Free Children Of Fiends - Part 2 A Nation By Another Name: An Of Sudden Origin Novella by C. Chase Harwood Page B

Again they stepped toward the pumpers as her mind filled with sensations of desire and hunger and curiosity and fear. There was no language but for one sentence: ARTHUR SAYS EAT. ARTHUR SAYS EAT.
    MacAfee’s heads-up display told him that Eliza had taken off her helmet. “What the fuck is she doing? Dean, what the fuck is she doing?”
    Dean tried to put her helmet back on but she smacked it out of his hands, sending it across the room. Hansel started laughing and then Gretel joined in. “Funny,” said Hansel.
    “She’s like a puppet,” said Hansel.
    Eliza started taking jerking steps forward like a drunken marionette, saying, “Arthur says eat. Arthur says eat.” She smiled a toothy grin and then launched herself at Dean, her jaw snapping open and closed. He fended her off while Hansel and Gretel watched.  
    Should we eat him?  
    Dean quickly grabbed one of Eliza’s arms, spun her around and snapped her into a full nelson and she continued to kick and try to break away, her teeth snapping open and shut while saying, “Arthur says eat! Arthur says eat!” He looked at the suddenly hungry looking Hansel and Gretel and barked, “Don’t even think about it. Put her damn helmet on.”
    Outside, Maggie Tender broadcast to everyone, “Uh, they’re getting kind of close.”
    MacAfee said into his mic, “KK, go cover the pumpers. Everyone, if they get within fifty feet, warning shots. Another step and shoot to kill.”
    Kelly climbed down from the coal car and walked carefully to the pumpers.
    Inside, Gretel tried to put the helmet back on Eliza as she thrashed her head around. Sanders came running up the stairs, saw the situation and shoved Eliza down, sitting on her chest as she repeatedly batted the helmet away. She seemed to be in agony as she pleaded, “Arthur says eat!”
    That’s when the six pucks broke and ran toward the pumpers. KK fired off a warning shot and the pucks pulled up short, all eighteen of them ducking as one. Whatever spell they had over Eliza was briefly broken and her thrashing stopped. Dean slapped the helmet over her head and snapped the buckle. She instantly hugged him to her, saying, “Oh God. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
    The eighteen pucks suddenly hissed and charged as one. The humans opened fire. In three loud bloody seconds, they slaughtered the creatures, each absorbing multiple bullets. In the silence of the aftermath Hansel and Gretel screamed as though they were burning and thrashed about on the floor; their movements matching those of the wounded pucks in the dirt. A second round of shooting finished it. Hansel and Gretel stopped their screaming and instead, held each other in terror. “They died!” cried Gretel. “We felt them die!”

    The Vicar and his Deacons had joined the others in the command car as they watched the scene unfold.  
    “Stunning that they waited as long as they did to shoot them,” said Thompson.
    “Clearly they haven’t had much interchange with the devils,” said drone driver Gallagher.
    The Vicar said, “God rest their souls.”

CHAPTER SEVEN
A Change of Command

    “That was a fucking disaster,” snapped MacAfee as he pulled off his helmet and paced before the assembled crew. Dark had descended. They stood mostly in line outside the train. The steam was up and the building pressure was automatically released from the pistons with a loud whoosh. He turned to Hernandez. “Action report on my desk in one hour. We need to completely revise our tactics. That cannot happen again.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    The colonel turned to Eliza. “Ms. Sherr, can I ask what you were thinking when you pulled off your helmet? Your action created a diversion that those fuckers took full advantage of.”
    Eliza was exhausted but she straightened her spine saying, “I’m sorry. It was a mistake. I was trying to do what you are doing right now, Colonel, trying to communicate more effectively.”
    MacAfee pointed at Hansel and Gretel. “That’s what they’re