Chapter 5

Sean Beth and Faith were collecting firewood from the woodshed behind the house when they heard the commotion. They heard one of the Religionist women scream and went to have a look. By the head of the trail, they saw Thane lying over his horse's neck and John behind him, swaying. Martin Goodfellow was carefully guiding the Arabian and Rada was beside the horse, fussing over the two youths. She saw Faith and Sean Beth and cried for help.

Allsinger appeared behind, carrying an autorifle, with which, he was covering Rada.

Faith and Sean Beth started towards the group and Matthew Kohn appeared at the door of the house. He stared in disbelief at what he saw.

"Get litters!" Rada cried. "Help us! John and Thane are shot."

"What? What happened?" Sean Beth yelled back in shock.

"Sean Beth?" Rada continued. "Thane's been shot in the chest and John through the leg. They did it!," she added, indicated the two Religionists.

"Father?" Faith called her dad.

"It was an accident," he pleaded.

"Accident? Fuck!" spat Rada. "Sean Beth, Thane's real bad!"

"Oh, my God!" Faith exclaimed - wild with anxiety. She rushed to his side.

"Get them down," Sean Beth ordered. "You, get Kohn!" she commanded one of the Religionist women.

Allsinger moved behind Rada and put a knife to her throat. "This girl remains!" he said, "You may assist these boys."

"What the fuck?" Sean Beth exclaimed.

"What have we got?" Matthew Kohn panted, running up. The doctor wasn't the slimmest nor fittest of men.

"Chest and leg," Sean Beth told him. "We need litters. Goodfellow? We need you to help. Allsinger, get that knife from Rada's throat before you cut yourself?"

"She remains!" Allsinger said, adamantly.

"You better not harm a hair on her," Sean Beth cautioned. "There'll be nowhere for you to run."

"He hit me - he's dog meat!" Rada said, defiantly.

"Thane? Thane? Shit, he's taken it in the lung. Kohn? You there? Grab the litter and take him into the house. Faith? Help me with John? You conscious, pal?" she asked.

"Yeah!" John replied. "Allsinger ... uh ... shot me."

"I've had it with that mad fucker. C'mon, put an arm over - here. Faith, grab the other?"

Carefully, the wounded were taken into the house leaving Allsinger, still with the knife at Rada's throat, to ponder his next move. Martin Goodfellow remained with the Reverend - he thought, to keep him calm and stop him from hurting Rada further.

Martin realised his pastor had slipped a gear but, at nearly sixty, he wasn't a forceful man. For a good ten years he'd followed the Reverend's teachings unquestioningly - believing, utterly, the man held the secret to his ultimate salvation. He was a devout Second Millenialist who watched the world flood and grow hotter, struggling to reconcile that with his beliefs. Contact with the Arks had thrown his belief system into chaos. Some believers succumb and adapt while others withdraw into ideological certitude. Martin had never been a great thinker and he wasn't sure what to do. To fall back on his loyalty to the Reverend seemed his only course of action.

The Arks, now, scared him. He'd badly hurt the youth called Thane and he feared their retribution. His wife had gone and his children appeared lost to him. Martin didn't see he had many options left.

Allsinger dragged the girl, kicking and hollering, towards the tent. His knife was firmly pressed to her throat leaving a superficial cut. Even that didn't seem to calm Rada down.

Over towards Roger and Sean Beth's house, Rasida, with her arm in a splint, watched from the porch, accompanied by Matthew Kohn's boy, Erasmus. Martin saw she had a needle gun clipped to her good wrist and bore an expression of pure hatred.

"You must bring order to your house, Martin?" the Reverend explained. "This girl has corrupted your son and turned him from his true path."

"What are you planning to do?" Martin asked, confused. What, indeed, could they do?

"We shall gather around as many of the Faithful as we can," he explained. "And teach this girl the lesson I should've given weeks ago."

"Reverend? What would that be?"

"Help me tie her to the cross," he ordered. "I shall flog the skin off her back. Martin, you must hold your gun on her less the Canaanites intervene."

"Reverend?" Martin looked around. "Is this a wise course? These people would think nothing of shooting us."

"Then they will lose her. A sad loss that would be to mankind."

"Reverend? I..."

"Grab her arm - ouch - the little bitch!" Rada struck his ankle with the heel of her boot.

Rasida watched what was happening with growing fear. She saw what they were planning to do and her needle gun seemed to grow hotter at her wrist. Bristling with anger, she began to march towards the tent with Ras trailing behind.

Inside the house, Sean Beth, Matthew Kohn and Faith were busy working on their patients. Sean Beth concluded the round had not cause any life threatening damage to John. It had missed the femoral artery by millimetres - otherwise, he'd be dead already. The pressure bandage Martin applied on his son had stemmed the bleeding and Faith only needed to rebind the wound and administer shots against infection.

Thane wasn't in a good way, however. He was shot through the lung and the wound was wheezing alarmingly. Thane was slipping in and out of consciousness and Kohn suggested they ought to sedate him. Sean Beth administered the shot, while Kohn surveyed the damage.

"Chipped a rib," he announced. "I must find the fragment lest it get into his lung. I need a respirator and some more glotubes above me. You have a probe?"

"Redell?" Sean Beth called. "Bring that tray of surgical equipment? Glotubes, please - run to Reged's and grab as many as you can find?"

"What'll I do first?" he asked, confused.

"The respirator?" Kohn told him. "Then light, if you please?"

After Redell sped off, Sean Beth asked Matthew whether Thane will pull through.

"Not sure," he shrugged. "Depends, ah, depends where that fragment is. If it's in the lung it'll rip up the tissue - maybe lodge in there and cause bleeding? These are not ideal conditions for lung surgery. Get the respirator on him? We need to keep his good lung working. I need irrigation."

"Here!" Sean Beth said, and vacuumed the blood away from inside the wound. "Kohn? I don't know what I would've done..."

"Think nothing - I'm a doctor - this is what I do. The probe? I need to fish for that fragment."

"Here! Please, Thane, please, stay strong!"

"Is he..." Faith started to say.

"Keep sending that love across, Faith. He knows you're with him," Sean Beth told her.

Outside, a bizarre standoff was developing. Rasida stood with Ras pointing her needle gun at Allsinger and Goodfellow while the two lashed Rada's wrists to the staff. Goodfellow pointed his autorifle at Rada's head while keeping watch on Rasida out of the corner of his eye. The Reverend went into his tent and came out flicking a long cattle whip. Rasida saw it was knotted at the tip and Allsinger snapped it a few times menacingly.

"Don't go near her!" Rasida cried, as Allsinger advanced.

"Careful of the fat one, Rasida," Rada cautioned. "He doesn't think - shoots anything." Allsinger snapped the whip and caught Rada a stinging cut over her rump. "Ow! Fuck!"

"Leave her alone!" demanded Rasida.

"Just a taste, whore!" Allsinger said, gleefully.

"Reverend?" Ras spoke up. "If you need to whip anybody, I'll stand in her stead."

"A brave offer!" the Reverend declared. "And since you choose to keep company with whores, your turn shall be next."

He lashed Rada again over her arse.

"Shit!" she cried, and wriggled her legs. 'Fuck, that hurts!"

"No more profanities!" Allsinger demanded and whipped her again.

"AHH!" Rada hollered. "Arsehole!"

Allsinger came over and, with his knife, tore her allsuit up her back. As Rada squirmed and kicked, he peeled the top off the garment exposing her bare back - making sure to keep out of range of her swinging boots. He then stood back and cracked the whip a couple of times.

"Sean Beth!" Redell cried, bursting through the door. "Allsinger's whipping Rada!"

"What?" she said, looking from Thane to the door. Nor was lying on the bed in the other room. Her house was filling up with her wounded babies.

"Go!" Kohn said, looking up. "That lad can assist for a while." He indicated Redell.

Sean Beth hurried to the door, grabbing her autorifle. She hastened outside, striding purposefully towards Allsinger's tent. Rada was tied to the cross with wicked looking stripes across her bare back. Tears streamed down her face even though she tried hard to stop from crying. Sean Beth trembled with rage.

"Hey?" she yelled, "What the fuck are you doing?"

Martin swung the autorifle around and Sean Beth could see he was starting to panic. Rasida and Ras looked on helplessly. They turned as Sean Beth approached.

"Sean Beth, I..." Rasida started to say.

"Fuck this shit," Sean Beth spat. "Put that fucking thing down before I throttle you with it?"

"Stay out of it woman!" Allsinger demanded, and swung his whip again.

"No! I have a house full of hurt kids and I'm not tolerating this shit any more. Tell that fuckwit over there if he continues to wave that autorifle around I will jam it up his arsehole? You, put that whip down and untie my child or I'll string you up with it." Allsinger recoiled before her fury and took a pace back. Sean Beth then turned to confront Goodfellow - still swinging the autorifle around with indecision.

"Careful, Sean Beth!" Rasida warned. "He doesn't know what he's doing."

"Well, I do!" she said. With that, she pounced - swinging to the right, she lashed out with her foot, catching Goodfellow full in the groin. Spinning on one leg, she blocked the barrel of the autorifle with her forearm and knocked it skywards. It went off with a snap, firing the round somewhere into the surrounding hills. Goodfellow dropped the gun and doubled up in pain - staggering back.

Meanwhile, Rasida had moved between Rada and Allsinger and covered him with her needle gun. Her eyes practically glowed with rage and Ras, looking on, thought she was about to riddle the Reverend.

"Rasida?" Sean Beth said. "Untie Rada and take her into the house? Allsinger? For the last time, put down that whip." She pointed her autorifle at his chest for emphasis. Even Allsinger realised he had few cards to play and dropped the whip to the ground. "Now, get out - the two of you. You're no longer welcome in our houses. If I see any of you anywhere I will shoot you - that is no empty boast. Leave the guns behind - they're ours."

"This is not finished!" Allsinger said to her.

"Yes it is, Allsinger," she called after him.

"Let me go!" Rada sobbed in rage to her friend Rasida. "I'm going to kill him!"

"Later," Rasida told her. "Go to John - he's calling for you."

That bit of fiction did the trick. "John!" Rada exclaimed. "Oh, hell! How is he? I have to go to him - he was so brave! Ow, fuck, my back hurts!"

"It's bleeding, Rada," Ras told her. "You need it dressed!"

"Fuck, he's chopped my allsuit to bits! Rasida, is Ras perving?" she asked.

"Probably," she chuckled. "Keep the front together. He can see your tits!"

"Oh, shut up! Ow, fuck, I can hardly walk - shit!"

Ras and Rasida took a side each and guided Rada carefully into the house.

Meanwhile, sporadic sniping had renewed after the night's lull down at the Fall. With the morning's rotation, Mikele used his strength to enfilade as many of the enemy positions as he could. The SM fire was desultory, suggesting they were struggling with a shortage of ammunition. Mikele figured his positions above the cataracts were immune to attack and he spent the morning making them more secure with boulder parapets and rifle pits. He knew that the Montsenys would be reinforcing him sometime late afternoon and he began to feel more confident.

He, Costa and Easele exerted command after the loss of Roger. Costa took top cover from the hills - Easele, the right flank down by the river Passion. Mikele, himself, held the centre with 6 snipers arrayed behind improvised stone parapets. Costa, in particular, found he oversaw most of the enemy positions and kept a steady fire into them - restricting their movements.

The rotation had brought with them two more transceivers, allowing Costa, Easele and Mikele to keep in constant radio contact.

"How many do you think?" Mikele asked Costa by transceiver - perched high on a rock above him.

"Hard to guess," he replied. "They're keeping their heads down. But, I figure, maybe, 35, 40?"

Mikele totaled the odds in his head. He reckoned the enemy probably had a two to one advantage in manpower. But, an attacking force should carry an advantage of at least three to one, he remembered. That, and the problem of advancing uphill against semi entrenched positions - he doubted they had the resources for such a mission - particularly, since the plasma rifle appeared to be no longer operable.

"Mikele?" Easele called from the river. "I think we can move down the bank a ways. I figure we can catch them in a crossfire."

"Unnecessary!" Mikele replied. "Delios will be here by nightfall with an autocannon. We mount it behind us a little we ought to cause them some serious problems. No point in taking unnecessary risks."

"If you say so," Easele replied, disappointed.

Up at Bluefields, Rada lay on her back beside John on Thane's bed. Sean Beth had finished putting dressings on her back and dosed her with painkillers, but, she was still stiff and sore. John had helped her off with her pants and was spreading balm over her ass cheeks, on three painful looking welts. He had his injured leg spread out in front of him, tightly strapped in bandages.

"Careful with those fingers!" she cautioned. "They're immigrating! He never got me down there!"

"Just checking!" he grinned. "You didn't seemed to mind the other night?"

"I didn't - the other night! But, now you're going to make me horny and I'm too sore to do anything about it. Besides, you can barely move - some fuck you'd be!"

"Aw, poor baby!" John bent and kissed her lightly on the arse. "Such a cute bottom! Hmm. And he marked it!" He kissed it again and she wriggled in response.