[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

powder into the oozing wound.
There was a buzz of excitement around the camp, almost loud enough to drown
out Folsom's an-guished moaning.
At a nod from Charlie the young stickie dipped the end of the torch toward the
brimming gash in the man's stomach.
There was a roar of delight from the dozens of watching muties as first a fountain
of sparks, then flame and smoke gushed out with a barely audible whooshing
sound.
Folsom's scream rose way above the noise, harsh and high enough to shatter a
crystal goblet.
Helga was weeping and the Very Reverend Joe-Bob Jarman was struggling to
pray in a faltering, self-important voice.
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/J...-%20Deathlands%20016%20-%20Moon%20Fate.html (142 of 283) [12/30/2004 2:03:48 PM]
Axler, James - Deathlands 16 - Moon Fate
Ryan was simply confirmed in his belief that Char-lie, despite his undoubted
skills and intellect, was just another vicious, maniac stickie underneath the
pol-ished veneer.
The next forty minutes were bloodily predictable and vile.
In the past Ryan had traveled through the deserts of the Southwest, and he'd
witnessed firsthand the in-genious tortures of some of those peoples. What Charlie
was doing to ensure the doomed Red Folsom an appalling and delayed passing
was nothing new.
The stickie couldn't even contrive to carry out the protracted execution with any
particular style or skill.
Folsom passed out at least four times and had to be recovered with water. The
result of this was to make the incisions filled with black powder difficult to
ig-nite.
And one cut, below the left knee, was so deep and held so much powder that the
resulting explosion blew the lower part of the leg completely off, so that the
wound had to be hastily cauterized with the torch and a clumsy tourniquet applied
to prevent the trapper from dying off too quickly.
The blackened thing that hung against the blood-splashed cliff bore little
resemblance to a human be-ing.
Around the stickies' camp initial rippling pleasure had gone, to be replaced by
boredom. Stickies had a very limited attention span. A few of the youngsters still
greeted each puff of flame and smoke with a rag-ged cry, but the rest were quiet.
Charlie sensed that he was losing his audience and brought the proceeding to an
abrupt ending.
Using the point of the knife he probed both eyes from their sockets, where they
dangled onto the mu-tilated cheeks.
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/J...-%20Deathlands%20016%20-%20Moon%20Fate.html (143 of 283) [12/30/2004 2:03:48 PM]
Axler, James - Deathlands 16 - Moon Fate
Taking a wedge of wood, Charlie forced open Folsom's bloodied lips, jamming
the jaws apart, grin-ning as he encouraged the girl to fill the mouth with black
powder.
"Adios!" the stickie screamed, sheathing his knife and taking the smoldering torch
from the woman.
He waved it around his head, the mane of golden hair dancing in the light. The
flame roared into life and he pushed it toward Folsom's face.
The cheering from the expectant crowd dwarfed anything that had gone before,
drowning out the sound of the explosive as it ripped the man's head off the top of
his body, sending it a hundred feet into the night sky.
So it ended.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The next day was warmer, with a blue sky and a fine, drying wind blowing in
from the north.
The corpse had vanished, leaving only dark smudges on the sheer face of the
sandstone cliff where it had been chained.
Charlie was in a high good humor after the mon-strous demonstration of his
power.
"Loved it, didn't they?" he said to his prisoners, once they were outside and
manacled again in the bright morning sunlight.
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/J...-%20Deathlands%20016%20-%20Moon%20Fate.html (144 of 283) [12/30/2004 2:03:48 PM]
Axler, James - Deathlands 16 - Moon Fate
Ryan answered him. "Light a fire and you can be bastard certain to have every
stickie in creation roll-ing on their backs, waving their legs in the air with
pleasure."
The bitter verbal attack didn't faze Charlie. "You don't worry me, Ryan Cawdor.
Talk's cheap. Only death counts. Sun's above. The stupe's body's prob-ably around
a hundred miles downstream by now. Let the little ones play some with it. Good
for them to practice using their hands on norm flesh." He laughed delightedly.
"Not that the poor son of a bitch had too much of that left."
THE DISTANCE JUDGEMENT of the stickies' leader was badly flawed.
The mangled, bloodless remains of Red Folsom had finished up a lot closer to the
Anasazi village than a hundred miles.
Dean had gone to relieve himself after breakfast that morning, picking his way
along the narrow path, deep in congealed mud after the interminable rains of the
previous twenty-four hours. The boy had found his father's disappearance
extremely difficult to handle, and the knowledge that they'd now lost the trail, on
account of the turbulent weather, had plunged him into the depths of misery.
He felt a strong disapproval from the limping Christina Lauren, almost as if she
blamed him per-sonally for what had happened. Jak had always been real friendly,
but now the albino, only a few years older than Dean, seemed embarrassed to be
seen with him, constantly glancing over his shoulder to see if his wife was
watching him.
Doc and Mildred had been just as nice to him as ever.
But there was something seriously wrong about J.B. The Armorer was usually
calm and taciturn, seeming like his mind kept focusing inward. But since Ryan
had been taken, J.B. had been on edge, unable to sit still, looking around at the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]