Planet Urth: The Savage Lands (Book 2) (16 page)

I
place one foot in front of the other.  My legs are unsteady as I make my way toward her.  The small area spins for a moment but I will it to stop.  I grip the rough wall for stability.  As soon as I am close to her, I drop to my knees and place both hands on her shoulders. 

“Oh June,” I say and hug
her tightly. 

She twists and sits up
sluggishly. 

“Don’t,” I tell her.  “Don’t move if
it hurts.”

I know she hears me, but s
he does not listen.  She turns into me despite my warning and slips her arms around my neck.  The movement makes her wince and I wish I could find and personally kill the beast responsible for her injuries.  They all look similar.  It would be a nearly impossible task, but one that I would relish in if given the chance.  I silently pledge that if we survive by some inexplicable and extraordinary stroke of luck, I will kill them.  I will kill them all.  I will watch the Urthmen fall if it takes me a lifetime to see it through.  They will pay for what they have done to my mother, to Will’s parents, to June, and all of humanity. 

As I hold June close to my chest and try to calm her trembling form, I examine the cave further.  I see Will, Oliver and Riley.
They are dripping as I am.  We have all been awakened with frigid water.

“Will,” I call to him.  “Are you all right?”

“I’m okay.  You?” he replies.

“I’m fine,” I answer.  “Riley! Oliver!  A
re you guys hurt badly?”

“No too bad,” Oliver says.  “My head hurts
and is fuzzy, but I think I’m okay.”

“Me
, too,” Riley adds in a weak voice.

“Where are we?” Will asks.  The confusion scrawled across his features mirrors mine.

“Looks like some kind of underground prison,” I say.  The gravity of my words seizes me in an ironfisted grip.  We are locked up awaiting a fate that can only be awful. 

With nothing left to lose, I release June and stand.  I
ignore the complaints of my muscles and joints and fly to the bars. I grip one cold, metal rod in each hand.

“H
ey! 
Hey
!” I shout at the Urthmen standing nearby.  My voice sounds rough and primal.  It wells from a place in me that wants to protect my sister and friends, to survive.  The conversation between the Urthmen stops and they train their beady eyes on me.  “What are we doing in here?  Why are we caged?” I demand.  “Why didn’t you just kill us?” I scream, launching question after question at them.

I know they are stunned by my outburst. 
I can see it in the slight tick of the expression of the Urthman closest to me.  But his shock, as well as the others’ shock, is short lived. 

He closes the distance between us in the time it takes me to blink, moving with swiftness I thought Urthmen incapable of, and swings the object he holds.  My knuckles are smashed with his
bucket before I have time to react.  Without warning, wood clashes with skin and bone.  I cry out in agony.  Blistering pain rockets from the joints in one hand halfway up my arm. 

“You filthy
monsters!” Will shouts when I drop to my knees and clutch both hands to my chest.  In my periphery, I see that he lunges at them, sticking his arms through the bars to try to grab them. But I am hurting too badly to try to stop him.  His attempt to defend me could get him hurt too, or worse.

The Urthma
n closest laughs at him.  “Shut your mouth, human!  All of you shut your mouths!” the Urthman orders.  “You’ll find out what you need to know soon enough,” he says and another cruel snicker escapes him.  “And I wouldn’t get used to it here.  You won’t be here much longer.”  Laughter erupts among them and continues until I feel as if my eardrums will explode from the horrid sound.  Will charges at them a second time.  I reach out a smarting hand and stop him.

“Don’t,” I manage through my teeth.  “It’s not worth it.  They’re not worth it.”

He mumbles something inaudible under his breath and stares down the Urthmen with the ferocity of a wild animal.  Rage radiates from him.  I feel it.  It glows like an ember.  I brim with a similar fire.  But for the time being, there is nothing either one of us can do about it.  We are trapped, prisoners of Urthmen. 

The firestorm inside me is tempered briefly when
June’s face is before me. 

“Let me see your hands,” she says softly.

“They’re fine,” I say. 

In truth
, I think bones have been bruised badly, at least two.  She will see as much if she glimpses them.  Swelling has already begun, and attempting to bend the ones I suspect are injured results in stabbing pain.  I hug her.  “What happened to us?  How did we get here?” I ask.  My face is buried in her hair.  I wonder whether my words are muffled when she does not respond right away

“We were taken by Urthmen.  Details don’t matter at this point, do they?”

Her words, the expression on her face, both unite and chill me to my core.  She is right, of course. 

“No, I guess they don’t,” I agree.

“I remember being hit in the field,” Will says.  His voices echoes through the cavernous hollow in which we are being held.  “I have a knot on the back of my head,” he says and rubs his hand up the nape of his neck to the top of his head.  He groans.  “Oh wow, it’s tender.”  He pulls his hand away and looks at it.  Flecks of dried blood dot it. 

Oliver mimics his brother’s actions.  “Me
, too,” he says with a scowl.

“My head hurts in the same place,” Riley adds.  “And I have a huge lump. Ouch!” she cries as she touches the back of her head. 

“Looks like we were all taken the same way: a nice blow to the back of the head,” Will says with disgust. 

“I remember being
swarmed and hit, then everything went black,” I say. 

I no longer embrace June, but she remains near, her small frame curled against mine.  The meager warmth from her is a comfort.  So is her scent, though it is tinged with dampness, and blood.

“Why do you suppose we’re here?” Will asks.  “I’ve never heard of anything like this, have you?”

“No, never,” I confess.  “I’ve only known them to kill, immed
iately, like it’s something they can’t help but do.”

“I know.  That’s all I’ve known my entire life.  This,
” he says and splays his arms at his sides. “Whatever is going on here, it’s bad.”

I agree with Will, but I
do not dare say as much in front of the children.  I think that whatever is to come will be far worse than anything we could possibly imagine, worse than our most terrifying nightmares.

Approaching footsteps add to my sense of impending doom.  My head whips toward the bar
s and the sound.  Six more Urthmen approach.  They wear what resembles metal melted to fit their bodies like skin, and dread slithers down my spine.

“Open the cage,” one orders the Urthmen posted beyond our cage.  “It’s their time.”

“Our time for what?” June turns to me and asks.  Her eyes are wide with fright and her voice trembles.

“I-I don’t know,” I reply. 

The Urthman that bashed my knuckles with his pail fumbles in his pocket for a moment and retrieves keys.  Once he finds them and unlocks our cell door, he opens it. 

“Let’s go,” one of the armored Urthmen barks
and gestures for us to leave the cave.

Worry howls through my core like a bitter wind, freezing every muscle in place. 

“Move now!” he screams when I don’t move right away.  But his tone, added to the metal he wears and the deadly looking blade he carries, sets my limbs into motion.  I do as he says and walk out.  June follows.  She slips her hand in mine and squeezes.  Will, Oliver and Riley are right behind us. 

Three of the six Urthmen are ahead of us.  They begin walking.  Their armor rattles and clacks as they march. 
Deep-seated intuition warns that perhaps it is a death march, and we are the guests of honor. 

“Keep going, straight down the corridor,” the Urthman
continues to instruct us.  He and the other two with him pick up the rear. 

I have no clue what is happening or where we are being led, just that we have to follow. 
I try to glance over my shoulder to gauge Will’s reaction to what is happening and see that it is no different from mine.  He looks equal parts scared and confused.  His eyes roam the hallway.  There is nothing to see, but there is a faint buzz in the air I have never experienced before, an excitement that resonates in the atmosphere and is palpable.  And it is more than the nervous energy radiating from us.  Terror does not charge it.  It is something else entirely.  I find myself panicked by what generates it.

Soon, the faint buzz
swells.

As we walk,
what began as a weak hum transforms.  It surges around the walls of the tunnel.  Growling and rolling like a hungry beast, it echoes and grows louder the longer we walk.  By the time we are midway down the corridor, the sound is a deafening roar.  Even the walls vibrate.  I have never heard such a commotion.  Thunderous cheers, clapping, and stomping, all merge to create a rumble that shakes the earth beneath my feet. 

I cannot hear my thoughts by the time we reach the end of the tunnel and stand before a
cage with a closed door on the other side of it. 

One of the
Urthmen unlocks the door to the cage. “In,” he snaps.

Will, June and I
exchange confused and horrified looks.  We hesitate.

“Get in now!” The Urthman bellows and begins shoving us inside. Once we are all in, he slams the cage door shut and locks it
with just us inside. 

“Oh my gosh,” I breathe.
  My heart is hammering so hard it pummels my ribs.  “What’s happening?” I scream.  My voice is shrill.  It echoes the utter panic I feel. 

“Shut up, human!” the Urthman who unlocked the gate booms.  “You’ll find out soon enough!”  He cackles then steps away.  When he reappears, he is holding an armful of objects.  I see my sword.  He throws it at me, then tosses a large blade to Will before passing smaller ones to the children. 

“Why are you arming us?” I ask. I am more confused than I have ever been in my life. 

None of the Ur
thmen responds.  They back away and head back down the tunnel, except two.  Two remain with us, each holding a bow and arrow. 

Noise ebbs and flows like a tide lapping against a shoreline all around us. 
The cause of it remains unknown. 

Will nudges me.  His shoulder rests against mine and he looks at me.  “I don’t like this,” he shouts over the rumbling. 

“Something very bad is about to happen,” I yell back to him. 

“What’s happening, Avery?” June asks.  Her eyes plead for me to tell her.

“I don’t know,” I reply honestly. 

As soon as the words leave my lips, the door in front of us falls open
, taking the far wall of our cage with it.  Bright light blinds us.  I squint and raise a trembling hand to my brow. 

“Out now!” one of the Urthmen armed with a bow and arrow barks. 

“What?  Where are we?” I ask and know fully that I will not receive an answer. 

“Go!” he
shouts. I glance over my shoulder, and immediately see that arrows are pulled taut in their bows.  “Out now, or we’ll fire and kill you where you stand!” he roars a final time.

My body lurches
into action.  I stumble but regain my footing quickly.  My movement spawns a plume of dusty particles to kick up.  When the cloud clears, I look down and realize I am standing on pale sand.  The light-colored sand and the intense brightness distort my perception.  But I am able to see Will, June, Oliver, and Riley when they are beside me.  They all scramble and move closer to me.  I look around and my jaw drops. 

A roar erupts all around me, the same roar I heard in the tunnel, only much louder.  The sound is earsplitting.  And now I see the source of it.  Tiers of seats begin at ground level and rise high into the sky.  Urthmen fill the benches, though most are on their feet shouting, stomping, pumping their fists, and flailing animatedly.  There must be thousands of them.  And their attention turns to us.
  We have entered an arena.  The roar, the screaming and chanting, all of it is for us.  The crowd is calling for our blood to be spilled.  They are calling for our deaths. 

Chapter 10

“This can’t be happening,” June cries and wraps her arms around my waist, squeezing so tightly it almost hurts.  She is crying and shaking.  I feel like doing the same.  I hold her tightly with one arm and clutch my sword with my free hand. 

The cheering is quickly replaced by boos and jeers.  I feel an object strike my temple.  I touch my hand to my head.  A slimy substance coats the spot that was hit.  I sniff my fingers. The matter is foul, like spoiled food.  I look on the ground and see that a rotten tomato sits at my feet.  More moldy and decomposing produce is launched at us.  Several pelt my body.
But I am less concerned about the putrid fruits and vegetables hurled our way than I am about the humans I see lying in the sand in the distance.