False Idols - Published Version

Chapter 26

                  

Sarah knew she was doomed. But she wasn't going to give up yet. She kept running forward towards the safes. One cat was preparing to pounce on her from directly in front, and the other from behind.

As the cat to her front leapt at her, Sarah jumped as high as she could. The cat had aimed too low and its paws passed under Sarah's legs. She planted her hands on the bristly fur of the cat's forehead and pushed off hard, flipping herself over the cat.

She had expected to land on the left most of the bottom row of four vaults, but as she flipped through the air she realized the vault had been knocked out of the array by the cat's impact a few moments ago. Now the lockbox lay on the ground several feet from where it had once floated, its door busted open and its contents spilled out.

Sarah stretched her arms outwards and managed to grab onto the top edge of the safe in the column one over. She clawed at the slippery metal until she got enough purchase to pull herself onto it. Once on top of it, she had to stay crouched low, because the next row of vaults was only two feet above her.

Behind her, she heard the two cats hissing angrily. She spared a glance back and saw that they were entangled, as if they had collided into each other head on.

She used their momentary confusion to her advantage by rolling off the edge of the safe she was lying on. Just as she went over the side, she unbent her legs, launching herself up diagonally. She grabbed the edge of the box one column over and one row higher and scrabbled on top of it. Now she was kneeling two rows and one column away from safe D.

The cats untangled themselves and returned to the hunt. One of them skittered towards the wall and began climbing towards the ledge that ran around the room at the height of the third row of safes. The other cat immediately pounced towards her.

Gritting her teeth against her growing headache, Sarah rolled to her side and pushed with her legs, allowing her to grab onto a vault on the next higher row just as the cat impacted with the cube of steel she had just been kneeling on.

The force of the cat's impact drove the safe out of the floating array and into the far wall of the room. It made a resounding clang before falling to the ground, its door broken open by the collision. The cat hissed and fell lithely back to the ground.

Sarah vaulted up to the top row. She was one safe over from where she needed to be. Without nothing directly above her, she was finally able to stand up and move more quickly.

She froze when she realized that she was staring right into the eyes of the other cat. It had climbed to the ledge and was now preparing to pounce the short distance towards her.

Sarah knew she was running out of time. Her headache was becoming unbearable and she was beginning to feel nausea and vertigo as her TacWave overheated. Soon she would not be able to jump between columns and rows anymore.

She stepped to safe D and stood still on it. "Here, kitty," she whispered.

The cat bunched its haunches and leapt.

As the cat flew through the air, Sarah jumped up as high as she could and drew her legs into her chest. The cat's momentum carried it just below her, into lockbox D, which was knocked out of the array by the impact.

As Sarah fell towards the ground, the vault flew across the room and smashed into the wall. Its door broke open and it fell to the ground in pieces. It landed so that its ruptured door was facing upwards.

As Sarah passed the third row in the array she pushed off of a steel wall just hard enough, and just in the right direction, so that she fell perfectly inside the broken doorway of safe D.