The Cagon Mines
by The Chronicler
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Chapter 8
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Moses stepped out of the line and leaned against the wall beside Reno Nevada where he watched the freed prisoners make their way pass. "Keep it moving, friends. Now, no need to shove. We'll all get our fill of sunshine soon enough. Here, now, help out the lady." he encouraged even as he stepped out of the lead.
Reno shook his head. "From six to sixty. Did you know there were that many down there?" he asked his big friend, referring to the prisoners they had picked up on their way up from the lowest shaft in which they had been working.
Moses shrugged. "Makes a man wonder how many didn't get out... never will get out." he mumbled with an unusual somber note. But a grin quickly vanished any hint of displeasure. "Feel a little like my name sake." He scratched his chin in mock ponder. "Hope we don't run across a river. Don't think I could pull that parting of the water thing off."
Reno chuckled. he was really going to have to introduce this fellow to Buckaroo and the gang.... "Damn!" he cursed, his humor suddenly gone.
Moses didn't need an explanation. "I was wondering when you were going to remember that friend of yours. You gonna go look for him?"
Reno ground his teeth together. "No. You need help getting these folks top side." He sighed. "Besides, knowing Perfect Tommy, he's disobeyed me, his guards, the mayor, Buckaroo, Rawhide, the President of the United States.... hell, God himself.... and found his own way out and to the nearest pretty girl this state has to offer."
This time Moses chuckled.
Reno shook his head. "You think I jest?" Again he shook his head before stepping back into the crowd.
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"Hey, ol' Bucky?"
"Perfect Tommy, have I ever told you that I really don't like it when you call me that?"
"Nope."
"Well, I really don't like it when you call me that."
"Oh.... hey, ol' Bucky?"
Buckaroo sighed. "What is it?"
Perfect Tommy dodged, spun about, and slammed the back of his fist across his attacker's jaw, sending another of the vicious guards over the edge of the cliff and down into the pit. "May I officially present you with my resignation?"
"No." Dr Banzai answered, slamming his fist deep into another's gut. "I'm a little busy at the moment to take care of paper work. If you remember, get back to me later."
"If I remember." Perfect Tommy agreed. Leaving his employer to take care of the last of the bad guys, he turned his attention to the lock box in the wall. Quickly opening it, he reached in and yanked the wire.
After dispatching his opponent, Buckaroo leaned against the wall beside his young friend.
"I was thinking that if we could get ahead of this stuff, we could tie off the tubes somehow and stop it from flowing any further. Just yank all the wires from there up, and we got it made." Tommy was suggesting.
"How fast can you run?" Buckaroo asked.
"Huh?"
He nodded toward the tubes in which the chemicals flowed. "Can you run faster than that stuffs falling?"
Perfect Tommy frowned.
"Didn't think so." Buckaroo nodded to where Rawhide was returning to the main tunnel, handful of engineers and scientist trailing behind. "Friends of yours?"
"Eh, there, now!" screeched a familiar voice. "The crazy cub's still kicking, eh? I'll be damned!"
Perfect Tommy grinned, turning to face the coming little engineer. "My darling little beauty. How I died each second we've been apart." he sang to her. "Gentlemen, may I introduce you to the prettiest girl this state has to offer."
Buckaroo and Rawhide exchanged bemused glances.
The engineer smacked Perfect Tommy in the shoulder with such force that it slammed him back against the wall. "Cut the crap, eh! Where's my spike gun? You didn't go and shoot yourself in the foot, eh. I see that." She stomped off passed him, leading the way back up the main shaft. Hesitantly, the other prisoners followed. "Crazy cub!" she growled. "All I want is to do my work all nice and peaceful like, eh? And just how the hell am I supposed to do that with crazy cubs like you needing looking after, eh?! Oh, an did I mention jackass guards, cowboys, don't know who the hell he is," she jabbed a thumb back at Buckaroo, "eh, and bombs! BOMBS, EH?!"
Tommy looked over his shoulder and said to the men following "I think I'm in love."
----------
A scream from the back of the group stopped Moses and Reno.
The people around them began to rush forward. They weren't about to be taken prisoner again.
"Stay calm!" Moses encouraged. "Keep moving up! Help each other!" he yelled as he pushed back to help those at the rear.
Four guards, armed with batons and whips, were attacking a handful of stragglers. They showed no intentions of taking any of the prisoners back, and every at making them pay for their escape. In their rage, they were going to kill whoever they could catch.
"Stop this!" Moses roared, running at them.
Startled by the charge, the guards stepped back from their victims who quickly scrambled to get away.
Moses took a stance between the attackers and his wards, a giant mountain of a man determined to protect his people whatever the cost to himself. "Stop this at once!" he ordered them, his voice booming as it bounced off the stone walls. "I will not allow you to harm these people!"
The bravest of the guards stepped forward, holding his baton high. "Big man, little man.... they all go down when dead!" he growled.
"Let's rethink that." Reno suggested coming up from the side and, with a lightening move, slammed his fist against the guard's jaw, dropping him to the ground.
Before the Cavalier could turn to face the others, they were already on him.
A whip cracked, tagging Reno on the shoulder. The guard on the ground quickly rolled out of the way as the whip cracked again.
With a curse, Reno leaned back, just barely dodging the second strike. But a third guard's whip slapped around his ankle. With a yank, the Cavalier found himself slamming hard into the rock floor.
The first guard leaped to his feet and ran to stand over the fallen man. "You stinkin' mex!" he growled, swinging his baton down at him.
Moses caught the baton mere inches from Reno's head. "I... SAID... STOP... THIS... NOW!" Taking a deep breath, gathering his enormous strength, the man threw the guard back, through the air, nearly fifteen feet.
Again, Moses took a protective stance, this time over Reno.
The whips cracked, cutting into his chest and arms, but they seemed to have little or no effect at all on the huge man. Moses stood, unmoving, a human shield.
Reno scrambled out of the way and onto his feet. He couldn't help but to stop and stare at his friend. Never before, even after all he had seen with his adventures with Buckaroo Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers, had he seen such a show of strength and courage. But awe quickly turned to rage as he watched the guards whip to shreds his savior's flesh.
With an animalistic snarl, Reno Nevada lunged forward, slamming fists into the first bad guy he reached. His blows were quick, unmerciful, and filled with the same killing rage that had lead the guards on their murderous rampage.
So vicious was his attack, that the guards no longer saw Moses as the threat. The two guards turned toward Reno, but he was moving too quick and too close to use whips. Thus they switched to their heavy, iron batons.
Reno hit, hit, and hit until the man before him dropped to his knees, then fell, unconscious, to the ground. Grunting, disappointed at the quick end to his first victim, the enraged man stepped forward and faced the two remaining men. Only then did he pause, but not from any concern for himself. He was simply trying to decide which to take first... or would he just knock the hell out of both of them at once.
Moses made the decision for him, stepping between them. He grabbed the two guards by the shirt fronts and pulled them close. "I give you a choice: go your own way and leave us be, or continue and land on the floor here beside your buddies. Choose! And choose now!" he growled.
The two exchanged glances, glanced down at their companions, then started to pull away from the big man. "We're leaving." one assured. "Just let us go."
Moses released his hold. "And take our buddies. No man should have to die in this hell pit. Good or bad."
The guards quickly obeyed, careful to keep a safe distance from Reno who still looked as if he might pounce on them even as the were retreating.
"Why did you do that?" Reno demanded as his enemy was allowed to walk away. "Why did you let them get away with that? Look what they did to you! Do you know what they were goin' to do to those people?!"
Moses rested a strong, restraining hand on the smaller man's shoulder. "No man deserves to die in this hell pit. Good or bad." he repeated.
Reno stared at the man. "What they did to you... you just took it! You didn't even fight back! You just took it!" he said, suddenly registering what he had seen.
Moses sighed. "My friend, I have killed before. It was the greatest agony of my life. My soul cries for those lives I have taken. Nothing that anyone can do to my body can compare to that pain." He smiled slightly. "And I will do anything to spare another human being of feeling such. Even if it is apparent that he has already been to that particular hell."
Reno shook his head. "I don't understand you, Moses." he admitted.
Moses laughed, putting an arm around his shoulders and starting back up the tunnel. "Not many Moses' are understood, my friend. But, they do get the job done, now, don't they?!"
----------
Some where near the middle of the crowd of Moses' freed slaves, a woman stopped. "What's this?" she wondered. Curiosity over coming the need for flight, she tapped at the lock box on the wall with a pick axe she had carried with her from the mine.
"Come on, Mintsy." one of her fellow prisoners encouraged.
"Hold on." the woman snapped. "If we can get something out of weeks of being enslaved, I'm sure as hell going to get it." Shewaved the crowd away from her. When she had enough room, she swong her pick axe at the door.
The first hit splintered the door. The second caved it partially in. The third smashed it. The axe slammed through the door of the lock box and stuck into something behind it. A spark and a hiss sounded.
Frowning, the woman yanked her pick axe free, ripping the door off. She stared at the broken box and torn tubes behind it.
"Well, damn." she mumbled. With a sigh, she shrugged, then continued on her way.
Once more preoccupied with escape, no one noticed the two colorful liquids spilling out of the torn tubes and down the wall.
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Chapter 8
----------
Moses stepped out of the line and leaned against the wall beside Reno Nevada where he watched the freed prisoners make their way pass. "Keep it moving, friends. Now, no need to shove. We'll all get our fill of sunshine soon enough. Here, now, help out the lady." he encouraged even as he stepped out of the lead.
Reno shook his head. "From six to sixty. Did you know there were that many down there?" he asked his big friend, referring to the prisoners they had picked up on their way up from the lowest shaft in which they had been working.
Moses shrugged. "Makes a man wonder how many didn't get out... never will get out." he mumbled with an unusual somber note. But a grin quickly vanished any hint of displeasure. "Feel a little like my name sake." He scratched his chin in mock ponder. "Hope we don't run across a river. Don't think I could pull that parting of the water thing off."
Reno chuckled. he was really going to have to introduce this fellow to Buckaroo and the gang.... "Damn!" he cursed, his humor suddenly gone.
Moses didn't need an explanation. "I was wondering when you were going to remember that friend of yours. You gonna go look for him?"
Reno ground his teeth together. "No. You need help getting these folks top side." He sighed. "Besides, knowing Perfect Tommy, he's disobeyed me, his guards, the mayor, Buckaroo, Rawhide, the President of the United States.... hell, God himself.... and found his own way out and to the nearest pretty girl this state has to offer."
This time Moses chuckled.
Reno shook his head. "You think I jest?" Again he shook his head before stepping back into the crowd.
----------
"Hey, ol' Bucky?"
"Perfect Tommy, have I ever told you that I really don't like it when you call me that?"
"Nope."
"Well, I really don't like it when you call me that."
"Oh.... hey, ol' Bucky?"
Buckaroo sighed. "What is it?"
Perfect Tommy dodged, spun about, and slammed the back of his fist across his attacker's jaw, sending another of the vicious guards over the edge of the cliff and down into the pit. "May I officially present you with my resignation?"
"No." Dr Banzai answered, slamming his fist deep into another's gut. "I'm a little busy at the moment to take care of paper work. If you remember, get back to me later."
"If I remember." Perfect Tommy agreed. Leaving his employer to take care of the last of the bad guys, he turned his attention to the lock box in the wall. Quickly opening it, he reached in and yanked the wire.
After dispatching his opponent, Buckaroo leaned against the wall beside his young friend.
"I was thinking that if we could get ahead of this stuff, we could tie off the tubes somehow and stop it from flowing any further. Just yank all the wires from there up, and we got it made." Tommy was suggesting.
"How fast can you run?" Buckaroo asked.
"Huh?"
He nodded toward the tubes in which the chemicals flowed. "Can you run faster than that stuffs falling?"
Perfect Tommy frowned.
"Didn't think so." Buckaroo nodded to where Rawhide was returning to the main tunnel, handful of engineers and scientist trailing behind. "Friends of yours?"
"Eh, there, now!" screeched a familiar voice. "The crazy cub's still kicking, eh? I'll be damned!"
Perfect Tommy grinned, turning to face the coming little engineer. "My darling little beauty. How I died each second we've been apart." he sang to her. "Gentlemen, may I introduce you to the prettiest girl this state has to offer."
Buckaroo and Rawhide exchanged bemused glances.
The engineer smacked Perfect Tommy in the shoulder with such force that it slammed him back against the wall. "Cut the crap, eh! Where's my spike gun? You didn't go and shoot yourself in the foot, eh. I see that." She stomped off passed him, leading the way back up the main shaft. Hesitantly, the other prisoners followed. "Crazy cub!" she growled. "All I want is to do my work all nice and peaceful like, eh? And just how the hell am I supposed to do that with crazy cubs like you needing looking after, eh?! Oh, an did I mention jackass guards, cowboys, don't know who the hell he is," she jabbed a thumb back at Buckaroo, "eh, and bombs! BOMBS, EH?!"
Tommy looked over his shoulder and said to the men following "I think I'm in love."
----------
A scream from the back of the group stopped Moses and Reno.
The people around them began to rush forward. They weren't about to be taken prisoner again.
"Stay calm!" Moses encouraged. "Keep moving up! Help each other!" he yelled as he pushed back to help those at the rear.
Four guards, armed with batons and whips, were attacking a handful of stragglers. They showed no intentions of taking any of the prisoners back, and every at making them pay for their escape. In their rage, they were going to kill whoever they could catch.
"Stop this!" Moses roared, running at them.
Startled by the charge, the guards stepped back from their victims who quickly scrambled to get away.
Moses took a stance between the attackers and his wards, a giant mountain of a man determined to protect his people whatever the cost to himself. "Stop this at once!" he ordered them, his voice booming as it bounced off the stone walls. "I will not allow you to harm these people!"
The bravest of the guards stepped forward, holding his baton high. "Big man, little man.... they all go down when dead!" he growled.
"Let's rethink that." Reno suggested coming up from the side and, with a lightening move, slammed his fist against the guard's jaw, dropping him to the ground.
Before the Cavalier could turn to face the others, they were already on him.
A whip cracked, tagging Reno on the shoulder. The guard on the ground quickly rolled out of the way as the whip cracked again.
With a curse, Reno leaned back, just barely dodging the second strike. But a third guard's whip slapped around his ankle. With a yank, the Cavalier found himself slamming hard into the rock floor.
The first guard leaped to his feet and ran to stand over the fallen man. "You stinkin' mex!" he growled, swinging his baton down at him.
Moses caught the baton mere inches from Reno's head. "I... SAID... STOP... THIS... NOW!" Taking a deep breath, gathering his enormous strength, the man threw the guard back, through the air, nearly fifteen feet.
Again, Moses took a protective stance, this time over Reno.
The whips cracked, cutting into his chest and arms, but they seemed to have little or no effect at all on the huge man. Moses stood, unmoving, a human shield.
Reno scrambled out of the way and onto his feet. He couldn't help but to stop and stare at his friend. Never before, even after all he had seen with his adventures with Buckaroo Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers, had he seen such a show of strength and courage. But awe quickly turned to rage as he watched the guards whip to shreds his savior's flesh.
With an animalistic snarl, Reno Nevada lunged forward, slamming fists into the first bad guy he reached. His blows were quick, unmerciful, and filled with the same killing rage that had lead the guards on their murderous rampage.
So vicious was his attack, that the guards no longer saw Moses as the threat. The two guards turned toward Reno, but he was moving too quick and too close to use whips. Thus they switched to their heavy, iron batons.
Reno hit, hit, and hit until the man before him dropped to his knees, then fell, unconscious, to the ground. Grunting, disappointed at the quick end to his first victim, the enraged man stepped forward and faced the two remaining men. Only then did he pause, but not from any concern for himself. He was simply trying to decide which to take first... or would he just knock the hell out of both of them at once.
Moses made the decision for him, stepping between them. He grabbed the two guards by the shirt fronts and pulled them close. "I give you a choice: go your own way and leave us be, or continue and land on the floor here beside your buddies. Choose! And choose now!" he growled.
The two exchanged glances, glanced down at their companions, then started to pull away from the big man. "We're leaving." one assured. "Just let us go."
Moses released his hold. "And take our buddies. No man should have to die in this hell pit. Good or bad."
The guards quickly obeyed, careful to keep a safe distance from Reno who still looked as if he might pounce on them even as the were retreating.
"Why did you do that?" Reno demanded as his enemy was allowed to walk away. "Why did you let them get away with that? Look what they did to you! Do you know what they were goin' to do to those people?!"
Moses rested a strong, restraining hand on the smaller man's shoulder. "No man deserves to die in this hell pit. Good or bad." he repeated.
Reno stared at the man. "What they did to you... you just took it! You didn't even fight back! You just took it!" he said, suddenly registering what he had seen.
Moses sighed. "My friend, I have killed before. It was the greatest agony of my life. My soul cries for those lives I have taken. Nothing that anyone can do to my body can compare to that pain." He smiled slightly. "And I will do anything to spare another human being of feeling such. Even if it is apparent that he has already been to that particular hell."
Reno shook his head. "I don't understand you, Moses." he admitted.
Moses laughed, putting an arm around his shoulders and starting back up the tunnel. "Not many Moses' are understood, my friend. But, they do get the job done, now, don't they?!"
----------
Some where near the middle of the crowd of Moses' freed slaves, a woman stopped. "What's this?" she wondered. Curiosity over coming the need for flight, she tapped at the lock box on the wall with a pick axe she had carried with her from the mine.
"Come on, Mintsy." one of her fellow prisoners encouraged.
"Hold on." the woman snapped. "If we can get something out of weeks of being enslaved, I'm sure as hell going to get it." Shewaved the crowd away from her. When she had enough room, she swong her pick axe at the door.
The first hit splintered the door. The second caved it partially in. The third smashed it. The axe slammed through the door of the lock box and stuck into something behind it. A spark and a hiss sounded.
Frowning, the woman yanked her pick axe free, ripping the door off. She stared at the broken box and torn tubes behind it.
"Well, damn." she mumbled. With a sigh, she shrugged, then continued on her way.
Once more preoccupied with escape, no one noticed the two colorful liquids spilling out of the torn tubes and down the wall.