“And me?” Chastity interjected hopefully.
“And you,” Hickok said with a smile.
“I hope Mrs. Hickok and Ringo like me,” Chastity stated.
“They will,” Hickok assured her. “And call my missus Sherry. Mrs.
Hickok sounds sort of stuffy.”
Chastity’s features abruptly conveyed an inner melancholy. “I wish my mommy and daddy were alive.”
Hickok and Blade exchanged glances.
“I’m happy that you’re my new daddy,” Chastity said to the gunman, “but I want my mommy and daddy back.”
“They’ve gone to a better world,” Blade said.
“Where?”
Blade pursed his lips and watched Rikki enter the forest ahead. What could he say to alleviate her remorse? He tried to recall conversations he’d had with his son along similar lines. “Our Elders teach us that death is just the way we get from this world to a higher spiritual level. Your mommy and daddy have gone on ahead of you and will be waiting for you when you arrive.”
“Mommy told me we go to heaven when we die,” Chastity said. “Will mommy and daddy know me in heaven?”
“I believe so, yes,” Blade affirmed.
“I can’t wait to get there,” Chastity asserted.
“Whoa, princess. There’s no rush,” Hickok remarked. “We all pass on when the time comes.”
“When will my time come?”
“We have no way of knowin’,” Hickok said. “So we should live our lives to the fullest until we do kick the bucket. There’s no sense in worryin’ over when our number will be called. And there’s no sense in hurryin’ it along, either. What will be, will be.”
Blade chuckled. “I had no idea you’re such a philosopher. You should teach a class at the Home on the meaning of life. I’ll write your petition to the Elders.”
“I’m not qualified to teach a schooling class, and you know it,” Hickok declared.
“Do you have a school at your Home?” Chastity queried.
“Yep,” Hickok answered. “The young’uns are taught by our Elders in one of our concrete bunkers. There are all kinds of classes.”
“Like what?”
“Horticulture, agriculture, weaving, history, math, geography,” Hickok said. “You name it, the Elders will teach it.”
“Did they teach you to be a Warrior?”
“One of them was my instructor,” Hickok responded. “The Warriors are given extra instruction to prepare them for the job.”
“Like what?”
Hickok looked at Blade. “Why is it kids ask so many questions?” Then he turned back to Chastity. “Warriors must constantly train to stay sharp.
I practice with my Colts every chance I get. Blade does the same with his pigstickers.”
“What’s a pigsticker?”
“He means my Bowie knives,” Blade explained.
“Why does he call them pigstickers?” Chastity wanted to know.
“Haven’t you noticed how Hickok uses funny words?” Blade asked.
Chastity nodded. “He uses them all the time.”
“And do you know why?” Blade queried.
“Yeah. Rikki told me it’s because my new daddy has a warped brain.”
“What?” Hickok snapped, staring at the tree line. “When did he say that?”
“A couple of days ago. Why? Isn’t it true?” Chastity queried.
“If anything is warped around here, it’s Rikki’s sense of humor,” Hickok stated. “My brain is as normal as anyone else’s.”
“Then why do you use so many funny words?”
The gunman crouched and tenderly touched his right forefinger to her chin. “Out of habit, I reckon. I started using words from the Old West when I was a whippersnapper, and the habit stuck. I’m partial to the way of life they lived way back then. When I was little, I wished I’d been born a cowboy or a marshal in a frontier town. All my childhood heroes came from Western books. Now Blade was different. He liked these books about a man who went around swingin’ in trees with nothin’ on but his underwear. This guy could talk to monkeys and elephants and he liked livin’ in the jungle. So who’s more warped? Blade or me?”
“You.”
“Me? Why?”
“Blade doesn’t talk like a monkey,” Chastity said, and hugged him again, this time about the neck. “I don’t care how you talk. I love you anyway.”
Blade saw the gunman’s face redden and he smiled. “Hickok, I’ve got to hand it to you. If you hadn’t adopted her, I would’ve done so myself. She’s a peach.”
Chastity let go and glanced up at the giant. “Really?”
“Really and truly,” Blade assured her.
Hickok stood. “You’ll like our Home, princess. A twenty-foot-high brick wall keeps out all the mutants and other riffraff. You won’t need to worry about something tryin’ to kill you every two minutes. And the folks are as nice as could be. There are lots of young’uns your age to play with.”
“When will we get to the Home?”
“Soon, I hope,” Hickok said. “My feet are—”
Blade held aloft his right hand, interrupting the gunfighter. “Quiet!”
“What is it?” Chastity asked.
“Hush, little one,” Hickok whispered. He cocked his head, listening, and a second later heard an unusual, metallic coughing noise coming from the trees.
Blade took three strides forward. “It sounds like a motor trying to turn over.”
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Hickok declared.
“Let’s hide,” Chastity suggested.
The noise was repeated, only louder and lasting twice as long before sputtering into silence.
“Where’s Rikki?” Blade inquired of no one in particular.
“Shouldn’t we hide?” Chastity prompted.
“You take care of the princess,” Hickok proposed. “I’ll go find Daffy.”
Before Blade could respond, there was a thunderous roar accompanied by the crashing of saplings and the crushing of underbrush, and a green behemoth lumbered from cover in the stand of trees and rattled toward them.
“It’s a half-track!” Hickok exclaimed.
“Hide!” Blade ordered, turning and starting for the woods 40 yards to their rear.
Just as the half-track opened up with its .50-caliber machine gun.
Chapter Two
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi approached the trees cautiously. He suppressed an impulse to yawn and gripped the hilt of his katana with his right hand.
The days and weeks of sustained tension, he realized, were beginning to take their toll. No matter how superbly conditioned the Warriors might be, they were not machines; they could not function at their peak level, at full alertness, 24 hours a day, every day, without a letup. And they were being forced to do just that. During the day they had to be constantly on guard for animals, mutants, and human foes. At night their sleep was fitful. Each one was required to take a three-hour shift tending the campfire, and those attempting to catch a few hours of badly needed slumber were continually awakened by snarls and shrieks emanating from the darkness.
He would be glad when they reached the Home.
The forest ahead seemed ominously still.
Rikki slowed, searching for indications of movement. His concentration flagged, and he thought of his friends. Hickok had performed a noble deed in giving a home to Chastity. The poor girl had been devastated after her parents were killed by Terminators from Atlanta. The Family would receive her with open arms.
What was that?
The martial artist paused, his eyes focusing on a dense thicket to his left. Had something moved? He grasped the katana tighter and advanced to the tree line.
No birds were chirping.
No insects were buzzing.
The woods were like a tomb.