Suddenly the entire front of thePleasantville Hardware Company descended into a slot in the ground. A robotfire engine, all bright red paint and gleaming chrome, came bolting out of thehitherto concealed garage. A line of red lights pulsed down the center of itselongated body, and an amplified voice bellowed, “STAND CLEAR! THIS ISFIRE-RESPONSE TEAM BRAVO! STAND CLEAR! MAKE WAY FOR FIRE-RESPONSE TEAM BRAVO!”
There must be no gunfire from this part ofthe Devar, not yet. The south end of the compound must seem safe to theincreasingly frightened inmates of Algul Siento: don’t worry, folks, here’syour port in today’s unexpected shitstorm.
The gunslinger dipped a ‘Riza from Jake’sdwindling supply and nodded for the boy to take another. Roland pointed to theguard in the righthand tower, then once more at Jake. The boy nodded, cockedhis arm across his chest, and waited for Roland to give him the go.
Twelve
Once you hear the horn that signals thechange of shifts, Roland had told Susannah, take it to them. Do as muchdamage as you can, but don’t let them see they’re only facing a single person,for your father’s sake!
As if he needed to tell her that.
She could have taken the three watchtowerguards while the horn was still blaring, but something made her wait. A fewseconds later, she was glad she had. The rear door of the Queen Anne burst openso violently it tore off its upper hinge. Breakers piled out, clawing at thoseahead of them in their panic (these are the would-be destroyers of theuniverse, she thought, these sheep), and among them she saw half adozen of the freakboys with animal heads and at least four of those creepyhumanoids with the masks on.
Susannah took the guard in the west towerfirst, and had shifted her aim to the pair in the east tower before the firstcasualty in the Battle of Algul Siento had fallen over the railing and tumbledto the ground with his brains dribbling out of his hair and down his cheeks.The Coyote machine-pistol, switched to the middle setting, fired in low-pitchedbursts of three: Chow! Chow! Chow!
The taheen and the low man in the easttower spun widdershins to each other, like figures in a dance. The taheencrumpled on the catwalk that skirted the top of the watchtower; the low man wasdriven into the rail, flipped over it with his bootheels in the sky, thenplummeted head-first to the ground. She heard the crack his neck made when itbroke.
A couple of the milling Breakers spottedthis unfortunate fellow’s descent and screamed.
“Put up your hands!” That was Dinky, sherecognized his voice. “Put up your hands if you’re a Breaker!”
No one questioned the idea; in these circumstances,anyone who sounded like he knew what was going on was in unquestioned charge.Some of the Breakers—but not all, not yet—put their hands up. Itmade no difference to Susannah. She didn’t need raised hands to tell thedifference between the sheep and the goats. A kind of haunted clarity hadfallen over her vision.
She flicked the fire-control switch fromBURST to SINGLE SHOT and began to pick off the guards who’d come up from TheStudy with the Breakers. Taheen… can-toi, get him… a hume but don’t shoother, she’s a Breaker even though she doesn’t have her hands up… don’t ask mehow I know but I do…
Susannah squeezed the Coyote’s trigger andthe head of the hume next to the woman in the bright red slacks exploded in amist of blood and bone. The Breakers screamed like children, staring aroundwith their eyes bulging and their hands up. And now Susannah heard Dinky again,only this time not his physical voice. It was his mental voice she heard, andit was much louder:
(GO SOUTH WITH YOUR HANDS UP, YOUWON’T BE HURT)
Which was her cue to break cover and startmoving. She’d gotten eight of the Crimson King’s bad boys, counting the threein the towers—not that it was much of an accomplishment, given theirpanic—and she saw no more, at least for the time being.
Susannah twisted the hand-throttle andscooted the SCT toward one of the other abandoned sheds. The gadget’s pickupwas so lively that she almost tumbled off the bicycle-style seat. Trying not tolaugh (and laughing anyway), she shouted at the top of her lungs, in her bestDetta Walker vulture-screech:
“Git outta here, muthafuckahs! Gitsouth! Hands up so we know you fum the bad boys! Everyone doan have their handsup goan get a bullet in the haid! Y’all trus’ me on it!”
In through the door of the next shed,scraping a balloon tire of the SCT on the jamb, but not quite hard enough totip it over. Praise God, for she never would have had enough strength to rightit on her own. In here, one of the “lazers” was set on a snap-down tripod. Shepushed the toggle-switch marked ON and was wondering if she needed to dosomething else with the INTERVAL switch when the weapon’s muzzle emitted ablinding stream of reddish-purple light that arrowed into the compound abovethe triple run of fence and made a hole in the top story of Damli House. ToSusannah it looked as big as a hole made by a point-blank artillery shell.
This is good, she thought. Igotta get the other ones going.
But she wondered if there would be time.Already other Breakers were picking up on Dinky’s suggestion, rebroadcasting itand boosting it in the process:
(GO SOUTH! HANDS UP! WON’T BEHURT!)
She flicked the Coyote’s fire-switch toFULL AUTO and raked it across the upper level of the nearest dorm to emphasizethe point. Bullets whined and ricocheted. Glass broke. Breakers screamed andbegan to stampede around the side of Damli House with their hands up. Susannahsaw Ted come around the same side. He was hard to miss, because he was goingagainst the current. He and Dinky embraced briefly, then raised their hands andjoined the southward flow of Breakers, who would soon lose their status as VIPsand become just one more bunch of refugees struggling to survive in a dark andpoisoned land.
She’d gotten eight, but it wasn’t enough.The hunger was upon her, that dry hunger. Her eyes saw everything. They pulsedand ached in her head, and they saw everything. She hoped that other taheen,low men, or hume guards would come around the side of Damli House.
She wanted more.
Thirteen
Sheemie Ruiz lived in Corbett Hall, whichhappened to be the dormitory Susannah, all unknowing, had raked with at least ahundred bullets. Had he been on his bed, he almost certainly would have beenkilled. Instead he was on his knees, at the foot of it, praying for the safetyof his friends. He didn’t even look up when the window blew in but simplyredoubled his supplications. He could hear Dinky’s thoughts
(GO SOUTH)
pounding in his head, then heard otherthought-streams join it,
(WITH YOUR HANDS UP)
making a river. And then Ted’s voicewas there, not just joining the others but amping them up, turning what hadbeen a river
(YOU WON’T BE HURT)
into an ocean. Without realizing it,Sheemie changed his prayer. Our Father and P’teck my pals became gosouth with your hands up, you won’t be hurt. He didn’t even stop this whenthe propane tanks behind the Damli House cafeteria blew up with a shatteringroar.
Fourteen
Gangli Tristum (that’s Doctor Ganglito you, say thankya) was in many ways the most feared man in Damli House. Hewas a can-toi who had—perversely—taken a taheen name instead of ahuman one, and he ran the infirmary on the third floor of the west wing with aniron fist. And on roller skates.
Things on the ward were fairly relaxed whenGangli was in his office doing paperwork, or off on his rounds (which usuallymeant visiting Breakers with the sniffles in their dorms), but when he cameout, the whole place—nurses and orderlies as well as patients—fellrespectfully (and nervously) silent. A newcomer might laugh the first time hesaw the squat, dark-complected, heavily jowled man-thing gliding slowly downthe center aisle between the beds, arms folded over the stethoscope which layon his chest, the tails of his white coat wafting out behind him (one Breakerhad once commented, “He looks like John Irving after a bad facelift”). Such aone who was caught laughing would never laugh again, however. Dr. Ganglihad a sharp tongue, indeed, and no one made fun of his roller skates withimpunity.