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There was no way to get used to the stink. Putrescence wasn't far advanced, but it was flavored with puffs of weird chemical reek from the speed glands.
"That's it," he finally whispered. "My arm is numb."
Skeeter One floated back in over the camp. They disco
Cadma
Cadma
"Yo." Far down the line of the i
"Damn, they're quiet now," Ricky said. He depressed the trigger of the flame thrower, testing. Fire squirted out and puddled on the ground.
"Not for long. They're gorged now. Come tomorrow their bellies will be empty again. Corpses will begin to putrefy. Maybe they're scavengers, and maybe not. Between the survivors here and the ones still coming north, we're going to have our hands full, believe it."
"Still... it's just too damned quiet."
Skeeter Two came in for them.
"Find me an empty barrel," he said to Rick. "Half fill it with water."
The little man tested two, then found one. "This'll do." He ran a hose in. Water thrummed against the side of the barrel.
Cadma
He dumped a quarter of the bucket into the barrel and sloshed the brew around with a stick. God, it stank.
"All right, you two squeeze into the cabin. Ricky, with me in the hoist."
Carlos leaned out of the Skeeter. "What's the plan, amigo?"
"Just take us up gently. Hover over the fence: I have an unpleasant present for our friends."
"Bueno. Send them my very best regards."
Cadma
"The whole camp. We haven't lost anyone. Just get out of there, will you?"
We made it! No one dead. Christians 2,000; Lions zip. "Marty."
"Yo."
"We're getting out of here. Give us five minutes and the Minerva's all yours. Five minutes, and you're gone when you want to be."
"Whoopee! Cad—look, I didn't mean to be a drag—" "Fine. Out." He took one last look around. "All right, Carlos. Up!
Wh--?"
Two shadows moved at surreal speed. The first grendel, the prey, hit the i
It was coming straight at him. Cadma
Twenty meters away, the grendel jarred to a stop. It screamed at him: a challenge.
In that moment Greg fired from the side.
The grendel was outraged. It whipped around and. was gone, charging into a second stream of bullets. It hit Greg and knocked him flying, turned, and was coming back at Cadma
Rick sprinted toward the spot where Greg had fallen. Cadma
Rick stopped, looked, and found two grendels investigating the break in the i
Cadma
Cadma
"Any final words?" Rick asked bitterly.
The Skeeter flew over the fence. Its light revealed a dozen grendels burrowing their way into a heap of the dead. Three were at Greg, pulling him apart like a chicken.
"Yeah," Cadma
Suddenly there was a storm of activity. Speed-drunken grendels streaked from every direction, congregating beneath them in a hissing mass. He could hear their screams even above the whip of the rotors.
"Bastards."
Rick's eyes gleamed.
Cadma
Carlos spun them around and headed toward the swollen silhouette of Mucking Great Mountain.
Chapter 31
GRENDELS IN THE MIST
When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.
LUKE 11:21-22
Mary A
She heard slow thumping behind her.
Hendrick was on crutches. One leg was encased in a balloon cast while the ruined calf muscle regenerated. He was awkward on the crutches, and tired too. "I thought we sent you to bed," he said.
Mary A
"You resting?"
"Yes. How's Terry?"
"In place. We perched him on that big rock you call Snail Head. You can see him from here."
She looked. Yes, a shadow-man sat on a big white boulder, rifle in his lap, legs in a wide V. She turned back to the clouds.
The covered veranda had become the fire-control area. It had a wonderful field of view, but hers from below the veranda was almost as good. She could see along the winding silver ribbon of Amazon Creek as far as the edge of the bluff, and beyond to the sea of storm.
Half a dozen colonists were digging up mines, altering them and burying them again. The mines had been set to be harmless to a dog, death to an adult grendel. Now they must be reset, and the dogs pe
The dogs didn't like that at all. She could hear their protests from inside the house. Tweedledee and Tweedledum were teaching their litter brothers and companions how to howl.
Another Skeeter was landing above the house. "I'll take it," Hendrick said. She heard him thumping away.
"I'll show them," she said, but he was already going, and she didn't insist. It was her house. Her house, but she was tired. She should be in bed.
Hendrick and Jerry and others were ru
The living-room floor, with the small stream ru
"The only hot water is in the kitchen and the main bathroom, and there really isn't much of it because the heaters were designed for just two people. Sorry. We don't have energy to spare. Not for heat, not for lights. Sorry. There's soap, but there isn't much, and we're saving some for the medical people. Sorry."
Sorry. She was getting very tired of using that word.
It seemed that nobody but Mary A