Page 79 of Feast

Under the threat of torture and death at Slaine’s hands, the nith had shown them how to operate the vehicle. Since Gunnar was the most mechanically minded of the group, he was given driving duties.

And he was loving every second.

He had never experienced speed like this before. They were making good time.

But not good enough.

The nith who had taken Rolf had a sizeable head start on them. It was going to be hard to catch up before they reached the slaughterhouse facility.

“Can’t this thing go any faster?” Ika shouted from behind.

“I’ve got the throttle all the way down!” Gunnar called back.

“I don’t know what that means!”

“It means we’re going full speed. Unless…” Gunnar thought for a moment. “If we drop some weight, that could give us a little extra velocity.”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than he heard a clatter from the back of the craft. Gunnar stole a glance over his shoulder and saw that Ika had climbed into the cargo bed, opened the tailgate, and was now trying to push the heavy crates out of the back.

“Come on!” She cried to the other ukkur. “Help me get rid of this heavy stuff.”

Slaine jumped back there and started shoving crates out of the rear of the craft. The crates crashed into the snow behind them, spilling weapons and other equipment. With each one that was jettisoned, the vehicle picked up speed.

“It’s working!” Ika shouted.

The captive nith was bound and tied in the passenger seat beside Gunnar. The creature chittered and clicked disapprovingly.

“Fools,” the nith hissed. “Wasteful fools. That equipment is worth more than the meat on your bones.”

“Shut up,” Gunnar growled. But then to Ika and the others he added. “Hang on to some of those guns. We might need them.”

“Good thinking!”

Ika grabbed five rifles out of the last crate before Slaine sent it over the edge.

“That’s the last of the cargo,” Thusar said from the seat behind Gunnar’s. “How are we doing now for speed?”

Gunnar checked the dials on the dashboard. Most of them were indecipherable to him, but the nith had showed him the ones for speed and fuel, which was all he needed to know.

“Better. But it’s still not fast enough. Isn’t there anything else we can get rid of?”

Gunnar was startled by a sound of wrenching metal and an unexpected rocking motion. For a moment Gunnar thought he had scraped the bottom of the hovercraft on a stone of a fallen tree trunk that he had not seen, but then the commotion of voices behind him clued him in on the real source.

“Slaine! What the rot are you doing?” Muk shouted.

Another quick glance over his shoulder let Gunnar know what was going on.

Slaine, that crazy bastard, had never been one to hesitate. Once he got an idea in that banged-up brain of his, he was going to see it through no matter what.

And right now, the idea that Slaine had in mind was to rip the bench seats out of the vehicle. He had started with the back seat where Muk had been sitting. With his raw strength, Slaine had wrenched the bench free. He held it over his head and cast it backward out of the vehicle where it tumbled in the snow.

The vehicle sped up a little more.

“It’s helping!” Gunnar called. “Keep going! Tear them all out.”

In a matter of minutes, Gunnar’s pack brethren had gutted the interior of the vehicle. They had even dragged the nith into the back of the vehicle so that they could remove the passenger seat. Only the driver seat was left in place so that Gunnar could continue to drive.

“Stupid, stupid fools,” the nith said. “You have ruined this beautiful vehicle.