The Siege of the YMCA

A Boy and His Dog

Follows the roverpak attack on the ruined gymnasium, the firefight from the girder, and the desperate decision to burn down the building as a shroud for escape.

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Bearing strength in each event

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The Encircling Pack The Encircling Pack from "A Boy and His Dog". The Encircling Pack The Alarm Blood crashes through lath and plaster with the news: a roverpak of fifteen or twenty has surrounded the YMCA, drawn by the…

The Encircling Pack from "A Boy and His Dog". The Encircling Pack The Alarm Blood crashes through lath and plaster with the news: a roverpak of fifteen or twenty has surrounded the YMCA, drawn by the…

The Encircling Pack The Alarm Blood crashes through lath and plaster with the news: a roverpak of fifteen or twenty has surrounded the YMCA, drawn by the girl's scent. Vic's jeans are still around his ankles. The comedy of the moment, 'Pull your pants up', gives way to a grim survey of the gym. The Field of Battle Vic builds Quilla June a shelter of wrestling mats, climbs a hanging rope to a girder, and lays out his rifles. The stage is set for a classically hopeless stand: a single solo, a wounded dog, a girl who might cry at the worst moment, and an unknown number of enemies outside.

Three Takeouts in the Dark Three Takeouts in the Dark from "A Boy and His Dog". Three Takeouts in the Dark The Failed Yoke The rovers try a classic double move: a thrown object to draw fire, then two riflemen bursting from the pool-room…

Three Takeouts in the Dark from "A Boy and His Dog". Three Takeouts in the Dark The Failed Yoke The rovers try a classic double move: a thrown object to draw fire, then two riflemen bursting from the pool-room…

Three Takeouts in the Dark The Failed Yoke The rovers try a classic double move: a thrown object to draw fire, then two riflemen bursting from the pool-room door. Vic shoots both in the chest, and Blood tears out the throat of the decoy at the front. Three bodies drop in the first exchange, and still the attackers do not know where the fire came from. The Greater Math Vic calculates grimly: three of seventeen, three of twenty, three of twenty-two. Every kill is a drop in a bucket that may be refilled at any time. The silence that follows is worse than the shooting, it is the silence of a siege that could last a week.

The Rope Swing The Rope Swing from "A Boy and His Dog". The Rope Swing Weapons Lost, Options Gone A rover with a .30-06 identifies Vic's position and knocks the Browning off the girder.

The Rope Swing from "A Boy and His Dog". The Rope Swing Weapons Lost, Options Gone A rover with a .30-06 identifies Vic's position and knocks the Browning off the girder.

The Rope Swing Weapons Lost, Options Gone A rover with a .30-06 identifies Vic's position and knocks the Browning off the girder. For a single long moment Vic is naked on the beam, unarmed, with a rifleman waiting in the shadow below. The girl behind the mats fires one shot and buys one heartbeat. The Descent Vic drops onto a climbing rope, whipping his body side to side, and swings into the corner like a human projectile, driving the rifleman against the wall. The fight ends with thumbs in eye sockets and a skull pounded against the floor. It is victory of a brutal, exhausted kind, and Vic can count his own luck only in fractions.

The Burned Alibi The Burned Alibi from "A Boy and His Dog". The Burned Alibi The Fire Plan Blood proposes the unthinkable: burn down the building with themselves inside it.

The Burned Alibi from "A Boy and His Dog". The Burned Alibi The Fire Plan Blood proposes the unthinkable: burn down the building with themselves inside it.

The Burned Alibi The Fire Plan Blood proposes the unthinkable: burn down the building with themselves inside it. They pile gym mats and ladders against a wooden divider, splash on kerosene Quilla June finds in a storeroom, and climb into the empty boiler in the basement. The fire roars overhead; the heat becomes a furnace around them. A Coffin That Saves The plan is a gamble on the roverpak's laziness: the searchers will sift the ashes, find charred meat, and move on. The boiler door is dogged down, a vent left open, one mat between them and slow roasting. In the dark and heat, with the world burning above, the three survivors wait for dawn.

The Baked Morning The Baked Morning from "A Boy and His Dog". The Baked Morning Buried Alive The fire collapses the floors into the basement; when Vic pushes the hatch, rubble spills in and smoke pours through the light.

The Baked Morning from "A Boy and His Dog". The Baked Morning Buried Alive The fire collapses the floors into the basement; when Vic pushes the hatch, rubble spills in and smoke pours through the light.

The Baked Morning Buried Alive The fire collapses the floors into the basement; when Vic pushes the hatch, rubble spills in and smoke pours through the light. They are alive, but the boiler was almost completely buried. A cautious recon is impossible until Blood limps out to read the area. The Cost of Survival Between the heat and the killing, the alliance has frayed. Blood is surly, wounded, and jealous; Quilla June has begun to change things between them. The morning after the fire is the first quiet moment in the story, and it is already poisoned.

seconds after Quilla June is captured

the opening minutes of the firefight

the climax of the gunfight

just after the firefight winds down

the morning after the fire