Escaped prisoners -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories; United States -- Fiction
They saw him when he started to run. Ahead he could see a crowd of
passengers around a dining area. A shout went up as he knocked a woman
down in his pell-mell flight, but he was beyond them in an instant. His
foot hindered him, and his pursuers were gaining. Suddenly before him he
saw a barrier--a four foot metal wall. No carpet beyond it, no
furnishings along the sides. A freight area! He hopped over the barrier
and plunged into the blackness of the freight tunnel as he heard the
shouts of his pursuers. "Stop! Come back! Stop or we'll shoot!"
They didn't shoot. In a moment Krenner came to the first freight
carrier, one of the standard metal containers resting on the steel of
the Road. He ran past it, and the next. The third and fourth were open
cars, stacked high with machinery. He ran on for several moments before
he glanced back.
They weren't following him any more. He could see them, far back, where
the light began, a whole crowd of people at the barrier he had crossed.
But no one followed him. Odd that they should stop. He centered his mind
more closely on his surroundings. Freight might conceal him to get him
off the Roads where no passenger station would ever let him through. He
climbed to the top of a nearby freight container and slipped down in.
Chunks of rock were under his feet, and he fell in a heap on the hard
bed. What possible kind of freight--? He slipped a lighter from his
pocket and snapped it on.
Coal! A normal freight load. He climbed back up and looked along the
road. No pursuit. An uneasy chill went through him--this was too easy.
To ride a coal car to safety, without a single man pursuing him--to
where? He examined the billing on the side of the car, and he forgot his
fears in the rush of excitement. The billing read, "Consignment: Coal,
twenty tons, Markson Foundries, via Pittsburgh private cutoff."
His car was carrying him to Markson!
His mind was full of the old, ugly hate, the fearful joy of the
impending revenge. Fortune's boy, he thought to himself. Even Sherman
could not have done so well, to ride the Rolling Roads, not just to
Pittsburgh, not to the mountains, but right to Markson's backyard! He
shivered with anticipation. Pittsburgh was only a few hundred miles
away, and at three hundred miles an hour--Krenner clenched his fists in
cruel pleasure. He hadn't long to wait.
* * * * *
An hour passed slowly. Krenner's leg was growing stiff after the
exertion of running. Still no sign of life. He eased his position, and
stiffened when he heard the little relay box above the consignment sheet
give a couple of sharp clicks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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