by S. D. Stuart
It couldn’t be, could it?
She looked up and searched William’s eyes for the truth.
He nodded his head and smiled. “It’s pointing to your father.”
He grabbed the emerald and popped it back into the necklace casing.
He gripped her shoulders and smiled. “We’ve listened to a specific wireless channel for the last seven years. Your father finally got a message out to us. He is in the Outcast Zone and told me that if we spun the emerald it would point to him.”
She fought back the tears that glisten in the corners of her eyes. “What did he say? Is he okay?”
“The message cut out abruptly and we barely got the information that we did. I don’t know how he is doing or where he is, but I will find him and bring him back.”
Dorothy swallowed the lump in her throat and felt her heart race. The ability to find her father had been with her the whole time. Why hadn’t he told her?
She remembered how quickly the events took place when the men took him. It happened so fast he never had a chance.
She immediately opened the dresser drawer and started pulling out clothing.
William looked at her with sideways glance. “What are you doing?”
She continued to grab clothing out of the drawer without looking at him. “I’m coming with you.”
He shook his head. “No Dorothy, it’s too dangerous.”
She spun to face him, the rage welling up inside of her. “Don’t tell me I’m too young to do this. I’m not that little girl you first met covered in mud and tears. I know how to fight just as well as you do. Hell, I might even be better than you.”
“You watch your language young lady.”
“Don’t change the subject. I’m going.”
“No you’re not!”
She moved in close and pointed a finger at his face. “You can’t tell me …”
He batted her hand out of his face. “I’m not discussing this.”
“What’s going on in here?”
They both jumped at the sound of someone else in the room and turned to see Eloise standing in the open doorway.
William slipped the emerald necklace into his pocket. “Nothing. I was just leaving.”
Dorothy vaulted the bed and stood between him and the door. “Not without me you’re not.”
Eloise looked back and forth at them. “What’s going on Dorothy? Who is he?”
William smiled at Eloise. “I’m an old friend of Dorothy’s father. I just came to get something I needed.”
Dorothy sidestepped to stay in his way as he tried to go around her. “And you need me.”
He grabbed her shoulders and pushed her to the side. “Where I am going is far too dangerous for you. Stay here and I will bring your father back. I promise.”
He walked out the door with her emerald necklace, the only thing she could use to find her father.
Chapter 6
Dorothy counted to ten before she grabbed her backpack and shoved clothes into it.
Eloise stood in the doorway and stared at her. “What are you doing Dorothy?”
She stopped, went over to Eloise and placed her hands on her shoulders.
“Promise me you won’t tell Uncle Henry or Aunt Em I left until morning.”
Eloise shook her head. “I …”
Dorothy gripped her shoulders harder. “I have to find my father and following that man is the only way I can do it. I have to leave now before he gets too far.”
She returned to shoving only the essentials into her backpack.
Eloise followed her out into the hallway.
“Are you ever coming back?”
Dorothy smiled. “If I find my father, I won’t need to come back.”
Eloise looked like she was ready to cry. “I’ll miss you.”
Dorothy gave her a big hug. “I’ll miss you too.”
Dorothy hopped out the window and landed on the ground in a crouch. She ran up to the corner of the house and peeked around it. William was warming up his French built steam car called La Rapide because it could reach speeds of up to sixty-two kilometers per hour.
Any hope she had of following him on foot immediately melted away. At speeds like that, she would need a horse to be able to keep up with him. But not just any horse, she would need a fast one. And none of Uncle Henry’s old cart-pulling mares were young enough. Or fast enough.
William was focused on bringing the boiler to enough pressure so that he could drive off. He would never agree to let her come along, so she had to sneak on board that car. She could see steam escaping from the release valve. He was almost ready to leave.
Fortunately for her, a cloud swept in front of the moon and it fell dark all around the farm. She used the cover of darkness to run across the field and leaned up against the side of the barn. William would have to pass right by this barn to get to the road that paralleled the farm.
She tightened the shoulder straps on her backpack and jogged softly in place to warm up her leg muscles.
The cloud passed and moonlight once again brightened the farm. It did not matter, she reminded herself. She would be behind him when she made a run for it.
William would never see her and, the road was so rough, he would never feel her jump on the back of the steam car. And then she would be one step closer to finding her father.
Almost too easy, she thought and let a smile tease the corners of her mouth.
She watched as William disengaged the brake and pushed on the lever that would drive power from the steam engine to the wheels.
She took three quick breaths and readied herself to run behind the accelerating steam car and jump on the back.
She turned away quickly and knelt down beside the barn to stay in shadow as every light in the house blazed brightly in an instant.
“Eloise,” she said under her breath. Why didn’t she leave when she turned 18? Because then she could not stick around and cause trouble for Dorothy.
William stopped the steam car before he even got halfway to the barn and looked back at the brightly lit house.
Uncle Henry came out the front door and waved to William.
William hopped down out of the steam car and jogged back to the front of house.
She was too far to hear anything over the chugging sound of the steam car, but she knew that Uncle Henry was telling William what Eloise had told him. They both glanced around the brightly lit farm. William shook Uncle Henry’s hand and trotted back to the steam car.
Uncle Henry stayed on the porch and continued to look back and forth.
There was no way she was going to be able to run out and jump onto the steam car now. Uncle Henry would spot her immediately.
She crawled around the back of the barn and noticed the barn’s shadow stretched all the way to the road. She knew if she could make it to the road, she could get up behind the steam car and jump on to it. But the road was a lot smoother and William would be driving a lot faster.
It wasn’t a great idea, but it was the only idea she had left.
As she crouched and ran along the shadow of the barn, doubt crept into her thoughts.
What if William turned and went the other way down the road?
What if he was going too fast?
She pushed those negative thoughts deep down and reminded herself that this was all about finding her father. She would outrun a thoroughbred racehorse if she had too.
She reached the road and looked down just as William turned on to the main road. His carriage lamps swept across the forest she had run through the last time she made an escape attempt and then pointed down the road at her.
Good news. He was headed her way.
She crouched down in the ditch so the carriage lamps would not give her away before he passed her.
She squinted her eyes against the brightening light of the carriage lamps and felt the rush of wind as the steam car swept by.
She leaped out of the ditch and ran full speed down the middle of the road toward the back of
the steam car.
She ran as fast as she could and was gaining on the car. There was a loud puff of steam and the car shot forward.
She started to lose ground.
The car was getting further away.
Fear engulfed her. If she didn’t catch up to that car, she would never be able to follow William to her father.
She struggled with the weight of the backpack and realized it was slowing her down.
She stripped off the backpack and surged faster.
It was no use; the car was speeding up and leaving her farther behind.
Another loud puff of steam and the car suddenly slowed to a crawl.
She forced her muscles to run faster. She caught up to the steam car and grabbed the back railing when another loud puff of steam propelled the car forward, dragging her off her feet.
She clung to the railing and scrambled to get her feet off the ground before the tops of her shoes were torn to shreds.
She wedged her feet into a crevice along the bottom edge of the steam car and held on for dear life as they sped through the town and turned onto the road that led to the airfield.
Chapter 7
Dorothy let go of the rail handhold and dropped from the steam car just as William turned onto the airfield. She rolled into a ball and tumbled unceremoniously off the edge of the road and into the ditch. She sat up and carefully moved her arms and legs before twisting her head back and forth.
Whew! Nothing was broken or too badly bruised. While she tested the rest of her body for damage, she wondered what she’d ever done in her life to keep ending up in the ditch like this. Hopefully, she mused, this was the last time she would have to spiral out of control to the ground.
She scrambled to her feet and ran along the fence that bordered the airfield.
Her target was the only airship that was brightly lit up. That had to be the one William was preparing for departure. If she could sneak on board and hide, maybe they wouldn’t discover her until well past the point of no return. William would have no choice but to let her come along. She could fight. She could think on her feet. William would realize that having her along was better than leaving her behind.
As she got closer, she saw several men loading large wooden crates into the rear cargo area of the gondola mounted to the underside of the airship envelope. Some of the crates were so big they looked like they could hold an adult man with plenty of room to spare. They looked like a poor man’s coffin.
She wondered what was in the large crates but did not have to wonder long. Two men dropped one of the crates while they were carrying it up the ramp. It landed sideways and the lid broke off. Several rifles spilled out of the crate and to the ground.
The man who had been supervising the rest as they loaded the crates hollered out. “What are you, a couple of parlor soldiers? Be careful with those things.”
One of the men hollered back. “Don’t worry Sarge, these are Spencer carbines. We could drag these barkers through the mud and they’d still fire twenty rounds per minute.”
The second man pointed to the first. “Blame the Jonah here; I had a good grip on my end.”
The first man turned on the second. “I ain’t no bad luck!”
Sarge had obviously heard enough. “Get back to work and hide those rifles before someone sees them.”
The two men scrambled to put the rifles back into the crate and replaced the lid, but Sarge was not done with them yet. “And as soon as you finish loading that crate get the rest of them in the airship now.”
Dorothy scanned the area around the airship and, in just that moment, it seemed everyone was facing away from her.
This was her chance to sneak on board.
She ran to the remaining stack of crates waiting to be loaded. There were too many people around for her to make the last 40 meter run to the loading ramp and up into the airship. She had to find another way inside.
The two men, who had dropped the earlier crate, walked back down the loading ramp and headed for the stack of crates that was her hiding spot.
She was trapped.
If she ran back to the fence, they would see her. But she couldn’t stay hiding behind the crates; they would see her as soon as they picked up the first crate.
She placed her hand on top of the crate next to her to steady herself and use it as a launching point to dash across the field. The lid shifted slightly as soon as she touched it. She slipped her thumb under the lip of the lid and lifted it up.
She peaked inside and saw more rifles nestled among the straw packing. There was just enough room for her inside and, just as the two men approached, she lowered the lid on top of her.
Their voices were only slightly muffled by the crudely built wooden crate.
“With all these guns, you’d think we were launching an invasion.”
“To hear William talk, we pretty much are.”
“Then let’s get these barkers loaded before we’re left out of the fun.”
Dorothy stomach flip-flopped as the men lifted the crate she was in.
“I swear, each crate feels heavier than the last.”
“Whoa hold on. The lid is loose on this crate. I don’t want a repeat of last time when you drop this one too.”
“I’m not the one who dropped it! You are!”
They set the crate down with a heavy thump, the rifles jumping and jabbing her all over.
“Hand me those nails.”
She covered her ears against the loud pounding as they nailed the lid shut on her coffin-like crate.
“There, now you can drop it all you want.”
The other man grumbled and mumbled some choice words under his breath as they carried the crate up the ramp and into the gondola.
She laid there quietly for over an hour as they finished loading the gondola. Every time she heard them shuffling up the ramp with another crate, she prayed that they would not stack it on top of hers.
They never did and when she heard them locking the cargo bay doors, she knew she had made it.
It was another half hour before her stomach alerted her that the airship had launched and was airborne.
During a quiet moment, she strained to listen if there was anybody in the cargo area.
She couldn’t hear anything and she got the sense that she was alone. She pushed up with her hands and feet against the lid.
The wood flexed under her pressure but the nails held fast.
She rolled over to her stomach and tried to force the lid off by pushing up into a kneeling position and muscling her back and shoulders into the top of the crate.
They had used way more nails than they needed to, and the lid was not budging even a little.
She rolled back over, fatigued from all of her exerted, but ultimately useless, effort.
She was trapped with nothing to do but wait to be discovered.
It was hard for her to stay awake, locked in the dark crate and cradled by straw. She was exhausted and found herself dozing off, occasionally waking to voices in the cargo area before falling asleep again.
Dorothy jerked out of a deep slumber by the sound of rough-hewn nails being forced from the lid of her crate. The crate lid lifted up and she found herself staring into William’s face.
He did not look happy.
“There you are.”
He reached a hand down and pulled her out of the crate.
“Someone mentioned they thought they saw a girl hiding among the crates back at the airfield. I knew it had to be you.”
She looked around and saw the lids were pried off from nearly every crate in the cargo area. She looked back at him and gave him a sheepish grin.
That did not change the look on his face one bit.
He grabbed her by the arm and hauled her into the passenger compartment of the gondola and tossed her down on one of the overstuffed chairs bolted to the floor.
“What were you thinking, Dorothy.”
“I want to help you find my father.”
&nbs
p; He shook his head. “You’ve put me in an awful position. Where we are going is far too dangerous for you and we don’t have time to turn back now.”
“I can help.”
“My job is to keep you safe and I can’t do that if you fight me every step of the way.”
She looked away from him and out the window. It was then she realized her mistake.
He touched her chin with the tip of his finger and twisted her head away from the window to face him. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
“I should have snuck aboard the other airship.”
His eyebrows furrowed. “What other airship?”
She pointed out the window at the airship flying alongside them.
At the same moment he looked, the side of the other airship was suddenly engulfed in black smoke accompanied by the thunderous boom of cannon fire.
William roared, “Get down!”
He tackled her to the floor and covered her body with his in the same moment the sides of the gondola exploded inward.
A second thunderous explosion sent cannonballs into the envelope above the gondola that kept the airship in the air.
The entire airship began to roll to one side from the impact.
She pushed up on William and tried to force him off of her. But he must have been unconscious and was a dead weight.
The airship continue to roll to one side and William finally rolled off of her and continued to roll until he wedged against the wall of the gondola that was now the floor. She got on her hands and knees and shuffled over to him. His final unselfish act of shielding her with his body had saved her life, but ended his. His body shifted again as the airship continued to tilt. She did not have time to mourn his death.
She groped through his coat pockets and her hand gripped the hard object inside tightly as she let out the breath she had been holding.
She wiped William’s blood off the emerald necklace and slipped it back into her own pocket where it belonged.
The airship tilted wildly as it continued to spin out of control.
Men were running around as cannon balls continued to rip through the passenger compartment of the gondola.
The other airship was now only firing as fast as each cannon could reload, so each shot was more sporadic and less destructive than the initial volley had been.