The Victorians headed farther south in the event that the minions struck out in search of the missing nation of Victory.
This was fully expected and was, in fact, inevitable. So, Marco gave the order to mobilize once again. Victory had its own concerns regarding shortages. South of their winter retreat, both food and water resources became scarce. It was basically a high desert environment limited to rabbits, tortoises, coyotes, and other small animals. Since there were no lush grazing lands, large herbivores did not go there.
The midsummer heat was oppressive in the day, but temperatures would plummet overnight. Despite these hardships, the people of Victory were determined to avoid violence and bloodshed, and they pushed farther south in a mass exodus. It was an all-or-nothing strategy of attrition at this point.
The Victorians had weeks of food on hand, and they gambled that the minions would fold. What they didn’t know was that Saul had been in this predicament several times before. He would simply begin to cull the weak and nonessential to sustain the rest of his people. However sickening, people eventually chose survival and then became numb to it.
Marco and his people could not yet conceive that this mind-set was possible; thus, they felt a degree of security. But in reality, they would be hunted as long as Saul and his minions drew breath. There was only one possible ending.
Saul sat atop his platform as it heaved and lunged; each bearer of its heavy load searched for stable footfall along the rutted trail. They were nearing the south camp, where Baggus still remained, paralyzed and indecisive. He had sent scouts off in various directions, but they had not gone far. He had instilled in them little conviction or hope of finding the vanished nation of running giants.
Baggus still felt completely baffled and still doubted his original instincts. As he received his first report that the entire nation of minions was nearing his position, an unfathomable weight of responsibility suddenly shifted onto him, and a feeling of panic set in. His mind raced to concoct excuses, theories, and plans but his state of panic made him all the more confused.
Hours later, the lead dogs and their soldiers started to filter into the village, smiling and pleased to be reunited but also half-starved and feeling grim. Baggus spoke frantically to anyone who appeared to still be thinking clearly, as he hoped to get quickly calibrated to what was happening and what Saul had in mind. No one seemed to know anything; they had simply been ordered to cross and march.
Hours later, the incoming wave thickened, and Baggus could see the elevated platform rounding the last bend. His anxiety peaked, and he felt short of breath. He had no idea what his men had actually told Saul, and his fear and guilt consumed him. He looked in the crowd for his wife, whom he knew would stay close to Saul, Angie, Megan, and the others.
He searched for any of them but saw only a blur of dust and the passing faces of the dead walking.
Saul arrived at the village center, where there was a large open area. The platform was lowered, and Saul’s arms waved as he barked instructions. Baggus took a few deep breaths and decided to face the situation head-on. He walked up to greet Saul.
“Baggus! You da lead dog out heya, lead’n da way ta owa fewcha. Did you fin’ ’em yet?”
“No, Saul. We be lookin’, goin’ out in all da ways. Nuttin’ yet. I’s worried ’bout it.”
“Don’ worry, Baggus. You’s right on. Theyz down ’ere somewheya. I knowed it. Dayz runnin’. Mr. Li betray us and givin’ ’em ’vice what to do. We gon’ fine doze muddas and dat lil shit oriental. Lay’m all out heya in dis nice sun fa jerky.”
Baggus couldn’t believe his good fortune. He raised his fist in support and shouted, “Yahhh! Ya heya dat? Jerky! All a dem! Yaaahhhh!”
A crowd joined in, clueless as to what they were celebrating. Baggus then saw his wife, and she saw him as well.
Her face looked drawn and weary. She attempted a pained smile but didn’t move; she just stood at a distance. Baggus walked toward her with purpose and wrapped his big arms around her with genuine relief and affection. His nerves were wracked, and the sight of her made him tear up as they embraced, their moment of joy a very brief respite from the constant misery.
Baggus had already staked out a choice cabin with a large washtub and a stone water tank that was nearly full. Angie and Megan also convened there, and Baggus welcomed them to stay, just as they had previously, as they worked as a team to survive.
High above them, Manfred, Harper, and the rest of the lookout team were in a good position this time. They were up high, but because it was nearly a vertical cliff down to the edge of the settlement, they were closer to the action than they had been at the north camp.
This time, Harper could see for certain that one of the girls who had saved him—the one whom he had grown to fancy just from the memory of her sweet face—was indeed under Saul’s tight leash. This sickened him, but even more disturbing was the fact that he couldn’t see how he could rescue her. He kept his attention trained on Saul’s whereabouts. He took note that she and the other girl—perhaps her sister—were staying with the commander who occupied the camp first. Maybe they were all a family. Harper tried to keep tabs on where they went after they left Saul, but he lost sight of them in the crowd and then behind some houses. As Harper continued to scan the area, he noticed the three couriers coming from the north and headed toward their position. It was Delia, Nora, and Kat, and they were also up on the high ridge, trying to remain invisible. As they arrived, Delia headed straight to Manfred to report the encounter with Ramius, which she found a bit odd because he was all alone and headed back to the village.
“Delia, I have no idea what it means,” responded Manfred. “Just make sure it is reported to the couriers who will head out tomorrow morning. All we can do is alert Marco. He may know what it’s about.”
Meanwhile, Harper took note of a small group of minions who were starting to climb a trail that was not too far from where they sat. In fact, if these minions were to continue along it and climb to the top of the ridge, they would easily see the lookout spot. Harper went to discuss this urgent matter with Manfred. Delia was still there finishing her report when Harper walked up.
“Man, there are twelve guys climbing our way. They have some dogs too.”
“That’s not good. We will need to pull out and clean the area completely. How long will it take them?”
“Four hours? That’s a guess,” replied Harper.
“Another problem is if they try to scale up Big Horn.”
This was the name of the large peak that was just behind them.
“From up there, they might be able spot the Victory caravan,” observed Manfred.
“Should we try to capture them?” asked Harper.
“They outnumber us, and that’s before we talk about the dogs. It would be a big risk, and it would take only one person to get away before we’d be in real trouble,” reasoned Manfred. “Let’s wait and see where they go.”
They all pulled back to the north, well away from where the minions might reach the cliff top. Late that afternoon, they spotted the minions, hot and panting as they crested the cliff top. They paused, only to look at the village below, and they began pointing and discussing their next move. No sooner had they stopped to catch their breath than they resumed their climb, obviously intent on going to the top of Big Horn Mountain. Manfred now felt helpless.
“Let’s send off the couriers now. We need to warn Marco and the others. Harper! Where do you think is a good place for us? Once they get a little higher up, we will be spotted easily.”
“We need to move north, and then we can get a little lower on the mountain. That should give us cover.”
“Agreed. Let’s take no chances. I want to move out now!”
The team of ten gathered their things and started to move toward the north, away from Big Horn and the south village. They ended up at a spot where they could still see the minions working their way higher. About an hour later, they saw two of the minions heading back down and making good time.
“That’s it! Marco has been spotted!” yelled Delia.
“Or us,” countered Manfred.
“Must be the others,” said Harper. “Look up! The guys are still at the top. They are looking away from us.”
“Shit!” exclaimed Manfred. “This is bad.”
“What do you want to do?” asked Harper. Manfred had no immediate answer. He just stared at the village and then up at the minions.
“Okay, let’s send another squad. No point sitting here with so many. I want to make sure we get word to Marco in case something happens. Delia, are you guys ready?”
“Sure thing! We will get to Marco way ahead of these clowns, and we will set up defenses if there is nowhere else to go.”
With that, Delia, Nora, and Kat put on their packs, sheathed their knives, and took off. They knew without having to be told that they would need to go all the way around the backside of Big Horn in order to stay concealed. But they had run every step of it throughout their young but active lives, so they knew the most efficient ways to get there.
“Once they deploy to the south, my guess is it will be most if not all of them,” concluded Manfred.
The next morning, when they had reasonable light, they could see that the observers were still up near the top of Big Horn. But down in the village, things were stirring in a chaotic Brownian dance. Yes, there was going to be movement to the south, but would they all go in pursuit of Victory? Manfred and the team watched and waited helplessly.
The answer came later that morning as eight stocky minions, with thick pads across their shoulders, hoisted up the platform with Saul perched on his low bench and Megan beside him. Saul was among the last to leave, preferring his minions to stretch out far in front so that they would be the ones to take the brunt of whatever mortal conflict was to befall them.
At about the same time, they saw the Big Horn observers making their way down to join the procession.
“Okay! Get your gear together. We will go down to the village and see if it’s clear. Then, we will follow behind until we are out in the open dessert. From there, we will figure out our best position.” Manfred continued, “I need to be honest with all of you. A big fight may be about to happen. In that case, we won’t be sitting back and watching.” Everyone just stood silently, watching him. “Alright! Move out!”
They proceeded down the mountain and toward the village, which was now occupied by only a massive cloud of dust as the last of the minions fell out of sight.
Ramius couldn’t quite see the village, but he could see the edges of what looked like a dust storm. A battle? he wondered in fear. From his high position on the ridge, he moved as well as he could, anxious to see what was happening. Then, he saw it. It looked empty.
“That’s odd,” he remarked to himself. But based on the massive dust cloud, they had been there not long ago. Then, he saw the Victorian soldiers just as they dropped down to the road and were starting to jog toward the village. Ramius knew immediately what to do, and he continued along the high ridge toward Big Horn Mountain.
Within an hour, he was well up on Big Horn and making his way around the back of it as he tried to get a clear view of what was off in the distance. It was already early afternoon, and he knew that by later tonight, Saginaw would need to return to Eden to restore its energy. This was a concept that he was still grappling with, and he had argued with Dream about it.
“Why so exact? Why can’t the bird just stay with me as long as I need it? I don’t know if I can find them so easily. The distance is far.”
Dream had responded, “Ramius, imagine that every time you got hungry, you only had a short time to eat, or your body would stop completely and you could not move. This is the situation with man-made machines. They are not like you. I myself would stop if the power plant in Main were to fail.”
The explanation had satisfied him at the time, but now, as he pushed himself up and over Big Horn, his feeling was one of high anxiety. Then, he saw it—the dust rising and the masses of people on the march. Then, far in the distance, he could see the traces of Victory spotted across the landscape.
“Oh no!” Ramius took deep breaths and repeated, “Oooooh no! Come on!” He couldn’t hear the flapping of Saginaw, but he could see the dove-sized bird taking advantage of the steady headwind to hover high above. Just like a real bird, he thought. Ramius took out his headset and put it on.
“Dream. Are you there?”
“Yes, Ramius. I can see the people below.”
As Ramius looked at the trailing stragglers, the image zoomed in substantially. The indicator showed “4,386yds” as he held his gaze on a particular individual.
“Ramius, targeting will not be accurate at this distance. I recommend that you close the distance by two thousand yards to enable a high degree of certainty. In addition, you should reduce your altitude by two hundred yards or more, where the wind speed is much lower.”
“Got it.” Ramius removed the headset and picked up the rifle. He started to angle down slightly while trying to head straight for the minions in an attempt to close the gap.
The earlier runners who had been sent by Manfred were just now reaching the makeshift camp. It was located near a reasonably clear stream that supplied adequate water for drinking and cooking, while they considered their options.
Meanwhile, Marco quickly organized a makeshift council meeting as the courier arrived with the news.
“Saul has occupied the south camp now. All the minions left the north and have headed south. As I departed, it was not clear whether the minions would stay at the south camp or continue in this direction. Manfred continues to hold watch.
There’s something else to report: Ramius was seen by our last scouts near North Village. He was headed toward the north camp, although no one is there. We are not sure why.”
“Curious.” Marco pondered. “I don’t know what Ramius is up to. What I do know is that we should expect the worst. We will not be surprised. Zeus, I need all men and women military personnel positioned north of the camp to create a shield and armed and ready to fight. Have them positioned and ready before nightfall.
“Leader!” Zeus saluted and then left immediately to organize his forces.
With Ramius Jr. by her side, Ana approached Marco. “Can you tell me what has become of Ramius? I understand that we are all supposed to be here together now. His friends are all back with their families.” Ana was trying to hold back tears so as not to cause her son undue worry, but she had lost control and was nearing hysteria.
“Ana, he’s okay. I’m sorry; it’s my fault. He is on a special assignment for me, and I can’t tell you the nature of it, but just be assured that he is okay,” he lied. “The runners who just came in reported that he is up near the Village. They saw him just a day ago. He’s right where I expected him to be.” Ana calmed down and took some deep breaths. “I will keep you better informed. I promise. I have been so busy,” Marco pleaded. Ana was quickly reassured, and he gave her a friendly hug to double down. But in actuality, he was also mystified by Ramius’s whereabouts.
As Ana and Ramius Jr. left, he instructed one of his guards, “Find Johnny. I need to talk to him.”
The other council members, minus Zeus, were all still milling about, waiting to continue a discussion that they felt was far from over. Marco waved them back in to his impromptu meeting area. “I think we need to move everyone at first light. I was thinking about heading back toward the hills over there.”
He pointed southwesterly. “Any elevation will give us a defensive advantage. I am terrified of facing them in the open field, especially with all those mad dogs. We need our archers to be able to come down on the dogs especially. If we can handle the dogs, I know we can finish the job … if it comes to that.” All of them, including Marco, now felt that it would.
Ramius was making significant headway and had already caught up to the tail of the minions that snaked down the wide valley heading directly toward the entire Victory nation.
“How much time do I have?” Ramius fumbled to dig out the headset, after which he had to repeat the question. “How much? Dream. How much time before Saginaw leaves me?”
“One hour.”
“What does that mean? One hour. We don’t use that,”
Ramius replied in frustration.
“You will see numbers on the upper right starting with a seven. The number that is changing is the seconds. When the seconds have changed three thousand six hundred times, the number on the left will change to an eight. Then Saginaw must leave.”
“I am still having trouble …”
“It is approximately one third the amount of time since we last spoke.” Ramius thought about what she had just said. “It will be before total darkness.”
“Okay, I see. That I can understand.”
He repositioned his headset and scanned the moving throngs. Although the light was dimming, and it would normally be impossible to make out much detail, he was able to do so because of the headset’s perfect illumination. Unbeknownst to him, his headset was actually just processing areas of wideangle images captured by the cameras aboard Saginaw. The headset images were adjusted instantaneously based on Ramius’s eye movements to enable Dream to determine exactly what Ramius was looking at.
“I can’t find him. Shit!” Ramius exclaimed as he scanned the sea of marching bodies.
“Dream, can you see it? I am looking for a large man. I saw him before. He might be riding on a platform with other men carrying him. But maybe this time, he is walking. I don’t know.”
“Searching,” replied Dream, who had the ability to scan and assess all the images captured by Saginaw. “Ramius, let me know if this is the man.” Ramius’s display suddenly shifted to another view, and there he was. The platform was stopped, and one by one, the men below it were being replaced by fresh minions. Apparently, Saul’s platform, weight down by his significant bulk and his petite companion, was heavy.
As this change-out occurred, Ramius had the pleasure of seeing Saul standing at one edge of the platform and urinating on the ground. The image was so detailed that he could see the grimaces on the faces of the men on that side of the platform as they battled to bear the extra weight. Saul then waddled back to the center of the platform and fell back on his bench, thus converting his potential energy into a spine-jarring shock that buckled the knees of nearly every man below him.
“That’s it!” Ramius felt a surge of adrenaline as the abstract nature of his plan began to morph into reality.
“Ramius, follow the arrows on your display very slowly.”
Ramius saw an arrow pointing up and to the left. In his nervous state, as soon as he moved his head, the arrow was suddenly down and to the right. “More slowly,” cautioned Dream. “Okay. Okay.” This time, he moved his head with much more control, and he saw the arrow start to blink and then blink faster. The arrow then changed direction. It was blinking fast but was now pointing almost straight down. As he moved his head, the image never changed; it only showed Saul, who was now moving. As Ramius shifted his gaze downward ever so slowly, the arrow suddenly became a red dot, but it still blinked rapidly. Then, it stopped blinking, and it simply showed a red dot in the center of Saul’s forehead.
“Now, you are positioned,” informed Dream. Then, the view suddenly zoomed out considerably. “Ramius, note where the man is in the overall picture. It will make it easier to come back to this spot.”
Now that he knew what he was looking for, Ramius took off the headset and started to breathe heavily. He was having difficulty catching his breath. He tried to relax, knowing what was about to happen and that it would require his ability to remain calm. His hands were still shaking slightly. But regardless of his feeling of unreadiness, a sense of purpose, anger, and resolve suddenly overtook him, and he grabbed the rifle that was still strapped over his shoulder. He held it in one hand as he looked for a place to fulfill his destiny.
Down the hill, he saw a boulder that was about the right height. He walked down, placed the rifle on top of the boulder, took a few quick breaths, and then put the headset back on. It was quite dim at this point, and the images had lost most of their color. But although they were becoming monochromatic, they were still sharply defined. Ramius looked at his view of the minion hordes and was somehow still mentally cued into where Saul was, despite the difficulty he’d had finding him initially.
Without any prompting, the view suddenly zoomed in partially. Ramius could see Saul and the moving platform among the herd of minion followers. Then it zoomed again, and Saul was as large as life. The poor girl who was seated to Saul’s left was mostly invisible.
“Ramius, we do not have much time. We have used one half of the time available.”
“Thank you,” Ramius responded in a way that indicated sarcasm, but this was lost on Dream, despite her sophistication.
“The girl. I suppose she will be in trouble if I shoot Saul at this moment.”
“There is a high probability that a head shot to the man will leave the female intact. The female is significantly shorter, and the projectile will pass above her head by four to seven inches.”
Ramius was looking at the range indicator, which showed “2,166yd.” “Is this distance good?”
“Based on your training, you will have a 98.1% chance of a kill from this distance, if you perform to the same standard.”
“I don’t know what that means. Is that a yes?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Let’s do it.”
Ramius lined up the gun. It took him a while to see the flashing gold light, which was his gun, cross the path of his magnified view. But once he saw it, he tried to calm himself, and he recalled his training. It took him the better part of a minute to calm himself and keep the flashing gold light in line with the red dot on Ramius’s head.
“Based on an analysis of the subject, it is recommended that you do a body shot, which will increase the probability of a direct hit on the first shot. This will, however, imperil the female quite substantially.”
“Okay, but the female. That’s … arrrgghh! I don’t know.”
“It is your decision, Ramius.”
“Okay! Let’s go with the … ah body shot. I’m sorry about the female, but I need to make this happen right now.”
Saul called down to the attendants who were carrying huge packs with heavy supplies, all of which were for him.
“Hey! Get me some applejack ova heya. Now!” He was thrashing around as he spoke, which must have made it challenging for Ramius to focus on his target. As the attendant fished out some bottles and held them high, Saul got on his knees and hung over the sides. As the whole platform threatened to come tumbling down, he grabbed the bottles and again sat down like a pile driver.
“Ha ha! Yeaaah!” howled Saul as he bit off a cork and chugged the foul brew. “Hey, Megan! I need dem shouldas rubbed, ya know? Feelin’ so tight. C’mon! I need it!” he declared.
Ramius looked through the sight. He had the body shot lined up. “Dream. I’m ready. What now?”
“Now, you gently pull the trigger, remembering all we learned. Hold the stock firmly to your shoulder as you squeeze.” “Okay, here we go.” Ramius took a deep breath and then exhaled just as he had been taught a week earlier. He placed his finger on the trigger and started to squeeze.
Megan hesitated. She was a little nauseous from all of Saul’s sudden movements. Riding up on the platform made her feel sick. She took a deep breath and stood up.
Ramius squeezed the trigger gently, remembering his training.
Megan straightened up and started to move along the platform gingerly. She stepped behind Saul to start administering his shoulder massage.
The switch activated by the trigger closed, sending a communication link that demanded that calculations be completed. This resulted in detailed instructions being passed back to the rifle itself, causing it to perform certain microadjustments just as the firing pin energized the propellant of the large, aerodynamic projectile. The projectile then began its journey through a precisely fabricated tube of metal, whose inner cylindrical surface was scribed with spiral lines, causing the projectile to rotate rapidly around its axis of travel.
Megan had just come into her position behind Saul and put her hands on his shoulders, when suddenly she felt something swat her hands away, as if she had offended someone and was not entitled to lay her hands on Saul, the great minion leader. But wait. Where did Saul go? Oh. They hadn’t swatted her hands away; they had taken Saul away. She stood there, hands raised in the air and out to her sides.
Covered evenly in Saul’s bright-red mixture of blood and alcohol, she looked down at half of Saul; it was Saul from the waist down. At this point, she fainted, and the minions below struggled to lower the platform, still not clear on what had just happened.
From Ramius’s vantage point, the entire sequence was oddly detached. Who did that? jumped into his mind. Ramius was the witness … the bystander. But then, he snapped out of it. “What now?” he asked no one.
But Dream answered anyway. “Ramius? Do you want to target anyone else?”
“No,” Ramius replied, feeling odd and numb.
“If you have no further need of Saginaw, it will now return to base,” declared Dream.
“Yes. Fine.”
“If you need anything more, I can still be reached for about two hours on your headset.”
“Ha ha ha ha ha!” Ramius broke into laughter. He had no idea what ‘two hours’ was, and he suddenly found it hysterical. Then, he sat back against a rock and closed his eyes to rest just for a short while. When he awoke, it was morning.
Following the mysterious event whereby Saul was vaporized by some unknown force, the fabric of fear unraveled immediately. Word traveled up the line and finally reached Baggus, Lobo, and a few other commanders at the front.
Different men had different reactions. Lobo was deeply saddened and confused. Baggus was elated but frightened and thinking about how to survive. Others aspired to carry on with Saul’s methods, espousing themselves the new leader. Those men felt the thrust of knives almost immediately. Most people scratched their heads and asked themselves, Why didn’t we just kill him a long time ago?
The bottom line was that the threat of the minions as an organized force was over, and they mostly struck out toward the east, back from where they had come. Most would soon perish from thirst or starvation, or they were killed by other minions in desperation. Only very few had different dreams and ideas, and Baggus was one of them. He sought to find Mr. Li and ascertain what had become of him. His desire to do so was mainly because he wanted to become a Victorian; he wanted to live in a society of people who didn’t hate each other, didn’t eat each other, and were not ruled by a madman.
He wanted to hunt, fish, and learn to run like the Victorians. They were so noble and elegant. Baggus gathered his circle of people, including his wife, Lobo, Angie, and Megan.
They found two of their dogs, and while chaos and uncertainty still brewed in the valley below, Baggus and his chosen few stole away and started to climb up into the hills to the west. Other minions now left without direction called to them. But Baggus told his companions not to look back and to keep marching ahead as fast as possible. No one followed the group. They were free.
Marco never sent the people farther south. As a brilliant tactician and leader, he had scouts penetrate far forward, trying to encounter the enemy front. By the time they did reach the front, the chaos had already engulfed everyone. It was so strange that after some time observing the minions, some of the Victorian soldiers took the initiative and asked the minions what was happening. The scouts raced back as fast as they could and reported to the commanders at the front.
It was predawn when word finally got to Marco, and he called off the migration southward. The next night, the Victorians had a bonfire celebration that was unlike any they could remember.
Marco spoke eloquently. “Let this night of midsummer be remembered always. Our patience and courage kept us from losing any of our beloved sons and daughters. It is a miracle worth remembering.” The people roared, and they drank and ate, despite the scarcity. As they celebrated, quite a number of soldiers moved forward to clear out the stragglers from their south village. They later moved all the way back to the north village, cleaning and restoring the damage done by Saul and his minions.
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