storming: a dieselpunk adventure

8/20/2019 Storming: A Dieselpunk Adventure

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CHAPTER 1 A UGUST 1920—W ESTERN NEBRASKA

FLYING A BIPLANE, especially one as rickety as a war-surplus Cur-

tiss JN-4D, meant being ready for anything. But in Hitch’s

thtee yeas of expeece, ths was the st te “ay -

thing” had meant bodies falling out of the night sky smack in

front of his plane.

Tue eouh that y ad fall just kd of wet to-

gether. Not in a good sort of way, but in a way you couldn’tescape. Airplanes fell out of the clouds, and pilots fell out of

their airplanes. Not on purpose, of course, but it did happen

sometimes, like when some dumb palooka forgot to buckle his

safety belt, the decded to ty y upsde dow.

Flying and falling, freedom and dependence, air and earth.

That was just the way t was. But whateve was fall always

had to be falling from some place. No such thing as just fallingout of the sky, ’cause nothing was up there to fall out of.

Which didn’t at all explain the blur of plummeting shadows

just a couple huded yads fot of hs popelle.

He eacted eexvely, pull the Jey up ad to the ht.

The ew Hsso ee Eal had just stalled whed ad

whirred in protest. Hitch thrust the stick forward to push the

ose back dow ad atte he out. Ths was what he ot fo

coming out here in the middle of the night to test the plane’s

ew odcatos. But te was shot ad the stakes wee hh

wth Col. Lvstoe’s y ccus av tow tooow

for the big competition.

Htch ad hs tea wee oly o to have ths oe shot to

w the show ad pess Lvstoe. Othewse, they’d be


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10 – K.M. WEILAND

headed staht fo boke to at boke. Ad he’d be holle

adios to all those big dreams of running a real barnstorming

circus. If he and his parachutist Rick Holmes were going to

pull off that ew stut they’d bee wok o, hs Jey sthad to pove she was up to ew deads. A lttle exta pactce

eve hut ayoe—eve h—but fall bodes sue as avy

was’t what he’d had d fo hs st ht back the old

hometown.

In the front cockpit, Taos turned around, forepaws on the

back of the seat, brown ears blowing in the wind, barking his

head off.Hitch anchored the stick with both hands and twisted a look

ove hs ht shoulde, the hs left, just te to see the

big shadow separate itself into two smaller patches of dark.

A owe of whte blooed fo st oe shadow, the the

othe—ad eveyth slowed dow.

Paachutes. Soe cazy jupes wee paachut out hee

at ht? He caed a look ovehead, but thee was oth up

there but a whole lot of moon and a whole lot more sky.

The the ht exploded a out of e.

He jeked hs head back aoud to see ove hs shoulde, past

the Jenny’s tail.

The ac of a ae sputteed thouh the dakess, showe

lht all ove the jupe eaest to h. Beeath the expase of

the white silk parachute hung a dark mass, shiny and rippling,

like fabric blowing in the wind. What in tarnation? Parachutists didn’t wear anything but

pactcal jupsuts o touses. Ayth else sked foul the

les. Ad eveybody kew bette tha to hazad a ae’s spak

lht the ’chute o e.

He ccled the Jey aoud to pass the jupe, v a

wide berth to keep the turbulence from interfering. Below him

stretched the long metallic sheen of a brand spanking newlake—pesuably fo ato uoff—that had soehow

appeared during the nine years since he’d left home. He was

oly fty o so feet above the wate, ad the a cuets wee

aleady play heck wth the Jey. She juddeed aa, up ad

down, as if a playful giant was poking at her.


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STOrming – 11

Aothe ae sputed to the ht. Thaks to t ad the

light of the full moon, he could see quite well enough to tell

that what was ha fo that ’chute was a woa— a

gigantic ball gown. Whe you ew all ove the couty, you saw a lot of stae

stuff. But this one bought the beets.

Ths te, the ae dd’t fall halessly away. Ths te, t

struck the woman’s skirt.

His heart did a quick stutter.

He was almost parallel with her now. In that second when the

Jenny screamed by, the woman’s wide eyes found his, her mouthopen in her grease-streaked face.

“Oh, bothe, lady.” The wd pped hs wods away.

He could’t leave he back thee, but he sue as moses

couldn’t do much from inside the Jenny.

He careened past the white mushroom that marked the sec-

od jupe. A lae bd ccled above the caopy. Ths jupe

seeed to be a a—o b skt ayway. He should be e

landing in the lake, if he could keep from getting tangled in his

les. But jud hs capacty fo bas fo that blude wth

the ae, eve that ht be too uch fo h to hadle. U-

less, of course, he’d shot at the woman deliberately.

Hitch circled wide around the man and chased back after the

ball of e.

Ths te whe he passed the woa, he shouted, “Cut

loose!”She was only twenty feet up now. It’d be a hard fall into the

wate, but eve that’d be a whole lot bette tha o dow

a eball—a aeo as plots called t.

He zipped past and looked back at her.

She couldn’t hear him through the wind, but if she’d seen his

lps ov ad hs as wav, she’d kow he was talk to

her. And, really, what else was he going to be saying right now?i the fot seat, Taos leaed ove the tutleback betwee

the cockpts. Hs whole body quveed wth hs fatc bak,

but the sound was ripped away in the rush of the wind and the

howl of the engine.

The woman had both hands at her chest, yanking at the harness


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12 – K.M. WEILAND

buckles. Ad the, wth oe last jek, they cae fee. She plu-

eted, a whoosh of e the dakess. She boke the lossy

wate below. The aes wked out. She dsappeaed.

A thd ae blked thouh the coe of hs vso, toolate for Hitch to react. It smacked into the Jenny’s exhaust stack

ad eupted a shot bust of ae.

Eve the do foze.

if the ae touched the w, vashed as t was butyate

dope, the whole thing would go off like gunpowder. But the

ae sputteed out. The stack stated couh black soke.

This was bad. Not as bad as it could be maybe. But bad.Smoke and the stench of burning castor oil chugged from

the right side of the engine. When Earl saw it, he’d lie down

ad have a t. Hee was the bad ew Hsso, all set fo the b

cotest wth Col. Lvstoe’s a ccus, aleady chok.

No engine, no plane, no competition. That was simple barn-

storming mathematics.

not to eto the fact that the show had’t eve stated ad

Htch was aleady leav bodes hs slpstea—althouh

that, of course, was hardly his fault.

He swu the plae aoud ad pushed he to a dve. She

stuttered and balked but did it anyway, like the good cranky girl

she was. He took a low pass ove the lake, the aothe ad a-

othe. The fall had’t bee fa, oly twety feet o so. Povded

the jupes had’t ht at a bad ale, t was’t a hoble place

to bail out.Of couse, thee was also the lttle fact of the woa hav

bee o e. But wth all that ateal she’d bee wea, the

aes pobably would’t have had eouh te to each sk,

much less do any considerable damage.

Out of the ht’s lst of featued ways to de, that left dow-

ing. If she couldn’t swim, she was out of luck.

Beneath the Jenny, the white expanse of the man’s parachutespead ove the suface of the lake. The a hself was’t to

be seen.

Htch dpped low fo aothe yby ad leaed out of the

cockpit as far as he could manage, searching for the other para-

chute. “C’o, c’o.”


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STOrming – 13

Taos squirmed around to stare at something ahead of them.

Hitch looked up.

There it was. And there she was.

Head baely above the wate, the woa do-paddled a cou-ple dozen feet out from the shore.

Thak god fo that ayway.

He essted y ove he, sce hs tubulece would’t

help he ovecoe the soy deadweht of that load of skt

she was wearing. But he waggled his wings once, in case she

was looking, then turned around to hunt for the nearest landing

spot. So much for a nice encouraging practice run.

A dt oad up past the shoe offeed just eouh oo to put

the plane down. No headlights in sight, which wasn’t surprising

for this time of night. Most folks would be rocking on their

fot poches, ejoy the cool of the eve afte lo hous

sweat the co ad beet elds. He shut off the ee ad

juped dow to d a ashlht out of hs jacket pocket. Call

Taos to h, he stated off at a jo, back towad the lakeshoe.

The few cottonwoods growing around the water’s edge were

young, proof the lake hadn’t been in existence long. Around

hee, tees—especally ostue hos lke cottowoods—oly

grew near water.

He crashed through the brush, Taos trotting behind him, and

followed the yellow bea of hs ashlht to the appoxate

spot whee the woa jupe ht have eeed fo the wate. A sca of the aea showed oly whte wavelets bbl

into the sand. The water stretched away from the shore, its rip-

ples uboke as fa as the ashlht’s weak lht caed.

He trudged down the beach. His leather boots, laced all the

way up the front, sank into the wet sand and left the only foot-

prints he could see. She’d been almost to shore when he had

ow away fo he. Suely she could’t have dowed just afew feet out.

He stopped and swung the light in a broad arc, from shore to

tees. “Hey! You uys all ht?”

Oly the ustle of leaves asweed.

if ethe of the had ade t to lad, he’d pactcally have to


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14 – K.M. WEILAND

fall ove the top of the to d the the dak. Ad f they

hadn’t, their bodies wouldn’t wash up on shore until at least

tooow o. He stopped. Ahead of h, Taos sufed

into the brush.Maybe the big question here wasn’t so much where they had

eded up as whee blue thude they’d coe fo the st

place. He swung the light up to the sky.

The beam disappeared into the darkness. It was a clear night,

play host to a bae hadful of b uffy clouds. The oo

was a hue oe, just a few days past full. it cast a at eec-

to aast the lake ad sheeted the wold slve. A thousadstars blinked down at him.

Lke eouh, the stas had a bette vew tha he dd of whe-

eve these people had juped fo.

Had t bee aothe plae? He ht ot have head ts ee

ove hs ow, but f t had ow ht above h, the oo

would have cast a shadow. Ad ayway, what kd of dots

went parachuting at night?

She had to be pat of aothe y act. Lots of acts would

be coming into town for the weekend show, what with Col.

Lvstoe the aea. Htch was’t the oly plot despeate

to get work for his people by piggybacking on a big circus’s

publcty—o bette yet, beat the ta out of the copet-

tion and earning enough money to expand his own circus into

something worthy of the name.

it was just possble these two had followed h out hee. Hechewed hs lowe lp. They could have botched t wth the ae,

sce thee was o sese whateve that uy lht hs ow

pate o e. What f he’d bee a at daa the Jey

the whole time?

That was beyond dirty. Hitch shook his head. To be honest,

t just dd’t feel qute ht. Soeth else was o o hee.

Eve f these two had soehow juped o accdet, thatstill didn’t explain why Hitch hadn’t noticed hide nor hair of

aothe aplae. He loweed the ashlht’s bea ad toed a

pece of dftwood. it olled ove, ad a cawdad scuttled out.

In the brush upshore, Taos barked once.

Hitch turned. His light caught on a footprint, then another.


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STOrming – 15

They were fresh enough to still be wet and crumbling around

the edges. They weren’t particularly small, but they were narrow

enough they pretty much had to belong to the woman.

He scatched Taos’s eas. “good do.” The light showed the tracks emerging from the lake, as if she

were some mermaid who’d grown legs and taken off running.

After that, the prints disappeared in the brush, headed through

the trees toward the road.

He stated afte the. “ma’a? You hut? i’ the cloud-

buster you about crashed into a minute ago.”

The cloudbuster you may have just knocked out of the most importantcompetition of the year . But he swallowed that back. For now, it was

acle eouh she was alve.

“if you wat, i ca ve you a de out of hee so you’e

closer to town.” Assuming he could get the Jenny up in the air

and back to Earl.

Off to the ht, foty feet ahead of h, the bush cackled.

He swung around to follow. But the crackling kept going,

headed away from him. Pretty soon, what was left of the trees

separated out onto a road. He peered in both directions and

listened for more crackling.

Nothing.

“ma’a?” What was she ayway, ute? “Look, f you o

your buddy are hurt at all, holler out.”

A estlessess shfted thouh h. He should just o.

Seemed to be what they wanted after all. Fact of his life: hisleav usually ade ths bette fo othe people, ot wose.

Certainly, it had worked out that way for Celia, whether she had

eve beleved t o ot.

“Look, lady, i otta o. i’ve ot folks wat o e.”

More nothing.

He glanced at Taos.

The dog, a border collie cross he’d picked up in New Mexicove yeas back, cocked hs head ad staed at h, wat. Oe

bow ea stuck staht up; the othe opped at the tp.

i the e dust at the ede of the oad, hs lht saed o

another set of footprints.

He stopped ad kelt. Ths set was uch lae, detely


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16 – K.M. WEILAND

the man’s. Like the woman’s, a little of the wet shore sand clung

to the edges. The strides were long and didn’t look to be hin-

deed by ay kd of juy.

He followed them with the light, across the road, and into ahayeld.

Well, the. Two paachutes, two jupes, two suvvos. Ad

whether they’d intended it or not: one bunged-up plane.

To read the rest,

come back December 4th!

storming: a dieselpunk adventure

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