by S. D. Stuart
He took a few steps backward and then ran toward the edge of the roof. He launched himself off his feet and sailed across the open gap between the two buildings. He landed on the roof allowing his momentum to propel him into a somersault and back onto his feet in a crouch.
He stood up, straightened his coat and motioned for the boy to follow him.
Cole took a couple steps back before he ran for the edge of the roof. At the last moment, he faltered and ran off the edge of the roof rather than jumping off the roof.
Without the upward momentum provided by jumping off the roof, Cole dropped like a rock and disappeared below the roof line with a bloodcurdling scream that ended abruptly. The other two men ignored the death of Cole and vaulted from the inn to the other building without even slowing down.
They joined him as he ran across the rooftops, leaping from building to building in hot pursuit of his prey.
He was down to three men, including himself, and had lost the element of surprise. He needed to somehow even those odds. He glanced over his shoulder at the airship as it followed them across the rooftops. The fugitives had to know there was no way they could outrun the airship. Even though the only people on board the airship were Amanda, the helmsman and an engineer, all he had to do was make them think it was filled with soldiers and they would give up without a fight.
Despite slipping occasionally on the loose shingles of poorly maintained roofs, he ran as fast as he could and gained on them.
As he ran, he called out, “There’s nowhere to go. Surrender now and I guarantee none of my soldiers will harm you.”
The girl, the boy, the animal-man thing and the automaton kept running. His threats only seemed to make them run that much faster and they gave no indication that they planned to stop.
Since it was obvious they would not stop willingly, he had to give them another reason to stop.
He skidded to a halt on the roof and bent on one knee as he sighted down the barrel of his Remington carbine. The group ran away from him in a straight line, making it easy to target the automaton.
He held his breath to steady the rifle and squeezed the trigger.
The bullet whistled through the air and slammed into the back of the automaton, sending it pinwheeling off the edge of the roof.
The girl stopped running and screamed, “Scarecrow!”
The rest of the group stopped with her. They appeared to be having an argument that stopped when they noticed his men approaching them with rifles drawn. It was at that point that they raised their hands in defeat.
He vaulted over the gap between buildings and landed on the roof. He slung his Winchester behind his back to send the message to them that, not only were they his prisoner, he was not worried about them trying to escape again.
He looked at the ragtag group and wondered why the West Marshal was willing to risk so many lives to capture these people?
His focus turned to the man-beast. There weren’t many of these around, and he thought he recognized this one.
“Aren’t you Nero’s personal bodyguard?”
The man-beast’s fur bristled when he spoke. “Ex-bodyguard.”
“So what did you do to fall out of favor with Nero?”
“I was repaying an old debt.”
That wasn’t the answer he had expected. Well, he thought, it hardly mattered. As long as the West Marshal wanted these people brought to her alive, that is exactly what he would do.
He waved a hand in the air.
Above them, the airship descended to collect them.
Captain Stiles smiled to himself as he watched the fear grow in his captives’ faces. When the ship was only 20 feet above them, the man-beast suddenly leapt into the air and grabbed one of the tether ropes that hung along the side of the airship’s gas envelope. He swung around on the rope and knocked Edward off the roof while, at the same time, the young boy and girl tackled Charlie.
As he grabbed for the rifle slung over his shoulder, the man-beast shoved him down from behind and ripped the Winchester carbine out of his grip.
He went from being in control of the situation to being a hostage within half a second. In addition, it had all taken place in the blind spot directly under the airship.
The man-beast jabbed the rifle barrel into the side of his jaw. “How many more men are aboard?”
“I have a heavily armed compliment of twenty men who will kill you where you stand unless you drop the rifle now.”
The young boy he twisted Charlie’s arm up behind his back. “Is he telling the truth?”
Through gritted teeth Charlie responded, “He’s telling the truth”
The boy looked from Charlie back to him and squinted his eyes. He grabbed the Charlie’s hand and bent the pinky finger back until it snapped.
Charlie screamed, “It’s just us. It’s just us. There’s nobody else.”
The boy obviously did not trust Charlie was giving enough information. He grabbed the next finger and started pulling it back. “Then who’s flying the ship?”
Captain Stiles had to get the situation back under control and keep Charlie from talking. “That’s enough …” But he was cut off by a sharp pain to the back of his head and everything went black.
It did not feel like any time had passed before someone was slapping him awake. His eyes snapped open and he looked up at Amanda, who stood over him looking down. He could still tell he was up on the roof and the sun had not traveled very far since he had been knocked out.
He squinted up and Amanda. “What happened?”
“You handed them my ship,” Amanda said.
Chapter 15
The gondola of the airship swayed lightly in a rhythmic pattern and kept Dorothy focused while she repaired the Woodsman. Jasper found him in the cargo hold after they gained control of the airship.
She wiped her hands on an oily cloth as she regarded the Woodsman with a smile. “That should do it.”
Jasper took the filthy rag from her and tossed it in the corner of the cargo area of the airship. “How do you think he got aboard?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “They must’ve been watching us the whole time and took him from the barn right after we left.”
Jasper ran a hand over the fresh dents and scratches in the Woodsman’s armor plating. “Looks like he put up quite a fight.”
She pointed to the burn mark to one side. “At least until they zapped him with that electric prod.”
Jasper’s hand reached to the side of his stomach. “Yeah, I didn’t like that thing either.”
She stared down at the pile of Scarecrow parts. It was probably best to leave the automatons shut off until they landed.
Working on the Woodsman had taken her mind off the situation she was in. As she walked out of the cargo hold, her mind raced with how bad things had gotten in the past few days.
If someone asked her what she had done with her life she never thought she could say she was a runaway, a stowaway, a killer, a thief, a fugitive, and now a hijacker.
Why was it so easy to commit crime in OZ?
Could she have avoided any of it?
As she stepped onto the bridge of the airship, Caleb leaned on the ship’s wheel and pointed out the windows to the faintly illuminated eastern sky.
“The sun will be up soon and they’ll be looking for this ship. We better land and continue the rest of the way on foot.”
She looked at Caleb and saw the same level of weariness that must’ve been evident on her own face.
“How long do you think we have before she catches up to us?”
“If we can get some new clothes we might be able to keep from getting discovered until we’re safe inside Center City.”
“What makes you think Center City will be any safer than out here?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “It will be safe from any of the other marshals. And Amanda.”
“I don’t have any money for new clothes.”
Caleb turned the wheel slightly and redirec
ted the airship toward a blinking light on the horizon. “I guess we’ll have to steal something once we make it to that town.”
She looked out the window and saw her own weary face reflected back in the pane of glass. “That’s just great.”
The perspective of her face floating like a specter over the skyline of a small city in the distance seemed all too fitting. It was as if she cast a shadow over all of OZ just by being here.
Jasper appeared at the door to the bridge. “I felt the ship turn.”
Dorothy continued to look out the window at their destination. “Caleb says we have to ditch the ship before we get caught.”
Caleb nodded his head. “There’s only one airship like this in all of OZ. As long as we are anywhere near it, we’ve got problems.”
Jasper pointed out the window. “We’re not going there, are we?”
Caleb twisted the wheel slightly. The airship pointed directly at the blinking light in the center of the city’s skyline. “We have to get somewhere before the sun comes up and everybody can see us.”
Jasper stared out the window. “We can’t go there.”
Dorothy turned to Jasper. “Why not?”
Jasper’s mouth open and closed a few times as if he was unsure of what to say. He finally said, “We just can’t. There’s another town 20 miles to the west. If we fly low, no one will see us.”
Caleb looked at him, his furry forehead wrinkled in confusion. “What’s wrong with that town?”
Jasper still stared out the window. “Nothing specific. But I’ve heard rumors.”
Dorothy and Caleb waited for him to finish, but when he didn’t, Caleb spoke up. “I don’t know what you heard, but we don’t really have a choice.” He tapped one of the dials in front of the ship’s wheel with his finger. “We don’t have enough fuel to make it anywhere else. We have to land here.”
Dorothy glanced out at the growing skyline as they neared the city and then turned back to face Caleb and Jasper.
“You are both right. We don’t have enough fuel to make it to the next town but we can’t land this ship inside the city limits of any town or we’ll have more trouble than we can handle.”
Caleb looked even more confused than before. “What are you trying to say?”
“Just land us in that open field over there and we’ll figure out another way to get to Center City without going through that town. Does that work for both of you?”
Jasper nodded his head.
Caleb only responded by twisting the ships’ wheel and guiding the airship toward the field.
Jasper mumbled something about getting the Woodsman and Scarecrow ready and headed for the cargo bay.
Caleb remained silent as he lowered the airship effortlessly toward the field.
The bump of hitting the ground softly pulled her out of her dark thoughts and back to where she was right now. She looked over at Caleb. “Let’s get going before someone spots us.”
He grinned. “No argument from me there.”
They climbed down the ladder to the cargo bay just as Jasper fired up the Woodsman. Scarecrow was already at the controls to lower the cargo bay door.
She looked at Jasper but pointed to Scarecrow. “Does he know how to work the bay doors?”
Jasper was guiding the Woodsman toward the door. “I showed him how.”
“It feels like you’re rushing us Jasper.”
He looked at her, a worried expression on his face. “I just think we should get away from this airship as quickly as possible.”
Caleb hopped down from the ladder behind her. “Are you sure that’s all there is to it?”
Jasper didn’t respond, but instead motioned toward Scarecrow.
Dorothy nodded to him and he pulled down on the lever. Jasper was on the door as soon as it was level with the cargo platform. “We have to go now before …” He was suddenly cut off by the sound of several cocking levers being pulled back on flintlock rifles.
The cargo door continued to swivel down to the ground and revealed several farmers pointing rifles up into the cargo bay.
One of the men pointing a flintlock rifle at them smiled when his eyes fell on Jasper. “Jasper?”
Dorothy glanced sideways at Jasper. “You know these people?”
Jasper never took his eyes off of the barrel pointed straight at him. “Sort of.”
The man lowered his rifle. “Jasper Hawksley, Jr.?”
Jasper slightly waved a hand. “Um, hey. How you guys doing?”
“Don’t you remember what we said would happen if you ever came back?”
Chapter 16
Dorothy found herself staring out through the bars of yet another cage. It surprised her how many prisons there were inside the world’s largest prison.
Since coming to OZ, she has been inside a walled up city with no gate to the outside world, in a cage in the underground caverns below a coliseum and now she was in a cage inside of a barn. It was as if the only thing these people knew how to do was put each other in successively smaller cages.
Why did they even have cages inside a barn?
She glanced to one side and saw Caleb and Jasper both in cages of their own along the same wall of the barn as her cage.
She hollered over to Jasper. “What did you do to these guys?”
“Technically, I didn’t do anything,” he replied.
Caleb stood up in his cage and joined the conversation. “Then what are we doing in here?”
“It’s kind of something my dad did.”
One of the farmers, who had been relegated to guard duty, stepped into the barn. “No talking.”
Dorothy called out to him. “I’m the East Marshal; you can’t treat me like this.”
The farmer sauntered up to her, his flintlock rifle resting casually on his shoulder. “You’re not in the Eastern Territories anymore ma’am. You’re within the borders of Center City. You ain’t nobody here.”
She slid down the bars and back into a sitting position on the straw covered floor. “So everyone keeps telling me.”
She sat with her back against the bars of her cage and drew circles in the loose dirt. Her mind feverishly tried to formulate some plan of escape.
She was at a complete loss and if the guard kept them all from talking, she couldn’t ask Caleb or Jasper for their input.
It felt like she had been sitting there for days, but it could not have been more than a couple of hours when a new guard came in and relieved the current guard.
This new guard watched her just as intently as the previous one, so talking to Caleb or Jasper was still out of the question. Nothing in her life before had prepared her for something like this. She hadn’t known what to expect when she snuck on board William’s airship, but it certainly wasn’t this.
“Attention!” the guard yelled and startled her.
“All rise for Captain Myers.”
The same man who identified Jasper when they first landed walked right up to her cage.
“My guard tells me that you claim to be the East Marshal?”
Dorothy stood a little straighter, hoping to portray some form of authority. “Yes, and I demand that you release us at once.”
Captain Myers laughed. “Prove it.”
Dorothy pulled back her cloak and revealed the East Marshal star.
He stared at it for a moment before letting out a low whistle. “Well I’ll be,” he said.
He turned to face the rest of his men, who had followed him into the barn. “Gentlemen, it looks as if fate has smiled upon us yet again. Bring the Marshal to the lab.”
Two of the bigger farmers, each a head taller than Dorothy, unlocked her cage and pulled her out.
Now that she was out in the open and no longer contained by steel bars she knew she had prepared her whole life for something like this.
She went limp in their arms and, as they shifted their weight to correct for the sudden increase in hers, she struck out.
She gave the first man a swift kick be
tween the legs and he crumbled instantly to the ground.
She yanked the second man’s arm behind his back as she backpedaled quickly and spun him around while he awkwardly tried to regain his footing. As she came back around in a full circle, the first man was already on his hands and knees trying to get up. She delivered a sharp kick to his face sending him back down to the ground.
She had almost thrown the second man off balance when a gunshot reverberated through the barn and a bullet whizzed past her ear.
She let go of the second man and raised her hands.
A sharp blow to the back of her head, probably delivered by the angry second man, forced her down to her hands and knees. She looked up in time to see him winding up to punch her squarely in the face.
“Enough!” yelled Captain Myers. The second man stopped short and stood up straight, sneering down at her.
Captain Meyer shook his head. “She’s no good to us if you hit her in the face. We don’t have time to wait for the swelling to go down.”
He motioned to two more men, who were even bigger than the first two. “Bring her.”
She looked up at the two behemoths with a wry smile on her lips. “They sure do grow them big here in OZ. You know what they say about the bigger they are?”
They hesitated for a moment and Captain Myers frowned at them. “She’s just a girl.”
He looked over at her and his eyes bored straight through her. “And she won’t try anything else, will she?”
Dorothy shook her head slightly.
The men came over; each gripped an arm just below her shoulders, and yanked her forcibly to her feet. This time she allowed them to lead her out of the barn without putting up a fight. They followed Captain Myers to a bigger barn adjacent to the one they just left.
Once inside, her mouth fell open at the intricate machinery that filled the entire barn. It hummed and crackled with electricity.
Captain Myers noticed her staring at the scientific and technological marvels on display all around them. “Quite impressive, isn’t it?”
Dorothy looked at him. “I thought you were farmers.”
Captain Myers smiled. “That’s just our cover.”
Dorothy looked again around her at all the equipment. “What are you doing?”