The Last Mission Of The Seventh Cavalry. Charley Brindley
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his ankles. He fell hard but was quickly on his feet.
She was up, too, taking a defensive stance, ready for his next attack.
He came at her, going for her heart.
She faked to the side, drawing his sword, but switched the opposite way and landed a jab to his eye.
Sukal stumbled but stuck his sword in the dirt to steady himself. He gripped the weapon with both hands, lifted it over his head, and, bellowing like an enraged bull, ran at her.
Karina brought up her left knee and twisted sideways while thrusting her foot forward in a karate kick that landed her size-nine combat boot in his solar plexus.
Sukal doubled over, dropping the sword. He then fell to his knees, clutching his stomach as he tried to force air back into his lungs.
Karina stared at the gasping man for a moment, then looked to see who was behind her. It was the dark-haired woman they’d seen on one of the elephants. She came striding toward Karina and Sukal, obviously very angry, and stopped in front of Sukal, with her feet spread apart and fists on her hips. She spoke rapidly, gesturing toward the dead man. Karina didn’t need an interpreter to know she was chewing Sukal out for killing the wounded man.
Sukal was beginning to breathe again, but he remained on his knees, looking at the ground. He didn’t appear at all repentant; probably just waiting for her to finish yelling at him.
The woman vented her anger, then bent down, grabbed Sukal’s sword, and threw it as far as she could. She added one more insult that ended with a word that sounded like, “Kusbeyaw!” Then she smiled at Karina.
The word might have meant “idiot,” “dumbass,” or “shithead,” but whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t a flattering comment.
“Hello,” Karina said.
The woman said something, and when she realized Karina didn’t understand, she touched two fingers to her lips, then to her breast, and pointed to Karina.
“It’s okay.” Karina watched Sukal slink away. “I got in a good kick on that kusbeyaw.”
The woman chuckled, then began to speak, but she was interrupted by the tall officer, the one with the scarlet cape. He was twenty yards away, and he motioned for the woman to come to him. She touched Karina’s arm, smiled, then went to the officer.
Karina gazed around the battlefield. The wagon train’s soldiers had collected all the weapons and valuables from the attackers. The women and children went about stripping the dead men’s clothing, which didn’t look like much; ragged animal hides for the most part.
“I guess, in this place, everything has some value.”
“It seems so,” Kady said. “Good job on that asshole, Sukal. I never saw anyone so surprised in my life as he was when your foot hit him in the gut.”
“Yeah, that felt good. But if I hadn’t put him down, I think that elephant girl would have. She was pissed.”
“I wonder what she said to you.”
“I think she was trying to say she was sorry for Sukal killing the guy I was working on. The wound was pretty bad, but I think he would have recovered.”
“Ballentine,” Sergeant Alexander said on the comm. “You and Kawalski stand guard on the weapons crate. I’m going to take a walk toward the back of this column to see how much longer it is.”
“Right, Sarge,” Karina said.
Sarge looked at the soldier standing next to him. “Sharakova,” he said, “fall in with me.”
“Copy.” Sharakova swung her rifle over her shoulder.
“Good work on that cretin, Ballentine,” Sarge said. “I hope you never get that mad at me.”
“Hooyah!” Kawalski said. He was echoed by several others.
Chapter Five
After Alexander and Sharakova returned from their walk of inspection, the platoon carried the weapons container into the edge of the woods, where they built two campfires and broke out the MREs.
“While we’re eating,” Alexander said, “keep your helmets on and your weapons handy. Before dark, we’ll set up a perimeter and rotate on guard duty. We’ll do it by twos all night. Now, let’s talk about what we’ve seen and heard today.”
“Who were those people?” Kady asked.
“Which ones?” Alexander asked.
“The attackers.”
“I don’t know who they were,” Autumn said, “but they were vicious.”
“And nasty,” Kady said. “With those bearskin robes, they looked like buffalo dogs.”
“Yeah,” Lori said, “buffalo dogs is about right.”
“Look at that,” Kawalski said. “These people are still going by. How many more are there, Sarge?”
“We walked for about a half-mile,” Alexander said. “Behind this group of men, there’s a huge herd of horses and cattle. Behind that comes the camp followers. There are women, children, old people, and numerous sutlers with their wagons full of wears. Behind them are a lot of ragtag people. It’s like a whole city on the move.”
“I wonder where they’re going,” Kady said.
“It seems to me,” Alexander said, “they’re going in the general direction of that big river we saw. Beyond that, I have no idea.”
“Hey,” Private Lorelei Fusilier said, holding up one of the MRE packaged meals. “Anybody got menu seven?”
“Yeah,” Ransom said. “Meatloaf.”
“You got Butter Buds?”
“Maybe. What you got to trade?”
“Green hot sauce.”
Everyone laughed.
“Good luck trading off that crap,” Karina said.
“You got menu twenty,” Kawalski said, “right, Fusilier?”
“Yeah.”
“Then you got Cherry Blueberry Cobbler.”
“No, I ate that first.”
“Here, Fusilier,” Alexander said, “take my Butter Buds. I hate those things.”
“Thanks, Sarge. You want my green hot sauce?”
“No, you can keep that. Anybody got a guess as to how many soldiers are in this army?”
“Thousands,” Joaquin said.
“I bet there’s more than ten thousand,” Kady said.
“And about thirty elephants.”
Karina had finished her food, and now she tapped away on her iPad.
“Here come the camp followers,” Kawalski said.
As the women and children walked by, many of them spoke to Alexander’s soldiers, and some of the children waved. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits, even though they’d probably been walking all day.
The soldiers of the Seventh couldn’t understand the language, but they returned the greetings.
“You know what I think?” Kawalski said.
“What?” Alexander took a bite of SPAM.
“I think news of our defeat of those bandits has spread all the way down the line. Have you noticed how people are smiling and starting to treat us with a little respect?”
“Could be.”
A large four-wheel wagon passed by, with a man and woman sitting on a bundle of hides in the front of the vehicle. Two oxen pulled them along. The woman smiled as she looked at the soldiers, while the man held up his hand in a salute.
Joaquin returned the man’s greeting.