Freegans part 30

Cara
"Cara, what's going on?" asked Lucy. I watched Ben, Matt, and Kestrel as they attacked the robots. Matt turned to us, and mouthed the word, 'Run'. "I believe that they mean to have us escape while they get killed," I said.
"What?! No!" Lucy looked shocked.
"My feelings exactly. You and Madiza stay here, and I'll go help." I clicked my heels, re-igniting my levitation boots. Lucy didn't protest. She seemed perfectly content to stay there where it was safe. I was about to head over, when I noticed that Madiza was digging around in my knapsack, which I had completely forgotten about.

"Madiza, what are you doing?!" I asked. She looked up and smiled.
"MacGyver!" she said. I had no idea what she was talking about, but to my surprise she pulled out several odds and ends, which she quickly began putting together. There was a vial of some weird liquid, though not the poison from earlier, a round glass ball, and a water bottle, none of which I remembered being in the knapsack earlier. I half wondered if she hadn't slipped the items in when I wasn't looking.
She poured the liquid into the ball, which had a cork stopper in one side, and handed it up to me, along with the water.
"Fly over, pour in the water, then drop the ball on the metal people! It'll make sure the performance ends with a bang!"

I wasn't sure if this was such a good idea, but Madiza had been right before. So I grabbed both things, and ran through the air until I was over the heads of the robots, though as far away from our friends as possible. I pulled out the cork, poured in the water, and quickly replaced the cork. The mixture began to hiss and smoke, which made me nervous. Down below, Kestrel saw what I was doing, and his eyes went wide. Grabbing Matt and Ben, he ran like heck to the rope, and began swinging them over the pit. I dropped the ball. At the same moment, it felt like something wrapped around my foot.

The resulting explosion sent me flying through the air. I was temporarily deafened by the blast, and had no control. However, just before I could slam into the wall, I felt a sharp jerk on my leg, and was steered out of the way. I saw my friends running out of the cavern, and down a branching off tunnel. Madiza and the others were holding on to a long rope, the other end of which was wrapped around my ankle. That was the only thing keeping me safe. Thankfully, it was very sturdy. Looking down, I saw that there was a new hole in the ground, and most of the robots had either been blown to bits, or fallen down the new hole. Finally I was able to right myself, and I floated down towards the others. Almost as soon as I was back on solid ground, if not sooner, I was enveloped in rib-crushing hugs by my friends.
"That was INSANE, Cara!" said Matt. "How did you do that?!"
"Madiza made a bomb, and told me how to use it," I said. Speak of the devil, she smiled, and sang softly,
"All around the underground,
The robots chased the children!
The robots all fell down a deep well,
Oh, it was bewild'ren!"

Freegans part 21

Lucy
I was frozen with terror, which wasn't that surprising, considering the robot. Actually, there was more than one. I counted at least twelve. They all had what looked like primitive deep-sea diving gear on the tops of their bodies. Some of them had large drills for arms, or nets, or other weird contraptions. However, their legs were different. Some had eight giant spider legs, some had four dog legs, and even a few had human legs. My heart was seized with terror.

Suddenly, they attacked us! I was grabbed by one of the robots in front, and hoisted into the air. I was too frightened even to cry out. I couldn't even move. Suddenly, there was a loud crunching noise, and the robot dropped me. I looked up, just in time to see Ben give the thing another roundhouse kick to the dome, crunching it in. Sparks leaped from broken wires as it fell in a rusty heap.
"How did you do that?!" I gasped. Ben grabbed a pen, and wrote quickly, 'Consumerists are always kept physically fit, and have to learn some kind of sport. I took martial arts.'

The others seemed to be getting on all right. Cara and Matt had found some pipes in the pack, and were now swinging them at the other robots, whacking everywhere they could reach. Ben ran to the pack and grabbed a pipe of his own. He seemed to be everywhere at once, fighting like a maniac. He was so brave.

Suddenly I noticed Madiza. She was holding a weird gun thing in her hand. Suddenly she pointed it at one of the robots, and pulled the trigger. A blast of electricity shot out of the end, shooting it straight backwards and into the big hole! Madiza stared at the gun in shock for a second, then her face split into the widest grin I had ever seen. The next instant she started shooting at top speed, several times nearly missing us. The good news was that the robots felt she was the greatest threat, and so concentrated their attacks on her.

I could tell that Cara wanted to help, but there didn't seem like anything to be done. Secretly I felt relieved. Madiza could probably handle herself, and if she couldn't, well, then at least we could take this opportunity to escape. I ran to Cara. "Do you think you could fly us across the hole?" I asked.
"There's a limit to how much weight these boots can take. And besides, we're not leaving Madiza," she replied.
"Why not? She's just a loony. She's slowing us down!" Cara stared at me in shock. I was a bit surprised myself. I didn't usually talk like that about anybody.

"Well, we have a rope. Cara could fly across the hole, then attach that rope to the ceiling or something, and we could get away like that," said Matt.
"Whatever we do, we need to do it now!" I screamed. Cara stood up, and had just lifted off, when a voice yelled, "Stop!" Madiza instantly quit shocking the robots, who had frozen in place. We looked past them, and saw a strange car. It was a very small one, with a big drill on the front. Inside were the oddest people I had ever seen.

Freegans part 20

Matt
We couldn't afford to waste time. At a nod from Cara I woke up Lucy and Ben. They sat up sleepily. "Whassamatta?" Lucy muttered. Then they both heard the clanking noise too, and looked into the tunnel. We still couldn't see what it was; not a single ray of light shone.
"Wh-what do you think it is?" Cara asked, unable to hold back a stammer.
"Big Sister's coming, and she's bringing some friends!" Madiza cackled, stuffing the chalk into her shirt pocket.
"That sounds ominous," I said. "We should get out of here."
"Really, Matt? I would never have thought of that!" said Cara sarcastically.

"Why do we need to go? They might be friendly!" said Lucy.
"Luce, does that clanking noise sound friendly? No, it does not. We're going." Without another word, Cara grabbed the pack and slung it over her shoulders. She then pulled Madiza up off the floor, and we were off. I couldn't help worrying about Lucy, since she has this tendency to lag behind during anything athletic, but I saw that Ben was helping her to keep up. As we ran, I heard Madiza talking loudly.
"And they're off! The bossy leader and Madiza Hatter are taking the lead, with Matt right behind, and Ben-ben and whatshername bringing up the rear! Oh, excuse me folks, I should say that the unknown clanking thing is bringing up the rear! However, whatever it is seems to be gaining on us! If you listen, you can hear the clanks speeding up!" True to her words, the noise was speeding up to match us.

Madiza continued. "...Laaaadies and gentlemen, they have just completed the first lap! Now they're rounding the corner, and oh! Looks like we're in for a holdup, folks! There's been damage done to the track!"
It was sheer luck that she and Cara had not gone over the edge of the huge hole in the ground. All of us managed to brake just in time, or else we would probably have been dead. Slowly we turned around. We got our first look at our pursuer, and Lucy had to stifle a scream. It was a robot.

Freegans part 19

Cara
I didn't want to admit it, but my eyelids were growing heavy, and it was all I could do to keep from dozing off. But as the (rather self-appointed) leader, I had to try and keep a good profile. I was doing my best, but I could tell Matt wasn't fooled.
"You should go to sleep, Cara. I can take the first watch," he said aloud.
"Don't be silly. I'm fine," I said indignantly, pinching myself quickly. Matt gave me a skeptical glance.
"Cara, you are tired. If you don't go to sleep this instant, I will make you."
"How?"
"By physical force, if necessary."

I glared at him, and then betrayed myself by yawning. Matt grinned triumphantly. "Fine," I muttered. Lucy and Ben were already down and out, and Madiza was just sitting by herself, muttering and drawing using one of the pieces of chalk that had been in the pack. I barely stopped to wonder what she was drawing before I was asleep too.
My dreams were mainly nightmares. I was chased by a giant, fanged helicopter, which kept trying to stab me in the back with its blades. No matter how fast I ran, the helicopter was always right on my tail. Then I stumbled, and was falling, into a giant mouth. The mouth began closing. I screamed in pain as one of the fangs stabbed me in the ribs.

I awoke with a start, and realized that Matt was poking me. "Whassup?" I mumbled, sitting up.
"Cara, I think you should see what Madiza's doing," he said. Giving me a hand up, he pulled me over. Madiza's chalk had been halfway used up by now, and what its purpose had been surprised me. She appeared to have drawn first the cross-section of an eyeball, with all the parts labeled and everything. Then she had scrawled some kind of complicated calculus equation, followed by a couple more mathematical formulas. Now she was writing a set of instructions for something. I read it quietly.
"To put together your computer, insert-" I stopped. Madiza had frozen, and was looking down one of the corridors. If she had been a dog, her ears would have been pricked.

"Madiza, what is it?" asked Matt. Madiza only cackled softly, before saying in a singsong tone, "Mr. B, Mr. B, Big Sister doesn't like you playing with me!" She snickered. I grabbed her shoulder and looked straight into her glassy eyes. "What are you talking about, Madiza?!" She didn't have to answer. Suddenly we all could hear a loud, creaking noise, heading straight for us.