Edge: Killer's Breed

Hedges snatched a cautious glance down the slope, over the sprawled and crouched Union soldiers, across the trench and into the trees on the far side of the battlefield. He could see a mounted figure waiting there, stroking the horse's neck as if to calm the beast. There was no other cavalry in sight and Hedges guessed that Jordan's troop had all made it to the trench or fallen as they tried to reach it.

"Probably charge his men with deserting him under fire," a trooper said cynically.

"Maybe he's missing his mother," another suggested and tried to laugh. It was just a hoarse rasping in his throat.

Hedges fixed him with a stee1y-eyed glare. "Guess you'd rather be eating your ma's apple pie right this moment?" he said.

"But I ain't," the man replied.

"And you ain't doing a hell of a lot towards winning this war," Hedges countered. "Let's move." He indicated with hand movements that the five men should spread out in a line facing the end of the Confederate defenses. Gunfire continued to sound across the battlefield from both sides and was punctuated spasmodically by a scream as a soldier was hit. But Hedges' group had been unmolested for several minutes, as if the enemy soldiers thought they had wiped out the infiltrators. Hedges urged caution as he signaled the advance and the men complied, their frightened eyes flicking over every inch of ground before them and then examining the trees, thick with summer leaf.

Hedges saw a rifle muzzle pushed out from a clump of shrubbery and aimed an inch above it as he squeezed the trigger of the Spencer. The man yelled and stood up in full view, showing the surprised Union men a bloody wound in his cheek. Five guns exploded and the wounded man's chest was dissolved in a sea of blood.

"Kill them!" Hedges roared. "You don't have to blow them to bits."

He and the rest flattened themselves into the ground as a hail of answering fire was thrown at them. Hedges spotted a powder flash from halfway up a beech tree and was preparing to loose off a shot when the trooper closest to him fired. The sniper died without a sound and crashed through the tree's branches.

"Like that, sir?"

"You're learning," Hedges answered, and pulled himself along on his elbows, then got to his feet behind a tree trunk, grimacing as a half dozen bullets thudded into the bark on the other side.

There was a renewed barrage of gunfire out in the open ground and he glanced that way and saw Leaman leading an advance up the slope, running, diving to the ground, firing and running again. He moved then, emerging from behind the tree and drawing fire. He and the men returned it and threw themselves to the ground after a half dozen yards.

"We gotta have a guardian angel," one of the troopers hissed, then made a croaking sound.

Hedges looked in his direction and saw the man begin to rise as his hands went to his face. Another bullet hit him in the chest and he dropped his hands. His jaw had been blown away.

"Called tempting providence," Hedges muttered, throwing himself up into a crouch and charging forward, firing the Spencer from the hip as he ran.

He saw a gray uniform in front of him and spotted the swinging butt of a musket. He shot the man in the shoulder and fell down behind his crumpled body as a half dozen rebel bullets tore into the injured man's body. He rolled quickly away, into the more substantial cover of an indentation in the ground. Bullets kicked up earth close to him and he loosed off three shots into the tree tops. A man screamed and fell.

"Get the bastards!" a voice called, followed by an outbreak of screamed obscenities and a fresh fusillade of shots. A man crashed through the undergrowth to dive into the dip beside Hedges and the lieutenant almost blasted him in flight before he saw the soldier was wearing a blue uniform.

"This where the action is?" the man asked, as he loosed off a shot from one of the two Colts he held.

Hedges glanced at him and didn't recognize the cruel lines of the man's face. It wasn't one (If the troopers he had selected for the diversionary raid. The man fired again and a rebel threw his rifle in the air and pitched out from behind a tree, streaming blood from a hole where his right eye had been.

"Damn gun pulls to the left," the man said with disgust. "Aimed for his snout."

"They broken through?" Hedges asked.

"I did," came the response. He grinned. "No disrespect, sir, but I been looking at the yellow streak down Jordan's back for too long since the shooting started. Me and my buddies been itching for some action."

"You found it," Hedges answered, ducking his head as bullets whined across the dip. There were several thudding sounds close to him, accompanied by a series of shots so close together they merged into one sound. He looked up and around and saw five other troopers had successfully made the run into the trees and were blasting into the rebel line at close quarters.