Read 05. Children of Flux and Anchor for Free Online Page B

game tied in a hunting camp.
    The other one they bound, face out, to a tall, deeply sunk pole. Only then did they begin to survey the rest of the scene.
    "You did pretty good hanging on that horse's ass and side," Ryan told the younger man. "Glad you could. I'm getting too old for that stuff."
    "Looks like you're pretty good to me," Rondell responded with more than a note of admiration in his voice. "Let's see— God !"
    His light shone on one of the raiders' victims, a man who looked to be about thirty, although looks were deceiving, even in New Eden. He'd been shot twice, but then somebody had stripped him and castrated him with a knife.
    There were two other males, one in his teens and one not that old, who had met identical fates. They found one other body not a raider, a woman, who'd been almost cut in two with a hail of bullets. She was so beautiful that it seemed almost sacrilege to have done that to her. She'd fallen with a shotgun nearby.
    Rondell was clearly shaken, but he could still think straight. "I thought these Fluxgirls were passive."
    "Ain't nothing meaner and more dangerous than a Fluxwife when she sees her family in danger," the bearded man responded. "Except maybe two of 'em going at each other over something. Come on. Let's look at the raiders. . . ."
    Finally, Rondell sighed. "They're all women. Sure not Fluxgirls, though." That was an understatement. None of them, including the captives, were very attractive, and clearly none had bathed in weeks or longer. All had rough complexions, calloused hands, and scars here and there, and all had bad teeth, and all were dressed in rags that clearly had once been the clothing of victims. Two had missing fingers; one who might have been attractive was disfigured with a deep, old scar that ran from under her left eye almost to her mouth.
    "A couple of 'em 'been shot twice," Ryan noted. "I didn't think we were good enough to fire only fatal shots. Not at that range."
    "You mean the others killed them?" The younger man was already feeling sick.
    "Looks like. They killed the survivors who wouldn't be any help and couldn't make it anyplace on their way, then dragged their bodies over here after dark. That's a nearly-full can of kerosene over there, too. After they got done with us, they were gonna burn the bodies. Maybe all of 'em. That way nobody could tell who was raider and who was rancher." He paused a moment. "What's the matter? You been around dead people before."
    "I—I just noticed this little sack on the belt of the one with the scar. I—look."
    Ryan looked and then spat. Inside were the three severed penises. "War trophies. Son of a bitch. Wonder what the hell she did with 'em?" At that moment there was a groan from in back of them. "Seems like the sleeping beauties are coming to. You're looking pretty bad, Grandson. You sure you got the stomach for what comes next?"
    "I do now," Rondell responded, and they walked back to the nearest one, the one bound face-out to the post.
    She watched them come, eyes filled with hate, lip curled in an animal-like sneer.
    "How much time I take with this is up to you," the bearded man told her in an even tone. "Now, I know you can talk 'cause we heard you whispering a thousand meters off."
    "Pigs!" she hissed, and spat at them.
    "Now, we're not from New Eden and we don't have much love for 'em. We're from Flux," Ryan continued, wiping the spittle off and not blinking an eye or changing his tone one bit. "We also don't give a shit about their laws. It's Flux law here." He saw that she understood what he meant. There was no law in Flux except that power and brains ruled.
    "Go fuck y'selves," she responded defiantly. "Go 'head 'n kill me. You ain't gettin' shit outta me."
    "I'm not going to kill you," the bearded man told her. "I'm going to leave you here for the New Eden boys to really work you over. What I leave for 'em, anyway."
    He thought he saw a gleam of fear in her eyes. "What you gonna do?"
    He reached over and with