Alex Scarrow - Time Riders

‘You know, lad… things will get better,’ hereplied quietly. His thick, dark beard parted with a smile. ‘The American peoplewon’t stand for this. They’ll fight back. I know they will.’

Liam wondered about that. From what he’d heard, the camps were filled with those peoplewho might have organized or led some sort of a resistance movement: army officers, civicleaders, congressmen, lawyers, teachers, college professors, newspaper editors. Therest… those who’d been spared imprisonment and left to continue their lives solong as they posed no threat to their new masters, were never going to risk their lives, theirfamily’s lives, as long as some semblance of normal life remained for them.

Liam could see this Fuhrer’s plan with stark clarity — lock up all the potential trouble-makers and either starve them or work them to death. Eitherway they were never going to see the outside world again. Meanwhile, the rest of thepopulation would get used to the new regime, get used to obeying their new masters, untilfinally they’d forgotten what it was like to be free. Just as long as their new ruler- their Fuhrer — continued to ensure there was food and water andelectricity. What was it he heard someone muttering last night in their dormitory hut?

‘… Long as them Krauties keep the trams runnin’, theshops well stocked, the cinemas playing those cowboy movies, the Major League baseballplay-offs on schedule and you can still get yer long-boy hot dog covered in mustardan’ ketchup from the vendors ’tween innings, people’ll be content enoughto let things go on as they are. They’ll forget all about us inhere… ’

Those on the outside might resent being lorded-over, but as long as things were kept tickingover, kept comfortable enough, they were never going to rise up.

We’re stuck in here… forever.

WHUMP!

A geyser of muddy soil erupted from the ground a couple of yards away and sprayed down onhim.

‘Uh?’

1957, Prison Camp 79, New Jersey

Liam felt it rather than heard it.

Another whump nearby that punched his chest softly.

A geyser of snow and soil was tossed into the air a dozen yards from him. Then another onefurther away. And another.

‘Mortar shells coming in!’ shouted somebody in the trench.

From the treeline across the field he saw flashes of light amid the undergrowth and momentslater heard the distant percussive rattle of gunfire.

The guards reacted swiftly, dropping down into the ditch alongside theprisoners and returning fire on the treeline. An officer quickly issued orders to several ofhis men to escort the prisoners back inside on the double.

They barked hasty orders at the prisoners, shooing them along with their carbines.‘Prisoners must go inside, now!’ one of them shouted. ‘Move… MOVE! Schnell! ’

Liam did as he was told, keeping his head low as he ran along the ditch towards the opengates at the front of the camp. Div0ts of soil spat into the air just above his head as shotslanded home from across the field.

Another half a dozen whumps landed either side of the ditch,showering them with clumps of wet soil. A prisoner in a tattered olive-green marine uniformjust in front of Wallace shouted out: ‘Those are US army mortar shells!’

The guards bellowed shrilly at them to move faster and Liam soon found himself climbing upout of the ditch and running into the compound through the open gates, herded in by half adozen more soldiers.

Wallace, behind him, slapped his shoulder, grinning and gasping at the same time. ‘Whatdid I tell you, kid?’

The guards standing nearby had their eyes on the increasingly intensive exchange of gunfiregoing on in the field and warily on the jubilant prisoners. Liam could see they were nervous- as much worried about the growing jubilation among the prisoners inside the camp asthey were about the attackers in the treeline.

‘Yeah!’ yelled Wallace triumphantly at them. ‘They’re coming for you,you scumbags!’

Several of them turned towards him, eyes darting from Wallace to the growing crowd ofprisoners emerging from their huts into the courtyard to see what was going on.

‘Come on!’ Wallace cheered on the distant attackers. ‘Come get theseKrauties!’

Liam grabbed his arm. ‘Wallace, hey, keep it down!’

A mortar shell landed amid several of the guards in the ditch outside, blowing them to bloodyshreds. Wallace and several other prisoners cheered noisily, punching the air with glee.

The camp kommandant emerged from his hut at a trot, flanked by a dozen more guards. There wasa brief, harried conversation barked over the increasing noise of battle. He gestured towardsthe growing crowd of jeering prisoners. The guards standing around them nodded at his ordersand slowly raised their guns.

Liam realized by the calm, ruthless expression on the kommandant’s face that he’djust given the order for them all to be executed on the spot. None of the other prisonersseemed to have noticed, their eyes on the gunfight across the fieldoutside.

I have torun… run now!

Liam began to shoulder his way back through the jeering, defiant prisoners, as the guardssilently raised their pulse carbines.

Jay-zus Christ.

The rattle of guns being cocked to fire alerted the rest of the prisoners, their eyes dartingback to the line of guards. Before they could react, the kommandant barked a single word.‘ Feuer! ’

The guards opened fire.

Suddenly the air about Liam was alive with the hum of passing bullets, the hard thud ofrounds impacting bodies, the muffled gasps of those falling and dying, the screams of thewounded and terrified.

He stumbled back through the panicking crowd, expecting at any second to feel a hard, sharpblow between his shoulders, punching the air from his lungs and throwing him down on to thecompacted snow and muddy slush.

The opening volley of shots came to a rattling conclusion as ammo clips emptied and theguards began to reload. In the pause the air was filled with moaning and crying and wailing,and the nearing sounds of fighting across the field.

Liam realized he wasn’t running. He was on his knees in the mud surrounded by bodiestwitching and flailing.

Run!

He scrambled to his feet, stepping over and on the bodies around him. He glanced back to seethe guards finish loading their carbines and begin to level their barrels at the remainingprisoners still on their feet. Many of those still standing were rooted to the spot in shock.Others who’d been towards the back of the crowd were now on the run, scrambling awayfrom the guards towards the open doors of their huts.

The guards began firing again at will, now picking out individual targetswith short aimed bursts, mechanically aiming and firing… aiming and firing… likeautomatons, obeying their orders mindlessly.

Liam rose from a crouch to run for the nearest hut. The lurch of movement caught aguard’s eyes and he swung the barrel of his gun in Liam’s direction. Several shotswhistled past him — close, very close — and over his head as he dived, staggeredand fell across a writhing carpet of dead and dying towards the open door of the nearesthut.

He fell into the dark interior and scrambled on hands and knees across the rough wooden floorto hide beneath the nearest of the wooden bunks.

Outside the firing continued. Sporadic clusters of shots, short bursts, long bursts andsingle taps to finish off the wounded as the soldiers stepped forward among the bodies.Meanwhile, the rattle of gunfire in the field outside was coming closer. He heard the muffledthud of more mortar shells landing, this time inside the perimeter of the camp.