Chapter 10
They crept up the few steps to reach the door, then tried the latch, and thankfully, the door opened. They both slipped inside and noticed a large room with benches and a desk at the front, up on a raised platform. This must be the courtroom.
So far, they hadn't seen anyone, but why would a lamp be burning outside with no one around to tend it?
Devon pointed to a door at the back of the room, and she assumed it would lead to some stairs. They tiptoed to that door and opened it. The latch made a noise, just a tiny squeak, but it was enough to alert anyone around.
They froze in place for a few moments. Then, with no evidence to indicate another person was there, they crept down the stairs.
"Over here," Freya said and pulled Devon in the direction of the middle cell on the right. Nothing was stirring, so she imagined that everyone was asleep. Unfortunately, the angle grinder was going to make a whole lot of noise.
"Brianna, Grandma, wake up."
Devon fished out the angle grinder and placed it against the bars.
One woman on the other side of the cell moved, but it was hard to say if they were awake or not.
As soon as Devon fired up the angle grinder and pressed it to the bars, it created sparks and the expected earsplitting whine.
Soon, everyone in the jail leaned against the bars, trying to see what the hell was going on.
Devon worked at the bars as fast as he could, opening an area where the two women could slip through.
"Freya. Thank the Goddess!" Brianna stood and grabbed her sister’s arms through the bars. Her grandmother didn't rise. Shouting over the noise of the machine, Freya shouted, "Grandma? Grandma, wake up."
Brianna looked over her shoulder, and her eyes grew large. “Oh, no." She ran over to their grandmother and tried to rouse her. "Grandma. Grandma, are you okay?"
Thankfully, she moaned. Freya let out a deep breath and hoped her grandmother could make the trip. If not, she would carry her the whole way back.
At last, Devon stopped the infernal noise and stuffed the machine back into the sack, leaving the broken bars on the floor.
“I'm coming in so we can get grandma and get out of here," Freya said.
Both women rushed to their grandmother and helped her to stand. She seemed so weak that she could barely hold her head up.
"Freya, is that you? Are you real?"
"Yes, Grandma, we’re here.”
"You girls go. Leave me behind. I'll only slow you down."
"Not gonna happen, Grandma," Freya stated, firmly.
Devon stepped through the bars. "Upsy Daisy, Mrs. Suretti," he said, and scooped their grandmother into his arms, carrying her like she was a baby. “Ladies, go out the hole, and I'll hand her to you."
The space was only about two feet by three feet, but he handed her legs through easily.
As soon as she was outside the cell, he stretched his arms through the opening and touched Esther’s feet to the ground.
Freya grabbed her sister’s hands under their grandmother’s knees and behind her back.
They pulled her out of the hole and struggled to stand with her in their arms. They held her there until Devon came out, and then he scooped her up again.
The other prisoners seemed to have recovered from the shock of seeing something that didn't exist in their time.
They started shouting, "Prithee, help us!” and when the interlopers looked ready to leave, “Dost thou have no heart? "
Devon asked Freya to grab the sack and follow him up the stairs. Brianna picked up the extra iron bars and handed them off to the prisoners in the next two cells. "Hide this. If they open your door, use it to knock them out and then escape."
One prisoner groaned and said, “I fear the wrath of Judge Stoughton. I dare not attack any soul and anger him further.”
Brianna dropped her head and mumbled, "I'm sorry."
Freya grabbed her sister around her tiny waist and helped her up the stairs.
They had just run outside when someone shouted, “Halt! Who goes there?”
“Run!” Devon said, urgently. He was burdened with Freya’s grandmother but ran as fast as he could. The man with a musket was gaining on them.
Freya turned just in time to see him stop and aim his musket at Devon’s back.
“No!” she shouted and charged toward the man, taser at the ready.
He swung his musket toward her, but didn’t get a chance to discharge the weapon.
Before he did so, she ducked, grabbed a handful of dirt and gravel, tossed it at his face, and got close enough to taze his neck.
The man, who was large for that day and age, went down like a sack of potatoes.
Without waiting to see how soon he would recover, Freya hurried back toward the others. Her sister was falling behind, so she grabbed her around the waist again and helped her run. The only problem was, where were they running to?
The bridge came into focus.
Devon turned his head slightly and called out, "Are you still with me, ladies?"
"We’re right behind you," Freya called.
They caught up to him on the other side of the bridge.
Freya looked frantically about for any kind of indication that they were getting close to the portal.
She didn't have any kind of landmark from the spot where they’d entered because it was so dark.
Maybe they’d just have to rely on plain dumb luck and, hopefully, stumble upon it, literally.
Devon called out, "I think the portal was around here, somewhere." He must have been thinking along the same lines.
"How do we find it again?" Freya asked.
"I remember a pricker bush when I stumbled through it," Brianna said.
"Was the pricker bush on this side of the timeline, or the other?" Devon asked.
"This side," she said.
"Perfect. Girls, try to find a pricker bush on the edge of these woods, but be careful too."
Freya laughed. “Sure. Find a pricker bush, carefully… Sounds like fun. But it also sounds like survival.” She rushed to the edge of the wood, extended one hand, and felt for anything that might give her a bit of a prick and indicate their way home.
"Ouch. Worth it!" Freya called out.
Devon stopped, as did Brianna. “You found it?" Brianna asked.
“It's around here some —"
Freya stumbled and fell onto her flashlight, which was still illuminating the twenty-first-century side. She'd found the portal! Now she just had to hope the others could follow her.