to edge its disk over the horizon, bathing the buildings in gold. A large house with its roof partially collapsed stood in the center of the cluster and just to it’s right was, a barn that that leaned so much to the side that a good push would bring it down.. A shed that looked in pretty good shape was partially visible behind the barn. Cobb quickly checked out the barn and the shed to assure himself they were indeed deserted. He was exhausted and needed to rest, and he had decided that the house would be the best place to provide the rest and the cover he needed during the day.
As Cobb walked up the steps to the porch, the wood groaned like a living thing in pain. Sections of the porch had collapsed into the blackness beneath, giving the whole thing a patchwork appearance. Cobb stepped only where the cross beams provided support to the disintegrating boards and managed to arrive at the front door without falling through. The inward movement of the door was accompanied by a high-pitched whine from the hinges, and Cobb felt that the house was voicing its objection to his intrusion into its rotting corpse. On entering, the interior was slightly illuminated by the fledgling light from outside. He could smell the mildew and rot emanating from the structure, and on some level, he could feel the presence of those that once made this their home. Cobb could barely see the floor of the foyer and adjoining rooms, all of which were cluttered with the vague outlines of the dendrites of past lives. A dilapidated staircase let to a second floor, but Cobb was not willing to risk bodily injury to explore the upper level. Instead he circled around to the back of the staircase, where he located the stairs leading to a basement. Mephitic odors stronger than those on the ground level wafted up from below. Cobb reluctantly started down the stairs into the gloom of the basement, being careful to test each step before putting his full weight on it.
He’d opted to stay in the basement of the house because it provided the best concealment. It was also the least likely of the three buildings to be suspected of harboring a fugitive. He managed to stumble his way over to a window that provided a view of the area between the house and barn. Without looking around much further, he curled up in a dark corner and tried to go to sleep. But he couldn’t. Instead he softly began to sob. It was a good hour before he fell into a fitful sleep.
The sun was nearing its zenith when Cobb finally awoke. He stood up and stretched, and flakes of dried blood dropped like miniature leaves from his limbs. This prompted some of the scratches began to bleed again. He hurt everywhere, but he mostly was very hungry and thirsty. He got up and began searching the basement for food. The place was crowded with pieces of wood that had fallen from the ceiling and there seemed to be a lot of personal items that made Cobb wonder if the last owners had had to leave in a hurry. He didn’t see anything useable; most of it had rotted badly in the moist atmosphere. He did manage to find a small cupboard containing a number of small sealed containers. When he broke one open, it was full of some type of fruit in syrup. It smelled okay. Cobb thought he was probably already a dead man, so what the heck. When he started to eat, he realized that he still had the bandages on his head. He had gotten so used to them he had forgotten they were there. He took out his knife and cut them off. He no longer needed a disguise; if anything it was more likely to give him away.
Cobb knew he would have wait until dark to travel again. The Kirrians had very few airships left since the Alliance dominated the skies. Airships were not as easy to smuggle as weapons. Even so, Cobb could not take the chance. Instead he decided to continue wandering around the house, trying to see if there was anything useful to take.
An hour later, he hadn’t found anything worth taking and was considering making a dash to the other structures to check them out when he heard a vehicle coming. He ducked back into the house and watched through the window in the basement wall. A wheeled vehicle containing two soldiers was approaching from the north, coming down an access road. Cobb hadn’t seen the road in the dim light that morning, but he knew there had to be one. The vehicle was similar to ones he’d seen on his flight from the city.
The soldiers parked near the house and got out, both with laser rifles ready to fire. They wore headsets, and Cobb could hear their voices whenever they spoke into the coms or to each other. They were probably under orders to check out any place that could be used as a hiding place by a fugitive. Cobb recognized the gray uniforms with red trim as those worn by the Kirrian home guard. They were not front line troops, but they were better trained than the MPs or militia.
Cobb could tell these Kirrian soldiers were used to working together by the way they covered each other as they moved toward the barn. They both entered the barn and exited about five minutes later. They repeated the procedure in the shed. Cobb was admiring their efficiency and at the same time trying to figure out how he was going to kill both of them without getting killed himself. If they searched the house in the same way they searched the other two structures, they were sure to find him. And he doubted that they would want to bring him in alive. He watched them approach the house, but as they grew closer, they suddenly stopped and had a heated discussion. One of the soldiers continually shook his head as he argued with the other. Cobb could tell that one of them did not want to go into the house, but he wasn’t sure why. In the end, however, the soldiers decided to enter the house.
They entered through the front door, and Cobb could hear the wood creaking and the door whining above him. He decided that his only hope was to catch them as they came down the stairs, and he began moving toward the staircase near the center of the house to lay his ambush. He seriously doubted that he could get both of them without getting into a fire-fight, and if they had dissipation fields on his laser would be useless. He’d have to use his knife.
Suddenly, there was a loud breaking noise. One of the soldiers came crashing down through the rotten floor, landing just in front of Cobb. The man landed hard and was stunned by the fall, followed by a considerable amount of debris. Cobb looked up through the hole created by the collapse and saw the other soldier walking carefully over to the hole to look down. As he did, he saw Cobb. But before he could move his rifle, Cobb reacted, placing a laser shot directly into his right eye. Obviously, the soldiers did not have shields. Cobb had correctly assumed that the few available dissipation fields would be too precious to give to home guard soldiers. The dead soldier slowly pitched forward into the hole, landing on the pile of debris covering his partner.
Cobb turned his attention to the pile in front of him and, aside from the twitching of the corpse, there did not seem to be any movement. He kept his gun at the ready and began to pull the body and debris off the other soldier. There was a considerable about of dust kicked up by the collapse and by Cobb’s effort to uncover the Kirrian, and it burned his throat and eyes. Fortunately, it didn’t take long to expose the soldier. He was laying on his back, not moving. Cobb grabbed the soldier’s laser rifle and threw it into the corner of the room. He then sat down and stared at the Kirrian. He could tell that the soldier’s leg was broken by the way it was tucked under the body, but he didn’t see any external injuries. The Kirrian moved his arm, and Cobb now knew he wasn’t dead. Strangely enough he was glad. Cobb took off the headphones, and the soldier opened his eyes. He was still stunned, and Cobb thought he looked too young to be wearing a uniform.
He stood over the Kirrian and wondered what he should do with him. A couple weeks ago he would have killed him and not given it a second thought, but now it seemed wrong. It was too much like murder. He decided to drag the Kirrian out of the house where he could be found later by his own men. Cobb found the access door to the basement and half-carried, half-dragged him outside, trying not to hurt the soldier anymore than he had to. The soldier let out a few yelps, but otherwise did not say anything during what must have been an excruciating experience. Cobb admired his stoicism. All the time, the soldier had a quizzical look on his face and was probably trying to figure out why this Alliance enemy had not killed h
im. Cobb could also see hate in the Kirrian’s eyes and knew exactly how he felt.
There were several hours of daylight left, and Cobb knew that the rest of the search party would know something was wrong when these guys did not report in. That meant he no longer had any need for stealth. He climbed into the driver’s side of the vehicle and started the engine. It had the same arrangement of instruments as a vehicle he had become familiar with during training, and he took off down the access road driving as fast as he could given the terrain and his rusty driving skills. When he came to the intersection with a main road, Cobb turned west again. He needed to make it to his own lines more urgently than ever.
The vehicle was raising a cloud of dust that could be spotted for 10 kilometers, so Cobb know they would be after him very quickly. He hoped that if they were using wheeled vehicles he would be able to stay ahead of them until he reached the Alliance front lines.
He had covered about ten kilometers when he began to see little clouds of dirt kicking up in front of the vehicle, and heard the reports