Learning to Dance

frame. She pushed one of the zappers at him.
“Hey listen, Taz,” Pedro continued, rising about a foot
into the air as they went flying over another huge bump. “I
understand, really I do, this is my homeland too,
remember? But you don’t see me defying orders and taking
off to go have a look-see at my burnt village, do you?”
Their eyes met in the mirror. “Sometimes the past is best
left in the past.”
She didn’t have a chance to respond. A shadow fell, and
a monstrous robot hand reached out and plucked Pedro
from the driver’s seat as easily as if he was a popcorn
kernel in a bowl.
“Grab the wheel!” shouted Up, and Taz threw herself
over the seat as Up stood up with one foot on the back of
the Jeep, his gun levelled at the robot, seeking a target. He
didn’t shoot, and Taz knew why: if he brought the robot
down, then Pedro would come down with it. And it would
be a long fall to the hard ground below.
Steering with just the tips of her fingers, Taz had barely
managed to regain control of the speeding Jeep when she
felt it jolt, and then suddenly leap ahead. She looked in the
rearview mirror. Up was no longer there.
“Some big rescuers you two idiotas are!” she bawled up
at them. The robot had a tight grip on them, one in each
hand, and was still coming after her. Intent on making a
neat job of it, she supposed.
She turned her attention back to where she was going
just in time to see herself drive into a lake.
The Jeep shuddered and pitched forward, filling quickly
with water. Taz used the windshield to push herself up and
away from the suction it created as it sunk, taking all of
their weapons with it to the bottom of the lake. Estúpida,
estúpida, estúpida. She should have known it was there,
she’d learned to swim in this lake, pulled leeches from her