They lay everywhere. The pets moved among them, dispatching the wounded. The dogs killed in the typical canine manner, grasping a rat and shaking it in their jaws with sufficient force to break it's neck or back. The cats made more of a sport of it, tossing the squeaking rodents into the air, then batting them away. They were having great fun until Masters called them back to the group.
