by Quincy Allen
“Ghiss and me, with a little help from Cole and that there Thumper,” Jake nodded to the rifle Cole leaned against, “will be your right flank. I want you and your people to hit that south side with everything you got. Crash vehicles into the barricade … melt your barrels if you have to. I want you to make as much noise as possible, but keep your heads down. Just keep their attention on you without risking any lives.” Jake looked at Ghiss and Cole. “We’ll take care of the rest.”
Brewer looked at Jake like he was loco. “Just the three of you?” He gave out a great guffaw. “You’re out of your damn mind!”
Ghiss spoke up. “Oh, I agree, Mister Brewer. By all accounts I believe we all are. However, our sanity, or lack thereof, does not change the simple fact that, provided a proper distraction, we are fully capable of tearing those men to pieces.”
Brewer looked the mercenary up and down, noting the pistols and their cables. He’d seen enough energy weapons to know the things probably wouldn’t run dry … at least not for a while.
“It’s still just the three of you,” Brewer finally replied, his voice filled with doubt. “And there has to be at least forty or fifty of them … plus that assault unit.”
“You let me worry about the armor,” Jake said with more bravado than he felt. “And there’s four of us, actually,” he added. His smile was overflowing with all the confidence he could muster. He hooked a thumb behind him, pointing through the gap at the Brahma. “We’ve got Lumpy.”
Brewer leaned over slowly and looked at the bull who was busily licking his nose.
“You’ve got Lumpy,” Brewer said in a flat tone, blinking his eyes. He kept puffing on the cigar. He looked back at Jake who kept smiling.
Jake gave Brewer a sly wink. “And you’ve got nothing to lose,” he added, “except a bit of ammunition.”
Brewer thought about it and nodded slowly, realizing that he had almost no risk aside from the ammo, and they had plenty stored around the city. It was enough to put the man’s decision over the top.
“Alright.” Brewer looked over his shoulder. “Billy, pass the word and get on the talkie. We leave eight defenders here to guard the hospital. Every other fighter who can still carry a weapon meets at the southern position in ten minutes.”
“Sir!” the boy shouted and dashed back into the warehouse.
“You better be right,” Brewer said, turning back to Jake. “For your own sake.” He stepped over to a stack of crates near the gap in the barricade. He pulled out two chaingun drums and handed them to Cole. “Here, you’ll need these. They’re full.”
“Thanks,” Cole said, hefting them, and then started swapping out the drums.
“Y’all better get ready,” Brewer said. “In about twelve minutes all hell’s gonna break loose.”
Jake nodded. “We’ll wait about thirty seconds after you start shooting before we hit ’em. I’ll give you a high sign from inside their barricade if we make it, then you and your people can come in and take back what’s yours.”
Brewer held out his hand. “Good luck.” He shook hands with Jake, Ghiss, and Cole. “You’re gonna need it.” Without another word, he walked back into the warehouse.
“Let’s get ready,” Jake said. He grabbed a blanket off one of the crates and walked through the gap in the barricade. The others followed as he stepped up to Lumpy. “Ready for some fun, boy?” he asked, patting the bull on the neck.
Lumpy gave Jake an affectionate shove with his head and shook his bridle.
“Good boy,” Jake soothed as he laid the blanket on Lumpy’s back, right behind the saddle.
Cole handed Jake one of the chain guns, slung the other, and hefted the Thumper. He set the dial to Crowd Control. “That barricade is going to absorb some of this,” he warned.
“I know. I’m just hoping that anyone just inside the barricade takes a hit.”
Cole nodded.
“Do you intend to have me in the front or back?” Ghiss asked as he checked his pistols one more time.
“Back,” Jake replied. “There’s not much room inside that barricade, and most of what we have to shoot at will be to the left and right.” Jake eyed Ghiss’ pistols. “How many shots do you have with them plugged in like that?”
Ghiss’ voice was steely. “More than they have defenders.”
“Good. Once we’re inside, I want you to heave off the back and shoot anything that moves.” Ghiss cocked his head slightly. “Except me and Lumpy, of course.”
“Of course,” Ghiss said. “The thought of shooting you never occurred to me.”
“Right,” Jake said as he got up into the saddle. He pulled Ghiss up behind him. “Cole, we’re going to tack left as we approach. When you see me cut right, you hit ’em with the Thumper.” He looked at Skeeter. “Then I want you to drop down into the water and head for that gap. Cole will follow as quickly as he can. If this works, Ghiss and I won’t be too far behind you.”
“Jake,” Skeeter said, “I gotta keep my suitcase dry.” She had a worried look on her face.
He thought about it and looked at the channel to his right. “Cole, how deep is that channel?”
“About four feet, give or take.”
“Do you mind hefting that suitcase clear of the water till y’all get to the gap?”
“It’s not a problem.” He looked at Skeeter. “And she can climb on my back as we go through.”
“Skeeter, do you have any high-explosive poppers in that suitcase of yours?”
“I have one I keep for special occasions … a big one.”
“Lemme have it.”
Skeeter laid the suitcase down, opened it carefully a couple of inches and reached in without looking. She rummaged about and pulled out a grapefruit-sized iron ball with a small knob on it.
“Press the knob in and turn it clockwise to prime it,” Skeeter said. “You’ll have about five seconds before it goes off.”
“That should be enough,” Jake replied and stuffed it into his shirt where it wouldn’t fall out. He took off his hat and set it on Skeeter’s head. “Take care of that, will you?” She nodded, a worried look on her face. Jake took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Alright, I reckon that covers everything. We’ll start moving slowly once the shooting starts. When I spur Lumpy, everyone moves like there’s a fire under ’em.”
They all nodded, and Jake moved Lumpy out into the middle of the street close to the channel. Letting the chaingun dangle on its sling, he took out his pocket watch and started counting down the minutes.
“I should have been a doctor,” Jake muttered.
“What was that?” Ghiss asked from behind him.
“Nothin’. Just get ready,” Jake said, wondering if his luck was about to run out.
Chapter Nineteen
Through the Breach
“They made a hell of a team, Jake and Ghiss. Lord have mercy if they ever decided to work together full time.”
~ Cole McJunkins
A few blocks away, the chatter of motors filled the air. The people at the controls revved the motors over and over again, each grinding out their own, howling tempo. A steam whistle blew, echoing off the walls.
Occasionally, enemy troops moved behind the barricade, and the top of the assault unit rotated slowly, aiming both arms in the direction of the southern Roswellian position. A slow chugging sounded … and another … and another. Their pace increased with each passing heartbeat. The vehicles had started moving, and Jake could just make out orders being shouted inside the enemy barricade.
Suddenly, Brewer’s men hit the Cromwell position with a deafening firestorm that made Jake’s bones shake. Ricochets bounced off the barricade here and there. The distinct trails of chaingun rounds hammered into the top of the assault unit. Some of the Roswellians had obviously captured more of Cromwell’s lethal weapons.
“You ready?” Jake asked, putting his pocket watch away.
“Proceed, sir,” Ghiss replied evenly from behind him as Lumpy shifted beneath them.
Jake started counting down from thirty. Pulling the strap of the chaingun off his shoulder, he hefted the heavy weapon in his left hand. With the sword gripped in his right, he grabbed Lumpy’s reins and gave the beast a gentle squeeze with his legs. Lumpy set off at a slow, clumping walk, sniffing the air ahead of him and snorting as if he didn’t like the smell of Cromwell’s troops.
Jake gave Lumpy a nudge, and the beast doubled his pace to a fast walk. An easy pull on the reins got Lumpy moving to the left, drifting away from the channel. Two blocks away from the barricade, Jake turned and nodded to Cole then spurred Lumpy hard. Lumpy bellowed in surprise and leapt forward, his hooves clattering on cobblestone, but the sound was lost in the firestorm of weapons coming from Brewer’s people. Jake raised the chaingun, holding it as steady as he could. Lumpy pressed on, gaining speed like a juggernaut with each bob of his massive head.
Someone inside the enemy position must have heard them, because two barrels shifted quickly through gaps in the barricade and aimed in Jake’s general direction. Jake heaved on the reins, pulling them to the right just as one of the enemy weapons fired blindly, the bullet ricocheting off the cobblestones to his left.
An ear-splitting HISS-CRACK! from the Thumper echoed behind him. The burst of energy filled Jake’s vision, and he felt a sharp pain across his jaw. His skin tingled as the shot went by.
Jesus, Cole cut that one close! Jake thought.
A wash of blue light hit the barricade. One of the guns disappeared backward into the barricade, while the other tumbled out the front.
The bottom of a wagon loomed twenty yards distant as Lumpy charged. Jake raised the chaingun. He pulled the trigger and held it down. He barely heard the weapon spin up over the echoing gun battle raging to his left. Fire erupted from the barrel. Rounds hammered into the belly of the wagon. Bullets tore through the lumber, splintering wood in all directions. Lumpy’s cadence did Jake’s work for him, the barrage chewing through the planks up and down in an oval circle of destruction.
A man screamed from inside the barricade. Jake leaned forward, hugging Lumpy’s back as he kept pouring lead into the wagon. He felt Ghiss lean on top of him, and Jake spurred Lumpy again, prompting another great bellow.
The bull lowered his head, angling his massive horns forward. The chaingun clicked empty. A horrendous crash filled Jake’s ears as Lumpy burst through the bottom of the bullet-ridden wagon, sending splintered lumber in all directions.
Jake and Ghiss raised their heads in an instant. Several troopers sprawled to the left and right, unconscious from the Thumper blast. Three conscious troopers kneeled around one of those bodies. The bulk of enemy troops crouched behind cover to Jake’s left along the southern side of their position, all facing toward the hailstorm of lead and energy blasts Brewer and his defenders continued to pour into the barricade.
An inner ring of crates and barrels sheltered a handful of troops taking cover there. Behind them stood the assault unit, gleaming in the sun. The metal monster faced south, toward the incoming fire, impervious to the small arms fire clanking harmlessly off the upper torso.
To Jake’s right a number of troops faced out through the gateway, some of them turning at the sound of the splintering wood.
Jake hefted the chaingun over his head as the three crouching men turned startled faces toward the charging bull. Lumpy split one of those faces open with his horn, another face disappeared in a splash of energy from Ghiss’ pistol, and the third took the chaingun barrel across his jaw. The force lifted him up off his feet, sending him sailing backward to land in a lifeless heap up against a wrecked vehicle of some kind. Jake saw what he needed.
Ghiss’ weapons erupted in an impossible staccato of energy blasts as Jake dropped the chaingun and shifted the sword from his right hand to his left. Lumpy shifted as Ghiss rolled off the bull’s back, his pistols an unending stream of death. Men screamed and fell from the positions to Jake’s left and right, great chunks of their bodies vaporized by Ghiss’ onslaught. Ghiss’ barrage seemed to be coming from strange angles, high and low, as if the man were leaping around from one spot to another, shooting at anything that moved.
Jake yanked the Officer’s Colt out as a man peeked up from behind several barrels to his right. A single shot sent him back down, blood, bone, and brains spraying from a crater in the back of his head. Jake angled for a wrecked vehicle with a slightly sloping angle up toward the cockpit of the assault unit.
Gunfire erupted from his right, so he crouched low on Lumpy’s back. Glancing to the right, he fired off several shots toward the men guarding that side of the barricade. Three ducked in time, one took a blast from Ghiss’ pistol, and two others went down with bullet holes in their chests from Jake’s Colt.
The pilot of the assault unit must have realized something had hit their flank, because the cockpit rotated in Jake’s direction. The arm with the antipersonnel weapon jerked toward Jake as well. A flashback hit Jake hard, of Jackinaw Ridge, of a similar assault unit standing atop a hill and raining death down upon Jake’s cavalry company. With no place to hide, one shot at point blank range would tear Jake and Lumpy to pieces. He yanked hard on the reins, jerking Lumpy to the left.
A deafening blast from the cannon filled Jake’s world, as heat and the concussion washed over him, nearly knocking him off the bull. His ears rang and his head swam. Only years of combat allowed him to hold fast.
Screams erupted from his right. The pilot had over corrected and sent the shot into the men guarding the gateway side of the barricade.
Perfect, Jake thought.
Lumpy clattered up onto the low end of the wrecked vehicle, charging directly toward the center of the assault unit’s cockpit with his head lowered. The bull knew what to do. Jake was close enough to see the pilot’s eyes through the small viewport, wide open in surprise. Jake leaned back, lifted his legs, and cocked them back, preparing for the impact. He could only hope it would be enough, because he only had one shot.
Lumpy bellowed. A massive, dull clang rang out as the bull hammered into the cockpit. The machine weighed tons, but Lumpy’s mass hit the thing high above its center of gravity. Jake shot forward as the assault unit leaned away from him. Just as he was about to hit, he shot his legs out against the cockpit. His whole body shuddered, and a sharp pain shot up his spine at the impact.
The man inside the cockpit screamed as the great machine leaned far to the side, tottered on its legs, and tipped over with a horrendous CLANG!
Two defenders screamed as the cockpit crushed them and the crates they’d been hiding behind. Lumpy crashed to the ground with another bellow, rolling left over a vehicle, toward the barricade. Jake landed hard on top of the cockpit, knocking the wind out of him, but he rolled to the right toward the rear end of the machine and its power plant.
He turned just in time to see a trooper rising from behind another vehicle that lay on its side. They both raised their weapons, but Jake was faster. Two shots took the man in the chest, and he went back down.
Taking a quick look to make sure there were no other troopers nearby, Jake turned to the assault unit. A large padlock secured the power plant cover plate. Jake raised the sword above his head and swung down with all of his strength. The blade cut through the padlock in a single swing, and the lock dropped to the ground just as the cockpit swiveled again, the arm looming up over Jake’s head.
Ghiss dropped on top of the downed assault unit, his weapons still blazing. He gave Jake a quick glance and then nodded, realizing what Jake was about to do. He leapt away, pouring fire into Cromwell’s troops like an avenging angel of death. A hail of bullets hit the assault unit where Ghiss had been.
Jake grabbed the handle of the cover plate, turned it, and pulled it open, exposing the clattering engine within. He grabbed the big popper from inside his shirt, pressed the knob, and turned it. A thin wisp of smoke streamed out just as the assault unit’s arm positioned itself above him. He tossed the popper into the power plant compartment, sl
ammed the cover closed and turned the knob, leaping back. The arm slammed down on the ground with a mighty thud precisely where he’d been standing.
Jake scrambled atop an overturned vehicle and dropped down inside it, bracing himself with all the strength of his left arm and both legs. A trooper leapt on top of the vehicle and aimed his weapon down. Jake closed his eyes, waiting for the bullets to hit.
BOOM!
The detonation sent the trooper flying, and the cover plate slammed into the bottom of the vehicle, a corner of it slicing through the floor and stopping just short of Jake’s mid-section. The vehicle shot away from the destroyed assault unit, rolling over and over again, and more men screamed as they were crushed beneath it. The vehicle tumbled to a stop, lying on its roof.
Dazed, Jake shook his head in a vain attempt to get rid of the ringing in his ears, but it just made him dizzier. It was silent outside the vehicle except for several distant battles. He shifted inside and looked back toward the assault unit.
The machine’s back had been broken, the rear end nothing more than shredded metal, smoking ruin, and flames. The cockpit lay near the barricade, its hull a twisted parody of the monster it had been.
Lumpy lay between the cockpit and the barricade, most of his body concealed behind a vehicle, and Jake could see blood dripping from the bull’s nose.
“Oh, Lumpy,” Jake moaned, a knot forming in his throat. He scrambled out of the vehicle and looked around quickly, wary of any remaining Republican troops. Bodies lay draped over wreckage or sprawled on the ground, parts of them blown away by Ghiss’ pistols or torn apart by shrapnel.
Ghiss climbed up on top of the barricade and waved to Brewer’s troops. Voices cheered from outside as Jake ran to Lumpy and crouched over the great bull’s head, dropping Requiem’s sword on the ground. There was a small gash across Lumpy’s back between the saddle and his hump. Jake feared the worst, and tears welled up in his eyes. “Lumpy?” he whispered.
