Planet Urth: The Savage Lands (Book 2)

by Martucci, Jennifer

  I know that Will is displeased by what I have said. He looks at me harshly, as if I have either gone mad or betrayed him in some monumental way.

  “We,” Will says emphatically and points among he and his siblings, “Would like to live in peace.”

  I part my lips to speak, but Sully beats me to it.

  “There will be no peace until we kill them all.”

  His words resound in my bones, in every part of me, for they are words that express my exact sentiments. As long as Urthmen live, we will be hunted, and we will never live freely, in peace.

  “And we are now in big trouble,” Sully emphasizes the word “we” as Will did. “That fat Urthmen we killed in the convoy was the king’s son. As soon as word gets out, which I am sure it has already, Urthmen will flood this area in search of us.”

  “There’s a king?” Oliver asks.

  “Yes, King Leon rules the world. He’s the leader of the Urthmen,” Will replies.

  Will balls his fists. Rippling muscles flex and bulge down the length of both arms as he does. His anger is barely harnessed; bubbling beneath the surface of his skin so volatilely it is practically visible. “Did you know that fat Urthman was the king’s son beforehand, before you decided we were going to attack?”

  “No, not when we bombed the convoy.” Sully answers. “I knew he was royalty because of the crown, but I didn’t know it was King Leon’s son until he told me as much, and by then it was too late. If I’d known the convoy was carrying Prince Neo, I would’ve thought twice. I never would have jeopardized all of us like that. Now they are going to come here. Even with the wires and cameras, we’re not safe here.”

  At his words, June immediately rushes toward me and wraps her arms around my waist. I do not groan about the soreness the contact causes. She is frightened, and for good reason. Once again, we are holed up in an unsafe shelter. True, this one has sophisticated technology that may give us advance warning. Some Urthmen would likely be killed in the process, but not all. The ones that survive would pursue us.

  The gravity of what has happened, of what will happen, crystallizes fully. But I am too fatigued to wrap my mind around what needs to be done. I am tired, so very tired. Being captured and caged, then winding up in an arena where I was slashed by a behemoth Urthman more monstrous than any other, and witnessing the fall of Prince Neo and his minions has taken its toll on me. I am drained on all fronts. Exhaustion sinks it teeth into me and devours me completely. My legs feel as if they’re made of spongy moss and my arms feel like stone. My body wavers. I feel as if a dense mist has settled all around me, dizzying me, disorienting me.

  “Avery? Avery, are you okay?” I hear June. She sounds as if she is calling to me from a great distance. I am aware that she is right in front of me. Her feather-light arms encircle my waist.

  “Avery, can you hear me?” Will’s voice is near, so strong and sure it rips me from the hazy fog descending on me.

  “Yeah,” I say and hear the thickness in my voice.

  “Are you okay?” Will asks. I hear the concern in his tone. He reaches out and cups my elbow in is hand.

  June moves to my side and watches me with wide, concerned eyes.

  “I’m, I don’t know. I’m suddenly wiped out,” I admit.

  “I’m here for you,” Will says, urgency lacing his words.

  “You need to lie down,” Sully tells me. “Come on. Come with me. I have a cot you can sleep on.”

  “A cot?” I ask with surprise. “Where did you,” I start. “I mean, how did you ever get a cot?”

  The narrow collapsible beds, like so many other items in Sully’s possession, are things I believed extinct long ago.

  “Oh I’m just full of surprises,” Sully replies with a wicked arc of one eyebrow.

  “I bet you are,” Will mumbles under his breath as his grip on my elbow tightens marginally. I feel an unnamed emotion pulsing from him. Is it anger, frustration, or something else entirely, I wonder. “Come on, Avery, let’s follow Sully and get you comfortable. You need to sleep if you wants those cuts to heal,” he says and draws me closer to his body. His scent surrounds me and I feel heat blaze up my neck and color my cheeks.

  With Will’s help, I am led deeper into the room to the far corner where a metal contraption with a thin pad atop it sits.

  “I’ll get you a blanket,” Sully says. He disappears and returns with a length of darkly colored fabric. “Make yourself comfortable.”

  I sit on the bed, suddenly self-conscious that a roomful of people are watching me, waiting for me to lie down and go to sleep.

  June pushes between Will and Sully who hover over me. “Rest, Avery. Please. I need you to get better,” she whispers close to my ear.

  “I’ll be fine, June. Don’t you worry.” I poke the tip of her nose and force a smile across my lips. I can tell it convinces her as she returns the smile with one of her own. “I love you,” I add.

  “I love you, too,” she says. “I’ll stay close by.”

  “I’ll take care of her,” Will assures me with a knowing look.

  I meet his gaze despite that I am blushing. I appreciate his offer to look after June. Ordinarily I would protest and insist that I’d do it. But I am too tired. “Thank you,” I tell him.

  June slips her hand in Will’s hand and leads him away. Oliver and Riley follow along with Jericho. I am left with Sully.

  “Rest up, Avery,” he says and pats my shoulder lightly. A metallic scent, tinged with a mild, charred smell likely caused from the house he lives beneath, mingles with the scent of grass and spice lingers in the wake of his touch. It comforts me for reasons I cannot explain. Perhaps it reminds me of the way my father, a man who could fix and find many things, smelled, or perhaps it is because Sully saved my life more than once today. Either way I am grateful for him.

  “Thank you, Sully,” I say as he is about to walk away.

  “What for?” he asks without turning.

  “For saving my life,” I reply.

  He spins and faces me. His dark eyes glow with a fire that knocks the wind from me. “You would have done the same for me, I know you would have.”

  “Yes, I would have,” I say after a pause.

  “Then you have nothing to thank me for,” he says right before he walks away and joins the others.

  I ponder his words for the briefest of moments before sleep beckons me like a long-lost friend, welcoming me with warm, open arms. I allow myself to be cradled by the velvety abyss and quickly fall into a deep sleep.

  Chapter 14

  My eyes open to the sight of a room awash in ashy light. Briefly startled and unsure of where I am, I bolt upright and whip my head from one side to the next. I see June’s face peek around Will, who’s standing sternly with his arms folded across his chest, and am flooded with relief.

  “Avery!” she exclaims before she hurries toward me. She throws both arms around my neck and squeezes tightly. “Oh thank goodness you’re okay!” She steps back and looks at me.

  Smiling, I tip my chin and say, “Hey you.” My voice is hoarse and unfamiliar to my own ears. I clear my throat. “Of course, I’m okay.” I feel half my mouth turn upward and imagine I am smiling the way Sully does. The thought makes me feel giddy and guilty simultaneously.

  The guilt is emphasized when I look past June and see a familiar gaze trained my way.

  Wearing a peculiar expression on his face, Will watches me. His brilliant blue-green eyes slice through the gray light and shimmer like twin turquoise gemstones. The sight makes my breathing hitch and I wish I could read what is behind them, what exactly he is thinking.

  “Hey! Look who’s awake!” Sully’s voice echoes from a corner of the room I cannot see and strikes like a bolt of lightning through my core. I watch as Will’s features collapse and his bright eyes become overcast. When Sully’s head pops up from behind a pile of miscellaneous metal parts, I nod goofily in answer.

  Will glances in Sully’s direction with his eyes narrowed a
nd his jaw set. When he returns his attention to me, he asks, “How are you feeling?” just before he approaches.

  He closes the distance between us and stands before me. Reaching out a hand, he strokes my cheek with the back of his hand, sending my pulse skyrocketing. The gesture is gentle, so tender it borders on affectionate. My racing heart stumbles clumsily at his proximity, at his touch, just as it always does, and heat creeps up from my collar and warms my cheeks. Words escape me. I know he’s asked me a question, yet I seem to have forgotten both what he asked me and how to speak.

  “I’m okay,” I answer when words finally find me and hope he does not hear the breathlessness in my tone.

  Will lowers his chin and stares at me hard as if to scrutinize my response.

  “Really, I am. I’m fine,” I say and feel my blush deepen.

  “I’m so glad. I was really worried about you.”

  “He was,” June adds. “He was a nervous wreck the whole time you slept.”

  “How do you know that?” Will twists and asks June with a brow arched.

  “It’s not like you’re good at hiding your feelings, Will,” June says. “I mean, come on. You were practically pacing the whole time. You might as well have had I’m so worried about Avery written across your face.” She giggles and I spy a faint hint of pink tint Will’s cheeks.

  “Hmm, I was pretty worried,” he admits.

  My insides begin fluttering wildly. “I’m sorry for worrying you, and you know, June and, well everybody,” I fumble. I cringe at how idiotic I sound. He just said he was worried about me, no big deal. I was sliced open in two places by an Urthman.

  “You don’t have to apologize for worrying me,” Will starts. I feel his long, slender fingers wrap around my hand. Reflexively, my gaze drops to where his hand touches mine then moves slowly back to his face. He watches me intently. “I worry because,” he starts but is interrupted by a familiar, booming voice.

  “Who’s apologizing in here? It better not be Avery,” I hear Sully say just before he becomes visible.

  Will slides him a glance from the corner of his eye and his expression tightens. In a low voice, he says, “What timing.”

  “Hey there! Glad to see you’re up. You’re sitting. That’s a good thing. How’s your belly feeling, the stitches, that is?” Sully asks. He walks over to the cot and stands beside Will, smiling. He places a hand on Will’s shoulder as if they are the oldest of friends. Will looks as if he is seconds away from jiggling his shoulder and shaking off the hand, and I do not know why, but I feel bad for both of them. Sully for Will looking as if his shoulder has just been slathered in boart droppings and Will for being interrupted while trying to communicate some important point to me.

  “My belly is sore, but not too bad,” I say. “And my arm is pretty much the same.”

  Much to Will’s relief, Sully drops his hand from Will’s shoulder. He leans over me and picks up my arm and examines the stitches. “Looks pretty good, if I do say so myself.” His touch is like fire burning dried leaves. It sweeps up my arm and blazes like a brushfire. “No new blood, that’s a good thing, right?” he says with a wink. “Now let’s take a look at your stomach.”

  He is about to reach for the hem of my shirt when Will speaks. “Why do you need to look at it?” he snaps. “She said she’s fine.”

  “I need to look at it to make sure it isn’t getting infected and that the stitches are holding,” Sully replies evenly. I think the edge in Will’s tone is lost on him until he adds, “Take it easy there, handsome. I’m not trying to get a free peek at her belly button or anything.” He gives me another jaunty wink.

  Incensed, Will’s upper lip tightens over his teeth until he catches me watching him. His features soften and he watches Sully’s hands as they roll the edge of my shirt halfway up my torso.

  His fingers nimbly dance along the line that used to be a considerable split. His brow is furrowed and his mouth is a hard line, yet his eyes sparkle with merriment, as if he is privy to a joke the rest of us cannot hear. Part of me desperately wants to be let in on the joke, to share with him that intimate knowledge that drives the wicked glint in his eyes and the sly smile that rounds one cheek. But the fact is that I know nothing about Sully, and I do not know what to make of him just yet. All I do know is that he saved my life, along with the lives of my friends, sewed me up and kept me from bleeding out. He is obviously gifted when it comes to repairing and restoring technology once believed to be defunct, and he is fearless to a near-fault. Beyond that, I am in the dark, save for something else I’ve observed about Sully, an aspect of his personality that concerns me deeply. He seems to have a negative effect on Will.

  I do not know why but since teaming up with Sully, Will has been brooding and oppositional. The last thing I want is to cause a rift between us. Will is an indelible part of me now. I cannot imagine one day passing without looking upon his golden, glorious face. Just knowing that he is seeing my bare flesh now, despite being grotesque and wounded as it is, makes my insides quiver. And he is not alone in seeing it. Sully joins him. Though looking in more of a clinical capacity, Sully has my shirt hiked up to where my ribcage begins to show. The constant sensation of his fingertips grazing my sensitive skin combines with his mischievous grin and the impish spark in his gaze and makes my head spin.

  But despite the strange and conflicting feelings storming inside me, shame and self-reproach are present too. Until just a week ago, I had never seen another human being that I wasn’t related to in many years. Now, there are five that I intend to travel with. Exhilarating and daunting at the same time, I do not know how to act. Especially since there seems to be friction brewing between Will and Sully.

  I shift uncomfortably and clear my throat again. “So how does it look?”

  “Everything I’m seeing looks great,” Sully answers. His eyes wander from the wound and skim the rest of my exposed flesh. A small smirk steals across his lips, and a strange heat fills me. Will does not see Sully’s small act, a fact that I’m thankful for, and he does not see the ribbon of warmth that slowly wound its way from my chest to my limbs. I worry that if he did, he would have punched Sully dead in his face. Perhaps I should have done just that. I doubt I would have had the strength, though. My arms, and legs for that matter, feel as if they’ve liquefied.

  “So she’ll be fine?” June asks.

  “Yep,” Sully says and pulls the hem of my shirt down. His knuckles graze the length of my midsection and I feel as if a stream of fire trails behind them. “The stitches on her belly look good. They’re holding the cut closed just as they should. She just needs to take it easy for a little while and she’ll be good as new in no time.” He pinches one of June’s cheeks and I see a squeal welling just beneath the surface of her skin. I know how she feels. A squeal is begging to leak from me, too.

  “Hear that, Avery? You have to take it easy,” June says. The laughter in her tone is evident.

  “I don’t know about that,” Will chimes in. “Our Avery here doesn’t know the meaning of take it easy, do you?” he says playfully and places his hand atop mine.

  The contact of his warm hand resting on mine feels like thousands of tiny, light pinpricks are occurring at once. My scalp feels two sizes too small and a chill whispers up my spine.

  “Is that right?” Sully asks and quirks a brow.

  “Oh yes!” June comments.

  “Well I’ll just have to stick right by her and make sure she listens, won’t I?”

  “We all will,” Will says sharply. His hand grips mine momentarily before relaxing then his thumb sweeps across the top of my wrist. I want to close my eyes and savor the feel of his rough fingertip stroking the soft skin there, but Sully watches me. His gaze drops to where Will’s thumb works and I shrink inwardly. I tense. Will’s thumb stops moving and he withdraws his hand. My hand feels cold. I look at it then look up. Everyone is watching me, waiting, but for what I have no idea.

  “So, uh, what’s the plan?” I finally
say. “What do we do now?” I look between Will and Sully.

  “What do you mean?” Sully asks, a mysterious look flickering across his face.

  Will looks taken aback. I wonder why both of them are behaving so peculiarly.

  “We need to start getting people together to grow an army, right? We can fight back, on a small scale, but we can fight and start the war to take back planet Urth,” I say.

  The stiffness in Will’s posture loosens marginally, as if he is relieved. I find it odd that a person so against standing our ground and battling Urthmen should look so thankful for my proposal.

  “I think you’re getting a little bit ahead of yourself,” Sully says with a soft chuckle. “There aren’t many humans running around out there, in case you haven’t noticed.”

  “I found you and Jericho, didn’t I?” I say defiantly and am not sure why.

  Sully holds my eyes with his as he scratches his chin thoughtfully. “It would take years to round them up much less rally them to fight,” he thinks aloud. “The only place where there’s a large human population is in the underground city, and they have no interest in fighting.”

  A large human population living in an underground city! The notion sounds too good to be true!

  “Come on, Sully! You expect us to believe there’s an underground city?” Will laughs mirthlessly. “That’s a myth. No such place exists.”

  “No, it’s real,” Sully says with conviction.

  “Thousands of people living together underground and Urthmen haven’t found them, yeah, okay,” Will huffs with certainty that borders on arrogance.

  Hearing our conversation, Oliver and Riley join us. Jericho leans against a wall with his arms comfortably folded across his chest.