somehow.
The smell of smoke filtered down through the ceiling and now not even Sally’s ministrations could calm the children and women.
“You need to do something about your people,” Shaniah said to Hollister.
“Like what?” he said, not happy at the distraction.
“You should kill them,” she said matter-of-factly.
The words stopped him, although Chee didn’t flinch. Not because he would ever consider following her suggestion, but more because he was not surprised by it. Hollister couldn’t understand what little dance they were in engaged in, but he would sure as shit find out. When he wasn’t so preoccupied with not getting killed.
“You can’t be serious,” he said.
“They are going to die. Either we all burn to death, or they are killed by the Archaics. No matter the method, they are just as dead. A bullet now is more merciful,” she said.
“And you’re all about the mercy?” he asked, trying and failing to keep the sarcasm out of his voice.
“The quality is not unknown to me,” she said.
“Yeah, well, funny way of showing it. They aren’t going to die. Not if I have anything to say about it,” Hollister said.
The smoke was now curling down into the room and the air in it would soon no longer be breathable.
“All right. Maybe they don’t have the back covered; we go through the cell block, Chee and I exit the window first, the children and the women come next. We might have enough ammo to keep them at bay until we get to the train.”
“That’s it? Excuse me for saying, but in my country we do not call that a plan,” Shaniah scoffed.
“Never been to your country. Don’t care what it’s called there,” he said.
“Major. Sir?” Chee said, interrupting.
“Sergeant?”
“Begging your pardon, sir, but the window won’t work, Major. Two of the women yonder are… stout… they’ll never fit through and I don’t think it’s big enough for one of us to shoot through while the other climbs out of it. One of those things will be on us before we get our feet out the opening,” he said. Hollister could tell it bothered Chee to criticize his plan. But he was right.
“In my country we would call this suicide,” Shaniah snarled as if wanting to finish her thought.
“It’s going to have to be the front door, sir,” Chee said. “We’re going to have to rush them, guns blazing. Maybe Monkey Pete will come
…”
“He won’t. I gave him orders not to,” Hollister said. Everyone jumped as one of the roof timbers cracked and sparks fluttered down from the ceiling.
“Again, you have a monkey?” Shaniah asked.
“NO,” he and Chee both answered at the same time.
Hollister tried to think. He had been out of command situations for nearly four years. His decision-making abilities, which had been lightning quick in his army days, had atrophied. He’d not faced anything like this, not in Winchester, Cold Harbor, or anyplace else during the war. The only thing that compared was when he’d lost his men to these things on the plains. He hated the feeling. He wasn’t going to lose again. Not if he had to kill every single one of these sons of bitches with his bare hands.
T he flames lit up the night, dancing and flickering in the darkness, and by the looks of the reflections in the windows across the street, they were starting to spread to the adjacent buildings. There was another loud crack and more sparks and now smoke rolled into the room and the women and children started to cough. Outside the Archaics had backed away from the fire, and while Shaniah said they had no innate fear of it, he wasn’t so sure this was the case. They all studied the flames as if they wanted to keep their distance.
“All right,” he said, drawing Shaniah’s knife from his belt and handing it to her. “We’re going out. Chee, I’ll take the point, the women and children next, and you bring up the rear. Shaniah, if you’re with us, if you could do what you can to protect our flanks…” He drew a Colt from his holster and offered it to her but she shook her head, holding up the knife instead.
“All right… we’re going to have to make every shot count and we can’t assume that’s all the Archaics in that group there. Could be more about, so…” He stopped as Chee put his hand on his arm.
“Did you hear that, sir?” Chee asked.
“Hear what?”
“It sounded like… barking…” Chee said, his eyes on the street.
“I didn’t hear a th…” But then he did. A loud, deep bark.
Down the street came Dog, barking and churning up the ground in great leaps. The Archaics watched in stunned silence as the great beast ran directly to the jail door, where Chee had lifted the timber beam and pulled it open. Dog slipped in, barking, and leapt on Chee, pushing him backward against the door and slamming it shut, his paws on the sergeant’s shoulders and licking his face.
Hollister noticed then, the dog was wearing some kind of harness, and held in place by two leather straps was the Ass-Kicker.
“Huh,” Hollister said.
H ollister removed the harness from Dog’s back. The giant animal appeared not to even know it had been carrying the heavy gun. Hollister hefted the weapon into the crook of his arm and instantly felt about one thousand times better. He checked the gauge, unnecessarily he knew, for Monkey Pete would not have sent it less than fully charged. He drew back the slide and smiled at the slight hiss of steam exiting the valve. All right, you blood-sucking bastards. Say hello to my Archaic-Ass-Kicking friend.
Dog had been so happy to see Chee, he had momentarily forgotten about the rest of the people in the room. He ignored Hollister as usual, but he stepped toward the children and women huddled in the corner and huffed, and then stretched so his forepaws were down on the ground like he wanted to play, wagging his tail in joy. The children were scared at first but as they watched Dog clowning it up, their demeanor changed. The cries and whimpering stopped and a few giggles escaped from their tired mouths.
“I bet you wouldn’t ignore me if I had a side o’ bacon, you big fur ball,” Hollister said. Dog looked at Hollister; that was when he noticed Shaniah and his demeanor changed. He growled low in his throat and took a few cautious steps toward her, his body tense, the hair on his neck standing up. He looked ready to spring at any moment.
“I can easily kill this dog,” Shaniah said quietly. Hollister didn’t doubt it, but the words did not sit well with his sergeant. Before he had a chance to say anything, Chee spoke up.
“Come near the dog, harm it in any way, and you will walk the Qui chen forever,” Chee said.
“Chee, what exactly is Qui chen?” Hollister asked.
“A river in hell,” Chee said.
“Oh,” said Hollister. “Easy you two. Let’s not walk any rivers anywhere, all right?”
Shaniah stared at him for several seconds as the smoke in the room thickened. There wasn’t much time.
“I mean it. No trouble between you two. Sergeant, that’s an order. We’re on the same side here,” Hollister said. “Chee, load up.”
“Sally, we’re getting out of here. Everyone up and ready,” he said.
“No… no… no… no… we can’t go out there… the demons will kill us all. They’ll kill…” Rebecca had started to moan and wail, but Sally covered the ground between them in a flash and smacked her hard across the face.
“You shut up now, you tired hag. Come with us or stay, but you git ready,” she commanded. Rebecca’s mind was gone. It just went away to another place, her mind broken like a fine china plate that had fallen to the floor. Hollister didn’t think Rebecca was ever coming back from this.
“I’m going out first and I’m going to give those sonsabitches a special hello,” he said, holding up the Ass- Kicker. “We all go south on First Street and head for the train siding. We’ve got help there and we’ll be safe. They can’t set fire to it and we can outrun them anyway. The three of us will protect you.” He was interrupted by a growl from Dog. “Excuse me, the four of us can protect you. We can do this. You have my word.” For effect, Hollister worked the handle attached to the main action on his gun, and the sound it made as the steam hissed and the round popped into place was loud in the room, which was reassuring to him at least. It was time.
Chee moved away from the door and returned to the port. He could get off a couple of shots from there if he
