Flash Gordon 3 - The Space Circus by Alex Raymond Read Free Book Online Page B

few more minutes of digging and I should be a hundred percent sure.”
    Dale said, “When you’re sure, then what?”
    “Then I’ll go to Mesmo,” said Zarkov, “and help Flash get back home.”

CHAPTER 16
    T he rain pounded down through the broken and twisted metal of the roof. There was a harsh burnt smell everywhere.
    Flash stirred, shaking his head, and looked around him. Water was running along the sharply slanted floor of the train car. The bent blue man who had handed him the keys just before the train smashed to the ground was nowhere in sight.
    “The keys,” remembered Flash, shaking his head again. He found he still held them clutched in his hand.
    He tried several of the keys on the manacle holding him to his chair. The fourth one worked; he was free. His wrist was bloody, the metal had cut into it when the train hit, but the injury was not serious.
    “I’m dying,” said the unhappy voice of Booker. “I’m all smashed up and dying.”
    From nearer at hand came a groan. It was the pudgy Sixy. He was slumped in his twisted chair, a bleeding gash zigzagging across his forehead.
    Flash eased across the aisle and began to try the keys Nord had given him.
    “Get me loose first and I can help out,” said Huk the hawkman.
    “You okay?” asked Flash as he turned toward him.
    “A sprained wing is about all the damage, I think.”
    Flash moved along the wet slippery floor. Rain was spraying down on him through the ruined ceiling. He freed the hawkman.
    “What about me?” yelled Booker. “I’ll die if somebody doesn’t pay any attention to me soon.”
    “You’re pretty talkative for someone who’s dying,” said Jape. He was holding his head with two of his hands, feeling his ribs with another and massaging a welt on his knee with the fourth.
    “Just because I can talk doesn’t mean I’m not all busted up inside.”
    Sixy groaned again while they were unlocking him. His eyelids flickered, tried to open, but stayed shut.
    Huk stared up at the rents in the roof of their car. The rain slapped at him, making him narrow his eyes. “I can carry him out through that biggest hole up there.”
    “You guys going to fly away and leave me to die here?” Booker wanted to know.
    “Set him down clear of the wreckage,” said Flash. “Then come back for the rest of the injured.”
    Huk extended his wings, splashing water. “Hard to take off in wet weather, but here goes.” He got hold of the unconscious Sixy under the arms, went flapping up to the ceiling of the train car, and then out into the rainy darkness.
    “Doesn’t seem,” said Jape, when Flash came to unlock him, “as though our guard is up and around.”
    “He’s slumped back there in his chair,” said Flash, nodding. “I don’t think he’s alive.”
    “I won’t be alive much longer myself,” said Booker, “unless somebody does something.”
    Jape went to him. “What’s wrong, exactly?”
    “How do I know? I’m not a doctor. I got pains all over, and internal injuries.”
    While Jape was trying out keys on Booker’s manacle, Flash worked his way over to Narla. The blonde girl was hanging out into the aisle, long hair brushing against the rain slick floor. “Narla,” he said, touching her hand.
    She did not respond.
    “Is she alive?” asked Jape.
    “Yes,” answered Flash. “I can feel her pulse. I don’t quite know what’s wrong with her.”
    “She’s probably got internal injuries like me,” said Booker.
    Jape found the key which released the silent girl.
    The hawkman returned, landing near them. “We’ve been very fortunate,” he said.
    “How serious is the damage to the rest of the train?” asked Jape.
    Huk shook his head. “There won’t be many other survivors. Many of the other cars are twisted beyond recognition. And some of them are burning.” He noticed Narla. “She all right?”
    “She’s alive,” said Flash. “You better take her out next.”
    “How about me?” asked Booker. “I’m hurt worse