Week 1.4 – The Chase

Previously on Run, Digger Run!: Digger, accused of robbing bank, was thwarted in his capture of the mysterious Jeff Twain by Flexo Thompson, the Amazing Rubber Man. Digger has just leaped forward to attack his former partner when…

Two seconds later, no blast had come, and the whine from the Drillers had faded away. Flexo peeked out from behind his hands. Digger was gone. People on the mall were looking up and behind him, so Flexo turned and looked up in time to see a shadow disappear onto the roof of the building looming over him.

Digger was four stories up, and Flexo could neither fly nor climb walls nor jump high enough to catch him. Digger had escaped.

For now…

***

Digger crouched on the roof and scanned the crowd on the mall below. Virtually every face was turned up in his general direction, looking at the spot where he’d climbed onto the roof moments ago. Down below, out of his line of sight, Digger could hear Flexo Thompson cursing his name.

But one man stood out in the crowd. Wearing baggy jeans and a hoodie sweatshirt, he was walking away with his head down and his hands in his pockets, seemingly deliberately not looking up.

That was his man.

Digger got a running start and leaped. He soared out across the mall and plummeted silently toward his target. Just before landing, Digger fired up the Drillers, then thought better of it. Reflexes died hard. He hit the ground, rolled, then scrambled to his feet as the guy in the hoodie glanced back. As he turned to run, Digger slapped his hand flat against the guy’s back and exerted the same force he used to stick to walls.

Just as with the Drillers, Digger didn’t know the mechanism of his powers. He only  knew how it felt to use the power–like really powerful static cling, only he never got shocked. With his feet locked to the ground and his hand locked onto the guy’s back (the clinging force worked through thin materials like cloth and shoe soles–it apparently needed something more substantial to work on), Digger could hold him indefinitely with no chance of escape.

The guy grunted and struggled for a moment, then stopped and slumped. “Okay, could you stop that, please?” he said. “It’s really disgusting.”

Digger tore the hood from the man’s head. “Well, if it isn’t my old friend, Buddy Buckle. Or is your name Twain?”

“Where did you hear that name?” Twain asked.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Digger drew back his fist and his Driller snapped to life with a rising whine. “What the hell did you do to me?”

Twain threw up his hands as if that could protect him from an explosion that could vaporize granite. “Wait, you can’t!”

Digger’s mouth twitched and the Drillers powered down. “Damn it!” he growled, then thrust his right hand at Twain. “Take it off.”

Twain looked down hopelessly at the blinking metal disk affixed to the Driller. “I can’t,” he said. “If I disconnect it, it will send a signal to the bombs.”

“But can’t you even… what do you mean, ‘bombs?’”

Twain shrugged and pulled up his shirt to reveal a device strapped to his chest. “I’ve got one, too. If you use your Drillers, I die.”

Tune in tomorrow for the next fast-moving episode of Run, Digger, Run!

To read from the beginning, click here…

And to read the next chapter, click here!