Deathstalker 08 - Deathstalker Coda

for help, but he had nothing to send them. What few troops he had left he needed to protect the Parade of the Endless. Not that Finn would have sent any help even if he could have spared it. He didn’t see the point in giving up even more of his armed forces to be possessed. And so cities set up barricades on all the roads leading in, and desperate men stood guard with whatever weapons they could find. Anyone approaching a city was shot on sight, without warnings, no exceptions. It was the only way to be safe.
    Until the thrall army came marching up the road, rank upon rank of them, walking right into the face of the defenders’ guns, trampling over the fallen until they could swarm the barricades and eat up the defenders’ minds. And then they would march on, into the city.
    From the Rookery, Nina Malapert’s news sites stayed on the air twenty-four hours a day, using remote control cameras to bring in the latest news and sightings. They spread word of danger areas, and cities under threat, as fast as they could get the information out. Telling everyone on Logres, and all the watching worlds across the Empire, of what was happening now that the Emperor Finn had lost control. Nina’s newsreaders became hoarse and strained and white-faced as they told of the endless atrocities and mass murders and possessions, and burning cities all across the world. Nina ran herself ragged trying to keep on top of everything, getting warnings out with as much advance time as possible, and lists of safe places to go. She kept the remote cameras moving from city to city, sending live pictures of what was happening. The uber-espers didn’t interfere. They wanted everyone to know what was coming for them.
    Even the newsreaders on Finn’s propaganda news channels joined in, ignoring the scheduled programming. They knew a real emergency when they saw one. They shared resources with Nina’s sites, trying to get useful information to those who needed it. After a while they started to feel like real news people again, and ignored the piling-up propaganda reports, and the increasingly angry orders from Finn’s censors, in order to stick with the real story.
    Massive crowds of refugees took to the roads and even commandeered the air traffic lanes, abandoning cities in the path of the uber-esper hordes. They ran away from their homes and their lives, taking only what they could carry with them, not sure where they were going, not knowing if anywhere could ever be truly safe again. They filled up the roads, millions of refugees on the move, shocked and tearstained and numb with horror, leaving behind them a trail of abandoned possessions that became too heavy to carry. They moved as fast as they could, and kept rest stops to a minimum. The thralls were coming after them, and they never got tired, never slowed, never stopped.
    Some cities and towns took the refugees in, some turned them away, some shot at them on sight. Everywhere the few charitable cities and larger towns became saturated with people, overloaded to the breaking point with people too tired to continue. Many just sat down suddenly, wherever they were when their strength ran out, too numb to care, too exhausted even to eat. Facilities quickly broke down, even the most basic comforts and services unable to cope. There wasn’t enough of anything to go round. Food distribution between cities just stopped. Civilization was falling apart, on the homeworld of the Empire.

    The uber-espers soaked up the energies supplied by millions of captive minds, and their powers blossomed as never before. They could do things now almost beyond even their wildest dreams. And being the kind of creatures they were, they looked upon each other with increasing suspicion. They had never trusted each other, quite rightly believing that any or all of them would turn on any or all of them who seemed dangerously powerful or invitingly weak. For a while they discussed scattering, leaving Logres for other worlds, so they could each have their own planet to subjugate and play with, safe from the interference and threat of each other’s ambitions. The idea was attractive.
    But they knew they were more powerful together than they ever could be apart, and besides, if they did go their separate ways, there was always the chance that one of them might become allied with another, and prey on a mind alone. They couldn’t risk that. And even more than this, some strange unexpected force from within kept them