Iona
grappled with the gunner. Another waster, a woman in light armor,
climbed out of a window with a pistol, trying to get a shot at the
small Vixen. A grenade from Tricia snapped on an armor plate close to
that waster, causing her to lose her balance and fall off the
speeding vehicle.
Then
Iona found a firm grip on the gunner. She pulled him out and threw
him off the station wagon.
Tricia
reloaded the grenade launcher with a clip from one of the lockers.
She took aim at the station wagon but held her fire when she saw that
Iona was hanging on the side.
Iona
swung to the other side of the station wagon, the side away from her
allies.
Mabel
pulled close to the station wagon on her right. Tricia fired a few
rounds at the front wheel of their opponent.
All of a
sudden, the waster driver lost control of the station wagon. Iona
jumped clear as the vehicle spun out of control. One of the wheels,
the one Tricia had shot at earlier, broke free during the spin. After
a second spin, the station wagon came to a rest on its remaining
wheels.
Mabel
skidded to a halt next to the station wagon.
"Squirt,
stay there," Tricia told the boy. She grabbed her sword and
vaulted out of the cargo space. As she landed on the sand, she pulled
out her sidearm pistol.
Iona too
dashed for the vehicle. Mabel pulled out her own assault rifle and
jumped out.
A waster
was just climbing out of the vehicle. Tricia knocked the pistol from
the waster's hand with the flat of her blade and held him at
gunpoint. She ordered him out.
Iona
reached in through the window of the station wagon, cut the dazed
driver's seatbelt with her claws and dragged him to the other
prisoner. Mabel tied them both up.
"Squirt,
bring your tools!" Tricia called. When George arrived with his
equipment, the tall Vixen pointed at the broken wheel of station
wagon. "Can you fix that?"
One
glance was all George needed to determine his answer. "No,"
he said, "The bolts are broken. It'd take time to fix a
replacement."
Tricia
pointed at the mounted machinegun. "Then remove the MG and the
ammo box."
With the help of a pump installed in the pickup, the tall Vixen started sucking fuel from the station wagon into
spare containers. Meanwhile, Iona poked through the cargo for anything of value.
"You
Vixens will get what's coming for this!" blustered one of the
wasters.
"Need
I remind you that you were the ones who attacked first?" Mabel
pointed out dryly. While keeping an eye on her prisoners, she twisted
a little in the direction of Tricia. "Hey, Trish, they attacked
first, right?"
"Yeah,"
Tricia confirmed.
"Anyway,
we'll be gone before your friends show up," Mabel told the
waster, "You should know better than to try to raid the Scarlet
Vixens. Why the last gang that tried..." The brown-haired Vixen
went on and on with a great deal of gloating. Then she threw in some derisive jeering.
George
decided to tune out the noise by concentrating on work before his
ears hurt. He was having a hard time reaching the nuts that held the
machinegun in place. He had already removed the ammo box - that had
been the easy part. Behind him, Iona was bouncing up and down, urging
him to hurry. Apparently, she was already done looting.
It sure
would be easier for George to work if there were not an audience.
George
glanced once at the hopping Vixen and immediately gasped. "Iona,
aren't you bleeding!?"
"Oh,
so that's what that pain was." Iona pulled out a bullet from her
shoulder, from where it had hit beneath a bone plate.
"Squirt,
work faster!" Apparently, Tricia had completed her task too.
Great,
George had more people watching. Maybe George should start charging
people to watch him work. Yeah, he would make a small fortune that
way. If only they would they at least keep quiet. Hopefully Mabel was
still busy verbally tormenting her captives to add to the audience
size.
"You
think you can get the wheels too?" Mabel called out.
Groan.
More work!? He would have to lift the heavy vehicle somehow to remove
those!
"No
space for that," Tricia decided, "It's not worth much
anyway."
That was
a relief.
George
sighed when he had finished disconnecting the machinegun.
Tricia
lifted the weapon over a shoulder. "Squirt, get that ammo!"
She was definitely bossy that day.
Regardless,
George obeyed and tossed his tools and the ammo box into the cargo
space of the Vixen pickup, where Tricia had dumped the machinegun.
Once
everyone was in the pickup, Mabel drove them away before more wasters
showed up.
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