The Shasta Caper, Chapter Fifty-One

Fifty One

"We've got to get moving, Nanny, no cover here." Samuel urged.

Nanny looked up from her new friend who put his trunk up and was kissing her chin with it. "He's so cute."

"Nanny!"

Nanny gently lifted the tiny elephant and set it down in front of her, then climbed to her feet. It made a trumpeting sound when she started to leave it. She looked back. It  had its trunk and front legs up in the air towards her. She looked over at the others.

Jimbo snickered. "Looks like you got yourself a boyfriend."

"Funny." 

She picked the elephant up into her arms and it snuggled there, relaxed as could be, one leg draped over her arm and the other behind it. It trunk laid along her arm, resting gently there. It felt so light it was hard to believe it was real. Nanny leaned over and nuzzed its head with her nose and it raised its trunk and nuzzled her nose back.

"Bright little critter." Jimbo said as he began moving out after Samuel, who took the lead.

They walked for about another hour, their path getting steadily more rugged, requiring them to help each other over some sections where the path failed, and they had to climb into drops, then out again.

Jimbo and Samuel helped her manage the elephant, but it cried so much when they carried it, that finally, Jimbo emptied out Nanny's backpack and put the elephant into it. She snugged it over her chest, where it could keep its eyes on her as well as the path and it settled down, content and happy.

"If only people were as easy to please." She sighed.

 

"Some are." Jimbo remarked.

"Some aren't." Samuel added.

She laughed. "You two!"

They looked at each other and grinned. Yeah. They were.

They climbed a deep ravine and made it to the top and finally were able to get a clear view of the lake below. There were definitely people there, but again they were quite tall. As a matter of fact some stood almost twenty feet tall.

"What is it with this place?" Jimbo muttered. "Do they all take hormone shots or something?"

Samuel cracked up. "That's the funniest thing you've said in days."

"Give me another ten and I'll be causing you to blister all over with laughter."

Nanny and Samuel both broke into laughter, then they froze in the middle of their laughs as several gigantic shadows rose from behind them and covered them.

Jimbo started to reach for his pistol.

Samuel looked at him and shook his head.

Jimbo moved his hand away.

They all turned slowly to stare at what had made the shadows.

Saran and several of his troops were behind them in robotic machines that they drove from the heads. Mechas.

"You will not try to escape." Saran urged them with a smile that said nothing but harm to them if they did. "Put your back packs down and raise your hands, then put your hands behind your backs."

They did as told.

The tiny elephant cried out when Nanny set it down, but then cowered deep into the backpack when it heard the crunch of rock and leaves as some of the soldiers dropped to the ground and hurried over to tie them up with short straps of an elastic like material. They were roughly handled, then spun around to face Saran, who rose his mecha like a cowboy on a horse. He put one leg over the side and leaned down somewhat a satisfied smile on his face.

"I'll give this to you. You are quite flexible and clever."

"What do you want?" Samuel said. "We've done nothing to you!"

"Oh, but you have." Saran said, as he climbed down the mecha's side and walked over to look Samuel in the face. "You exist and you have caused me to be reformatted."

"Huh?" Jimbo squawed before he could stop himself.

Saran looked over at the Texan who stood over him by a good six inches. "Tall and brawny, but a bit light on the intellectual side of things are we?"

Jimbo growled angrily and rushed Saran.

A soldier struck him down from behind.

Jimbo hit the ground hard, but he wasn't out. He rolled over, spitting out dirt and small rocks and scowled at Saran. "And you're a bit light on courtesy, Mister!"

Saran took a baton from his belt and lightly tapped Jimbo on his nose. "And you, you, shall soon be light on a head."

Saran looked up at his soldiers. "Take them to the ship!"

The soldiers mustered Jimbo to his feet, and then pressed Nanny and Samuel behind him, then reached their mechas and handed them up to the men above. Soon they were all separated and riding in individual mechas. Jimbo barely fit his, but managed to lower himself by scrunching his back and shoulders. It was going to be a tough ride, if the nature of the machines meant anything he thought to himself as the mechas powered up.

What was most interesting to him was that the machines made no external sounds. They had some kind of stealth mode. He couldn't figure out what it was, until he looked out and saw that none of the mechas actually touched the ground when they walked. They floated.

He looked to his right and Nanny was looking his way, but not at him, at the backpack that still lay on the ground. He saw a tiny trunk poke out, then jerk back in when the Mechas walked over it. Nanny's face became dark with anger, until she looked over and saw him looking at her. He smiled encouragingly and she nodded, then settled back.

Samuel and the others were in a special compartment that allowed no contact with the pilot of the mechas. He was sealed off from them by some kind of flexible plastic substance that they could see him through, but not he they.

"Well, young man, here's another fine mess we've gotten ourselves into." Albert said as he materialized besides Samuel.

Samuel settled back and closed his eyes. "You could have warned us."

"True, but then you would never have reached your goal."

Samuel looked over at Al, startled by the reply. "I don't understand."

"Haven't you learned anything over the years, Sam. That with patience comes all things." Al replied with a smirk, then vanished.