Survivor Planet III (2 page)

For some reason my mind failed to register any more information. The deeper I dug, the higher the wall I encountered. My steps faltered and when I felt the slight tug on the rope at my wrists I sped up. The shadow cast upon the ground by the coliseum was vast. Desperate for the feel of the sun I tilted up my head toward the sky, deep blue with fluffy white clouds. A glorious day. And then the sight of two giant moons floating in the vast sea of blue startled me.

So I'd been wrong.

I had neither time traveled or lost my mind.

I was on another planet.

Flashes of memories bombarded me. Darkness all around, running through a forest, and then a bright glowing light descending from above. A spaceship perhaps? I shook my head, forcing the blurred images aside. They only confused me, and I needed to stay focused on the present. Wherever I was, something big was happening. And the pit of dread in my belly was telling me we were about to be at the centre of it.

Soon we'd be within the coliseum and, greatly fearing what was inside, I wanted to linger as long as possible. I slowed my steps, being careful since I still stared upward. Behind me was a line of more women. We had to pause for a moment when we reached the coliseum. I heard many of them exclaim in dismay over the sight of those moons, which had been hidden from our limited view from our small prison windows. My guard led me over to a small unremarkable door away from the ones the public used. Inside, a huge barrel-chested man stood guard. He allowed us to pass. His gaze roved over me, his tongue flicked out to lick his upper lip, and his hand rubbed against the front of his tunic suggestively. My guard scowled at him.

Though I had a million questions running about in my head I remained silent. Upon entrance we'd moved steadily downward, the dirt path leading us into the bowels of the structure. The assault to my nostrils was strong, the sweet aroma of straw mixed with the sweat of what seemed a hundred animals. Before us opened up a vast area filled with a labyrinth of corridors.

The guard veered to the right and moved us along a wide passageway. Overhead I could hear the tread of many feet. Heavy wooden beams ran along the walls and overhead, absorbing the weight from above. Sawdust danced in the air, lit up by stray pinpricks of sunlight shining in through the walls.

The corridor got wider as we walked along and what appeared to be animal stalls lined the right side of the wall. There were also cells similar to the one I'd spent time in although the doors were made of heavy wood. As we passed by I caught glimpses of huddled forms through iron barred windows. In others I saw groups of three or four giant men, pacing, leaning against cell walls, or sitting on dirt floors, dressed in short tunics, leather bands on their wrists, reminding me of gladiators. Grimy hands clung to the bars of a cell just ahead. I slowed my pace and then stopped, causing the rope on my wrists to tug. My guard turned around and narrowed his gaze at me. Others were coming up behind us and I knew we had to keep moving, but I couldn't make my feet work. It wasn't like the times in the cell when I lost control. This was different. It took me only a moment to figure it out.

Fear.

Fear paralyzed me.

There in the cell staring back at me was not another man as I'd expected. Seeing him—it—up close I realized that now. His head was large and square shaped, sporting not two, but three eyes. Two tiny holes sat centered on his face where his nose should be. His mouth was wide, with thin lips stretching right across his face. The hair atop his head was dark blue, matted with dirt and grime, and poked up in some places from his scalp in tufts. When I gained the strength to tear my gaze away and stare at my guard he merely pulled me along.

“Come,” he said.

The others were almost upon us, I had no choice but to obey. I forced my legs to move and concentrated on my steps.
One, two, three, four…

But I couldn't get the image out of my head.

What the hell was that thing?

We walked into a tunnel that led us upward on a dirt ramp. Ahead I could see bright sunlight pouring down and could hear the roar of the crowds. As I stepped out my gaze swept round the vast coliseum seating, bearing thousands of rowdy spectators.

All of us were led into the centre of a huge open area. At our feet the ground was hard-packed dirt. From above, the crowds jeered and shouted, making our heads swing this way and that in fear and awe. I counted twenty of us women standing in a long line, our guards behind us holding our tethers tight lest we flee. The crowd suddenly quieted and at the far end of the coliseum I saw a man dressed all in gold with a crown of green ivy upon his head standing up with arms stretched out before him. My guard gave me a slight shove indicating I walk forward. The other women did so as well, until all of us stood in a straight line before the man commanding the attention of the crowd.

“Fellow Roamyns, for your pleasure my council and I have arranged a display of grand proportions!”

The crowd roared with excitement and then once again became silent.

So my gut had been correct. We were at the centre of this spectacle. I had a funny feeling that most of us weren't expected to make it out alive.

I swallowed hard, thanks to the lump in my throat. The bellow of the crowds intensified and reverberated through my entire body. Beneath my feet the very ground pulsed and pounded with the spectators' blood lust. Nothing less would satisfy them. I'd seen in books, movies, and television shows what took place in coliseums. Gladiators, wild animals, weapons, blood, guts, and gore. I'd also heard of female gladiators, warriors just as fierce and bloody as the men.

But we were no warriors.

The women alongside me were small and frightened. We wore no armor, held no weapons. We were strangers here, in this place, this world. The man who addressed the crowd rambled on, inciting anticipation, promising the crowd a grand show. Many raised up their fists, pumping them with eagerness. Something about that man made my belly lurch and my fists clench as though in anger. And recognition. But how could that be? My heart began to thump, my breath felt shallow in my lungs. I couldn't get enough air. My vision dimmed and my limbs began to shake. I felt myself go weak and limp, and before I could gain control I crumpled to the ground.

The feel of a hand on my face made me struggle to open my eyes. I'm not sure how long I was out of it, but I no longer felt hard packed dirt beneath me. My vision was blurry. Before me in the dim light I could make out large shadows moving about and the low murmur of voices. Dizziness enveloped me, making me squeeze my eyes tight again.

“Hello?” My voice sounded strange, raspy and foreign.

Hands were on me now, at my shoulder and against my back helping me to sit up. I fought the dizziness and with effort kept myself erect.

“It's all right.” I heard someone say. A man I think.

“It'll take a moment or two to regroup,” he said.

A sharp pain sat right in the middle of my skull. I gulped in deep breaths of air and felt a cup pressed against my lips. I sipped slowly and kept my eyes shut as the pain slowly ebbed to a dull throb.

From behind my closed lids several scenes played out—the arena, the creature in the cell, the two moons, and the guards. Then other images emerged. Things that confused me. A room, primitive stone walls, but filled with modern, high-tech equipment. Someone that I didn't recognize—a man, so big and terrifying, like the ones I'd glimpsed at the coliseum.

When at last I opened my eyes, I cried out in fear and cringed. Right before my face stood the man that I'd seen in my head. His eyes bore into mine as though looking right into my soul.

“What is taking her so long?” he demanded. His gaze now riveted on someone behind me, the person with his hand on my back.

“Give her a moment. She'll be all right.” The man's voice didn't sound convinced. The giant glaring at him didn't seem to buy it either.

I looked past the huge man and studied the room I was in. I'd never seen this place before…or had I? I felt so confused. What was real and what wasn't? Hadn't I just been in the coliseum hearing the roar of a bloodthirsty crowd? Was I not a prisoner? I looked down at my hands and saw there was no rope tying them together. Nor was there any sign that they'd ever been tied. A metal table was beneath me, hard and cold, one that I recalled from those flashes of memory. Maybe they'd carried me off, not back to my cell, but perhaps to a medical area? My gaze flicked around frantically.

“Come back to me,” the giant said. His words were spoken softly and tinged with what sounded like a touch of panic.

Despite my fear of him I felt something stir in my breast. I reached out and placed my hand against his rough cheek. His head was dark and shorn almost to the scalp. He wore leather pants and a vest displaying his enormous chest and arms. I felt my heart begin to pound, though no longer in trepidation, but in recollection.

“Ayres?” My voice was no more than a whisper but gained a wide smile from the man.

I felt the hand slip away from my back and another man stepped into my view. With some effort he pushed the giant aside and shone a bright light into my eyes.

“Can you tell me your name?” he asked.

I squinted against the glare and when the man directed the light away I tried to focus on his face. For some reason he seemed familiar to me as well.

“Lourde?” I asked, faintly sure that was his name.

He nodded his head in obvious relief and excitement lit up his face. “And your name. Can you remember?”

The giant came up close again and stared at me. The look in his eyes was intense and I could feel little butterflies in my belly begin to stir. “She knows us both. That is good?”

“Yes,” the other man agreed. “She's returning to us.”

But was I? Just who was I? They obviously knew me, and I felt that I knew them, but why couldn't I remember? Two distinct personalities battled for supremacy inside of me. It was obvious I was no longer in the coliseum. But had I ever been there, or was it something I'd imagined?

“I…I can't…” I said, fear beginning to overwhelm me.

The man with the flashlight stared at me expectantly. “Yes, you can. Don't force it, just let it come…”

And come it did. Full speed, the flashes whipping by so quickly, barely allowing me a glimpse. All I could do was close my eyes and watch. I felt a hand reach out and take mine, squeezing it in comfort.

“Make it stop,” I begged.

“Do something,” the giant demanded.

I felt a prick against my arm. My eyes flew open. The man who'd held the light was injecting something into me. Hands were on my back again, lowering me gently to the table. I rolled on my side fighting nausea and lightheadedness. The images in my brain began to slow until I felt as though I was watching a slow-motion picture. Strange at first, I soon began to make sense of who and what I saw.

A dove. A forest, a white room, and a bright beam of light. All of them were parts of my life. Then slowly, oh so slowly, I began to remember. Brick by brick the wall began to disappear.

I wasn't Lara. The woman on that strange planet in the coliseum.

I was on Taleon.

And my name was Amanda.

“The connection was strong,” I said with conviction. “I
was
her. Lara. And I had no concept of being anyone other than her.” My companions stared at me with hope and uncertainly.

“It took a long time for you to come around,” Ayres said. He still eyed me gravely as though I could lapse into limbo at any moment. Granted, it had taken me much longer than anticipated to break the bond.

“It's only our first real attempt,” Lourde reminded him. “The others were only trial runs. And
you
came out swiftly,” he nodded at Ayres, “just as I'd predicted.”

“But I was linked to Amanda, not Lara. I found it no different from when I first infiltrated her mind,” Ayres said.

“Yeah, when you made me think I was crackers.” My memories of those encounters weren't too fondly remembered.

“Your bond is strong. If it weren't we would not even attempt this,” Lourde said. He ran a hand over his face.

We sat outside on logs before a fire. The sun was almost completely down and the three moons had risen to dominate the sky. The fire lit up the lines etched into Lourde's features. I'd swear we'd all aged a decade in the past four weeks.

“Why don't you get some rest?” I suggested. “It's been a long day.”

Ayres stared at his old friend and nodded. “Amanda's right. Get some rest and we'll talk about this tomorrow.”

Lourde got to his feet and stretched his arms up over his head. “Okay, you both win. I'm beat. We'll talk tomorrow, but don't make any hasty decisions tonight.” He stared at me a moment. “You're sure you're all right?”

I shrugged. “Yeah. I'm fine,” I assured him. In the back of my mind I could hear a faint voice, one I'd grown quite used to over the past few days, but I wasn't about to share this information. The project was too important. To all of us.

I reached for Ayres hand and squeezed. He put his arm around me and pulled me even closer. “I admit, I was pretty freaked out when I was coming out of it. I could feel Lara fighting to stay together. It was as though I had to break myself in two to get free. It wasn't at all like the other times, the bond was so strong this time.” The grim look on Ayres face worried me. He hadn't wanted to risk the project in the first place. Only when Lourde assured him it could be safely done did we make the attempt. “How'd it feel for you, controlling my—Lara's—arms and legs? Was it difficult to take command?” It hadn't been dumb luck that I'd connected to the same girl each time I went under. Lourde had explained that once a link was initially forged that my tracker would automatically seek out the same path until the link was severed—either by Lara's tracker being turned off, or her death.