While the girls were having some problems at the penal colony, Rock and the guys were also having some problems. And their problems could mean they won’t get out of there safely. Burk had just called Rock to look at something. “We don’t have enough fuel to get us out of here,” said Burk. Rock was still at the back of the jet. “What do you mean?” asked Rock, “We were tight, but I think we can make it okay.”

“Take a look for yourself Rock,” he replied, “but there is no way we can get back out with that little fuel.” Rock came up to the front right away, and he just stood there staring for a minute, not sure what he should say. “There was more than that when we landed,” said Rock finally, “we must have a leak somewhere. And that is not a good thing.

We will never get out of the country now and the longer it takes for the girls to get back, the worse off we will be.” Rock then called me to fill me in on what was happening. Before Rock had called me, Jennifer had come into the bedroom and told me she sensed terrible danger for the team. Now I know why. I communicated with Kat right away and told them they need to get back to the jet immediately.

Kat then asked if they could bring one more girl along, a friend of Natasha who is serving 300 days in solitary confinement. She is at day 97 and… I interrupted her and said to bring her along, but hurry. Sky went with Natasha down a short hall and at the end was the room where her friend was. Sky opened the door easily and Natasha woke her friend and said they were being rescued and to come with her.

Sky had put light into the room from herself so they could see, but just dimly in case Valeska had not been allowed any light. There wasn’t much light in the hall, so that was okay. They caught up with the other girls at the main entrance and off they went, getting into their car quickly. But, the prison alarm began screeching away. It was amazing at how quickly guards began to show up.

Next problem was getting through that main iron gate. Nakedra was driving and she had been getting emergency driving training from Sky and Jennifer, our two wildest drivers! Catalina and Alizea lowered their windows in the back seat, one on each side as they neared the gate. Kat and Carine were holding onto them to protect them from being shot.

Sky was protecting the car since it was not bulletproof like our cars. The two girls shot small packages through a tube launcher at the gate hinges. Six explosions took place and the gate fell flat to the ground ahead of them and out they went driving away as fast as Nakedra could get the car to go. Unfortunately they were being followed quickly by prison vehicles.

The lead truck chasing them had a machine gun attached to it which kept firing at them. “I hope you can hold off all those bullets Sky,” said Kat. “No problem with that,” replied Sky, “um, but maybe keep your heads down, just in case.” “We can’t let that machine gun follow us to the jet,” said Carine, “they could damage the jet a lot with that thing, more than it is I mean.”

Meanwhile, Rock called me again and said that Oskar and Bear had done an inspection and found that the front wheel braces were damaged and probably wouldn’t survive a takeoff on that rough old runway. That is not news I wanted to hear. I immediately called Aari and let him know the latest news about the jet.

“We will likely need to send you in for a long distance rescue,” I said, “and it will be getting light about that time which will make things a lot harder, but we have no choice.” “Rock will get it fairly close for us Steve,” he said, “providing he gets it off the ground.” “Thanks for that bit of encouragement Aari,” I said.

“You’re welcome Steve,” he replied. I think one of us doesn’t understand sarcasm. The worst thing is Rock can’t land that jet just anywhere and he certainly can’t land it at an airport either. Landing in a field will mean crashing for sure, but what choice does he have? That’s providing he can find a field large enough to land the jet. And if they don’t have front wheels, it definitely won’t be a good landing.

I think I will be doing a lot of worrying for a while. Back to the girls fleeing down this country road after leaving the main road. “Okay, time to get rid of that machine gun,” said Catalina, and she opened her window tossing a package into the air which landed right on top of the truck. There was a loud explosion and the lead truck was destroyed, effectively blocking the whole road.

The ditches on each side were deep, so the truck and 2 cars following that lead truck were not able to get around it. “Well, that stopped our friends nicely,” said Carine as she looked back. “Just don’t miss our turnoff,” Kat yelled to Nakedra! “It’s okay, Fluffy has us covered!” Nakedra yelled back. “Who is Fluffy?” asked Carine. Nakedra put a stuffed cat onto the dash.

“Fluffy, meet Carine,” she said calmly, “Carine, this is Fluffy, my answer to lack of GPS.” “Hi, me Fluffy, me give directions to humans,” said the stuffed cat. “How about that,” said Sky, “our lives are in the hands, I mean paws, of a stuffed cat!” That got most of the girls laughing, except the girls who didn’t understand English. But once it was translated for them, they also laughed.

“Well, I don’t have my own cat,” said Nakedra, “so I bought Fluffy. He only repeats what he is told, but it’s better than nothing.” She patted Fluffy on the head. “We will get you your own cat when we get back home,” said Sky. “But Steve said no more cats,” said Nakedra, “I already asked.” “I will do the asking,” said Sky, “then we will go looking for your cat.”

“Think you can convince him?” asked Nakedra. Sky looked at her and smiled, Nakedra giggled. “Human Nakedra, watch for small road coming fast.” said Fluffy. Suddenly Nakedra turned sharply turning down a road barely wide enough for their car. “Almost landed in that ditch,” said Sky, “perfect points for that turn.”

They stopped suddenly beside the jet which was ready to go as soon as the girls got on board. Surprisingly the front wheels stayed on for their takeoff, but fell off just after they were in the air. But Rock was more worried about their fuel, which they were losing much too quickly…

To Be Continued.

©2025 Steve McLeod.