an appearance of respectability and power. Ryan often thought it simply made the hired thugs easier to identify and kill.
Doc rubbed his temples with his long fingers. “And, except for the ones that our good man Ryan took out, they did not seem all that interested in chilling us, but rather were looking for captives. Standard operating procedure, if they were out to collect slaves, but that was not the impression I got. It is all most peculiar.”
“Don’t forget stickies,” Jak piped up from the other side of the fire as he cast long looks into the darkness.
“And those collars they were wearing. What’s that about? Is someone controlling them? We have a whole lot of questions, and no answers.” Ryan shoved the weapons into a large backpack he had liberated from the sniper’s building. “We’ll move to the high building and hole up there for the night. Between the bastard stickies and what looks like the vanguard of an army, there’s too much trouble around to be staying out in the open. Let’s strip the rest of the bodies along the way. No sense letting anyone else find these blasters. Once we’re secure, we’ll rig a few alarms, and take turns watching throughout the night. In the morning, we’ll head farther into the city—carefully—and see if we can get some idea of what’s going on here.”
“What we eat?” Jak asked.
Ryan jerked his thumb behind him. “Rations back at the sniper position.”
“Great.”
There were no further objections, and they all packed up, doused the fire and headed for cover.
GUNFIRE AWOKE RYAN the next morning, jolting him out of bed with his Sig Sauer in his hand before he realized it was off in the distance. Looking around, he saw most of the others were also awake, from a sleepy-eyed Mildred to a yawning Jak, who had taken the most recent watch. Only Doc’s stentorian snoring continued unabated.
After a quick sweep of the building to ensure no one had entered during the night, the other five broke their fast over a small fire built in a section of aluminum vent that Ryan and J.B. had taken apart and reshaped to form a rough chimney. After choking down the vacuum-packed, nearly indestructible rations that tasted bland whether they were hot or cold, spiced or plain, the five ascended to the roof to see if they could spot where the shots were coming from.
The remains of the former neighborhood around them were flanked by hills to the north and west. Now that day had broken, columns of smoke to the north were easily visible as black plumes dotting the horizon. The blasterfire continued, single shots echoing over the foothills of the Rockies, interspersed with bursts of automatic weapons fire here and there, interspersed with the sustained roar of a light machine gun, followed by the heavier boom of another automatic weapon.
J.B. identified the various sounds as if he was listening to bird calls. “M-60 belt-fed dueling with a .50-caliber heavy. Someone’s got a bit of firepower on their side. The pops we’re hearing are AK-47s, and I also caught a few M-16s and some lighter caliber weapons, .38s, .45s.”
Krysty stood at the edge of the rooftop, the cool morning breeze blowing her hair away from her face. “Doesn’t sound like anything we want to get mixed up in, lover.”
“Mebbe, mebbe not. Been thinking about it since last night. It looks like someone’s raising an army, or trying to, and every time that happens, it leads to all kinds of trouble.”
“Trouble to whom?” Mildred asked, shading her eyes with her hand as she gazed north. “We slip out now, head back to the redoubt, jump somewhere else, and leave whoever’s out there to kill each other however they want. So far I’m siding with Krysty on this one, boys. I’m all for fighting the good fight, doing what we can when we can, but that doesn’t involve marching into what sounds like a war zone up there.”
Ryan eyed the black woman for a moment. “You’re right, it may not be our kind of trouble, but there’s plenty of places around here where it could be their kind—and Krysty and J.B. know of two of them.”
“Not fair, Ryan.” Krysty hadn’t taken her eyes from the horizon, but her tone carried unmistakable reproach.
“Neither is the world.” Ryan didn’t have to look at J.B. to know he’d already come to a similar conclusion. He didn’t know how the Armorer felt about Cripple Creek, the town he grew up in, but he doubted the man would simply walk away from a potential threat to it. And he was sure that Krysty wouldn’t put up with invaders swooping down on the ville of Harmony, where she grew up, to steal conscripts and turn them into trained killers, if there was anything she could do to stop it.
“I’m about as keen as you all are to go walking into what might be our deaths, but I think we need to check out what’s going on up there. Besides, someone came after us last night, and I want to find out who’s holding the other end of that leash.”
“And take them out?” J.B. stared at him speculatively. “If we head up there, it won’t be a pleasure trip. Don’t want to get caught between two barons feuding. We’d be like a bug between two rocks—squashed.”
Ryan digested his friend’s take on the situation and nodded. “If we didn’t like what we saw once there, we either head out or do what we can. Lots of times we don’t really have a choice, but here we do. What about you, Jak? You been quiet ever since we came up here.”
The albino youth was also shading his eyes against the morning light, the rising wind from the mountains to the west ruffling his white hair. “My people not been free if you not come stop Baron Tourment and men. We fight, we move, we survive all time. Not think much ’bout tomorrow. Comes if when comes. Got chance help people, mebbe we should. But only if good fight. One we got chance winnin’.”
“Amen to that, my snowy-haired young friend.” Everyone turned to see Doc, dressed for travel, ascend the last of the stairs to the roof. “My apologies for tarrying in bed so long. Methinks the porter had not received my wake-up call last night. But it is a glorious morning, and after we enjoy a fine repast, I, for one, am looking forward to seeing more of this ‘Wild West’ as they refer to it in the newspapers back east.”
“Doc?” Krysty approached him warily, aware of how fragile he could be when he regressed to this past state. “You’re not back in the nineteenth century anymore, you’re here, with us, remember?”
For a moment, the old man stared at Krysty as if she was the one who had lost all reason, not him. Then his mouth split into a wide grin, revealing his peculiar set of teeth, and he laughed, long and loud, the joyous sound echoing off the deserted ruins of the buildings around them.
Along with everyone else, Ryan was surprised by Doc’s reaction. Normally he responded to being wrenched back into the present with depression, and usually denial, rambling and tears. This sort of reaction made him fear the white-haired old man had finally slipped over the edge of sanity once and for all. He caught J.B.’s eye, who nodded and casually took three steps to the left to stand on Doc’s flank, ready to tackle him if needed.
And indeed, Doc was trying to speak, but wheezing and gasping as he was, he couldn’t get any words out. He held up one hand while resting the other on his knee as he whooped and coughed. “Just a…just a minute…dear friends…oh, the looks on your faces…” At that he broke into a fresh gale of hilarity, nearly falling over in his mirth.
Ryan gave J.B. a hand signal to stand down. Crossing his arms over his chest, he waited for the latest jocularity to subside.
“Upon my soul…that is as good a jape as I have had
