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July 22nd – Hide and Seek (Part 1)

The sound of metal raptor feet striking the pavement at a run got quieter behind him as he pushed forward, but he didn’t have time to celebrate because he noticed as he came to the bridges leading over the canals that he was heading for another pack of raptors.  He turned to the east again as their watcher also ordered them to swarm over him.  

The cat didn’t have any plans in mind, he had no strategy to escape or knew what he could do in the situation.  He was running for his life clutching the device to his chest, wishing he could carry it in his mouth so he could free his other hand and get away.

He reached the next bridge and crossed, heading north, passing people who were staring and moving out of the way of the raptors chasing after him.  Some leaping over the side to get out of the way quickly enough.  

Where could he go where he could be safe?  He was holding onto a device that could soon have anyone he ran to turning him over on the order of the raptor!  With the watchers flying overhead he needed to get under some cover…but a building would merely trap him again.  He needed to get underground…he needed the sewers!

Arnold wasn’t far from the manhole cover that had once hidden one of the monster eyes.  The raptors running behind him hadn’t slowed down at all as they pursued him, and from the look of the watchers flying into the skyline there were more raptor packs ahead no matter what direction he took.  

He came to the turn onto Perdido street and took his left back towards where he needed.  The manhole was unguarded, opened already blessedly and nothing was in sight that he could see from his angle.  He ran towards the safety of the manhole, and just as he came to the opening he could hear the raptors approaching from the north and south.  

He had no choice anymore, he grit his teeth and reached the manhole cover and dived below.  He landed in the sewer water and resisted the urge to gag.  A raptor suddenly came through the manhole, snapping it’s jaws when the metal exhaust pipes hit the sides, preventing it from going any further down.  

It snapped and tried to force it’s way down, but it was stuck.  And from the look of it flailing there it couldn’t go back either yet.

The cat took a deep breath, instantly regretting it as he coughed in disgust, and then choose a direction and tried to find his way in these tunnels beneath New Babbage.

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2 Comments

  1. Tepic Harlequin Tepic Harlequin July 27, 2012

    Tepic looked up from the stock check at the Sneaky Vole as Mr Arnold dashed past, he started to call out a greeting when the first of a horde of mechanical dinosaurs clattered past, stilling his call. The urchins drinking at the pavementside tables looked on in astonishment as they passed, one mechanical monster stopping to tower over the children frozen to their seats, looking for incipent feliness, jaws wide, dripping with condensed steam and hot grease, then, satisfied, turned away and continued the chase. A few seconds later, a mob of chanting people also passed.

    One urchin turned to another and said “Well, yer don’t see that very often..”

    “No,” replied his companion, “a Phillips flange system in the jaw gearing? Disgraceful, one sharp knock with a number three spanner and the whole assembly would drop into the engine compartment…”

    The gathered urchins disolved into a heated discussion on the merits of gearing in mechanical monsters, this was New Babbage, after all……

  2. Avariel Falcon Avariel Falcon July 27, 2012

    The clockwork unicorn watched a pack of mechanical dinosaurs run past the power station…

    “Unit #12! Follow those dinosaurs!”.

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