Lava fields and hot spots

From the back of the truck and using night glasses; the only sight visible to Alanov was the truck caught in the flames and exploding, “Tell me something, Kabel,” Alanov asked.

            Kabel gave a sigh of relief, glad to see her desperate plan worked and said, “How can I help you?”

            “I am curious as too how certain you had been that we may survive the fires?”

            “I was only about forty percent sure; the other part relied more on luck, to be truthful; as there were too many variables beyond our control.”

            “What variables?”

            “First, we travelled across bumpy ground at high speed and an accurate trajectory for the launcher became improbable if not impossible to achieve.”

            “You assumed the lowest arc gives us the shortest miscalculation range.”

“Yes and don’t forget we are using launchers and grenades which had not seen action for many years, so I had no idea if they would launch and if so, would the grenades explode.”

            Alanov shrugged his tired shoulders and said, “You got forced into making snap decisions based on old equipment.”

            Kabel winked at the group and replied, “You have been a witness as to why I am a leader and the Game want me dead or disgraced. I was reasonably certain of one thing; I realised if we hit the ridge square on and at full speed we would beat the explosions and get here and the Game would perish.”

            “What made you sure their trucks wouldn’t get across?”

            “We‘re a tracked vehicle, so the weight is evenly spread as we cross the thin, crusted plates; they were in a normal truck with tyres which created pressure points to break the crust, all the time they chased us, they were slowing down until the tyres broke through and there you can witness the end of the vehicle,” saying that Kabel pointed back across to the burned remains of a truck chassis.”

            Freddy, who remained watching the truck fall apart, commented, “Your plan worked, Kabel, but even so, it was too close for comfort.”

            Kabel took time to view the people around her and said, “The plan worked because we believed in our cause and in each other’s ability to perform a task without needing to have a check on the progress. Yes, that was to close, Freddy and now we need to keep a watch for these groups, the next time we may not be so lucky. Pardaig can you contact James and tell him what happened and we are safe, thanks?”

            Pardraig  knew the frequencies and the coded systems developed to avoid tacking at the city but the heat from the lava caused hot spots and kept blocking the reception, finally he got his call out, “Skimmer one to base, do you read?”

            James responded in a heartbeat, “Hello skimmer, this is base. I’ve got you loud and clear; we saw the explosions; where you near the eruptions?”