Our brave team of rescuers were driving as fast as they could, but as they rounded a curve they spotted a roadblock at the next intersection. Fluffy had just told them that there turn off road was just ahead of them, but with that roadblock it meant trouble. “What now Kat?” asked Nakedra. “Just keep driving, if we stop here or turn around, they will be on us quickly,” she said, “we would never be able to outrun them in these old cars.”

She told Sky what was ahead too and everyone got ready to fight. Well, everyone except the 3 rescued girls. They came driving slowly to the roadblock, which was manned by police and soldiers. One large army vehicle had and equally large machine gun on top of it. As soon as they came to a complete stop, our team quickly jumped out of the vehicles and began shooting.

Catalina tossed a package that landed right in the cab of the truck and exploded. She then tossed a second one which landed right on the machine gun. That put it out of service quickly and our team finished off the whole group of men at the roadblock. “We will have to assume these men called in our position,” said Rock. “I agree,” said Kat, “we will have to take their cars now, the ones we have are nearly out of fuel.” “Yes, that might actually help us at first,” said Rock, “until they find out we took them.

That might take some time.” There were three cars for them, two police cars and one unmarked military car. Off they sped down the next road! However, they didn’t get far when they spotted a helicopter following them. “How did they find us so fast?” asked Rock. Celeste pointed to Rock’s phone. Nakedra came to a screeching halt, as did the two cars behind her.

Sky was furious when she discovered that Rock, and all the guys, still had their phones in use. “That is why they can follow us so easily!” yelled Sky and she took all the phones and destroyed them easily with her electricity. “How will we contact Aari for help?” asked Oskar. “We ghosts are here for such things, remember?” asked Carine, looking sternly at the guys.

Actually, a couple of the girls had their phones on too. “That chopper is coming back,” yelled Kat, “quick, turn down that trail in the trees!” They managed to get the 3 cars onto that trail and under the cover of the trees in time, before that helicopter arrived again. It kept circling the area several times before it finally turned back to the intersection that they had just left.

“I have to admit, we really messed up that time,” said Rock shaking his head, “but what do we do now?” “Well, it’s obvious we can’t drive around out in the open anymore,” said Kat, “at least, not with these vehicles. Even though we disconnected anything in them that might help them to follow us, that helicopter would spot them much too easily. For now, we will have to walk.

There isn’t much snow left around here, but it is cold, and we will have to walk slow so our rescued girls can keep up.” “Like I said before,” said Rock, “Oskar, Bear and myself can easily carry one, I doubt they weigh very much. Natasha is the biggest one, so I will carry her.” “You better not say that to her Rock,” said Kat smiling, “or you might get slapped rather hard.”

“Oh, oh yeah, guess that didn’t sound too good, did it?” he responded. So, off they all went, walking under the trees as best they could so they couldn’t be seen from the air. According to Fluffy, they had another 20 km to go before reaching the next road, where they needed to turn. Kat had informed me of their predicament and asked if Aari and team could come and pick them up, even though it would mean coming further inside the country.

I reminded her that if there are helicopters out looking for them, then it would be impossible for Aari to come in with helicopters as they would be spotted right away. Kat knew that, but she just had to ask anyway. I told her to look for some abandoned building that they could stay in for a few days until they gave up looking for them.

“Hmm, it might just work,” said Kat, “we will keep our eyes open for something that is away from people.” They were making good time, but it was still very slow, so Kat and Carine went on ahead to see what was happening at the next intersection. Hmm, no roadblock, that’s rather interesting, thought Kat. Why would there be no one there?

Especially since they knew which way the team was headed. There was a small store at the intersection as well, so they decided to take a look inside, but remaining invisible. Once inside they discovered that an army officer was there, plus 4 other men with him. Then Carine went out behind the store and there were more men, plus 4 cars.

Obviously they were planning to ambush our team when they stopped for more food. Well, more food they need and transportation too. Kat communicated with Sky and she arrived promptly to help. They quickly overcame the soldiers, then came back inside to deal with the men hiding in the store. Then they began doing some more “shopping”, and again the owners declined any payment saying they wanted to help.

Kat put them to sleep so it wouldn’t look like they were helping the girls and soon our ghosts were driving off in some nice new cars. They picked up the rest of the team, then proceeded following the original plan. However, they knew that these cars would be just temporary since that helicopter would spot them easily enough. They needed to get rid of that chopper, and fast.

Sure enough, it was about half an hour later that the helicopter arrived, but they were ready for it this time. The ghosts had picked up some weapons from that last group of soldier’s, including one nice rifle, something that Catalina was familiar with. As the chopper came closer, Catalina opened her window, leaned out and shot several times.

She hit the pilot and copilot, sending the helicopter out of control and crashing to the ground bursting into a huge ball of flames! “Hopefully they didn’t have time to contact anyone,” said Kat, “great shooting Catalina!” But Catalina didn’t answer. Kat looked over to her side of the car and Catalina was leaning against the door with blood running down the side of her head.

Kat quickly changed places with Natasha and asked Sapphire for the towel she had been using earlier. Sapphire handed it to Kat with a worried look on her face. Someone from the helicopter must have shot back at the girls and hit Catalina. Hopefully that bullet grazed the side of Catalina’s head and didn’t lodge in her skull.

This was the first injury sustained by the team, and hopefully there will not be any more. Nakedra, Sky and Burk were driving as fast as they could right now, tying to cover as many kilometers as possible while they still could. But, things don’t always work the way we would like…

To Be Continued.

©2025 Steve McLeod.