Er...morning? MetroRhodes, you posted that at 5:36 am for me...Like I am going to be up that early. I'm a college student, remember? A teenage, single, night-owl college student that enjoys staying up until some 1 to 2 in the morning...
lol.
Anyway, here it is, about 5 hours after your gentle reminder.
And thank you *everyone* for the reviews! It was a party on the fdk message board. Everyone who missed out, come and join this time!
Enjoy,
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Chapter 15: So Long, Farewell
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For a moment they just stared at each other. Then Lois did the only thing that seemed logical to her at the moment. Without thinking she twisted to the side, grabbing his arm and lifting her high heels to strike him right over the head.
The man sunk like a limp rag. Lois let him fall.
His walkie-talkie blared on, however.
“What was that, Henries? High security door on in hallway 24? Henries, come in.”
Lois stared at him for a moment, then back at her shoes. Then, slipping back into the white room she shoved one of the heels under the table with Superman’s bright boots, keeping the other one in hand. Stiletto heels. Who would have thought?
She propped the door open awkwardly with her foot as she pulled the metal bed out with Superman on it. It was a struggle to get him through the narrow doorway alone, and she had to kick the guard ungently out of the way, but it was doable. On last thought Lois grabbed the angry-sounding radio and was soon Lois was pushing Superman down the terribly echoing halls.
“What’s that, Peters?”
“Henries just cut out on me—last thing I heard he was going down hallway 24.”
Another voice cut in. “Ford, we’ve got the doctor and his thugs. No sign of the big guy.”
“Big Boy Blue or the Boss?”
“Neither.”
“Peters, Samuels, where are you now?
“Hallway 16, sir.”
“45, general. Dead end, here.”
“I want you two down hallway 24. Find Henries. Keep an eye out for trouble.”
“Yes, sir.”
She was grateful for the wailing sirens—for one, it seemed to have emptied the bunker of everyone into the hands of these newcomers, and for another, if it had been silent as usual there was no way that she could have hidden the racket of the bed as it clattered down the cement passageway. So heedless of noise, Lois ran, pushing Superman before her.
Superman twitched slightly at as the sound of the sirens increased.
“It’s all right, Kal-El,” she murmured, though he probably couldn’t have heard her even had he been conscious. “We’re getting out of here.”
No guards. Every corner she took, her heart would still within her until she saw that it, too, was empty, like all of the formers. So Lois pressed on, thankful of their luck, but wary—oh, so wary. Just one wandering guard would be enough to take care of both of them, stiletto heel or no.
She wasn’t about to trust them in the hands of
any government group. Preferably forever.
She saw hallway 16 and ran past it, cutting down hall 17 and keeping an ear tuned to the radio in hopes of hearing of any men coming her way before running into them.
She started trying doors, but a good many were locked or led to empty rooms. So she moved onward, her bare feet hurting from slapping on the cold hard floor and her fingers slick on the shoe in her hand.
“General, this is Samuels. You better get in here.”
“What is it, Samuels?”
“Just found Henries, sir. He’s out. Looks like a nasty blow to the head—from a hammer, maybe. Found the high security door he mentioned. It’s open. It looks like whoever did this to him forgot to close the door all the way. You better come see this.”
It was about ten minutes after leaving the white room that she found a door that was open, and that led to the outside.
The outside. It was late morning—bright, beautiful morning, with the sky as blue as the sky can be, with only a faint bordering of white clouds over across the horizon. The sun shone bright overhead, and as if sensing the freedom, Superman’s breathing suddenly eased, softening and becoming less raspy and struggled. Or maybe it was just the lack of it echoing in the space of the hall. Lois wasn’t sure.
And there, right in front of her, was her own jeep Cherokee.
Lois said a prayer of thankfulness and quickly turned off the radio.
At last fate was coming through for her, and she didn’t want the noise from the radio giving away their position.
The car’s license plates had been changed, but other than that the car appeared quite untouched. It was even unlocked, for crying out loud, as if it had been dumped here and entirely forgotten.
Of course, who would think of trying to steal a car from a secret government hideout like this?
Lois eased Superman forward, down a slight step and onto the gravel of the unpaved ground. She opened the back door and looked around briefly, her heart beating away frantically, then went to work.
She undid the straps that held him down with shaking hands and lifted Superman as best as she could. She half-dragged him halfway onto the back seat of her Cherokee, but he slipped slightly despite her caution and landed on the seat with a bump. The pain of the sudden movement woke him and he cried out—though in his state it came forth as a pitiful whimper. His brow furrowed, but he didn’t open his eyes. He wasn’t fully conscious—only to the pain.
Apologizing mentally, Lois shifted her grip to get him the rest of the way into the car, forcing herself to not be hampered by the faint moans, almost like distant sobs, that were cutting through her heart. Just before she lifted, however, a uniformed man that had to have been some sort of general for all the badges he wore strode past the little alcove, flanked by two soldiers, and between them walked Logram. They were in the middle of a conversation, and as they passed the general turned suddenly and looked down at Logram. The only thing between them and her was her car and some twenty yards, but their voices carried easily.
Superman began to moan again, and Lois quickly clapped her hand over his mouth. He flinched as she pressed close to him to as not to be seen.
“For the last time, Dr. Logram. Where is he? Some of my men just found traces of some unknown type of blood in that little white room of yours, and from your lab. Where is he?”
Surprise manifested itself in Logram with a blink. Lois wouldn’t have even caught it if she hadn’t been watching for it. She could see the realization of their escape spreading through his being. His expression changed from shadowed to quite calm—as if he were almost pleased. Lois shivered, not liking the expression in the slightest.
“You won’t find our records, General. I had everything sent out as soon as there was the slightest sign of your approach. Everything that you might have found here is destroyed.”
“I don’t want the records, Logram. I’m here to find Superman.”
“Don’t take that self-righteous tone with me! You wanted him just as much as we did, but our department got to him first.” He leaned forward. “You wanted the same thing as we did from him.”
The general didn’t deny it.
“Where did you take him?”
Lois mouthed a shaken curse. Was the whole government against them?
Logram smiled. “He got away earlier this morning, probably in the chaos of your coming. He’s long gone by now.”
“You seem too pleased about that for me to even think about believing you.”
"It's quite simple," Logram said calmly. "I know where to find him, and you don't. And if I don't find him, then I know how to get him to come to me. You can't keep me quiet."
"You'll tell us everything you know, Logram, or you won't see the light of day again."
Logram was silent, or at least they had walked too far for Lois to hear his reply.
Lois let out a breath that her lungs had been straining to hold. She was shaking as she finished lifting Superman into the back seat. His groans had quieted; it seemed like he had lapsed into unconsciousness once again. She checked to make sure he was breathing—just in case—and felt her own heartbeat ease once again. She couldn’t lose him now.
Remembering at the last moment, Lois lifted his boots and tossed them into the back with him.
She tucked his cape around him and closed the door hesitantly. She didn’t want to take her eyes off him, even for a moment. She peered towards the base where soldiers were still stalking here and there, guns at ready, but no one was close enough to pay any heed to her, she hoped. She darted around and slipped inside the driver’s seat almost soundlessly, then set her stiletto heel on the seat beside her and ducked her head as she worked to wire the car to start, reminding herself to give Jimmy a very grateful thank you when she saw him next.
“Okay, Kal-El,” she whispered, with a glance back at the unconscious man that looked quite squashed in the back seat despite her care to try and make him comfortable. She took a deep breath. “Let’s get out of here.”
The car gave a soft rumble as it came to life, and Lois turned the stolen radio on softly as she started forward, hoping a more casual pace might attract less attention, at first.
It seemed to work for a minute. She got halfway across the bare enclosure and had her eyes firmly fixed on the open gate before her. Her hands were slippery on the wheel, and her leg shook slightly on the gas.
“General, this is Meyers. We’ve got a car coming out here!”
The waving of a guard caught her eye and she looked over to see a guard running towards her, shouting and gesturing obviously for her to stop even as he swung his gun over his shoulder into his hands.
Like heck she would. Lois gunned her jeep, giving her automobile all it had.
“He’s moving. He’s moving!”
“I see him, Meyers.”
They jerked forward, wheels peeling out on the unpaved dirt before shooting them forward. A gunshot sounded loud behind them even over the engine, and Lois ducked, trying to keep low. Two shots sounded, and the passenger window shattered inward, spraying Lois with glass. The bullet was angled upwards and broke through the ceiling of the car. Lois cringed down, feeling a cut on her cheek from the flying glass. The gates were right before her. With one last final flooring of the gas pedal, Lois shot through them onto paved road. The gunshots behind them faded.
A minute later, after a loud explosion of swearing and general chaos on the end of the soldiers, the radio cut off abruptly. Whether she had gotten unlucky and they had realized where the missing radio had gone, or the government had cut back on funding once again and couldn’t even afford communications with a decent range of reception, Lois didn't know.
She didn’t let up on the gas for a half an hour, blasting down the straight road at 90 mph on the only road, then heading east towards where she guessed and hoped Metropolis was located. It was good fate for her that the road was so straight and empty, else she might have crashed and had a dismal end for their escape. As it was, she was forced to stop at a small town as her tank needle dipped below empty.
She pulled into the dusty looking gas station, making sure the broken window was facing away from the small building, and didn’t move for a second. Her hands trembled on the wheel she had been holding in a death grip. She glanced back at Superman. His breathing had been broken by struggling gasps for air as she sped along, but she had been too terrified to stop or even look back.
Lois peeled her white fingers from the steering wheel and looked down at the stiletto heel on the shot-gun seat, then swore. She had left the other one behind. It hadn’t drawn her attention like the bright red of Superman’s boots, and in the fearful hurry of their departure she must have overlooked it.
She reached under the car mat to retrieve a credit card. She had started hiding it there ever since she realized that her luck was such that she lost her purse, wallet, and cash quite frequently. As she swiped it and began filling her car she was grateful she had chosen to do so, even though even she had thought it somewhat ridiculous when she had first stashed it there.
She climbed back into the car as her tank was being filled, not wanting to be out in the open. She sat back into the driver’s seat, her eyes snapping to each dusty car that drove by the potted street beside the gas station. She noted an old, grizzled looking man in worn coveralls leaning against the building of the gas station. As the tank registered “full” Lois stepped out again, replaced the nozzle, and then made her way into the store.
She opened the door—it had a bell that clanged merrily as she did so—and peered in. A Coca-Cola machine hummed cheerily in the corner, and a clear-windowed refrigerator breathed contentedly behind it. Her bare feet felt odd on the sticky, cold floor as she looked around at the small isles packed with snacks and all sorts of random odds and ends that the long-distance traveler might find lacking. She moved forward, lifting a road map from a stand and opening it up. She glanced towards the door, checking on her car. No one was around.
Thank goodness for small towns!
The bell rang as the door opened and the old farmer-like man stepped in.
“Hi,” he said, his voice rough as his sun-tanned face. “I’m Sam. How can I help you, miss?”
Lois realized then how terrible she must look. She hadn’t showered in over a week, her hair was uncombed and likely had the appearance of a rat’s nest. She had been crying not long before, and was pale and still shaking slightly. Added to the fact that she was completely shoeless, her disheveled appearance was complete. She must look like a vagabond.
As his eyes took in her appearance, Lois rushed to explain, and actually managed to sound quite irritated. “I was driving, and pulled over to help this man who was having engine trouble. Well, it turned out he didn’t have any trouble. He stole my wallet and keys and took my shoes just for the insult.”
The farmer’s expression was caught between shocked and horrified. “It’s just getting worse. You can’t trust anyone any more. It got better for a time when Superman was around—even out here, ‘cause he kept all the criminals scared. But you’re the second carjacked person that I’ve seen stop by this month. Must be the same guy. I told those government fellows they should watch that road. He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
“Just roughed me up a bit,” Lois said. “I’m fine. Just—just a bit shaken.”
She stepped forward, lifting the map. “I-I’m afraid I’ve gotten myself a bit mixed up, though,” she said, her voice wobbling slightly despite herself. “I’m not exactly sure where I am.”
“Well, you’re right around here, miss, in Latenton,” he said, pointing with a gnarled finger to a blank spot just off a highway on the map. “We’re not on there—too small, I guess. This gas station’s just about all we’re made of, and a few old folk like myself.” Lois nodded, tracing the roads quickly to Metropolis. It would be a good six hour drive, she guessed. She had covered a good deal of road in her last panicked drive, and it seemed like Logram must have taken them to the base by a round-about way.
“Okay,” Lois muttered to herself. She folded the map back up and looked around. After a moment she grabbed a small camping towel, three bottles of water, and a plaid woolen blanket from the shelf, along with a handful of double-chocolate candy bars. She took them all to the counter, where Sam was waiting.
“Find everything you need?” Sam asked, his rough voice soft. Lois nodded, handing her card to him as she looked out the window again, watching her car.
Sam shook his head. “You just go on an’ take those things, miss,” he said.
Not so long ago Lois might have near attacked him for trying to be charitable to her—after all, it wasn’t like she was a beggar. She had her card to pay. But his eyes were kind—open, honest. She had almost forgotten that there was something good in this world outside of herself and Superman.
“Thank you,” she said.
TBC...
