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similar. He saw a blur of norm faces full of shock, eyes wide with terror. The
sec men tried to turn and get their weapons up, but there wasn't time. The
world rocked as heaps of wildly scuffling bodies crashed to the trailers'
steel floors.
Their cries muffled by stickie palms, their shoulders and heels pinned by
stickie arms, the sec men came undone in long, raggedy strips.
A tremor rippled through the army that lay hidden in plain sight, a yearning
that rattled their very bones.
They smelled blood.
Kaa strained to hold them back a few seconds more. If they waited, they would
lose no soldiers to the berm's blasterposts. They would enter Willie ville at
full strength. He held them back because he didn't want their beautiful lives
wasted. He held them back because he loved them.
Like his hero Charlemagne, he was a king after God's own heart.
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J.B. CRAWLED FORWARD into the cramped darkness. By the time he'd advanced
thirty feet, the light from the hole behind him had vanished. It was so black
that he
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couldn't tell whether his eyes were open or shut. He had to feel his way
along, fumbling for the walls of the tunnel in front of him. When he stopped
to make sure the others were close, the top of Mildred's head rammed into his
behind.
"Sorry, John," she said, sounding nervous.
"Is Doc back there?" J.B. asked.
"I'm here, John Barrymore."
"Keep tight to me," the Armorer said, then started forward again. At least, he
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told himself, there wasn't enough room in the tunnel to turn around, which
meant that if he stumbled onto a stickle digging in the dark, he would most
likely come on it from behind. Perhaps the kill-crazy mutant wouldn't be able
to get its sucker fingers on his face.
J.B. counted his crawling steps as he proceeded, trying to keep track of where
he was in relation to the berm. After a few minutes of travel, he figured he
had to be beyond it. But the tunnel showed no signs of ending. It seemed to be
angling to the left, though he couldn't be sure. Ahead was only more
blackness. He decided to give up counting and concentrated instead on speed.
It was hot work in the confined space. The sweat poured off him as he
scrambled along on hands and knees. Behind him he could hear the steady rasp
of Mildred's breath.
When a light appeared in front of him, J.B. wasn't sure what it was. It looked
like an orange blob hanging in space. At first he thought it might be a
stickle, so
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he stopped short and immediately took another direct hit from behind.
"What is it?" Mildred asked.
"End of the tunnel. Let me go up and take a look."
J.B. crawled ahead, into the circle of unfiltered sunlight. He let his eyes
adjust, then slowly raised himself up and poked his head out of the hole. The
tunnel surfaced near the amusement zone's back fence in the middle of a strip
of parched dirt that had once been a lawn. As J.B.
turned his head, he saw ten stickies creeping along the fence line, away from
him. They had dried mud plastered over their backs and legs.
The Armorer dropped back into the hole. "Come on!" he urged his companions.
"Hurry!" Then he crawled out and lay belly down on the dirt. When Doc and
Mildred joined him, he pointed out the pack of stickies. They were running
across the parking lot
"Somebody's in for it," he said.
"Shouldn't we raise an alarm?" Mildred said. "Warn everybody?"
"Too late for that All hell's going to break loose here in a minute or two."
"I concur with J.B.," Doc told her. "To thank us for our previous attempts to
help them, the residents of Willie ville have jailed us, chained us and abused
us. We have done more than enough for them. We have to find our friends and
make our escape if we can."
Mildred nodded. "Okay," she said, "you guys have convinced me. Which way do we
go?"
J.B. led them over the hurricane fence and into the
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shadows behind the building that housed the Ghost Castle Spook Train. The
sounds of cheers coming from the other side of the Freedom City compound made
them crane their necks around the corner for a look-see.
"That's Ryan!" Mildred said, pointing at the dark figure falling from the top
of the hotel.
"Dark night!" J.B. exclaimed as Ryan jounced up in the air at the end of the
rope.
"We have to do something quick," Doc said.
No sooner had he spoken than someone shouted at them. "Hey, you! Hey! Hold
it!"
A pair of sec men was running toward them, up the path from the Ferris wheel.
The baron's men suddenly stopped and raised their blasters.
As J.B., Doc and Mildred dived for cover, a flurry of autofire rang out. The
burst of slugs clipped the corner of the building, spraying splinters across
the dirt. J.B. grabbed Doc's shoulder and pulled him to his feet.
"Move!" he said to Mildred. He rounded the back of the building and sprinted
up the short flight of stairs to the heavily curtained doorway of the Ghost
Castle Spook Train ride. An empty, two-
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person tram sat on the tracks in front of the portal. It was shaped like a
miniature railroad flatcar. In the predark days the ride's little tram was
powered by electricity. Now an empty slave
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J.B. led them around the tram and through the curtain. Inside, it was dark,
cool and very quiet.
They
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followed the pair of tracks as they curved deeper into the building. There was
bare metal scaffolding on the ceiling and, on either side of the tracks, a
clutter of deceased mechanical and electrical devices, power cables, a
conduit. In the weak light everything looked dim, gray and dusty. J.B. scanned
the layout, searching for some kind of weapon and a likely spot to stage an
ambush if they were pursued.
They hadn't gone very far when they heard footsteps hurrying in the darkness
behind them. J.B.
pulled the others behind a plastic boulder covered with a century-thick carpet
of dust. While they listened, the footfalls slowed. They were getting closer.
Then torchlight leaped across the girdered ceiling.
"We know you're in here," a male voice said.
"We got your asses cold," another added.
The light blazed brighter, sending a distorted shadow of the plastic boulder
across the floor.
J.B. was hoping the sec men would pass by without seeing them, that they'd get
a chance to jump on their backs and overpower them.
He hadn't counted on the spooks.
With a roar and a clanking of heavy chains, something huge and angry lunged at
them from the dimness. Powerful fingers brushed J.B.'s face, nearly knocking
loose his glasses. Mildred was so startled by the attack that she yelped and
jumped out from behind the rock.
"Hold it right mere," the sec man with the torch said. He held her covered
with the rifle in his other hand. "The rest of you come on out."
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His partner stepped to one side, aiming at the rock with a battered,
wood-stocked AK-47. "Yeah, come on out."
As J.B; and Doc rose from cover, there was another roar and clank. This time
it came from behind the second sec man. As they watched, a loop of heavy chain
flopped over his head and down around his neck. With a crunch the loop cinched
tight. The sec man dropped his blaster and clawed at the links that were
crushing his throat. He was hauled, kicking, back into the darkness.
It all happened in a heartbeat.
The man with the torch swung around and, with his autorifle aimed at belly
level, rushed to help his buddy. Mildred timed her kick perfectly. She caught
the sec man moving forward, with one foot on the ground. She booted him
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