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Chapter Eight
As fast as fast can be, you’ll never catch me
Wherein there is more running, ‘borrowing’ and Marshall finds some swanky new clothes
She and Julian were sketching a rough map in the dirt when her father emerged from the nook. She smiled brightly up at him, “Morning Dad. I was just about to wake you.”
He grunted and sullenly squinted at Julian next to her.
She hurried to divert his ire at seeing her and Julian sitting so close together, “Ju-Sark and I were just working on a rough map of the area,” she turned her attention to the map as did her father.
“I believe we’re roughly here,” Julian jabbed his stick at the dirt, “If we continue north we should reach the coast soon. If we can procure a boat we’ll head east,” he moved his stick across the dirt creating a faint path, “The 4th Kingdom doesn’t border the water, but the 2nd Kingdom doesn’t extend too far inland from this point.”
Sydney took up the narration, “If we don’t find a boat then we can retrace our steps and move around behind the troll’s lines and into the 4th Kingdom.” She used her own stick to point at the rough map, “There’s a river separating the two kingdoms and we did find a bridge last time, but I’m not sure how frequent they occur.”
The three of them stared at the map for a few moments.
“It’s not the best of plans,” Sydney acknowledged.
“At least we have options,” Jack briskly stated. “Wake Marshall, do we have food?”
Sark pulled a sandwich from his pack. Jack nodded, “Let’s get going.”
With her father brisk, certain statements she was feeling much more confident.
The first few hours passed rather uneventfully but around noon time their hurried pace became a frantic dash over hills and through trees as the trolls began to catch up with them.
Bursting out of a corpse of trees Sydney spotted the sun’s bright reflection off the murky blue water of the bay. She quickly scrambled up a rise, the others right behind her and paused at the top. The bay stretched out before them and she scanned the beach hoping for a boat.
“There,” Sark’s somewhat laboured voice drew her attention to her right where several boats bobbed in the water at the end of a short dock.
The sound of the troll’s horn ringing out behind them launched them forward. It took a few more minutes of running up and down low rises until finally they were at the beach.
“Which one?” she slid to a stop in front of the three boats.
“Just pick one,” Julian snapped as he pulled out his gun and turned back towards the way they had come. The trolls were scrambling down the rise behind them.
She glanced at Marshall next to her who shrugged then pointed, “That one has a smokestack.”
He was right, and a smokestack meant an engine. She grabbed his arm and dragged him behind her as gunfire broke out, “Go, go, go!”
She quickly ran down the swaying dock and scrambled over the railing of their chosen boat. No one appeared as she thumped onto the deck and began looking for the engine cabin. A loud bump and clattering told her Marshall had made it over the railing. There were two cabins, one had a smokestack rising from it.
“Marshall!” she yelled at the tech sprinting over and throwing open the door. Several more thumps could be heard behind her, she hoped it was Julian and her dad. Marshall careened into the cabin behind her as she frantically looked for something familiar. Dancing around on her feet she quickly ran her eyes over the metal parts trying to ascertain how to get it running.
“Any day now luv,” Julian yelled at her.
“I’m looking,” she snapped back.
“uh, Sydney,” Marshall was hovering nearby, “Try that.”
She followed his finger to a fat, dull red button that had big, black letters on it, ‘Start’.
She blinked, “Well alright then.” She pushed the button and jumped back as the engine loudly started up. A thin trail of smoke belched out and various parts started moving. She stood still; it didn’t feel like they were moving. She dashed past Marshall, possibly knocking him down in the process.
Julian and her dad where standing at the railing firing their guns. “Engine’s running,” she unnecessarily called out, pulling her gun out. Behind her father was the helm of the boat, the wheel and what looked like controls. “Dad, steering’s behind you.” She stepped up to the railing, the trolls were cautiously moving down the dock and she shot off a few rounds.
Her dad must have found the controls because the boat started to pull away from the dock. Julian pulled a knife from somewhere and started to saw at the thick rope tying the boat to the dock. A troll took the lack of gunfire as an opportunity to run along the dock and jump at the boat. She squeezed off a few rounds dropping the troll into the widening gulf of water between them and the dock.
Julian had the rope cut through now and she walked over to him as they watched the troll’s mill about on the dock before heading for the other two boats. Julian slung his pack off and dug out two grenades.
She gaped at him, “You brought grenades.”
“Only the three,” he handed her one.
“You had these just lying around your apartment,” she eyed the explosive in her hand.
He smiled blandly at her before pulling the pin and throwing his grenade in a perfect arc onto one boat where it promptly exploded.
“Nice,” she complemented before doing the same. Her grenade hit the side of the last boat and exploded.
“Mine actually landed on the deck,” he smugly pointed out.
She made a face, “The boat had moved further away by the time I threw mine.”
Before they could continue Marshall burst out of the engine cabin, “Are we exploding?!”
“Not us,” Sydney reassured him and proudly pointed back to the two burning boats.
“That’s good. Look what I found,” Marshall smiled proudly.
Over his clothes he had on a red vest-like coat that trailed to his knees and was covered with pockets. He’d also plunked a disreputable, pointed black hat with a flopping brim on his head.
She stared at him. The hat could have fleas or lice for all he knew and it kind of creepily reminded her of the Sorting Hat in Harry Potter, but Marshall looked so pleased that she didn’t have the heart to say anything to him.
“Probably has lice,” Julian muttered next to her.
She elbowed him.
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