Posted by Extranjero on May 18, 2007 at 13:06:56:
STORM SISTERS (Part 6)
The long whip flailed across the yard and wrapped round Lena’s legs. She wailed with pain and crumpled to the snow. Her long black gown split open to reveal her naked thighs. The watching Cossacks sniggered at the sight.
Nikola smiled with them and went stalking round her victim, retrieving the slim serpent as she walked. Lena watched her, panting now, still crouched on hands and knees. She found the strength to sneer defiantly.
A heap of splintered pews burned like a bonfire in the courtyard. The flames lit up the church’s rich façade. The faces of the Cossack girls looked softer in the glow. But their eyes were full of spite, and hard as ice.
Nikola extracted her cheroot with one gloved hand. The gesture was an elegant young lady’s. Her death’s head badge was gleaming like a fragment of the moon. She smiled archly at the stricken girl.
“A bodyguard without a body. What’s the use of that?”
Lena rubbed her stinging thigh. “You think I’m going to tell you where she went?”
“I hope not: I’m enjoying this too much,” said Nikola. She let the whip go flying out again. The crack, and Lena’s cry of pain, went ringing round the courtyard. The other girls flinched pleasurably, enjoying every stroke.
Sara, the prim swordswoman, was sitting on the steps with her legs apart and underwear on show. The wanton pose contrasted with her girl-next-door demeanour, belying the smart coat and golden curls. Natasha stood beside her, sipping vodka from a hip flask. They watched Gail saunter up to Nikola.
“The Captain’s Pet would like a go,” Natasha murmured sourly.
Sarah’s smile was just as wry. She took the flask and tossed a throatful back.
Nikola’s whip curled out once more. It slashed across the front of Lena’s gown. The girl grimaced in agony and slumped onto her knees. Her breasts came poking out through the torn cloth.
Gail’s brown eyes were watching like a greedy little girl’s. She bent to whisper in her captain’s ear. Her fur coat opened just enough to show that she had nothing on beneath it. Nikola smiled indulgently and handed her the whip.
Sara snorted with disdain and passed the vodka back. “What did I tell you? All fur coat and no knickers …”
Gathering the fox-fur round her, Gail drew up the lash. Nikola stepped back to watch, her gloved hands on her hips. The long black coat hung open on her waistcoat and tight shorts, the firelight gleaming on her strong bare legs.
Lena grovelled in the snow, still trying to hold her tattered gown together. The cold air seared her unprotected flesh. Biting back a moan, she glowered hatefully at Gail. The girl stepped forward with a mocking pout.
As she raised the whip, a noise came creeping through the courtyard: a sound like squealing axles in the night. So menacing and eerie that it prickled Lena’s neck, despite the pain of her predicament. A muffled roar was building up beneath it, no longer hidden by the crackling flames. Gail peered round in puzzlement. The din was getting closer. The other Cossacks stirred uneasily.
The roar became a clatter and the ground began to throb. Nikola frowned warily. Her features were as pale as porcelain. Then the wall behind her was blown inward, with a thunderclap that seemed to shake the world.
Smoke and dust engulfed them, almost blotting out the fire. The girls in black took off like startled crows. Lena ducked a tumbling brick and dived onto her belly as something massive bulldozed through the wall.
Its bulk was terrifying, like an iron dinosaur. She heard the engine noise increase in pitch. The tank reared up over the heap of rubble, then pitched back down and rolled into the yard. Muzzle flashes darted from the turret and the hull. A searing hail of bullets filled the air.
Some of the fleeing girls were trapped. The tank’s machine guns shot them down like dolls. Lena watched them flip against the wall and crumple loosely. She grinned to hear the anguish in their squeals.
The turret of the tank rotated, searching for new targets. She pressed her body flat against the snow. The big gun detonated with an ear-numbing blast, and gutted the nearest building with one shell.
The sound of its collapsing frontage added to the noise. The Cossacks scrambled clear amid the smoke. They could hear more tanks outside the walls. The iron wolves were circling the place. A shell came ripping in to take a chunk out of the belltower. “Raise Control!” bawled Nikola. “They have to shut these fuckers down right now!”
Her radio operator scurried over to the set. She was fumbling with the dials when another tank ploughed through after the first. The startled Cossack cowered back, but the black beast overlooked her. It clattered through into the yard, the huge wheels almost close enough to touch.
The scared girl briefly closed her eyes, then spoke into her headset. “This is Wolf Troop. Fem on Fem! Our co-ordinates are …”
“Right here!”
Leilani fired as she spoke, still crouched behind the turret of the tank. The Uzi stuttered curtly and the Cossack’s eyes grew wide with pain and shock. The bullets holed her jacket and the soft pale breasts beneath it. The blonde girl wailed and flopped onto her back.
Leilani sprang down off the tank, her parka riding up her long bare legs. She landed in the snow and rolled. Another Cossack took a shot at her. Leilani fired the chunky sub-machine gun with one hand. The girl grimaced and folded as the bullets burst her gut.
The yard was full of smoke and noise. The two black tanks manoeuvred clumsily. Leilani scrambled up again and looked around for Lena. Her hair was lank with sweat despite the cold.
Something swooshed out of the murk and wrapped itself around her. The lashing impact made her yelp with pain. A tendril stung her hand and shocked the Uzi from her fingers. She found herself entangled by a whip.
Instinctively she clutched at it and swung herself around. Gail was tugging at the whip. She hissed triumphantly. Leilani glimpsed the nudity beneath her fox-fur coat. The Cossack was bare-headed too, her thick brown hair cascading past her face.
Leilani braced her boots and heaved. Gail stumbled, then leaned back with all her weight. They slewed around each other with the whip drawn taut between them, while the tanks caromed and crunched from wall to wall. It was like being in a bear-pit where the bears were made of steel. The engines howled with terrifying rage.
Another shell was fired into the bell tower. A burst of smoke erupted, and Leilani flinched as bricks spun overhead. She risked a glance and saw the structure teetering towards her. Her heart clenched and she spun clear of the whip.
Gail smiled like a vixen as Leilani hit the snow. She dragged the whip back for another strike. Then the tower folded with a roar that filled the yard, its stonework smashing down onto the tanks.
The Cossack girl reeled back from it, her fur coat falling open. Leilani got a glimpse of her big tits. Then the belfry shattered on an armour-plated turret and its gilded metal cross flipped through the air.
Gail’s mouth opened in an O, her brown eyes widening, and then the length of metal skewered her. It struck her just above the breasts and drove through at an angle, erupting from the shocked girl’s lower back. She howled in silent anguish like a vampire being impaled, her hot blood slathering the golden cross. The snapped-off upright wedged against the slushy cobblestones and kept her squirming body on its feet. Gail’s legs splayed obscenely wide, her pretty face contorting. Then her head flopped forward and she slumped and slithered limply to the snow.
“Shit …” Leilani muttered as she clambered to her feet. The noise had grown more muffled, but the buried tanks were grinding to get free. A turret tried to turn beneath the weight of bricks and rafters. Leilani backed away, then stumbled clear.
One of the Black Cossacks lay spreadeagled on her back. Leilani picked her sub-machine gun up. The weapon was an antique MP40. She cocked it with a satisfying click.
Still no sign of Lena. She moved forward through the smoke. Saw another of the girls, and fired a vicious burst into her back. The Cossack whinnied shrilly as the slugs destroyed her kidneys and her spine. She folded like a broken doll and flopped tits-first against the bloody snow.
Other guns snarled angrily, their muzzle flashes stabbing through the smoke. Leilani ducked and skittered back. The bitches had began to rally now. They forced her to retreat until she’d reached the crumbled wall. She’d used up half the Schmeisser’s clip. The weapon had about two seconds left.
With a queasy feeling of despair, she scrambled through the breach. The cold air hit her in the face. She filled her lungs with it. The convent was engulfed in smoke and echoing with noise, but out here she could see the stars again.
One of the circling tanks had carved fresh tracks into the snow. She crossed its trail and ran towards the trees. The distant roar of engines hung above the empty landscape. The MP40’s metal chilled her hands.
Back in the courtyard, Nikola had stumbled on Gail’s body. She gave a wail and dropped onto her knees. Her pampered pet had come to rest half-sitting, supported by the cross transfixing her. A swathe of snow beneath the corpse had turned to crimson slush. The Cossack leader whimpered with dismay.
Even as she gawped, the noise of engines died away. An eerie silence settled on the yard. The other Cossacks gathered round, not sure what they should say. Behind them, Lena sprawled face-down, her temple bleeding where a girl had clubbed her.
“I managed to raise Control …” one Cossack ventured. “They overrode the program … shut them down …”
Her voice tailed off as Nikola gave her an evil glance. A tear was glistening on the captain’s cheek. As icy as a diamond in the moonlight, and as cold. She wiped it off and clambered to her feet.
“That half-breed bitch Leilani. Find her now!”
Her girls climbed through the ruined wall. She fingered Gail’s hair, then followed them. A tank sat like a gutted hulk a hundred yards away. The snowscape was deserted, but a trail of footprints veered towards the wood.
“Get the horses,” Nikola said grimly.
As she waited, simmering, they heard another engine in the night. Not all the tanks had been shut down. She felt her stomach tighten at the thought. But this one didn’t move in their direction. It passed the convent in the darkness, roaring like a angry armoured bear.
“Jesus, it sounds massive,” muttered Sara nervously. They listened as the noise began to fade. Its progress slow and laboured, but it moved implacably.
“The damn thing’s got her scent,” breathed Nikola.
* * *
Leilani heard the roar and clatter, somewhere in her wake. She hurried on between the frozen trees. Then another sound, much nearer, and her heartstrings tensed. A wolf was howling mournfully for blood.
She swung around and raked her aim across the moonlight shadows. Nothing moved amid the trees. Her breath rasped in her throat. Then a lean grey shape came darting forward like a ghost. She gasped, and squeezed a quarter-second burst.
Snow erupted in a spout. The running wolf swerved past it. She felt the clamp of terror round her chest. Her trigger-finger itched to pull, but she waited one more second, then fired another burst at point-blank range. The wolf flipped over messily as bullets splintered through it. The moonlight turned its blood as black as oil.
Sobbing with exertion, she began to run again. Shadows flitted through the pines. She heard the scuff of paws against the snow. Then the pant of canine breath. She turned and almost slipped. A wolf’s eyes gleamed with silver light. She sprayed the beast with lead and snuffed them out.
The recoil sent her lurching back. The Schmeisser’s bolt clunked dryly. “No!” she almost wailed and dropped the gun. Another wolf came loping in. She floundered through the snow. And then a stinging crack rang through the wood.
The wolf convulsed and snow-ploughed to a standstill. Leilani glanced around in disbelief. Another gunshot split the night. A fourth wolf spurted blackly and collapsed. The other beasts had vanished, melting back into the trees. Leilani turned to see who’d rescued her.
Danielle, the rebel leader, stood a dozen yards away. She smiled beneath her fur-lined hood. The moonlight bathed her gossamer-sheathed breasts. For God’s sake, don’t you feel the cold? Leilani thought with envy. The blonde girl worked her rifle bolt. A cartridge plopped and sizzled in the snow.
“Can I offer you a ride?” the rebel asked.
Leilani hugged herself and hurried forward. A curtained sleigh was parked behind Danielle. A slim young girl with flame-red hair was in the driver’s seat. She gave Leilani a resentful look.
“It’s all right, Debra,” purred Danielle. “She’s one of ours now.”
Leilani didn’t bother arguing. She climbed aboard. The sleigh was cramped, like a confessional. Velvet curtains, old dark wood. In fact, she was reminded of a hearse.
Danielle climbed in beside her and the sleigh began to move, its runners hissing dully through the snow. The interior was filled with furs. Leilani wrapped a bearskin round herself. It had a musky, slept-in smell: the perfume of the rebel leader’s flesh. She glanced at Danielle’s sly green eyes, then turned away to watch the passing trees.