strong and moved with the ease of a younger man. His angry gaze moved from Vicious to Grim to Terror and then to Lethal still unconscious on the forest floor. With a growl, he called out, “Euphamie Beulah Ryderwood, I should have known you would be at the center of all this ruckus!” He looked behind him and then back at her. With exasperation, he said, “You blew up half my mountain!”
“Sorry, Pa. Next time I’m being chased by a band of murderous assholes, I’ll be sure to ask ‘em real nice if they’ll stop.”
“Language, Euphamie,” her father growled. “And a little less sass, missy.”
“Yes, Pa,” she grumbled.
“Sir,” Vicious called out, “I apologize for all the trouble that we have caused, but one of my men is hurt badly. He needs medical care as quickly as possible.”
The old man squinted. “You’re that general, aren’t ya?”
Vicious went rigid at being identified so easily. “I am a general, sir.”
“Your picture is in a deck of playing cards we took off a Splinter who thought he’d trespass on my mountain,” the old man explained. He glanced Terror’s way and pointed with a finger missing its first knuckle. “That one there with the one eye, too.”
“I’d like to see that deck of cards,” Vicious said, his hackles raised at the realization there were likely bounties on their heads.
“I’m sure you would,” the old man replied. He looked to the men on his right and left. “Dale, Oat, let’s get their man loaded up on one of the MTVs. Get Joonie on the radio. Make sure she knows we’re coming so she can get the infirmary ready.”
The two men nodded and sprang into action, one of them coming down the ravine with the practiced footwork of a mountain man and the other running out of sight, probably to get their vehicle meant for mountain terrain.
“Who is the girl?”
Euphamie took a protective step to the right to protect Maisie. “She escaped the camp before it got swept away.”
“Uh-huh,” her father said skeptically. “She must be something special if she has sky men rescuing her and Splinters trying to capture her.” He looked up toward the darkening sky and then back down at his daughter. “Your friends have safe passage and protection on this mountain until sunrise.”
“Much appreciated, sir,” Vicious replied gratefully. “Once I’m back on our ship, I can arrange for whatever price you deem fair to be paid.”
“I don’t want your damn money,” the old man spat.
“There must be something that we can give you to show our appreciation for your help,” Vicious insisted.
“There might be,” the old man replied cryptically. With a whistle, he gained the attention of his small army. “Let’s load up and head out. We’re running out of daylight, and these storms are about to get worse.”
"My other brothers,” Euphamie explained as men started coming down the steep sides of the ravine. “Otis,” she gestured to the man kneeling next to Maisie and examining Lethal. “Dale is the one who ran to get the MTV. That’s Munro,” she pointed to the one in an orange cap, “and that’s Cotton. “Our two oldest brothers are back at the compound,” she added. “Vern and Clem.”
Any other time, Terror would have marveled at so large a family. Six sons were almost unheard of in his world. It took so long to earn the necessary valor points to Grab a mate and their lives were so dangerous that very few men ever sired more than two children. To have six sons would be an incredible boon.
Vicious had moved closer to supervise the movement of Lethal to a makeshift backboard. Terror left Maisie with Euphamie to go find Grim who had clambered up the ravine. It didn’t take him long to locate the assassin. He was picking through the bodies of the Splinters who had chased them this far.
“Looks like seven,” Grim said as he rifled through the pockets of tactical pants on a pair of gruesomely separated legs. “I counted fourteen legs,” he clarified. “Or, at least, I think they were legs.”
Terror grimaced at the gore surrounding them. The explosions had ripped a line through the woods, leaving behind a jagged crater and destroyed bodies. “We should get as many fingerprints and facial scans as possible. And any unspent rounds,” he added, thinking of the new bullet design that had hit Lethal. “We need to see how close they are to a wide deployment of those prongs.”