Discovery (Science of Psionics Book #1) by Dave Renol (sad books to read .txt) 📗

“When it comes time for us to bolt, we couldalso sail out with several decoys,” I added.

“This is getting better and better. We mighteven have a chance to survive this. Carl, you’re on dummy duty.Mark and Linda, you two keep up the defense. I’m going to see if Ican spot anyone out there. We’ll test out the waters with the firstdummy, and if it goes well then we get the hell out of here.Agreed?”

We all nodded our acceptance. It was time forflight.

Chapter 20

Linda: Flight

I wasn’t completely sure that running awaywas our best option, but that could just be me not wanting toabandon my home. It was probably our best chance of survival, butthe thought of going out there where I could be shot or blown upscared me beyond words. Then again, if I slipped up for a second atthe wrong time, we would get blown up in here just as easily.

Carl was proving to be quite resourceful inthe dummy building endeavor. A hoodie sweatshirt, two golf gloves,pants and a pair of sneakers were packed with stuffing from mytrashed living room sofa. He used wire coat hangers to give thething some internal support and once sewn together, it wassurprisingly lifelike. He even taped on a pair of sunglasses. Carlwas always a guy who paid attention to details.

Once he had assembled the first one andlearned what worked best, he put together four more in short order.Now we just needed to agree on a plan. Mark wanted to just get outand lay low for a while. He wasn’t opposed to the other options; hejust didn’t want to be rushed into anything.

Carl was fully in for the ‘get the hell outof dodge’ plan and wanted to head straight for town. He reasonedthat it made no sense for us to deal with this alone, and we shouldlet the proper authorities take care of things. I think he mighthave been even more scared than I was, but at least he had alogical reason for his opinion.

Sara wanted to go on the offensive and takeSid out. Her argument was that without Sid, his support wouldcrumble. She was also under the impression that if we ran for help,then our secret would be out and Sid would win. I wondered ifrevenge might be affecting her judgment, though.

I was on the fence. Hiding or going to thecity seemed safer to me than attacking, but part of me agreed withSara. The bastard trashed my house with his bullets and totaled mycar with his bomb. There was no way I wanted Sid to emergevictorious from this. Sara wasn’t the only one who would like toget a little payback.

After arguing about it for a while, wefinally decided that our first order of business was to escape fromthe house intact. Once out, we could find a safe place to hole upand decide from there what to do next.

Sara started organizing backpacks and bagsfor us while Carl prepared food and drink. She said that she couldlive off the land, but hunting for four of us might be difficult,especially if we ran afoul of Sid or his troops. I felt a bitguilty letting them do all the work, but Sara put her foot downsaying that Mark and I had the only effective defense available incase of another attack.

The plan called for us to make our break whenthe sun was setting in order to take advantage of the waning light.If our dummy test proved that it safe to leave, we would bolt outof the small door in the garage in two flights and make our way upto my pool as the rendezvous point. Sara had already cleared thearea and pulled the pins from the hinges so we could get outfast.

The day seemed to take forever to go by. Ikept expecting a new attack, but all was quiet. I briefly thoughtthat he might have given up, but remembering his last text messageI abandoned that idea. Now twilight was approaching and I wishedthat the day had gone on even longer. Sara called us all togetherin the garage and handed out our gear.

“Ok folks. It’s party time,” Sara stated.“Does anyone have any last questions or concerns before webegin?”

We all shook our heads so she continued.“Very well, then here’s how we’ll do it. I put our crash test dummyin my bedroom. Mark can clear the window while Linda flies thedummy out and into the forest. Send it in as deep as you can andthen drop it, but try not to hit any trees on the way, since itmight look a little odd to anyone watching. If things look clear,then we drop the door here and head out as fast as you can flyus.”

She cleared her throat before continuing.“Mark will take Carl and I’ll go with Linda. We’ll follow thestream up toward the pool, but try and stay in the trees as much asyou can since the openness of the stream makes it too easy forsnipers to get a clear shot. Linda will take the left side and Markcan take the right. We’ll rendezvous at the pool and from there Ican show you a good safe spot to hole up. I noticed it on one ofthe ‘joyride flights’ that Linda took me on and it’ll be hard toget there unless you can fly.”

“What if we run into anyone?” I asked.

“Keep your distance, keep moving, and take aroundabout route to the pool if you have to. If the pool area isdangerous, then you and Mark will have to figure out a backup spotto meet at. Also, if you’re forced out of the trees, try not to flyin a straight line. Keep as evasive as you can and never ever stopto give them a stationary target.”

Glancing at her watch she took a deep breathand said, “It’s time. We need to go now or it’ll be too dark beforewe get to the pool. Give us some shields and launch the dummy.”

I quickly built the shields around Sara andmyself and sent to