Heroic Measures (continued)

Osprey began to giggle. She tried to hold it in, but when Walter and Red saw her try, they both broke into laughter again and she lost what little control remained.

The three of them laughed until tears came, finally winding down with long, gasping breaths. It was the sight of Westin being lifted into an unmarked van that returned Walter to full sobriety. The look on his face must have been enough for both Red and Osprey to follow his gaze. Their expressions soon became grim as well.

Random had reassured them that Westin would probably be fine, but they all knew that “probably” was no guarantee. Behind them, the unconscious creature still snored, sounding very much like a distant cousin to a New England coastal fog horn. Now, though, the comparison did not seem as humorous as it had only a few minutes earlier.

The van pulled away. Random was gone now too; Walter assumed that she had accompanied Westin. The remaining gathered around the fallen behemoth, but not too close. None of them trusted that it might not awake suddenly from its sudden slumber.

There was a loud mechanical clatter and a large flat-bed truck filled the spot where the van had been. At first, Walter wondered whether it had come to tow some of the illegally parked vehicles away, and then he recognized its driver and shotgun passenger. He found himself grinning, while at the same time scolding himself for his lack of imagination.

How else did they plan to get the creature out of here? Hot air balloons?

He wondered if the towing chains would be enough to hold it should it awaken during its journey to . . . well, wherever they intended to take it. They were strong enough to hold a large truck, Walter decided. They might be sturdy enough to restrain the creature until it had been delivered to its intended destination.

Some of the earlier light-hearted mood returned as passenger jumped from the truck’s cab and then landed with a single leap onto the rear platform. He unlatched the hook and began feeding out chain until it spilled down the slowly tilting platform.

With the grace of a expert surfer, he slid down the incline of the ramp, stopping where the hook had stopped on the asphalt. He picked it up and, with an aplomb that would have made any other audience believe that he did so on a regular basis, climbed along the behemoth’s back and secured the hook to the enormous collar of its outfit. Leaping lightly back to the pavement, he signaled the driver, and the chain was reeled in.

At first, the chain creaked in protest as it was pulled taut. Then, with a grating sound that reminded Walter of enormous fingernails against a billboard–sized blackboard, the body of the creature slowly began to move, sliding inexorably toward the flat bed of the tow truck.

The gathered heroes watched almost breathlessly, all of them ready to move in if the creature began to stir. So far, it had not, seeming completely unaware in its imposed slumber of what was happening to it.

I hope the neighbors are enjoying the show, Walter thought with barely contained amusement. It’s not as though we could just teleport the thing to safe place.

Certainly, he knew, there were heroes with teleporting capabilities. Most could only transport no more than themselves. A few could also move something the size of an automobile. There were none that could move something as large as this creature.