Stowaway (a mediocre short story)

Part 1

Adelaide stepped into the street as the smells and sounds of London assaulted her senses. She started her walk down 13th Avenue, clutching the leather satchel to her side, as to make it inconspicuous as possible. The guard station was up ahead. She passed it, holding her breath. Safe.

"Halt, Abschaum! Was tust du? Halt!" Adelaide looked back, flipped up her hood and sprinted, holding the satchel tightly and ducking into the crowd. All the world faded away except for the sound of metal boots pounding on the cobblestones and strings of curses from the Pikes. She lept over a herd of goats and their disgruntled farmer and skidded around a corner, nearly tripping to avoid a prize bull that had escaped onto the street. Her heart pounded in her chest as a surprised german officer made a clumsy attempt to grab her. Up ahead a group of urchins were playing with a ball of rubber. She sprinted past them, ducked into an ally and paused. Her ears rang with the hollering of merchants and a mix of German, English, and Neo-English. She peaked out. It seemed that the coast was clear, but a life of living in the underbelly of London had taught her that you could never be too careful. As she ducked back in she checked her package, opening the flap to glimpse 2 metallic spheres. Then she heard it. The unforgettable sound of steel-soled boots pounding on the ground. Swearing under her breath she peeked around the corner and slipped into the marketplace. Walking slow enough to be unnoticed, but fast enough to get away she advanced towards the docks, desperately trying to find a hiding spot.

She heard the harsh voice of a german officer: "Dort! da ist sie!". The sound of boots neared and Adelaide bolted for the docks, and then leapt into the nearest cargo bay. The pikes yelled in confusion and demanded that all of the ships be searched. She army crawled towards an open crate in hope that the Germans wouldn't search it. A knock sounded on the hull of the small airship and a matronly sounding voice called from up above. "Coming! Coming! No need to get worked up!". Through a penny-sized peephole in the crate Adelaide saw a plump elderly women wearing an apron wattled down into the cargo bay and met the German private at the door. He took off his cap and said in broken english

"Zere is ein possibil danzherous kriminal on ze loose. Ve mus saerch yor schip."

As they were distracted Adelaide slipped out of the crate and tip-toed up to the bridge. After seeing how small the ship was she decided that it would not serve as a hiding place she scanned the rest of the Airdock for a more suitable route of escape. All around her ships floated in place, but most were small pleasure vessels. Nothing the pikes couldn't search without a warrant, however near the end of the bay she spied a larger ship, unmarked but clearly not a civilian vehicle. She leapt onto the deck of the steamer the the right and continued on to the unmarked ship. She was almost there when she heard a scream. She looked down. A young woman was looking up at her from a skylight in the ships roof.

"Ahh Scheiße.". The young woman in the ship screamed again. Adelaide quickly threw herself onto the next ship and was now running towards her target, trying to get there before the germans saw her. Three ships away. Two ships away. One ship away. And she was there. She dove into the open toplode door and rolled into the hull. She heard a knock at the loading bay door accompanied by a harsh german command. Footsteps echoed from somewhere behind her hiding place in a nook under the keel. A dark silhouette passed her and the door slid open, allowing the light of a late Londen morning to pour in. the figure of a german official stepped up. "Ve need to search your shipp. A suspected criminal iz about. Let us een." Adelaide crouched and moved away, not hearing the rest of the conversation. The further away from the germans the better. The she hear a yell: "Get going! The pikes are onto us!". Suddenly the ship lurched and Adelaide fell forward hitting her head on the mettle sides of the steamer. She crawled over to a window to see the ports of London from above. For the first time in her life, Adelaide Huxley didn't know what to do.