Sally snorted and spoke to Adam. “They just don’t want him. They’re afraid of him. Oh well, I guess you learn who your friends really are when you’ve been transformed into a monster.”

“You know, you’ve been a pain all day,” Cindy said.

Sally laughed. “I am one of mankind’s last hopes for salvation. I have the right to be a pain.”

Cindy looked at Bum.

“She does have a point there,” Bum said.

“Get ready,” Adam said. “We’re directly above the truck. I’m going to dump another bunch of hot air. We’ll drop like a rock.”

They didn’t exactly drop like rock, but they came down hard. Watch seemed to stir as a result of the jolt. Adam was the only one to notice. Sally was already out of the gondola and trying to break into the car. It was Adam’s turn to hold the flame thrower. If a Cryo Creature so much as looked their way, he was turning up the heat.

Cindy and Bum floated twenty feet overhead.

“Make sure you have gas in the truck,” Bum called down. “It’s a long drive up to the wells.”

“I hope we don’t have to stop for service,” Sally called back. She had tried the door and it was locked. Picking up a nearby brick, she smashed the driver’s window and reached in and tripped the lock. After opening the door, she tried to brush away the little pieces of glass. She would probably cut her butt on the way up to the hills. Just what she needed.

Adam handed her the case of dynamite as she jumped back on top of the truck. She had no problem loading it on to the front seat of the truck. But when she returned for Watch and Adam, she wondered how she was going to help them into the truck.

“You won’t be able to lift Watch over the side of the gondola,” Adam said. “And I won’t be able to help you lift him. So what we’re going to have to do is burn a hole in the side of it. Then you can just pull Watch out and slide him down.” Adam gestured for her to stand back. “I’ll try not to start a major fire.”

Adam half-kept his promise. He blasted away a large chunk of the gondola and Sally was able to slide Watch out and stuff him into the truck’s camper. She locked him inside, in fact. Unfortunately, the gondola continued to burn and the flames went into the balloon itself. Adam was barely clear before the hot air caused by the fire shot the balloon into the sky.

It flew right by Bum and Cindy, before self-destructing in a ball of flame.