CHAPTER 15

Hera: Hide Number 2, A little past daybreak

Used to be I could run all night, then all day too. All this creepin’ around’s startin’ to grind me down. Might be about time to break out the stims, cain’t afford to be slow later on. Naw, hold off on those til just afore the party starts. Gonna pay for usin’ em after, always do.

God......all over nasty this mornin’. Get this crud cleaned off ‘fore it stinks. Cammie top ....prolly won’t get all the blood out. Toss it, britches too. Got a fresh set in the box. Knife needs cleaned, gun, shotgun too, even though it ain’t been fired.......... Just so many fun things to do.

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And so we take a rummage in the ration stash and come up with..... ham and mammies. Well, that’s surely a letdown. Anything else in here? Couple units of protein mush.....candy bars, have one of those for dessert.......can of pork and beans. That’ll do.

Run the opener ‘round the edge ........don’t THINK it’s supposed to be growin’ hair like that. Take a sniff..ughhh. Definitely WAY past the expiration date. Dig a cat hole and bury that. Looks like mush for breakfast again.

Wonder if I should take the Remington? Got the range and punch for serious sniping, but that won’t really be the job, will it? Idea is to make ‘em duck, then come on out to play. Callahan’ll make the range if I dial up to max, but accuracy won’t be so good. Lot of drop at three hundred yards. Might not matter. Might think I’m a lousy shot, be careless. One less thing to drag along, slow me down. Yeah, leave it.

And our mystery meal today is.......chicken flavor. Not bad, prefer the beef. Hell, all tastes about the same after awhile anyway.

Figger it oughtta start soon. Call over to the ship, get no answer. I’ll hear that on the com I took. Check it out.....recon in force? Likely use the hover, search the ship. Fall back, consolidate.

Give’em time to come down off the jazz, then zap ‘em.

Barty’s Ship: The Black, 15 Mon