Posted by Extranjero on May 18, 2007 at 13:13:18:
STORM SISTERS (Part 10)
The train gave a lurch and started moving backwards. Nikola looked up and frowned. Perhaps they were being rolled into a siding. But then she heard the steady throb of klaxons in the distance. She twitched the nearest curtain back, and saw the grimy brickwork sliding past.
Tamzin strode into the car, her jacket hanging open. She wore tight shorts and tee-shirt underneath. She’d taken off her black beret to clip her headset on. A Beretta 96 Centurion hung against her hip.
“We’re pulling out of here,” she snapped. “Security’s been breached. The Warlord’s our priority. You’re lucky that I don’t leave you behind.”
Nikola looked round, her blue eyes wintry. “What about the others – and our prisoner?” she asked.
“They’ll have to take their chances. This whole base is compromised.” The blonde girl’s hazel eyes were just as hard. “As of now, this train is sealed. No-one gets on or off it. If you want to earn your passage, you can help us fight off anyone who tries.”
The Cossack leader pouted with frustration, but her girls seemed more excited by the news. Tipsily they clambered up to get their sub-machine guns, not caring that their tits were hanging out. They lurched against each other and dissolved in helpless giggles, still smirking as they cocked their weaponry. N.T. raised her PPSh and sauntered to a window. Always keen to flaunt herself, she rubbed her heavy breasts against the glass.
The train kept on reversing down the tunnel, towards the entrance and the dying light.
* * *
The corridor was full of noise. Guards scurried to and fro like frightened rabbits. Leilani swept between them with an officer’s demeanour, and no-one paused to wonder who she was.
Her jacket was unfastened to display her navel stud, and that was all the passport that she needed. Nobody looked twice at her bare cleavage and lace panties. They must assume she’d just been woken up.
She sensed Danielle’s calm presence right behind her. The girl had had done her jacket up, concealing her translucent lingerie. Her green eyes glittered, but her face was guileless. The fur hat, with its death’s head badge, just made her look like someone in command.
Coming up out of the Vault had felt like being expelled from a volcano. The elevator seemed to ride a surge of energy. They’d left the angel-things in the control room, but Leilani sensed their bluish fire come boiling up the shaft.
Her heart beat like a hammer and her skin was damp with sweat. It felt like Hell itself was at their heels. But somewhere in this complex was the girl she’d left behind. Leilani wasn’t going to lose her now.
Another rabbit scampered past. Leilani grasped her tee-shirt. “Not so fast, girl. What’s the situation?” The cute young Guard stared back at her and moistened her plump lips. “There’s a Command Train in the tunnel, Miss. We’re trying to get it clear.”
Leilani nodded. “Who’s in charge?”
“The Switch Room, Miss. Just down the corridor ...”
“Thanks,” Leilani said, and pressed her gun into the startled Guard’s soft breast. The shot was stifled by her flesh. The girl grimaced and spat a glob of blood. Leilani smeared it off her cheek and let the bunny slither to the floor.
“She’s on the train,” murmured Danielle. Leilani nodded grimly. They went along the passage to the door at the far end. There were five Guards in the room beyond, all working busily at terminals.
The far end of the room was lined with windows, with a view across the arc-lit yard below. Leilani oriented herself, remembering those windows from outside. She’d seen them glow like yellow eyes above the tunnel’s mouth. The room was built into the cliff, as solid as a battlecruiser’s bridge.
A harassed-looking officer glanced round as they came in. She was pacing round the terminals, a set of headphones slung around her neck. Her fair hair was pinned up, but wisps of it were coming loose. She looked as if she’d had a trying day.
“Okay girls,” Leilani said. “At ease. You’re all relieved.”
She raised her Smith & Wesson and began to shoot at once. The officer threw back her head as blood erupted from her firm left breast. The girl beside her squealed as she was spattered with warm crimson. Then she gave a guttural grunt as Danielle pumped two bullets through her chest.
The other girls began to wail in panic, but none of them had anywhere to go. One brunette had scraped-back hair, exposing her pale forehead, and Leilani blew a bloody hole in it. The girl’s jaw dropped in shock as crimson pulp spilled out behind her. Her brainless body slumped like a rag doll.
Leilani switched her aim towards another pair of Lycra-moulded tits. “Oh God, no!” the girl cried out, then squawked as she was shot at point blank range. The last girl cringed behind her desk, as if it could conceal her. Danielle moved round implacably and shot her in the head.
Leilani scanned the maze of lights and switches. She had no idea what any of them did. Then she saw a movement on one of the monitors. A three-coach train rolled past the camera point.
“That’s it!” she said, and glanced around. Danielle was striding over to the windows. Leilani moved to a console. Its user lay face down across her keyboard. Leilani eyed the blood-flecked screen. “So do we change the signals?” she enquired.
The rebel gave her a wry look. “We don’t have time for that.” She opened a door and stepped into the dusk. Leilani followed, frowning now. The arc-lights made her squint. There was a walkway just outside: it ran across the tunnel’s concrete lintel. The chilly twilight nipped her breasts and she did her jacket up; still looking for a ladder as the blonde girl slung one leg over the rail.
Leilani turned in disbelief. Danielle grinned back at her. Her own jacket had ridden up to bare the skin above her stocking-top. There were sirens blaring in the yard, but they heard the train approaching. A muffled roaring filled the tunnel’s mouth.
“What’s the matter?” Danielle teased. “You want to live for ever?”
“Didn’t they promise you that?” asked Leilani.
The rebel’s dimpled grin grew wider as the train emerged beneath their feet. It was rolling in reverse, and so the armoured car came first. Danielle kicked up her other leg and dropped. She landed on the icy roof and pitched onto her face, her arms and legs spread wide against the steel. Leilani thought she would slide off, but the blonde girl kept her grip. The armoured car clanked on into the dusk. The roof of the first coach appeared below her. Leilani’s heart was thumping as she gripped the gantry rail and straddled it.
The clunking of the wheels grew more insistent. The train was speeding up before her eyes. The roof slid past, still caked with snow. If she mistimed her jump, she’d skid right off. The prospect made her muscles freeze, and then the gap between the cars went by. The roof of the last coach looked just as risky, but now she had just seconds to decide.
She thought her nerve had failed her till her body launched itself into midair. As she plunged towards the train, the coach’s roof ran out. She realised she was going to fall into the yawning gap, and then the tender surged into her path. She landed awkwardly amid the shifting load of coal. It bruised her painfully, but broke her fall.
She twisted round towards the locomotive. The crew were hidden in their cab. The engine’s noise had covered her descent. A cloud of steam erupted from the tunnel in their wake. The train snaked through the yard towards the gates.
She heard a shout above the screech of axles. Leilani raised herself to look. A Guard was running over to the train. She had her rifle braced: she must have seen one of them jumping from the walkway. As Leilani raised her gun, a burst of shots cracked out. The running girl reared backwards, looking shocked.
Her body stumbled and collapsed. The arc-lamps turned her blood as black as pitch. Leilani sat up cautiously. The shots had come from just beyond the tender. As she climbed the slope of coals, more gunfire split the twilight. From somewhere further down the train she heard the burping of a PPSh.
The train surged on across the points and through the triple gateway. Leilani kept her head well down, then raised it as they left the lights behind. She peered over the back end of the tender, and glimpsed a movement in the dark below. A Guard was on the last car’s rear platform, her gun still pointing back towards the base.
Leilani fired her pistol and the flash lit the Guard’s face. She looked as startled as the girl she’d killed. The Smith & Wesson flashed again: Leilani glimpsed a spot on the girl’s forehead. The third shot froze another frame. The spot was blooming like an evil flower. The Guard’s slack face winked out once more. She flopped onto the observation platform.
Leilani bit her lip and swung her legs over the edge. She clambered down five rungs and jumped across. Now she knew the worst of it, her mind was strangely calm. She’d glimpsed the dead girl’s black beret. The train was guarded by the Shield Section.
She tucked the gun into her briefs. The chill air gusted round her naked thighs. Squatting down, she took the dead Guard’s carbine. It was a Colt Commando, the compact version of the M-16.
Nerving herself, she stepped inside, her eyes adjusting to the dusky lamplight. The coach looked like a sleeping-car, with doors along a narrow corridor. She gripped the carbine in one hand and hauled the nearest open. Two girls were sitting up in their couchettes.
No doubt they were the night-shift who’d been trying to get some sleep. The shooting must have woken them. They squinted as the light came spilling in. “Tickets, please!” Leilani said and triggered the Commando. The girls were both bare-breasted and she saw the bullets rip into their flesh.
She moved along the corridor and pulled the next door open. Another pair of Guards exposed their unprotected tits. “What the … ohmigod!” squealed one, before Leilani shot her. Their bodies writhed and flopped out of their bunks.
Backing off, she glimpsed a movement down the corridor. An SS girl appeared at the far end. This one was already dressed in black beret and jacket. She swore and swung her carbine up to bear.
Leilani dropped onto her arse and fired as she went down. The Guard’s burst crackled overhead; she heard a window breaking. Bullets hacked white scars into the dark wood panelling. The Guard threw back her head and slumped aside.
Leilani clambered to her feet. The swaying of the carriage hampered her. A door opened half way along and a blonde girl stuck her head out. Leilani pumped a bullet through her brain.
She ducked into the compartment she’d just emptied. There were muffled noises from the one next door. Leilani fired a burst through the partition, and heard the screams as two more women died.
The train had been alerted now. Instructions crackled into every headset. Four Guards left the armoured car and crossed to the first coach. They didn’t linger in the windy moonlight, but some primeval instinct made the last of them glance up and then around. She saw a black-clad girl above her, sitting on the edge of the steel roof. Before the startled Guard could yelp, Danielle pushed off and plunged. Her stockinged legs splayed open, and the girl just glimpsed her pussy through her briefs.
Then her body slammed into the Guard’s and forked around it. The SS girl collapsed and cushioned her. The impact would have broken bones, but the mercenary made certain. She clamped her thighs round the Guard’s neck, as someone cried out from the armoured car.
Danielle squirmed around towards the doorway, the Guard’s neck snapping even as she aimed. A girl in headphones and a crop-top goggled down at them. The Smith & Wesson blasted at her breast.
The girl grimaced and arched her spine. The pistol’s stainless-steel slide locked open. Danielle discarded it and grabbed the fallen Guard’s Commando. Her legs still wrapped around the corpse, she fired into the armoured car’s interior.
The space beyond the doorway was the operations centre. The three girls in it didn’t stand a chance. The searing hail of bullets kicked them back against the worktops. A map was sprayed with blots of blood; a mug of coffee clattered to the floor.
Back in the last coach, Leilani peeked around the doorframe. A blast of slugs came down the corridor. As well as Guards at the far end, there were snipers in the middle. The survivors of the night shift had been sleeping with their guns.
She reloaded her Commando with a clip from the compartment, and pocketed an extra magazine. The dead girls hanging from their bunks looked on reproachfully. Leilani swallowed, listening to the rattle of the train. The bitches had her pinned in here. But then she had a flash of inspiration.
She fired into the ceiling light, destroying the whole socket. The sudden interruption blew a fuse. The circuit breaker tripped and plunged the whole coach into darkness. She ducked and rolled into the corridor.
There was a startled pause, and then the SS girls fired blind. The muzzle flashes crackled like trapped lightning. Leilani tumbled through the storm as bullets splintered past her. She reached the rear platform still unscathed.
There was no way forward through the coach. She’d have to take a detour. There wasn’t time to hesitate. She clambered up the ladder to the roof. The train was hurtling through the night and she had to cling on tightly. The forest loomed to left and right. The moonlight glittered on the frosty roof.
Heart in her throat, she started crawling forward. The surface rocked beneath her and the slipstream whipped her hair around her face. The rime was stinging her bare knees. She kept the carbine cradled in her elbows. One slip and she’d slither off, like so much dirty snow.
As she neared the gap between the coaches, a black beret popped up in front of her. A Guard had had the same idea. Leilani dropped full length and spread her legs. The girl was struggling with her gun while clinging to the ladder. Leilani shot her in the throat, and the Guard went flying backwards into space.
Leilani slithered forward till the platforms came in sight. A Cossack waited in the facing doorway. A fur hung round her shoulders but her heavy breasts were bare. She showed her teeth and raised a PPSh.
Leilani scrabbled backwards as the sub-machine gun blazed. The bullets chewed away at the roof’s edge. The Cossack reared and gripped the drum, her pretty face screwed up against the flash. The rounds came in a wild spray. Leilani flicked her Colt to single-shot. She took a breath, then raised herself, the carbine at her shoulder. Her bullet struck N.T. between the brows.
The Cossack’s head went snapping back. The gun cut out at once. Her alcohol-befuddled brain was splattered on the wooden door behind her. Then her corpse began to droop. Blood spurted from her forehead. It spattered on her outthrust breasts as N.T. crumpled like a boneless doll.
Leilani swung herself onto the ladder, the cold wind blowing up under her coat. The Guards below her hadn’t realised that they’d been outflanked. If the Cossacks were in the second coach, then Lena must be with them. She climbed halfway, then dropped onto the platform like a cat.
Beyond the first compartment, in the car’s communal area, the other Cossacks waited nervously. Gunfire had come from both directions, making them feel trapped, but now they could only hear the clunking wheels. Sara gripped her MP40, gnawing at her lip. Natasha took a slow sip from her flask.
Then, above the background noise, they heard a stealthy movement overhead. Barbara frowned in disbelief. The creaking came again. Nikola’s eyes narrowed as she looked towards the ceiling. “Someone’s up there. Take her down!” she snapped.
Sara raised her gun and fired a burst into the ceiling. It splintered through the coach’s roof, and Danielle scooted back reflexively. She’d climbed onto the car to bypass the Commander’s quarters. The shots erupted almost in her face.
Balanced on her knees, she put the carbine to her shoulder, and fired steeply down into the roof. The bullets penetrated on the same trajectory, and thudded into Sara’s naked breasts. The sweet-faced girl jerked backwards, frothing crimson at the mouth. The rounds erupted through her back and made a bloody mess of her smart coat.
Her girlfriends squealed in dismay, then turned their sub-machine guns on the ceiling. The roar of gunfire filled the coach, and bullet holes fanned out in all directions. Nikola’s blue eyes were cold. “We’ll take her from both ends!” She ran towards the armoured car. Natasha darted for the other doorway.
The copper-haired young Cossack blundered straight into Leilani, and neither girl had space to open fire. Leilani drove her carbine butt against Natasha’s stomach, but couldn’t get much force behind the blow. Natasha grunted, dropped her gun, and seized Leilani’s jacket. They wrestled in the corridor, then lurched through into Nikola’s compartment.
Leilani caught a glimpse of Lena’s face. Her heart convulsed. Adrenaline shot through her veins. Natasha hissed and tried to claw her eyes. Leilani fought the Cossack off. They flailed around like cats in the closed space. The minx wore only underwear beneath her bearskin coat.
Leilani caught the glint of steel behind the swinging door. She realised it was Nikola’s sheathed sabre. Natasha came at her again; Leilani jerked a knee into her belly. “Ough!” the small girl gasped. Leilani pushed herself away. She reached out for the dangling sword and drew it with one movement.
Natasha cannoned into her. They reeled back out into the corridor. Leilani slammed against the wall and shoved the Cossack back. She thrust the curve of polished steel into Natasha’s midriff, and pushed off with her weight behind the blade.
Natasha made a mewling sound, the pitch increasing as the sword drove through her. Leilani forced her back against the door. The blade transfixed her body and bit deep into the wood. The stricken Cossack whimpered miserably.
Leilani took her sweaty fingers off the sabre’s hilt. Natasha stayed impaled against the door. Her breasts heaved as she tried to breathe. She gave a stifled wail.
“Stick with it,” said Leilani, “it gets better.”
She squeezed in past the door with its protruding bloody blade, and squatted down to start untying Lena.
Above them, on the riddled roof, Danielle crouched waiting for the next attack. She’d wriggled back till she was over the Commander’s cell: the coach was armour-plated at this end. She could sense the baleful presence right below her. It felt like something cold between her legs.
Then a head bobbed up above the near end of the coach. Danielle squeezed her trigger, and the Colt Commando gave a useless click.
Nikola looked up again. An evil smile crept across her face. She levelled a Beretta, and Danielle began to ease herself away. But there was nowhere she could go on this slippery roof. The Cossack leader clambered after her. The cold moon turned her naked limbs to flawless ivory. Her bosom swelled against her tight black waistcoat.
Holstering the gun, she drew her polished skinning knife. “You bitch,” she purred. “I’ll make you wish you’d jumped.”
The mercenary rose upright with her boots apart for balance. She wobbled as the track began to curve. Nikola wavered briefly, then prowled forward. The wind blew her dark hair around her face.
Danielle waited calmly as the distance closed between them. The moonlit blade weaved left and right, but she kept her cold gaze locked with Nikola’s. Then she dropped into a crouch and scooped a chunk of snow up. She flung it at the Cossack’s face, and sprang.
As the two girls fell and struggled on the icy roof, Leilani helped her lover to her feet. “Okay?” she whispered urgently, and Lena simply nodded, lost for words. Leilani kissed her on the cheek, then sensed a breath of movement. She swung her carbine round and fired one-handed. Barbara, who’d been left alone, was lurking in the passage, but Natasha’s dying whimpers had unnerved her. She stared into her comrade’s face, her sub-machine gun trembling. Then the bullets splintered through the door and hit them both.
Leilani took her girlfriend’s hand and tugged her through the doorway. Natasha’s corpse hung silent now, and Barbara slumped spread-legged, facing her. The brunette’s mouth was wide with shock. Her tits looked like a spray of red carnations. “This way, now,” Leilani said, and led the way back out past N.T.’s corpse.
She knew they had to take the locomotive, but that meant getting through the sleeping-car. She didn’t know where Danielle was, assuming she was still on board at all. They couldn’t climb over the roof: poor Lena was as shaky as a foal. Leilani helped her step between the platforms. “Hold on to my coat,” she said, and gripped the Colt Commando in both hands.
She shouldered through the door. Two Guards were crouching in the passage. Leilani chewed them up at point-blank range. The carbine’s bolt clicked empty and she fumbled with the clip, her fingers stiff and clumsy from the cold. Ejecting it, she took the backup from her jacket pocket, and fitted it as pounding boots approached. She swung into the corridor and fired another burst. An SS girl flipped backwards like a jogger slipping on a patch of ice.
The coach was still in darkness, sliced by fleeting blocks of moonlight. The Guards were going through it berth by berth. There were several troopers crowded in the narrow passageway, and Leilani fired as she bore down on them. The Guards were in each other’s way with no room for manoeuvre. She heard the thud of hits above the intermittent snarling of her gun.
Some girls died in uniform, while others wore the panties that they slept in. Within a few fierce moments there were only corpses in the corridor. Leilani kept advancing, Lena stumbling at her heels. As they passed an open door, a pistol poked towards Leilani’s head.
Lena’s instincts overcome her body’s weariness. She threw herself against the ambusher. Her elbow jabbed at something soft, and Tamzin gasped with pain, her pistol firing past Leilani’s head. Lena rammed the blonde girl back into the dark compartment and hauled Leilani with her through the door.
Tamzin lashed out with her gun. The backhand blow knocked Lena to one side. Before the blonde could right herself, Leilani clubbed her with the carbine’s butt. The train commander staggered with an atavistic snarl: the Colt was too lightweight to do much damage. She tried to bring her pistol round. Leilani glimpsed the 9mm Centurion. She reared back, then launched herself into a flying kick. The blow slammed Tamzin back against the window.
This time the carbine’s lightness came in useful. She flipped it like a majorette’s baton. Then opened fire into the blonde girl’s bosom. The impacts blasted Tamzin through the glass.
The pane burst outward like a hail of diamonds, which turned to bloody rubies as she fell. The slipstream snatched her scream away, a dying Doppler wail. Her body somersaulted in the snow.
Lena knelt where she had slumped. Leilani hauled her up. “Come on, babes,” she hissed, “we’re almost there.” She drew her girlfriend out into the corridor again and carried on towards the locomotive.
The train sped onward through the night. Danielle and Nikola fought tooth and nail. They rolled and wriggled on the roof, boots scrabbling for a purchase. The Cossack leader aimed her knife, but Danielle gripped her wrist with frantic strength. Nikola’s breasts were heaving now. Her waistcoat was beginning to pop open. Danielle bared her teeth with effort, forced the blade aside and then kicked clear.
She felt herself begin to slide and clutched the icy roof. Her body swung over the edge, legs dangling into space. Next moment she was halfway off, her fingers clawing at the frozen surface. Another inch and she would fall. And one more jolt would tear her grip away.
She didn’t have the leverage to heave herself back up. Her boots kicked vainly at the coach’s side. Grimacing, she peered into the Cossack’s gloating eyes. Then Nikola glanced off along the train.
There was shooting from the other coach, distinct above the rattle of the train. Danielle risked a look as well, and glimpsed a flicker through the darkened windows. A pause, and then another burst, from closer to the engine. Leilani thought Danielle. The Cossack leader spat the name.
Nikola looked round again, her pale eyes furious. “Hang on while I get this fucking train under control. Or fall off if you want to. I don’t care.” She moved away along the roof, her arms spread wide for balance. Danielle hung motionless and watched her go.
Leilani’s gun was empty, but they’d come to the last platform. The train had left the forest and she saw a moonlit snowscape rushing by. The ground fell steeply to their left, into a wooded valley. She felt the tracks begin to curve. It seemed that they were going much too fast.
Lena clung onto the rail, still groggy from being struck. Leilani eyed the ladder on the tender. She leaned out sideways, trying to get a glimpse into the cab. The cold wind flowed beneath her coat, but something much more icy filled her stomach.
A bluish light was playing on the snow beneath the cab, like some uncanny glow cast by the firebox. The cold aurora flickered through the locomotive’s windows. The same light that the angel-things had brought.
Fear closed around her throat. She snatched at Lena’s arm. “We need to get off now,” she said, and felt her heartstrings tighten at the prospect. The distant trees were passing slowly, but the snow beneath her was a blur. The engine snorted like a beast. She realised they were entering a bend.
Lena’s face was ashen as Leilani gripped the tatters of her gown. “Close your eyes and trust in me.” She felt her heartbeat jam into her throat. And as she nerved herself to jump, the door behind her opened and Nikola appeared with pistol aimed.
Leilani’s mind froze over, but her body did two things instinctively. She slammed herself against her girlfriend, shoving her aside, and grasped the pistol tucked into her briefs. Nikola’s Beretta flamed, and something kicked Leilani in the ribs. She gave a grunt of pain, still falling, following her friend into midair. The sudden slipstream tugged at her, and yet it seemed that time was slowing down. She brought the Smith & Wesson up and shot the Cossack girl between the tits.
Then the world came up to speed. She plunged into the snow and tumbled over. The impact stunned and winded her, despite the cushioned landing. She flipped and slithered to a halt, half-buried in a shroud of drifted white.
“Ngh!” gasped Nikola in shock. Her blue eyes widened like startled schoolgirl’s. The slug had pierced her pale left breast and carved its way through ventricle and lung. The seared wound stayed bloodless for a moment, then pumped a spurt of crimson from her chest. Nikola grimaced with anguish as her heart stopped beating. She clawed herself despairingly – and then the train went ploughing off the rails.
The armoured car had jumped the bend. It hurtled down the slope and into space. The Commander’s coach slewed after it, the Warlord still ensconced inside its cell. The second car upended like a ship about to sink, and Nikola was flipped into the air. She sensed the engine roaring past, still gusting steam and sparks, and then she followed it into the void.
The cars went tumbling down the incline, splintering through trees. The bodies of the Guards spilled out like dolls. Nikola plunged down towards them, barely conscious now, but the shock of the night air kept her alive. She glimpsed the treetops leaping up, and just had time to whimper. Then a tapered fir impaled her, and her body jolted to a stop. Blood erupted from her mouth and showered through the needles. The skewered Cossack slumped and bowed her head.
In the wreckage of its cell, the Warlord’s mind was raging. Its red eyes burned like embers in the dark. Then the locomotive fell and crushed the coach to matchwood. The boiler burst, exploding in a vast white cloud of superheated steam.
The scalding fog boiled halfway up the slope and then subsided. The echoes of the wreck began to fade. But Nikola stayed gazing downward at the devastation, like an evil fairy on a Christmas tree.
* * *
Leilani sat up awkwardly. It felt like every inch of her was bruised. But the thick snow had absorbed her plunge, and somehow she had fetched up in one piece. She pressed one hand against her side and felt a sharper pain. Her fingers came back slick with blood, but the bullet hadn’t pierced her abdomen.
She looked up to see Lena crawling painfully towards her. Her bodyguard was almost naked now. Leilani hugged her tight, despite the hurt it caused them both. Her girlfriend’s nipples felt as hard as bullets.
“I’m supposed to be the bodyguard,” said Lena faintly. “It’s me who’s meant to stop the shot, not you …”
Leilani smiled, still rubbing her cold skin. She glanced around. Across the tracks, another shape was stirring. Danielle sat up gingerly, her jacket hanging open. She’d lost her fur hat in the fall. Her mane of golden hair was caked with snow.
I want you to take out their Winter Warlord, she had said. And that was what Leilani had just done. She shook her head, not sure if she felt anger or elation. And then a blue light crackled on the snow.
It was as if the Northern Lights had fallen on the valley. A ghostly fire came swirling through the air. Leilani pulled her girlfriend down and rolled on top of her. She watched the flames converge around Danielle.
Spectral figures – five of them – congealed out of the glow. Like mirages that came and went, ethereal as ghosts. Leilani felt a thrill of dread. She recognised their faces. The dead technicians shimmered in the dark.
Danielle seemed unperturbed by them. She clambered to her feet. The thing that had been Cheryl looked at her. Leilani heard its eerie voice. “You serve us well,” it said. “Be sure that we will call on you again.”
The blonde girl simpered modestly, still brushing herself off. The angel-thing looked round with empty eyes. “And what about the other one?” it whispered. “A born destroyer, is she not? She’d make her mark before we used her up.”
Danielle glanced across the tracks and caught Leilani’s eye. Leilani felt her stomach fill with ice. Then the rebel gestured. “She went over with the train. A pity. She’d have made the perfect partner …”
The thing in Cheryl’s body turned its face into the dark. The other phantoms flickered like blue flames. Fastening her jacket, Danielle turned to follow them. In minutes they had melted out of sight. Leilani lay and watched them, panting softly. Then she helped her lover up and set off in the opposite direction.
The night was clouding over and the snow was greying out, but then they saw a smudge of light ahead. The warm glow of a lantern, in the window of an isolated house. They stumbled up to it. Leilani hammered on the door. Her strength was seeping out of her. The gloomy sky was filling up with snow.
The door was opened warily. A woman with a shotgun peered at them. She had a weather-beaten face and eyes as blue as cornflowers. She stood and watched them shivering, then stepped aside and let them scurry in.
“Are you deserters, then?” she asked, as they ate in her warm kitchen. Leilani gave a nervous shrug. The older woman didn’t seem to mind. She bathed them both and dressed their wounds. Her hands were firm and gentle. Leilani moistened her dry lips. “We need somewhere to stay.”
“I’m here alone,” the woman said. “This time of year, I don’t have many guests.”
She kept on massaging Leilani’s shoulders. Leilani glanced at Lena. “We could keep you warm at night …”
The fingers paused, then squeezed her gently. “Aye … I’m sure you could. But I need someone to hunt for deer and fetch the firewood. Besides, I reckon you two are an item. So I won’t presume, young lady. Though I have a bed that’s big enough for three.”
Leilani smiled gratefully. The woman stroked her hair. “I’ve got a room that you can share. I’ll air the bed for you.” They listened to her go upstairs. Then Lena wet her lips. “What if they come looking, though? You know those evil bastards never sleep.”
“Yeah,” Leilani murmured. “But you heard what Danielle said. We’re dead girls, now. The dead can rest in peace.”
She smiled at Lena’s anxious look and beckoned her across. Her girlfriend snuggled up to her, and laid her head against Leilani’s cheek. Later, after making love, they slept beneath warm blankets, while the wind moaned vainly round the silent house.
The End
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