Kandar Ep 33 the Escape

      Charlie, Kera, Hopper, Apollo, and Gracie snagged a family transport from a near by house and took off in the direction of the train depot. Time being of the essence they did not bother with opening the gate when they reached the depot, they just drove straight through it. Quickly they swarmed the single long building and dock, busting open any and all doors they found, looking for the opening to this tunnel Miss Kitty was in. Inside the building they found a stash of medical supplies, including a massive amount of Sodium Thiopental, and lots of crates full of manacles. It was Apollo, that accidentally tripped over the switch behind the counter, that opened the hidden entrance on the side of the dock.

      Outside, at the end of the wooden dock, the side slide down as a part of the wooden dock lifted straight up, exposing the entrance to the tunnel. Inside they found a mining transport vehicle with three passenger cars attached to it. This gave them 60 seats, but even double seated it was going to take several trips to get everyone out.  The Azmarelda radioed over that they were sending over the medical sleepers for the refugees along with a couple of extra guys to help expedite things.

      "At least each trip is going to be shorter and faster as they are moving this way," Kera stated. She was the ranking officer there so everything was by her call. She had been with Sarge for several years and came highly rated. The long pretty blond hair fooled many, she was a battle hardened, heavily decorated, ex-special forces, specialized in heavy weapon with a keen mind for battle tactics. She knew everyone in the outfit and what they could do. "Hopper, you have run one of these things before right?" He nodded a 'yes' then headed down the ramp into the tunnel to the tram. "Apollo, start moving the supplies out for pick up, the rest of you spread out and see what other goodies we can find. Keep your eyes open for stragglers. I'll keep watch here, we are check point Tango."

      As soon as Miss Kitty knew about the tram they had found, she began moving the injured and weakest to the front of the line to be loaded first. They got another lucky break as the ground in the tunnel slopped upwards fairly quickly, getting them out of the rising water. Apollo made the call to back down the tunnel, not knowing if there was any turn-arounds along the way. It would make his trip down slower, but it would be easier going backwards empty, than with the tram loaded full of people.

      In town Chase was joined by Sarge and his remaining twelves guys in the crater. Sarge had them form a human line to pass all the loot up and out of the hole. Smokey's crew rolled out two 40 foot sea containers with a lumper truck, once they had the fire out and their fallen taken care of. Smokey's ground crew set the two containers as close as they safely could to the crater to expedite the loading and then several of them joined in loading the loot.

      The last few crew members of the Azmarelda, along with rather frazzled medic and nurse that Miss Kitty had brought along for the refugees, rode with the lumper truck as it took the first of the Medical Sleepers to the train station.

      Medical sleepers, or sleeper boxes as the pirates called them, were used to transport critical patients in mass out of a battlefield to a hospital or from one facility to another, while keeping them in a comatose state. The patient is placed in a small coffin like box, called a sleeper, and given a small amount of Sodium Thiopental to induce a comatose state. They are hooked into the sleeper's bio-feed that monitors and keeps them at the lowest possible state safely. These are loaded into sea container sized box that keeps them all powered and protected. All of those inside the Medical Sleep can be monitored on a medical tablet, with the right software of course.

      They arrived at check point Tango with the first of these as the second load of refugees were emerging from the tunnel. It was not the first time they had seen one, and the refugees began to panic. "Why are you going to put us in that? Where are you taking us? What are you people? I thought you were going to save us. It's just more slavers." were the calls from the growing crowd.

      By the luck of the Goddess, Miss Kitty had come out with the first group to help with the transition. She was on the first of the missions where slaves were found and rescued from these people or people like them. "Easy people. We are here to save you, and the only way we can keep you safe, and all the others we have saved safe, is that none of you see where we take you. We use these with an anesthesia drug to give us the time to get you there, and this helps to keep you from going into withdraws from whatever they have been giving you. At this point we don't know what or how much they have been giving you, and don't want to overdose anyone or mix up something that will be fatal to you. You will go to sleep here and wake up in a hospital where you will be safe from these and any other slavers."

      "That is how they brought us here, why should we trust you. How can we be sure you people are not just another group of slavers?" They asked fearful.

      Miss Kitty whistled loudly to get everyone attention as the crowd was faltering. "We are working for a small underground group that is trying to end the slave trade, but honestly, I don't have anyway to prove it, until we get you to our hospital. This is on trust, however, you all know that staying here is a death sentence, or worse. We have been doing this for a couple of years now, and I have not had to rescues the same person twice in a  long time. Meaning, they will not get their hands on you again."She let that sink in a moment before she continued on. "You will all get the treatment you need. You will be released from our hospital free and clear when you are off the drugs and feel you are ready. You will not be pushed out early to make room or to save money as treating people like you is all they do and we have plenty of room. You can return to your families if you wish or be relocated else where. We even have a few who have stayed at the hospital to help others like themselves. Your families will be safe from these people. You will be free and it will not cost you or your family a single credit. I promise you all of this, by my honor and the Goddess herself."The crowd was growing as another group arrived and they all seemed unsure but caught is a hard place with this as the only way out.

      A Leporine female with gray fur and black highlights came forward from the crowd towards Miss Kitty. She was holding a a small Leporine child in her arms that had passed away some time before the mission began, by the looks of it. "How can you pay for..." looking around at the soldiers that were now assisting with the set up of the sleeper boxes then back to Miss Kitty "all of this and our care too? How can we not be indebted to you?" Her voice was small, trembling with fear.

      "Like I said, we are working for a small underground group, their money comes from wealthy donors with thick wallets that hate slave traders, and..." Miss Kitty gave an evil smile as she looked around, "we take it from the slavers themselves. We rescue all the slaves they have, destroy their drugs so they do not end up on the streets again, and use whatever cash we find to help pay for the next attack on them."

      Another came forward and said they had seen the look or her face when she entered the cage room, she wanted be the first in a sleeper as she had no doubt of Miss Kitty's intent. With that, the rest gave in and lined up. The process went quickly with Smokey's guys unloading the empty sleepers and loading the 'live boxes' back in the Medical Sleeper while Kera and her guys were assisting the medical staff in getting everyone in the sleepers and set up for the ride.

      The underground transport kept bringing more refugees out, even after all the containers were filled, the Medic began to panic and asked Miss Kitty "How many more are down there?"

      "A lot," She replied with a sigh. "we had a head count of 621 living and another twelve dead."

      "We are out of room here. These medical sleepers only hold sixty each and you only brought..." He flips through some things on his tablet "six, according to your records here. Which means, we need more sleepers for them and spaces for the fallen as well."

      "They used the same thing in the train to bring us here. Though, I am not sure how many cars they have set up that way," one of the refugee offered, pointing at the train cars.

      "That's a great idea we can load them on the train and take it," one of Smokey's guys exclaimed. A Hircine male with white fur, black hair and markings. His horns were thick, dark and made a full circle before pointing upwards again, giving away his age a bit. She guessed he was a mechanic, by the dark oil stains on his uniform.

      Miss Kitty glared at them with a dumb look. "The train is to slow and they can follow it, tracks? Hello?"

      "You misunderstand. I mean take the train, like with us. Train cans and sea can are the same thing silly girl. We will just use the drop crane in the Azmarelda hook 'em up off the train, the lumper truck won't do that. It will be a little slower loading, thats all." He a bit of a smart-ass attitude, said it with a smile.

      "I like the way you think." Miss Kitty snickered.

      "That's great and all but, what about an anesthesia? I am running out. Nobody said we would have so many." The medic declared still in a panic.

      "We found some in the depot, see if it is still good. Check in there." Kera pointed at the pile of supplies near the tunnel entrance. "If it's good, use all you need, but the wine is ours."

      Captain Smokey boomed in on the comms suddenly, "We are on our way over now, Count 'em out and get enough boxes unhooked from the train. We will load the refugees straight on the Azmarelda and snatch the extra boxes from the air as we leave. Don't mean to be the dark cloud here, but we are running out of time people!"

      The last hour of loading wore hard on everyones nerves as they kept expecting one army or another to come charging in on them at any moment.  Smokey made the call that they would be going the scenic route through the desert to avoid any unwanted attention. Along with the damage they took the longer route would take the better part of eleven days to get to New Cannan.