By David C. Daoust
Sure, Hugo wanted them to hide. Olivia, aka Wildhawk, had said it herself— ‘Hugo thinks we should hide’. Even as Wild hawk said it, she knew they were doing something else. Anything else.
Olivia crouched low, much lower than someone her age would normally dare. The thrill was there as she peeked around the corner. A little sly grin split her wrinkly old face as she found an empty hallway. She jetted out of hiding and sped down the hall.
The thugs had taken to searching the vehicle some time ago… the old couple had weighed their choices: they could hide, and let Hugo talk their way out of this mess, or they could take action, maybe be ready if things went sideways. Considering they had left their spiders way out on that ridge– they couldn’t exactly come flying in, to the rescue. Not to mention the Rover was now loaded in the belly of the massive freighter. The Old Couple had to come up with something better.
The old woman silently stepped down to the third step of the stair that led to the lower floors of the rover… Olivia squatted low, listened for a minute, then peered down best she could.
Clasped tightly in her hand, close to her chest, she held Wilford’s data-sphere. Honestly, she never liked having him out of a proper form, made him feel so small and fragile. But they had a plan!
Confident the next floor was clear of searching thugs, she silently climbed down.
Olivia quickly found an out of the way spot to take a minute to listen.
Lucky she did, the footsteps might have been missed had she recklessly plunged ahead. The door opened silently at her push, and she slid into the small hall closet. She dare not risk closing the door, not as the shadow fell within her eye-line. Olivia clasped the sphere tighter, and let her head rest forward on the wall, just to the left of the open door.
Olivia was aware she held her whole life right there in her hand. If she got caught– she did not know what they may do to it… She held her breath. The men noticed the door, she could tell… she rolled her eyes as her heart thundered in her chest. She was sure they would hear it pounding! Positively, she could not imagine someone not hearing it.
Typical, the thugs were not as adamant of finding anyone else on the vehicle as their boss’s attitude may suggest. The one did a half look inside, noticed the closets contents, dismissed it out of hand, turned and rejoined his partner.
Olivia sighed, thankful that her racing heart had not betrayed her. Waited a bit to ensure the men were far enough away before peeking back out– that sly smile split her wrinkly face all over again as she crept back out from her hiding place.
She had to continue down… she was headed for the hold.
Suddenly, she fumbled the data-sphere! She wasn’t sure what happened or how, maybe she was gripping it too tightly. It popped from her hand. Her heart almost jumped into her throat as the sphere collided with the ground. She had never, ever, dropped Wilford’s data-sphere before. She almost died at the prospect of it shattering on the ground.
It landed solidly, with a thud.
It might still be okay!
She tried to scoop it up before it could roll away– but was too slow. Still unsure of the damage she had done, she was forced to scurry forward to try to catch it as it rolled further away. She moved so frantically her foot actually kicked it further away. ‘Smooth moves Wildhawk‘, she thought.
Olivia could not believe this was happening! More so as the rolling sphere beat her to the next flight of stairs!
‘No, no, no’, she mouthed as the data-sphere dropped to that first step. She threw herself forward, bodily, landing on her chest. All to try and stop the sphere. Too slow, she watched as it rolled to the next step, and the next after that.
Step to step, the data-sphere solidly clunked its way down the stair.
Olivia held perfectly still at this point, trying to detect if anyone was nearby. She dare not add to the noise it was creating. The data-sphere hit that last step, rolled across the floor and bounced off the wall with a light tap. Finally losing momentum enough to come to a stop.
Once she was confident the coast was clear Olivia followed it down the stair.
The old brute-ball player retrieved it gingerly, almost scared to examine it. What if it was fractured? What if it was fractured because of her?! She would never forgive herself. She rolled it around in her hand as she examined it. It was okay. It looked okay anyway.
Wilford was going to get an earful for this one, ‘Wooh!’ she steamed as she continued on her way.
‘Her way’, being down to the hold. To the darker recesses of the old vehicle’s hold, where the children were far less likely to play. Or so Farrah had described the location, when she had Wilford help her hide the old ‘mining-bot’ buried therein.
Of course, Farrah had no idea that Wilford was a bot, so he had helped by using the old forklift to shift things about. Farrah wanted it hidden. Mostly from the children, so they did not use it as a jungle gym, or some such nonsense children were wont to do.
Olivia never had children herself, but she was always ready to lend a hand for their safety.
Apparently, the owner of the mining-bot was missing, and the family it belonged to, did not want to risk anyone seeing it. Of course, if Olivia knew what that particular bot was actually doing during the raid and demolition of Grady, she might realize she was among those the owners would not want to witness it. But she didn’t know that, to her it was just an empty bot-form the Blues happened to have on hand. Maybe odd that it was an industrial beast of a form, but suddenly handy for their current situation.
Olivia finally crept her way to that back recess. Sandwiched between stacks of old containers, she found the tarp just where they had left it. Underneath, of course, would be the towering colossus!
Wildhawk’s sly grin returned as she pulled the tarp free. Or tried to– it actually got pinned between the containers, probably when they stowed it. She almost fumbled the datasphere all over again trying to fix it. Eventually she got it free of the entanglement. Whatever, no harm no foul!
Now she just needed to figure out how to load her husband into it!
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