Post by Lorpius Prime on Feb 22, 2007 1:48:42 GMT -5
Jay didn’t move for a long time, didn’t even think about moving. He was in shock, lying against a wall half underneath a table and chair. He was sorely bruised, and his head felt like a church bell rung by an overeager boy. The fact that a woman was shrieking somewhere nearby barely even registered.
He did notice when another chair came flying off his bed. For a moment he wondered if the furniture was attacking him; but then it crashed into the other wall and Jack Duggan emerged from beneath it, looking thoroughly irritated.
He growled at Jay, “We down yet?”
Jay nodded, exercising all the communicative ability of which he was currently capable. Jack stood up, rotated his left arm with a grimace, and brushed himself off. Then he picked his way around the remains of the cabin to the door.
When he slid it open, Jay had the feeling that he should follow. He extracted himself from the table and stood up, with a hand against the wall for support. Careful not to jog his head too much, he went through the open doorway after Jack.
He didn’t get very far. Jay had thought the mess in his cabin had been bad; out in the hallway, the mess hardly even made sense. About twenty meters down towards the forward end, the hall ended in a wall of green. The floor had sprouted trees, the tops of which passed right through the ceiling. Crushed pine branches and needles filled the corridor.
Jay gaped at this phenomenon; it would make reaching the stairwell rather difficult. He turned around, and found himself relieved that the damage at the aft end was of the more conventional sort. The wall of the last cabin across the hall had shattered where it met the ceiling, the splintered wood bowing inward. Near the rear wall, Jack was kneeling over a sobbing woman, one of the Rover’s stewardesses from her blue uniform. She was clutching one of her legs, leading Jay to conclude she was probably injured. Seeing no one else, Jay walked towards the two of them.
“There’s a first aid kit on the bridge, and in the dining compartment,” Jack seemed to have calmed her down somewhat, but her words were still broken by tears, “Frances is our nurse, and Captain Morgan has medical training too.” She was breathing heavily.
Jack glanced up at Jay, “Broke her leg.” He looked back at the stewardess and shook his head gently, “We’re not going to be able to get to there from here. We’re blocked off. We’re going to have to carry you. Is it all right if we carry you, Mary?”
She bit her lip, but nodded. Jack reached out and scooped her up into his hands. Mary cringed as her legs were lifted, and more tears ran down her face.
“Mary, this is Mr. Blake. He and I are going to get you some help.”
“Er, hi,” Jay croaked. The stewardess smiled weakly.
Jack turned back to Jay, “Check the other rooms; I’m going to set her down on a bed.”
Jay nodded obediently while the Australian walked gingerly with his charge back into their cabin.
The two luxury rooms at the back were both empty, which was good because the chandeliers in both had shattered, covering the floors with glass shards. The cabin across the hall held a suitcase and some scattered clothing, but Jay didn’t see any sign of the man who owned them. Both the cabins forward of theirs were bisected by trees coming out of a gash in the floor. The door to one had been lost in the wall of pine branches, and Jay got splinters in his hands peeling back the flimsy wood barrier to see inside; but he didn’t find any more passengers in any section of the gondola he could reach.
He returned to his own cabin to find Jack rummaging through the wreckage. Jay told him the news.
“See any other way out?”
Jay shook his head. The stairs closest to them had been lost behind the trees.
“Figured as much,” Jack had retrieved his gun and was throwing the bandolier over his shoulder. “We’re going to have to lift her down.”
Jay looked at the stewardess lying on Jack’s bed, gritting her teeth, and started to say, “What?” But he was cut off when Jack drew his pistol and fired three times at the window.
Jay clamped his hands over his ears; he was swiftly coming to regret his drinking from the night before. The glass shattered nicely, and Jack pulled a leg off of an already broken chair to clear off shards from around the window’s edges.
Jack leaned over the side of the window, looking down among densely packed trees. When he looked back up, he was frowning.
“Wait here,” he said to Jay, then made for the door.
This time, Jay did say “What?” But Jack ignored him and strode out of the room.
Jay worked his mouth, staring at the empty doorway in confusion. Unsure of what to do next, he let out a nervous laugh and turned to the injured stewardess, “Seems he’s got everything under control, then.”
She didn’t respond, but Jay didn’t really mind. He’d spoken more for his own reassurance than hers. He jumped as three more gunshots rang out. At this rate, he was going to witness more gunfire in a single day than he had during the entire rest of his life.
Jay was going to ask him what the hell he thought he was doing, but bit his lip when Jack returned, reloading his gun with cartridges from his bandolier.
Jack snapped the cylinder shut, “Ground’s closer in the corner suite. Have you got your shoes? Good.”
Jay looked down to his feet; he was indeed wearing his shoes. In fact, he was fully dressed, and he vaguely recalled falling asleep without undressing. He glanced back up to find Jack lifting Mary up into his arms again.
“Erm…” Jay felt like he was twenty steps behind Jack, though his mind was racing painfully fast.
Jack turned around again with Mary clinging to his neck, “It’s still about five yards down, but we can make it.”
“Okay,” Jay said, still only half-comprehending. He turned around to find his notes and papers among the wreckage and stuff them into his suitcase.
“Would you leave it, already? I’m going to need your help for this,” Jack was frowning at the suitcase as Jay snapped it shut. But Jay had no intention of leaving his things behind. What if they couldn’t get back in? He needed his clothes.
Jack scowled, but didn’t say anything further. They walked back into the hall, Jack carrying Mary and Jay lugging a suitcase. They went to the luxury cabin at the rear starboard corner, and Jay walked gingerly across broken glass. His shoes weren’t as thick as Jack’s boots, which allowed the Australian to crunch across the room in confidence.
They paused while Jay shook the sheets of the single large bed clear of glass so Jack could set Mary down again. Then the two men strode to the window Jack had shot out.
It was an ugly sight outside. The lower level, which contained the dining compartment, had collapsed at the corner beneath them. Jay hoped no one had been in there when the Rover hit. The gondola had dug a few yards into a hillside, the splintered trunks of felled trees stuck out from beneath folded steel.
But the combined damage meant a significantly shorter drop to the ground, where it would have been closer to ten yards from the window of their cabin. Even so, it was a long way down to an uninviting surface.
Jay looked to the man on his right, “Now what?”
Duggan thought for a moment, then nodded, “Get all the mattresses.”
“The mattresses?”
“I’d rather fall on those than a pile of pointed sticks, don’t you think?”
Jay couldn’t argue with this reasoning, he just thought it sounded… weird. He shrugged, and in a few minutes the two men had gathered up the other seven mattresses they could reach in the one room. Then they carefully heaved them out the window to the ground below.
They didn’t land as neatly as Jay wished.
Jay looked dubiously at their makeshift crash pad. More specifically, he looked at the many gaps in it.
“Do we… do we just jump?”
Jack looked at him, “Did you bring a staircase?”
Jay was horrified, and it must have shown, because Jack clapped him on the shoulder, “Let’s gather up the sheets, we’ll tie them together.”
Rope made out of bedsheets was one of those ideas which sounded much better in theory than it ever seemed to work out. Jack was visibly displeased with how easily the Rover’s thin linens tore. He said they were going to have to make four lengths to have any chance of holding their weight. They tore every sheet in half and knotted the ends together—with Jack checking the strength of each tie.
Mary had stopped sobbing by the time they were finished. Jay hoped she was all right, her eyes had glazed over and she seemed like she might pass out. Jack and Jay hurried to secure the sheets to the heavy bed frame before tossing them over the side. Jack pronounced it acceptable.
Jack said he was going to try to carry the stewardess down with him on his back first. Mary said she thought she could hold on, but her voice seemed distant and Jay worried. But there didn’t seem to be anything else to do, so Jay helped Jack get up and out the window with the stewardess hanging with her arms tightly around his neck, whimpering whenever they had to move her leg. Both men were working quickly now, though Jay couldn’t say where the sense of urgency came from.
The tough old adventurer and stewardess made it most of the way down the side of the battered gondola without incident. But he seemed to stumble or lose his grip with a couple yards to go. At the last minute, he twisted and jumped towards part of the haphazard pile of mattresses. Mary shrieked when they landed, and the cushion tried to slide out from under them. Jack recovered quickly, however, and Jay watched him trying to help her get lying down properly again.
Then she clapped a hand over her mouth and pointed towards something near the front of the gondola that Jay couldn’t see. Jack turned to follow her gesture, and then froze.
“What is it?” Jay called out. Their behavior was making him very nervous.
Jack opened his mouth, then closed it for a moment before speaking, “Nothing. You’ll want to toss your suitcase out and then hurry down yourself.” Mary’s look of horror remained.
Jay frowned, but fetched his suitcase. It tumbled onto a tree trunk but stayed mercifully shut. With a last look around the destroyed suite, Jay gripped the rope and swung himself over the edge.
He nearly slipped at first; but once his shoes gained traction on the outer wall it was easy enough to walk himself down, making sure to keep a firm hold on the makeshift rope. At the bottom, he hopped down with none of the trouble Jack seemed to have. His hands were red, burned from the climb, and he brushed them off against the wool of his coat.
Then he saw what Jack and Mary had been looking at, and his eyes went wide.
“Oh. Oh shit… shit.”
The downed airship was still on fire. And now the forest was too.
Book One, Chapter:
-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20-21-
-22-23-24-25-26-27-28-29-30-31-32-33-34-35-36-37-38-39-40-41-42-
-43-44-45-46-47-48-49-50-51-52-53-54-55-56-57-58-59-60-61-62-
Appendix: -A-B-C-
He did notice when another chair came flying off his bed. For a moment he wondered if the furniture was attacking him; but then it crashed into the other wall and Jack Duggan emerged from beneath it, looking thoroughly irritated.
He growled at Jay, “We down yet?”
Jay nodded, exercising all the communicative ability of which he was currently capable. Jack stood up, rotated his left arm with a grimace, and brushed himself off. Then he picked his way around the remains of the cabin to the door.
When he slid it open, Jay had the feeling that he should follow. He extracted himself from the table and stood up, with a hand against the wall for support. Careful not to jog his head too much, he went through the open doorway after Jack.
He didn’t get very far. Jay had thought the mess in his cabin had been bad; out in the hallway, the mess hardly even made sense. About twenty meters down towards the forward end, the hall ended in a wall of green. The floor had sprouted trees, the tops of which passed right through the ceiling. Crushed pine branches and needles filled the corridor.
Jay gaped at this phenomenon; it would make reaching the stairwell rather difficult. He turned around, and found himself relieved that the damage at the aft end was of the more conventional sort. The wall of the last cabin across the hall had shattered where it met the ceiling, the splintered wood bowing inward. Near the rear wall, Jack was kneeling over a sobbing woman, one of the Rover’s stewardesses from her blue uniform. She was clutching one of her legs, leading Jay to conclude she was probably injured. Seeing no one else, Jay walked towards the two of them.
“There’s a first aid kit on the bridge, and in the dining compartment,” Jack seemed to have calmed her down somewhat, but her words were still broken by tears, “Frances is our nurse, and Captain Morgan has medical training too.” She was breathing heavily.
Jack glanced up at Jay, “Broke her leg.” He looked back at the stewardess and shook his head gently, “We’re not going to be able to get to there from here. We’re blocked off. We’re going to have to carry you. Is it all right if we carry you, Mary?”
She bit her lip, but nodded. Jack reached out and scooped her up into his hands. Mary cringed as her legs were lifted, and more tears ran down her face.
“Mary, this is Mr. Blake. He and I are going to get you some help.”
“Er, hi,” Jay croaked. The stewardess smiled weakly.
Jack turned back to Jay, “Check the other rooms; I’m going to set her down on a bed.”
Jay nodded obediently while the Australian walked gingerly with his charge back into their cabin.
The two luxury rooms at the back were both empty, which was good because the chandeliers in both had shattered, covering the floors with glass shards. The cabin across the hall held a suitcase and some scattered clothing, but Jay didn’t see any sign of the man who owned them. Both the cabins forward of theirs were bisected by trees coming out of a gash in the floor. The door to one had been lost in the wall of pine branches, and Jay got splinters in his hands peeling back the flimsy wood barrier to see inside; but he didn’t find any more passengers in any section of the gondola he could reach.
He returned to his own cabin to find Jack rummaging through the wreckage. Jay told him the news.
“See any other way out?”
Jay shook his head. The stairs closest to them had been lost behind the trees.
“Figured as much,” Jack had retrieved his gun and was throwing the bandolier over his shoulder. “We’re going to have to lift her down.”
Jay looked at the stewardess lying on Jack’s bed, gritting her teeth, and started to say, “What?” But he was cut off when Jack drew his pistol and fired three times at the window.
Jay clamped his hands over his ears; he was swiftly coming to regret his drinking from the night before. The glass shattered nicely, and Jack pulled a leg off of an already broken chair to clear off shards from around the window’s edges.
Jack leaned over the side of the window, looking down among densely packed trees. When he looked back up, he was frowning.
“Wait here,” he said to Jay, then made for the door.
This time, Jay did say “What?” But Jack ignored him and strode out of the room.
Jay worked his mouth, staring at the empty doorway in confusion. Unsure of what to do next, he let out a nervous laugh and turned to the injured stewardess, “Seems he’s got everything under control, then.”
She didn’t respond, but Jay didn’t really mind. He’d spoken more for his own reassurance than hers. He jumped as three more gunshots rang out. At this rate, he was going to witness more gunfire in a single day than he had during the entire rest of his life.
Jay was going to ask him what the hell he thought he was doing, but bit his lip when Jack returned, reloading his gun with cartridges from his bandolier.
Jack snapped the cylinder shut, “Ground’s closer in the corner suite. Have you got your shoes? Good.”
Jay looked down to his feet; he was indeed wearing his shoes. In fact, he was fully dressed, and he vaguely recalled falling asleep without undressing. He glanced back up to find Jack lifting Mary up into his arms again.
“Erm…” Jay felt like he was twenty steps behind Jack, though his mind was racing painfully fast.
Jack turned around again with Mary clinging to his neck, “It’s still about five yards down, but we can make it.”
“Okay,” Jay said, still only half-comprehending. He turned around to find his notes and papers among the wreckage and stuff them into his suitcase.
“Would you leave it, already? I’m going to need your help for this,” Jack was frowning at the suitcase as Jay snapped it shut. But Jay had no intention of leaving his things behind. What if they couldn’t get back in? He needed his clothes.
Jack scowled, but didn’t say anything further. They walked back into the hall, Jack carrying Mary and Jay lugging a suitcase. They went to the luxury cabin at the rear starboard corner, and Jay walked gingerly across broken glass. His shoes weren’t as thick as Jack’s boots, which allowed the Australian to crunch across the room in confidence.
They paused while Jay shook the sheets of the single large bed clear of glass so Jack could set Mary down again. Then the two men strode to the window Jack had shot out.
It was an ugly sight outside. The lower level, which contained the dining compartment, had collapsed at the corner beneath them. Jay hoped no one had been in there when the Rover hit. The gondola had dug a few yards into a hillside, the splintered trunks of felled trees stuck out from beneath folded steel.
But the combined damage meant a significantly shorter drop to the ground, where it would have been closer to ten yards from the window of their cabin. Even so, it was a long way down to an uninviting surface.
Jay looked to the man on his right, “Now what?”
Duggan thought for a moment, then nodded, “Get all the mattresses.”
“The mattresses?”
“I’d rather fall on those than a pile of pointed sticks, don’t you think?”
Jay couldn’t argue with this reasoning, he just thought it sounded… weird. He shrugged, and in a few minutes the two men had gathered up the other seven mattresses they could reach in the one room. Then they carefully heaved them out the window to the ground below.
They didn’t land as neatly as Jay wished.
Jay looked dubiously at their makeshift crash pad. More specifically, he looked at the many gaps in it.
“Do we… do we just jump?”
Jack looked at him, “Did you bring a staircase?”
Jay was horrified, and it must have shown, because Jack clapped him on the shoulder, “Let’s gather up the sheets, we’ll tie them together.”
Rope made out of bedsheets was one of those ideas which sounded much better in theory than it ever seemed to work out. Jack was visibly displeased with how easily the Rover’s thin linens tore. He said they were going to have to make four lengths to have any chance of holding their weight. They tore every sheet in half and knotted the ends together—with Jack checking the strength of each tie.
Mary had stopped sobbing by the time they were finished. Jay hoped she was all right, her eyes had glazed over and she seemed like she might pass out. Jack and Jay hurried to secure the sheets to the heavy bed frame before tossing them over the side. Jack pronounced it acceptable.
Jack said he was going to try to carry the stewardess down with him on his back first. Mary said she thought she could hold on, but her voice seemed distant and Jay worried. But there didn’t seem to be anything else to do, so Jay helped Jack get up and out the window with the stewardess hanging with her arms tightly around his neck, whimpering whenever they had to move her leg. Both men were working quickly now, though Jay couldn’t say where the sense of urgency came from.
The tough old adventurer and stewardess made it most of the way down the side of the battered gondola without incident. But he seemed to stumble or lose his grip with a couple yards to go. At the last minute, he twisted and jumped towards part of the haphazard pile of mattresses. Mary shrieked when they landed, and the cushion tried to slide out from under them. Jack recovered quickly, however, and Jay watched him trying to help her get lying down properly again.
Then she clapped a hand over her mouth and pointed towards something near the front of the gondola that Jay couldn’t see. Jack turned to follow her gesture, and then froze.
“What is it?” Jay called out. Their behavior was making him very nervous.
Jack opened his mouth, then closed it for a moment before speaking, “Nothing. You’ll want to toss your suitcase out and then hurry down yourself.” Mary’s look of horror remained.
Jay frowned, but fetched his suitcase. It tumbled onto a tree trunk but stayed mercifully shut. With a last look around the destroyed suite, Jay gripped the rope and swung himself over the edge.
He nearly slipped at first; but once his shoes gained traction on the outer wall it was easy enough to walk himself down, making sure to keep a firm hold on the makeshift rope. At the bottom, he hopped down with none of the trouble Jack seemed to have. His hands were red, burned from the climb, and he brushed them off against the wool of his coat.
Then he saw what Jack and Mary had been looking at, and his eyes went wide.
“Oh. Oh shit… shit.”
The downed airship was still on fire. And now the forest was too.
Book One, Chapter:
-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20-21-
-22-23-24-25-26-27-28-29-30-31-32-33-34-35-36-37-38-39-40-41-42-
-43-44-45-46-47-48-49-50-51-52-53-54-55-56-57-58-59-60-61-62-
Appendix: -A-B-C-