Quest for the Well of Souls - Jack L. Chalker [64]
He fell to the ground and she tried it. Her legs were just too short, her fat pig's body too balanced, and she got hung up as he had. Not even thinking of his own pain and fear now, he hobbled to her, and she rocked forward desperately, trying to lower the front of her body. He finally took hold of a foreleg with his mouth and pulled. The sharp teeth tore her flesh, but it was enough, and she tumbled over on top of him.
She picked herself up and found she couldn't stand on her injured leg. Three-legged would have to do, she told herself in an instant, and she started off away from the action, he following quickly.
Shells crashed and boomed all around them, and Mucrolians were running around, yelling, screaming, firing blindly into the dark, and, once in a while, dying.
The dark itself looked like a gathering of white-and-orange fireflies as the attacking force closed in. They made no attempt, however, to encircle the town—in fact, they actually hoped that the defenders would withdraw. The oasis was the target, not the people. Realizing this, Mavra and Joshi headed for the dark at the rear, where no flashes were evident.
Their biggest problem was to keep from being trampled by the frightened animals and retreating defenders. Another, once they had been completely engulfed by the dark, was to avoid being shot by panicky defenders.
Eventually the sounds of the battle faded behind them. The attack had succeeded; they were free once more—but a new problem existed: they would have to share the harsh land with a large number of refugees—for whom food would be a major priority. If the pigs were caught, there would no longer be thought of breeding.
* * *
Dawn's light revealed an eerie scene to the three aerial observers. From four hundred meters, the desert terrain showed in all its colorful glory, off almost to the hazy mountains in the distance. Below was carnage—bodies, the hulk of a PGU, the bombed-out buildings of the oasis, and by the water a large group of Mucrolians siphoning scum from the surface of the pool to make it serviceable again. The attackers' PGU stood silently nearby; alongside, a ramshackle machine labored noisily to filter water, then transfer it to the flushed boilers of the imposing war machine.
"My God!" was all Renard could manage.
"If they were in that wreck, I don't see how they could have survived," Vistaru said glumly.
"This Mavra Chang will manage," Wooley reassured them in that cold but steady voice of the Yaxa. "I would not land or long dwell here, though. It is clear even from this height that most of the animals are dead or have escaped. The sun is now up. I would still keep to the most direct line for Gedemondas. They will be there."
The other two wished they could be as confident.
To the northeast of the bombed-out oasis they could see occasional pockets of Mucrolian refugees, some obviously well armed, trying to regroup. Once or twice those on the ground noticed the strange creatures above. Some were agitated, and several shots were fired at them, but for the most part they were ignored.
Of the three, the Yaxa had by far the best vision. Her range went far beyond the others in color perception, contrast, depth perception, and just about every other parameter, and they relied on Wooley for a careful canvass of the ground.
Several times she spotted small animals and they descended for closer inspection but always the creatures proved to be just what they seemed.
By early afternoon the false alarms had started to get on the party's nerves.
"Maybe we should go on further," Vistaru suggested. "Work up a ways maybe all the way to the border and then backtrack."
That made sense, but Wooley was reluctant to leave. "If they are in those washes, the refugees will make short work of them," she pointed out.
They shifted a little to the north where one of the dry washes opened into a salt flat that would have to be covered by anyone heading for the mountains.
"This is a good compromise," Renard decided. "They'll have to cross this flat sooner or later, and we can see everything