John awoke at first light, as the fingers of light started to spread across the sky. All the others were asleep, apart from one warrior on watch. He was quite pleased to be awake, as he had been plagued by bad dreams all night. He shook his head, as the last memories filtered away, much to his relief.

He stood up and stretched. His muscles ached after the exertions he had experienced over the last couple of days. As he stretched, he saw a large building in the distance, close to the horizon.

The sentry noticed John was awake.

"I see that you are awake, John, are you well rested?” he asked.

“I think so, although I ache a bit.”

The man nodded, as many of them exerted themselves in the battle against the panthers.

“As you see, it looks like we are not far from our destination."

“That’s good, how far is it?”

“Two, maybe three hours.”

“The terrain looks rough, are you sure?”

The warrior made a face. “We should be there by midday.”

“Hmm, we will be tired. I’m not certain I would be ready for a fight after walking that far.”

“You should feel better after we eat."

The others awoke as they talked. One man re-kindled the fire into some life and hung a pot over the flames. John was a bit concerned as to what manner of food was in the blackened pot. It turned out to be a very flavoursome porridge.

Very soon they were sitting down to eat it. The tracker and warriors were in high spirits. The possibility of defeating their enemy was giving them hope.

The warrior had been right, for John did fill a little better after breakfast. After packing away the pot and sleeping mats, the group set off once more.

The terrain wasn’t as bad as John had envisioned, as there was a reasonable path marking their route. After about an hour, John saw something approaching them from the weird building.

It was a solitary figure, but much larger than the panthers. He identified the same robotic gait, and almost unstoppable speed. As it got closer, he saw that it was a robotic tiger, but much larger than any real one. To place it in perspective, he guessed it was about the size of a white rhino.

The sight of the automaton caused John to recall his dreams, or were they nightmares? He dreamed that he was too late to save the village and that one of the cats crushed the chief’s head with a terrible crunch. It was this that caused John to wake up in the first place.

One of the warriors threw his spear through the tiger’s left eye as it came in range. This did not seem to deter the automatic beast. Instead, it accelerated towards the group of men. The other warriors also threw spears, but they missed. At this point, the tracker and John approached, cautiously. While the one-eyed beast seemed preoccupied with the warriors, the tracker leapt into, drawing his sharp little daggers. He managed to stab his daggers into the weak points between the beast’s joints, while John slid under the belly of the robot, slicing first the right foreleg, and then, as his momentum carried him further, he took off the right rear leg, rolling clear.

The stricken beast could only flail in a rough circle, but was still quite capable of killing the unwary. While its good eye was looking towards the gathering warriors, John approached from behind, and with one slice of his sword, he severed its head clean off. There was another spray of sparks and the head hit the ground with a dull thud.

Amazed that the fight had lasted a matter of seconds, the group took some time to recover and rest. John stood examining the wreckage of the robot. A thought came to him.

"If the madman has this kind of technology, then how come you don’t possess similar things?” he asked.

“We do, but prefer to live the simple life without such things. They make men lazy, so we keep it in case we really need it.”

“Don’t you think this would be an ideal case for needing it?” asked John, bemused by the man’s answer.

The tracker smiled sadly, and nodded. He took from his backpack a small box, which he placed on the ground. The box was roughly six inches by six inches, by eight inches.

As it sat there, the tracker leaned down and pressed a small button on the top of the box.it on the ground and presses a button on the top of it, and then stood back. John observed that all the warriors were watching him and not the box.

Weird creaking noises came from the box, and then, before his startled eyes, it grew to the size of a shed, some eight foot by four. The tracker pushed open one side and walked into the shed, indicating for John to follow him.

As John walked into the shed he stopped in surprise. For although small on the outside, the inside was ten if not twenty times bigger, almost the size of a small warehouse.

“What the hell is this?! he asked.

“This is our portable armoury. We have our main one underneath the village.

John looked at the racks and racks of weapons, some very complex and of an advanced type.

“Why do you bother with spears when you have all these?” he asked.

“It’s complicated. Our belief system is that the measure of a man is taken by what he can achieve without such tools.”

Then he walked over to one of the racks and grabbed one of the guns and handed it to John.

It was of a design that John recognised, not dissimilar to one his father had taught him to use on hunting trips when he had been a boy.

“Do you know how to use one of these?” the tracker asked.

John smiled, lifting the weapon to his shoulder. It was a well-balanced gun with simple sights.

“Of course, everyone knows how to, where I’m from.”

“Excellent.”

“What about ammunition?” John asked.

“It’s already loaded,” the tracker replied.

After handing out weapons to the warriors, they left the shed. The tracker pressed another button and then they waited for the shed to turn back into a box once more.

“You may want to test fire that weapon, as it has a fair recoil. It may be unfamiliar to you,”
the tracker said.

John shouldered the weapon to his good shoulder, took aim at a nearby tree, and fired. The tracker hadn’t lied, as it had impressive recoil that almost knocked him backwards, but he was able to recover his balance.

“That’s some recoil!” he said, as the smoke cleared. Then he saw the tree.

“Holy shit!” he said, staring at what was left of the tree. “Is that a crater?”

Indeed, where the tree once stood there was now a six foot crater.

The tracker pointed to a small knob on the side of John’s weapon.

“You can handle it all right. This one is on full power; you can probably turn it down to 40%. Use that knob to do it.”

Amazed, John twiddled the small knob to where the tracker indicated. He examined the gun in more detail. It reminded him of one of the weapons in the movie 'the Demolition Man'.

“What sort of ammunition does it use?” he asked.

“Energy blasts. The gun is recharged by solar power and stores the energy in the stock.”

Regarding the weapon with respect, he re-joined the group as they continued on their journey towards the building in the distance.

“Not far now,” observed John, seeing they had only around five hundred yards to go.

“You’re right, and we have to prepare to fight again.”

He had hardly finished speaking when four panthers of a similar design to those they had previously fought came rushing through the gate.

The men all raised and fired their weapons. Even with the gun turned down to 40% the recoil was hard to deal with. John missed with his first shot, but the warriors didn’t. The first cat was hit by two rounds; so it was flung back into the second.

Taking a firmer grip of his gun, John fired again, blowing the third cat’s head clean off. The second cat was trying to extricate itself from the damaged first cat, but the warriors shot it before it could spring at them.

The final cat leaped towards them. John shot its foreleg off, so when it landed, it slid towards them. Just as it came to a halt, John blew its head off.

The way seemed clear now, so the group walked up to the house and into the gate.......
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