“Actually, yes,” replied Sara to the question asked by her triumphant captors. She cleared her throat and spoke with utter conviction: “Do you happen to have the time?”
“Scarface” was slightly taken aback by the odd request, but hid it as best he could. “Time? What does it matter?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know the exact moment you were put to death?” countered Sara.
“I’d rather not be put to death at all,” put in Zoey.
“All right, all right,” said Scarface. “These armors don’t have watches, but you’ve been here about a day. Happy?”
“Was that so hard?” said Sara with a smile. Before Scarface could reply, Sara let out a high pitch whistle. The troopers hesitated, uncertain on what to do. The whistle awoke the sleeping snow beast. Its sharp eyes noticed all of the potential meals walking around. With the last of its strength, the creature leapt at the nearest trooper; its powerful jaws bit into flesh unprotected by cracks in the armor.
The screams of the unfortunate trooper brought the others to his rescue, firing at the snow creature. During the chaos, Sara, Zoey, and Lee made a break for it, hiding behind the large altar.
“Now what?” asked Zoey.
“Relax,” said Sara as she rummaged through her backpack. “Everything’s going according to plan.” She pulled out a flare gun and fired it out of the opening in the ceiling. Unfortunately, the flare also attracted the attention of the troopers. It was not long before they had guns jammed in their face again.
“Some plan,” remarked Zoey.
“Wait for it,” said Sara. The ground started to tremble. The troopers looked temporally disoriented, but there was full-blown confusion when a flying saucer crashed through the ceiling of the temple. Four people repelled down from an opening in the saucer.
“YEEHAW!” came a familiar voice.
“Is that…?” asked Zoey.
“Yer dern tootin’ it is,” replied Sara with a smile.
“Looks like you guys needed a helping hand,” came Junior’s voice in their receivers. “Luckily, I found out that we had been followed and while I was waiting for your signal, I made a few calls.”
Junior did not need to elaborate that it was his fellow members of the Brilliant 5 that had answered his call. The four teammates cut through the squad of off-balanced troopers with relative easy. They fired electrical beams that temporally stunned people by scrambling their nervous system.
“Marissa!” shouted Sara. “We have a wounded over here!”
“Sara! Zoey!” came Old Timer’s voice. “Long time no see.” Marissa bent over Lee and quickly applied a bandage to his wound.
“We saw you earlier,” said Johnny Highpitch. “You were pitch perfect.”
“You’re a wonderful teacher, Johnny,” admitted Sara to the music maestro.
“Thanks for field testing my equipment,” said Teresa Becker, joining the others.
“You mean, none of this was ever used?” asked Sara.
“No, didn’t Junior tell you?”
“I’ve dressed his wounds as best I can, but we need to get him back as soon as possible,” said Marissa.
“We sure got these rattlers on the run,” said Old Timer, firing at the last of the troopers.
“We need their leader,” said Sara. “Did any of you see where he went to? Did you, Zoey?” There was no reply. “Where’s Zoey?”
Scarface was making his way towards the lower level, when Zoey tackled him to the ground. His gun fell from his hand and into the foot-deep layer of snow. He turned to see Zoey pointing a gun at him.
“Who are you working for?” asked Zoey. Scarface didn’t say anything. He just glanced at where his gun had fallen. “Not so talky when I’m not handcuffed, huh?”
“Listen, doll, why don’t you put the gun down before you hurt yourself?”
“I want a name. Right now.” Something flashed in her eyes, and Scarface knew she meant it. “I’m exactly where I swore I’d never be anymore: getting shot at by self-obsessed people like yourself. Now, tell me who you’re working for.”
“I don’t know his real name,” said Scarface at last. “But he’s known as Doctor Zeitgeist.”
“What?” Zoey couldn’t hide the surprise in her voice. In her moment of shock, Scarface made a dash for his gun. His fingers wrapped themselves around the gun, and he spun around, emptying three bullets into Zoey’s chest.
A sadistic grin crawled over his face, as he watched Zoey clutch her chest. Before finishing her off, he took one step backwards. It was the last thing he ever did. For behind him, partially hidden in the snow, was the shaft that Zoey had previously climbed up.
Zoey collapsed into the snow. Her breathing was ragged, and pain engulfed her chest. She could hear footsteps crunching the snow, but everything around her seemed to fade away…
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Written by J M Emmons. The story and all characters are copyrighted by J M Emmons.
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