Posted by Extranjero on June 11, 2007 at 12:46:37:
WAR WIDOWS (Part 6)
The Catalina came around behind the climbing Widow. Leilani cowered in her cockpit, feeling trapped and horribly exposed. The pursuing plane was like a praying mantis, big enough to gobble up the Widow in one pounce.
Her stomach was still churning after the express-lift takeoff. Then her innards lurched again as Gemma swung the aircraft left and right. They sped over the forest, low enough to swirl the treetops. The Catalina followed, an implacable black shape.
The machine gun mounted in its nose cone flickered. Tracer bullets seemed to drift, then streaked and sizzled past. Gemma banked, still following the valley. “Leilani,” she called, “how close is it?”
“It’s much too bloody close!” Leilani said.
“Nicky, get the guns lined up,” Gemma’s crackly voice continued. Leilani could picture her up front, arms braced against the yoke. Handling the plane like a bolting horse, without a trace of panic, her biceps taut and bulging as she steered its maddened bulk.
Leilani heard the flat whine as the top turret rotated. Instinctively she grabbed her gun and started fumbling with the canopy. The Catalina loomed like a huge insect. “All right, girls,” Gemma told them. “When our speed drops, give them everything you’ve got!”
They came around an angle of the valley. Gemma levelled out, then throttled back and dropped the flaps. The Widow juddered sharply and the Cat came leaping closer. As it took evasive action, the four turret guns let rip.
What followed took a moment, but it seemed to last forever. Leilani saw the Catalina’s nose cone turn opaque. She even glimpsed the spray of misty red behind the Perspex. Then her canopy unlatched and the cockpit filled with a demonic roar. The wind whipped her hair around her face and tried to suck her out. She felt the seat straps bite as they held onto her. Yelling, she opened fire with the Commando as the hulking seaplane hurtled overhead. The fifty-calibre Brownings raked its belly, and she saw fragments of metal spinning clear. A part of her was sure she’d done the damage. Then the black Cat overshot, and the Widow bucked and wobbled in its wake.
Losing sight of it was both frustrating and unnerving. She raised herself and peered around the bulk of the nacelle. The Catalina hadn’t turned; it was climbing from the valley. She thought its progress seemed ungainly, like a crippled bird’s.
“Nice shooting, girls,” crowed Gemma as she opened up the throttles. The Widow rose to crest a ridge, then swooped, and the predator was lost to sight.
* * *
The Tigresses had reached the outlying buildings of the airstrip. The Widows’ webs were empty, but the ground crew kept on fighting anyway. Susanna jerked the Thompson to her shoulder and fired a panicky short burst. The recoil shivered through her pear-like breasts. The bullets caught a Tigress girl and made her own tits quiver. She pirouetted, spurting blood. Susanna felt her belly gripe with fear.
She twisted back around the nearest corner. Laura was withdrawing too, but with a poise her friend could only envy. She even handled her M3 with toffee-nosed distaste, as if the grease-gun was beneath her dignity. The recoil made her firm breasts joggle in her strapless bra. Two charging girls with bayonets spun backwards as the bullets punctured them.
The sight of the sharp sixteen-inch blades made poor Susanna whimper. Laura jerked her head. “Come on, they haven’t got us yet!” The shooting was more sporadic now. They heard a girl scream briefly. The roar of the lead tank was getting louder all the time.
Helen lay nearby, her pale eyes staring, a dark hole in the middle of her brow. Girls with bare, striped flesh lay strewn around her, but more of them were darting from one building to the next.
Laura and Susanna skittered round the dormitory. They passed a chick-lit paperback which Katie had abandoned in the dust. Laura pivoted and fired as a shape loomed in the doorway. Susanna glimpsed a Tigress wearing steel-rimmed spectacles. The girl screamed and clutched her riddled breasts, then slumped and doubled forward over the veranda rail, to hang head down.
Susanna led the way around the corner and then back-pedalled with a squeal of fright. A huge black tank had surged out of tree line. Its turret swivelled, spewing lead at anything that moved. A hapless rebel flipped and fell, and a jeep caught fire behind her. The two girls scurried back the way they’d come.
The Tigresses were closing in, firing bursts at every movement. Laura twisted, shooting back as slugs whizzed past them, terrifyingly close. And other tanks were following the monster. One veered off at a tangent, as if blocking their escape.
There were several troopers riding on the Sherman, but these were Guards not Tigresses. Laura recognised the black crop-tops and shorts. “It’s over, Suze,” she blurted as Susanna raised her Thompson. “Let’s surrender to these bitches now, before the Japs get here.”
Susanna glanced over her shoulder, full of apprehension, then looked towards the rumbling tank again. The crouching Guards had seen them and were readying their rifles. Susanna’s stomach knotted as she held the Thompson up in her left hand. Her breasts grew taut with cold anticipation. Her nipples felt as big as bull’s eyes …
Laura fired a burst into her back.
Susanna squawked and jiggled as the bullets hammered through her, exploding through her midriff, bursting redly from her breasts. Her mouth dropped open stupidly and then her legs gave way and she collapsed face downward at her lover’s feet.
Laura smiled crookedly and lowered the M3. Her heart thumped and her mouth was dry. The devilish black tank loomed over her. Then Anna slapped the hull and sprang down off it. The Sherman halted in its tracks and fumed like a frustrated predator.
Anna’s dimpled smile contrasted with her cool blue eyes. She tucked her pistol back into its holster. Then, as the last shots died away, she reached into her belt-pouch and produced a pack of cigarettes, extending it for Laura to take one.
The posh girl’s smile grew smug as she inhaled the calming smoke. Anna flipped her lighter closed.
“Miss Moonhappy. Just fancy meeting you.”
* * *
Gemma eased the Widow down across green paddy fields towards the road that was the only place to land. Leilani watched the ground unroll beneath her, getting closer. She wished that she could see ahead, instead of coming blindly in to land. She glimpsed a gun pit by the road and faces staring upward. Gemma got the plane lined up. The engine beat changed and the airspeed dropped.
“Hold tight, girls,” came Gemma’s voice as the road raced up beneath them. A clump of trees flashed past below, and then the three wheels landed with a bump. The jolt made Leilani bounce against the seat straps. Her tender breasts felt like bruised fruit, but at least the plane stayed on an even keel. It scudded on along the road with a pall of dust behind it. Gemma slowed it to a crawl and steered onto a patch of firmer ground.
Leilani kept her limbs braced till they finally stopped moving. The rollercoaster flight had left her shaken up inside. But she’d enjoyed it too – just like a nightmare fairground ride. She opened the canopy again and breathed fresh air instead of kerosene.
Climbing out, she saw the Nightie Mission nearby. Louise stood by it, peering at the sky. Then she looked at Gemma and mouthed Katie? Gemma had dismounted too. She gave her head a shake.
Louise’s sharp face crumpled as she struggled not to cry. Gemma went across and hugged her. “Laura’s gone as well,” her choked voice said. Nicola glanced tearfully at Leilani, then went to join the huddle. Leilani hung back, feeling like a trespasser.
She was fiddling self-consciously with her carbine when Gemma came and kissed her on the cheek. “You mustn’t blame yourself,” the blonde girl murmured. “Laura was too proud to run, and Susanna was too starry-eyed to leave her.”
They both looked round as a fresh-faced teenage girl came running up. She saluted very earnestly, trying to keep her wide-eyed gaze off Gemma’s breasts. “Sorry to interrupt you, Miss,” she panted, “but the Major needs to talk to you right now.” Gemma sighed and followed her across the dusty road. Leilani reached under her shirttail, pulled her knickers straight and tagged along.
There were tents and camouflaged positions ranged along the roadside. Rebel troopers stood around. Leilani felt their stares. The young aide led them to a large command tent. Leilani was only half surprised to discover that the Major was a man.
A handsome man, admittedly, with a face as hard as flint. One deep-set eye was pale blue. A black patch hid the other. The kind of rugged guy Leilani would have fancied once, before her sexuality got skewed. But she might have guessed there’d be a man in charge.
Gemma gave a smart salute, in contrast to her sexy leotard. “Captain Hunter reporting, Sir. “We got two Widows clear. The third one was shot down with no survivors. Forward base was overrun by tanks and Tigress troops...” Her crisp tone wavered briefly. “Our fourth pilot stayed behind to hold them off.”
The Major kept her standing to attention for a moment, as if savouring her prim, full-breasted poise. “At ease,” he said at last. His single eye flicked to Leilani. She was standing just inside the doorway like a bystander. All her weight was on one leg, and one hand on her hip, her carbine pointed skyward carelessly.
His cold eye didn’t blink. He merely refocused it on Gemma. “So I heard.” he said. She frowned at him. “We were monitoring the enemy radio traffic,” he continued. “The Guards reported that they’d taken one pilot alive.”
Gemma gave a little gasp. “Oh God,” she said, “we’ve got to rescue her.”
The Major shook his head. “No chance. They’re taking her back to their Delta Base. If she’s lucky, she’ll be questioned and disposed of. How many lives were lost today? I’m not about to throw more after them.”
Gemma moistened her plump pout. “But Sir … she sacrificed herself for me. I owe her, don’t you see that? And I thought she was a bitch, which makes it worse!”
“Stop bleating, Captain. This is war,” the Major told her sharply. “We need your planes to meet the next attack. You girls fight well, but you sometimes let your hearts make the decisions.” He smiled wryly. “Why d’you think they put a guy in charge?”
Gemma stiffened, bristling, but she didn’t rise to that. Leilani kept her own expression veiled. “All right – dismissed,” the Major said. His gaze switched to Leilani. “The brainwash turn you queer as well?”
“Afraid so,” said Leilani equably.
Gemma gave a brisk salute and marched out huffily, but by the time Leilani caught her up she was on the verge of tears. “She handed me her ticket out of there. I can’t just leave her!” She looked across the paddy fields to the jungle slopes beyond.
“How far’s this Delta Base?” Leilani wondered.
“Maybe two’s days march … it’s a Sea Watch station in the estuary. But between here and the river, there’s just jungle. A raid would get snarled up …” She bit her lip.
Leilani followed her gaze towards the forest. A wild idea was growing in her mind. “It might be suicide for a platoon,” she murmured slowly. “But maybe two people could make it – if they joined up with the Rivermaids.”
Gemma turned and stared at her. “You mean that?”
Leilani gave a careless shrug, though the blood had starting pounding in her veins. “Why not?” she said. “What have I got to lose?” She looked at Gemma then. “Of course, it’s one thing to get in there. Quite another to get out again. It might be suicide for us as well.”