Eldorado by Jay Allan Storey Page A

than he was expecting. They were passing through a huge field of tall grass, and he stared down in terror at the green stalks flying past.
    “Ready?” shouted Keller. Richard was shaking with fear. “You’ve got to do it.” Keller threw his right arm earthward. “Go!”
    Richard said a silent prayer, let go of the ladder, and launched himself with all his might away from the crushing steel wheels. He landed well and rolled through the tall grass. On stopping he rose to his knees. Despite Keller’s warning he poked his head above the green stalks to see what was happening. Keller had swung onto the ladder and climbed half-way down, but he'd stopped and was staring at something to his right.
    Richard followed Keller’s line of sight. A guard, rifle slung over his shoulder, was picking his way along the roof of the railcar two cars down. The guard stopped and balanced himself on the roof, hefting the rifle into firing position, pointing it at Keller. Keller scrambled back up the ladder.
    Richard saw the puff of smoke before he heard the shot. Keller’s body jerked as if he'd been punched in the stomach, and for a moment he let go of the ladder and hung by one hand. He finally regained his footing, dragged himself into the railcar, and disappeared in the shadows.
    The guard turned his attention to Richard. He raised his rifle and fired, and Richard heard the whir of a bullet flying over his head. He dove to the ground as another shot immediately followed, the bullet tearing into the earth a few feet away. He lay hidden in the grass, shaking in terror, waiting for the next, possibly fatal, shot, but it never came.
    The last rumblings of the train had faded into the distance before he finally dared to stand and stare out at the landscape around him. He was alone and helpless in the deepest wilds of Surrey.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    At the River's Edge
     
    Lacy Forrester liked to sit and listen to the sounds of the approaching dawn outside her shack by the river. The crumbling remnants of civilization still dotted the landscape in the distance, but plants and animals had long ago re-taken this spot, and it was now effectively wilderness.
    Where the roar of automobile engines had once ruled, the cacophony of nature now filled the air – the bubbling of the nearby river, the croaking of a million frogs, the rasping of another million crickets, even the occasional hoot from an owl or howl from a lonely coyote. Early morning was one of her favourite times of the day. She could sit quietly immersed in the chatter of the forest, relaxing and letting her cares slip away.
    But today was different. Today there was a new sound – the faint splash of something large thrashing about in the river. Lacy was frightened, thinking it might be a cougar or a bear. Auntie Becky had taught her that it was better to investigate a potential danger, albeit carefully, than to ignore it and hope it would go away, so she crawled from her doorway and listened.
    The noise was coming from her right, but a hillock blocked her view. After several minutes her curiosity finally eclipsed her fear, and she made her way toward the river bank.
    She stopped behind a clump of brush overlooking the river and peered into the rising light. Below her, about fifty feet away, someone was struggling to climb the bank, but failing and sliding back down into the water. Recent rains had turned that section of bank into a slick wall of mud.
    It's too slippery for them, she thought as she witnessed the struggle.
    Steep overhangs bounded the river both upstream and downstream of this spot; the bank was the only point of escape. From what she could see, the victim was a male, which made him a greater potential threat. He was clearly exhausted, with barely enough strength to claw at the slimy walls of his prison. After several minutes of effort, he lost the battle, and collapsed into the shallow water by the river's edge.
    Lacy could see that the current would carry him back