Sooner Dead (Gamma World) - Mel Odom [120]
Almost an hour later, Hella reined Daisy up as she spotted the hidden mil-plex ahead of her. Sporadic gunfire pursued them, but none of it had come close enough to hurt them.
As Hella peered back at the advancing line of hardshells, a bullet slammed into her chain mail and drove the breath from her lungs. She would have slid from the saddle except that Ocastya caught her by the belt and prevented that.
Stampede took up a brief position beside a thick-boled elm tree, raised the rifle to his shoulder, and took aim. Before Hella could take a breath, Stampede fired. She didn’t know if he hit anything at the mil-plex, but the round triggered an instant response from Trazall’s guards manning security.
Riley’s hardshells kept coming, and the gunfire increased, accompanied by rockets launched by both sides. Within a couple of minutes, the sun dipped in the west and the shadows swelled out of the forest to fill the night.
“Time to go. Before anybody from either of those two groups takes our scent.” Stampede stayed low and followed a line of trees to the mountain ridge they’d climbed earlier that day. Hella followed on Daisy, and they left the two groups at war behind them. Rockets, mortars, and small cannons lit up the deepening night. Tracer fire streaked the darkness, identifying the positions of both groups.
Her face streaked with mud to lessen the chance of reflection, Hella trailed after Stampede on foot. They’d left Daisy up in the mountain range while they’d set up to invade the mil-plex. Quiet and withdrawn, Ocastya followed.
Stampede was barely visible in the darkness. Occasional flashes of light from exploding rockets and mortars highlighted his shaggy fur, horns, and eyes. He gripped his rifle in both hands as he fell into position beside one of the exposed walls of the mil-plex. He focused on Ocastya. “Can you still feel Scatter?”
“Yes.” Ocastya’s voice was tight. “But we must hurry. He is weakening. Soon Colleen Trammell’s devices will conquer his resistance; then my mate will be gone from us.”
Placing one shaggy hand on the concrete wall, Stampede ran his palm over the surface. His eyes were half closed. His fingers drummed rapidly against the concrete, and Hella knew he was listening to the vibrations given back. He could sense weak spots. That was part of his gift.
“Okay.” Stampede stepped away from the wall, took the rifle in both hands, and lifted his right hoof. After a moment of concentration, Stampede drove his hoof against the wall.
The contact shivered across the concrete and peeled earth back from the mil-plex. Cracks showed on the surface, but the wall held. Then Stampede raised his hoof and slammed again.
On the fourth try, the wall dissolved into a hail of flying shards and collapsed inward. Bright, electric light fell out onto the ground. Stampede drew back. “Hella.”
Moving forward, Hella leaned in through the opening, morphed her left hand into a small-caliber weapon that cycled suppressed fire, and quickly shot out all the lights throwing illumination through the hole. The breach went dark. Hella went on inside then waited till Stampede joined her.
Without a word, his path already mentally mapped from all the drawings Ocastya had provided, Stampede went forward down the hallway. Hella pulled her night-vision goggles up from her neck and fitted them over her eyes. Almost instantly her vision was incredibly clearer.
The hallway was clean for the most part, except for stray bits and pieces of debris. Farther down the hallway in both directions, electric lights mounted on the walls removed the majority of the gloom. Echoes of shots revealed the battle still raged through the hole in the wall.
Stampede passed through the halls quickly, without hesitation and without a false step. Hella followed, a shadow at his side.
CHAPTER 32
Sensor!” Stampede shoved back against a wall.
Falling into place