CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

HANSA PACK

 

 

ROBERT BROWNING’S WAR band arrived at Hansaplatz at the end of a long Walk Around. The journey had been without incident. Some of the Hackers had been aghast at the scenes they had passed through, at the streets and buildings.

They were wary of travelling the broad thoroughfares that were anathema to them, but they did as they were ordered. Progress was fast. The scrappers grew in confidence as time passed and they encountered no threats, from feral Aux or from anything else.

Even the cold did not penetrate as it once had.

Hansa Pack sentries picked up the war band, but seemed relieved to see them, especially John Steel, who was familiar to them. They were immediately invited underground.

“John Steel, you are welcome,” said Makewar Thackeray, Alpha dog of the Hansa Pack. “Me, I know why you are here. Hansa Pack, we have lost Aux. Hansa Pack, we hear echoes in the tunnels. Hansa Pack tale-teller, him tells old myths.”

“Them,” said Evelyn War, stepping forward to introduce herself.

Hansa Pack had been trading and bartering with Hacker Pack for generations. They were on friendly terms. They often found mates among each other’s packs.

It was not difficult for Makewar Thackeray to throw in his lot with his old friend John Steel and pledge an alliance to Holeman Hunt and the Hackers.

He was one of the youngest of the pack leaders. He was strong and keen, but he was not too proud to take advice from a more experienced Alpha dog like Holeman Hunt. Negotiations were completed in an hour.

“Where did the sentries, them disappear?” asked Evelyn War. “When?”

“For three days,” said Makewar Thackeray. “First at Güntzelstrasse. Hansa Pack, we keep a sentry there, because of the Dammed. The Dammed, them have gone quiet these last days.”

“The Dammed, them are gone, deader and dead,” said Robert Browning.

Makewar Thackeray frowned in surprised.

“Them killed the Dammed?” asked one of his lieutenants. “The Dammed, them were fierce, tougher and tough.”

“No,” said Browning. “Zoo Pack, we killed the Dammed. Outside. The Dammed, them were blinded outside, them were desperate, them were running from Them. Us, we killed the Dammed, tougher and tough.”

A gasp went up in the command chamber at Hansaplatz. The Dammed were among the most dangerous and most feral of the Aux. No Aux Pack went up against the Dammed, or the Rathaus, but the Zoo Pack had done it and they had triumphed.

“Where else?” asked John Steel, getting Makewar Thackeray back on track.

“Westhafen,” said the Alpha dog. “Two Hansa scrappers, them disappeared at Westhafen.”

“We killed the Them at Westhafen, deader and dead,” said Robert Browning. “Ezra Pound, tougher and tough, him died killing the Them.”

“Ezra Pound, him a legend,” said Makewar Thackeray. “Him like Gene the Hackman.”

There was silence in the command chamber for a moment as the Aux bowed their heads.

“Two war bands,” said John Steel. “Us, we must make two war bands. Us, we must walk Track Nine to Guntzelstrasse.”

“What about the plan?” asked Evelyn War.

“John Steel, him is right,” said Robert Browning. “Us, we must send a kill team to Guntzelstrasse and us, we must send a war band to walk Track Nine to Leopoldplatz.”

“Us, we cannot halve the war band,” said Evelyn War. “Us, we are not enough.”

“Us, we will walk the track to Guntzelstrasse,” said Makewar Thackeray. “Us, we will take care of our own.”

Hansa Pack did not have flame weapons, but they were experts with blades, particularly halberds and long-handled axes. They took great pride in their weapons, in the quality of their blades and the sharpness of their edges. Nevertheless, John Steel insisted that he hand over two of their own fire throwers and instruct half a dozen of the Hansa in their use.

“It is time,” said Evelyn, urgently, once the weapons were handed over, and John Steel had gone over the instructions three times. “Us, we must leave.”

All along Track Nine, the veteran Aux of Zoo Pack were getting into place above ground, laying pools of gasoline.

They had been given instructions and were careful to follow them where the ground allowed. It was not always possible; sometimes too much water had pooled or the ground was too high. But they found enough places to spread the gasoline safely and to mark the deposits. When their task was complete, they began their long Walk Around back to Friedrichstrasse. It was cold and wet. They were not used to the conditions outside.

Many of the old Aux had not been above ground since before the Time of Ice had begun to die. Many of the old Aux did not recognise landmarks that had once been familiar to them. They were not allowed to use their own rat-runs and the narrow streets where they were most comfortable.

The trees were bare and strange-looking, not frosted with veils of ice. The ice beneath their feet shone with a slick layer of water. The sun was too bright in a sky that was too blue and too pale. It was all very troubling.

Most of the Aux were too proud to show their fear. Some felt no fear, reserving it for Them. A few felt no fear because death held no terror for them; they were old and they had lived a life. If their time had come to die then violent death was the Aux way. There was no shame or sadness in it.

All but two of the veterans, one male and one dam, made it back to Friedrichstrasse. Those two died of cold and old age, because they had run out of life. The others carried their bodies back to the Hackers’ fiefdom.