Free torg 03- The Nightmare Dream by Jonatha Ariadne Caspian

head. Then he asked, "How do we find this place called Aysle?"
    "Leave that to me," the hunter replied, clapping Decker on the shoulder.
    They hurriedly entered the supply tent and began outfitting for the journey ahead of them. Kurst suggested taking low-tech items. He found a good blade — polycarbide, the supply sergeant bragged — and two bayonets that would make serviceable spears if mounted properly. He took a rifle almost as an afterthought, perhaps unsure of its utility. In the end he accepted the weapon because it was made to carry the bayonet.
    For himself, Decker took two pistols — a .45, and a smaller .38 as a back-up. He trusted in technology. Decker asked for canteens, but as they were preciously guarded items, they received only one each.
    "There is water where we are going, Ace," Kurst said. "More water than either of us can drink."
    Rations and walkie-talkies — the latest miniature headset types — made up the rest of their supplies. They thanked the sergeant and started out.
    Outside the supply tent, Julie Boot was waiting for them, her face set and still. "Planning on leaving without me, Ace?"
    Decker felt himself involuntarily straighten to attention; he wondered if Kurst noticed. "It's not a question of leaving without you. It's survival. You've got valuable skills —"
    "And you're going to save me from wasting them?" she finished for him. "Who'll save you next time?"
    Decker's mouth tightened as his jaw muscles bunched. He searched for a soft reply. "After we do what we can here, we're going to go find Tolwyn and the others. Kurst thinks they need us, and I owe them more than I can ever repay. Two of us is enough to risk, especially since your skills could save many more than two if you were here, with the hospital, with supplies ... You'll be safer here."
    "Look around, Ace," she said, her voice getting louder. "Your definition of safe leaves a lot to be desired. You need a medic, and I'm going."
    Images ran through Decker's head, images of his mental fight against the Gaunt Man. It was Julie's voice that helped him find his way back, that helped him make it through the doors the Gaunt Man threw into his path. He owed her his life. That much, in all of this surreality of invasion, was crystalline sharp.
    "She has a point," Kurst observed, "and an ulterior motive."
    She would not plead to be taken, but she did demand it. And, Decker admitted almost hopelessly, she was adamant enough to risk following them. Alone. She had saved his life. But it bit into him as deep as the runes had once bit that he was bringing the woman he loved to a world where he could guarantee nothing.
    He nodded once, sharply, and they turned as one to the supply sergeant for another kit.
    18
    Major Charles Covent scanned the wall of rain and lightning with a pair of high-powered binoculars. He could see vague shapes gathering on the other side, but as of yet nothing had broken through. He didn't like waiting. He knew that the longer they waited, the more likely the chance of the lizards getting enough of their kind over here to flip the reality.
    He had his forces ranged all along the front from one end of the Sequoia National Forest to the other. He had a division at the ready, but even so they were spread thin to cover the forty miles of forest. Lanes of fire had been established, but other units remained mobile in order to respond to wherever the lizards broke through in number. He had the entire line of trees on this side of the storm rigged to explode into flame on his order, which should create a wall of fire to hold them back. He thought about what Kurst and Tal Tu had told them, and it still seemed impossible. All the lizards had to do was get twenty-five thousand of their people across the storm front. Then, if the stelae had been set, this area would become a Dead Ring. If that happened, all of the soldiers would be slaughtered as their weapons systematically failed.
    A jeep pulled up beside Covent's station.