Chapter 8: The Escape
AN: We all know it, regarding my ownership.
Velvet continued her painstaking examination of the hangars. She had gone through pretty much all of it, and she hadn't found one blasted thing. She stood up and stretched. All this bending over really hurt her back. (AN: This is an ailment that I suffer from so please, be tolerant.) She took a sip of her coffee and noticed in her peripheral vision a spot of brown. She went over and took a look. It wasn't dirt; it was too hard to be that. She put it on a small slide for a microscope and went to see Carrington.
"Skedar blood." Carrington said as he looked at the slide under his microscope. "They must have walked through it when it was floating and tracked it back here." Velvet said. "This is the first bit of evidence which supports our theory." Carrington said. "Now we go to the White House," Velvet said. "Now, we expand our search to include uniforms." Carrington said. "All...uniforms?" Velvet's chocolate eyes widened. Carrington gave her a gaze that meant "All uniforms."
Velvet leaned against a pillar in the guard's quarters. She had supervised the search everywhere. Wardrobe, mess hall, recycling plant, sickbay, operations room, observation hall, equipment tubes, power relays. Few places remained unsearched. Velvet closed her eyes and just as she was about to drift off, a guard called out. "Sir!"
Velvet came at a run. The guard stuck a boot on the locker door. It stayed there, defying gravity.
Joanna and Nathan made their way to the mess hall at 6:59 in the morning. They went into the back and helped with the seemingly endless dishes. They saw Fearing almost immediately.
He took the two bottles of cleaning fluid and dumped them down the drain when nobody was looking.
He beckoned for Joanna and Nathan to follow him to get more cleaning fluid.
In the dark utility room, Fearing took out a small vial of clear fluid and poured it onto their leg chains and irons.
The joints melted away and they were free. Fearing took out a small bundle and opened it.
He gave each of them a snowsuit made of various materials. Joanna donned one that resembled her Institute snowsuit. (AN: Joanna wears this in the beginning of Air Base and in all of Crash Site.)
They also received a small satchel with a grappling hook inside as well as some emergency rations, a lighter and a vari pistol. (AN: This is basically a flare gun.)
They stepped out into the open and proceeded out into whatever awaited them.
Lt. Richard Yearey stepped into the guard quarters. (AN: He's the one who held the AR34 that Joanna stole in the Institute defense.)
"You are Lt. Yearey?" Velvet asked.
"Yes." He replied. "What's the problem?"
"Perhaps you know of the fairy tale Cinderella." Foster said and took the boot. "If the shoe fits, wear it." He dropped the gravity boot in front of Yearey.
"Mr. Foster," Carrington said and pointed down.
Yearey's feet were about half a size bigger than the boot and that was with his shoes on. His foot would never have been able to fit inside.
Velvet closed her eyes as Foster emitted a barely audible groan.
On the surface, Nathan collapsed behind both of them.
Joanna bent down to help him.
"Leave me," Nathan said. "I'm finished."
"No!" Joanna said. "Nathan, I'm wearing a diburnium patch on my back. Carrington slapped it there just before I went on the Skedar ship. It's like a homing device. Now they'll be able to locate us and retrieve us."
"If they're even looking for us," Nathan said as he trudged along.
Suddenly, Fearing stopped just ahead of them. "This is it." He said and dug around in the snow. "This is where Forestaal cashed in."
"Friend of yours?" Nathan asked.
"My predecessor." Fearing said. "He was good. He was very good."
He produced three pairs of skis, boots and poles. These were the new kind and could conform to any size of foot. They all put them on as the wind stopped blowing. Nathan finally began to warm up as the cold from the wind had gotten to him.
"See that ledge over by the exposed lake?" He said, handing around a Horizon Scanner "That's where we'll camp for tonight. We'll all take different trails so it'll be hard for them to trace us."
He moved off as Nathan said goodbye.
"Jo," He said. "Good luck."
"And you." Joanna said as she skied down as well.
She soon got the hang of the skis and learned to stop, speed up and turns.
Then, she saw a foot sticking out of the snow. Was this to be the corpse of Fearing, or Nathan?
She bent down and began to brush snow off the body. The man was someone she didn't know, but she suspected as Forestaal.
Suddenly, she heard a cry of "Shtoy!" and a gun cocking.
Joanna turned to find a guard who brought a K7 Avenger to bear on her position.
Joanna pressed herself against the snow to avoid the bullets as part of a small ravine let out. She leapt down and skied as fast as she could down.
The gunfire attracted more guards who began to ski after her.
Joanna skied quickly down a series of almost step like blocks and crashed at the bottom.
She got back up just in time to get into he range of a hovercopter. It fired at her, one of the high-powered bullets striking her left ski and demolishing it.
Joanna went down for cover and saw a snowmobile drive past.
She threw her grappling hook down into a ravine and skied behind the driver. She clipped the hook onto his belt. The driver yelled and went flying off, hanging down the ravine.
"Sorry to leave you hanging," Joanna said as she banged her other ski off.
The hovercopter came up again and sprayed the area with automatic fire.
Joanna leapt off as the snowmobile exploded.
She came to in about 5 seconds at the bottom of a small hole and found the front-runner of the snowmobile at her feet. An idea crossed her mind.
She got onto it and began to snowboard down, knocking two of the guards down. (AN: Insert the beach Boys song "California Girls" here.)
She went across an open lake with great ease, the guards having only skis weren't as lucky.
The hovercopter came down again (AN: End beach boys song.) And the front window opened. Fire from a K7 Avenger sprayed out and Joanna took cover behind a layer of ice. She took out her vari pistol and waited until the owner slapped in a new magazine.
She leapt out and fired the flare, hoping it would be accurate.
It was. The flare detonated inside the cockpit and sent the hovercopter veering off to crash into an ice floe.
Joanna looked around to see that this was the rendezvous point. She took out some of the emergency rations, at some, lit her satchel ablaze on an old tree and went to sleep close to the fire, waiting for the other two.
Foster checked the magazine on his new Fostergrade M450. This was a great weapon, most powerful and accurate as any of the others. The stun feature on it was a bonus.
But, there was one problem. Foster was hot. He'd cranked up the air conditioning in the firing range, but there was no circulation. The vent must've been clogged
Since it would take him longer to report the problem and have a maintenance crew check it out, he decided to fix it himself.
He pulled out the grate and pulled a large wadded material out. It was an institute uniform stained with brown.
Foster ran down the corridor to find Carrington.
"Sir!" He yelled. "Velvet! I found the missing uniform with the Skedar blood on it!"
A door opened just ahead of them.
One man lay sprawled on the floor.
Foster checked his tag on his shirt and on the uniform. "Lt. Williams. This man fit this uniform."
"Not anymore." Velvet said. "Tranquilizer on lethal dosage. I wonder why nobody shot the poor bastard."
"It would have set off the alarm." Foster said.
"Now we've lost Joanna." Velvet said.
"Not quite." Carrington replied. It was time to expose his secret.
End of Chapter
Well, that was fun writing the chase. Keep in mid that it's the semi chase. The quasi chase. The diet coke of chases. And please, review.
AN: We all know it, regarding my ownership.
Velvet continued her painstaking examination of the hangars. She had gone through pretty much all of it, and she hadn't found one blasted thing. She stood up and stretched. All this bending over really hurt her back. (AN: This is an ailment that I suffer from so please, be tolerant.) She took a sip of her coffee and noticed in her peripheral vision a spot of brown. She went over and took a look. It wasn't dirt; it was too hard to be that. She put it on a small slide for a microscope and went to see Carrington.
"Skedar blood." Carrington said as he looked at the slide under his microscope. "They must have walked through it when it was floating and tracked it back here." Velvet said. "This is the first bit of evidence which supports our theory." Carrington said. "Now we go to the White House," Velvet said. "Now, we expand our search to include uniforms." Carrington said. "All...uniforms?" Velvet's chocolate eyes widened. Carrington gave her a gaze that meant "All uniforms."
Velvet leaned against a pillar in the guard's quarters. She had supervised the search everywhere. Wardrobe, mess hall, recycling plant, sickbay, operations room, observation hall, equipment tubes, power relays. Few places remained unsearched. Velvet closed her eyes and just as she was about to drift off, a guard called out. "Sir!"
Velvet came at a run. The guard stuck a boot on the locker door. It stayed there, defying gravity.
Joanna and Nathan made their way to the mess hall at 6:59 in the morning. They went into the back and helped with the seemingly endless dishes. They saw Fearing almost immediately.
He took the two bottles of cleaning fluid and dumped them down the drain when nobody was looking.
He beckoned for Joanna and Nathan to follow him to get more cleaning fluid.
In the dark utility room, Fearing took out a small vial of clear fluid and poured it onto their leg chains and irons.
The joints melted away and they were free. Fearing took out a small bundle and opened it.
He gave each of them a snowsuit made of various materials. Joanna donned one that resembled her Institute snowsuit. (AN: Joanna wears this in the beginning of Air Base and in all of Crash Site.)
They also received a small satchel with a grappling hook inside as well as some emergency rations, a lighter and a vari pistol. (AN: This is basically a flare gun.)
They stepped out into the open and proceeded out into whatever awaited them.
Lt. Richard Yearey stepped into the guard quarters. (AN: He's the one who held the AR34 that Joanna stole in the Institute defense.)
"You are Lt. Yearey?" Velvet asked.
"Yes." He replied. "What's the problem?"
"Perhaps you know of the fairy tale Cinderella." Foster said and took the boot. "If the shoe fits, wear it." He dropped the gravity boot in front of Yearey.
"Mr. Foster," Carrington said and pointed down.
Yearey's feet were about half a size bigger than the boot and that was with his shoes on. His foot would never have been able to fit inside.
Velvet closed her eyes as Foster emitted a barely audible groan.
On the surface, Nathan collapsed behind both of them.
Joanna bent down to help him.
"Leave me," Nathan said. "I'm finished."
"No!" Joanna said. "Nathan, I'm wearing a diburnium patch on my back. Carrington slapped it there just before I went on the Skedar ship. It's like a homing device. Now they'll be able to locate us and retrieve us."
"If they're even looking for us," Nathan said as he trudged along.
Suddenly, Fearing stopped just ahead of them. "This is it." He said and dug around in the snow. "This is where Forestaal cashed in."
"Friend of yours?" Nathan asked.
"My predecessor." Fearing said. "He was good. He was very good."
He produced three pairs of skis, boots and poles. These were the new kind and could conform to any size of foot. They all put them on as the wind stopped blowing. Nathan finally began to warm up as the cold from the wind had gotten to him.
"See that ledge over by the exposed lake?" He said, handing around a Horizon Scanner "That's where we'll camp for tonight. We'll all take different trails so it'll be hard for them to trace us."
He moved off as Nathan said goodbye.
"Jo," He said. "Good luck."
"And you." Joanna said as she skied down as well.
She soon got the hang of the skis and learned to stop, speed up and turns.
Then, she saw a foot sticking out of the snow. Was this to be the corpse of Fearing, or Nathan?
She bent down and began to brush snow off the body. The man was someone she didn't know, but she suspected as Forestaal.
Suddenly, she heard a cry of "Shtoy!" and a gun cocking.
Joanna turned to find a guard who brought a K7 Avenger to bear on her position.
Joanna pressed herself against the snow to avoid the bullets as part of a small ravine let out. She leapt down and skied as fast as she could down.
The gunfire attracted more guards who began to ski after her.
Joanna skied quickly down a series of almost step like blocks and crashed at the bottom.
She got back up just in time to get into he range of a hovercopter. It fired at her, one of the high-powered bullets striking her left ski and demolishing it.
Joanna went down for cover and saw a snowmobile drive past.
She threw her grappling hook down into a ravine and skied behind the driver. She clipped the hook onto his belt. The driver yelled and went flying off, hanging down the ravine.
"Sorry to leave you hanging," Joanna said as she banged her other ski off.
The hovercopter came up again and sprayed the area with automatic fire.
Joanna leapt off as the snowmobile exploded.
She came to in about 5 seconds at the bottom of a small hole and found the front-runner of the snowmobile at her feet. An idea crossed her mind.
She got onto it and began to snowboard down, knocking two of the guards down. (AN: Insert the beach Boys song "California Girls" here.)
She went across an open lake with great ease, the guards having only skis weren't as lucky.
The hovercopter came down again (AN: End beach boys song.) And the front window opened. Fire from a K7 Avenger sprayed out and Joanna took cover behind a layer of ice. She took out her vari pistol and waited until the owner slapped in a new magazine.
She leapt out and fired the flare, hoping it would be accurate.
It was. The flare detonated inside the cockpit and sent the hovercopter veering off to crash into an ice floe.
Joanna looked around to see that this was the rendezvous point. She took out some of the emergency rations, at some, lit her satchel ablaze on an old tree and went to sleep close to the fire, waiting for the other two.
Foster checked the magazine on his new Fostergrade M450. This was a great weapon, most powerful and accurate as any of the others. The stun feature on it was a bonus.
But, there was one problem. Foster was hot. He'd cranked up the air conditioning in the firing range, but there was no circulation. The vent must've been clogged
Since it would take him longer to report the problem and have a maintenance crew check it out, he decided to fix it himself.
He pulled out the grate and pulled a large wadded material out. It was an institute uniform stained with brown.
Foster ran down the corridor to find Carrington.
"Sir!" He yelled. "Velvet! I found the missing uniform with the Skedar blood on it!"
A door opened just ahead of them.
One man lay sprawled on the floor.
Foster checked his tag on his shirt and on the uniform. "Lt. Williams. This man fit this uniform."
"Not anymore." Velvet said. "Tranquilizer on lethal dosage. I wonder why nobody shot the poor bastard."
"It would have set off the alarm." Foster said.
"Now we've lost Joanna." Velvet said.
"Not quite." Carrington replied. It was time to expose his secret.
End of Chapter
Well, that was fun writing the chase. Keep in mid that it's the semi chase. The quasi chase. The diet coke of chases. And please, review.