Devoir

5

5

“Monterrey. I asked you a question!”

“Yes, Commander, I told you we can’t go to the residences, didn’t I? We have to go the other way; we have to go the other way so that… those guys in the excavators follow us.”

“We really need to get help,” Reggie said. “The four of us will never make it.”

“Then you shouldn’t have messed up the communication,” Laro said.

The sound of the approaching excavators drowned out their conversation.

“Damn Monterrey,” Xiaobo quid. “They catch up with us and you lead us to an open plain with no shelters. Nice, really nice.”

“Commander,” Monterrey said tensely, looking out in front of him. “When I say ‘turn’, you have to make a sharp left turn.”

“What? Monterrey, what are you talking about?”

“Turn around!” Leeanne Monterrey screamed.

In terror, Xiaobo almost automatically sent his scooter to the left. As he deflected his scooter to the left, the scooter with Monterrey and Laro went to the right.

“They’re going the other way,” Reggie screamed. “Damn it! They’re going to let us down!”

Xiaobo tried to look over his shoulder to see where Monterrey was staying. “What the hell…,” he said.

“Hey,” Reggie exclaimed, panicking. “Don’t slow down.” At the same time, he heard a thunderous roar behind him. When he turned around, he was just in time to see the last of the giant excavators plunge into a precipice with thunderous roars. Debris and rocks from the lunar surface were hurled up and around from the crater.

Monterrey calmly drove back. “Watch out for the rubble,” she shouted with a laugh. Due to the limited gravity of the moon, it seemed as if the heavy stones were helium balloons that slowly deflated. Along with Laro, she tapped away the floating stones as if they were at some kid’s birthday party.

“Well done Monterrey,” Xiaobo said relieved.

“Er, guys?” Reggie squeaked. “Do you see what I see?” His finger pointed shaking at the crater. On the edge of the crater appeared a large, metal hand. The massive fingers disappeared deep into the ground.

“Oh no. Those metal guys are still alive. Get out of here,” Xiaobo said.

“And let’s hope that they can’t run,” Reggie said.

“Wait,” Monterrey said.

The metal hand clawed its way through the loose grit of the lunar surface but did not seem to get a grip on the edge of the crater. Slowly, the hand slipped back.

“Let’s go,” Xiaobo repeated. “Before they find out that an acrobat mode has been installed and they suddenly start lifting each other or something.”

Xiaobo had only just finished talking when the four of them all heard heavy hums coming from the crater.

Reggie Trullo attached himself extra firmly to his Xiaobo. “This is going terribly wrong. Move!” he roared at his driver. At the same time, four out of five metal monster robots rose from the crater.

“Damn it! They can fly!” Monterrey screamed. “Now we have to go to the accommodations.”

“No,” Djay Laro said decisively, convinced of his own right. “We can’t do that. Those guys… Things… devices will destroy all facilities. The people who live in the accommodations have no chance, they are totally surprised and overrun.”

Xiaobo looked at how high the impressively large and heavy machinery was already above the edge of the crater. “What else can we do? Staying here is suicide. That’s the only place we have a chance. I’m sure there are some heavy weapons…”

“No,” Djay repeated. “This moon has no defenses. This settlement is just an outpost. Believe me, if we want to have another chance, and give the people in the accommodations a chance, then we have to go back.”

“Back to what?” Reggie cried.

“The entrance to the mine. The cave, or I don’t know what’s there, behind those huge doors,” Djay replied.

Monterrey decided not to wait any longer. “Screw you Laro! Let’s go!” She added the deed to the word and gave full throttle. The lunar scooter with Monterrey firmly in front and Djay Laro as an involuntary passenger behind her, screamed over the lunar surface.

Xiaobo got a punch from Reggie. “What are you waiting for? Let’s go!”

Even before the giant human-like robots were out of the crater, Xiaobo and Monterrey, with their fellow passengers on the back of their scooters, were already riding side by side.

“We have to go back!” Laro tried again. He cried as loud as he could.

“Shut up!” Monterrey roared irritated. “You have nothing to say. After all, we’re here to pick you up. Now that we have you, we will not let you go.”

Djay Laro quickly looked back. The imposing robots slowly but surely flew their way. He looked to the side, past Reggie Trullo, at the immense open doors of the mine. Or tomb. Or whatever it was, which, after more than two hundred years, had suddenly been broken open by unknown creatures. “It’s our only chance,” he told Reggie.

Don Giorgio Faenza’s confidant looked at him in confusion. “What?” he asked. Laro was on the scooter next to him signaling, but he didn’t understand. “What are you going to do?”

Before he got an answer, he felt a huge kick against his diaphragm. Laro had deftly placed his left leg in Reggie’s stomach and pushed him down the scooter with a strong kick.

As Reggie fell screaming from the scooter, Laro let himself roll off his.

Xiaobo looked around in horror. “What are you doing?” He wanted to tell Monterrey to turn around to pick up their passengers, but Monterrey didn’t think to slow down and turn for a moment. Instead, she gave extra gas and let her lunar scooter go forward as fast as it could.

“Damn,” Xiaobo cursed. For a moment, he hesitated to pick up the two men himself. As soon as he saw how fast the giga robots were getting closer, he stopped taking any chances. Turned his throttle and took off on his lunar scooter. As fast as it could; towards the residential accommodations.

“What the f**k! “Trullo cried angrily. “Why? What… We’re f****d man. We’re going to die!”

“No. Follow me,” Laro exclaimed. He lifted Reggie up and pulled him towards the tomb.

“But those machines…”

“They follow the scooters, wannabet? I would, too. First catch the fast guys, before they escape, and then get back to finish the job.”

“Finish the job? You mean kill us!”

“Whatever.”

Reggie instinctively did all he could do: follow Laro. Anxiously, he kept looking back to see if any of those hellish machines wouldn’t come after them by chance. But they were lucky. For now. Four giant humanoid robots slowly flew after the fast scooters. He was looking at the crater. Four in the air. Number five got no further than the edge of the crater. The large claw hung motionless over the edge. So, Monterrey had achieved a small success after all…

To his right he saw the two lunar scooters with Special Space Agents Xiaobo and Monterrey disappear towards the residential accommodations. To the left of Laro and him was the entrance to the tomb. Now that he was sure the robots were going after the scooters, they could take a chance. They had to take a chance. As good and as bad as it went, the two men began running in their inconvenient thick spacesuits.

“Laro?” Reggie gasped.

“Yes?” Laro responded, also out of breath.

“What do we do when we are in the tomb… If we ever reach that tomb?”

“We’ll pray there’s no other monster machine waiting for us in there…”