Free The Search For A Cure by C. Chase Harwood Page B

march right through.

    Seventeen minutes earlier, when the first Fiend had started to climb the cage, Jon and Nikki hadn’t hesitated. They each climbed one of the two dead transformers and tried to pull themselves up using the cable above while walking on the one below. With the rain, the cables might as well have been sheathed in ice, cold hands offering little grip. Nikki quickly slid off her belt and looped it around the cable above her, then wrapped her fists in the ends and pulled the looped section tight. By doing this she was able to pull herself forward, and with a quick release, slide, grab again, and pull herself up. Her feet slipped, but her grip on the belt didn’t. Jon tried the same trick and had the same success. It was slow going, but they were making progress. The other prisoners piled up against each other to be next.
      Acting as the gatekeeper, Will said, “Quick now. Everybody up. No time to lose.”
      Miraculously, everyone owned a belt except for Ingrid who had been wearing a dress the day they stuck her in the cage.
      Will grabbed a fallen blanket and climbed up to the cables. He twisted the threadbare cloth around the upper one and gave it a tug. He handed the woman his belt. “Use mine, Ingrid. This blanket seems to do the trick.” He spoke with a smile in his voice and for Ingrid, it was both remarkable and unsettling.
      Kathy was last. She stood upon her crutches and smiled weakly at Will. “Go,” she said.
      “Kathy,” he admonished, panic overtaking his cheerful cadence.
      She looked over her shoulder into the gloom. The fencing was alive with grunting humans. “You wouldn’t know anything about breaking necks would you, Will? You could kill me quick.”
      “Try climbing.”
      He helped her up onto the transformer base and she got her belt around the cable. She pulled herself up a few feet but her legs just didn’t have the strength or balance and she slipped and fell back into his arms.
      “Here, climb on my back.”
      She did her best, but her hip made it hard to hold on with her legs. Will tried to climb, but her weight was too much. He simply couldn’t pull them both up. She cried out as she loosened her grip. Will begged, "Hold tight!"
      “Oh, Will. Oh, God. God, help me.” She let go, dropping back to the ground with a thud, losing her wind.
      Will looked down, released his belt, and started to climb down for her. “I’m coming. Hang on!”
      She got her breath back. “No, you go!”
      He hesitated. The pause allowed the sound of the climbing killers to be firmly drilled into their heads.
      “Go for God’s sake!”
      He closed his eyes for a second and then without looking back at her, renewed his climb.
      Jon took his eyes off Nikki’s back.   They were almost to the top of the first tower, and he looked over his shoulder during a lighting flash. In that blink of a moment he counted only Nancy Green, Loren Haymaker, Doctor Smith, David Miller and just barely, Ingrid the mousy woman. He had to assume that the rest were coming. At this point, everyone was on their own.
      Beyond this first tower there was a sudden spread in the distance between the cable above and the one they were walking on. The one above was now out of reach, making it impossible to continue in the fashion that Nikki had worked out. At least this tower was within the compound, the base only thirty or so yards from the power plant. As Jon joined Nikki on the tower railings, she panted, “We’ll have to climb down. Try to steal a boat.” She then began to work her way down the slippery rails. The night was so dark that there was no seeing the ground. They could hear the Fiends though. The chain link fence was singing its own tortured tune.
      They were perhaps half way down when there was a slight gentle yelp and tall skinny Loren Haymaker flew past them having slipped on a wet rail. His body hit another rail below them and then spun crazily in the dark until