by Ghost Rider
Taylor tutted and looked harshly at Murdock. "Well done, pal. What a way
to waste our ammo." He stood up. "Alright then, we might as well press
on." He reached for the radio at his belt and keyed in the correct
frequency. "This is Taylor, how's it going, Boone?"
The radio was
silent for several moments, making them wonder if something had happened
to Boone. Finally there was a response. "This is Boone, good to hear from
you, Taylor. Did you get Ayla?"
"Yeah, we got her," Taylor said.
"How's the time machine?"
There was a pause as Boone did some
calculations in his head. "I'm working that out now. I think I can make
her fly again, she's a tough old tub. She won't run pretty but she'll run.
Two hours, tops."
"Good. Stand by there, we're on our way." He replaced
the radio at his belt. "Alrighty people, let's move," he said as he lifted
the M-16 up and checked the chamber.
"Give me a gun," Ayla said.
Taylor handed her a pistol, hardly even pausing for thought.
Dawson
was far from pleased. "Hey Taylor! You can't just go handing out weapons
to the natives, who knows what damage they'll do?"
Ayla held the
pistol up and pulled back the topslide. "Listen Sam, I was saving
the world from nuclear terrorists when you were still at high
school."
Dawson glared at her. "Giving weapons to blonde bimbo's..."
She shook her head. "Next you'll be telling me we've got a Republican in
the White House."
Greene rolled his eyes. "Look girls, if we get out of
this, I'll provide you with bikini's and a mud-filled pool and you can
both go for it there. But until then, you wanna concentrate on the task at
hand?"
Taylor beckoned for them to follow him. "Come on, we've wasted
enough time here."
The terminator walked slowly from the main entrance to the cave, having
given up on the gate. It was faster just to backtrack up to the main
entrance and go on from there.
Although it did not feel real emotion,
it recognised that it had lost the best chance for achieving it's mission.
Now Ayla was protected by a group of humans, some of them armed with very
dangerous weapons. Although armoured, the terminator was not invulnerable.
Explosives and heavy weapons were still considerable threats.
DAMAGE ALERT!
ORGANIC TISSUE DAMAGE
APPROX 23% TORSO
DAMAGE
ASSESSING....
ALL PRIMARY SYSTEMS FUNCTIONAL
PROCEED
WITH MISSION
Groups of guards and Zelandoni who had fled the sounds of gunfire now
rushing around outside with no real sense of purpose.
Suddenly a man
on horseback halted just in front of the terminator, noticing it's
bloodied tunic. "Hey, you all right?"
"I'm fine." The terminator
turned away for a moment as if to leave, then looked back once more as an
idea came to it. "Say, that's a nice horse."
The group continued their weary march through the dense forest. Greene
and Murdock continued a casual conversation to keep their spirits up,
though both Taylor and Dawson disapproved.
"So I said to the guy, 'Hey
pal, your car was on fire when we got there. And as for your mother, she
shouldn't have shouted at us,' and he goes getting all abusive," Greene
mentioned with a smile on his face.
"What did this guy do that was so
bad, anyway?" Murdock asked.
Greene shrugged. "Ah, he was bald. He
looked kinda like that guy in Third Rock From The Sun." Suddenly he held a
hand to his head in deep thought. "Aw, what was that guy's name?"
"Which one?"
"You know, the one that plays Dick," Greene
explained, trying to visualise the man he was thinking of. The name was on
the tip of his tongue.
Murdock too was wracking his brains. "This'll
keep me up all night now..." Suddenly he snapped his fingers. "I know,
it's John Cusack."
Greene shook his head. "Nah, he was in
Cliffhanger."
"What, am I talking to myself here?" Murdock said
angrily. "John Cusack, I'm tellin ya!"
"Who the hell cares who it is?"
Dawson said in irritation.
The group continued on in silence for a
while, each content to think their own thoughts. "That was William
Shatner, wasn't it?" Taylor asked suddenly. "I know I saw him in it one
time."
There was a chorus of 'Nah's' from both Murdock and Greene. "He
was the head honcho guy," Murdock informed him.
Suddenly Dawson tensed
up and tightened her grip on the MP-5. "Hey, shut up, you guys! I hear
something out there."
The rest of the group quietened down and pricked up their ears. Suddenly
they could hear it - a kind of fast-paced rhythmic tapping as of wood
hammering on wood. Murdock gripped his weapon in nervous hands. "What the
hell is that?"
Greene turned around only to find the sound coming from
several different locations. It was constantly alternating position and
always seemed to be just beyond their visual range. "It's all around us,
man."
"There's something out there waiting for us," Cartwright
said.
Dawson turned slowly on the spot, holding her weapon up. "Don't
worry. I'm sure if we just stand our ground, it'll go away. It's probably
just the wind."
Ayla was far from convinced. She held the pistol in a
white-knuckle grip. "I heard stories about these woods. They say another
group went in here a couple of years ago, and all that was found of them
was their video cameras."
Taylor moved forward a few paces, but
suddenly found something under his feet. Stooping down, he picked up what
looked like a couple of small sticks tied together with cordage. It had
been formed into the image of a man. "Aargh! Aargh! Aaaarrrgghhhh!" he
screamed as he dropped the hideous image, suddenly realising what it was.
Dawson was off and running in an instant. "Change of plan! Leg
iiiiiit!" Taylor and the others followed after her a moment later.
As
Taylor ran, he was aware of nothing but the shadowy figure of Greene in
front of him. He stumbled through bushes and down a steep bank, there was
intermittent shouting between the members of the group. Through the noise
of the blood pounding in his ears, Taylor could hear the rattling of wood.
It was closing in on them. The darkness around him was like cold fingers
grasping at his clothing, trying to ensnare him.
Suddenly Greene
halted in front of him. Taylor was painfully aware of this when he almost
ran into the man. "What is it?" he asked.
Greene motioned ahead.
"Look."
There in front of them, looming out of the darkness like some
ghostly shadow, was a house. It was alone in the middle of the forest and
seemingly derelict. There was a terrifying aura about it, and everyone
there knew that some terrible wickedness must have gone on in there.
Inside the house, the terminator waited for them, thinking to set up
an ambush. The crystal optic sensors beneath it's useless organic eyes
glowed softly red in the darkened interior. It's pistol was held in
completely motionless hands.
"We were led here," Ayla mused. Those
noises... they want us to go inside."
At that thought, silence
descended on them like a pall. They all knew that they had to go in, but
all of them dreaded it.
"You go first," Murdock said, indicating to
Ayla.
She turned around and her eyes were full of fear. "Me? Why
should I have to do it?"
He shrugged. "This is your time. You know
these woods better than us."
"But that's not fair!" she protested.
"Neither's Mike Tyson's ass, but you don't go complaining about that,
do you?" he retorted. Silence once more descended on the group.
Inside,
the terminator regarded them with it's cold logical mind.
ASSESSING PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT...
FAILED.
THREAT ASSESSMENT:
73%
RECOMMENDATION: TERMINATE PRIMARY TARGET
Grasping the pistol firmly in it's right hand, the terminator moved
forward, kicking aside the rotting front door. Immediately it sighted Ayla
and levelled the pistol at her.
Taylor was the first to act. Grabbing
the grenade launcher from an apparently stunned Cartwright, he fired the
weapon's remaining high explosive rounds directly into the structure.
They all ducked down as the explosives detonated with a roar, blasting
apart the ancient building in a flash of fire and debris. When they looked
back, the building had disintegrated, to be replaced by roaring flames and
broken collapsed walls.
But suddenly they saw a figure moving within
the flames. It stood up slowly and looked around at them. Taylor
momentarily caught a glimpse of a ravaged face - one whole half destroyed,
exposing the mechanical workings beneath. The red optical sensor of the
terminator's right eye was exposed. It focussed now on them.
"Let's get
the hell out of here!" Cartwright shouted as he took off.
Taylor
dropped the empty grenade launcher and followed after him, along with the
others.
The group ran now, not caring how much noise they made. They were making
straight for the time machine, it couldn't be far now, they knew.
Taylor grabbed the radio and practically screamed into it. "This is
Taylor. Please tell me the time machine is working!"
There was a few
moments of static before Boone replied. "Hey, you can kiss my ass Taylor
cos I'm done," Boone said smugly. "We can leave any time."
Taylor
almost smiled. "Boone, you are the life saver! We're en route now."
The
terminator followed after them with it's untiring pace, one leg dragging
slightly from the damage it had taken. It had dropped the pistol, for the
weapon had been put out of service by the grenade blast. That did not
matter now. The group had lost their most potent weapon. Without the
grenade launcher, they had nothing with which to combat the terminator.
The machine knew this and, in it's own way, rejoiced.
"Robert
Patrick?" Murdock asked as he ran.
Greene was still wracking his
brains. "Nah, it was definately John something or other," he said
determindely.
"John Travolta?" Taylor suggested.
"No, no, no."
Greene held a hand to his head. "Wait a minute, it'll come to me here."
Suddenly there was a crack behind him. Whirling around, he saw the
terminator lunging towards him. "Go away!" Greene shouted as he opened
fire with his MP-5. Murdock also added to the fire, spraying a full clip
so that the terminator was knocked back by the impacts. It soon stood up
again.
And so this game continued. Every time the terminator closed in
on them, they would open fire and knock it to the ground. But always it
would rise up and pursue them once more.
"I'm out of ammo!" Murdock
shouted. The terminator was gaining on them again. Greene too was almost
out. Taylor had already used up Cartwright's weapon.
Suddenly Ayla
pointed. "There it is!" The solid bulk of the time machine loomed up in
front of them.
In a final sprint, they reached the aircraft and piled
in through the cargo door at the back. Boone stared at them in surprise.
"Go! Go! Go!" Taylor yelled. Boone disappeared into the cockpit.
Taylor could see the termintor rushing toward them out of the
darkness. He lifted up his M-16 and pulled the trigger, but nothing
happened. His gun was empty.
In the cockpit, Boone worked furiously on
the controls, but the engines sputtered and would not start. "Come on!
Come on!" he cried in frustration. "I'll clean you when we get back!" He
gave the ignition key a final turn and the engines suddenly roared into
life.
The terminator rushed in and leapt up into the doorway with a
powerful jump. Taylor backed away just as the machine leaned forward
towards him. There was nothing he could do to stop it.
Suddenly Ayla
emerged in front of the terminator. It might have looked surprised, had it
had a face left to be surprised with. "You're terminated!" he said as she
pressed the emergency door close button. The powerful hydraulic doors came
in and crushed against the terminator at the neck, breaking through the
armoured metal. With a crunch, the head fell off and landed at her feet.
The machine fell back out of sight and the door sealed shut with a clang.
Boone pushed the throttle all the way forwards and the aircraft roared
up, clawing for altitude. Flames were roaring from the engine outlets.
There were cheers of celebration in the rear hold as they all realised
that they had made it. "Well done, Ayla!" Taylor said with a smile. "Where
did you learn to do that?"
She shrugged. "I adapt quickly."
"Oh
right." He sat back on one of the benches and closed his eyes.
"It's
Miller Time!" Greene shouted as he reached into one of the cargo crates
for some beer he had smuggled on board.
Taylor was awoken suddenly by
Dawson, she looked concerned about something. "What is it?" he asked.
"Taylor, I've been thinking," she said.
"About what?"
"It's the
assault team we sent in to that Russian base. They're being held prisoner
there. The Russians could just as easily send another terminator back to
get Ayla from there."
"What do you suggest we do?" he asked.
"I
think we should go in and take out that base and rescue the hostages. It's
our best chance for success," she said simply.
He rolled his eyes. Was
this never going to end? He stood up to address the others. "Hey guys,
Dawson here has told me that some of our guys are being held prisoner by
the Russians. She thinks we should go in and get them out. What do you
say?"
Murdock groaned. "Hey, we've already saved the world today. I'm
not putting my ass on the line again!"
"I know you all want to go home,
but those are our guys being held hostage. We can't just leave them
behind. If we do this right, it's something we can be proud of our whole
lives. So what do you say, do you want to go running off home, or do you
want to kick some ass?"
"Yeah!" they all roared.
Taylor and the others crept slowly towards the compound, they had
landed about a mile distant so as not to be heard. They could see the
guards patrolling up on the rooftops. Taylor halted behind a fallen pine
tree. "Alright guys, this is it. We're going in to get the prisoners out."
He looked over at Ayla, she had insisted on coming with them, despite the
danger. "Ayla, you stick close to me, understand?"
"Alright, Jack,"
she said.
"Let's do it," he said as he stood up and rushed down
towards the compound. He backed up against a wall and peeked around it.
Two guards were walking slowly away.
"They're being held in that
building over there," Dawson said, indicating a large grey building with a
low roof.
Taylor nodded and ran across the open area towards the
entrance, keeping low to avoid detection.
Major Forbes sat slumped in
his bare stone cell, feeling utterly crushed. He had been 'questioned'
several times during his time here, but he had managed to keep from
talking. However, the beatings had taken their toll on his body, he
wondered how long he could stand up to it.
Taylor walked in slowly,
peering around the corner. There was a guard on duty there, slowly walking
up and down the corridor. "Hey!" Taylor called out in Russian. "Come over
here."
"What? Who are you?" was the confused response.
"I'm a
Russian soldier," Taylor said slowly.
"What's your name?"
Damn,
nothing was coming to him. "Erm... Ivgota Chesticov."
Dawson shook her
head and tutted. "That's the most stupid name I've ever heard," she
hissed. Taylor shrugged.
"Hey, you've got the same name as me," the
guard said as he walked around the corner.
Taylor groped around for
something to hit him with, he couldn't shoot him since it would attract
noise. He picked up a pair of pliers that he guessed were used for
torture.
The guard emerged around the corner. Before he could do
anything, Taylor shot out in front of him and lifted up the pliers,
gripping one of the man's nasal hairs. Gripping the pliers tightly, he
yanked them out, pulling the hair with it. "Oooooowww!" he guard screamed
as he fell back in surprise. Lifting up his AK-47, he fired off a burst on
full automatic. The roar of the weapon echoed out across the camp.
Outside, one of the soldiers turned to his companion after hearing the
screams and gunfire within the prison building. "Some really strange stuff
happens in there," he said.
"Die American pigs!" the guard shouted as
he opened fire again, backing away down the corridor. The rounds slammed
into the wall around Taylor, who ducked behind the corner again.
The
firing suddenly stopped when Greene hit the guard on the head with one of
the urinal buckets. "Aaaaaargh!" the guard cried in pain as he fell to the
ground unconscious. Greene had doubled back around to the other end of the
corridor and had sneaked up on the man from behind.
"Let's get those
prisoners out," Taylor said as he came back out into the corridor.
The
door to Forbes' cell swung open revealing Taylor standing there with an
M-16 in his hand. A look of utter amazement crept over the major's face.
"You're American!" he breathed.
"No, I'm Taylor," he corrected him.
"We're a rescue team, we're here to rescue you."
"Let's go, then!"
Forbes said, not bothering to question Taylor's motives. The other
prisoners were also being freed.
"Yeah! We're outta here!" one of them
cried in joy. "The rescue team has come to get us!"
At the far end of
the corridor, the door to Forbes' cell swung slowly closed on it's hinges.
As it did, the rusty hinges creaked loudly.
Outside, the soldiers
suddenly looked up, alerted by the creaking noise. "The prisoners are
escaping!" they shouted as they rushed towards the building.
Taylor,
Dawson and Ayla came out firing and the soldiers dropped to the ground.
"Get everyone out of here!" Taylor shouted as he opened fire. Around the
base, alarms started to go off as soldiers came running out from all
directions.
The rest of the rescue team poured out of the prison
building, followed by the prisoners. "Spread out! Take cover!" Dawson
shouted. Greene and Murdock ran, taking cover behind a jeep, while the
others spread out in other directions, firing all the time.
Taylor
turned as three soldiers came running towards him, firing their AK's. He
wasn't too worried, they were only extras so they couldn't hit him. He let
them have it with the M-16 and looked around. The rest of his companions
were firing from their various positions.
Suddenly he saw Cartwright
crouched behind a load of fuel barrels, he wasn't doing anything. Suddenly
it all came into place. Taylor ran over and crouched down beside him.
"Cartwright!"
The man looked aeound at him and his face was full of
fear, and a kind of shame. "Taylor... I thought you'd be along sooner or
later."
Taylor glared at him. "You saboutaged the Delta Force strike
mission and the time machine, didn't you? You sold out your own country.
Any more of this behavior young man, and you'll be grounded with no
allowance."
Suddenly Cartwright broke down. "Oh Taylor, you don't know
what it was like, the Russians got me. They made me watch
Friends."
"Oh man," Taylor said.
"All of Series 3,"
Cartwright sobbed.
"Those b*stards!" Taylor said.
Greene and Murdock were crouched behind the jeep while bullets slammed
into the ground all around them. "It's John Cusack, I'm telling you!"
Murdock cried.
"No! No! No!" Greene returned.
"What then? John
Wayne?" Murdock shot back.
Suddenly Greene's eyes widened as the name
finally came to him. "Got it! It's John Lithgow!"
"Yeah!" Murdock
shouted as he high-fived him.
Both men stood up and opened fire on the
advancing soldiers with big grins on their faces.
"Don't worry Cartwright," Taylor assured him.
"They'll kill me for
this!" Cartwright sobbed.
"No they won't," Taylor said. "Well, maybe
in Texas. But when we get back, I'll tell them what the Russians did to
you. One day we'll be in Out of Time 5 together and this will all be just
a bad memory. Can you hold onto that thought for me?"
"But what will I
do? How will I live?" he asked in desperation. "I don't have anything to
live for anymore."
Taylor shrugged. "Well, let's just blow things up
for a while, then see how you feel."
Suddenly Cartwright's expression
brightened as he realised what he enjoyed most. "Yeah!" Lifting a grenade
from his pocket, he pulled out the pin and threw it over the top of the
barrels.
"Erm, you're supposed to throw the grenade at the enemy,"
Taylor pointed out.
"Oh, right." Cartwright threw the grenade behind
him. There was a loud explosion and then a scream. He smiled. "Your right,
Taylor, this is good fun."
Taylor stood up and opened fire, then
Cartwright followed behind him. "I'm gonna go take care of General
Kourkov, you and the others make your way back to the time machine.
There's plenty of bad guys to kill along the way," Taylor said. "If I'm
not back in ten minutes, you know what to do."
"Yeah, we get the hell
out of here," Cartwright said.
"No," Taylor corrected him. "Wait
another ten minutes."
"Alright, good luck."
"What!" Ayla cried when Cartwright told her of Taylor's plan. She was
leaning against one of the buildings while bullets smashed into the wall
around her. "You let him wander off on his own? Are you crazy? What if he
meets a strange man or he doesn't have enough money to get home?" She
lifted up the AK-47 she had grabbed and fired off a burst at an advancing
soldier. "Where's he heading?"
"The military headquarters, it's over
by the adventure playground," Cartwright reported.
"I have to go and
help him!"
"No!" Cartwright shouted. "My orders are to get everyone
back to the time machine. That includes you, Ayla! You might be a
superwoman in the stone age, but here you're just an average human!"
Suddenly a soldier came running towards them. "Die Americans!" he
shouted as he fired his AK. Cartwright and Ayla whirled around and let rip
on full automatic. "Ow! Ow! Ow!" he cried as the bullets hit him.
"Go
away!" Cartwright shouted, then turned back to Ayla. "You're coming with
me!"
Her face turned serious. "Please, I love Jack as much as you love
blowing things up. Don't take him away from me."
"What would the
President say if he found out I'd let you get killed?" he mused.
"You
don't have a President," she said cynically. "You're still waiting to see
who won the 2000 election."
"Oh, go on, then!" he said.
Taylor charged throught the compound, a machine gun in each hand.
Turning around, he sprayed bullets into a group of soldiers, then
continued on towards the main building.
Suddenly he heard a deep
rumbling noise. Looking around, he beheld a massive T-72 tank thundering
towards him. The machine guns were of no use to him now, they could not
penetrate the armour.
He turned away to run just as the main cannon
came down to face him. In front of Taylor stood a Russian soldier armed
with a rocket launcher. He smiled as the targetting computer locked on to
Taylor, then pulled the trigger. The rocket streaked out of the tube and
soared through the air towards him.
"Aw no!" Taylor shouted. Gathering
himself up, he leapt into the air, spreading his legs wide apart. The
missle streaked underneath him and slammed into the tank, which detonated
with a roar.
The Russian soldier dropped his empty rocket launcher.
"Damn!"
Taylor opened fire on him and he fell to the ground, while he
continued on towards Kourkov's headquarters.
"Pull back!" Cartwright shouted. "We're getting out of here now!"
The rest of the group started to fall back, still pouring fire into
the camp. The place was wrecked, fires were buring all over the compound.
Several of the buildings had been demolished completely, mostly by
Murdock.
"What about Taylor and Ayla?" Dawson shouted over the
explosions.
"They'll be along soon, I hope!"
Taylor rushed into Kourkov's headquarters. The place lushly decorated
in typical Russian style, with high ceilings and elaborately decorated
hallways. "Where are you?" Taylor wondered.
"Right here," came the
reply from behind him. Taylor whirled around to see Kourkov standing there
using Ayla as a human shield. He was holding a grenade in his hand and the
pin was out. "It's you and me, or me and her."
"I'm sorry Jack, but
there always has to be a hostage situation at the climax," she said. "Man,
I hate being the damsel in distress."
Taylor dropped his guns, there
was no other choice. Kourkov smiled evilly and handed the grenade to Ayla.
As long as she held onto the flyoff handle, she would be fine. "Now don't
go dropping this, dear. I wouldn't want you to mess up the
carpet."
"Get out of here!" Taylor said to her. "Go and stop the time
machines." Ayla turned and ran away.
Kourkov walked slowly towards him.
"Taylor, you are like, how you say, the turd that won't flush. But now I
will kill you. Even now, an army of terminators is getting ready to invade
your country."
"You'll never get away with this," Taylor said.
"We
will see." Kourkov drew out a dagger and rushed towards him.
Taylor
looked down and picked up an oversize novelty hammer of the type used at
football games. "Die!" Taylor shouted as he brought the weapon down on
Kourkov's head. There was a squeek but Kourkov was not injured.
The
dagger rose up and stabbed into the hammer, puncturing it. Taylor fell
back against a wall, startled and Kourkov waded, making to stab him.
Taylor grabbed the deadly weapon, but Kourkov pressed with all his
strength and it crept closer to Taylor's chest. "It is the end for you, Mr
Soldier Man!"
Ayla ran through into the time travel chamber with the grenade still in
her hand. There she found to her horror, that the massive room was filled
with terminators sitting apparently idle, waiting for orders.
She ran
over to the main controls, trying to figure out a way to disable the
system.
"Ayla!" a gruff voice called out.
She turned around and
there standing before her was Broud! He was older, his face more lined
than before, but those deep dark eyes still glowed with secret malice.
"Broud! What the hell are you doing here?" she signed.
"They brought
me here in the time machine. You thought you had beaten me, didn't you,
Ayla? Your powers are no match for mine." She could see the gloating on
his face.
"But Brun -"
"I had Brun liquidised!" Broud roared. "He
was insolent."
"Right, that's it!" Ayla shouted as she rushed towards
him and hit him on the side of the face. He hardly moved.
"What are
you going to do without your sling to protect you, Ayla? Now it's just you
and me!" He grabbed her by the tunic and punched her heavily so that she
fell to the floor.
He jumped on top of her and hit her again. The his
hands went down to her trousers, trying to rip them off. "It's time we got
reaquainted!"
Ayla was stunned by the blow, then she noticed what he
was doing. No! Please not again! her mind screamed.
Suddenly she
looked down at the grenade in her hand and an idea came to her. Grabbing
Broud's head, she turned it up to face her. "Eat this!" She shoved the
grenade into his mouth, then rolled away.
He staggered back towards
the time machinery. "I'll be back!" he screamed.
Suddenly there was a
thundering explosion and Ayla ducked down. When she looked back, Broud was
gone. "Mindblowing," she gasped. Suddenly there was a much larger
explosion as the time travel machinery, damaged by the blast, began to
overload.
"Uh oh!" she shouted as she fled.
Taylor was going to die, the blade was almost touching him. Kourkov
smiled.
"Hey turkey! Behind you!" came a cry from the other side of
the room.
Kourkov looked up to see General Carpenter standing by the
door, a grenade launcher in hand. "Aw, I was enjoying this!"
Taylor
ducked out of the way just as Carpenter fired. There was a loud explosion
as shrapnel flew in all directions.
When Taylor looked back, he saw
Kourkov's lower half still standing, pieces of metal armour were
protruding from the hole at his waist. "He was a terminator!" Taylor
breathed. He looked up at Carpenter. "How did you get here?"
"No time
to explain now, son. We gotta get moving!"
Suddenly there was a boom
off in the distance and Ayla rushed into the room. "We've got to leave,
now." she shouted. "This place is gonna blow!"
"Let's make like an
apple, and split!" Carpenter said.
"That's bannana," Taylor corrected.
"Whatever," Carpenter shrugged as he ran out the entrance.
"We
need a car, something to get us to theb time machine!" Taylor said.
"They'll be leaving any time."
Suddenly Carpenter found what he was
looking for. A golf cart was parked in the main parking lot. He jumped in
and fired up the electric engine. "Hop in you guys!"
Taylor and Ayla
jumped in. "You know how to drive this thing?" Taylor asked.
"Hey,
being over sixty does have it's benefits, you know. Hang on, I'm gonna
floor it!" He pushed the pedal to the metal and they surged forwards. The
speedometer crept up to 15mph.
Just as they cleared the courtyard, the
time machines exploded and the whole complex went up in an immense pillar
of flame.
The group piled into the time machine, while Greene and Murdock covered
them.
Dawson paced anxiously. "We gotta leave now," she said.
"No!
We wait for them! We owe them that!" Cartwright shot back.
"We're out
of time here," she said in desperation. "The artillery will be down on us
any time, if we don't go now then we never will!"
Suddenly a horn
sounded. They turned around to see Carpenter, Taylor and Ayla flooring it
up the hill in the golf cart. Suddenly artillery shells whistled down on
either side of them. Clouds of dirt rose up into the air. Behind them, a
line of tanks was rumbling forwards, the main turrets blasting
away.
They screeched to a halt beside the machine and piled out. "Hey,
I hope they serve cold drinks on this flight!" Carpenter said as he jumped
up the ramp.
Taylor and Ayla piled in behind him. "That's it, they're
all in!" Cartwright shouted.
In the cockpit, Boone pushed the engine
startup switch. There was a whine, but nothing happened.
Taylor ran
through into the cockpit. "What's the matter?"
"She won't start!"
"Come on, they'll be on us any second!" taylor shouted.
"I can't
help it, there's something wrong with the engine!" Boone shot back.
"Come on you piece of cr*p! Fly or die!" He hammered the instrument
panel. Suddenly the engines roared into life. He looked up in amazement.
"Go!"
Boone pressed the throttle all the way forwards and the aircraft
surged aloft just as the ground below it exploded. There were cheers and
howls in the rear cabin.
Taylor walked back there and Ayla stood up,
running into his arms and they kissed passionately. "Thank God that's
over!" Taylor said.
"Until Will gets round to writing Out of Time 5,"
Ayla said with a smile. Taylor groaned.
CUE MUSIC, 'YOU'VE LOST THAT LOVING FEELING'
TIME MACHINE FLYS OFF
INTO SUNSET.
THE END.