Only One Direction Remains

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 79892

Fred couldn't help wondering for a moment whether Astra had abandoned him. Once the audience had sorted themselves out, it seemed likely that they would want to take out on him their anger at having been deprived of "entertainment" from Astra.

But no, she wouldn't have saved herself at his expense. He knew that she was better than that. She must have thought that he had a good chance of escaping as well, before the confusion died down.

But how? Presumably by the same route that Astra had used herself. How had she vanished so quickly, for she could only have had a few seconds before he had looked back at the stage? There didn't seem to be anywhere on the stage where a statuesque, six foot tall woman could hide herself. And if she had gone into the wings then their two seconds would surely have seen her. Nor could she have sunk through the floor. The primitive stage didn't have a trapdoor, and even if it had Astra wouldn't have had enough time to open it.

That left only one possibility. Even as he started to look up, the end of a rope swung across in front of his face. As he grabbed it, knowing that it must be Astra's doing, he looked up. She was standing some nine feet above the ground, balancing on the rail that was used to slide the curtain across the front of the stage between acts. After kicking him into the audience, she must have leapt up and grabbed the rail, and then hauled herself onto it. The rope which she had managed to get hold of and had thrown across to him was normally used for opening and closing the curtain.

He shinned up the rope before anyone could intervene, and joined her on the rail.

  1. From one end of the rail, it is possible to leap across into the minstrels' gallery and then escape that way.
  2. Unfortunately, this is as far as Astra's plan goes. There is no obvious way to get from the rail to anywhere else, other than by dropping back down onto the stage.
  3. The rail and its supports were never intended to support their combined weight of around 300 pounds. The structure starts to collapse.
  4. Before they can complete their escape Ralph spots them. He points one of the metal devices at then that they had guessed must be weapons, and orders them to come down.
  5. As Fred climbs the rope, his weight causes it to start to draw the curtain across the front of the stage. However it jams when the rings that it runs on encounter Astra's foot. Taken by surprise, she is knocked from the rail and falls onto the stage.

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JH (I'm not sure that I've altogether convinced even myself, but I couldn't think of anything better)

8/11/2008 12:23:05 PM

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