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The Ozark Plateau, the fortieth year of the Kurian Order: An island of sanity in the eye of a hurricane of death, the scattered fare The heartland of the region is bordered by the blasted ruins of Little Rock to the south; in the west by a line extending frofield, Missouri; in the north by the far-flung foothills of the Ozarks and the Mark Twain Forest; and to the east by the Saint Francis River Known by some as the OzarkFreeTerritory, and by the ion supports three quarters of a million survivors They are mostly farmers and ranchers connected by a network of poor roads and unreliable rivers flowing through the worn-down remnants of America&039;s oldest ive these hills a bluish tinge, fed by cool streaes The small mountains have bare patches of exposed felsite and rhyolite, rocky scars that symbolize the flinty hardness beneath the exterior of the inhabitants

New far up to replace the old Little clusters of hoes, stone walls with narrow loopholes facing the world; doors, s, and porches facing the neighbors The squatty settlements, perhaps built by men whose motto is

"Built for Safety, Not for Comfort," are linked by walls that do not divide hoated alu of homes shelter livestock and machinery from the elements and thieves

Some areas are electrified, and a substantial portion use natural gas A ham radio network maintains communication Telephones are back in action, but service is unreliable The suspicious and tough-ers, and they sleep with rifles and shotguns handy Pack traders traverse the area with stock onbasic necessities and few luxuries Both necessities and luxuries are paid with barter, soreenbacks Perhaps a measure of the success and fortitude of the inhabitants of what used to be southern Missouri and much of Arkansas is their acceptance of paper currency as being worth soed at two thousand or more dollars to the ounce, perhaps paper e advocate general, civilian relations (called the "Jagers " in a tone suggesting the word has an obscene connotation) Court rides circuit and brings some measure of order and law to the lives of the residents

A fens operate in the region, hoether There is still singing in Branson, and a riverboat casino is in operation on the White River, paying out prizes in a systeovernor resides in Mountain Ho on shoestring budgets

The Soldiery, as the residents know them, are concentrated in the Ouachita Mountains to the south, and in the broken Ozark ridges to the north Ceaseless long-range patrols circle the area, picking up infor cavalry reserves train constantly in the center of the region, ready to go to the border to slow invasion or destroy a raid Although the OzarkFreeTerritory is relatively safe, it is not inable, as small holders and settlements in the boundary areas learn the hard way

The uniform combined the comfort of burlap with the durability of cheesecloth How innocent cottonits own business could be turned into such a scratchy, sagging patchwork ale-shot breechloader, operated by a lever that flipped out the expended case of the bullet (woe to the recruit who failed to collect the hot brass thimble!) as it opened the chamber for the insertion of another round At least, that was the theory In practice, a few shots heated the action sufficiently to soften the thin brass encasing the heavy bullet, and Valentine beca the quickly fouled weapon It kicked like a mule and aimed with the ease of a steel shovel However, it had fewcapacity of the OzarkFreeTerritory The pay was the biggest joke of all The recruits received multicolored military scrip, usable at the scattered-to-the-point-of-inaccessibility Southern Co Post coh to take it in return for merchandise that failed the caveat emptor test everywhere else

Fulton pushed the six weeks A few recruits bristled at the discipline and gave it up after the first week, either trying the dangerous trip ho work on the farms and ranches of the Territory Theunder the supervision of bellowing NCOs They ran and overned theh lectures about recent United States history, about the other knots of the resistance in Oregon, Arizona, the Appalachians, and New England They ran and practiced with their rifles, as well as the captured support weapons and the simple cannon produced in inadequate factories They ran and learned about ca, foraging, and where to find

Labor-Private Valentine learned to recognize the divisions of Southern Coest body of professional soldiery was the Guards They provided a solid core for the defense of the OzarkFreeTerritory Sometimes the NCOs and officers were veterans of the Lifeweaver-trained Hunters The Guards reinforced the Militia, the first line of defense for most communities Most able-bodied adults, especially in the border areas, belonged to the Militia They drilled with the Guards one day a month and stood ready to assemble at the call of drum, whistle, or siren The Hunters carried war into the Kurian Zone Trained by the Lifeweavers, they were divided into the Wolf, Bear, and Cat castes, each with a unique duty to the Cause At talks given by members of the castes, Valentine learned that the Wolves carried out long-range patrol duties and maintained communication between the other Commands across North America The Cats, rarely seen in the Territory, served as spies and saboteurs across the country, often leading double lives deep in the Kurian Zone The Bears fought as the shock troops of the Cause, the Reapers&039; most fearless and skilled enemies A Hunter usually started as a Wolf, and so to a different caste There were a few that knew all three of the Hunter&039;s Arts, as they naht and sacrificed together to bring mankind back to a place in the sun

Valentine experienced the uneasy symbiotic relationship between the iment broke up into work squads and were dispersed to the surrounding farms for the harvest The e every ive their lives to protect them The civilians failed to see why so h to feed the coood year, disappeared into a machine that often failed to keep them safe, and showed flashes of coreed-upon 15 percent tithe

The harvest came and went in a ind of dawn-to-dusk labor Valentine, in charge of Cho and eight other recruits between visits by an overworked officer, helped a dozen hardworking families in an enclave near the Arkansas-Missouri border They built and repaired houses and barns, helped get in the crops, and then butchered and preserved the surain and corn filled a pair of silos at the center of the little defensive ring of ho, but they also hid a reserve in a series of clay-lined pits set between Weening&039;s barns They covered the pits with tarps and dirt, and hoped the village dog and cat population would protect the edible buried treasure fro rodents

Harvest Feast followed the weeks of frantic work For three days the recruits participated in athletics while daylight lasted, then joined the far tables laden with roasts, hams, turkeys, chickens, side dishes, and desserts of every description at dinner Valentine sat next to Cho and gorged himself, then retired distended to the Militia barracks above the town stable for the nightly farting contest

With the food put away, literally and figuratively, a brief period of repair and maintenance ensured that the blockhouse homes and barns would keep their inhabitants in some measure of comfort for the winter All the while, the oaks and hickories of the area turned red gold, until a period of dry, windy days whipped the leaves fros dead and eested that Valentine&039;s team would soon pull back into winter cahboring villages had either left or were getting orders to do so The faran to run out as soon as the last root cellar was filled and barrel of salted pork nailed shut A faave Valentine a padded overcoat stuffed with goose down and coated with a aterproofing Valentine had spent so the Ross children out of semilit-eracy in well-re to the kids froes back to hied streaurew cooler, Valentine waded out into one of the chilly, deeper pools for a bath He had added another inch to his fra-li its boyish scrawniness behind Lean muscle coiled up his arlossy black hair His square-cut face was harder, and his bronze skin darker than he had ever seen before, but his eyes retained a youthful twinkle Life in the FreeTerritory suited hi, and he had thewith pride as they sounded out compound words for him and their parents He was happy

One Nove an even cooler dawn, he waded into the scrotus started up theirchorus of the su in ht revivification He resurfaced with a "Cooeee!" torn fros at the exquisite shock

"Val, you&039;re going to stop this nonsense by Christmas, I hope," Gabriella Cho called from beneath the tresses of a riverbank"I&039;ive lessons But the river, in this te hard in the cool water "I can&039;t pass up the chance for a swim in November We couldn&039;t do this in the Boundary Waters, not at this time of year You should try it"

She stepped into the veileda wicker laundry basket "I&039;ll stick to dipping a piece of me at a time in a washbasin, thank you It&039;s slower, but I can do without the double pneuht you a treat, you nut"

Valentine waded up and out of the strea into the cool sand He felt no e naked in front of Cho; they&039;d shared too h ca one of the bundles froician perfor a trick The brick-heated towel she draped around his shoulders warreat! To what do I owe the royal treatoose-pi in the welcome heat

Cho retrieved the other towel, stepped behind him, and affectionately tousled his hair "It&039;s winter quarters for us soon I hear they&039;re going to split us up into apprenticeships or soreed as she dried his back with a series of strong strokes He found it easy to be agreeable with his skin tingling the way it was

"You&039;ve filled out a little, Davy," Cho observed "You used to be such a reed Too much time cooped up in Father Max&039;s library"

Valentine felt a spark Are you going where I think you&039;re going? he wondered, applying it equally to the direction of the conversation and her rubdown Noare of how close she stood behind hiht with a little nervous thrill how easy it would be to turn around and es on the other side of the belt of trees broke thea

"Fire!" echoed a second, ible yell

By the time Valentine pulled his pants on and stepped into his boots, a ting-ting-ting-ting sound rang fro&039;s alar

"Flames, Val, and- Jesus, what&039;s that?"

Soer than a vulture, banking toof houses

The two friends ran for the River Gap, a narrow alley between two homes that served as the se Cho ran three paces ahead of Valentine, as still fu with his pants

A shot flashed froular s just under the roof of the house overlooking the River Gap

Cho staggered as the whipcrack hit Valentine&039;s ears, a leg yanked out from under her as if someone had pulled it with a trip wire

Valentine waved his arms above his head "Don&039;t shoot, don&039;t shoot, it&039;s us!" A second shot whistled past his ear

He dropped to the earth, crawling for Cho He found her writhing in the undergrowth, clutching her injured left leg Oath after oath spat froasped "Val, &039;s broken, I think Helpbad"

"Don&039;t shoot anyht He pulled off his belt and cinched it around her thigh as a tourniquet "Send help out here, da out from somewhere, not ai Cho up, but an agonized scream dissuaded him

A scared-witless voice called from the : "That you, Mr Valentine?"

He started to reply with profanity strong enough to blister paint, but cut it off "I&039;et soht?"

"Yessir I&039;m sorry, but when you came up so-"

"Never mind C&039;ood look at what happens when you shoot without knohat you&039;re shooting at"

"Tell hiroaned up at hi&039;s slowed Please, God, let the"

"And water, Hel," he shouted at the house No response He turned back to Cho "I hope he heard me Just hold on for a little while; the two of you stay under these trees Those flying things are busy lighting fires"

"Knock a couple down for et hit," she said fro; she h, Gab Back in a few"

The Helm boy, sixteen at ate that barred entrance to the west gap

"Mr Valentine, I&039;d never" the Hel that the kid had recovered his wits enough to bring a blanket out for Cho

He reached the center of Weening without further shots aimed at him Smoke streamed from the top of one of the silos, where two men climbed an exterior ladder, laden with blankets wrapped around their shoulders Fla in the center of the ring of walled houses

Two of his fellow reservists stood before the shed that contained their rifles They were taking potshots at the bat shapes circling above He ran for the shed, hunched over in expectation of claws digging into his head or shoulders any second He retrieved his rifle and thrust a handful of cartridges into the pocket of his beltless pants, which threatened to drop to his ankles

"They&039;re throwing Molotov cocktails, I think, Val," Polluck, one of the would-be soldiers in Valentine&039;s squad, warned "You can see them bum as they come down"

"Howthe skies Thirty feet away, some of the residents worked the hose attached to the powered pu the barn At the other side of the village, a ray-haired Tank Bourne, held his automatic rifle at the ready under his porch The weapon looked like a toy pressed against hisaround the barn, diving at the firefighters, short leg-claws extended like an eagle after a fish Valentine and his co out at alht the attacker crashing to earth

Another flapper appeared on the slanted roof of the Bourne house, crawling down the shingles with leather-draped arhted, and fired Bourne heard either creature or bullet, and came out from under the porch roof Bourne pumped shells into the abomination It turned over and rolled off the roof

"That&039;s tn," Valentine said, his heart pounding in his ears

"The main hayloft&039;s on fire!" someone shouted froe-yellow light of the burning hay, an ungainly shape waddled toward the upper doors fros, it pulled itself along with long arular ears jutted like sharp horns froular head

Tank Bourne rested on one knee, feeding a fresh azine into his rifle Valentine and the reservists shot, apparently without effect as the bat-thing launched itself into the air With a series of audible flaps, like clotheslined sheets whipped by the wind, the beast disappeared into the smoke above

Bourne waved theet the stock out of there!"

The hay, noell alight, threatened to take not only Weening&039;s central structure, but much of its livestock, as well Bourne, Valentine, and a handful ofthe lower doors all the way open Rising heat whipped the wind inside The men pulled, pushed, and cajoled the stupefied cattle, which stood frozen in their stalls, away froereat barn&039;s lower level as they danced and collided in their rush for the door Once they coaxed a fes into , the rest took to the idea with a will and followed the horses, bellowing their panic into the night air

The pair who dared cliht the fire on the roof of the silo Valentine prayed there wouldn&039;t be an explosion Bullets felled two hts They extinguished the ated iron and shingles bought enough ti men to beat the fire into subunfire died dooed to help combat the blaze with bucket chains and another canvas hose The s, coops, and pens that stood near it in the center of town stayed wet thanks to brave souls who dared the heat of the burning bam to douse them with buckets of water

Bourne, rifle held ready at his chest, still watched the skies "Those Harpies haven&039;t been in these parts in years," he told Valentine "When I ith the Bears, we caught a couple hundred of theht Burned the in We shot theets, co"

"Slow?" Valentine asked

"Yes, they&039;re better gliders than they are fliers Especially if they are loaded with grenades They&039;re pretty sh to knohen to attack and when to try to get away"

"Would they fly in the day?"

"I doubt it, toothem"

Valentine felt his pulse quicken "They hit us within an hour of sunset How far could they fly in that hour, Mr Bourne?"

Tank looked at him, bushy eyebrow raised in interest "I see where you&039;re heading, young ainst the wind out of the east I don&039;t think they&039;d be more than fifteen miles away Ten&039;s more likely"

Valentine belatedly reate Can you help et her in? After that, I want to find out which way they hen they flew off"

"There&039;s a stretcher in the tack shed where you keep your gear I&039;ll help you bring her in, but we don&039;t have a doctor anywhere hereabouts"

They found the young Hel and eed hole in it just below the Adam&039;s apple The wound looked as if someone had probed his chest cavity with an oversize drill

Cho was ap had happened so fast that the boy couldn&039;t even get off a shot with his carbine, which lay fully loaded and broken in half on either side of his body

"There&039;s a Hood nearby," Bourne observed coldly "Poor kid, he was dead before he kneas happening"

"Could Cho still be alive?"

"Maybe It fed off Dorian here Broke his neck then went for the blood Chewed a hole in his neck and stuck its tongue right into his heart Ever seen a Reaper tongue? Pointed at the end, like a big rubbery syringe"

Guilt ha of precisely aimed blows You left Cho unprotected in the open, watched by a kid who shouldn&039;t even have been responsible for covering the west gate from a loophole You pulled hiet his heart pierced Two people are dead because you couldn&039;t stand hurting an injured buddy byher Nice work, Valentine The Kurians need a feworders

All the more reason to make theer part of hiate, three farulped at the roasted hickory nut drink called coffee for lack of a uess about which direction the Harpies were last seen flying and got three slightly different answers The consensus seemed to be a little north of east

Most of the town still worked to keep the blaze fro The exception was the Helm family; the father retrieved his son&039;s body while Mrs Helm sat on the steps of her porch with her ar the flareat barn

Valentine cliht reservists waited by the Militia stable tack shed Recently turned earth next to the little wooden shack exposed two stout cases Bourne gingerly examined the contents of one of the open cases

"How is it, Tank?" Valentine asked

"Still usable We turned it this sue ditch froet rid of tree stuot it, will you spare us so?" Valentine knew the dynamite had probably been lifted from a Southern Command supply cave, perhaps with the aid of a small bribe to the resident quarter the Harpies back in their own coin, I&039;ll tie up a couple of five-stick bundles and have thelycerin Part that worries ht now Wandering around in the dark with a Hood around, looking for so you aren&039;t sure where it is-well, it&039;s like playing blindman&039;s buff in a room full of buzz saws"