In reply to Thomas Matthew Andrews (msg # 16):
What was biting him was a little girl, and his bullet sprayed scalp and skull fragments across the deck of the V-100. In the driver's hatch, Tremblay stood up and trhew the boy that had been biting him outside. There was now a crowd around the armoured vehicle, and Andrews started dropping people with head shots. It wasn't hard, given that they weren't actively avoiding being shot!
After a few seconds, there was an explosion beside the vehicle, and the blast wave knocked him off the deck. Something cracked as he slammed into the ground, and body parts thudded around him. As he lay there, barely conscious, he recognised the dolphin tattoo that decorated Taras' arm on a severed limb a few feet away. This arm was no longer particularly attached to Taras, however.
It seemed that either he was completely stunned or else he'd broken something serious! Andrews couldn't move his body. He couldn't hear due to the ringing in his ears. All he could do was blink and stare. The arm was dragged out of sight, and so was he. A few feet away, Abbot struggled to his feet. Around him, the mob of people surged towards him, some limping, others crawling, and they dragged him down by sheer weight of numbers. He was dimly aware there was a crash as Darek tried to use the Cougar to ram his way past the Challenger, but that seemed to have little effectiveness.
At the market, the first wave of attackers was shot down. There was a roar as the tank engine started, and Wanye stuck his head out the driver's hatch.
"Get in! I can drive this... Ahhh! What the fuck?" Someone dragged him back down into the tank, from behind. Just then, a new group of what for all the world looked like extras from
Night of the Living Dead (or perhaps
Day of the Dead) stumbled around the corner of the marketplace, and others stumbled out the side door from inside the building. With nowhere to go and fresh attackers closing in, the end for Hawke, Droz, the prisoners and the wounded was all but assured.
Not too far away, Andy and Mac hurried towards the parked Iltis. It sounded like new fighting had broken out and the rest of the team was in serious trouble. No one was answering the radio. They came out of the bush to see a crowd of about seven civilians in ragged clothing, mostly men, gathered around the parked jeep. As they were about to challenge them, more stumbled out of the nearby houses and the woods. Faced turned towards Mac and Andy, and it was apparent something very, very wrong was happening here. They turned to flee but more had silently closed in from behind and there was no escape.
THE END