‘This is it, kid.’
Reave shook his head.
‘How the fuck did we get ourselves into this?’
‘Don’t ask, man. Just don’t ask.’
The fighting machines crossed the Shirik trenches and started across no man’s land, towards the huge gap the apemen had carved in the Harodin defences. The wheels crunched over the thickly littered Shirik bodies, crushing them into the dust. Billy fought to keep himself from being sick. He dropped a burst of bolts on a section of the forward trench, but saw that it was already in Shirik hands and stopped firing. There seemed to be nothing left for them to do.
A Harodin machine gun opened up on them from an isolated foxhole, and bullets clanged against the machine’s armour. Billy swung the flamer round. As he fired he saw the gun was manned by two haggard, bearded men in dirty blue tunics. They looked surprised as the tongue of flame lanced towards them. It was the same look of surprise that had crossed the face of the man he’d shot in Dogbreath. The next instant the flame caught them, and they turned into blazing inhuman things. Billy lost sight of them as the machine dipped and lurched across the first enemy trench. His stomach twisted but he managed not to be sick.
The formation stopped just beyond the Harodin advance trench and took up a defensive position. The Shirik mopped up the last of the defenders. Once the trench was cleared it was their job to guard against a possible counter attack, while Uruk engineers reconstructed the newly won fortifications.
No counter attack came, and at nightfall the mercenaries dismounted from their machines and made a temporary camp. The killing was too strong in Billy’s mind to allow him to sit and relax with the other crews. He wandered along the trench, until he came to a group of Shirik huddled round a small fire. Without going too close he watched the strange subhuman creatures and listened to their grunted conversation. The Shirik seemed to have been issued with fresh meat, possibly as a reward for their victory. They snuffled and grunted over large bones.
‘Fight huh? Fight?’
‘Some fight. Some fight.’
‘Plenty kill huh?’
‘Listen …’
‘Huh?’
‘Listen … I fight.’
‘I fight, I fight.’
‘I fight, I hit ‘em, I kick ‘em an’ bit ‘em. I had t’ fight huh?’
‘They get on top of you?’
‘Nah … I fight. I kill ‘em.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Yeah.’
‘All fight.’
‘All attack.’
‘Hey.’
‘Wha’?’
‘I … fight.’
‘Sure, all fight.’
‘No, no, I remember …’
‘Wha’?’
‘I remember.’
‘Wha’?’
‘I … I don’t remember.’
‘You forget.’
‘It was before, before.’
‘Didn’t we surround ‘em?’
‘Kill ‘em.’
‘Plenty good killing, huh?’
One of the Shirik waved his bone in the air.
‘Good killing, good eating.’
He wined his mouth with a strip of blue uniform, and in a flash Billy realized. The fresh meat was human. The Shirik were eating the bodies of the Harodin. He backed away in silent panic, and as soon as he was well away from the Shirik, he bolted along the trench towards where the machine crews were camped. He stumbled across a figure lying in the darkness.
‘Fuck off, I’m trying to sleep.’
It was Reave.
‘It’s me, it’s Billy. Listen, I just saw …’
The words stuck in his throat.
‘I … I …’
Reave looked at him in alarm.
‘What’s wrong, man? You look like you seen a ghost.’
‘It’s worse than that, man. Much worse.’
‘What is it, Billy? You look terrible.’
‘You remember how Duck told us about the guys who went kill crazy. How they always attacked the Shirik?’
Reave nodded.
‘Sure, I remember.’
‘Reave …’
Billy’s hysteria was holding off by only a fraction.
‘… I found out why. The Shirik, man. Those fucking animals eat the dead! They’re out there, eating the men they killed today!’
Reave closed his eyes.
‘Jesus! You saw this? You saw it happening?’
‘I saw it, Reave. I saw it and heard them talking. It was horrible. We got to get out of here.’
He clutched at Reave and sobbed into his jacket. Reave put an arm out and stroked Billy’s hair.
‘It’s all right, kid. We’ll get away from this place. We did in Dogbreath, and we can do it here.’
Billy said nothing, and for a long time they clung together in silence. A figure emerged out of the darkness.
‘What’s the matter with you two? Never had you tagged as queers.’
Reave looked up, and saw Axmann standing over him. Axmann had been in command of the lead tank.
‘My partner cracked up when he saw the Shirik eating the dead.’
‘Didn’t Duck warn you what it was like?’
‘He didn’t tell us they were cannibals.’
Axmann scratched the stubble on his chin.
‘That’s too bad. It must have been a shock to just stumble on to it. We all stay close to camp after a victory. Nobody wants to get close to the Shirik,’
Billy looked up at him.
‘It’s okay for you to talk. You’ve got used to it.’
Axmann put a hand on Billy’s shoulder.
‘Nobody gets used to that. I’ve been here for five years, and I never got used to it. The best you can hope for is to be able to close off your mind to it.’
He fumbled in the pocket of his combat coat, produced a small bottle and shook some of the contents into his hand. He handed Reave two flat white pills.
‘Give him these, they’ll put him out for the rest of the night.’
Axmann turned and walked away. Reave gave Billy the pills and some water to wash them down with. A few minutes after Billy had swallowed them, he fell into a deep dreamless sleep.
The next thing that Billy remembered was being shaken awake by Reave.
‘Come on, man, move. We’re under attack.’
There was an explosion close by, and Billy shook his head to make his brain work.
‘What’s going on?’
‘The Harodin are counter attacking. There’s thousands of them. I guess they want to get their own back on the Shirik.’
There was another explosion, and Billy scrambled to his feet.
‘Get inside the machine. It’ll be safer than out here in the open.’
Billy and Reave climbed out of the trench and sprinted towards the parked machines. Bullets spattered around their feet. Bearing down on the Dur Shanzag lines was a wall of blue uniforms. The air was filled with snarls and howls as the Shirik prepared to meet the enemy.
They reached the fighting machine, and Reave tugged open the door.
‘Quick, inside.’
They dived inside.
‘Where’s the Rainman?’
‘Dunno, I ain’t seen him.’
Reave pointed out through the observation slit.
‘There. There he is. He’s coming.’
The Rainman was ducking and weaving towards the machine, attempting to dodge the crossfire from the Shirik and the Harodin. He was only ten yards from the machine when he stumbled, spun round and hit the ground. Reave looked at Billy in alarm.
‘He’s been hit. He’s gone down.’
The Rainman was on his hands and knees, slowly crawling towards the machine. Reave reached for the door.
‘I’m going out to get him.’
There was the clang of bullets hitting the side of the machine. Billy grabbed Reave by the arm.
‘Don’t be a fool. You’ll get killed out there.’
‘I can’t leave him lying out there wounded.’
As he spoke, more bullets hit the Rainman, he jerked convulsively and lay still. Reave pulled away from Billy and began opening the door.