After Kristina issued the warning about our prisoner, Trisha came into my room. “Do not close that door!” yelled Kristina. She and Sky ran out, but Sky told Trisha to stay with me. “Do you have your gun?” I asked her. “No, mom did not want me carrying it to town,” she said. I handed her one of mine, I had two of them. Muffin, MC and Kathee were in the room too and Kathee had her gun out and ready.

Meow,meow.=Feel not dressed without backpack. Meow.=Yep, me too. “You still have your claws guys,” said Trisha smiling. Our prisoner was heading for the door but Angel was there, armed with her dart gun and sleeping darts. She fired twice but the man laughed and pulled them out. Then he grabbed Angel, picked her up and tossed her against the wall. She fell, unconscious.

He then opened the door and walked out, something he should not be able to do when we are in lockdown. The 4 front guards were all lying on the ground and a van was waiting for the man. Kristina was there first and was about to shoot when she suddenly flew backward and to the floor, bleeding. Sky and Crystal arrived next, but Sky told her to stay out of sight.

Sky could see the man and still stay out of sight of the van. She shot 6 times and the man staggered a bit, and almost made it into the van, but fell to the ground. The van sped away, but two of the back guards, having heard the gunshots, came running to the front and shot at the van. It did no good however, it must have been heavily armored and got away.

The guards went running to the front door, stopping to check on the prisoner, who was dead. “Why could I not shoot those other guards?” asked Carmen. “I told you before, it does not have endless energy,” said Toledo, “it needs to be recharged. You were using it too much.” “You need to improve that, make it endless energy,” she said. “If I could do that, I would be the wealthiest man in the world,” he said, “and I would not waste the potential on some minor weapon.”

“Money, that is all you ever think about,” said Carmen. “And revenge is all you think about,” he replied. They stayed down the road a short distance and watched. A large car came driving up. “No one inside,” said Carmen. “Have you not heard of self driving cars?” asked Toledo. The car stayed there for a while, then one of the guards waved it away. It drove out to the road and off it went, past the van.

“Are you going to follow it?” asked Carmen. “Why?” asked Toledo, “there is no one inside. They want us to follow the car so they can get away.” “Oh, that makes sense, I guess,” she said. They waited for a while, then went back to the hospital and up to the front door. “I can take energy from the hospital to recharge the machine,” said Toledo.

He took out another small gadget and checked for the electrical current, but there was none. He laughed. “They fooled us,” he said, “they must have been in the car, and they have turned off the electricity here.” “So the place is locked and they are gone,” she growled, “I told you to follow that car.” “You should listen to me and kill Steve right away,” he said.

“No, I want to hurt him for a while first, then kill him,” she said, “like a cat playing with a mouse.” “You are going about it all wrong,” he said, “if you want to hurt Steve, kill Sky and his cat. He does not care about himself so much, but killing them will hurt him for a long, long time. That is why I killed his first wife, Kat.”

“Not a bad idea,” she said, “Steve would likely think you did it again and he would go after you and not me.” She laughed at the thought. “Hmm, you might have a point there,” he said, “anyway, off we go so we can charge the machine again.” “Show me how to do it too,” she said. “Sorry, only I will ever know how to do that,” he said, “I do not trust you anymore than you trust me.”

“How do you know I will not kill you once this machine is charged again?” she asked. “Because you need me,” he replied, “but I do not need you.” He smiled and got back into the van. So did Carmen, slowly, after looking at her dead man. “I will have to kill two of those girls for killing my man,” she said. “Oh, apes like that are easy to find,” said Toledo shaking his head as they drove away.

We were safely back at the chateau, having gotten into the car from an escape tunnel that comes up under the place where the car parked, then through a hole in the floor. We just lay down until past the van a good distance, the windows are very dark anyway making it impossible to see us. But we heard everything they said, so preparations are now underway for Sky, Trisha, Muffin and MC to go into hiding…

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.