“Dump those bodies,” Ryan said as he quickly eyeballed the controls of the RV.
“What about the loot the bastards collected?” Krysty asked him. “What should we do with it?”
“Keep the food and the ammo,” he replied. “Everything else, shove out the back.” He put his foot down on hard the gas pedal, heading for the big tent and Dean, Jak and Leeloo.
As Krysty and Mildred heaved the last of the three corpses over the back bumper, the sec men who had moved up to Burger Stravaganza finally found the range, and bullets started spanging into the rear door.
Chapter Twenty-One
At his father’s command, Dean grabbed Leeloo’s hand and they broke from cover on a dead run. Blasterfire blazed behind them as they sprinted across the stretch of open ground between the plant beds and the red-and-white-striped tent. Dean followed his dad’s orders to the letter and didn’t look back, no matter how much he wanted to. This wasn’t the first time he’d been sent away from danger because of his age and his lack of experience. Usually, there was never anyone to look after but himself. This time his feelings of helplessness over leaving his dad and his friends to their fate and allowing them to sacrifice themselves were made easier to swallow by the responsibility he had been given. It was his job to get Leeloo Bunny to safety.
He took some comfort from the knowledge that the companions had always managed to beat the odds before. Someday, he thought, his father wouldn’t make him go when things looked blackest. Some day, there’d be no question of letting him stand and fight with the others.
Dean ran hard and Leeloo ran stride for stride beside him. She was fast and strong for a person of her age. As they neared the side of the tent, slugs whined low overhead. He slowed and ushered her in front of him, shielding her from bullets with his own body.
The blaze of shooting wasn’t the only ruckus going on.
The clatter of the pitched gun battle had sent the mutie zoo creatures into a panic. The Wazl birds shrieked like shattering plate glass. The Worm hissed and shook its rattles. The naked stickies mewled in a terrified chorus. The swampie jugglers yelled for help, begging at the tops of their lungs to be released from their dung encrusted cage. The entire Wolfram menagerie seemed to sense, and rightly so, that there would be no justice and no mercy if they were abandoned to the care of the revenge seeking Bullard ville norms.
Dean was relieved to hear the din they made. The way the muties were all carrying on at once, no way could they sound an alarm over the presence of him and Leeloo. How many armed carny folk were still lurking among the wags? The boy had no clue. His plan was simple: slip under the trailers. He figured he and Leeloo could crawl below the rows of cages and stay out of sight until they found Jak.
As Dean and Leeloo raced past the first trailer, a great, flabby arm lunged out from the shadows, and before they could duck or dodge, it clotheslined them both. Dean ended up flat on his butt, with the muzzle of his Hi-Power blaster rammed deep in the soft yellow dirt. The impact of bone against bone, of forearm against chin made him see stars. He shook his head to clear it, looked over between the trailers, and his blood froze.
Baldoona, the two-headed scalie, its massive bulk seated on the ground, held Leeloo Bunny at arm’s length, snatched up by a handful of hair, like a plaything. An unhappy plaything. The little girl was fighting like a demon, but her nails couldn’t scratch the glittering, reptilian skin, and her kicks were futile against the creature’s well padded exterior.
Dean jerked up his handblaster, giving its slide a quick, hard thump with the heel of his hand to clear the barrel of dirt. Then he dropped the safety and put his finger inside the trigger guard, and drew a careful bead on the adult head. “Let her go!” he shouted.