Nate headed toward the back of the jail. Figures he’d know the layout of this place far better than me, given he was stationed here.

“Is there a way out the back?” I asked.

Kuros nodded. “Yeah, there is. Normally it’s guarded, but if anyone’s there right now it’s probably just one person.”

One person wouldn’t slow Nate down, even in the state he was in.

“That idiot…” I growled.

“We’re on our own,” Kuros said, scanning his cell, no doubt for any opportunity we could use to escape now that there were no eyes on us.

I closed my eyes and concentrated. I couldn’t afford to waste the limited capabilities of my enhancer today. Not when I might need it soon. Still, I had to try something. I clenched my fists tight and pulled, twisted, and turned, hoping to feel some kind of weakness in my restraints. There weren’t any. Only thing I felt right now was the persistent aching in my chest.

“Gah, I can’t get out of these ropes…”

“Any other ideas?” Kuros asked, continuing to study every corner of his cell.

Before I could answer, we heard more commotion outside.

“Okay, now look... If you don’t calm down I’m going to throw you in a cell!” Eric shouted.

I could see through the space below the swinging doors and had a relatively clear look at what was going on.

“Don’t you be puttin’ hands on my deputies!”

A chorus of jeers rang out as those gathered grew more and more desperate.

I sighed, looking at Kuros.

“If we don’t do something soon, this whole town’s going to eat itself.”

Kuros nodded, only half-listening as he hastily scanned and rescanned every inch of his cell. His eyes stopped on one of the bars and widened.

“Got an idea!” he said. He laid flat, stretching his legs out as far as he could, wrapping his boots around one of the bars. “See if you can help me turn this bar a half turn.”

“Huh, why?”

“There’s a real rusty spot on my side. Lots of deep, sharp gouges in the metal. If I can get that facing you, you should be able to grind your ropes against it and cut them.”

It was worth a shot. I scooted myself back toward the bar, grabbing it as much as I could. Luckily, it was loose. Using a bit of my enhancer, I was able to turn it to face me.

“Got it!” Kuros said. “Hurry and give it a try.”

I could feel the friction as I scraped the ropes along the bar. They would continuously get caught along the fibers, grabbing, ripping, and tearing them one by one. This would work, but it would take a while. Using my enhancer again, I increased my speed until the ropes began to smoke.

“It’s workin’!” Kuros said, watching patiently. “Keep doin’ exactly what you’re doin’.”

Even with my enhancer, it still took several minutes to grind far enough for the first layer to snap. I pulled hard, only to realize it wasn’t enough. I kept it up, and another few precious minutes passed. Another rope snapped. This time, with a strong twist, they finally fell to the floor.

I jumped to my feet and turned my attention to my cell door.

“There’s a broken chain link hanging off the bench there. See if you can yank it off and get that lock. The locks on the doors ain’t much by themselves.”

I did as he suggested, ripping the loose, broken chain link from the bench and struggling to bend it the amount necessary to fit in the lock. Eventually, I managed it, and after a moment of fiddling heard a satisfying clack.

Stolen story; please report.

More shouting, and my attention turned back to the door, knowing we could be found out at any moment. Likely, they’d not give us another chance to escape. I had to stay sharp. At the very least, I couldn’t let myself get ambushed again. If someone did pop through those doors, I had to be the one to get the jump on them first.

I grabbed the keys from above the desk, rushing to Kuros’s cell door and yanking it open, then, after a few attempts, took care of the shackles he was wearing.

He rubbed his wrists.

“What’s the plan? We can’t be standin’ here long.”

“Ideally, I’d like to find Nate. He’s the only eyewitness to the arachnid units and can describe them in detail to me. If he can give me enough information, I can determine what specific models they are and we can better prepare. Their vulnerabilities vary a bit between revisions, even if the big ones stay the same. Equally as important is finding a way to calm this mob growing out here. We’re not going to accomplish anything if everyone in this town kills each other.”

Kuros drew in a deep breath and sighed. “Is that all? Alright… well… I don’t reckon we’re going to find that feller who ran off, and even if we found him he didn’t seem too keen on cooperating with us.”

I shrugged. “Kuros, I have to try. We’re running out of options here.”

Kuros repeated his sigh with even more enthusiasm this time.

“Little miss… I’m with you. Lead the way.”

I turned toward the back, but was stopped by a familiar voice amidst the chorus of other voices outside.

I bent down, slowly making my way to the front door.

“What are you doin’?” Kuros whispered loudly. “You’re gonna get seen.”

The chaos outside continued to grow. There was no longer any spacing in the crowd. There was shoving between deputies and citizens, and even the sheriff wasn’t getting spared from it. His trigger finger was clearly itching, with his palm resting firmly on his revolver.

I scanned the crowd, looking for the source of the voice, and quickly found her. Daisy was standing along the edge, watching things unfold quietly. Once in a while, she would glance toward the door, so I tried to time a wave to get her attention. After a few attempts, I caught her eye, and she moved subtly toward us.

Just as she nearly made it, a shot rang out. For a moment, I feared the worst. The sheriff’s gun was smoking, pointed in the air.

“That’s the only warnin’ shot I’m firin’!” he shouted. “Now all ya’ll better start actin’ right or then next bullet’s goin’ into somebody!”

Daisy scurried inside, holding her hands on her head.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“Belle’s sick. Really sick. I was hoping to see the doc, but I see now there’s no way that’s going to happen. I was waiting for my opportunity to sneak in here and talk to you. Are you alright?”

Daisy’s stress was clear on her face.

“We’ve gotta move,” I said, making my way toward the back. As we neared the rear exit, there was a single deputy lying dead on the floor with his neck broken. Nate, for certain.

“Nate’s handiwork…” Kuros said.

We quickly exited, lucky not to be seen by anyone as we did. The chaos was now teetering on a full-blown riot, as the sheriff’s warning shot seemed to only briefly be effective. Daisy led us down a narrow space between two buildings.

“Is there anything you can do to help her, Taylor?” Daisy asked.

“I’ll be honest with you… I don’t know. Our testing on vaccinating those already sick was limited, and since I’ve had to rush between zones I haven’t been able to stick around to see if those who were sick got better or worse. Of course, I’m willing to try it, but I don’t have any of the vaccines with me. I’d have to go outside the zone to get them and set up a station for the townspeople.”

“We can’t do that right now,” Daisy said. “It wouldn’t go well.”

I clenched my teeth, squeezing my fists. I wanted to punch a hole in the building next to me so bad I could hardly stand it.

“Let me guess, people think I brought it here and that my vaccine is something that’ll make things worse. Figures the sheriff would spread something like that.”

“Honey…” Daisy started. “The sheriff hasn’t told anybody about it. People come up with all these things on their own, and it gets spread. It was common knowledge you were from PanTech as soon as you showed up here thanks to your run-in with the sheriff, and rumors have been swelling ever since. You need to build up confidence with the townspeople somehow.”

“I know one good way to do that,” Kuros said. Daisy raised an eyebrow, and Kuros reluctantly continued. “I reckon when she helps us beat those giant metal spiders coming to destroy the town people here will change their tune.”

Daisy went pale. “Giant… what? Oh, please… please please please tell me that was some kind of dark humor.”

Kuros put his arm around Daisy to steady her, as it seemed she might faint.

“No, ma’am. I’m afraid there’s nothin’ to laugh at…” he said. “Besides the absurdity of it all.”

“Daisy…” I said. “I’m going to have to agree with your friend. If you’re going to make a move, you should be ready to make it when the opportunity arises, if we can create one. This town needs leadership to stop it from completely falling apart, and to rebuild it. Assuming we even survive all this.”

Daisy steadied herself, nodding firmly. “I have some people I need to talk to, but I’ll do it.”

“Spread out. They can’t have gotten far!” I heard a deputy shout. We crouched down behind some barrels, but I could see a group of men marching by, all carrying rifles.

“Didn’t figure it’d take him long to figure out we were gone,” Kuros said. “You best head back, Miss Daisy, before you end up gettin’ seen with us.”

“Good luck,” she said, running off quickly.

I just hoped things weren’t already too far gone. That we weren’t already too late.