The Virus Within: Secrets Unraveled (Book 5)

Ch 8: The Air Cannon

The PVC air tank had a visible bulge in the middle by the time Nicky declared, "I think that's all the air I can safely add."

Jax, Wren, and I stood to the side as she picked up the air cannon and rolled a rock down the barrel. She took aim at a tree farther down the tree line, and as she reached for the valve trapping the air in the air tank, the tip of her barrel dipped and the rock rolled out.

She quickly retrieved the rock and reloaded it, this time keeping the barrel pointed slightly up. As she braced her feet, I wondered if she'd be able to hang onto it or if it had enough firepower to push the air cannon out of her arms. There was no way to hold it against her shoulder like a gun.

Her hands moved to the valve and flipped it open. With a pop, the rock shot out of the barrel and careened into the trees.

"That had to be at least two hundred feet!" Nicky exclaimed as she did an impromptu victory dance with the air cannon pointed to the sky.

She began re-pumping the air chamber while Wren helped locate the roundest rock in the pile we'd brought over.

Jax picked up a stone and examined it. "These will easily fly off-course. It won't be too noticeable if you pick closer targets, but it's not an ideal long-range weapon."

"At least the rocks aren't going to fly in circles around me like my boomerang does," Nicky replied, not at all dissuaded.

I guess she had a point there. And if my intuition was correct, she'd also spend hours tormenting it.

"Can I try?" Wren asked hopefully.

"Sure! We can take turns so our arms don't tire as fast."

They could be out here all afternoon... "I'll leave you two out here to have some fun," I said, dumping the wheelbarrow's load of rocks onto the ground. "It shouldn't take me long to finish that pitfall trap."

"I'll come help in a bit," Jax told me as he watched Wren pump up the air cannon.

~

Almost two hours later, I rested my hands on the shovel as the potato gun trio finally returned. The happy grins on their faces seemed out of place after the last few days, but at the same time, it was good for them to momentarily forget about the stresses and worries they were facing.

This was a new and more relaxed side to Jax. Wren seemed to have come out of her shell too. Nicky was, well, Nicky. She dragged the gun behind her with one hand and packed three rocks in her other arm while chattering happily with her companions.

"Did you break it?" I asked in an idle, amused tone.

"Nope! But we might have displaced any trust the locals had in us when they saw our aim. The squirrel might also need some therapy." With a contented sigh, she sat on the grass beside the waist-deep hole I was standing in. "That was fun, but my arms feel like rubber now. Picking up a shovel is way too much work. I think I'll sit over here and be a cheerleader."

"And what if I was leaving the last of this hole for you to dig?" I tapped the shovel against the gritty dirt.

"I'd say you're better off asking Daniel when he returns. I can take a nap in the bean bag chair while he works. You made pretty good progress without us. Three pitfall traps should be plenty, so someone just has to finish that one."

I raised an eyebrow and was about to respond when a high-pitched screech cut through the air. I jumped out of the hole as Nicky scrambled to her feet at the eerily familiar sound. Alarm horns were blown frantically from the south side of the Stronghold.

I pulled my bow and arrows free as I began racing around the fence, trying to see what was happening on the other side of the Stronghold. Ahead, I could see horses bolting for the hills as their riders fought to turn them around. Sheep and goats were also fleeing to the far sides of their pasture with single-minded fear.