I just wanted to say a quick Thank You for your reviews. You made my day :)

so, here goes chapter two


Chapter Two

If you asked them later, no one could recount the events that took place in less than five minutes. They could explain in great detail what they saw, how three teenagers made their way up onto the gallows, overpowered half a dozen people, freed one man that was sentenced to death and disappeared completely unharmed. What they could not explain is how that had been possible, how not one single person had managed to stop them. After all they were just teenagers.

Joe, Norrie and Angie watch the pink stars rise from in front of the local church. They are on their way to Town Hall, when they begin their ascend and just like all the other members of Chester's Mill they are hypnotized by the sheer beauty of the spectacle. They promised Julia to go somewhere safe but they could just not help creeping onto the 'event ground', watching the execution and hoping beyond hope, that by some miracle Barbie is being saved. Besides, in a small town, cut off from the rest of the world, what is save anyway?

The three of them can see the town's people lifting their gazes to the sky, too, some letting out sounds of appreciation. They hear Big Jim saying something about The Lord, and then the dark surface of the Dome becomes an almost blinding white. For a moment they are as mesmerized by it as the rest of Chester's Mill but some force shakes them out off it, pushes them forward towards the center of the action. Something inside them realizes that that could be their one and only shot of getting Barbie out off there alive. It is almost as if the brightness had been sent to help them.

Simultaneously they make a split-second decision, pushing through the crowd. The people around them oblivious. They see them, of course, but there is no sign of them registering what is happening.

Barbie is the only one noticing the kids' suicide plan and his eyes become bigger with fear. He had been standing here, with a noose around his neck for all but two minutes and not once feared his own death. But those are just children, and they have to be crazy, and he can do absolutely nothing because he's cuffed and on his last seconds of breath. As soon as Junior pulls that lever he is going to suffocate and Big Jim would take the children into custody, making them reveal Julia's location and then probably have all four of them killed.

Not openly this time. He could justify it, after all they are Barbie's accomplices, but Big Jim is too chicken for that. On their way to the hangman one of them could blurt out something to incriminate him beyond repair and, if some townsfolk have at least a bit of intelligence left, having him hang from that noose. No, he would get rid off them somewhere private and then have the whole town looking for some outlaws they are never going to find.

The only thing on his mind before the kids showed up had been her. He did not think about dying itself but about what would happen to her when he was gone. After all he had done in his lifetime, right now in this very moment, he did not want to die. Not because he didn't think he deserved it somehow, but because he did not want to leave her. He had told Big Jim he wanted a future, and he did – with her.

It was only two weeks since he met her, less since he told her her husband wasn't likely to come back, still less since he admitted to killing her husband. Despite all that, he is in love with her.

He had told her as much, pretty sure she hadn't heard him, since she was still unconscious. Ever since that moment he prayed he could tell her so she heard him and now he hated himself for not doing so when he had the chance earlier.

He hears Big Jim yelling at his son to pull the lever and he closes his eyes. A single tears slips down his cheek, not for him but for her and he waits for the inevitable to happen. He catches the sound of something cracking rather loudly but his feet still stand on solid ground. The noose, too, does not tighten around his neck. He opens his eyes when the string is lifted from his shoulders, stares directly into Angie's blue ones. Norrie's standing to his right, Joe to his left. The boy is holding his right hand in his left one, flinching when he accidentally touches his knuckles.

Looking around him Barbie finds the town's people still staring at the unnaturally bright sky, Big Jim is staring at them but is still not able to comprehend what is happening. There is no sign of Junior on the gallows but he spots the boy lying on the grass beside it. The crack he heard seconds ago had been Joe's hand that connected with Junior's jaw with a force that sent him flying backwards in a fall that should have broken his neck but (un)fortunately didn't.

"I do appreciate you risking your life for me but what the hell are you doing here? And where is Julia?" He knows they don't really have time for chit-chat right now but he is not leaving until he knows Julia is OK. He would beg Big Jim to pull that lever himself if the kids told him something happened to her.

"We don't know. She said she was gonna protect the egg and send us somewhere safe. The thing is, we kind of have a feeling she's going to do something stupid" That is enough to get him moving. They have to get the hell out off here and find her.

He urges the kids on to move slowly towards the stairs, carefully bypassing Big Jim who seems to come out of his stupor. With a bit of luck they are down the gallows and far enough away from here when he actually does. They are not, of course, and Barbie, walking directly past him is the first one to notice the change in his posture. He pushes the kids over to the stairs and delivers a kick to his abdomen before Big Jim fully breaks out off it. His gun slides out of the waistband of his jeans and skids over to where the teenagers are standing. Stopping right in front of Norrie, she eyes it vaguely.

"Don't" Barbie and Big Jim warn her at the same time. Norrie reaches down and picks it up nevertheless. Pointing it at Big Jim with more strength than she thought she possessed, she demands the handcuff keys with a voice so steady it was almost frightening. He laughs at her first, she pulls the safety of the gun and he puts the keys in her outstretched hand. Angie catches them from her and takes the cuffs off Barbie.

Not sure what to do next, she stands there, gun pointed at the town's selectman. She picks up on the residents of Chester's Mill now watching the show with interest. Some of them draw their own guns but they still have the decency not to shoot an innocent teenager.

Suddenly Barbie is right behind her, his arms around her waist, holding her as tightly as possible. "Don't drop the gun" he whispers in her ear and she doesn't. "I'm sorry. Do you trust me?" She nods and he speaks up again. "They are not shooting you, so you just keep that gun pointed at Big Jim. I'll help you down those stairs, don't worry" She nods again, drawing the gun a bit higher so she is aiming for his head.

"Let's go" Norrie tells Big Jim and Barbie must admit he's impressed. That girl is smart.

Joe and Angie walk down the steps, every now and then turning around to see if Barbie is alright. He is, after all, descending backwards, half-carrying Norrie who has in turn an eye (and a gun) on Big Jim. They make it down quickly and unharmed, walking around the crowd gathered in a bunch, staring at them. Halfway to the nearest car Barbie sends the siblings over to check for keys.
"We won't need them" Angie tells him. "Just be prepared to jump in as soon as it's running" She earns a questioning look from her brother and an appreciating one from Barbie and heads over to the car.

They stop Big Jim a few steps later, gun still drawn. He wouldn't have thought her capable of actually shooting him but after witnessing her attacking Big Jim with a pocket knife he isn't so sure anymore. He just hopes she doesn't do it. As much as he may deserve to die, the chance of them getting out of it alive themselves would be pretty slim. The people of Chester's Mill might not kill an innocent teenager, even if she helped a prisoner to escape, but shooting someone sure as hell does not count as innocent anymore.

He hears Joe and Angie getting into the car and prepares Norrie for what to do. "We start moving backwards again, without him. When I tell you to, you drop the gun and run to the car as fast as you can"

"Okay" She's pretty confident that noting could go wrong with that plan until Barbie lets go of her. He fells her tense, assuming correctly that she thinks he's letting her alone out here, and takes her left hand into his. He lightly pulls and she walks with him, eyes still trained on Big Jim. Two steps later he hears the motor running.

"Go" He tells her and pulls her by the hand into the car. Securely in the backseat, Angie hits the accelerator, speeding away from the stunned town's people and an extremely pissed Big Jim Rennie.
"You still have the gun?" Joe asks his girlfriend. He originally intended to ask how she's doing but the sight of the gun catches him off guard.

"The whole town will be looking for us as soon as they register what just happened. Do you think I'm stupid enough to give them back that gun?" She snaps at him. She was of course not angry with him.
"I hate to interrupt but where are we going? There is no safe place anymore since Junior knows about the cement factory"

"Actually there is one"