Flash Gordon 3 - The Space Circus (7 page)

Booker looked away from the giant. “Maybe I can walk a little bit,” he said in a low voice.

Jape rubbed at his head with one of his hands. “I’ve heard that other runaways may live off in the jungle. Perhaps we can reach them.”

“That’s okay for now,” said Flash.

“Meaning what?”

“Meaning it’s only a short-term solution,” Flash said. “Eventually we have to get off this planet. Off and back home to our own planets.”

The hawkman’s wings fluttered and he laughed. “Maybe I can fly to Mongo,” he said. “I don’t see how else we can do it. The chances of getting hold of a spacecraft are rather slim.” He shook his head.

“There’s more to leading a guerrilla life than annoying the enemy,” said Flash. “Eventually, you have to make a play, take over. Maybe only one town, but something you can control.”

“You mean that if we live in the wilds for a while,” said Sixy, “we have to be planning all along on how to take over Mesmo.”

“We’ll have to take over a spaceport,” said Flash.

“Some chance,” said Booker. “With a half-dozen escaped slaves, you’re going to overthrow millions of those blue men.”

“There are seven of us,” said Mallox, “and you forget that we’re an exceptional group. I’m with Flash Gordon. I don’t intend to spend the rest of my life in the wilderness. I miss my home planet.” He reached out his huge hand and gave Flash an encouraging thump on the back. “I say we try.”

Jape stroked his chin with his upper right hand. “If we could learn more about them, about how they communicate,” he said, “we might be able to accomplish something.”

“I know what Flash was able to do on Mongo,” said Huk. “There were many who thought Ming would never fall, but fall he did.”

“It’s good to have a plan,” said Sixy, “something to work toward. Even if—”

“Look there!” said Jape, pointing with all his hands.

Lights glowed in the rainy gray sky over the wreck of the train.

“Some kind of aircruiser,” said Huk.

“They’ve come to investigate the wreck,” said Sixy, pushing up off the ground. “Time for us to get deeper into the woods.”

Without a word, Mallox reached down and yanked Booker upright. “What’s it to be, walking or riding?”

“I can limp along okay, I guess,” said Booker. “You’ll probably leave me behind, but that’s okay.”

“You’ll keep up with us,” the strongman told him. “We want none left back for the blue devils to find,”

Flash eased his arms under Narla.

The blonde girl opened her eyes slightly. “Where are we?” she asked in a faint voice.

“On the run,” he told her.

T
he rain fell hard on the roof of the cottage. Yawning, the blue man swung out of his bed. He reached to the raw wood floor to pick up his helmet and clothes.

“Good morning,” came the thought of his wife once Djorj had the helmet on.

“Good morning.” He went into the kitchen of their cottage. “Rained all night. I doubt my traps will have caught much of anything.”

His wife pointed at a radio which sat on the oaken table in the room’s center. “There was a train wreck not far from us.”

“I’m not interested in other people’s troubles this early in the morning.” He made his way to the wood stove, holding his blue hands over it.

“It could turn into trouble for us.”

Frowning, the trapper went to the table and put on the earphones of the portable radio.

“We repeat the announcement,” came the message. “These animals are dangerous. It is believed that at least a half-dozen of them, or perhaps more, escaped from the wrecked circus train. They are all highly dangerous alien creatures. The government and the militia advise you to stay inside if you live anywhere in the vicinity of the crash. Lock your doors and do not venture forth until these vicious creatures have been recaptured. Captain Suell of the National Militia promises that all escaped beasts will soon be caught.”

Djorj removed the earphones, leaning back in his wooden chair, “Did they say anything about a reward?”

“I don’t know,” said his wife, turning anxiously to him. “You’re not thinking of—?”

“If I could catch even one, there should be something in it for us. Surely more than a month’s hides bring us.” He nodded to himself. “These are rare creatures, after all. I’ve heard some have sold for as much as fifteen hundred harlans in the capital. Yes, fifteen hundred.”

“But they’re dangerous,” his wife told him. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Suppose I could catch all six.” Djorj stood up. “Think of what they might pay me for six.”

“Djorj, please. Stay here, inside and safe.”

The blue man was already in the parlor, taking a rain garment and boots from the closet. “Some of these beasts are probably roaming our woods right now. This is my chance.”

“At least wait until you’ve had your breakfast.”

The trapper selected a stun rifle from the rack in the closet. Then he returned to the kitchen to grab up the radio. “I’ll take this along so I can keep up with the hunt. I think I know these woods a good deal better than the militia.”

His wife looked away, sending no parting thoughts to Djorj as he went tramping out into the wet morning.

Narla said, “Not that this isn’t comfortable, but I really think I can walk now.”

Flash had been carrying the slim girl. “Okay, let’s try it and see.” He placed her gently on her feet on the mossy ground.

“I’m a little bit dizzy,” she said, steadying herself with a hand against his arm.

“Nobody gives a hoot about me,” said Booker, who, breathing heavily, was at the rear of the group as they made their way deeper into the forest.

“I’m thinking about you all the time,” Sixy said, back over his shoulder.

“Nobody gives me a helping hand.”

They had been pushing up through the woods for over a half hour. There had been no sound of pursuit.

“I think we’ve gotten clear of those little blue devils for now,” said the huge Mallox.

Flash placed a hand under the girl’s elbow. “I’ll hold onto you till you’re sure of yourself.”

Huk fluttered his huge wings. “I think I’ll fly ahead for another look around.”

“Careful of their airships,” cautioned Jape.

The hawkman went flapping up through the rain.

“I wonder,” said Narla, “if we’ll ever get off this planet, Flash. Sometimes I think it’s hopeless.”

“The blue men have ships for interplanetary travel,” said Flash. “We should be able to capture one with luck.”

“You sound very confident,” she said. “I’d like to believe you. You’re certainly the kind of man I can believe in, but I feel very gloomy this morning. All I can see is the ‘right now’ of things.”

“It may take us some time. We don’t, remember, know very much about Mesmo.”

“Well, I suppose living in the forest or the jungle, or wherever it is we’re going to wind up, is better than being a prisoner,” she said. “And better than being . . . well, than being like poor Zumm.”

“Wait,” called Booker. “Help me, will you?” He’d fallen, tripped over a twisting root.

Sixy, sighing, halted and went back to give the black man a hand up. “Maybe it would be simpler if I hefted you, Booker.”

“My ankle’s busted or sprained,” said the fallen Booker.

Sixy bent down toward him. There was a droning humming sound and he froze where he stood.

“It must be—” began Jape, two of his hands reaching for weapons. The droning came again and he never reached either one.

Mallox roared, lumbered in the direction of the rifleman, but he was hit before he got there. Flash let go of Narla and threw himself to the ground. He rolled, did a backward somersault, and was behind the trunk of a huge oak before the stun rifle could fire again.

I
n spite of the cold nervousness which filled him, Djorj smiled to himself. I’ll soon have them all, he thought, hunched in the brush a few yards from the spot where the stunned Sixy, Jape, and Mallox stood frozen. The blue man had only picked up their trail moments earlier.

The blonde girl had fallen when Flash made his dive for concealment. She was struggling to her feet now and was crawling in the direction Flash had taken.

Can’t let that one get away. Djorj squeezed the trigger again.

Narla froze, still on all fours.

What about the black one? He appears to be injured, unable to move, reflected the trapper. Yet he makes a good deal of noise.

“Who is it out there?” Booker was shouting. “You don’t have to kill me. I give up. It was their idea to run away, not mine.”

None of this meant anything to Djorj. I’d better stun him, just to be on the safe side.

“Come on, we can make some kind of deal.”

The rifle hummed once more.

“That’s five of them,” tallied the blue man. “Imagine what money they’ll bring. I’m sure to be paid at least a hundred harlans for each one. In fact, I’ll insist on at least that much before I turn them over to anyone, militia or otherwise. That’ll mean at least five hundred. Perhaps it will come to even more. But I still have to catch the sixth one, the last one. He looks to be more cunning, more dangerous than the rest of the pack.

Djorj stayed another moment in his hiding place, rain hitting down at him.

The beast may be getting away even now, he thought. I have to start after him. He began to move, traveling as silently as when he had approached the group initially.

Flash bellied along over the damp mossy ground, soundlessly. He eased behind the trunk of another tree, listening.

Didn’t hear them coming at all, he thought. Don’t even know how many of them are out there.

With his head close to the earth, hidden by thick underbrush, Flash could see part of the area where they’d been attacked. He saw the immobile Narla, the shock-still Jape.

Nobody’s come near them yet.

Flash heard something, caught his breath, and listened more intently. Only the sound of the rain clattering down on the leaves and branches came to him.

But I heard something else, he thought again. Somebody stepped on a branch, not very far from me.

With narrowed eyes, he scanned the forest around him. There was no sign of anyone—no sound of anyone. The rain kept falling.

He sensed the presence of the trapper before he heard him or saw him. Flash threw himself to the side as the rifle hummed.

He swung and fired his stungun.

But the blue man was not where he had been, framed between two tree trunks.

Flash ducked, then spun around behind a tree bole. That guy must be used to walking in these woods, Flash decided. He hardly makes a sound.

He took three steps backward, slightly crouched, watchful. Then something caught him around the ankle. It bit into his flesh. With a violent snap, he was hoisted off the ground to dangle upside down several feet above the moss.

Flash went swinging through the air, thwacking into a tree. His breath was knocked out of him. The stungun fell from his hand.

The motion of the rope trap gradually decreased; his movement to and fro stopped, Flash hung head down and dazed.

Djorj smiled once more. “Luck is indeed on my side today,” he murmured. “The beast has been caught in one of my own animal snares.”

He was thirty feet from the dangling Flash, stun rifle in his hands and radio slung over his shoulder. He stood and watched the hanging man, not heeding the heavy rain.

This one will be worth at least two hundred harlans, Djorj decided. He began to make his way nearer to his catch. Now to stun this one. He raised his rifle to his shoulder, took aim.

An immense flapping sounded above him. The agitated air swirled drops of rain all around him. Then something hit him across the back of the neck.

He fell forward, losing consciousness. His last thought before blacking out was, Now I’ll never get the money.

“T
he thing to do,” insisted the giant Mallox, “is to throttle him.” He swept a huge hand in the direction of the blue man.

“No,” said Flash.

“He’ll tell the others,” said the strongman. “We can’t even be sure he’s not sending them some kind of message right now, sending it from his head to theirs.”

“I don’t think so,” said Jape. With all four of his hands he was tinkering with the radio Djorj had been carrying.

“We’ve wasted enough time,” said the hawkman. “Let’s not waste any more in arguing.”

It had been Huk, returning from his reconnoitering flight, who dropped out of the sky to fell the trapper before he could use the stun rifle on Flash.

Now, several hours later, the effects of the stunning had worn off for all of them.

“I still got something wrong with me from getting shot like that,” said Booker. “I feel all upside down inside.”

“Flash was really upside down from what I hear,” said Sixy.

During these exchanges Djorj looked anxiously, hope mixed with fear, from face to face. All this howling did not convey anything to him. But the giant reaching for his throat had been easy enough to understand; the big creature wanted to kill him.

Flash and Huk had tied the trapper to the trunk of a tree with rope cut from the trap which had snared Flash. Flash had tried to communicate with Djorj during the time they were waiting for the others to become unstunned. The blue man did not understand. Although he sensed that Flash, unlike the giant just now, meant him no harm.

“We must get going,” Flash said.

“I say it isn’t safe,” repeated Mallox, “leaving this little blue devil alive. He’ll tell them he’s seen us.”

“He’s not to be harmed,” said Flash. He then walked to Narla’s side. “You up to continuing?”

“You don’t have to worry about me anymore,” the girl told him, her face expressionless and her voice even.

“I left you alone when the attack came because I can move faster by myself,” said Flash, realizing why the girl was angry. “I wanted to get a chance to find out who was firing on us and try to outfox them.”

“I don’t care about an apology.”

“I’m not offering an apology, only an explanation.”

“We’re ready,” said Huk. “As I told you earlier, Flash, we’re about fifteen miles from the edge of the jungle. I doubt we can reach it before nightfall, but we can get close.”