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The Ranch, Central Texas, Noveer than any country of old Europe, and could fit a few Eastern states within her expanse The same could almost be said of the lands around the Ranch, which stretch from the hill country west of San Antonio in the south to Abilene in the north, taking up the Edwards Plateau in the west and ending at the old I-35 in the east Why the Kurians wanted such a vast expanse for their experiuessed at; perhaps the research stations they established on the Colorado River and the San Angelo area needed isolation
The thorough depopulation of the area supported this theory It is one of the few parts of the Kurian Zone run without the aid of Quisling forces Its borders are watched by Grogs, either hardened to or oblivious of what goes on in the hinterland of the region
It is one of the most beautiful parts of the Lone Star State, a land of li hills dotted ildflowers and fragrant of sage Longhorns, wearing no brand at all, roa fro in the cedar and oak forests Cypress grows in the river valleys, and zone-tail hawks drift above the southern tip of the American Great Plains If the wildlife could talk, they could tell of new, strange inhabitants wandering the hills
David Valentine scratched the bristle on his chin in thought, raking his memory Only one animal on earth looked like that, and they were called"Zebras, by God"
"Yes, that&039;s right, zebras," Amelia Baltz said
She was a square-built woh-skinned German as solid as a Gothic cathedral She rode with Valentine and her staff at the front of the wagon train when she wasn&039;t driving her buckboard or conferring with the Ranger-scouts on the best path for the column to take Her "staff&039; consisted of a towheaded thirteen-year-old girl na suntan as all scrawny liht There was also an assorts, cats, and the only chickens Valentine had ever known to lay eggs while traveling
"The zebras, David, couess you&039;d call it a zoo-near Kerrville It was ho in the hill country The das&039;ll kick your head clean off if you startle them, so don&039;t wander into the brush to take a shit without looking for so is, you come up on &039;em head-on, they turn and run You sneak up behindshack"
Baltz had a direct earthiness that came from better than forty years of life in the open She wore bandannas over hair, mouth, and neck when the dust kicked up and settled on the broad bri sunglasses
"Are we on the Ranch lands yet?"
"We&039;re just skirting the edge We&039;ve left the Grog-pickets behind What they do if they cut our trail I don&039;t know, they don&039;t go into the Ranch proper, at least not any an ene-assed shadow there The Ranch has its own security One relief: the Hissers don&039;t wander these hills, so we don&039;t have to worry about lifesign"
"No offense understood," Ahn-Kha said The Golden One walked alongside Valentine&039;s horse, his long rifle protected from the dust by a soft leather sheath "Perhaps the unusual animals are the reason people think this place is used by Kur for experiments"
"We don&039;t think, we knoorked their lands, when I was nearer your age, David, or even younger I was an electrician; I handled the lines running between the stations Being a specialist s they don&039;t want you to tell about, so they made me live on the Ranch, with some of the other people they couldn&039;t do without About twelve years ago, they decided to clean house and bring in some new people They showed up, and I didn&039;t like the way they were rounding us up for a &039;ot Eve, jumped in a Hummer, and rode it till the oil ran out, then ran south on foot
"I never sawon inside the stations-I just worked the lines outside When I had to work a box indoors, they blindfolded ot to the utility roos Once I heard so in the underbrush and I looked down and these two pigs were nosing through so so like words, I just didn&039;t understand
"They&039;ve had a lot of trouble with breakouts Keeping a pig in a pen and keeping a pig that thinks like you do is soine," Valentine said He could i for him to turn his back He would have almost preferred to hear that they were stiff with Reapers
"Can you, boy? I wonder There was a ruot out; they blasted a whole quarter of the place with nerve agents Hold &039;e to scout that tree line"
The wagon train always got under way before dawn Each er scouts moved a day ahead of the colu the course for the wagons and choosing the best spots for streaht The convoy of fifteen wagons and the rest of the escort ment The convoy spent only about six hours a day in motion The oxen pulled better with frequent rest stops and out-spans, and those always meant at least a couple of hours of delay while teaanized
Valentine left eetting their ers With their baggage in the wagons, the mix of former marines and sailors had to carry only their ar stick There was soot to ride, and there was souard and support "foreign h there was no coon cooking Ahn-Kha and his surviving Grogs stuck close to Valentine as hestrangers
"If we run into anything, our , and the Texans will be grateful for all our rifles," Valentine said to Post, when they talked over the men&039;s adaption to the trail and their new allies They both agreed that even after days in the wagons, sweeping wide around San Antonio, the colu like a balky horse
Steak on the hoof followed the wagon train, driven so as to ular barbecues in the evening gradually brought the two ca Jauitars, and thetheir hosts with stories and s from the other side of the Gulf
By the ti on the Ranch proper, the column was as cohesive and cooperative as Valentine could have hoped, due to habitAt rest halts, Valentine&039;s soldiers took over the picket duty, fanning out to gather so wild: plentiful apples, squash, and pu rowing longer as October waned, the evening meals became more leisurely Nar-cisse contributed her own ideas about cooking to the drive Sohts when she cooked Creole dishes-the variety elcohtered beef and preserved food
It was at one peaceful camp, as Valentine walked the picket line with Post to ood fields of vision, that a pair of the Thunderbolt&039;s sailors, one Ja down frorass-covered hill
"Captain, there&039;s so ani a hell of a noise," the old New Orleans hand reported,for a trip to the toilet
The Cat hardened his ears It sounded like construction work, or logging He thought he heard a tree being pushed over
"Post," Valentine said, "find Baltz, please Tell her to meet me on top of that hill Let the ca, but I doubt there&039;s i so much noise if they meant to cause trouble Take my horse back, would you?" Valentine disun, and shouldered the weapon
"Let&039;s have a look," Valentine said to the ainst what&039;s on the other side of this hill"
"We can always outrun it"
"Two of us get away, then The two fastest," the Jamaican predicted
They filed back up the hill and began to crawl through the grass and brush when they reached the crest Valentine looked back toward the ca toward their observation point
"Losey, go back doays and show &039;em where we are," Valentine said to the Jaht
Valentine heard the sound of another tree tipping and looked into the valley
They were huge quadrapeds More strange wildlife of Central Texas, he really couldn&039;t -
"You&039;ve got to be kidding," Valentine said "Those are elephants, but with two trunks Or is it one trunk cut in two?"
"Can&039;t see too well, sir My eyes have been fadin&039; since I turned thirty See how they&039;re using tools?"
Valentine did see The gray giants were using picks and shovels to dig in a clearing they had enlarged in a patch of woods Other elephants used their foreheads to knock trees over, facing outward fro
"What did I tell you, boy?" Baltz said, creeping up on her haunches The girl watched silently from behind "Don&039;t that beat all? Them &039;fants, looks like three or four fa set for winter They&039;reup will be pushed together to make sort of a roof They don&039;t like the cold Don&039;t use fire, though They talk, and you can hear the frequency I knee&039;d run into sonaled it"
"Why are they digging?" the sailor asked
"Food storage That&039;s an old riverbed, and they&039;re going to put stuff they gathered in the clay They&039;ve figured out how to dry fruit You&039;ll see apples all over the place lying on stones"
"The Kurians thought they could feed off those? They look like they could stos hunt them with tranquilizers from horseback, or vehicles The &039;fants haven&039;t really worked out for them I don&039;t think they did s had a faence a couple of degrees was one of their duh, if there are &039;fants around, there h the tracks I&039;ve seen today don&039;t show it"
"You want us to ht?" Valentine asked
"Just for a couple one soon-let&039;s get ?"
"No sir," Eve said, eyes wide on the elephants
"You&039;d better go pack up thelook, then sca&039;s over We should get away from here"
"Is she a relative?" Valentine said
"She&039;s been with me since she was a babe in arms The Kurians had a research station in a crossroads town called Eden I never found out what they were breeding There was a fire, and they called in everyone with two arht it Well, for some reason there were human babies at this station, ed thee contraption Looked to be five, or ot her out She started coughing up a stor, I snuck her toout of my truck with her in it Whenever I had to deal with anyone else, I put her in a tool case, with air holes, of course She seeh she was barely crawling-she&039;d keep quiet for hours until I opened it up again"
The next day it was Baltz who summoned Valentine She sat her horse beneath a steel tower, a pair of power lines hanging from the arms
"This is funny, Captain," she said Valentine startled; it was the first ti other than his first name, or boy
"You don&039;t mean funny &039;ha-ha&039; I take it"
"No Funny-scary This is aplant in Abeline It&039;s dead, and Idead I haven&039;t been this deep into the Ranch in years, but I&039;d say this hasn&039;t carried current in two or three years, judging from bird and insect activity I climbed the tower and had a close look"
"Maybe they found a neer source," Valentine said, bu|t it sounded wrong even as a guess
"You know the Kurians, son, they don&039;t bother with so Civic i on theirabout a shutdown to at least half the Ranch, probably ave up on these experiht be They have the patience of Job, though, which , guys?"
Her assortedaround behind her horse Valentine&039;s horse began to toss its head He dis from that brush over there," Baltz said, her horse under better control
Valentine unlatched the flap on his 45&039;s holster He handed his reins to Baltz, and pulled his machete fro-sticker," Baltz said
"A Grog would have shot by now This isn&039;t the right ti any chances Maybe he&039;s got a motorcycle helmet on"
Valentine cursed hi one of Post&039;s spearheads He took a few cautious steps toward the brush, every nerve alert
He heard grass ed course at his approach Valentine un in his hand and
A sound like fifty castanets came from the brush It sounded familiar, only too loud; he hadn&039;t turned up his ears that much What kind of rattler would make that much noise?
He found out when the snake struck froe as a s pointed down and forward It aih
A blur of reflexes saved hi faster than the eye could follow He spun, pulling his leg out of the way as he brought the blade around and down as fast as a propeller The fine steel edge severed the neck of the rattler two feet below the neck, and the head flopped to the grass, biting at nothing The decapitated body thrashed back and forth, rattle still buzzing angrily
"Jesus, that&039;s a hell of a snake," Baltz said as the serpentine body slowed and stopped
Valentine breathed until his heart slowed and the burning above his kidneys faded
"You moved faster than the damn snake, boy I didn&039;t knohat happened till it was over You touched by God or soreed "Don&039;t tell me the Kurians made smart, venomous reptiles"
"I don&039;t think it was s up on all of us like that"
"If it wasn&039;t smart, then why did they bother? Breed a few thousand of them and drop them on farmland in the Ozarks from planes?"
"I wouldn&039;t put it past &039;e patrols away fro I&039;d say the Ranch is under new n that said &039;Animal Farm&039;?"
The reference was lost on Baltz
That night Valentine worked with the snakeskin He found so and with Ahn-Kha&039;s help he turned the hide into a bandolier He didn&039;t intend to be without a spearpoint or two in the future After the caape, and ask the same questions over and over, he and Ahn-Kha went to work They stretched lengths of snakeskin froons, peeling off the re down the skin
"The Gray Ones like snakemeat, my David Even better than beef"
"They&039;re welcoh to last theht and strong I think I will try layering it, so the scales go different directions Make armor for the chest and shoulders Better man sharkskin"
They ate and drank as they worked, with the other two Grogs squatting by the ca their every move
"Whatcha makin&039; boy?" the fa She approached the walk of someone constantly at sea or op horseback
"A conversation piece, most likely," Valentine said "There&039;s so-assed belt New clothes, Uncle?"
"It&039;s for ht I&039;d keep a couple of spearpoints in a bandolier"
"Ah, yeah, your precious wood Word around the caainst the Hissers"
"Reapers, we call them"
"Hissers is more accurate"
"Depends on if you&039;re describing what they do or what they sound like"
"So these spears kill &039;em?" she asked, eyes narrowed
"I&039;ve seen it more than once, more than twice If the wood is fairly fresh, when it hits their bloodstrea sound s " &039;Bout ti that did Can I have one of your stickers?"
&039;Take a couple It&039;s the least we can do for your help Help yourself to soet home, you can plant it Maybe someday it&039;ll be a liberty tree"
"A liberty tree?"
"Sootten Has to do with the founding of the old United States It&039;s an idea I&039;ve been working on ever since I found out what I had to bring back I picture these trees growing in all the freeholds"
"Prettyhile in life started out as somebody&039;s dreae explosion of teeth and claws shot out froon Ahn-Kha dropped his blade in alarie,to look under the wagon
"Shit!" she screa backwards in alarm
Valentine knelt, hand on his on A chi at his were all wrong, and the tail
"Nusk!" Ahn-Kha bellowed, and his Grogs grabbed cooking implements from the campfire
"Hey, it&039;s-," Valentine said as the creature dropped froround running The Grogs howled and ran around the other side of the wagon in pursuit Valentine juon for a better look
The oversize verh the caed to bring a shotgun up, but blasted only tra&039;s wake A flick of its cotton-tuft tail was the last Valentine saw of it, but his ears followed the scrah the darkness, northwest into the heart of the Ranch
Valentine shook his head, wishing they were off the Ranch He&039;d had enough of the Texas hills with creatures fro out of the brush
"Okay, so they made some cross of jackrabbit and rat the size of a raccoon," he said, turning to Baltz "What else do we have to look forward to? Cockroaches built like armored personnel carriers?"
Baltz passed one of her assorted handkerchiefs across her face "Boy, oh boy, I didn&039;t know about those things They must be new Did you see those red eyes?"
Valentine sat down on the bench seat at the front of the wagon, rubbing the back of his neck under his black ht explain the rattlesnakes To hunt loose rat-rabbits, whatever Rodents Snakes are the best rodent-killers on earth"
"My David, I think it is more than that," Ahn-Kha said
"What&039;s that?" Valentine asked
"It was here to listen Perhaps it understood us"
"Rats are s, anyway," Zacharias said, coot away The pickets didn&039;t even notice it"
Ahn-Kha pointed under the wagon "It was here for so"
Valentine looked at the scratchings They looked like a cross between hieroglyphics and Indian cave paintings
"Huh, an artist," a Texan crouching at the other side of the wagon remarked
"My David, a hunted animal doesn&039;t bother to doodle I think the Kurians bred the creatures for their auras"
"I believe you&039;ve got it, old horse Colonel Hibbert said so, and grow fast"
"True," Ahn-Kha ru eaten any better than you huht back"
"Successfully," Valentine agreed
Two days later, the Rangers riding screen for the convoy called up Zacharias and Valentine They saw more of the "ratbit" The scouts had paused at the on train would have to cross as they h scattered trees, what in this part of Texas ht be called a forest
A suessed to be snake stood near a trampled out area that had the trodden-on look of a campsite Tracks of wheeled vehicles, perhaps off-road bicycles, could be seen
"The Grogs travel on four-wheelers and motorcycles sometimes," Baltz said "Bicycles, too Maybe this is a camp of theirs"
"Auntie Amy! Look over here," Eve called They rode over and found a notch in the hillside filled with piles of apples, ears of corn, nuts, berries, and even alfalfa and hay for the anis didn&039;t do this," Zacharias said
"The ratbits?"
Eve gasped: "Look at the bark!"
Valentine saw a piece of bark tucked in the crotch of a sapling over the gathered supply
TAK AND LEAV WOODS
"What is this, a bribe? They&039;re afraid we&039;re going toout the words on the sign
"Maybe they&039;re trying to hurry us through You think we&039;re drawing so they&039;re afraid of?"
"We don&039;t knorote this," Valentine said "It could be a bunch of well-read kangaroos" Valentine wouldn&039;t have been surprised tothe Ranch