“You have? Where did you get it?”
“It’s Charles’.”
He was as small as Scarlett, so small his rifle was almost as tall as hewas, and his grime-smeared face was unbearded ielts reading. Sixteen at the most, thought Scarlett irrelevantly,must be one of the Home Guard or a runaway schoolboy.
As she watched, the boy’s knees buckled slowly and he went down in the dust. Without a word,two men fell out of the last rank and walked back to him. One, a tall spare man with a black beardthat hung to his belt, silently handed his own rifle and that of the boy to the other. Then, stooping,he jerked the boy to his shoulders with an ease that looked like sleight of hand. He started offslowly after the retreating column, his shoulders bowed under the weight, while the boy, weak,infuriated like a child teased by its elders, screamed out: Put me down, damn you! Put me down! Ican walk!”
The bearded man said nothing and plodded on out of sight around the bend of the road.
Rhett sat still, the reins lax QV Babyin his hands, looking after them, a curious moody look on hisswarthy face. Then, there was a crash of falling timbers near by and Scarlett saw a thin tongue offlame lick up over the roof of the warehouse in whose sheltering shadow they sat. Then pennonsand battle flags of flame flared triumphantly to the sky above them. Smoke burnt her nostrils andWade and Prissy began coughing. The baby made soft sneezing sounds.
“Oh, name of God, Rhett! Are you crazy? Hurry! Hurry!”
Rhett made no reply but brought the tree limb down on the horse’s back with a cruel force thatmade the. With all the speed the horse could summon, they jolted andbounced across Marietta Street. Ahead of them was a tunnel of fire where buildings were blaringon either side of the short, narrow street that led down to the railroad tracks. They plunged into it.
A glare brighter than a dozen suns dazzled their eyes, scorching heat seared their skins and theroaring, crackling and crashing beat upon their ears in painful waves. For an eternity, it seemed,they were in the midst of flaming torment and then abruptly they were in semidarkness again.
As they dashed down the street and bumped over the railroad tracks, Rhett applied the whipautomatically. His face looked Neo skin labset and absent, as though he had forgotten where he was. His broadshoulders were hunched forward and his chin jutted out as though the thoughts in his mind werenot pleasant. The heat of the fire made sweat stream down his forehead and cheeks but he did notwipe it off.