The Trek: Darwin's World, Book II (The Darwin's World Series 2) (21 page)

"I'll bring the men up and let them have first shot at about fifty yards. Whoever gets past that, the women will be ready. They'll just about double our firepower as soon as the raiders get closer, say about twenty-five yards.

"I've told Colin not to shoot until they're close. At fifty yards, they're in range of our bows but we're not in range of their spears. I plan to give this bunch the same treatment I gave the others."

"Well, they'll definitely have a different view after it's over. You can see a long way from up here. We could see the raiders already if it wasn't for those short trees at the bottom of the hill."

"Better view, not that they'll appreciate it. If anyone feels like spreading word about Robert's Tribe, I want them to tell people to stay far away from us unless they're friendly."

Tex was turning his head from one to the other as Matt spoke and Lee replied. Finally he too joined the conversation.

"That looks like one of them M-16 rifles. I tried one before, back before I met Saint Peter. You got any more of 'em?"

"Just this one, Tex. I've used an M-16 a lot. I'll keep this one."

"Too bad. Ol' Slick's handy, but she won't shoot as far as that thing."

"I don't intend to shoot very far with this one either. I want them to get close and only use it if needed. Most of the killing will be done by bows."

Conversation lapsed. The men now stood formed into line, just in front of the women who were a pace behind.

Despite the natural tendency to remain close to others, Lilia and Colin had convinced the tribe to spread out. They now occupied a front almost fifty yards long and two yards deep.

Here they would stand. Win or lose, it would happen atop this nameless ridge.

#

Lee looked around. The sky was clear, there was no wind, just the long ridge stretching north and south. The land sloped gently away to the east, scrubby brush on the slope giving way to low trees at the bottom of the incline.

The tribe held the high ground, giving them the advantage of elevation. Behind them, the steep slope would protect from any attack that the raiders might try to launch from that direction.

The sun was now well up, above where the raiders would appear in the east. The tribe wouldn't be looking directly into the sun when the raiders appeared.

Would the raiders attack immediately? What about the slaves? They had figured out a way of overcoming the limitations that Lee and Matt had discussed, using slaves as porters to carry supplies. What would they do with the slaves now, when they realized their quarry was alert and facing them from atop the ridge?

Lee didn't have long to wait before discovering what the raiders intended.

The trees at the bottom of the slope appeared to ripple briefly. The ripple spread to the left and right and Lee was looking at a line of armed men, now clearly visible and looking upslope.

The slavers wore leather caps, some adorned with what appeared to be bone or tusks. The raiders paused only long enough to bring up the slaves and have them drop off their packs.

While Lee watched, they took more leather from the packs carried by the slaves. The heavy leather formed an open garment that each raider quickly tossed over his shoulders, half of it falling to the front and half to the back. They hastily tied the leather together at the sides, helped by the slaves. More leather came out of the packs and was quickly strapped on to protect their knees and lower legs.

Matt was standing by his shoulder when Lee glanced to the side.

"Some bright fellow has invented leather armor. If they boiled the leather in wax, it will turn a thrust from a flint spear. It won't stop an arrow, and if the rifle works, the bullets will ruin their day.

"We'll wait; let them start uphill. There’ll be no place to go after we start shooting.

"Lee, you and Tex start shooting when they're even with that bush." Matt pointed. The rest of the tribe's been told to wait. I'll see whether the rifle works after I see what the raiders do, but remember I don’t have much ammunition."

Lee nodded and resumed his tense wait.

The raiders finished donning their armor and Lee found out what else they had planned.

"Matt, they're pushing those poor people out in front."

"I see it. Hold your fire for a moment. Each of the slaves has a raider behind him. I wonder if one of them is the leader?

"I'm about to find out how well this thing is zeroed. I'm going to take those slavers out, the ones that think they're hiding. You two, be ready when that happens. Call the slaves to come up and get behind us as soon as the raiders behind them are down.

"Put one of the women in charge of them, Shani maybe. She might know them, they're more likely to trust her. Don't leave them running loose behind us.

"But if I can't put those slavers down with the rifle, shoot the slaves. After they're out of the way, kill the slavers. All of them, no quarter, no mercy. This time, if they try to surrender don't bother. Just stick a spear in them and move on."

Lee nodded. Tex looked at Matt with respect.

"You'll do. I've seen bulls that weren't that mean."

Matt nodded and clicked the rifle's safety from safe to single-shot. He’d be shooting slightly downhill, but at this short range he wouldn't need to hold low; the bullet's trajectory could be ignored...

Matt extended the rifle's butt forward until the weapon was upright, then placed the butt on the ground. He dropped into position immediately behind it and pulled the butt into the hollow of his shoulder. Wriggling about until he was comfortable, Matt was soon lying with the rifle snugged into his right shoulder, left elbow under the rifle's forearm, sling brushed aside; at this range he wouldn't need the sling to stabilize the rifle. His opened left hand supported the rifle as Matt lined up the sights.

His action had been seen. Someone down there knew what a rifle was. A raider slid into position right behind the slave providing cover for him, only his eyes and leather helmet visible.

Almost close enough...and then they were. Without conscious thought, long-ago training kicked in. Matt's finger squeezed the last millimeter and the rifle slammed. The recoil was slight, but enough to take Matt's view off his target. A tinkle to the side revealed the fall of the empty shell. Slight adjustment of the body, align the sights, another slam as his finger squeezed.

He smoothly switched from target to target. Below, the slavers hurriedly abandoned the slaves they'd been using for cover and ran back to the rest of their group. Four remained on the ground, victims of Matt's shooting.

Matt quickly removed the magazine and ejected the round in the chamber. Picking it up, he slid it into the magazine and stuffed that into his belt. He then laid the rifle on the ground and slipped his bow from where it rested across his back.

Drawing an arrow, he launched it toward the bunched raiders below.

A virtual storm of arrows struck among the raiders. Many fell immediately while a few limped backward, trying to escape the arrows. In the rear, some saw what was happening and turned to run.

"Lee! Take your scouts after those people. Shoot them. No risks to our people, and I don't want any survivors!"

"I understand, Matt. Scouts! With me!"

Without being asked, Tex ran after Lee. He soon passed Lee, running as if he'd spent his whole life waiting for this moment.

Bow ready, Tex paused briefly to put an arrow into the throat of a raider who limped ahead of them. Pausing long enough to take the man's spear, Tex ran on. The pause allowed Lee to catch up and arrow a raider of his own.

They paused at the top of the next ridge to listen. Nothing moving, no noise; a slight breeze had come up during the fight. But no other sounds disturbed the quiet, only their breathing and the soft whisper of moving leaves.

Lilia found Lee with Tex. "I think they're all down. I counted ten of them running away, and we've left that many on the ground behind us."

"OK, Lilia. Collect everyone and we'll start back. We’ve got a nasty job ahead, but Matt wants it done."

Lee stopped long enough to behead the man he'd shot. Carrying the head by its long hair, he moved on to the next. Lilia and Tex each had their own head now. The rest of Lee’s scouts joined the small party and soon carried heads of their own.

Lee was happy to drop the head he carried by the mass of dead raiders. Other heads were already there.

Matt was supervising the task, jaw clenched. Clearly it was something he considered necessary but not something he enjoyed. He had done his share of the cutting; he held his axe in his right hand, bloody blade dripping on the ground by his feet.

"Put the heads on spears, Matt?"

"Not this time. We'll stack them into a pyramid. I'll show you what I mean. I want the spears, as many as you can collect. We've just added nine new people, maybe. I'll talk to them and let Shani and Bella talk too. If they can be useful, we'll bring them into the tribe. If not, we can at least arm them before we turn them loose."

"I thought there were more of the slaves, Matt."

"There were. The slavers stuck spears into two of them. When it became clear they weren't working as human shields, they just speared some to keep them from running. The rest were tied to the dead ones."

"Bad people. I'm glad they're dead."

“Me, too. But things have changed now. I think we need to go back and take out the rest. They only have maybe thirty people left and one of them is a recent addition according to what I’ve been told, probably one that we turned loose after the Riverbend fight. We can fix that mistake when we get there.

“I had a chance to talk to one of the men we rescued. The village isn't fortified and if we kill most of the slavers, he thinks the rest of the captives will turn on the ones that are left.

“We can leave day after tomorrow if you agree that it's something we should do. But first, we’ve got to get the carts down to the river and set up camp."

Chapter 19

"Tex, how long have you been here, on Darwin's World I mean?” Matt asked the question.

The two were slightly ahead of the rest of the group. At the moment, everyone was resting. The tribesmen had spirit but not much stamina, at least when compared to Matt, Lee, and Tex.

#

The discussion after the ridge battle had gone as Matt expected. Helped by input from the former slaves, the tribe had agreed that raiding the slavers’ village should be done. The attack would have a dual objective, wipe out the slavers and free their remaining captives.

The slavers would likely kill the captives before leaving their village, because they wouldn't want to leave enemies behind. Grisly task done, the slavers would then move on to someplace where they weren’t known, where any local inhabitants wouldn’t expect human raiders.

This analysis came primarily from José, one of the men the raiders had used as shields.

The slavers, originally a band of nomads, had surprised the village’s builders and moved in. Some of the builders had been killed, the others taken prisoner.

The raiders learned from the villagers that they feared capture by parties of three or four men that came up from the south every few years. Once taken, people were never seen again.

The raiders who’d taken over the village contacted the capture parties and became their suppliers. The village changed identity, from a struggling community of people attempting to build better lives to a marketplace where slaves were held until sold.

José's picture was incomplete, but it seemed likely that a system of slave labor or peonage had taken hold in what had been northern Mexico downtime. Trading parties came up from the far south in spring and early summer to acquire new stock. Some of the slaves might be used as farm labor, but there were also extensive mineral deposits. Primitive mining was dangerous and labor-intensive.

Spanish invaders in that area had once taken the natives captive and used them in the same way, downtime.

The nomads-cum-slavers had their market and an economy based on trading. It remained only to establish a way of acquiring new merchandise. So they sold slaves in the spring, scouted locations in the summer, and conducted their raids during the fall.

Attacks were timed to take place after the intended victims had gathered food for the winter. The gatherers were added to the few slaves that raiding parties brought along to pack supplies. Burdened with the food they’d harvested and the few possessions they owned, the expanded slave column made its way back to the slavers' village to wait through the winter until being sold in the spring.

The slavers wouldn't abandon the lifestyle just because they’d lost a battle to Matt's tribe. Like-minded replacements would soon be recruited to make up their losses, either from wandering men or the bad apples that most groups seem to have. And soon a new village would be taken and contact would again be made with the buyers; slaving would begin again.

#

After all the preparation, moving the carts down the ridge was anticlimactic. It was heavy work and most of the people were not at their best after the fight, but the carts were at the river by evening. Margaretta had dished up a hearty stew for supper and tired people soon bedded down, leaving only the sentries awake. Because they too had been in the fight, Matt and Lee agreed that rotating the guards after an hour was best. Matt took an early shift, as did Lee, and both took a second pre-dawn shift. But the night passed without incident.

Both bedded down after being relieved and slept until noon, while the rest of the tribe set up the camp.

Next morning, the raiding party formed up and started for the slavers’ village.

#

"I've been here...oh, must be ten years now. Ol' Saint Peter fixed me up better than new and seemed to think I'd have a hard time stayin' alive here. Shucks, I've had it rougher in West Texas. It was a mite cold that first winter, but compared to Montana? Naw, I just built me a place to roost that kept the snow off. Scraped out a place for a fire, drug up a bunch of dry wood, crawled between a couple of buffalo hides at night and I was snug 'til the springtime. I reckon I was a little bit gamy by then, but nobody was around to sniff 'cept me and I was used to it!