Runners: Escape Prison World or Die (Empire of Time Series) by John Argo

Page 32.

Chapter 11. Kion and Piri to the Pitz Boat

Flying from north to southeast, Kion and Piri took turns monitoring the autonav controls of their skimmer. Dusk came, night passed, and the sun rose again all in a few hours. Both men were awake and drinking cafir as the Great Blue Ocean opened up before them.

"Steer due east," Kion said.

"I'm on it, boss." Piri climbed into the pilot's seat and made adjustments, speaking to Madatilda as well. "Mada, where are we?"

"Good morning, Piri. Did you have a nice dance?"

"Oh yes, we did ballet all night. Where are we?"

"Vectoring due east. We are skimming over the beaches of the Great Blue Ocean."

"Any life down there?"

"Let me consult my—"

"No!" Piri shouted. "No contact with your home base. We must not be detected."

"Very well. I will navigate from memory. I have over one million pizzobails of mapped code. Did you know that?"

"I'm proud of you. Now where are we headed?"

"There is a location of note not far ahead, called Pitz Beach."

"As in Pitz Boat?" Kion asked from beside the flight deck.

"Yes, Kion. According to legend, a rescue and emergency boat landed near here after its mother ship was attacked by [garble] war ships."

"Yeah, the gurgle-gurgle muddafuddahs. I can imagine. Is anything left of this mythical boat?"

"Scanning," Madatilda said. "Coming upon a debris field, or so it looks."

"Oh great."

"These are the coordinates of your Pitz Boat," she said.

Kion and Piri stared down on the beach, but saw only bleached fossils in profusion.

Kion sat down hard. "It was all a delusion then. There is no boat, no rescue, no hope of escaping this macab hotel."

"You're starting to sound like me," Piri said. "Cheer up, boss. Let's sing some academy slogans."

Madatilda chimed in: "We need to refuel."

"Oh wonderful," Piri said. "Read out."

Madatilda obyed. "Two percent positive energy load on board. Fuel dumps are near empty."

"Where can we get fuel?" Kion asked.

"Scanning."

"No, don't scan…" Kion said.

"You stupid bitch," Piri said.

"Scan complete. Connection off. Nearest fuel dump is 200 kliks away at Aerag-44. I can give you flight coordinates."

Kion and Piri both laughed bitterly. "No. That would fly us right back into another prison camp. Can you pull any local fuel?"

"Sunlight, refresh will require five sols of downtime and render 5% capacity at Quality F, enough to return to base at Aerag-15 flying slow above air currents and drag. Saltwater hydrosmashing will take two soldays to render 20% dump capacity at Quality C."

Kion ordered: "Set down near the sea and start your hydrosoak. We'll have to wait."

Madatilda started to set down on the beach amid broken pieces of something—Pitz Boat?—when the skimmer jerked upward with a rocking, rolling motion.

Kion and Piri fell back, bracing themselves against pipes and wires and bulkhead. "Now what?" they said in unison.

"Detecting danger from fixed memory installs. The sea is full of large predators. The ship would be in danger."

"So now what, Madatilda?"

"I will move one klik inland to a good location and start sunsoaking for air smash. We will have five percent capacity at Quality F, enough to return to base at Aerag-15 if we fly slowly above air currents and avoid drag. Fuel reload will require five soldays of downtime. Do you want me to signal base for help?"

"Negative," both men shouted.

"Nix," Piri said, "nadar. Nadaradan. Not a fuddin' peep!"

"Do not make any contact, even remote auto-telemetry," Kion said.

Madatilda said: "I must inform you that there has been a four-channel remote tracker beam on this craft since yesterday."

"Who's tracking us?"

"Bounty Hunter Base at Aerag-15."

Kion and Piri looked at each other. "Where are the merks?" Kion said.

"Those bastards have something else in store for us," Piri said, "something we won't like. And we can't haul this rust tub out of here because the bitch is low on fuel."

"We're stuck," Kion agreed. "If we stay here, we are sitting avians."

"Want to start walking?"

Kion shook his head. "We have no idea where to go or what to look for."

"Cannibals?"

"Whatever. The jungle is at least another 1,000 kliks east of here on Manaul 5J. If we get this craft buzzed up enough to fly 1,000 kliks, we can sit down and take our chances. Without the Pitz Boat, we're marooned here anyway. Maybe we can link up with some other escapees."

"If the cannibals haven't eaten them already."

Thank you for reading. If you love it, tell your friends. Please post a favorable review at Amazon, Good Reads, and other online resources. If you want to thank the author, you may also buy a copy for the low price of a cup of coffee. It's called Read-a-Latte: similar (or lower) price as a latte at your favorite coffeeshop, but the book lasts forever while the beverage is quickly gone. Thank you (JTC).

TOP | MAIN