Tomorrow 7 - The Other Side Of Dawn Read Free Page B

could have turned on the streetlights and still had enough left over to heat the pool.
    ‘What?’ I asked.
    ‘They’re spread out along Tailor’s Stitch,’ he said. ‘Just looking down into Hell. I don’t know what they’re doing. They’re bloody suspicious though.’
    ‘Maybe they’ve seen something from the air,’ I said.
    ‘Yeah, maybe.’ He was panting, then he added: ‘God, I can’t take much more of this.’
    There was a rattle of stones behind me and I turned around. It was Ryan.
    ‘What’s happening?’ he asked.
    Homer repeated his news. We both looked at Ryan, waiting for him to say something brilliant. Instead he seemed a bit embarrassed. He said, ‘I haven’t actually had a lot of experience in this kind of situation. What do you guys think?’
    I felt my eyebrows go up, but got them under control again.
    ‘We can’t afford to let them start climbing down into Hell,’ I said. ‘Not with Fi and the ferals there.’
    ‘We’re light on for weapons,’ Homer said.
    ‘There’s plenty of firepower in those crates,’ Ryan said.
    ‘They’re too far away now,’ I said. ‘How much ammo have you got for that thing?’ I nodded at the rifle Ryan carried.
    ‘Eighty rounds.’
    We all had automatic rifles, knocked off from the enemy, but with only thirty rounds between the four of us. It sounded a lot, but I knew the patrol up on Tailor’s Stitch would have a couple of thousand.
    ‘Are there only five of them?’ I asked Homer.
    ‘I think so.’
    Kevin arrived, then Lee, from his position out on the flank. We told Lee the news.
    ‘Let’s get up closer and see what we can do,’ I said.
    Ryan cleared his throat, nervously.
    ‘ Er ... I don’t quite know how to tell you this,’ he said.
    We waited. I had no idea what he was about to say, but it was obviously important.
    ‘I’m under strict orders,’ he said, getting redder with every word. ‘I’m not allowed to get involved in a combat situation. Not under any circumstances. Unless I’m being attacked, obviously.’
    ‘Oh,’ I said.
    ‘Well, OK,’ Homer said.
    ‘Unbelievable,’ Kevin said, which I thought was a bit rich, considering some of the performances he’d put on during this war.
    Lee just gazed into the distance, up at the ridge, without saying anything.
    ‘Well,’ I said, echoing Homer. ‘OK. At least we know. Better to find out now I guess.’
    With a big mental effort I made myself concentrate, not get distracted by negative feelings.
    ‘You wait here,’ I said to Ryan. ‘We’ll come and get you after we’ve checked things out. Can we have your ammo? If we leave you with, say, a dozen rounds?’
    ‘Sure,’ he said in his gruff voice. ‘Look, I’m really sorry about this, but they seem to think I’m needed for a few more jobs yet ...’
    ‘It’s fine,’ I said. I just wanted to get moving. I was very conscious of the patrol sniffing around at the edge of Hell, and in my overactive imagination I could see them already halfway down the sides of the crater, closing in on Fi and the kids.
    We did the business with the rifles and started the long slow sneak up to the ridge. As I left Ryan he slammed his fist into a tree and muttered, ‘Mother of God, this is so unfair’.
    I suppose he meant it; I wasn’t altogether sure.
    The last thing I wanted was to go slowly but we simply had to be ultra careful. By the time we got to the top and set out for Wombegonoo the first heat of the day was starting to settle on us. The clear daylight scared me. We didn’t normally fight in these conditions. We were nocturnal killers.
    Five against four weren’t good odds either.
    We didn’t see the first soldier until we were halfway to Wombegonoo . Homer, beside me, was really fretting. Anything to do with Fi had him on edge. ‘They were much closer than this,’ he muttered to me, meaning that the soldiers had moved further along the ridge since he saw them. Either that or they’d already gone over the side and into