When the tremors started, sending dirt trickling into the shaft, Krysty sounded the alarm with her cries. “We’ve got to get out of here! It’s coming! It’s coming!”
In those first seconds of distraction, Union made her move. With a sudden burst of energy, she charged for the open doorway in the dirt wall, bowling over Hammersmith and slipping away before anyone could lay a hand on her or get off a shot in her direction.
Without hesitation, Jak bolted after her. The others were still processing what had just happened when he sprinted through the doorway.
Fortunately, his night vision was excellent. Even without a portable light of any kind, he could still glimpse Union’s fleeing form in the darkness up ahead.
His hearing wasn’t bad, either, which also helped. Even as the darkness thickened further from the shaft leading down from the surface, he could hear her running footsteps on the packed dirt floor in the distance. The rumbling of the quake didn’t block them from his sensitive ears.
He homed in on those footsteps as if they were beacons and raced after her, determined to stop her from doing whatever it was she meant to do.
* * *
“UNION’S GONE, AND Jak went after her!” Mildred had to shout to make herself heard over the rumbling in the shaft.
“At least they’re headed in the right direction,” Hammersmith said as J.B. helped him to his feet. “We need to follow them.”
“So there’s an earthquake, and we’re going deeper underground?” J.B. asked.
“Unless you’d rather waltz in the front door?” Hammersmith switched on the lantern, then dropped it in the next big tremor. “Son of a bitch!” He quickly snatched the lantern up again but had to shake it twice before the bulb relit. “We need to go!”
Ryan leaned close to Krysty, who was moaning from the pain in her head. “Can you keep going?”
She met his eyes and nodded forcefully. “Hell yes.”
“Come on!” Lantern in hand, Hammersmith darted through the doorway. As he entered, clumps of dirt fell down from the shaft above.
Mildred realized that if the quakes kept up, that entrance might soon be blocked. But what alternative was there?
Ryan and Krysty plunged into the opening after Hammersmith. J.B. gestured for Mildred to go next. “After you.”
Dirt continued to fall. “Let’s do it.” Mildred swallowed hard, then nodded once and ran into the darkness, hoping she hadn’t seen daylight for the last time in her life.
* * *
EXO YANKED THE swordstick from a loop on his belt as he stormed across the mat-trans chamber. Fixie, still consumed by his work on the control panels, didn’t even hear or see him coming.
“Fixie, watch out!” Even as Doc raised the alarm, he knew it was too late. He scrambled to his feet as he called out, only to fall back down when the next tremor kicked in.
Fixie turned just in time to see the silver lion’s-head top of Doc’s swordstick hurtle straight at his head. He tried to block the blow, but his arms made it only halfway before the silver lion’s head smashed down on the middle of his skull.
“No!” Doc grabbed a length of pipe from the floor and used it to help himself up. He intended to use it further to give Exo a taste of his own medicine.
But the earthquake and the white light raging within him were throwing him off his game. He weaved drunkenly over the heaving floor, stopping at every large solid object to steady himself and rest.
Unfortunately, Exo did not share his unsteadiness. In the time it took Doc to get halfway across the room, Exo whacked Fixie three more times with the cane—once more on the head, then once on the chest and once on the back as he went down.
“How dare you operate this sacred technology without my permission?” Exo snarled. “This is my weapon, not your toy!”
“Stop it!” Doc roared. “He was only testing the device! It’s all yours!”
“Test this!” Exo clubbed Fixie harder than ever on the back of the neck, then giggled like a lunatic. “Whoops!” Pulling back the swordstick, he held up the silver lion’s head, which was drenched in blood. “I guess you failed, little bitch!”
“No!” Doc hauled back the pipe and let it fly. It struck Exo on his left shoulder and bounced off, clattering to the floor.
Exo didn’t even acknowledge the hit. Instead, he swung up the swordstick for another strike, giggling the entire time. “Don’t worry, Hammersmith!” He lashed the cane downward, thumping the heavy head in the meat of Fixie’s side. “I’ll clear aside this deadwood so you can get to work again!”
Suddenly, a blastershot exploded in the room. The shot was meant for Exo but went wide, punching into a control panel on the wall instead.
Doc whirled to see Ankh standing inside the doorway, aiming his Winchester longblaster at the man who was supposed to be his leader.
“Ankh?” Doc said.
“Son of a bitch.” Ankh shook his head, looking disgusted, somehow holding perfectly steady in spite of the latest round of tremors. “I can’t trust you people to do anything, can I?”