Escaped prisoners -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories; United States -- Fiction
The man lifted a sizzling frying pan from the range, flipping a
hamburger onto a plate. He added potatoes and carrots. "Here's the
food," he said sullenly. "And you might put the gun away. We don't have
weapons, and we don't have a 'phone."
"You have legs," snapped Krenner. "Now shut up."
The woman finished the dressing. "Try it," she said. The convict stood
up by the chair, placing his weight on the foot gingerly. Pain leaped
through his leg, but it was a clean pain. He could stand it. He took a
small map from his pocket. "Any streams or gorges overland between here
and Garret Valley?"
The farmer, shook, his head. "No."
"Give me some clothes, then. No, don't leave. The ones you have on."
The farmer slipped out of his clothes silently, and Krenner dropped the
prison grays in the corner.
"You'll keep your mouths shut about this," he stated flatly.
"Oh, yes, you can count on us," exclaimed the woman, eyeing the gun
fearfully. "We won't tell a soul."
"I'll say you won't," said Krenner, his fingers tightening on the gun.
The shots were muted and flat in the stillness of the kitchen.
An hour later Krenner broke through the underbrush, crossed a rutted
road, and pushed on over the ridge. His cruel face was dripping with
perspiration. "It should be the last ridge," he thought. "I've gone a
good, three miles--" The morning sun was bright, filtering down through
the trees, making beautiful wet patterns on the damp ground. The morning
heat was just beginning, but the food and medications had made progress
easy. He pulled himself up onto a rock ledge, over to the edge, and felt
his heart stop cold as he peered down into the valley below.
A dark blue police 'copter nestled on the valley floor next to the sleek
gray one. It must have just arrived, for the dark uniforms of the police
were swarming around the gray machine He saw the pink face and the
sporty clothes of the occupant as he came down the ladder, his hands in
the air.
Too late! They'd caught Sherman!
He lay back shaking.
Impossible! He _had_ to have Sherman. They couldn't possibly have known,
unless somehow they had foreseen, or heard--. His mind seethed with
helpless rage. Without Sherman he was stuck. No way to reach Markson, no
way to settle that score--unless possibly--.
The Roads.
He'd heard about them. Way back in 1967 when he'd gone up, the roads
were underway. A whole system of Rolling Roads was proposed then, and
the first had already been built, between Pittsburgh and the Lakes. A
crude affair, a conveyor belt system, running at a steady seventy-five
miles per hour, carrying only ore and freight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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