They hadn't travelled more than a couple of hundred yards before the scout returned. “Radiants up ahead!” he said. “Three of them, low to the ground, blocking the road. I’m pretty sure they saw me but they didn’t pursue.”

     “They're going to encircle the town first,” guessed Tyrell. “Then move in together, massacring everyone they come across.”

     “And we’re inside the circle! What do we do?”

     “Hide, and pray to Those Above that they overlook us in the carnage. You're a local?” The man nodded. “We need a small side road with plenty of cover. Trees and so forth.”

     “The Bailey farm,” replied the scout. “There's a copse of trees between the paddock and the hay barn big enough to hid all of us plus the wagon, but everyone else will have the same idea.” He indicated the civilians sharing the road with them.”

     Tyrell cursed. “Maybe we shouldn’t have warned them,” he muttered. “Kept them all in the town. It's not as if many of them are going to survive, even out here.”

     “And could you have lived with yourself if we hadn't given them this chance, small though it is? Besides, they could see that something was up. They'd be running anyway.”

     “Yeah. Okay, take us to the copse. No, wait. It's autumn. The crops are high, aren't they?”

     “Ready for harvest," the scout replied, "and the Carrowmen are screaming because there’s no-one left to harvest it. They're starving, there's food all around and all the farmers have fled before them.”

     “Take us to the nearest field of maize," Tyrell ordered. "We'll hide there until they’re past.”

     “You can't hide in a cornfield from creatures that can look down from above!”

     “But they’re not up above, are they? You said they’re down close to the ground, blocking the road.”

     “The man nodded. “Yeah, it might work. There's a side turning fifty yards on.”

     “Lead on, Private.”

     The man nodded and took his place at the head of their column. When they came to the side turning they stopped and unloaded the wagon, two of the cavalrymen carrying Andrea’s stretcher between them. Tyrell glanced ahead, dreading to see the Radiants coming into view through the trees that flanked the winding road. From somewhere up ahead suddenly came the sound of screaming, followed by the terrified bleating of sheep and the whinnying of horses.

     Tyrell saw two of the youngest cavalrymen sharing a look of naked fear as they imagined what was happening to the first of the civilians who'd reached the Radiants. The rest would be hanging back, they knew. Staring at their monstrous adversaries and at their former friends and neighbours who'd just been cursed back to their animal forms. Even now, more Radiants were probably arriving to form a cordon across the countryside, meaning that there'd be no escape by leaving the road. The scene up ahead, and on all the other roads leading away from the town, would be turning into scenes of nightmare as it finally came home to the townspeople the fate that awaited them. Many would try to return to the town, hoping that the soldiers would be able to defend them, but Tyrell knew that they wouldn’t even be able to defend themselves.

     “Push the wagon off the road,” he ordered. “Unsaddle the horses and leave them to roam. Hopefully they won’t go far and we’ll be able to find them again afterwards.”

     “The townspeople will take them,” someone said. “They'll think they'll be able to escape on horseback.”

     “Maybe we can escape that way,” suggested another, pointing ahead down the road. “Just ride through them. Radiants can't keep up with a galloping horse.”

     “They can cast a curse in a heartbeat," Tyrell reminded him. "And besides, our job is to defend the scientists. We hide in the corn. The horses will still be here after the Radiants have passed, and even if they aren’t, I imagine there'll soon be plenty more horses hereabouts.”

     The soldier looked shocked at his callous reference to cursed villagers and for a moment Tyrell thought he might protest, but then he nodded, dismounted and began unbuckling his saddle.

     “Try to disturb the corn as little as possible,” he said as they made their way across the field. “Find a spot a little way away from the others, then lie down and keep still. No matter what you see and hear, keep still and keep silent.”

     The ground was damp and cool. Tyrell made sure that he was lying a few feet away from Shanks, with Andrea and the men who'd carried her a few feet away in the other direction. The maize was growing dense enough that he couldn't see either of them, but it was only about four feet tall and there was nothing above them. A Radiant, drifting by high enough for its longest tentacles to just drag along the ground, would be able to see them clearly if it came within twenty or thirty yards. And who knows what other senses it might possess? he suddenly thought. Their eyesight is thought to be poor, compared to that of a human, so it’s probably not their most important sense, so what is? Hearing? Smell? Or some other sense of which humans were totally unaware? Were they hidden at all from those other senses?

     They were just in time, because refugees from the town were running back towards Adams Hill, desperate to escape the massacre. Tyrell listened carefully, even as he kept his face pressed to the ground, and heard panicked voices arguing about how they were going to escape. “Look! Horses!” he heard someone say. “Where did they come from?”

     “Who cares? Grab one."

     “They don’t have saddles!”

     “Who cares? Just grab a couple.”

     There followed the sounds of people and animals chasing each other, and the intelligence man tensed up in fear as one of the horses galloped across the field in their direction, followed by the townsman. If he sees us, we’ll have to kill him, he thought, and he moved his hand to the knife at his belt as the two came closer. At the last minute, though, the horse changed direction and galloped off to the west, tossing its head in indignation, and Tyrell breathed a sigh of relief.

     It was short lived. A moment later his companion gave a cry of terror. “They're coming! Dan, they’re coming!”

     “Shit! Hide! Run!”

     Tyrell heard the man running directly away from them, but if the Radiants had seen him and gave chase, he would lead them directly to where the scientists and their escort were hiding. On the other hand, if the town was now completely encircled, chasing every stray would leave gaps in the contracting circle. The better strategy would be for every Radiant to simply follow a straight line to the centre of town, killing or cursing every human it came across on the way, and that meant that one of them might well be passing directly over their hiding place. Dammit! thought Tyrell in new fear. We haven't thought this through...

     There was no time to think of a new plan, though. They could only keep their heads low and hope for a miracle. He did some mental arithmetic in his head. If they were about a mile from the centre of town, then the circumference of the circle of Radiants at that distance would be about six miles. About ten thousand yards, give or take. If there were a hundred Radiants attacking the town, then that was one Radiant every hundred yards. That meant that there was a roughly fifty fifty chance that one would come close enough to see them...

     Just think happy thoughts, he told himself. Those Above are with us. They'll keep us safe. He'd never believed in Those Above, but he found himself praying to them now, muttering under his breath, his body shaking with a terror he’d never known before.

     The wind had died down, he noticed. The gale that had been blowing the creatures from the east had died down as if the whole world were holding its breath, waiting to see what would happen. He heard new screams from down the road, closer this time, and then an eerie piping sound as if an army of lunatics were blowing on flutes. It was an utterly inhuman sound that froze the marrow in his bones and brought beads of sweat to his forehead. The Radiants! he thought. They're here!

     It took all his self control not to raise his head and look. The piping grew louder, along with the whispering sound of tentacles dragging through grass and undergrowth. He tried to judge the direction from which the sound was coming, and was relieved when it seemed to be passing some distance away, probably following the road. He heard another Radiant passing on the other side of him, about the same distance away, and his heart leapt in joy and relief. By lucky chance, they were directly between two of them, the best possible place to escape notice. Those Above had heard his prayers...

     “Where am I?” said a woozy sounding woman's voice. “What's going on?”

     Tyrell froze in a new terror. Andrea McCrea! The woman was choosing the worst possible time to wake up! He heard one of the soldiers trying to shush her, and when she tried to speak again her voice was muffled, as if he had his hand across her mouth. “Be quiet!” he heard him saying.

     There was the sound of a struggle and the muffled voice grew louder. “You have to be quiet!” he heard the soldier saying again, as loud as he dared. “Please, trust me! Be quiet!”

     The sounds stopped, as if Andrea McCrea had understood, but had the damage been done? Tyrell could only lie there, as still as his adrenalin-soaked body would allow, and wait. The piping continued, and he thought it was louder, as if it was approaching to investigate the sound, or was it just his fear making him think that? More screams came from the distance, along with gunshots. Then there came a thrashing from just a few dozen yards away. “No! Please! Please!”

     It was the townsman they'd heard earlier, and it was followed by a scream and the sickening, wet sound of his body being torn apart by tentacles as strong as pythons. The piping seemed to have a satisfied tone to it as pieces of a human body came thudding to the ground, and a red rage filled Tyrell. He almost leapt to his feet to fire his pistol at the creature, to the ruin of them all. Were the others fighting the same internal battle to remain in control of themselves? It would only take one of them, weaker or more afraid than the others, to give in to the unequal struggle...

     By some miracle, they all remained hidden, and gradually the Radiants moved on, closing in on the town. Don't get up yet, he mentally urged the others. They're still too close, and they can see in all directions. We need to wait here until they've got all their attention focused on the town. He remained where he was, and so did all the others, but then someone moved. Too soon, by Tyrell's reckoning. He heard someone getting to their feet and, since any harm had already been done, he lifted his head to see who it was.

     It was the Corporal, standing and staring after the departing Radiants. “All clear,” he said in a low voice. “Make as little noise as you can, just in case.” A moment later the sound of gunfire came from the town. Just a few isolated shots at first, but then a full fusillade. There was the whoomph of an explosion, and a cloud of red fire was rising into the sky. One of the rounds of incendiary ammunition had found its mark.

     The others all got to their feet, and Tyrell followed suit, brushing loose soil from his expensive clothes. Shanks ran over to where the soldier was carefully helping Andrea McCrea back to her feet. “Sorry about that, miss,” he apologised. “The situation, though...”

     “It's okay,” she said, and then Shanks was there, taking her hand and staring into her eyes as if to make sure she really was awake. “Are you okay?” he asked. “How do you feel?”

     “Fine,” she said, but she looked wobbly and she put a hand to her head as if it was hurting. “What's going on?”

     Tyrell left him to bring her up to date while he went back to the road. The sound of gunfire from the town was intensifying and there were two more hydrogen explosions in quick succession. “Let's get the wagon back on the road,” he told the Corporal. “We haven’t got much time. And get the horses rounded up.”

     The Corporal nodded and gave orders to the other cavalrymen. Two of the horses couldn’t be found, but the others came trotting back as their names were called and soon they were saddled, with two of the men having to share horses. The sounds of battle kept coming from the north, and Tyrell counted fifteen explosions before they stopped. Fifteen Radiants had met their end at the hands of the brave, doomed defenders. They would be the last Radiant casualties, though, unless one of the soldiers got impossibly lucky with one of his flaming arrows. From now on it would be nothing but grisly slaughter, and the intelligence man turned his face away in sorrow and rage. They will pay! he swore to himself. They will pay for this!

     Soon, there would be no humans left alive in the town, and then the Radiants would start searching the surrounding countryside, looking for survivors. They had to be long gone by then. The hospital orderlies helped Andrea McCrea back into the wagon and the driver climbed back into the driver’s seat. Tyrell mounted his own horse and the cavalrymen arranged themselves into a column on the road. Then, after making sure they were all ready to move on, the Corporal gave the order and they set off away from the doomed town as fast as the wagon would go.

☆☆☆

     *One of the scientists is aboriginal,* said Alpha as bullets tore through his body. They hurt but did no real damage. *Examine the corpses. Look for sexual organs.*

     *What if he isn't here?* asked Beta. His voice was faint with distance. He was nearly two hundred yards away, tearing the roof from the temple of Those Above to get at the humans huddled inside.

     *Then the defence of this town was a diversion while he escaped. Cunning, for larvae.* There was a pause while he delivered a curse, throwing the defenders back down the developmental ladder. *Dispatch half our forces to search the surrounding countryside. He won't have gone far.*

     There was a pause. *It is done. We lost fifteen hosts.*

     *Irrelevant. They will be recorporated.*

     *Yes. I meant that they had the ability to destroy fifteen hosts. That is worrying.*

     *Their ability to manufacture such weapons is limited. It is ironic that we know better than they where to find the metal they need. We have the geological maps made by the aboriginal civilisation. The mine and refinery they are building to the east is far from the ideal location.*

     *Ideal or not, it must be destroyed.*

     *It will be, but not yet. If we wait until it is almost operational, we maximise their wasted effort. Incendiary ammunition is not a problem, therefore. The radio weapon is of much greater concern.*

     *We will find the aboriginal. We will find all of them that remain.*

     *You promised me this a thousand years ago.*

     *It is taking longer than expected, that is all. The final result is certain.*

     *Very well. Let us put an end to this unpleasant business.*

     The other Radiant sent back a reply and the two creatures returned to the slaughter.