Steamed
In the mist of the morning, the first rays of light refracting in sharp scalenes, the metallic giants moved, swinging the hoods of their tripods back and forth. Accompanied by a low hiss, the pink shroud dissolving beneath the Martians' blasts of superheated steam. Methodically, they crossed the woods and fields, eliminating the poison they had laid down the previous day. April and Don startled into wakefulness, crouching as low as they could in the tower and hoping to not be seen.
Casey Jones, somehow asleep and snoring despite the stiffness of being unable to so much as shift his grip the whole night through, woke with a start as a blast of scalding steam passed too near for comfort. He let out a yelp and struggled out of its path as the Martian went about its business, not caring about the survival of one meager human among the thousands it had annihilated. Everyone in the belltower was instantly at their friend's yell. As Casey bent out of the path of the blast, however, his refuge finally gave out, bending, splintering, then snapping entirely, dumping the boy to the ground.
"CASEY!" Don and April shouted simultaneously, crushing against the edges of the cupola to see their friend's fate, and Mrs. Elphistone let out a mournful wail, thinking him surely to have perished.
"Oww… 'M oll roight!" Casey called back, standing and rubbing his bruised bottom as the perfectly normal steam rose around him. " 's cleah aih, naow th' smake's gone."
His friends exhaled their relief for his wellbeing, then looked to their own. Don peered down the ladder access, where the pink gas still lingered, then called out from the tower, "Casey! We're going to need you to open the church doors, but stand well away when you do, to let the smoke out!"
"Got it," Jones hollered back, pulling one of the tall, arched doors wide and dashing out of reach of the pinky-violet cascade as it flowed loathly from the church, much slower than the thick bank had swept in. It simply pooled, unmoving, within the church. Holding his breath, the young soldier moved in to swing the other half of the door open, yet but for a bit of the smoke at the top, the gaseous cloud remained amassed in the building. Tying his handkerchief over his mouth, Casey moved up to it and swung his arms through it in hopes of stirring it into motion, but very little seeped out at his action. " 's nae good, it waen't budge!" he called up to his friends trapped in the tower.
Don turned himself around to face the ladder, gripping and pulling at it as best as he could, trying to dislodge it, but though it wobbled, it remained attached to the wall. "Do you have any rope?"
Casey checked his belt and pockets as though he had perhaps forgotten something, but, giving up, he looped up and shrugged. "Nae. Oi cud chick the 'ouses 'round 'ere fer wot…"
Don shook his head. "Too dangerous. My bet is if the smoke settled like it did here in the church, it's done the same in all of the houses overnight, and the Martians' steam hasn't touched it." He thought for a second, pinching his chin in one hand. "We had rope, didn't we? One of your fellows used it to make a carrying pack for my things! It's probably still on the cart… We had to abandon it when the smoke rolled in. It shouldn't be far!"
"Oh, yeh! Thaink I sor it on me way beck!"
"Keep to the—!" Don tried to warn, but the young man was already gone in a dead sprint for their things. He exchanged a miffed look with April, who offered him an exhausted little smile in return.
Casey showed up soon enough with Don's pack, which he undid the purloined clothesline from, and tried several times to toss it up to Donatello's waiting hand, each attempt falling too short to reach.
"Try tying it to a stone," the turtle suggested. "Swing it a few times and let the momentum carry it upward." The soldier followed Don's instructions, and the lassooed rock did come almost within reach, but not quite, despite Casey's best and most accurate throws. Don's carapace teetered (teetled?) over the cupola's balcony, but he could only tilt so far before threatening to lose his balance.
April weaved her way over to his side. "Here… Let me have a go," she said, leaning far over the side. She glanced back to Donnie with trusting eyes. "You won't let me fall, will you?"
Don blushed deeply as he took hold of her waist, but held her firmly. "I should sooner die a thousand deaths!"
"Oh! April, dear, do be careful!" Mrs. Elphistone cried out, causing April to miss Casey's first throw toward her as she drew back at her aunt's cautioning.
"It'll be fine, Aunt June," she reassured. "Mister Donatello has me."
"Oohh…" the woman moaned nonetheless.
April set her mind to ignore her and focused on the stone being pitched up to her instead. She leaned far out over the cupola, bending downward in a way that Don's plastron wouldn't allow him to. With the reassurance of Don's grasp on her, she launched herself outward and downward to snatch up the stone as it rose up to her once more. Donatello's blush paled entirely as she nearly leapt out of his grip, and he quickly yanked her back into the tower by her legs and set her delicately on her feet.
"All right?" he checked, rather breathlessly.
"Yes, fine!" she said in an upbeat way, while her aunt clutched at her heart.
"April, dear… Never do that again!"
The girl winced. "Yes, ma'am…"
"Well, no," Don said firmly. "There shall be no more leaning out over the edge of towers."
"Very good," June nodded.
"Instead," he continued while freeing the rock of its knot and tying the rope around one of the cupola's struts," she'll be walking down the side of one."
"Wha-at?" the woman shrieked, but Don was already explaining to April how she should plant her boots and walk backward down the side of the church. "Oh, no she most certainly will n—"
But before she could finish her complaint, April had already swung over the edge and disappeared over the side of the balcony. June quickly made her way around the bell to watch and wring her hands over April's descent, which halted halfway down, when April realized she'd reached the end of the rope. "Donnie! What do I do now?" she called up uncertainly.
Don gritted his teeth and hissed in annoyance to himself. He should have known to check the length before sending April over the side. But there was no helping that now, and he couldn't leave June on the bell platform alone to help her. "Casey's going to have to catch you. " He shifted his attention. "You can catch her, right, Jones?"
" 'Course! Casey Jones is reddy tae kitch oll the laydies!" Casey returned with full confidence, causing Don to groan and roll his eyes. "Anytoime yeh reddy, luv!"
"All… all right, here I come!" She looked up into Donatello's eyes for reassurance. He gave her a nod, and she clenched her eyes and let go of the rope. Her aunt hollered. She fell the remaining ten feet into Casey's waiting, albeit stiff, arms. Upon catching her full weight, he took a couple of off-balanced steps back, but steadied enough to set her on her feet.
She fluffed her skirts looked up at the tower, now balking at the height she had just come down. "Oh… I-it's all right, Auntie! It's not so bad! Just… keep your eyes on Mister Hamato, and Mister Jones and I will catch you!"
"Bist et's jest me, luv," Casey told her, gently pushing her to the side. June Elphistone was by no means a large woman, but she had several inches and quite a but more poundage to her than April, and Casey would need both arms ready for her weight.
As it was, it took a lot of doing just to get June to sit on the balcony and swing her feet over, and she was quite disturbed at the height. "Ooh, Augustus, where are you? Lord, please save me! Oh, me!"
"Feet flat… No, don't look at them, look at me… Now take a step backward… Take a step backward, Mrs. Elphistone," Don coached, finding it difficult to dispense with the formalities, even in such a situation. "Good, good. Now another. There we go…"
This all went well enough, if slowly, until the point where June needed to allow herself to fall, and then it was all tears and head-shaking and pleas to Augie and the Lord to please save her from these tribulations.
"Mrs. Elphistone," Don told her as gently as he could, "you're going to have to let go now. Casey's ready to catch you. You trust him, don't you?"
"No, no, I can't do it!"
"Oi've got ye, mum! Cam 'long naow!" Casey also encouraged.
The terrified woman turned her head, gauging the distance and only becoming more upset over it.
Donatello sighed, keeping his tone soft and reassuring for her, but firm enough that she would listen. "Don't look down there, look at me. June!" he shouted her first name, pulling her attention back directly to him. "We won't let you die, we won't let you get hurt. You've been so brave up until now… You just have to be brave enough to let go now."
June flustered, her jaw shuddering. "I'm not brave!" she wailed. "Not brave like my April! I want to come back up!"
"And then what? We repeat all of this in another half an hour?" April complained. "You're going to have to let go sometime, Aunt June…"
"Oh, wicked child!" June snapped down at her. "Putting me through—OH! Oh, Lord Jesus, no! My hands are slipping! Oh, help! AUGIE!"
"Augie is not coming! No one is coming! No one is left to come and help us, June! We are all there is!" Don snapped at her, becoming upset himself at having to state the truth so bluntly. "Your only options are to safely let go of the rope and let Casey catch you, or gravity will do it for you and probably give you whiplash in the process! Can you be brave enough to choose? Or do I have to untie the rope?"
The woman paled. "You wouldn't!"
"Newton's laws, here we come," Don grinned mischievously and reached for the knot.
Mrs. Elphistone whimpered, clenched her entire body, and loosed the rope.
She fell the ten feet into Casey, who stumbled back with her impact, going flat on his rear with her on top of him, with her petticoats draped over his head. Both of them groaned, then the woman sat up enough to realize her awkward position and with an indignant yelp, began beating Casey Jones with her hands. "Ooh! Masher!"
"Aow! Oi! Whot'd Oi do?!"
"Aunt June! Leave him be!" April chastised, pulling her aunt to standing. "Are you hurt anywhere?"
June shifted her bustle, rubbing the spot where she'd landed on Casey. " 's going to bruise…" she mumbled, glowering at all of them.
Casey stood, having recovered from his light pummeling and got in place below the rope once more. "Riddy whin you ah, Donnie."
The turtle chuckled, unbinding the rope from the balcony. "No, I'm going down the easy route, thank you!"
"Oh, come on!" April griped at him. "Aunt June and I did it!"
Don winked at her. "Excellent lung capacity, remember? Besides which, we may need the rope again."
April huffed, crossing her arms and glaring at him. He chuckled, then took an exaggeratedly large breath and started down the ladder.
He hadn't realized how thick the poison gas was, even a thin layer of it being entirely opaque, as if it was the gaseous form of paint. It also hadn't touched his eyes for more than a few seconds before… Now it began to burn them painfully, so that Don's nictitating membranes slid down as a protective measure, but now they too started to prickle with the touch of acid. Don hurried for where he remembered the doors to be, but in his disorientation, the side rim of his shell caught on one of the carved pews, the momentum spinning him off balance, and he went crashing blindly onto his back.
Part of the precious air in his lungs was knocked out of him; he clapped his mouth shut quickly to save the rest, and rocked up on his carapace to get his feet beneath him. He looked around him and saw nothing but the pinkness, then started waving his hands around him, searching for something to orient him. But which direction was he facing? Was he pointed toward the doors, or back toward the ladder? He bumped hard against another pew, causing it to screech as it rubbed against the hard floor. He felt a surge of panic run through him as he fumbled about, trying to locate the pew and judge from its shape what direction it faced, then reached for the next, when a small hand seized his, then a larger one grabbed at his shoulder and made its way awkwardly down his arm and latched on. He was suddenly dragged forward and around a corner, where the gray English day burst into view, and they crashed to the ground in a heap. He had never been so glad to see the bleak and cloudy weather. He gasped in the drizzly air welcomely, with April on one side of him and Casey Jones on the other doing the same.
"Thanks…" he panted.
"Nae problem," Casey said weakly from the ground, while April shifted a look on the turtle.
" 'Easy route', hmm?"
He gave a sheepish grin without answering. Then he was bowled into by Aunt June, who gathered him up into a mothering hug, then pushed him back to arm's length so she could look him over for damage and fuss over his general state, dusting him off with her handkerchief and dabbing it at a small scrape on his forehead.
"Naow," the young soldier declared, pulling the grouse from his hip and slapping it a few times to rid it of any traces of the gas before he started plucking it, "who's ap fer a bit a' brekkie?"
After gathering a handful of sticks for Casey, he started a fire, not much wider than the span of a saucepan, for fear of attracting the attention of the Martians. While the bird slowly roasted, Don asked, "How did you manage to find me?
Casey shrugged, turning the grouse on its makeshift spit. "Yu'll hef te esk April. She dragged me in loike she kniw jest wheah she wos gaowin'."
April's brows knit as she thought as the others looked at her. "I… I just knew. As if I could see where you were, but not with my eyes… I don't know how to explain it. Same as when I knew the Martian was coming." She looked irritated at not being able to find the right words for the experience.
"Let's just thank the Lord that she did!" Mrs. Elphistone concluded, and they left it at that.
A quick glance around after their breakfast showed no sign of Martians, so it was decided that they would return to the wagon for the rest of their things. April looked mournfully at the empty traces. "Oh, I hope Penny's all right… Penny!" she called softly, not daring to any louder.
"Let's hope that she ran off somewhere those monsters weren't spreading the gas!" Don said, picking up the broken bits of wood and leather.
Casey joined him, hauling up the leathers on the other side of the cart. "Oi sappose we're ganna be the 'orse naow, 'ey?"
"I guess we are," Don grinned wanly.
"Then o'll be the front, en you kin be the 'orse's arse!" Casy guffawed at Don's sour look.
"I'll be the front, thank you!" he snapped back.
"Not so crass in front of a lady, lads!" Mrs. Elphistone scolded. "Thankfully, it shouldn't be for very long," June said as she took a seat at the cab. "Come along up, dear," she motioned to April to join her on the bench.
"Oh, but…" April objected, wedging herself between Don and Casey, "I want to help pull too! Look… we can pin the leather like this…" She pulled a pin from her hair, working it through holes in the leather to hold them together.
"Clever!" Donatello declared.
"Noicely dahn!"
June tsked. "April, you'll get your dress all dirty!"
April sighed, indicating her dusty and mud-streaked apron. "I believe that ship has sailed, Aunt June…"
Mrs. Elphistone pulled her fan from her side, fanning herself with it. "For goodness sakes… Well, let's be off, then. The sooner we reach the farm, the sooner we can be done with all this nonsense!"
Don glanced back at her, then turned to April as they began pulling the cart forward. "She does know the Martians won't go away just because we reach the farmhouse, correct?"
April gave him a non-committal look. "Let her have this. Things… probably aren't going to get any easier."
While the journey took them roughly twice the time June had estimated, they were lucky enough not to encounter any Martians while out in the open. There were signs that the alien beings had driven their tripods quite close to the farm next door, and incinerated the bricks on its roof with the heat ray, but June and Augustus's farm had been spared the Martians' wrath and cruelty in their treks back and forth across the largely empty land, seeking their sick amusement in their wanton destruction elsewhere. And, to April and her aunt's great relief, Penny-Farthing came trotting along the fence next to their wagon as they brought it in the last few dozen yards. She stuck her head over the beam and whinnied in Casey's face.
"Yeh, yak it ap, 'orseface… got as doin' yoah job!" he hollered back at her.
April held a hand over her mouth, hiding a giggle. "She's hungry," she informed the boys, leaving the cart for them to handle, ducking under the traces to pet Penny's nose. "Come on, girl… We're glad to see you! Let's get you in the stable and get you some hay and apples!" The horse whickered excitedly, tossing her head and beelining for the barn, pawing at the door when April didn't come quickly enough. "Easy there, easy! All right!"
June hopped down at the house, having the boys unload the luggage for her, but hauled it inside by herself and busied herself with some spur-of-the-moment hostessing, and Don and Casey took the much lighter cart inside the barn and removed the broken traces and leathers. Penny-Farthing contentedly crunched down an apple from April's hand as Casey and Donatello headed for what must have been Augustus's workbench, with tools all hung neatly on the barn wall. An massive odd assortment of metal scraps, bicycle parts, and useable pieces of wood were piled in one corner. Donatello stared at them, drooling like a child in a sweets shop, idea after idea of things he could build flooding his mind. He rubbed his hands together eagerly, but turned to April before he dared to touch anything. "Do you think your uncle would mind?"
She shrugged in return. "You might ask Aunt June, but all of that rubbish has been there for years, waiting for him to do aught with it, so you might as well." Then she gasped, turning her attention on Casey. "Don't play with that! It's dangerous!"
The young soldier stopped tossing the scythe he was handing rom hand to hand. " 's oll well, luv! Casey Jones knaows haow tae hendle a shahp stick!"
Don sighed in his direction. "Seriously?"
"Oi do! Truly!" He gave the tool a spin to prove his point.
"Mister Jones, please! Put that away before you cut your own toe off!" Mrs. Elphistone scolded from the door. "The rest of you, come into the house and clean up for tea, if you please. I'll put the kettle on."
"I'll be along shortly, Mrs. June… I'd like to get a better look at some of these parts, if you don't mind my using them."
June waved a dismissive hand at the pile. "Oh, help yourself. I'm certain my husband will only manage to collect more… soon the whole barn will be full of it! What did you have in mind?"
Donnie tugged a flat piece of tin with a rotating wheel attached to it from the heap, looking it over. "Devices…" he stated. "Things we can use to fight the Martians. We're going to need much more than just our few little mines to defeat them!"
"Yea!" Casey joined, pumping his fist as he dropped the scythe against the wall where he'd found it. "Wi'll give 'em the ole wan-two! Shaow 'em who's 'oo!"
April looked over from feeding Penny-Farthing. "We're going to fight them?"
Don flustered at her gaze, his cheeks flushing. "Well, I mean, Casey and I will… Not to imply that you couldn't… Of course you could… if you wanted to… Do you?"
She gave him a determined glare. "This is my planet too. I do believe you'll need all hands on deck for this one."
All three of the youngsters turned toward Mrs. Elphistone, waiting for her objections and bemoanings, but they never came. Her lips pressed firmly, her look became iron. "Aunt June?" April prodded at her aunt's sudden reticence.
"Well, then. We'll have much to discuss over tea," the woman stated.
"Mrs. Elphistone—"
"Just June will be sufficient, Donatello. I hope you'll forgive me the familiarity if I use the same for you."
Don gawked. "Uh, well… yes, of course… Are you feeling well, Mrs… er, June?"
She merely returned his gaze and said, "You can have a look at those parts later, Mr. Ogilvie. You were right, earlier. People are dying… The Martians, the heat ray, the bandits, the pink cloud, Lord only know what's next in store for us. Auggie isn't coming, not in any way we can count on. God will not save us, unless we save ourselves. They push us into tiny corners, we allow ourselves to be crushed like ants 'neath a giant's boot… or we push back! I am finished with waiting, and with letting it happen. So, come… Let's talk of plans. I'll go put that kettle on."
She turned, leaving the barn and making for the house, leaving the three young people gaping after her.
"Ded she jast crack?" Casey asked the other two.
"Hopefully," April replied with a worried expression, "she's finally snapping into place instead."
