The Pet Plague

by Darrell Bain

  Several small fires ignited by laser beams were burning, creating columns of dense smoke. Masters glanced anxiously at the sky, looking for enemy floaters. He hoped the smoke wouldn't be seen, but was almost certain that it would. “Folks, we've left too much evidence here to stick around. Let's get a move on before we're spotted. Is everyone able to travel? Jeannie?” He eyed her in particular, noting the mangled remains of the floater. She had been very lucky to survive the crash.

  “I'm fine, Captain. Thank-you. You sure picked the right time to show up."

  Masters allowed a small smile for her. “We rangers specialize in that sort of thing, but let's not push our luck. Let's move out."

  “Which way?” Kristi asked.

  “We'll head east and southeast until we get clear of the city, then try to find some cover where we can cross that old highway. Once we're back in that jungle between there and those old ruins of Carthage, I doubt that any floater can spot us from the air. The dogs can scout around and watch our flanks. If we're lucky, we'll be fairly safe by tomorrow. Now let's move."

  Masters assigned Kristi and Judy both to walk with Jamie and guard him from harm. If he could get him safely back to the Enclave, his mission would be a success, regardless of the many casualties he had suffered.

  Jeannie walked beside Jamie. She stumbled repeatedly the first few yards, unable to keep her eyes off him. It still seemed like a miracle to her, going from the nightmarish interval spent with the bodies of the pilots, then to almost being eaten alive by rats, and now trudging peacefully along beside the man she loved. And his pets! They were safe, too, moving right along with them. Fuzzy Britches was trying to keep up and rub against her ankles at the same time, causing her to miss a step occasionally, but she didn't mind at all.

  Fuzzy Britches and Woggly were quite intelligent enough to know how close they had come to losing their humans, and perhaps their own lives as well, but in typical animal fashion they were able to put it out of their minds and concentrate on the present. Fuzzy Britches liked the present. Princess walked sedately by his side and he was again in the presence of Jeannie, whom he had decided was the right mate for his master. And there was Kristi, too. He ran ahead a few paces and tangled himself in her legs, long enough to let her know that she was included in his plans, although he didn't say so. He didn't think it was really necessary, and she would find out soon enough, in any case.

  “Are your bites feeling better?” Jamie asked Jeannie.

  “They don't hurt any more. My ribs are still bothering me, though. I broke some of them when we crashed.” She rubbed her side reflexively.

  “Jeannie, why did you insist on coming out here? You know I wanted you to stay in the Enclave until I got back. Now look at the fix you're in.” Jamie tried to look stern, but wasn't noticeably successful. Regardless of the near disaster of her flight out, and the horror of the attack by the rats, he admitted to himself that he was glad to see her. He just hoped nothing else happened on the way back.

  Jeannie took his hand in hers. “At least I'm with you. I just couldn't stand it back at the Enclave. It was so lonely, and then Cadena—did you hear about him?"

  “Yeah. Maybe I should have brought you with me to start with. It looks as if you can't stay out of trouble regardless of where you are. What else happened while I was gone?"

  Jamie noticed a reddening of her face as she answered. “Um, just some other things. I'll tell you about them when we get back. I wasn't in any danger, though."

  He saw her shift her glance to Kristi and smiled to himself, suspecting what the “other things” had been. Perhaps there wouldn't be any problem with Kristi when they got back. If they got back, that is. That was still problematical.

  * * * *

  “There!” Randall pointed over the shoulder of his pilot to plumes of smoke rising from the forest. “Circle around slow and let's see what it is. Be careful, I don't want to run into an ambush."

  The pilot swung the floater in a wide circle, then dropped cautiously lower. Randall put Field glasses to his eyes and the scene leaped out at him. It could only be the Houston Enclave's floater which they had downed, but the heaps of dead rats and smoking vegetation told of a recent fight. There must have been survivors.

  “Take us down,” Randall said. The floater dropped gently to the earth, settling down near the wreck. Troopers deployed over the side, weapons ready. Randall hopped down behind them and examined the scene. Soon, satisfied that the decomposing bodies of the pilots could not possibly have been involved in the carnage, he ordered the floater into the air again. Somewhere near, there must be at least several survivors from the battle along the river, perhaps even Da Cruz himself. Optimism surged through him as he ordered the floater into the air again.

  “All right, now. Use the IR. Take it in slow circles and let's see what we pick up."

  The pilot complied while Randall watched the screen. “Contact, by damn!” He said loudly a few minutes later. The computer identified the images on the screen as human within seconds.

  “Call in the other floaters,” Randall ordered. “Let's bracket these sons-of-bitches before they get away!” His spirits rose as if suddenly freed from earth's dragging gravity. Now if that was only Da Cruz down there. By God, I might get home yet!

  * * * *

  “Floaters!” Judy exclaimed. “Floaters overhead!"

  Jamie looked up but saw nothing through the thick overhead branches. Masters came up at a run. “How many?"

  “I saw two, at least,” Judy said. “They were cruising slow."

  “All right, let's not panic. We've got good cover here. Keep moving and maybe they won't spot us. We got away yesterday, we can do it again. Kristi, you stick with Jamie. If they do spot us, you get him away, understand?"

  “Right."

  Jamie was acutely uncomfortable at being the object of so much protectiveness, but there wasn't anything he knew to do about it. He followed along with Kristi and tried to keep Jeannie close.

  It soon became apparent that the enemy floaters were marking their progress regardless of cover. Masters directed them off at different angles, but at least one floater could always be spotted, hovering above them, just out of range of their laser guns.

  “Damn it, they must have some type of detection gear. Hold up for a minute and let me think.” Masters didn't like his thoughts, but search his mind as he would, he could devise no other alternative.

  Kristi said it for him. “We're going to have to split up."

  “Yeah, I don't see anything else to do. Maybe they can't follow us all. I'll take Costa and the men. Kristi, you and Judy go with Jamie and Jeannie. We'll all head southwest, but at an angle from each other. Let's go!"

  The two groups divided. Kristi led her command away, still trying to remain hidden under the trees. At least they prevented the floaters from landing easily. Soon though, the vegetation began to thin out. The trees became smaller and it became harder and harder to remain concealed, then finally almost impossible. A hovering floater continued to dog them, searching for a decent landing spot. Kristi finally halted them at the edge of some low bushes. From there, she spied an overpass of the old highway only fifty yards away, with thick forest on the other side. Unfortunately, a scattering of weeds and stunted bushes was all that had managed to take root on what had once been a huge parking lot of some kind, stretching off in both directions.

  “Damn!” Kristi exclaimed. “I was afraid of this. Well, we can't just sit here until they decide to land. We'll have to try to make it to that overpass then into the woods. This isn't going to be fun, folks."

  “What if they shoot at us while we're getting there?” Jeannie asked. She began trembling.

  “No help for it. When I give the word, go. Don't bunch up. We'll meet under the overpass and try to get some shots in if they land. All we need is just a few minutes, then maybe we can get into the woods on the other side. Ready?"

  “I guess,” Jamie said. He eyed the stretch of open ground appreh
ensively.

  Kristi squeezed each of their hands. “Good luck. Now go!” They began to run.

  * * *

  CHAPTER 27

  Randall spotted several figures streaking from the brush, heading across an open area toward an overpass of the old highway. He put the glasses to his eyes and focused in on them. There! A running man, dark complexioned, with a prominent mustache. It had to be Da Cruz! Just as he thought his fortunes had finally changed, a heavy laserbeam streaked down, smoking a patch of weeds near one of the running figures. “Don't shoot yet, you fools!” He exploded over the command circuit.

  The next thing Randall saw was a floater tumbling from the sky and he suddenly realized that the fire had not come from his men. The shot had been an errant beam aimed at his own floaters. He flagged the radar display which had been turned off to accommodate the hastily installed IR gear. A flotilla of dots shaped like the vee of migrating geese appeared on the screen. The leaders had already broken formation to engage his force. He saw immediately that they were heavily outnumbered. He sagged in his seat, trying to think. Another laserbeam crossed horrifyingly close to the canopy. Even through the insulating screen he heard the shrill hum of the following slug. A floater passed beneath his craft, trailing smoke and fire. It crashed headlong into the ground and exploded.

  Randall saw that his only chance now was to get Da Cruz in his hands. With him as a captive, negotiation might be possible; without him, he might just as well be dead. Randall wrested control from his pilot. “I'm taking us down. We're going to land right on top of that group down there. Kill the women if you have to, but I want that man alive, you hear?” He spoke over his shoulder to the eight troopers in the rear seats as he streaked down to the overpass where the running figures had taken shelter, then dropped precipitously just before they would have hit it. The floater landed with a jarring thud. “Out!” He yelled.

  * * * *

  In hindsight, Masters saw that he had made an error in separating his small force. In a few more moments, the skies would have been cleared of enemy floaters by the Houston Enclave fleet he had just spotted and they would all have been safe. All he could do now was try to link up again with Kristi and hope that Jamie hadn't been hurt. He pointed in the direction which he hoped would intersect with her group, and waved for his men to hurry, no longer worried by an overhead enemy. As they ran in that direction, he accessed the broadbeam channel of his body computer. It had only limited range but he thought a passing floater should pick up his signal. “Houston, Houston, Captain Masters here. We need assistance.” He gave his coordinates, then left the channel open, hoping someone would hear. As he continued to run, he thought how ironic it would be if His or Kristi's group were seen from the air and mistaken for enemy troops. They might be attacked by friendly fire before they could be identified!

  Masters and his few tired rangers emerged from the heavier growth just as Randall's floater dropped down to the overpass, and just as he spotted Kristi and her group going to ground there. He saw the four figures turn to fight, unable now to make it into the woods on the other side. They had been brought to bay. Troopers leaped from the downed floater and spread away from it. He saw one go down and others begin to shoot back. “Get ‘em!” He shouted at his own men, thinking it was already too late. No assistance had yet come from the Houston Enclave floaters. In fact, he didn't know if his urgent signal had even been heard. The air battle still raged overhead, floaters from both sides maneuvering in patterns not seen on earth since the old dogfights of WWI. He paused to aim and fire at one of the enemy troopers. The slug exploded into the enemy's spine a microsecond after the laserbeam hit, spraying bone and flesh and a fountain of blood. Two of the troopers turned and began a return fire, driving his men to cover. The others disappeared from view, screened by the grounded floater.

  * * * *

  The floater appeared like magic before Jamie's eyes, just as he thought they might escape. One second it was not there, the next it was on the ground, disgorging troops. Instinctively, he pushed Jeannie to the ground, forgetting that she could have helped. Her weapon skittered from her hand, leaving her defenseless. He yelled at his pets. “Fuzz! Wog! Get away!” There was no way they could fight armed men. His own weapon was already in his hand. He fired, saw a man go down and took aim again. To his side, Kristi fell, a gaping wound opening in her side. He screamed in anger and grief, pulling the trigger of his laser gun again and again until it was empty.

  * * * *

  Randall saw a blonde haired ranger fall, mortally wounded. Da Cruz had pushed another to the ground, and he saw a third drop from the concussion of a slug exploding into the concrete near her head. She fell to the ground. Behind him, Randall heard more shots, too many for his few troopers to account for as he suddenly realized that only one of eight who had emerged with him was still on his feet. He saw Da Cruz standing upright, firing with rage in his eyes. He took aim himself, just as his last trooper fell. Carefully, he sent a laserbeam into Jamie's arm, holding back on the trigger to avoid letting a slug follow.

  Jamie screamed and dropped his weapon, slapping at the smoking wound. Randall spurted forward before he had time to recover and whipped the butt of his weapon against his head, stunning him. He twisted Jamie's good arm behind his back and stuck the muzzle of his laser gun against his spine. “Move,” he ordered roughly, pushing him back toward the floater, using his body for cover.

  Jamie's senses were blurred. He had seen both Kristi and Judy fall and thought them both dead. Jeannie was still on the ground where he had pushed her, just now regaining her senses, but helpless without a weapon. His pets had disappeared. He shook his head, still in Randall's grasp. He was shoved roughly up into the floater and sprawled on the deck. He tried to think clearly, but visions of the last two weeks overcame rationality. After all this, to be ignominiously captured, the two women he loved either dead or left behind to perish with his pets in the wilds was almost too much to bear. He thought suddenly of the little laser gun still strapped to his boot, but there was no way to get to it now, not in the face of Randall's weapon pointed confidently at his chest. His arm hurt terribly from the laserburn. His coverall sleeve was still smoldering. I have to try, he thought foggily. The worst that can happen is that he'll kill me.

  Randall kept Jamie covered as he took the pilot's seat. He didn't bother to close the canopy. He had no intention of taking off and probably being shot back down, not now, when he had the prize. He turned halfway around in the seat so that he could signal while still keeping watch on his prisoner. He had to get the Houston Enclave forces to back off, and with Da Cruz captive, that should be no problem. From there, he could negotiate from strength. He began instructing the floater's computer while Jamie gritted his teeth against the fire in his arm and tried to think of a way to distract his captor.

  Randall had just begun to broadcast an ultimatum when a multi-colored ball of flashing claws and teeth jumped into the opened compartment and landed on his head, coming in from his blind side. “Arrghh!” He screamed as a claw hooked into his eye, blinding him. He pawed frantically at the animal, completely forgetting his weapon. He grabbed a handful of fur and skin and tore at the animal, trying to get it loose.

  Jamie felt time slow down to a molasses crawl. Fuzzy Britches seemed to hang in the air forever as Randall tore him loose and flung him away, clutching at his blinded eye. The little laser gun strapped to his boot some untold ages ago came loose from it's holster and into his hand, but slowly, as if it were reluctant to move. A wave of pain bit even deeper into his arm as he grasped it and flexed his wrist. Randall's own weapon swung slowly back toward him as bright spots danced in front of his eyes, blurring his vision. Then, as suddenly as time had slowed down, it speeded forward like a runaway sled and everything seemed to happen at once. He fired upward from his unsteady position on the deck, once, twice, three times.

  The first slug took Randall in the shoulder, cratering the joint and flinging his body into the computer s
creen. The other two shots missed, shattering the upraised canopy to bits, but it didn't matter. Randall's weapon popped from his hand the instant he was hit, leaving him helpless, blinded in one eye and staggered into shock from his ruined shoulder.

  Jamie picked up Randall's weapon with his bad arm and flung it away, then had to endure more pain in order to hold off Fuzzy Britches who had bounced off a wall, been stunned momentarily, and was now trying his best to get at Randall's other eye, snarling like a wildcat. “Enough, Fuzz. You did good,” he said. Outside, he heard Woggly growl. He drug the weakly resisting Randall to the cockpit door. As he tumbled him out onto the ground, he saw that Woggly was just finishing ripping out the throat of one of Randall's wounded men. The dog had been unable to make it up into the floater to help Fuzzy Britches, having no claws to help him aboard, but he had prevented the wounded man from intervening. Jamie began climbing out of the floater, trying to look in all directions and at the same time searching for Jeannie.

  Jamie was very nearly killed by Masters as he stumbled out of the floater, going down to his knees, but Masters held his fire at the last moment as he recognized who it was. He ran over to Jamie and bent over him. The lone survivor of his force ran up behind him, holding a bloody arm. Jamie got back to his feet and staggered toward where he had left the others. “Jeannie, Kristi,” he moaned.

  “Are there any more of these bastards in the floater?” Masters demanded, trying to see how badly Jamie was wounded as he followed, and searching for more enemies at the same time.

  “No, he was the only one. Jeannie!” He gasped thankfully as she ran up to him, completely unhurt.

  Just then Masters spotted Kristi's prone form, covered with blood. He blanched at the thought that she was dead, then saw frothy pink bubbles spew from her mouth as she tried to breath. “You two get in that floater,” he commanded, motioning them away. “I'll take care of her.” He ran to where she lay bleeding. He ripped out his medkit and began trying to staunch the gaping wound. Judy rose shakily to her feet from she had been knocked unconscious by the near miss which had exploded into a concrete pillar supporting the overpass. She ran to help her captain. “Take over here,” he told her. “I've got to get a signal out.” He ran for the floater, hoping that it's computer was still functional.