Hive Invasion (19 page)

No one knew quite what to make of Doc’s pronouncement, although Krysty saw several people make the sign of the cross over their bodies.

Doc stepped forward now, his rich baritone easily carrying over the crowd. “In that particular verse, David was praying on behalf of King Solomon, that he would rule justly and wisely. But the ‘he’ I am referring to is each and every one of you.” Doc pointed into the crowd, his finger seeking out anyone who was looking at him.

“It is easy to lay down your arms and trust that the Lord shall provide,” he continued. “Indeed, perhaps he did provide us to assist you in your time of need. But—” Doc paused, letting the silence build, making sure every eye was following him “—does not the Bible also say that the Lord God helps those who help themselves? For surely you do not count on the Lord to miraculously till your fields and plant your seeds and harvest your crops. No, for while you indeed pray for a bountiful harvest, it is
you
who provide the labor to make your crops grow and your fields plentiful. It is
you
who has undertaken this journey to find a place to live and raise your families free from oppression and fear. And now it is up to
you—
each and every one of you—to defend what you have—your families, your neighbors—from those who would seek to take everything that you hold dear from you.”

Doc drew himself up and stared out over the crowd. “Make no mistake, people of the Silvertide collective. We are all in this together. And either we shall all stand fast against this pernicious evil that seeks to destroy us, or we shall divide, and in that division will be our undoing. Now, what say you all?”

Recognizing when an opportunity had been handed to him on a silver platter, Chreis stepped forward. “All those who wish to have Sister Krysty, Brother John, Brother Theophilus and the rest continue to aid us, speak now.”

The chorus of “ayes” was deafening.

“Any opposed?” Chreis asked.

No one said a word.

“The motion is carried!” Chreis said to another round of cheers.

“That’s all well and good!” Saea cried out when the celebration had died down. “But how are we to stop them?”

Krysty opened her mouth again, but this time another voice spoke before she could. “Got an idea that, if we all work really hard, could swing the odds back in our favor.”

She turned to see J.B. step forward now. “It’s going to take a lot of hard work, and if we want to make it happen, we’ll have to get started right now, so we can be ready for them when they return tonight.”

“How do you know they’re coming back tonight?”

“Simple. They’ve struck at us the past two nights but haven’t gotten what they wanted. Now they’ll see us as being demoralized from the flood, and their somewhat successful attack yesterday. A wise leader would follow up that strike with another one, figuring that we’ll still be recovering from their last attack. But we won’t.” Now J.B.’s intent gaze scanned the entire crowd. “Instead, we’ll be ready for them—
all
of us.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Three hours later, J.B. sighted down the barrel of the M4 carbine he’d come to consider his over the past couple of days. He had considered using Ryan’s Scout longblaster for this, but its ten-round magazine and bolt action would be more hindrance than help in what they were about to do, so he’d stuck with the M4 auto rifle.

His target was a patch of ground about fifteen yards across by the same distance long, at the bottom of the thirty-foot cliff he was lying on. At the far end of the dusty clearing was a bottleneck formed by two cliffs that time had either pushed to within a few yards of each other or worn down the small ravine in between. Steep, nearly unclimbable walls rose into the air on the left and right sides of the hole. The box canyon in which they’d set up their ambush provided ample room for everyone who needed to be there.

“Come on, Jak...shouldn’t be too hard to find some of them,” J.B. muttered. For the fifth time in as many minutes, he checked the rest of his impromptu firing squad.

On his left lay Ricky and Krysty, each aiming an M4 at the killing space below. On his right was Tully, also in a prone shooter’s position, waiting for their prey to take their bait and stampede in.

“You good?” J.B. whispered to Tully.

“Yes, Brother Dix,” she replied, managing to conceal most of her impatience. “I remember everything you taught me.”

“It’s just that this is your first time firing this kind of weapon, so I just want you to be comfortable, that’s all.”

“I’ll be comfortable once Jak’s out of that ravine and back up here,” she replied. Her cheeks flamed red as the import of her words struck her.

Although J.B. noted what she’d said, he didn’t comment beyond a simple, “Me, too. While we’re waiting, let’s go over it one more time. Where’s your firing selector?”

“Single shot. No need for full auto, since we’re in minimal danger from them, and I’ll be aiming every time.”

“Good. How will you select your targets?”

“I’m covering the right side with you. Krysty and Ricky have the left. I’m to wait until you give the word or shoot, whichever comes first. We’re trying to make it easy for the ropers to get the bodies up and clear before they’re taken back by these things.”

“Very good.” J.B. meant it, too. He’d rarely had a student who had picked up the basics of both shooting and tactics so quickly. “What are you aiming for?”

“The head if possible, to preserve the body, but if one of them gets on Jak, I’m to take it out only if you or the others can’t—biggest danger is shooting too close to a friend. If a bullet hits the chest, there’s enough other usable parts so it won’t go to waste. Ride the recoil back, then pick another target as soon as possible and shoot. Repeat until I have to reload, or there’s nothing left to kill.”

“Excellent.” A clatter of rocks sounded in the distance, although J.B. couldn’t see what made the noise. “Get ready.”

“Been ready since we got up here,” she replied, snugging the butt tighter into her shoulder. J.B. did the same, sighting down his barrel just as Jak burst out of the narrow pass, his white hair fluttering in the wind as he pumped his skinny arms and legs for all they were worth.

Following about three steps behind him was a furiously chittering mass of burrow-bugs, their quadruple sets of rear legs churning up dust as they boiled out of the defile after their sprinting prey.

“Hold...hold...” J.B. said, wanting to make sure that Jak was out of the line of fire. “Now.”

The four longblasters cracked as one, and the first trio of bugs all went down with holes in their heads or upper chests. The rest swarmed over them, only to be cut down by the second volley. However, the tide of gray-green monsters continued pouring out of the far end of the clearing.

“Think they’re going to try to pyramid up here, too?” Krysty asked between methodical shots into the teeming mass below.

“If they do—” J.B. took another bug’s head off with a well-placed shot to its throat, the hole spurting green-black ichor as the beast went down under the pounding feet of his fellows “—I’ve got a little surprise for them this time.”

Jak scrambled up over the edge of the cliff and scooted next to Tully, breathing hard from his exertion. He pulled up the rope he’d used to climb the cliff, just in case. “Hot damn! Think fuckers still pissed off from last time.”

“Get on your longblaster and start taking them down,” J.B. said, squeezing off shots every two seconds like clockwork. “The ropers are getting started, and we want to give them plenty to work with.”

From the left and right sides of the cliffs, lariats began sailing down onto the dead burrow-bugs. The lasso wielders targeted the bodies that had fallen close enough to the walls that they could be pulled up without attracting too much attention from the other bugs. Once the loop was tight around them, teams started hauling the bugs up the cliff walls and moving them out of the way so more could be grabbed. Soon, several bodies were being hauled up at a time.

“At the rate they keep coming, we’ll have enough in no time,” Ricky said.

“Yeah...better keep that surprise handy, just in case,” Krysty said as she reloaded her carbine and continued shooting.

“I’ve got it, don’t worry,” he replied. The longblaster team was dividing its fire now. Krysty, Ricky and Jak were shooting into the milling mass at the bottom of the cliff, while J.B. and Tully were still concentrating on bringing down bugs near the left and right walls.

“From my count, the collectors have gotten at least fifteen bodies,” Tully said. “How much longer should we keep firing?”

“I think we’re just about done here,” J.B. said, pleased at her foresight. “Keep the bugs busy until this last round’s been retrieved, and then we’ll quit.”

Krysty, Ricky, J.B., Jak and Tully fired a few more rounds into the roiling mass of burrow-bugs, just enough to keep them off the last few bodies being hauled up by the collective people on each side. The Armorer reloaded his carbine, then stood and watched the tide of gray-green below.

“Looks like they don’t have the numbers to take us on like at the plateau,” Krysty said as she rose to stand next to him.

“Mebbe, but I don’t even think they know we’re up here,” J.B. replied. “Once Jak disappeared and we killed the first few that saw him climbing, it was like the rest didn’t know where to go or what to do except grab the new food right in front of them.”

His observation was correct. The bugs had stopped coming in through the ravine at the other side and were now carrying off the rest of their slain brethren. Once the other bug bodies had vanished from sight, it was as if they had never even existed in the first place.

“So what was your surprise?” Krysty asked. “More plas-ex?”

J.B. shook his head. “Better.” Removing his clenched hand from his pocket, he revealed two small grens. “One high-ex, one implo. They were on the three we chilled from the truck.”

“They’ll come in handy,” she observed.

“One way or the other,” J.B. agreed.

“Think we got enough?” Ricky asked as he also stood and stretched.

“If Tully’s count is accurate, there should be more than enough for what we need,” J.B. said. “Let’s go find out.”

The shooting party headed toward the group on their left, which was the one closest to the encampment. They had brought up ten carcasses all by themselves. J.B. sent the kids over to help the other group, which had lassoed eight bugs. Altogether, there was plenty to go around.

“This is either going to be one of the best ideas you’ve ever had, or the craziest, J.B.,” Krysty said as they helped stack the bug bodies on the back of a wagon.

J.B. thumped on the chest plate of a particularly large burrow-bug with the butt of his M4. “By the time the night’s over, we’ll know the answer to that. But there’s still a lot of work to do before we find out.”

* * *

B
ACK
AT
CAMP
, Jak enjoyed the adulation he received at dinner from the rest of the collective. He had to tell the story about how he had lured the burrow-bugs into the killing ground at least three different times, with men, women and children all hanging on his every word. Remembering Ryan’s warning, he kept the bragging to a minimum, just saying he did what he had to do and giving plenty of credit to the shooting group as well as the lasso wielders. “Was group effort. Everybody not work together, we not succeed.” His willingness to risk his life to get the group what they needed, as well as his relative modesty about doing it, had done much to alleviate the previous bad blood felt by the collective, and Jak caught appreciative glances being cast his way by both Krysty and J.B.

That evening’s dinner was being served in shifts, with everyone who wasn’t making food or eating working on creating their surprises for the kidnappers. Since Jak had performed one of the most dangerous jobs in the entire operation, J.B. had given him the rest of the day off, telling him to get some rest, especially since they were most likely going to be up most of the night.

And that had been his plan, at least at first. Jak had been awake for the past twenty hours, what with being in on the fight the previous night, then surviving the flood and helping search for survivors, then watching over the rest of his group while they’d braced the collective about staying on to finish their job. And although he had what often seemed like bottomless reserves of stamina, even Jak found himself yawning as he headed toward the truck to get some shut-eye.

But as he neared it, he saw a folded slip of paper with his name written on it under the windshield wiper. Unfolding it, he read the contents with a widening grin.

Meet me at the spring. Don’t let anyone see you leave.

Tully

Jak refolded the evidence and stuffed it into his pocket while glancing around to see if anyone was watching him. The nearest people were all busy either with their meal or working on the very messy business of dismembering bug carcasses. It was child’s play for him to slip out of camp and head over to the spring.

The area there had been reshaped by the previous day’s flood. Instead of a small trickle through the rocks, both the streambed and surrounding area were now submerged under several feet of water, creating a small pond. When he reached it, Jak looked around, shading his eyes against the setting sun until he spotted Tully on the far side of the water. Casting one last scan around to make sure he hadn’t been followed, he loped around the large pool of water until he stood right in front of her. “Hey.”

Wearing her best dress—the one she had worn to the feast the first night Jak and the others had come to town—Tully stared up at him with a wide grin. “Hey. Got my note, I see.”

“Yeah. Ain’t you supposed be chopping bugs?” Jak asked with a grin.

Tully smiled back. “I may have convinced Tamar to take my shift on the skinning line, saying if she didn’t that her daddy might find out who’s been skimming shine from the distillery.” She patted the blanket next to her. “Sit down.”

“Sure.” As he did, Jak caught a whiff of himself and wrinkled his nose. “Gotta warn—I kinda stink.”

She laughed at that, not unkindly. “I thought you might, which is why I suggested that we, I mean, you, ah...” She looked away, color flaming on her cheeks. “Damn it, I thought this would be easier.”

“What?” Jak asked as he crossed his legs under himself.

“I just wanted to see you without anyone else around. And now that you’re here, I can’t think or talk straight or anything. I just...wanna stare at you forever...” She broke her gaze and looked at the ground. “You must think I’m the biggest jackaninny.”

“I think you’re great!” Jak replied. “Way you handle windrider and shoot blaster. And you speak mind, not care what others think. Never met girl like you before.”

And that was the simple truth of it. Jak had loved Christina, his wife and mother of his child, with all his heart. He had known other girls, bold and full of life, but none of them were quite like the spitfire looking back at him.

Tully stared at him for a long minute before replying. “You mean that?”

Suddenly afraid that
he
might say something foolish if he opened his mouth again, Jak just nodded.

Tully licked her lips, then nodded once, as if deciding something. “Let’s go for a swim.”

Jak glanced at the water, then back at her to see her already slipping out of her dress. “Uh, okay.”

Shucking his dusty, sweaty clothes, too, he followed her as she dashed into the water. Fed by the small stream, the clear water came up to their necks, allowing them to swim around with ease yet still walk on the bottom if they wished. Jak ducked his head and came up with a splash, slicking his white hair back so he looked like a large, pale, white otter.

Tully laughed again as she paddled over to where he was standing. “Don’t you look handsome.”

Jak frowned at that. “I know I ain’t pretty—”

She put a finger against his lips. “What are you talking about? You’re the best-lookin’ guy I know.”

Jak blinked and rubbed a hand across his face. “Uh, need get your eyes checked. Lots guys in your—” he waved a hand over toward the rest of the collective “—group look better’n me.”

Tully shook her head as she swam closer to him. “Not to me they don’t. They’re all the same—boring farmers or traders or mechanics, the same old thing every day. But you—you’re different, you talk different, you look different.”

She stood right next to Jak, her bare breasts brushing against his skinny chest. Her touch was positively galvanizing on him. She reached out with a dripping wet hand and caressed his scarred cheek. “You’ve done things none of them could ever dream of doing, or ever will do, Jak Lauren. And that makes you more special than all of them put together.”

Jak had no idea how to reply to that, but he did know what he wanted to do more than anything in the world right now.... He leaned forward and kissed her, tentatively at first, then more passionately as she moved closer to him and wrapped an arm around his neck. Her mouth opened to his, and their tongues met with increasing urgency. He brought up his hand under the water to cup her breast, making her moan at the touch.