what

to do, we just don’t want to do it.”

Tina cut her eyes to the teenagers. They stared back at her, the hatred cutting like sharp invisible knives in the sunny afternoon. “It’s coming down tonoprisonersatall, isn’t it, Dad?”

“No. I won’t permit that. I’m not going to kill children. If we find them, we take them alive and then leave them.”

“So we can fight them again another day.” It was not a question; more a statement of fact.

“I guess so, girl.”

The roaring of cannon fire from the tanks tore the afternoon. The rattle of machine guns immediately followed.

“Back to work,” Ben said, a grim note in the statement.

It was grim, but it was short, as the Rebels smashed the small stronghold of Night P.

During the mopping-up, a small pocket of prisoners

was found in a basement. Naked, abused, and very nearly out of their minds from fear and the ravages of day after long day of degradation at the hands of their captors.

“See if you can get some of these old vehicles running,” Ben told his people. “We can’t leave these people here. We’re going to have to open up a runway at Cumberland and call for more birds from the base. Dan, start getting statements from the survivors. We’ve got to know what we’re up against in the next town.”

“How goddamn many of these creatures are we facing?” Dan asked, using rare profanity.

“Several hundred thousand, if we can believe what those crud back in Philly told us.”

“Are you thinking that this force out west is aligned with the creepies?”

“I don’t know. But it wouldn’t surprise me. I think we’re going to be-we