Chapter 8

I followed the group on a parallel route at what I figured was a safe distance. The tracker led the group unerringly along our path from the town earlier this morning. He had the group stop when they came to the first pond I crossed. They waited while the tracker crossed the pond and headed away in the wrong direction. Now he really had me confused.

The rest of the chasers were left at the pond while the tracker disappeared into the forest. Something was up, I just knew it. I decided to follow the tracker for a while to see what he did. By damn, he headed back toward town. Now I knew that something odd was going on. Hell, I had a gun and he didn't, so I decided to catch up to the tracker to find out what was going on.

I hurried around him and found a place to wait in ambush. The tracker showed up in only a few minutes, and I shouted at him. "HEY, WAIT! I WON'T HURT YOU! I JUST WANT TO TALK!" Naturally, he was uncertain about me when I showed up. "Hello, I am Hank King. I ran away about a year ago with my wife. We are the ones you are hunting. We rescued the torture victims last night and took them to our home where they are safe. Please tell me what is going on. Come closer so that we don't attract a lot of unwanted attention."

The man walked closer and said, "I am John Pilot. Many years ago, I was a tracker for the South African government. That was why they had me leading this group of idiots. They couldn't follow a fresh trail across an empty field covered with snow, so I expect that they will stay where they are for a while.

"I had guessed who you were, and I was headed back to town to fetch my wife before we went looking for you. I hoped that you would help us to live like you are doing."

"You are welcome to join us. Hop aboard my ATV and I will take you to town. This vehicle is much faster than a man can run. I'll let you off just outside of town. Fetch your wife and any children you have, and I'll take you to our home."

"We don't have any children. We had a son who disappeared about a year ago. His picture turned up on one of those torture tapes that were running on TV. Was that TV thing your doing?"

"Yeah, I set it up. I found those tapes by accident and thought I would show people just how evil their rulers really were."

"Well, you certainly managed to do that. And that trick with the telephones was brilliant. You have inspired a lot of rebellion, and the pot is just beginning to boil. I have no idea how much longer the king can keep the lid on things."

"Who is that supposedly leading the hunters?"

"That is Pilot, himself. Oh, God, I would love to kill him. He is probably the cruelest of the bosses, and his overseers have been taking lessons from his attitude. In fact, those men are all Pilot overseers, and I would like to kill every one of them if I could."

"Well, if you mean that, you can. That thing on the bars over your head is a super machine gun. Would you like to use it to wipe out those hated people."

"Oh, God, yes! I'll kiss you on all four cheeks if you make that possible."

I stopped then and showed John how to use the Mark 8. He had used weapons in his job back on Earth, so he did not need much instruction. I drove up behind where the hunters were waiting and stopped. John stood up and opened fire with the cut load. The laser designator made aiming child's play, and the lack of loud reports as the machine gun was fired made it possible for him to wipe out the whole detail in a few seconds. However, he had been careful not to kill Pilot.

"PILOT, YOU ARE A DEAD MAN! ALL OF YOUR MINIONS ARE DEAD, BUT I SAVED YOU SO THAT YOU WOULD KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU! I'LL GIVE YOU A CHANCE YOU NEVER GAVE ANYBODY ELSE! START RUNNING, AND I WON'T SHOOT RIGHT AWAY! MAYBE YOU CAN ESCAPE!"

Pilot started running as fast as his now portly build would allow, and John laughed at him. He let Pilot run about 150 feet before firing one shot. Pilot was hit in his lower back, and the 9 buckshot scattered through his body. Blood spurted all around, and Pilot had time for a short scream before he fell dead.

John engaged the safety and sat down. "That was almost too easy. What kind of gun is that? It's a real dream!"

It was with some pride that I said, "I designed it and also the smaller version that we use for personal protection." John just looked at me and whistled.

It did not take us long to reach town. John exited the ATV and went to fetch his wife. He was gone a little longer than I expected, and he had two women and a boy with him when he returned. "Hank, this is Mable, my wife, and Joan, the wife of the man you rescued last night. I hope that you will take Joan, too. The boy, Bill, is the son of Joan and Ed. I know that this is sticking you with a lot of new people at one time, but I hope that you can make room for all of us."

"Don't worry about it. We'll figure something out. Mary is good at organizing things, and I am sure that she will have everything in order very quickly."

I kept John on the seat beside me where he could reach the Mark 8 quickly if we ran into trouble. The women and the boy rode in the trailer that I had never bothered to disconnect from the ATV.

The four rescuees were all conscious when we got home, and everybody was introduced. With John and the four women to help, we were able to build two more small houses that afternoon and to outfit them with furniture and a replicator.

The rescued women were sorted out for care by putting Betty with Mary and me, Anne with John and Mable, and Sue with Ed and Joan. The only problem with this was that Joan would temporarily have two people to look after, but Mary and Mable promised to help Joan if she needed it.

John suggested that we put up a watch tower to use to keep an eye out for dangerous animals with two legs or more. If we ever were seriously attacked from the town, we would need every shooter that we had, so I ran off some more Mark 5s to let everybody have one. John and Ed were very happy to receive their weapons, but the women had mixed emotions on the subject and shooting to kill people. I figured to turn Mary loose on the women once they were used to living here. She could convince them if anyone could.

Each family ate their own meals. This was a treat for everybody but Mary and me. The ex-serfs were now able to eat what they wanted and not what some overseer thought was suitable for a lowly serf. As the saying went, the overseers ate high off the hog, and the serfs got what was left. As a result, all of the new arrivals put on a little weight.

We now had three families, so I figured that we needed two more ATVs. I redesigned the current ATV to seat four people instead of only two. I also took the opportunity to revise the largest replicator to be able to produce an ATV in one piece. That would save us a lot of assembly time and allow us to add new vehicles to our pool of vehicles as they were needed.

I also made sure to equip each ATV with a Mark 8 gun. Everybody made helpful suggestions, and I added a stabilizing rig so that a person could stand and fire the Mark 8 while the ATV was in motion over rough ground. I hoped that we didn't need any more than that. I planned to add armor if necessary, but I was not anxious to have a need for it.

It was strange to me that we were not bothered for a month after that adventure with the rescued serfs, etc. Well maybe "bothered" was not quite the proper word. Ed and Bill were up in the observation tower when a naked man showed up about a half-mile away. Bill called me (why me, specifically, I wondered) with the news. As it happened, I was not busy with something that I could not drop, so I called John to join me, and we took an ATV to contact the man.