"Can't do nothing about that, Cag, just-"
A shrieking Breaker tried to run past the raven before he could finish, and the raven-Jakli-gave him such a mighty push that the poor fellow went sprawling in the middle of the street. "Stay together, you maggots!" he snarled. "Run if ee will, but keep some f**king order about it!" As if there could be any order in this, Roland thought (and not without satisfaction)
Then, to the redhead, the one called Jakli shouted: "Let one or two of em fry-the rest'll see and stop!"
It would complicate things if either Eddie or Jake started shooting at this point, but neither did. The three gunslingers watched from their places of concealment as a species of order rose from the chaos. More guards appeared. Jakli and the redhead directed them into the two lines, which was now a corridor running from one side of the street to the other. A few Breakers got past them before the corridor was fully formed, but only a few.
A new taheen appeared, this one with the head of a weasel, and took over for the one called Jakli. He pounded a couple of running Breakers on the back, actually hurrying them up.
From south of Main Street came a bewildered shout: "Fence is cut!" And then another: "I think the guards are dead!" This latter cry was followed by a howl of horror, and Roland knew as surely as if he had seen it that some unlucky Breaker had just come upon a severed watchman's head in the grass.
The terrified babble on the heels of this hadn't run itself out.
when Dinky Earnshaw and Ted Brautigan appeared from between the bakery and the shoe store, so close to Jake's hiding place that he could have reached out the window of his car and touched them. Ted had been winged. His right shirtsleeve had turned red from the elbow down, but he was moving-with a little help from Dinky, who had an arm around him. Ted turned as the two of them ran through the gauntlet of guards and looked directly at Roland's hiding place for a moment. Then he and Earnshaw entered the alley and were gone.
That made them safe, at least for the time being, and that was good. But where was the big bug? Where was Prentiss, the man in charge of this hateful place? Roland wanted him and yon Weasel-head taheen sai both-cut off the snake's head and the snake dies. But they couldn't afford to wait much longer.
The stream of fleeing Breakers was drying up. The gunslinger didn't think sai Weasel would wait for the last stragglers; he'd want to keep his precious charges from escaping through the cut fence. He'd know they wouldn't go far, given the sterile and gloomy countryside all around, but he'd also know that if there were attackers at the north end of the compound, there might be rescuers standing by at the-
And there he was, thank the gods and Gan-sai Pimli Prentiss, staggering and winded and clearly in a state of shock, with a loaded docker's clutch swinging back and forth under his meaty arm. Blood was coming from one nostril and the corner of one eye, as if all this excitement had caused something to rupture inside of his head. He went to the Weasel, weaving slightly from side to side-it was this drunken weave that Roland would later blame in his bitter heart for the final outcome of that morning's work-probably meaning to take command of the operation. Their short but fervent embrace, both giving comfort and taking it, told Roland all he needed to know about the closeness of their relationship.
He leveled his gun on the back of Prentiss's head, pulled the trigger, and watched as blood and hair flew. Master Prentiss's hands shot out, the fingers spread against the dark sky, and he collapsed almost at the stunned Weasel's feet.
As if in response to this, the atomic sun came on, flooding the world with light.
"Hile, you gunslingers, kill them all!" Roland cried, fanning the trigger of his revolver, that ancient murder-machine, with the flat of his right hand. Four had fallen to his fire before the guards, lined up like so many clay ducks in a shooting gallery, had registered the sound of the gunshots, let alone had time to react. "For Gilead, for New York, for the Beam, for your fathers! Hear me, hear me! Leave not one of them standing! KILL THEM ALL!"