Sunday, June 21, 2020

Page 2395

((The Father's Day Special -- page 11 of 24))
Everyone else seemed surprised by the sudden threat of falling debris, no doubt because there was already so much chaos going on around them that they weren't prepared for something to take priority over it all.

So Hector helped them along.

"Hold on!" he managed to shout, more out of courtesy than actual instruction.

All of his orbiting cubes were dropped as he instead shifted all of his focus to shoving everyone out of harm's way. It was a split-second that he couldn't second guess. He could've tried to shield them all from the falling debris, but this cave was huge, and that was unknown volume of earth that was about to come down on their heads.

What was known, however, was the way out of the cave. The airflow was more than a little muddled now, but he still remembered which way it was going earlier, when things were calmer.

So he grabbed everyone with iron--even Pauline--and practically launched them out of the cave's exit. It was a difficult balance, because he knew he had to be fast yet still gentle, especially with the non-servants. The actual technique he employed--or improvised, rather--was like a sudden swarm of primitive trains. They weren't on actual wheels and instead just slid along the top of flat, iron platforms that hugged the ground.

Each "train" carried only one or two passengers, and they all ramped up to speed quickly but certainly not instantaneously. He made sure to add protective domes and pointed noses to each construct, for the sake of both aerodynamics and shielding from the debris.

It was still a damn close call, though. The entire cave came crashing down behind them like a forty-story building, and the debris didn't stop ricocheting and flying towards them even after they'd cleared the fall zone.

And the dust. It was like a tidal wave of its own.

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