The Steam Scavengers

12 - Spiders

Eleanor flinched, expecting to be shot, but the bullet whistled past her window and hit the balloon.

King Blodger fired again, hitting the balloon again. The flyer stopped rising, and the nose tipped forward slightly as the front of the balloon leaked hot air.

The King lowered the gun slightly and aimed at Eleanor.

She pulled the cannon lever.

The blast knocked the balloon backwards enough that Blodger's shot broke the cockpit window, but missed Eleanor.

The spiders landed in a giant ball a few feet away from King Blodger, and activated, digging into the ground. People stared at them until the old inventor shouted, “Run, you fools. They'll chop you to bits.” The crowd panicked, and surged away from the digging robots. Several people fell against the King, stopping him from firing again.

Eleanor's flyer drifted toward the ground, where churning dirt and rising dust showed the spiders rippling out from their impact site, excavating a new pit.

She steered to the left, and got a few yards ahead of the spiders as her cabin floor brushed the top of somebody's tent. She opened the pilot's door and stepped out onto the tent as it collapsed.

The flyer continued over her and crashed into the next shack. She climbed off the tent and ran, still clutching the Green Coal activator. She joined the crowd who were fleeing from the spider pit, bumping into tents in the near darkness. The fire in the inventors' tent crackled behind her.

After a few minutes, she broke away from the crowd and headed for the prison, wondering if she could trick the guards into going to fight the fire. When she reached the locked door, however, nobody was guarding it.

She pounded on it, and yelled, “Charlie, can you hear me?”

There was silence from inside.

She pounded again, hoping that he still had the lockpicks which Minnie had given him. “Charlie?”

A man's voice near the prison wall said, “You can stop that yelling. Nobody's home. If they've got sense, they'll all go to the center of the planet, where all the secrets of the universe are stored.”

Eleanor recognized the voice as one of the prisoners. “How did you get outside?”

“The plan worked. Just drill a hole and walk away. Simple. I'll bet the Green Men know everything.”

“Did you see which way a boy named Charlie went when he left?”

“I couldn't see anything. The nights are very dark, but the truth is a shining light.”

A gunshot echoed, from the middle of the City.

Eleanor said, “Thanks for telling me. Stay safe.”

“Wait, I'll tell you about the secrets of the universe-”

“Later.” Eleanor ran back into the tent city. She hoped Minnie hadn't been shot to death. She had no idea where Charlie was, but she guessed that Minnie had gone to try to get her father's pistol back from Captain Blodger.

The paths were full of people pulling down tents, packing, and yelling, “Flee the city!” and “We're under attack!”

Eleanor slipped through the crowds mostly unnoticed, even though far more torches and candles were lit now.