Chapter 28

Doug was absolutely flabbergasted. He had assumed that the enemy would run away from the exploding bombs, not toward them. Shit! This was a serious development which could result in a lot of unnecessary deaths. He definitely needed to find out the motivation of this horde of seemingly crazed people. Of course, it was also possible that they were not insane, just some sort of fanatics. Whatever the reason, they had to be stopped!

Doug signaled for the others to follow Flower as he made for the greatest concentration of warriors. He released a string of bombs as he flew over and the other two airships did the same. This caused considerable damage on the ground, and the advance stopped while the people tried to help the injured. Doug led the airships back to the oil field to refuel and rearm.

They took a lunch break and discussed a new strategy. Doug said, "The way these people are acting just doesn't make sense to me. It looks to me like they are loaded with drugs or are insane. Either way, we need to capture one or two to find out what it is that is driving them. Therefore, I propose that Flower drop all of her bombs while Mist and Star stand by to cover us. Once all of our bombs are dropped, I want to swoop down and try to capture some prisoners who may be able to tell us what this is all about. With our reduced weight, we should be able to escape easily enough, but that's where our cover comes in. You guys be ready to come to our aid if we need it." Nobody had a better plan, so that was what they set out to do.

They flew back over the horde and spotted some men dressed in very fancy outfits, obviously not suited to actual fighting. These men had to be leaders of some sort, so they would probably be the most useful prisoners. Flower flew low enough to have a good control of where the bombs fell and blasted a ring of destruction around the Fancy Dans. Before the stunned bomb recipients could recover, Flower landed and her engineer and navigator jumped out with Doug to pick up some prisoners. Four of the fanciest dressers were dumped into the gondola and Flower took off.

The raid had accomplished its purpose, so they did not drop any more bombs. The three airships headed back to the base at the oil field. While they were refueling and rearming, Doug questioned his captives. Fortunately, they could speak the trade language.

DOUG: "Why are you attacking and killing everybody you meet?"

PRISONER #1: "Why should we profane ourselves by speaking to an infidel such as you?"

DOUG: "Because, if you don't, we 'infidels' will do some very unpleasant things to you. Besides, you might convert us into joining you if your arguments are sound. Now, ANSWER THE QUESTION!"

PRISONER #1: "Don't get huffy with me. I am the senior speaker to God and due the respect such a position demands. If you treat me harshly, God will certainly treat you just as harshly."

DOUG: "In that case, Your Exalted Highness, I apologize for my harsh words. However, we do need to know why you are advancing on us with what appears to us to be hostile intent. After all, we have never seen you before, so we have not done anything to you to justify destruction by you."

PRISONER #1: "That is exactly why we are going to annihilate you. You are not a believer in our God, so we have a duty to remove your contamination from His world."

DOUG: "OK, now I think I understand what is going on. If I am correct, you have declared a holy war on us and plan to wipe us from the face of the Earth. Furthermore, you plan to do this to all other infidels that you encounter. Is that correct?"

PRISONER #1: "You are remarkably intelligent for an infidel. Yes, that is exactly what we plan to do."

DOUG: "Is there anything that we could do to change your mind? Would converting to your religion save us?"

PRISONER #1: "What a disgusting notion. There is no way that God would accept you or your kind into His glorious kingdom."

DOUG: "It appears to me that we have no choice but to fight your people to the death of one side or the other. At the moment, we appear to be winning. What do you say to that?"

PRISONER #1: "You cannot win! God will not let you win!"

DOUG: "Perhaps you are mistaken. I presume that your exalted position embodies you with the powers of your god. Therefore, I propose a test. I will provide one of your co-prisoners with a knife. He will stab me with it. If he cannot kill me with three blows with the knife, he will strike you the same way. Surely, your god will protect you the same way that mine protects me."

PRISONER #1: "Very well, I will submit to your ridiculous, but amusing, test. Oglock, you will perform the test."

PRISONER #2: "Yes, Master Englow, whatever you say." Prisoner #2 took the bowie knife that Doug handed to him. He tried to stab Doug in the chest, but the blow simply bounced off as all of Doug's people knew that it would. He next tried to cut Doug's throat, again failing. Finally, he tried to drive the knife into Doug's belly. At this failure, all of the prisoners were aghast, and all of Doug's people were smiling.

DOUG: "OK, now it's Englow's turn. Go ahead and stab him."

PRISONER #1: "Yes, Oglock, now it is time to prove that our God is more powerful that the infidel's puny god. Stab me the same way you did him."

Prisoner #2 picked up the knife from the ground where he had dropped it and stabbed Englow in the chest. It was only a halfhearted effort, but the knife was very sharp, and it penetrated far enough to effect a mortal wound. The look of surprise on all of the prisoner's faces would have been funny, but it is not funny to watch anyone die. Englow lived for about 10 minutes; Doug would not let any of his people perform any first aid, since it was politically essential that Englow die. The other three prisoners fainted when Englow died.

Doug waited a minute or two and then ordered a bucket of water thrown on Oglock's face to wake him up. Oglock struggled back to consciousness and looked around. He stammered, "But ... But ... But, that can't have happened. Englow always said that God would protect him from an untimely death."

"It looks like Englow was wrong about that. Could it be that he was wrong about other things, too? His holy war, for example?"

"I guess so, but I am too confused right now to make a firm decision. What will you do with us?"

"I don't know, yet. It depends on whether or not this stupid holy war continues. Will it stop now that Englow is dead?"

"Englow was the driving force behind the war. He used to harangue the people every evening about the sacred importance of the war and how God wanted us to kill all infidels."

"Do you think that the death of Englow can be used to stop the war? What would happen if we dropped his lifeless body to the ground in front of the people? Would that be enough to shock them out of making war?"

"Yes, it probably would, since Englow always claimed that he would not die, but would be taken into heaven while he was still alive. The crazy thing is, he seemed to believe that ridiculous notion. He repeated it often enough that I had come to believe it. I think that most of the people would have stopped fighting if he had not continually urged them on. But what can we do now? We only have supplies for two more weeks. What will we eat when that is gone?"

"I think that we can help you out with food if you wish to join us. We could use more people and would be delighted to have you if you will stop your aggression. Do you think your people can do that?"

"Yes, I do. What do we have to do to join you?"

"Not much. If your head man will promise me not to fight any more, we can settle this in a few minutes."

"Let's settle it, then. With Englow's death, I am head man, and I promise to be peaceful if you can feed us."

"OK, let's go present Englow's body to the people and get you installed officially. Once that is done, bring your people to this location and we'll see about doing all the other stuff we need to do."

"That will be fine, and while we are about it, we will all convert to your religion. There is no doubt that your God is more powerful than ours!"

Doug thought to himself, Shit, now I have to invent a religion on the spot! I had better get my ass in gear!"

The three former prisoners loaded Englow's body into Flower after some of the bombs were unloaded, and they took off for the horde. When they got there, Oglock shouted to the people to calm down, they were now friends with the flying machines. Englow was returning to them. With that, Englow's body was tossed over the side of the gondola to fall about 50 feet to the ground. His body was left there in a crumpled mass while Oglock explained what had happened and what was about to happen.

When Flower moved about a hundred feet to set down and allow Oglock and the two other former prisoners climb to the ground, a great crowd ran to Englow's body and spat and kicked him into an even more bloody mess. This was all of the proof Doug needed that the horde was ready to quit fighting.