Escort to Hell Ch 10

You & Elana climb into the hovo. You sit there for a minute looking at the instruments, trying to compare it to the guages & dials you have seen on the cycles & cars. Elana quickly explains the altimeter, the thrust, and the horizon-line. After a few minutes, you grunt "Whutever.." and fire the hovo to life.

Pushing the vertical thrust, the hovo lifts off the rocks high enough so you can see a way through the mountains. Mashing the pedal, the hovo starts moving forward through the mountains, heading north.

The ground passes quickly beneath you at your cruising speed of 120 mph. You're thinking about what plan you'll use once you get to Sisco but after about 30 minutes your thoughts are disrupted by a loud BANG from behind you.

"Whut in thunder..?"

Elana looks back and sees flames shooting through the skin of the hovo, "Looks like a lateral stabilizer went. Throttle down and get this on the ground before we spiral!" You start dropping speed and lowering the hovo, trying to steer away from the mountains. Through a pass you see some trees. You would have preferred the desert, less to hit out there, but beggers take what's tossed to them.

The stick is shaking in your hands as you try to keep the hovo from rotating and slamming you into the ground upside down. "Hang on, sweetheart! It's gonna be a rough row to hoe!"
Elana looks at you, shouting "WHAT?!" but just then the stick slips from your hand and the hovo pitches to left and starts spiraling. You're grabbing for the stick, trying to bring the hovo under control, fully aware that if you gain control while you're upside down, you're both dead. You manage to halt the stick's gyrations while the hovo is on it's left side. You try to jerk it to the right, but you have already started snapping the tops of trees, then into the canopy of the forest.

The hovo is cutting a gash through the trees when it decides it has had enough and starts splintering into pieces. Chunk after chunk of the hovo falls away and you start wishing the ground would get here sooner than later. The cockpit manages to hold together when the remains of the hovo finally come to a stop in the woods.

A few kicks remove the stuck cockpit cover and you and Elana both climb out. Bruised and shaken, you're both intact. Looking back at the path the hovo left you shake your head, "Never should have gotten into thet damn fool machine. Looks lahk we're awalkin' to Sisco."
Elana takes your hand, "God, you are a piece of work, Hex. A real piece of work." You both head Northeast.

After walking for several hours you're still in the forest and it is getting dark. You decide to bunk down for the night. As the fire crackles you notice something odd. You haven't seen hide nor hair of any animals since the hovo crash. Come to think of it, you haven't even heard a bird, frog, or bug all day or night.

What kind of world is this? You hunker down by the fire and fall asleep.

Next morning you decide to head out. Which way do you go?

NE, staying in the woods.

East, into & over the mountains

NE, Head for the pass through the mountains