Escape
Copyright© 2026 by Ka Hmnd
Chapter 4: The plan
While I ate a ration, I started explaining. “First, the reader they let us see showed the continents. It was a satellite look down but had elevation markers. They also gave away which continent we would be on, so that narrowed it further.”
I glanced around. “I will need to make a few cups.”
I shook my head as they chuckled and continued, “I was looking out a window when we came down, and the enemy base is on the large peninsula on the west coast. I also saw the courier ship sitting on a pad.”
I thought as I took a couple of bites, “Anyone know what a gilly is?”
Several men raised their hands, and I smiled, “I am going to make a gilly, and if the transport lands in the same place each time, I will sneak aboard.”
The men hissed, but I ignored it, “The hard part will be to open the access panel in the forward landing gear bay without setting off an alarm. Just inside and behind the transport bridge is one of the bulkheads with the emergency packs.”
I looked around and grinned, “If I am careful, they will never know I took them. I close the access panel and hide under the transport until it leaves.”
I looked around at the men looking at each other, “Inside each bag is one hundred ration bars.”
The admiral chuckled, “Enough to get us to the port.”
I nodded, “And I will make spears and bows to protect us along the way. The next step may be harder, the ship key. If it is not in the ship, the base commander will have it, which means I will have to slip in and convince the good commander to give it to me.”
They laughed, and I grinned, “I will also need to smash or find a way to destroy the star comm.”
The admiral shifted, “Okay, now that we have the plan, it is time to make it work. Commander Morris has told us the transport always lands in the same place. They man the turrets, so you are going to have to be under it when it lands.”
He looked around, “I do not know why you needed it, but the sensor net only extends from the barrier to the trees. The towers have solar cells, and just outside and downstream is the fusion reactor to power the sonic barrier.”
I grinned, “Each tower has a directional sonic emitter. Remember the reader? If we climb up and reset the emitter, it can be used like a lance. We can link the sensor net and adjust it to make a targeting system.”
I looked around. “We may escape or not, but using what you have will provide you with animal hides to sleep on or to use as roofs.”
They grinned and nodded, and I sighed. “I need a smaller hide to make a map.”
I stood and looked around as I held the trash from the ration. A commander held out his hand. “I will take care of that.”
I handed it to him before looking at Captain Zane. “We are going to need a lot more from outside.”
He smiled and stood with one of the spears. “Lead on, Lieutenant.”
This time he swam out with me, and several men waited inside by the pond. I moved to another adamantum tree, and we climbed up. I cut and fashioned another spear, and he gestured to the men inside the barrier, and one swam out. He was also watching the forest around us so we would not be surprised. Colonel Baker climbed into the tree, and Zane tossed the new spear to him as I worked on another.
It was a couple of hours before the forest went quiet. There were seven men in the tree with me, and I stopped what I was doing and looked around slowly. The Chinese Dragon came out of the forest silently for such a large animal. The head was easily three feet across with a slim body twenty metres long and six pairs of legs. It was not headed for us and went past as it moved to the sonic barrier.
The men on the other side moved back as it hissed loudly and moved back and forth. It finally turned and started back into the forest, but this time it was moving straight for us or under the tree we were in. I shifted the spear I held and looked at Zane to see his eyes widen before he shook his head. I smiled and looked down and waited before dropping off the branch.
I dropped silently with the spear aimed and then stabbed before I struck the dragon. The spear slammed through behind the head and sank into the neck and stuck in the spine. I hit and rolled off before coming to my feet with the machete in my hand. The dragon was writhing around on the ground, but I could see it was paralyzed. I moved closer and started swinging and chopping at the throat.
The gush of blood made me move away before I started climbing. “We need the hide, so do not let anything eat it.”
Commander Sara chuckled. “Son, you must be crazy.”
I smiled as I moved back to the branch I had been on, and everyone else laughed. I worked on knives and a few machetes, and an hour later, several men went down and skinned the huge animal before we moved to another tree. Over a dozen men were with me when I stopped and glanced at the setting sun. We had killed several animals, and the hides had been taken into the camp.
More men had come out to collect huge piles of branches and large leaves. We even had a man at the one-way gate to let us back into the camp. I led the way in and noticed how different everyone seemed. I found the admiral and colonel Noble by the frame I had made. It had leaves covering the roof, so there was shade as I sat to eat. The admiral grinned as I set two spears and a set of knives for each of them down.
He gestured. “Your idea of making sonic lances was a good one. We looked the emitters and sensor net over, and as soon as we have light, we are going to make a few changes.”
I nodded as I ate and started to scrape and clean a small hide. “We need to leave the landing area alone so the gilly suit will not stand out.”
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