More from Janace, Yori, and Carl.

Two days later.

Carl was out in the field, planting some fresh furrows when he heard a commotion from the orchard.  The dogs had something in there.  A returning snarl stopped him cold.

Carl dropped the seeds there, and taking the hoe as a weapon started across the fields toward the house.

As he nears the orchard, he sees his oldest daughter running through the orchard toward the house.  Her bow in her hand.  The five adult hounds are making fighting noises from farther in the orchard than Carl can see at the moment.  There were more snarls, not from the hounds.

He changes his course to intercept his girl.  He gets her and picks her up, and can then see down the rows of the orchard.  The five hounds were worrying a monster, which had two arrows in it.  They are all showing wounds from the thing.

Carl all but tossed his daughter over his shoulder and took off full tilt for the house.  When he got close enough he began yelling for Yory.

Yory came out the door with a battle rifle in hand.

Carl traded Yory, the gun for the girl, and turned back to face the orchard.  He then called the hounds to come.  They cleared the trees just ahead of the monster.  Carl stood his ground, and once the monster was clear of the orchard he fired three shots into its torso.  It took a few steps, and fell on its face.  Carl put one more shot into the Monster's head, finishing it off.

The hounds alerted to other monsters and were about to charge off when Yory called them to the porch.  She had a second battle rifle in her hands, the children gone inside.

“Where’s Boy?”

“Over at the neighbors.”

Carl traded guns and called the oldest hound and took off for the barn.  There he grabbed his bridle.  Out the back he went to the stockyard, and whistled for his horse.  They were all gathered at the far end of the yard, away from the orchard.

His horse came cantering up, still very nervous.  The hound was mulling about and alerting toward the orchard.  Carl slung the rifle and reached out to calm the horse.

Carl knew that he had to ride through, the orchard being between the stockyard and the road.  He slipped the bridle over the horse’s nose and ears.  Then gathered the reins, and vaulted onto the bare back.  The hound alerted at this.  He dug his heals into the flanks and headed across the yard, toward the fence of the orchard, the hound at the horses heals.  The horse tried to shy away but he pulled its head back and urged it harder.  This horse was used to mostly domestic duties, but it still had instinct.  It gathered and jumped the fence into the orchard.  The hound jumped between the rails, keeping pace.

They turned some to cut across the orchard diagonally.  They spotted the monster running to cut them off.   The horse tried to shy away again, but Carl refused to let it.  He pulled the gun around, and let fly, blowing the Monster's hip to a bloody mist.  He left it there, and called the hound to keep up, as it went to investigate the felled creature.

They jumped the other fence to the orchard and were on the narrows of the irrigation easement when Carl turned fully toward the neighbors.  He spurred the horse on to go faster.  One more monster tried to lunge out at them.  Carl put a shot in it and galloped on as it fell.

They jumped one last fence into the neighbor’s yard, and galloped across the grass to the house.  Carl reigned the horse in and vaulted from it and through the front door, adjusting the rifle as he went.  The hound ran around the side of the house.

A commotion was coming from the back of the house.  Carl ran to the great room to find one monster to his right tossing furniture aside and another on the left advancing on the kitchen through a steady hail of assorted dishes.  The one going toward the kitchen got a small ball of lightening in its back that stunned it thoroughly.

Carl then brought the gun up as a shield to block the paw of the other monster as it swung at him.  The claws missed, but the force knocked him through the end table and against the bookshelf.

Carl recovered in time to blast this monster at point blank, stunning it.  He thumbed the selector switch, and pumped two flichette rounds into it.  As it collapsed, Carl turned to the first and put a round into it, finishing it.

Neighbor wife is almost hysteric, and was about to throw a plate at Carl before realizing who he is.

Boy called out from the hall, where the one monster had been going.  Carl moved around the carcass and knelt to embrace his son as he and his friend came into the room.

Just then the horse started raising a fuss, as did the hound, from right out side the kitchen.

Carl let go of his son and turned to the damage and neighbor wife.

“Get into one room, and bar the door.”

She grabbed the biggest knife she had in the kitchen, and herded the children back into the master bedroom.

Carl went out the opening the monsters had made in the glass wall, and around the side of the house.

The horse was dancing back and forth and rearing at another monster, the hound was getting back on his feet after having been swatted across the yard.

This monsters fur had different coloring.

Carl could not immediately remember why that scared him.

So he brought the gun up and let fly at the head.

The flichette round hit a psionic shield and puffed to powder.

Now Carl remembered why these scared him.

He switched the gun back to energy and let fly again.  An unseen force knocked him on his back to slide twice his own length.  He shook his head to clear it as he fought to get air back into his lungs.

The beast was almost to him as Carl got the gun up and emptied it at the thing, nearly point blank.

The electrical discharge wreathed the beast, shorting out its nervous system.  It collapsed in a fit of spasms.

Carl switched back and put the last two flichette rounds into that beast, ending it.

The horse settled down at the end of the beast.  The hound came over, and sniffed and nipped at it.  It did not respond, so it was there after ignored.

Carl took a deep breath.  “I hope that’s the last of them.”

He set the gun’s power pack to ambient recharge, and shouldered it.  He then went in to the house, the hound following.  He knocked at the door of the master bedroom, and almost got shot for his effort to identify himself.