Blade advanced, scrutinizing the trees enclosing them. "Who was screaming?"
Rikki glanced at the log. "A small girl with blonde hair."
"Where is she?" Blade asked.
"She disappeared," Rikki said.
"Maybe it was Goldilocks," Hickok suggested, chuckling.
Rikki walked to the log, his forehead creased, trying to imagine the girl"s reason for fleeing. He stared at the top of the log, then leaned over to check the other side.
And there she was, on her hands and knees, her smudged face tilted upwards, her frightened blue eyes on the Warrior.
"h.e.l.lo," Rikki said softly, smilfng rea.s.suringly.
The girl didn"t budge.
"I am Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," the martial artist introduced himself. "Who are you?"
Blade and Hickok came over, Blade on Rikki"s left, the gunman to the right.
Whining in terror, the girl rose to her knees, about to run.
"Don"t!" Rikki said. "We are friends!"She hesitated, looking from one to the other.
"Howdy there, little lady," Hickok declared, beaming. "What are you doing in his neck of the woods? Lookin" for Little Red Riding Hood"s house?"
The girl shook her head.
"Then you must be lookin" for the Three Bears," the gunman said. "But I don"t think they"re home right now. They"re out collectin" honey."
Again the girl shook her head.
Hickok sighed and leaned his right arm on the top of the log. "I give up.
What the d.i.c.kens are you doing out here?"
"Hiding," she answered, her voice a tremulous whisper.
"Hiding?" Hickok said, glancing around. "Who"s after you? The Big, Bad Wolf? I"ll blow the critter away!"
"The Bubbleheads," the girl disclosed.
Hickok did a double take. "I don"t believe I know them varmints. But I won"t let them hurt you."
"Promise?"
"I promise," the gunman pledged. He extended his right hand. "I"m pleased to meet you. My handle is Hickok."
"Handle?"
"Sorry. My name is Hickok."
The girl studied the gunfighter for a moment, then reached up and took his hand. "You"re a good man," she said simply.
Hickok smiled as he shook. "You should tell that to my missus.
Sometimes she has her doubts."
"What"s a missus?""A missus is a wife," Hickok explained. "I have a wife named Sherry and a tadpole named Ringo."
The girl managed a weary grin. "Do you like frogs?"
"Frogs?"
"My mommy told me all about tadpoles," she mentioned. "They become frogs."
Blade laughed.
Hickok shook his head. "Not that kind of tadpole," he detailed. "I was talkin" about my young"un. He"s a sprout like you."
The child, her right hand still resting in the gunman"s, looked down at herself. "I"m not a sprout. I"m a girl."
Blade suppressed an impulse to cackle. "You need an interpreter," he told the gunman.
Hickok gingerly lifted the girl onto the log. "Come on up here," he said.
"We need to have a palaver."
The child glanced at Rikki. "He talks funny."
"You don"t know the half of it," Rikki said.
Hickok released her hand and sat down next to her. "You mentioned your mommy. Where is she?"
The girl"s chin sagged and her lips quivered.
"Did something happen to your mommy?" Hickok questioned.
She gulped and nodded.
"What?"
"The Bubbleheads hurt her."
Hickok exchanged a confounded expression with his companions.
"Who are the Bubbleheads?""They"re bad men."
Hickok gently placed his right hand around her slim shoulders.
"Listen..." He paused, then began again. "What"s your name, anyway?"
"Chast.i.ty," the girl replied. "Chast.i.ty Snow."
"Well, Chast.i.ty, I know it might hurt to talk about it, but I need to know what happened to your mommy," Hickok said. "What did the Bubbleheads do to her?"
Chast.i.ty averted her eyes and trembled.
"There, there," Hickok said, soothing her. "Everything is okay. We"ll help you. You can trust us."
Chast.i.ty gazed at the gunfighter, tears in the corners of her eyes. "I like you," she declared huskily.
"And I like you," Hickok a.s.sured her. "But I really must know what happened to your mommy. Will you tell me?"
"They burned her," Chast.i.ty answered, her voice barely audible.
"The Bubbleheads set your mom on fire?" Hickok asked.
Chast.i.ty nodded.
"Can you take us to where this happened?"
"Maybe," Chast.i.ty responded. "It"s far."
"When was the last time you ate?" Blade interjected.
"I don"t remember."
"You must be hungry," Blade commented, staring at the dead boars.
Chast.i.ty nodded.
"Then we"ll roast some boar meat," Blade proposed, "and take off after we"ve eaten.""I"ll gather wood for the fire," Rikki offered, and walked toward the trees r.i.m.m.i.n.g the clearing to the north.
Chast.i.ty watched the man in black enter the forest. "He"d better be careful," she said.
"Don"t worry about Rikki," Hickok remarked. "No boar will get him."
"The icky thing might see him," Chast.i.ty said, gazing apprehensively at the nearby foliage.
"What icky thing?" Hickok asked.
"She must mean a mutant," Blade deduced.
"You saw this icky thing?" Hickok queried her.
Chast.i.ty nodded. "Yesterday."
"What did it look like?"
"It was big and black and had two heads," Chast.i.ty replied.
"Definitely a mutant," Hickok stated. "And we won"t let any mutant harm you."
Chast.i.ty smiled at the gunman. "I"m not scared now."
"Good," Hickok said. "Besides, the icky thing must be long gone."
At that moment, in contradiction to the gunman"s a.s.sertion, a tremendous roar rent the woods to the east.
Chapter Three.
"The icky thing!" Chast.i.ty cried.Hickok slid to the far side of the log, pulling the girl after him. He crouched and surveyed the forest.
Blade took several strides to the east, leveling the M-16. The roar had been close, too close. Whatever made it was probably watching him at that very second. His gray eyes narrowed as he tried to detect a hint of movement in the undergrowth. If the roar came from a creature answering Chast.i.ty"s description, then, as Hickok had noted, the thing was undoubtedly a wild mutant.
And the giant despised the savage, proliferating monstrosities.
Perhaps the reason was because his father had been killed by a genetic deviate. Perhaps he loathed them simply because they were gross aberrations of nature, a vile testimony to humankind"s tampering with forces better left untouched. Perhaps it was because he"d known so many people who"d been killed or maimed by the horrid beasts.
Whatever his justification, he waited for the creature to appear with a mixture of dread and antic.i.p.ation. Dread owing to his abhorrence, antic.i.p.ation because he eagerly wanted to blast one of the things to kingdom come. As he scanned the brush and the trees, he thought of the three different types of mutations he"d encountered.
First, there were those mutations produced by the ma.s.sive radiation unleashed during the war. Deformed offspring were a frequent occurrence, young born with extra limbs or misplaced features. Of the three types, this kind was the most numerous.
Second were the especially repulsive fiends created by the chemical-warfare weapons. Known as mutates to distinguish them from the radiation-formed deviates, these demented, pus-covered brutes were even more feared than the typical mutants.
Third, and smallest in numbers, were those mutations specifically developed by the genetic engineers. In the years prior to the war, genetic engineering had been all the rage with the scientific community. Hybrids were bred, curious combinations of humans and animals, both before and after the nuclear exchange. A trio of such beings currently resided at the Home, and the Warrior considered them as friends.
Mutations of every variety were a fact of life in the postwar era. Bladecould hardly conceive of what it must have been like before World War Three. A world without mutants was an alien concept; to be able to take a stroll in the woods without having to worry about being attacked sounded like Utopia. For the umpteenth time, he recognized that the people living before the war had not realized how good they had it.
A branch snapped to the left.
Blade swiveled, catching a glimpse of a dark form moving between two trees. Something big, just like Chast.i.ty had said. His finger stroked the cool metal trigger. Would the thing try to circle around the clearing? Did it know one of them had gone to the north? What if it went after Rikki?
The martial artist must have heard the roar. Surely Rikki would return...
Another stupendous roar shattered the tranquil wilderness as the creature attacked, bursting from cover and bounding toward the giant.
Blade took in the mutant"s black, leathery, hairless skin, its bulky body and four heavy legs, its pear-shaped head, crazed eyes, slavering mouth, and its tapered teeth and talons, all in the instant before he fired. The M-16 chattered and bucked, and he saw his rounds slam into the thing"s face and neck.
The mutant stumbled and almost went down, only to recover and surge across the eight feet separating it from its intended prey.