The Eternal War

CHAPTER 47

2001, outside Dead City



Captain Ewan McManus studied the city skyline through field glasses. ‘Marvellous,’ he muttered without any real enthusiasm. He lowered his glasses, his eyes squinting back sunlight beneath the peak of his helmet.

‘Are you saying they went in there?’ asked Liam. ‘That’s the Dead City you were talking about last night, right?’

McManus nodded. ‘The very same.’

White Bear was beside them. He’d just returned from scouting ahead. ‘Tracks lead into city,’ he said. ‘Many more track, go into city.’

‘As I suspected.’ He tucked the field glasses back into a pouch on his belt. ‘This area’s been plagued by runaway eugenics. They raid for food, sometimes just for fun. And that’s where they scurry back to.’

‘I also see human track … is small, light, maybe girl,’ said White Bear, looking at Liam. ‘Your sister? She walk. Maybe eugenic need rest awhile, dah?’

‘Oh Jay-zus! Thank God … she’s alive!’

McManus slapped his shoulder. ‘There you are. Some jolly good news.’

‘So what now? We’re going in?’

McManus nodded. ‘Of course we’ll go in. This is the kind of thing my lads are used to doing – house-to-house, urban fighting. Not for the faint-hearted. It’s combat up close and not very pretty, I’m afraid.’

He shook his head. ‘Of course, if the Confederate army had the gumption to go in and clean this mess up earlier instead of ignoring the problem, we wouldn’t have so many eugenics to deal with now.’ He puffed his lips. ‘Pfft. Ruddy useless lot. Nothing more than poorly trained farmhands, fools and felons.’

‘So when?’

McManus turned to Liam. ‘When are we going in?’

Liam nodded.

‘I shall call in the regimental carrier first. A few things my chaps’re going to need.’ He turned away from Liam towards the rest of the mounted platoon, pulling down the communicator from his helmet.

‘Summon Sky God,’ said White Bear, grinning.

‘Excuse me?’

‘Big Bird … in sky. It come … make much snow. Dah?’

‘Oh, right. You like the snow, do you?’

The Indian nodded vigorously.

Liam turned to look at the silent city, once upon a time a city called Baltimore. From this distance it didn’t look dead. Just peaceful. He could see tall buildings towards the middle of it, the chimneys of factories, the steeples of churches further out and the ordered rows of brick houses in the suburbs. A peaceful city slumbering in the midday sun.

He heard the thud of heavy feet approaching and turned to see Bob.

‘Anything?’

‘Negative,’ Bob rumbled. He’d gone to climb a nearby water tower in the hope that he had a better chance of sniffing something out. But still no messages from Maddy, not even a partial message, not even a single tachyon particle. Which could only mean one thing: she had her own problems to deal with.

Same thing, different day. When weren’t they desperately fighting their own separate fires?