“They passed Lester’s, the coffee shop on Eighty-fourth where Robert used to take Grace for breakfast sometimes before school.”
The fifth line of the fifth page of the fifth chapter of “The Horse Whisperer” by Nicholas Evans
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| credit Canva-Irena Szirtes |
In honour of Wilhelm Imiołczyk, whose name I've taken for this story.
In the living hell of WW2 Poland, his forged papers saved lives.
Hoods and Bots: Part Four
Hercule, Roland and I lay flat atop an ancient railway embankment, hoods on, weapons primed. There were many of us from multiple units scattered along the embankment both sides, most with weapons like mine, two pairs with missile launchers to target enemy spy drones, which often accompanied freight trains. I wondered if everyone else was dry-mouthed too. Time and tension felt one and the same. We could practically hear each other sweat, though the early morning air was cold.
It was over in an instant: the whirr of a
high-speed hovertrain into ear-splitting, sparking derailment as the cab tipped
off the wrecked magnetic track. One drone squealed to the ground; the other dipped
and dodged, as smart as our target-seeking missiles. Soldiers rose like ghosts
from long grass and scrub to check the demolished cab and break into trucks
holding boxes of weapons, technology and supplies intended for Regime use. Just
as I registered relief I hadn’t fired a shot, some dozen guards emerged from the
rear of the train around the bend, weapons discharging. All was confusion,
shouting and shooting as our embankment marksmen opened fire. Just as the
second drone blazed from the sky, Hercule tensed, and from the corner of my eye
I saw a guard, pistol pointed, crawling up the bank right for us. A
flash-thought told me, ‘Send Hercule,’ but I shut it out. Without knowing why,
I disengaged the heat-seeking device before I aimed, closed my eyes and fired a
volley. When I opened my eyes, the pistol-toting guard lay still, and the hatred
that burned for him began to turn itself on me.
2 comments:
Mia’s first killing of a human … I’ve heard that when a soldier kills someone, even in the line of duty, it does change them. Makes them less likely to talk the talk as Mia has been doing, albeit mentally. Now she’s ’walked the walk’ - killed for her cause: the fight against the regime - I’m curious to see how her character evolves.
Thankyou very much Liz... I appreciate those thoughts and comments 😊😊👍
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