NOVEL WEB Chapter 431: Hurried retreat
"Hey guys! Those guys are getting awfully close!"
Claudy's shout brought me back to reality, pushing me to make my gesticulation far more energetic.
At first, the girl struggled to figure out what I wanted while constantly glancing over into that pendant or necklace of hers.
Thankfully, the girl soon realized the purpose of the rope, likely pressed by the growing noise of the approaching crowd.
'Aren't they worried they will get closer to the barrier?' I thought, turning my eyes to give a baffled stare in the direction the danger was coming from.
"Okay, she secured herself," Fay whispered, casually pulling out the pin of the sleeping bomb before stepping out into the ramp and casually throwing it over, just in the girl's general direction.
'Shit, if she's a supreme… It's not going to work that well!'
Realizing this possibility, I reached out my entire arm and pointed at the girl.
"You!" I screamed out before moving my arm towards the falling sleeping grenade.
And with the girl's attention moving on me, I brought my arm back, turned my hand into a bloated fist…
Before bringing it up to my nose and taking an over-exaggerated breath.
The bomb fell down by the girl's feet, causing her to look first at her pendant and then at the round ball.
As she did so, a thick, white smoke started to pour out of four holes spaced evenly on the bomb's sides.
It wasn't an explosive but a proper, sleeping agent. Apparently, Makary knew the usefulness of such tools in our mission to venture into the unknown. And although the girl hesitated again…
She looked at her pendant for yet another time before glancing over to where the fastest supremes were slowly appearing over at the line of the horizon.
And then, with no further hesitation, she approached, reached down, and brought the activated sleeping bomb over to her face, taking a whiff of the smoke so big and courageous, I could see the details of how her chest moved from the few tens of meters that separated us.
For a moment, the girl stumbled on her feet, her body resisting the poison…
Ultimately, though, the humans of this world had to be built somewhat similar to the humans of Earth, for the girl soon tripped and fell down to the soft ground. And as she fell, her face obviously ended up directed straight into the palm of the hand she held her pendant with.
"Okay, pull!"
Carefully measured my strength to tug the girl over instead of dragging her through the ground, stones, and ditches.
"They are getting closer! A mile out!" Claudy shouted from within the vessel.
"Fay, get into the seat!" I cried out, backing out onto the ramp myself. "Override the perms and start with the ramp open!"
I saw the speed of our pursuers. And despite all my strength and the itch to test it in tandem with my fancy weapons, as damaged as they were, I knew better than heading head-first into an unnecessary confrontation.
"On it!" Fay rushed to her seat, while I worked hard to pull the girl as fast as I could without a serious risk of injuring the target.
"Half a mile!"
Your journey continues at empire
Before I could even drag the girl halfway over, Claudy shouted again, rushing back to his own seat to get himself strapped.
'I sure hope he did a good job with Fay's belts,' I thought, pulling on the rope again and again while feeling the slight tremble of the maglev powering up below my feet.
"Start it! Take us high and then speed up!"
No matter what I was doing, shouting commands to Fay, balancing on the spot not to slip and fall out of the hovercraft, or thinking about how to distribute rations now that we would have one more mouth to feed, I kept pulling.
Hand after hand, I brought the girl closer and closer… ultimately lacking only about ten meters when the ship trembled and started to quickly rise.
"Steer back a bit!"
Unless I wanted to let go of the rope a bit, us rising up would also drag her through the ground, regardless of whether I pulled on the rope or not.
"Sure, but hurry up!" Fay called over from her seat, not even paying enough mind to secure herself with the straps.
"Seatbelt, Fay! Put it on!" I screamed over, much more willing to just drop and let go of the package at the end of the rope than to risk Fay stumbling out of her seat and getting hurt in the process.
"Sure, sure," with a small giggle, Fay brought the ship further five meters up, finally lifting the target from the ground and allowing me to pull on the rope again.
"They are almost on us!" Claudy screamed out, panicking over the deeply ingrained fear of flight that I recently cursed him with.
"Let's run!"
With the girl already hanging on her arm from the rope, there was no further reason for us to stay in place, as a perfect target suspended roughly seven meters off the ground.
"Hang on!" Fay called back, putting the ship into a forward motion.
Now that the girl was in the air, I no longer had to concern myself with the speed at which I moved her up, I managed to pull her up in a matter of mere moments, still easily hanging to the ramp's floor with just my feet.
"We are in, close the ramp!"
To the side, Claudy jerked a leaver down, putting the hydraulics into motion. To the front of the ship, Fay pushed the steering forward, steering on nothing but her instincts and the observations she made with me on the seat.
"I'm speeding…"
A strong gale struck the side of the maglev, instantly pushing it off the course and turning it at a sharp angle towards the barrier.
'Shit!'
Rushing forth, I brought the unknown woman up before slamming her onto a free passenger's seat before rushing forth only to slide into Fay's seat.
"Do you want to reverse the controls?" I asked, while already manipulating the hypermagnets to make the most possible use of their lifting force.
"Yes, please!" Fay hurriedly cried back, already reaching the limits of how far she could go on her gut feeling alone.
"Remember, we are using the same hand anyway!" I warned out, just in case, before flicking a total of three switches and letting go of my steering stick for but a second.
The stick moved on its own, mirroring the frantic way in which Fay held it on her side.
A small click barely reached my ears.
"I've got my side!' I called out, grasping the stick back before steadily correcting our course and pushing the ship down, a mere three meters over the ground while siphoning all of the free juice into the propulsion.
We didn't need to fly high if we just wanted to get away, didn't we?"
"I have my side too!" Fay called from my right this time as she once again focused on the part of the work she was far better and actually experienced at.
"Hang on, everyone, it won't be a comfy ride, but we are getting out of here!"