CHAPTER 25

     Jeannie had finally slipped into a restless sleep. The morning sun shining in through the transparent canopy at the back of the floater touched her dark curls but failed to wake her. It was only when rustling, squeaking noises penetrated her consciousness that she opened her eyes. She sat up and peeked over the barrier she had erected the previous evening. Her first wild thought was that the bodies she had so carefully covered had become animated during the night, a surreal horror right out of her darkest nightmares. Then the rats came into focus and it was worse than any nightmare. She shrank back and screamed loudly, piercingly, then again and again until her throat was raw.

     The rats had come during the night and began dismantling the bodies. The odor from the bodies had masked her own presence. Jeannie's loud screams startled the rats almost as much as they had her. The gray squirming mass exploded like jumping fleas, squealing their high shrieks of surprise and fear. Several of them dashed over Jeannie's barricade in random flight, coming directly toward her. She batted at them ineffectively before even thinking of her weapons. "Get away, get away!" She screamed.

     Had the rats realized that she was alone they might have overwhelmed her right then, but they were as frightened as she. By the time they recovered, she remembered that she was armed. She drew her laser gun and sprayed lances of fire and slugs in all directions, setting fire to the cargo carpets and other combustibles. The rear canopy shattered and fell around her head and onto the few rats still near her. The rest fled, pursued by laser fire as she wasted power prodigiously.

     Once the rats were gone she tossed the burning carpets over the side and stamped out the other fires, although in truth, at that moment she would rather have burned to death than abandon the twice wrecked floater and face the rats on the ground.

     The rats didn't move far. Once on the ground and away from the wild laser fire the more intelligent leaders halted the flight and evaluated the situation. They were too hungry to give up so soon, and before long they realized that only a single human stood between themselves and their meal, and a thoroughly frightened one at that. Given a little time to reorganize, they would make a meal of her, too.

***

     Jamie and Kristi were working their way through heavy brush and trees when they heard the screams. They halted and looked at each other. There was something in the frightened sounds which nudged both of their brows into puzzled frowns. Woggly rushed past them, almost bowling over Lady, who was coming back from her scouting duties for instructions. He woofed a single word as he passed them. "Jeannie!"

     "Jeannie!" Lady repeated and took off after Woggly.

     "Come on!" Kristi shouted as she began running. What in hell was Jeannie doing out here?

     Jamie was thinking the same thing, but he didn't let it slow him down. He overtook Kristi almost immediately and plowed on ahead through the brush, ignoring thorns, brush and anything larger than a small tree. From ahead, Woggly gave a startled yelp, followed quickly by Lady's voice. In their haste, they had run right into the midst of the re-marshaled rat pack.

     More screams and a burst of rapid shots rose over the fighting growls of the two dogs. Jamie broke through a newly made swath of torn and flattened vegetation and onto a scene of horror. Jeannie's head and shoulders were visible above the shards of a canopy floater, firing her laser gun as fast as she could with one hand and batting at rats swarming up over the edges of the destroyed canopy with the other.

     The rats were coming from all sides, trying to overwhelm her with numbers. They were taking their losses with the sure knowledge that she couldn't stop them for more than a few minutes.

     The dogs upset the rats' plan. Woggly and Lady swirled like dervishes as they entered the melee on each side of the craft, biting and rolling, killing rats with their teeth and crushing others with their body weight. Fuzzy Britches streaked into action, swiping with clawed forepaws. His shrill fighting scream added to the squeaking, growling din of mortal combat.

     Jamie would forever hold a picture in his mind of Jeannie's desperate screams as the laser powerpack and ammunition clip of her laser gun ran out at the same time. Rats were climbing her body, trying to reach her throat while she clubbed at them with her empty weapon and pulled at the ones clinging to her body with the other hand. He rushed toward her, crushing rats underfoot. He bounded into the craft with one leap and clawed away the rats covering her lower body, then swirled and began spraying laser beams in a half circle around them. Kristi arrived and added the fire from her heavier weapon. She was just in time.

     "Behind you!" She yelled, seeing a swarm of rats coming from the other direction, but unable to direct her fire there; she was close to being inundated with the swarming rats herself.

     Jamie turned and began pouring fire into that menace, mindful of Fuzzy Britches and the dogs who had also seen the new threat and were trying to stem the advance. He switched powerpacks faster than he had ever thought possible, not stopping to change clips in his gun. He fired the laser again and again until at last the swarming rats broke and ran. Meeting unexpected resistance, they reluctantly retreated, but they were not yet willing to leave the scene. They had found meat and they would have it, one way or another.

     With the rats temporarily out of sight, Jeannie dropped her useless weapon and flung herself into Jamie's arms. "Oh, God, they were going to eat me alive," she sobbed incoherently, clinging so tightly to him that it sent a twinge of pain through her still healing ribs.

     Jamie held her close, but still kept his eyes open, watching for more rats. Kristi scanned the underbrush in the other direction, climbing up into the downed floater with them for a better view.

     "Kristi! Oh, I must be dreaming. Are you really here, too?"

     Kristi patted Jeannie's shoulder. "It's all right now. Rangers to the rescue. But what are you doing way out here? Whitmire told me he wasn't going to let you come out until we were settled in. Oh! This must be the floater we saw get shot down. I can't imagine why John let you come with it."

     Jeannie was calming down somewhat, although she was still trembling and shivering at the close call. "It's my own fault, I guess," she said. "Mr. Whitmire kept putting me off. I finally just forced him to send me. Jamie, I wanted to see you so bad, especially after Kristi told me you had been hurt. I just couldn't stand it." She felt a warm furry body nuzzling her legs. "Fuzzy Britches!" She disentangled herself from Jamie and reached down to smooth the cat's fur, which was still ruffed out in a rainbow of colors. He purred under the petting, then assured that Jeannie and the other humans were unhurt, he moved away and began gnawing at the body of a rat, completely pleased with the outcome of the fight. What tales he would have to tell back in the Enclave! He would be the envy of every tom there, and wouldn't he be able to cut a swath through the female cats now? Princess came over and licked at a wound on his ear, then began daintily eating a rat herself. Well, perhaps she might have something to say about that aspect of things, but what the hell, as humans might put it, you can't have everything.

     Jeannie raised up and hugged Kristi then, not saying anything, just holding the other woman in a fierce embrace. In truth, she was still nearly speechless. Three times now, death had brushed too near for comfort and it was still lurking, ready to try again.

     Woggly and Lady barked almost simultaneously from opposite directions. Seconds later, they came rushing back and hopped up into the floater with the humans. "Rats still here," Lady said. She and Lady wrinkled their noses and snarled, eyeing the underbrush.

     "Kids, we may not be out of the woods yet," Kristi said, trying to penetrate the dense woods with her eyes. I don't think the rats have left yet."

     "Oh, no," Jeannie said despairingly. "I don't think I can face them again."

     "Can we run for it?" Jamie asked, looking around apprehensively.

     "Many rats, all around," Woggly said, licking at a wounded paw.

     Jamie noticed Woggly's wounds and thought of how the rats had been climbing Jeannie's body as they arrived. Damn, he had been so busy hugging her, he hadn't even checked to see where she had been hurt. He took out his medkit and began wiping at the many superficial bites she had suffered.

     "Hurry, Jamie," Kristi urged. "Jeannie, pick up your weapon and get it loaded again. You too, Jamie. Your powerpack's on red.

     Both dogs suddenly began growling and the cats fluffed out their fur to twice their normal size.

     "Here they come again!" Kristi was already firing.

***

     Captain Masters didn't know why the attacking enemy had broken off contact the day before, long enough for him and his few survivors to elude pursuit, but he had taken full advantage of the opportunity, putting several miles between them and the last place where fighting had occurred. He had brought his few remaining troops to ground in an old building with a crumbled entrance, but with roof still intact, shielding them from the air. They holed up there for the night, then the next day he resumed the cautious withdrawal.

     Judy walked beside him as they set out in the morning, still keeping carefully to cover. Masters sent Wolfgang on ahead in hope that he might intersect Jamie and Kristi's trail if they had indeed gotten away. He still had no idea if they had or not, but the possibility was worth trying for. He was also trying to think of some unobtrusive way to get a signal back to the Enclave, or to a floater; he was sure that Whitmire would be sending them out in force today, not knowing how badly things had gone wrong.

     "Not exactly the way we planned for things to go, huh?" Judy said, her eyes constantly ranging around in a half circle in front of their path.

     "We're not done yet," Masters said emphatically. "Those crazy bastards blew up the spacecraft, but I have a gut feeling that Da Cruz and Kristi got away. If we can find them, we still might make something out of this shebang."

     "Do you really think Kristi made it with him?" Judy's voice was plaintive.

     Masters smiled to himself. He was well aware of Kristi's sudden change of affection from the plain faced corporal to Jamie Da Cruz. He was a little surprised at the switch; Kristi wasn't normally attracted to men. Nevertheless, he felt as much sympathy for Judy as his attention could spare at the moment, but he wasn't worried about her emotional recovery. In his long life, he had seen bonds between men and women change and change again, especially during the turmoil of the Enclave formation when so many mores had been shaken loose. He patted Judy's shoulder. "If anyone makes it, Kristi will."

     "She really likes Jamie, doesn't she?" Judy said, unable to let the subject die.

     "Almost everyone does, or so I hear. He's an easy man to like, even though I haven't had much time to spend with him. I guess I won't in the future, either, assuming we find him. He'll be an important man if we ever get him back to the Enclave."

     "I suppose, but--Captain! Gunfire ahead! And I thought I heard a scream."

     Masters halted and listened carefully. He had not heard anything, but he knew that the younger woman's hearing was more acute than his. Then he did hear the sounds. Screams and gunshots came faintly to his ears from the distance, barely discernible. Wolfgang came running out of the brush to his side. "Rats attack humans!" He yelped, dancing around, eager for action.

     Masters reacted immediately. "Wolfgang, Lady! Go help! We'll follow. Hurry!" Could it be? There was no time to wonder. "Let's go, gang!" Masters shouted at his rangers. "Be careful, it could be the bad guys!"

     Lady woofed eagerly and bounded away, followed by Wolfgang. The rangers hurried forward as fast as possible. More screams and gunfire sounded in the distance, becoming louder as they beat their way through the dense vegetation, not trying to find an easy route, only the quickest one. As they floundered through the brush, Masters wondered if they would arrive in time to help whoever it was.