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  The baron was in the room at the bottom of the stairs, lying on a satin-covered bed, in the company of two women. He was bound to the bed with lengths of nylon around his ankles and wrists. One of the women was sucking the baron’s cock while the other one was straddling his head.

  Against one of the concrete walls was a wine rack that held upward of one hundred bottles of different wines. There was a refrigerator, walk-in freezer, stove, water stores and washroom facilities. A few blasters hung from racks on the walls, but the baron wasn’t going to make any of those anytime soon.

  Someone turned on a light, and the two women looked up in surprise. The baron looked surprised, too, and tried for the Luger on the table next to the bed. His hand got close, but with his right arm tied to one of the bedposts, it was well out of reach.

  Jak raised the Python, making sure the baron’s head was in his sights.

  “Don’t chill him!” Melanie said, walking over the table next to the bed and picking up the Luger. “I want to do it.”

  Jak looked at Clarissa. She nodded, and Jak lowered the Python and holstered it.

  “Get away from the bed and I’ll let you live,” Melanie told the two women.

  The two women scrambled off the bed.

  The baron said nothing.

  Melanie pointed the Luger at the baron’s head. “Didn’t expect to find yourself in this situation, did you, Baron Fox?”

  The baron shook his head.

  “At my mercy.” Melanie paused and traced a line on Fox’s body with the barrel of the Luger, starting from his right temple and moving down past his neck, over his chest and abdomen, and finally ending up between his legs.

  His erection was still there.

  “You find this exciting, don’t you, you sick fuck!”

  The baron said nothing.

  “I bet you’d love for me to shove this gun up your ass and fuck you with it, wouldn’t you?”

  The baron only smiled. “I knew it,” Melanie said coyly. “But not yet.” The baron’s eyes closed as if the anticipation was too much to bear.

  “First I want you to suck on it.” She raised the blaster and brought the barrel to his mouth. “Kiss it.”

  The baron kissed the end of the blaster.

  “Now lick it.”

  The baron did what he’d been told, seeming to enjoy what he was doing.

  “Now put your mouth over it and suck on it.”

  The baron opened his mouth, and Melanie pulled the trigger.

  Gore and gray matter splattered on the wall behind the bed.

  The two women who had been rutting with the baron minutes before screamed.

  Melanie turned to Clarissa and Jak. “I’m done. Let’s get out of here.”

  RYAN AND MILDRED came to a rise in the terrain that gave them a good overview of the land in front of them. In the distance they could see a large body of water, which had to be Erie Lake, and which was obviously where the raiders were heading.

  But the lake was still several miles away, and they hadn’t caught sight of the raiders for a long while.

  “Where do you think they could have gone to?” Mildred asked.

  “There,” Ryan answered, pointing to the southwest. He drew his extended finger back and made a fist. “Fireblast!”

  He could see the members of the group clearly as they crossed a weed-infested, two-lane roadway. There were at least two dozen in the party, and in the center of them all was the unmistakable red hair of Krysty Wroth.

  “We’re farther away from them now than when we started,” Mildred stated.

  Ryan nodded. “The straggler we chilled was a good man. He led us down a different trail to give them the chance to get away.”

  “We’ll catch them,” Mildred said.

  “If it’s the last thing we do,” Ryan vowed.

  THE JOB OF CLEARING sec men from the courtyard and securing it had been completed. J.B. had two shells of questionable quality left for the 37 mm cannon, and each .50 caliber had less than a dozen rounds. They still had plenty of ammo for their blasters, but it looked as if the firefights were over for now.

  J.B. had pulled the wag back to the main gate so they could cover any of the approaches and make sure anyone trying to get out wouldn’t be cut down by any sec men still in the complex. They had been waiting at the gate for almost a half hour, but there was no sign of Ryan and Mildred, or Jak and Clarissa.

  “It might not be my place to suggest such a thing,” Doc began, “but considering that none of our friendly forces have made their presence known to us, perhaps we should make a search of the grounds.”

  “We could do it in a wag,” Dean suggested.

  “I’ve thought of that,” J.B. said, “but I just know that as soon as I move from here they’ll show up.”

  As if on cue, Jak, Clarissa and three women stepped through the front doors of the main building.

  “Ah, right on time,” Doc said.

  As the group approached, J.B. kept his eyes fixed on the building. “Where’s Mildred and Ryan?”

  “Went after Krysty,” Jak said. “Not back yet?”

  J.B. shook his head. “All right, hop on back, we’ll search the grounds for them.”

  Jak helped Clarissa and Melanie onto the wag. The two women who had been in the baron’s bunker wanted on, too, but Jak shook his head.

  Just then a weak voice could be heard saying a familiar name.

  “Ryan!” the voice said. “Ryan Cawdor!”

  J.B. turned to look at Clarissa. “Do you know this man?”

  “No,” she stated. “Never seen him before.”

  Dean was the first off the wag, his blaster drawn and pointed precisely at the center of the man’s forehead.

  “Where is he?” Dean shouted. “Where’s my father?”

  “Ryan, Ryan Cawdor.”

  Dean looked as if he was getting angry, thrusting the blaster hard against the man’s face.

  J.B. got out of the wag and ran around to where the man was standing. “How do you know the name Ryan Cawdor?”

  “He shot me with his blaster,” the man said, “and told me to give you a message.”

  “What’s the message?”

  The man fell to one knee. “Said you would take me with you when I told you.”

  J.B. looked at the others on the wag, then nodded. “All right, what’s the message?”

  “I was a member of a raiding party from Reichel ville. We came for breeders and one of the ones we took was the redhead. Ryan Cawdor and Mildred went after them.”

  “Where are they headed?”

  “We came here on foot, but our boats landed at Fort Erie, on the north shore of the lake.”

  “How long since they went?”

  “Hour, mebbe more.”

  “We can meet them there,” Clarissa said.

  J.B. stood up. “What do you mean?”

  “We drove through Fort Erie on our way here,” she said. “We can get there in the wag and beat Ryan and the raiders to the shore. We can be waiting for them when they arrive.”

  J.B. considered it.

  “Do you think this jumble of bolts and metal is fit to make the journey?” Doc asked.

  J.B. looked at the wag. It had taken some hits, was leaking radiator fluid and the brakes were gone. The engine was running rough, too, but they had enough fuel and everything else seemed to still be in working order.

  “Yeah,” he announced. “We can make it.”

  “Hot pipe!” Dean said, leading a cheer from the rest of the friends.

  “Doc and Jak, get this guy onto the wag!”

  “We should take them, too,” Clarissa suggested. “The women will come in handy.”

  J.B. was silent a moment, thinking. “Good idea.”

  Jak and Doc put the raider on the back of the wag, then helped the two women on, as well.

  “After you, ladies,” Doc said, bowing his head.

  The two women smiled and looked at each other. “‘Ladies,’ he said,” o
ne of them echoed Doc’s words.

  Jak and Doc climbed up onto the back of the crowded wag.

  “Hang on, everyone,” J.B. shouted. “It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

  He put the wag in gear, and they were off.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Ryan and Mildred had made up their lost ground. They were directly behind the group now, and could begin picking off members of the party the next time they stopped for rest.

  And that would be coming soon, since the air had become filled with the smell and feel of a large body of water close by. They had to be within a mile of Erie Lake, and if Ryan and Mildred were going to make a try for Krysty, they’d have to do it soon.

  If the raiders made it to their boats, who knew when Ryan might see her again?

  “Maybe we should head straight for the shore and wait for them there,” Mildred suggested. “I can take them out one at a time as they come out of the woods.”

  “That wouldn’t stop them from hurting Krysty,” Ryan countered. “We’ll wait for them in their boats. If they don’t turn over Krysty, we’ll fill them with holes.”

  “The boats, or the raiders?”

  “Both.”

  “Now, that’s a plan,” Mildred quipped.

  Just then a twig snapped somewhere to their left. It sounded like a patrol, or perhaps a straggler had doubled back again to give the rest of them a better chance to reach their boats.

  Ryan moved cautiously in the direction the sound had come from.

  Mildred took his right flank, the ZKR out in front of her.

  There was a second movement. The leaves on the branches of a sickly looking tree just ahead trembled as if something had passed beneath them.

  And then another branch flicked unnaturally, this time closer to the two of them.

  They dropped to their knees and readied for a firefight.

  “Dad?”

  The voice was familiar.

  “Millie?”

  Ryan looked at Mildred.

  “It sounds like Dean,” she whispered.

  “A trick?”

  “I doubt it.”

  “Dean!” Ryan said.

  “Over here.”

  They made their way over to where they thought the voice was coming from, but still kept their weapons ready.

  And then they came to a slight clearing and Dean was indeed there, looking well. Doc was also there, and Jak was just returning from a recce in the other direction.

  “How did you get here?” Ryan asked.

  “Wag,” the boy said. “Only way to travel.”

  “Ah, my dear Ryan, and dearest Mildred, how good to see you,” Doc said.

  “I hate to admit it,” Mildred responded, “but I’m glad to see you, too, you old bag of wind.”

  “Is Krysty with you?” Ryan asked. There would be plenty of time for proper greetings later.

  “No,” Jak answered. “Still waiting for raiders.”

  “Then let’s get moving.”

  SEC CHIEF GANLEY USHERED the raiders past, counting heads as they went. There were thirty-one now, significantly more than the number that left Reichel ville a couple of days before, but of those thirty-one, ten were new blood. Not bad considering where those ten had come from, and what they’d had to do to get them.

  Now it was just a simple matter of getting into their boats and paddling across the lake to the southern shore. Once they were there, they could spend a day or two recovering from their trip and getting to know the new members of the ville…especially the redhead.

  Ganley would never have taken a breeder for himself, but it was testimony to the amount of respect his raiders had for him that several of them went out of their way to acquire this gift. She was beautiful—gorgeous was probably a more apt description—and she was strong willed, feisty and in excellent physical shape. Unlike the other freed slaves, the redhead didn’t seem to be so enthusiastic about living in Reichel ville, but she’d come around. Once they reached the south shore, the sec chief would have the time to charm her.

  She would learn to appreciate him, especially when she saw the reception he’d get on their return to Reichel ville. Once they left camp on the south shore it would be just a single day’s journey to the ville, where there would be a hero’s welcome for the victorious sec chief and his band of fearless raiders.

  It was all so close to him, he could taste the sweetness of the triumph on his tongue.

  The boats were less than a hundred yards away.

  Past that, open water.

  Just then, blasterfire cut a line in the sandy shore in front of the raiders. Fountains of dirt rose up from the ground, sending them all running and jumping for cover.

  The burst lasted just a few seconds.

  It was followed by silence.

  Then came a voice.

  “You have something we want!”

  Ganley looked around, wondering what it could be.

  RYAN LET THE WORDS linger in the air for a few moments, then repeated them. “You have something we want!”

  “What is it?” came the reply.

  “The woman with the long red hair. She’s one of us, and you’re not going to Reichel or any other ville until you hand her over.”

  “Fuck you!” a voice said, different from the first.

  “We captured her like the others. She’s coming with us,” another voice said.

  Ryan was losing his patience, but he didn’t want to give the task of trading for Krysty’s life to anyone else. “We have two women here who want to join your group. We’ll turn them over to you for one of ours.”

  There was silence for a long time.

  “If you don’t agree to this trade, we have a cannon pointed directly at your two boats. If I don’t hear the word ‘yes’ from you in the next five seconds, the weapon’ll make sure none of you’ll be going home.”

  “One!”

  “An offer they can’t refuse,” Mildred muttered under her breath.

  “Two!”

  A moment of silence.

  “Three!”

  “Yes! Yes!” shouted several people in the group.

  Doc helped the two women and the raider down from the back of the wag.

  And then Krysty appeared out of the bushes.

  “Go!” Ryan told the two women and the raider.

  They passed Krysty along the way.

  A man stepped out onto the beach. He looked to be the raiders’ leader. “We’ll be on our way now.”

  Ryan nodded.

  The rest of the raiders hurried past the man to the water. The two women were welcomed into the group and then directed toward the waiting boats.

  Krysty ran toward her friends, falling into Ryan’s arms, where she held on to him for a very long time.

  Epilogue

  They kept the cannon trained on the boats until they were out of range, and then out of sight.

  The companions offered to take Clarissa and Melanie to a ville on the east coast, but they wanted to go back to the farm, where they thought they might have a chance to make something of their lives, especially now that Baron Fox was gone.

  “I’ve got my sister back now, thanks to you,” Clarissa said, riding in the back of the wag, “and I think I can look after her just as well on the farm as I can anywhere else. There’s food and shelter there, medical facilities, electricity, clean water…and a lot of my friends will still be there.”

  “It will be a different place now,” Mildred said, “but I think you’ll be able to make it.”

  “Good fighter, smart leader,” Jak said.

  “You could stay with us, Jak,” Clarissa suggested shyly, smiling.

  The albino teenager considered the offer, then shook his head. “Had wife, child once. No more for me.” He looked at the others in the wag. “Stay with friends.”

  “I understand,” Clarissa said. “Anyway, I’ll have a niece or nephew to take care of in a little while.”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if you have on
e of each to contend with,” Mildred said with a smile. “Girl, you are ready to pop!”

  They all laughed at that.

  Overhearing the friendly banter, Krysty leaned closer to Ryan and put her head on his shoulder. “Strange, huh?”

  “What is?” Ryan asked.

  “Life.”

  “What’s strange about it?”

  “Well, even here in the Deathlands, where death and destruction are a part of the everyday routine, life still finds a way to carry on.”

  THEY SAID THEIR GOODBYES and turned the wag around. A little less than half a tank of fuel remained. It wasn’t enough to get them anywhere significant, but it could at least get them someplace safe to spend the night.

  They could all use a little rest before moving on to the nearest redoubt.

  The Falls ville was a good bet. If nothing else, they could take the time to admire the falls. Although a mere trickle compared to what it had been in predark days, the flow of water was still pretty impressive.

  J.B. shifted the wag into gear and headed out.

  WHEN THE WAG was gone from the farm complex and he was sure the outlanders wouldn’t be returning, Norman Bauer stepped out of the shadows of the woods across the road from the front gate.

  He climbed onto the road and stood there waiting with his ledger under his arm until three sec men came out of the woods to join him.

  He looked up at the sign that read Fox Farm. It had been riddled by blasterfire and the second F was about to fall from its perch.

  He’d be changing it anyway.

  Bauer ville suited the place best anyway. After all, that was the name of the man who’d really been running the complex these past few years.

  ISBN: 978-1-4603-7325-5

  SKYDARK SPAWN

  Copyright © 2003 by Worldwide Library.

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Worldwide Library, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.