Conquest of the Victorian Era ( The Open Novella Contest)

Chapter Six- Not Again

"So you think Thadeus is hiding in London?" I said as Aries, Violet and Rhys began packing some bags.

"That's our only issue," Rhys said, "It's coming into winter here and everyone is covering up," he held up his now gloved hands. "It will be harder to spot any of them who are like us if they are hiding in London. For now we need to just blend in with everyone at this point and hope that we get some leads when we get to London."

"Which reminds me, what was your plan to get us to London from here, Rhys?" Violet said.

"Well it will be a long walk—"

"Walk?" I said, "Why do you not just fly this spaceship into London? Or at least closer to London?"

"It's too populated," Aries spoke, "Here was the closest place we could hide the ship. And the steep mountain surroundings make it a difficult and an unlikely destination for humans to travel over and into," he paused, "Well besides yourself."

"Our ship engineer designers on Sentaurius were close to inventing an invisible cloaking device," Rhys said, "But Thadeus destroyed our planet and people before it was built in to any ships for trialling..."

"Invisible cloaking—?"

"So you can't see the ship even if it's right in front of you," Violet explained sounding board.

"Oh," was all I could respond with, until I remembered something. "What about horses? It would only take us a couple days to get to London then. I have Charlie, but you will all want horses to ride, yes?"

"Well that would be great if—"

"There's a farm. Located at the base of the mountains to the East, that way," I pointed, "I came past it on my way here. We could... borrow some horses from there?"

"Borrow?"

"Well... probably have to take. Not many trust lending their belongings to complete strangers. If we ask they will not agree and then they will be more on watch about their horses in case we came back."

"Alright then, I've got the ships repel beacon going. Lets' go borrow some horses," Rhys said with a wink towards me.

"Now? At this time of night?"

"We will get the horses tonight before morning. Otherwise we have to wait another day." Aries said, "We will have to take rest later."

Hours later I was exhausted from trekking over the East Mountains. My pocket watch told me it was about three in the morning. I pulled Charlie along while the other three pulled themselves and their baggage behind me. It should have been easy after I had gotten my trailer over the hills but walking was a far different matter.

At least with Charlie I would stop for rest. The other three didn't look weary at all.

"How much further?" Aries asked me from behind.

"And it matters... to you... why?" I said puffing through words, "Are you...getting tired...already?"

Aries laughed, "Well I'm just wondering for your sake—"

"I am fine..." I breathed out.

Violet snickered, "So weak..."

I stopped and turned to her, "What did you... say to me?"

"We can stop if you really need—" Aries went to say.

"No. You said before that we should keep going. No breaks."