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straight down the gold-chased barrel.
His finger tightened on the trigger.
RYAN HAD BEEN in an uneasy slumber, tossing and turning, aware of physical
discomfort, yet not quite able to drag himself clear of the trap of sleep to
do anything about it. It was as though he lay beneath a log jam that had
crushed his brain, making it impossible for him to act at all.
All of his instincts were yelping at him, trying to warn him that something
was grievously wrong. But it was as if his mind were shrouded in several
layers of clinging plastic film.
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Deathlands 26 - Shadowfall
The boom of thunder ripped away that muffling veil and jerked him fully awake,
his hand grabbing automatically for the butt of his SIG-Sauer, aware now of
screams and shouts from just outside the thin fabric of their tent, aware of
J.B., Krysty and Mildred also suddenly coming awake around him.
"Le Mat," the Armorer said, as terse as ever.
THE SHORT UNDER BARREL of the Le Mat carried the 18-gauge scattergun charge.
It was hopelessly inaccurate at any range much above twenty paces, where the
shot would star out so far that it was only likely to cause relatively minor
flesh wounds. But, as a light cavalry handgun, it wasn't likely to be used at
anything other than point-blank range.
Schickel was standing about sixteen yards from the dark shadows where Doc was
crouched. His face was half-turned away, toward the entrance to the nearer
tent, where he was about to order his men to take the helpless outlanders
prisoner. Or chill them. It didn't much matter which. Just as long as it gave
Straub the chance he needed to get his lusting fingers on the two superbly
unique heads of hair sleeping within.
As Straub had rightly said, "If the fucks aren't with us, then that has to
mean that they're against us.
Nobody argue with that?"
Nobody had argued.
Schickel's mouth was open when, out of the corner of his eye, he caught the
tiny red flash of fire from among the bushes to his left.
Before his mind had even begun to attempt the problem of what could have
caused the crimson spark, Schickel was hit in the face with unimaginable
power.
The pellets had spread out sufficiently to strike the war chief between throat
and forehead. His left ear vanished, as did his left eye, pulped by the lead.
His left cheek opened up under the impact, and his teeth in both upper and
lower jaw were shattered, the jagged splinters of bone driven through by the
slugs to rip apart the right cheek, bursting it outward like an exploding
melon.
Doc couldn't resist a whoop of delight before concentrating on the fiddling
task of shifting the hammer of the massive Le Mat so that it would strike on
nine rounds of .44-caliber ammunition.
The attackers were thrown into total confusion by the murderous attack from
the blackness. Schickel was down, dying, felled like a stricken oak tree,
before they even heard the thunderous boom from the blaster.
None of them saw the muzzle-flash, but the billowing cloud of powder smoke
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among the trees was impossible to miss.
As well as being soaked in arterial blood and peppered with shards of bone,
three or four of the men had also been bit by stray pellets from the 18-gauge,
one of which had ripped through the big drum.
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Deathlands 26 - Shadowfall
Schickel was still rolling in the dirt, the fountain of blood already slowed
to a trickle as the heart ceased pumping, when panic started.
Straub had reacted quickest among the milling, yelling crowd, turning toward
where Doc was crouching, gesturing with the shears. "In there. One of them has
escaped us. Take him before the others awaken!"
Ryan heard the words with an unnatural clarity, as if each syllable had been
hewn from a mountain of glass.
The moon was strong enough to penetrate the thin fabric of the tent, showing
him the silhouettes of a number of people moving around outside. In that first
waking moment he had no way of knowing whether they were friend or foe, though
all of his combat instincts told him they were hostile.
He fired three quick rounds, aiming high, the bullets ripping up into the
night sky, the noise of the shots deafeningly loud inside the tent.
"Outside!" he shouted, hoping that the rest of the group, in the other tent,
were all awake and alert. A
small part of his mind wondered what Doc was doing out in the trees, firing
the Le Mat and causing chaos.
As he dived out, Ryan was immediately aware that there was some serious shit
going down.
There was a dozen or more men, most of them with either knives or blasters
drawn. Straub stared straight at him, with what looked like a big pair of
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