Scrapyard Ship Read Online Free PDF Page B

under him and rushed towards Mollie’s body.
    “Don’t you touch her, don’t you go near her!” Jason yelled. The robot stopped and looked back at him. In a calm and deliberate voice it said: “There are many things you don’t comprehend yet, but believe me when I tell you, not all hope is lost. You need to pick her up and come with me… hurry, do it now!”
    Jason had nothing to lose and somewhere in the back of his mind it occurred to him that he was talking to some kind of creature that shouldn’t even exist. Maybe it, he, whatever it was, could do something for her. The alternative was too devastating to imagine. He picked up Mollie’s limp body and felt her head roll loosely to the crook of his arm. He felt incapacitated with dread. The robot, which seemed no worse for wear, darted off towards the Cadillac. Jason quickly followed behind.
    He swung open the heavy car door. “Hurry, get in, get in!” the robot barked, prodding Jason to move faster.
    “Where? In there? What the hell are you talking about?” Jason yelled back, but stooped down anyway and scurried into the Cadillac. The robot closed the door and pressed a small button. As the three of them tightly huddled together, the floor started to lower. It was an elevator of sorts and they were descending. The walls of the makeshift shaft were a patchwork of things pilfered from the scrapyard: automobile hoods, car doors, and even the side panel from an old ambulance.
    “It’s already been a minute and thirty seconds, “Jason barked. “Come on, God damn it! How long are we going to be stuck in this thing?”
    The mechanical man didn’t move and continued to stare forward. They dropped several hundred meters before the elevator slowed and came to a complete stop. It was an opening to a large tunnel. The robot, wasting no time, jumped out and signaled Jason to follow.
    Jason’s mind raced, three minutes and counting . They ran through a large tunnel, sporadically-placed light fixtures flew by in a blur. Jason and the robot ran another full minute before the tunnel opened up into a massive underground chamber. Still at a dead run, Jason noticed the mechanical man was tiring. “Don’t you dare stop now!” Jason barked, passing him and looking back over his shoulder. Jason stole a glance down at Mollie’s face, her lips had turned blue, her mouth agape.
    Workers in dark blue uniforms worked at consoles and workbenches; they looked up with surprised expressions. More strange electrical devices, much like those in the shed, were strewn about, being worked on. But as astonishing as everything seemed to Jason, they paled in comparison to the odd-looking spaceship parked in the center of the chamber. The ship was huge, over a football field in length and almost half of that in width.
    Jason looked down at Mollie, lying lifeless in his arms, hoping that his running hadn’t disturbed her in some way.
    “Come on! We’re over four minutes, where do I go. Where?” Jason screamed.
    The robot ran past him and quickly scurried up a long ramp, disappearing into the back of the ship. Jason ran after him. Oh God, would they make it in time. Time for what? Would the robotic-creature really have some magical formula to bring her back to life? Then Jason noticed someone had hand-painted the words The Lilly in bright yellow lettering directly over the open hatch. Jason ran into the ship.
    They continued running down a narrow, brightly-lit corridor. Hatchways and divergent corridors flew by as they progressed deeper into the bowels of the ship. The robot abruptly stopped. “Hurry, through the DeckPort,” he prompted, pointing toward another open hatch. The little man-thing took hold of Jason’s wrists and they scurried across the threshold together. From the top of his head down to his toes, he felt a slight tingle run through his body. They were somehow, transported to another deck—another corridor. The robot ran ahead and made an abrupt turn up ahead. Jason