Links to the original post and the story so far (in order) can be found in the Tale of Two Pizza's Archive Post
How does she always manage to get away with it? Henry wondered in admiration as within mere moments the two of them were out of the damp chill darkness and sat by a roaring fire, steam rising off them as well as the mugs of hot tea they had both been given. She has her father wrapped around her finger, even as she disobeys him she always manages to get exactly what she wants! He mused as he sipped on the hot tea.
"What now Lilah?" he hissed at her, the noise lost in the roar of the fire, inaudible to the confused guard who had been told to watch over them until the Baron's meeting was over. "We are out of the rain, but what are you going to tell them? What about Jet and Amber?"
"Don't worry Henry," she replied under her breath "I'll convince Father we really got lost, and as for the horses..." She raised her voice and addressed the guard. "Guard would you send someone out to fetch our horses? They wandered off as we approached and I'd rather not lose Jet. He was a gift from Father you see. Henry's horse is Amber. They shouldn't have gone far but in this weather anything could spook them." The guard looked at the two of them huddled by the fire, sighed, and nodded. He knew better than to argue with a Baron's daughter. He stepped out of the room and they could hear him yelling down the hall to the guard room.
"Now that we have a moment, Henry we must get the book of plans from Father!" Delilah said earnestly, "Danny Rupert has no idea what is happening here, he should be warned!" She was taking a risk, involving Henry even deeper than he already was but somehow she knew he would choose to help her over obeying the Baron. He had always been there for her when she got in trouble. Half the time he got her out of it.
"But why Lilah, why do you want to help the Pizza Baron? I don't understand why you would go to all this trouble for someone you've never met! It's dangerous! And think what will happen to your Dad!" Before Delilah could answer him, the guard returned and silence fell between them again.
.
From inside the car, still undetected, Rachel strained her ears to hear the conversation outside. She didn't dare to try to get out of the car in case the two got back in to drive again. So she listened, frustrated that much of it was a barely discernable mumble.
"What happened?"
"... Danny is alive... thought it was Charlie..."
"... find out?"
"Rachel and... I tried to... Frankches... realized they were coming."
"Baron's.... be pleased... mess... plan.... Get the Pizza"
The voices were getting louder. The man who had blocked the road was speaking.
"If you couldn't get the chef or Frankches I don't see what good you will be to them now. You can stay and help us with our part of the plan. Then I'll take you there myself."
"I've brought something even more useful than a chef... I've got the recipe." Otto sounded more like his old self as he spoke. Rachel covered herself the rest of the way with the blanket as she realized they were coming to the back of the car. The door opened and she remained motionless. Otto reached under the blanket on the seat and Rachel held her breath as his hand slid over the seat searching for something.
"With this we can have anyone bake a perfect crust." Otto was saying. "Everyone knows it all starts with the crust. This recipe beat Charlies in a blind tasting... Where is it? I put it back here with Frankches before they came and pulled him out of the car!" He dragged the blanket off the seat to find it and froze as he saw Rachel... but she had already started to move. Her booted foot swung up and hit him square on the chin as she levered herself off of the floorboards and towards Otto. Her other foot landed square in his chest, knocking him backward into the other man who was still holding his crossbow. He cursed as Otto fell backwards and the sudden shock sent the bolt surging from his crossbow at point blank range straight into Otto's back. Rachel saw the bolt explode from his chest in a gout of blood and kicked him again with enough force to knock him and Techno Tommy over. Then she emerged from the car, strode past Otto without looking at him as he coughed and sputtered blood, and brought her boot down hard on Tommy's hand as he scrabbled in the mud for the crossbow.
"Now... Who are these 'Barons'?" She asked with a voice as calm and cold as a frozen lake.
The rules for this week remain the same as previous weeks!
I'd like to continue building on the story of the Pizza Baron and his post apocalyptic world. Each week I'll pick a winner that becomes the next piece of the story and wins 20 $PIZZA and a 5 SBI sponsorship from me. I may award additional prizes if I feel multiple entries expand the story well.
Each week I'll write a post announcing the winner and then I will write another chunk of the story and open it up again for the next weeks competition. I'll compile the winning entry for each week. If we reach a conclusion of the epic tale of the Pizza Baron I'll divide another TBD amount of PIZZA among all the winning entries throughout the whole story and publish the finished story here on Hive with all the contributors as beneficiaries. If this goes well we might have the first open source blockchain novella on our hands! 😂
The first weeks contest established a secondary storyline that may be tied back into the main plot if you so wish!
Bear in mind this is an experiment as well as a competition so we will see how many entries I get and how well it goes!
Rules:
Entries must be more than 200 words but less than 1000.
Entries must use the hivepizza tag
Entries must comment on this post with the link to their entry
Entries must fit in the world/scenario that has developed from the previous weeks contest(s). You are free to develop characters, introduce new ones, invite aliens to the feast, I don't care as long it makes some kind of sense in the context! The Pizza Baron should remain relevant to the plot!
(I've named it a Tale of TWO Pizza's for a reason HINT HINT)