As before, Ryan led the way, gun cocked and ready, his finger on the trigger. Everyone followed in their places, their own blasters ready for instant action.
Once Ryan thought he caught the sound of human voices ahead. But Krysty's mutie hearing didn't register anything, so he figured he was mistaken.
It was an error that within an hour would culminate in the death of one of the party.
They found the vehicle less than a quarter mile along the trodden path. It was beached, like a long-dead swollen whale, pulled in among the trees, its rear wheels still in the water. At first glance it looked like a boat on wheels. Its six wheels held it about eight feet above the mud; it had small metal ladders on each side, and the biggest, fattest tires that any of them had ever seen Ч their diameter was at least six feet. Ryan poked at the tires, finding them amazingly soft and underinflated.
'Swamp buggy,' pronounced Doc Tanner confidently. 'Deep tread on the tires. Go through or over just everything you can imagine. Land or water. As well as anything that lies between.'
J.B. clambered up a ladder and peered inside. 'Seats for eight. Couple o' cans of gas. Steers with a rudder kick-bar. Box of old scattergun shells. Fish hooks. Something looks damned like a ramrod. Figure it can't be. Only blasters from two hundred years back use a ramrod. Muzzle loaders.'
'See anyone?' called Ryan.
'No.'
'I can drive it,' said Finnegan. 'Let's get the fuck out of here 'fore they come back.'
After a moment Ryan nodded his agreement. There was a simple rule you learned in the Deathlands. If you held it, then it was yours. If someone else held it, then it belonged to them.
The swamp buggy was about to belong to Ryan and his comrades.
The Trader had established routines for most occasions. Even for stealing someone else's transport.
'One gets in, slow and easy. Watch for traps. Small landwag, one man can watch. Big one takes two or three. Don't start it until the last possible moment. Say again. Don't start it until the last moment. Once you make a noise, then they're on you, and you got borrowed time. Once it's running, get the chill out of there.'
Finnegan sat in the driver's seat of the buggy. Krysty, Doc and Lori took the other seats, each watching a different section of the land and river around them. Hennings, Ryan and the Armorer moved into the surrounding forest, their eyes and ears ready for the return of the men who owned the vehicle.
Once he felt he could master the controls, Finn gave a low whistle. The three men fell back, ringing the swamp-wag with their backs to it, eyes raking the shifting wall of green all around them.
'Which way?' asked Finn.
'Cross the river. That's where the old road went. Must lead to a ville of some kind.'
'Ready?'
'Ready, Finn,' replied Ryan.
The starter was a three-inch nail, bent and smoothed from use. Finn grasped it, pushing on the gas pedal a couple of times. His left hand nursing the throttle, he twisted the starter.
There was a spluttering muffled cough, like a sleeping bear waking in a deep cavern. Finn tried it again. A puff of thick blue smoke spurted from the exhaust, but the engine still wouldn't fire.
'Again!'
'Bastard won't...'
'Come on, Finn. You're going to bring every citizen for miles.'
On the third go the engine very nearly caught, turning over a dozen times, then dying away. Krysty half stood in her seat, pointing to her right; to the west.
'I hear someone, Ryan. Men running.'
At the fourth attempt the engine of the swampwag fired, filling the small clearing with a deep throaty roar. Smoke rushed from the exhaust in a choking pall. Standing on the ladder, rifle at the ready, Ryan gestured for the others to climb aboard.
'Go. Fast as you can, Finn. Go 'cross the river. Make for cover.'
'Only blasters they got look like they come from a hundred years 'fore the nukes,' said J.B.
The massive wheels began to rotate, throwing a spray of mud and brackish water in the air.
'All the tires give power,' shouted Finnegan, kicking at the rudder bar to steer the buggy into the water.
Ryan watched behind them, where Krysty had warned of men coming fast. But there was no sign of them. He suddenly realized that the bottom of the ladder was going to be immersed as the buggy slid fully into the river and he hastily climbed aboard. Clambering up, his eye caught a movement near the bottom of the short ladder: the scaly spade-shaped head of a huge water moccasin emerged above the water, and the two deep-set eyes gazed blankly into his.
The utter depth of feeling made the short hairs bristle at the nape of his neck.
'Left, you gaudy bastard bitch!' cursed Finnegan, wrestling with the unfamiliar controls.
'Open her up!' yelled the Armorer, one hand hanging on to his beloved fedora hat.
'She's open wider than a low-jack whore's legs already,' replied Finn, sweat streaming from his chubby face.
They were about halfway into the serene brown water when men appeared on the bank.
'Five of... no, six. Seven,' amended Hennings, leveling his gray Heckler & Koch submachine gun, steadying the drum magazine on the side of the swampwag.
'Hold fire,' warned Ryan. 'We already stole their buggy. Let 'em deal the first hand. See what they're holding.'
Krysty shaded her eyes with her hand, peering toward the men silhouetted against the elusive sun as it broke through the clouds.
'Nothing much. Nothing automatic. The one on the left with the scarf around his head has a... some kind of long blaster. He's thumbing back on a sort of hammer.'
Hennings stood up. 'I'll waste them all, Ryan?'
The buggy was very close to the belt of sycamores that lined the far side of the river. Another ten seconds or so, and they'd be under their cover.
'Hold it. There might be hundreds of the double-poor bastards round here on both sides o' the water.'
'I'll just warn them some,' said the black, bracing himself and squeezing the trigger.
The blaster was set on continuous, and a stream of bullets flowed out, with a sound like tearing silk; it kicked up a line of spray a few paces from the watching men.
Finnegan glanced over his shoulder, whooping his approval at his old friend's success. 'Teach them suckers not to fuck with us!' he crowed, his enthusiasm making the swampwag veer alarmingly to one side, nearly sending Hennings toppling into the water.
'One of them's got a blaster aimed!' shouted Krysty warningly.
Hennings waved his hand derisively toward the group of natives, clenching his fist in a power salute.
Ryan watched the men pick themselves up after Hennings's burst of fire and scatter. All but one. He stood still, a long rifle at his shoulder, rock-steady.
There was something menacing about the man's deadly calm. There was the look about him of someone who knew precisely what he was doing, not frightened by the shattering effects of the fire from the buggy. Ryan could almost feel himself inside the man's skull.
He considered the windage, the elevation, the drift, the distance.
Then he squeezed and squeezed again.
Ryan turned toward Hennings, tasting the immediacy of the danger like cold steel on his tongue.
'Get down, Henn!' he shouted.
The tall black glanced sideways at him, the smile of triumph still on his lips. From the corner of his eye Ryan spotted the puff of gray powder smoke as it billowed from the muzzle of the long gun.
A moment later he caught the crack of the explosion. Almost simultaneously he heard the unforgettable flat wet slap of lead striking flesh. Hennings gave an 'oh' that held more surprise than fear or pain.
'No,' said Finnegan, half standing, losing control of the swampwag for a moment, sending it skittering
