Warlock

the entrance to the tunnel, and they will be upon us.”
        
        “No need for going back,” Tuk interrupted. “If we can get the men up here, we can enter the train through the cab. The side door here has twisted loose and could be snapped open, I believe. Once inside, we could make our way through the train, from car to cat, until we can let ourselves out at the end,”
        
        “Good work, Tuk, you red-haired devil! You have more wits about you when there are not women about!”
        
        Tuk chuckled and blushed while the men on the floor of the tunnel laughed aloud. Apparently, the Shaker thought, our flame-headed Tuk is known for his bedroom manner.
        
        And suddenly, he felt a deep, stirring pang of remorse that he had not gotten to know all these men better than he had. Each had a personality, a life of his own. Each was more than a Banibaleer in the service of General Dark, each as complicated as Mace or as Gregor. To have gone through so much and to have learned so little -that seemed like the worst crime of all. But in the quiet of the city-if they could take it-perhaps he could remedy this oversight and know all those who had passed through Hell with him.
        
        In fifteen minutes, they were all inside the train. The men in the lead were forced to scatter the bones of the dead out of their way, for all the cars had been packed with passengers when the crash had come, passengers who had long ago not given up the spirit but the flesh as well. The way was not easy, for they were forced to walk on the side wall of the cars which had been crumpled against the bottom of the tunnel. When they reached the connecting doorways between the cars, they had to wrestle over the wall, defying gravity, and pull themselves through where they fell down to the “floor” of the next compartment.
        
        Still, in less than an hour, they had gained the final car, had swung out of that last door to the slimy stones of the damp tunnel floor. They stood in the wash of an eerie blue light which emanated from the end of the tube, a circle of it that gave view of a terminal of sorts two hundred feet farther along.
        
        The stretcher was brought down last, and everyone turned for the few feet remaining in this long and tiring journey. No one could know what might lie ahead but at least it would be a form of sanctuary from the land which had taken such a heavy toll of their numbers.
        
        “Commander!” Tuk called. “There by the light, along the side of the tunnel!”
        
        Even as he spoke, the half dozen apelike creatures stepped into the open. They were more than seven feet tall, coated in a stringy hair which looked blue in that strange light. Their eyes were green, like new leaves, and they sparkled in the gloom as if there were candles behind them, set inside the mammoth skulls.
        
        Every man drew his dagger, and the archers moved quickly to string their bows and to draw arrows forth from the meager quivers they had brought with them.
        
        Tuk went down, gurgling, and stopped making noise altogether.
        
        There had not been a sound.
        
        And now, the Shaker could see, there were other men lying on the floor, motionless.
        
        Ahead, the creatures were holding long, vicious-looking guns, and were slowly fanning the barrels across the group.
        
        Richter crashed to the floor, groaned, sighed, chuckled absurdly, and was gone.
        
        “Shaker! Quickly!” It was Mace, trying to whisk the magician up in one arm while he used the other to hold young Gregor. “To the train again, where they-”
        
        He got a strange look on his face. He reached to his chest and plucked out what seemed to be an overlarge needle which had penetrated his clothes and had pricked no more than half an inch into his skin. He held the needle up to the light where it glinted, looked at it curiously. His large eyes blinked, and he was asleep on his feet. He fell against the Shaker, knocked the old man to the floor and followed him down.
        
        Sandow managed to extricate himself from the tangle of legs and started to stand.
        
        Around him, every other Banibaleer was on the floor. Dead? Dead. Somehow, he didn't think creatures like those apes would play any but the most serious of games.
        
        Something grunted in