Gregg paced the limited space in the garage searching his
brain for a feasible plan to get the girls out. He’d almost become desperate enough to walk up and knock on the front door asking for them, “Hey, do you think you could hand over the girls, just so we can get the hell out of your shit-forsaken town?”
But the simple fact it was raining prevented him from even doing that. Realising it made him look edgy; he stopped pacing the room and sat on the twisted bumper of Nick’s van.
Nick thumbed through his batch of photographs, choosing the order in which to use them for the slideshow he’d planned at the convention in two days time; should he ever get there. Jill was sitting inside the 4X4 beside Alicia, talking to her about her school, her friends, and her family, anything she could think of to distract her from the reality of the situation they were in.
Gregg stood bolt upright from the bumper; quite sure he’d just had one of those “Eureka” moments. He walked over to Nick. ‘In order for us to get in the town hall, we need to get that lot out first, do you agree?’
‘Absolutely.’
‘Okay. The only place big enough to hold them all, outside the town hall and the schoolhouse, is the cinema. I noticed its construction when I was in there earlier; it’s all wood, with thick wooden pillars holding up the roof. Do you think you have enough explosive power to take out those pillars? Yes or no?’
‘Yes, I’d say it’s possible, but how are you going get one hundred plus vampires out of the town hall and into the cinema?’
‘Getting them out of the town hall will be easy; I’ll set fire to the place. Or at least I’ll make them think it’s on fire. Then, when they’re out of the way, I go in and free the girls.
‘And what makes you so sure they’ll head for the cinema and not the schoolhouse, or even here for that matter?’
‘The steps to the schoolhouse are gone, but they might still try to get up there. Here, we can bolt the hatch and block their exit, leaving them with only the cinema. But we have to make sure that’s the only option left open to them.’
‘By blocking all other routes you mean?’
‘Correct.’
‘What’s correct?’ said Jill walking towards them.
‘How’s Alicia?’ asked Gregg.
‘Believe it or not, she’s asleep; it’s probably the first time she’s slept since they took her. So, do we have a plan then?’
‘We aim to get them into the cinema and blow the place up,’ said Nick.
‘Are those fireworks powerful enough to do that?’
‘After a five-metre radius, the blast wave dissipates rapidly,’ said Nick. ‘But if they’re positioned right, those pillars will be taking the full brunt of the blast. I can’t see them holding up after that.’
‘How are you going to get all the fireworks in there, carry them?’ she asked.
Nick raised his shoulders. ‘Yeah, through the tunnels, how else?’
‘And how long will that take? Plus you’ll have to spend even more time rigging it up.’
‘She’s right, Nick, forget it, it’ll take too long to set up. By the time we have the place rigged and ready to blow, the sun will be baking the street, and that lot will be all over us like a bad rash!’
Jill stood with her arms folded; Gregg noticed the smug look in her face. ‘You have something else to add?’ he asked.
‘There is a faster way of getting it all inside, and it’ll detonate right in the middle of them with ten times the effect of just gunpowder.’
‘We’re listening,’ they both said.
‘Okay, Nick, can you set the fireworks off without having to use a lighted fuse?’
‘Sure, sending an electrical charge down a cable will do it.’
‘What if you don’t have the option of electricity, can you do it then?’
‘I could rig it to go off remotely, if that’s what you mean?’
Jill nodded, as though accepting the method, then she turned to Gregg. ‘How are you going to get them all into the cinema?’
‘I’ll use one of nature’s most fundamental instincts, fear. Because in a crowd, fear soon turns into panic, if they’re panicked enough they’ll run, and, just like a herd of spooked Wilderbeast, they’ll keep running until they’re out of danger. All we need to do is set a few well placed fires around the outside of the town hall to make them think the place is burning down. Hopefully that will be enough to get them into the tunnels, which are so wet right now; they’ll need to keep going just to get to somewhere dry, somewhere they’ll feel safe. So once they’re in the tunnels we keep them moving until they realise the only place left for them to run is the cinema.’ He turned to Nick. ‘But first we’d need to block two other routes. Can you rig enough of the fireworks to close off two tunnels, and still have enough left to do what needs to be done, Nick?’
‘I’d have to see the structure of the tunnels first, see what’s needed down there. But yeah, I think that’s feasible.’
‘Okay,’ Gregg said, turning back to Jill. ‘Right then, let’s hear what you have in mind.’
