Planet Urth: The Savage Lands (Book 2)

by Martucci, Jennifer

  Sully stands and addresses everyone. “Mock all you want, but I know it’s true. I grew up there,” he stuns me by saying. “I was kicked out when I was thirteen because I wanted to do exactly what Avery wants to do. I wanted to fight. I wanted to lead a revolt against the Urthmen regime. I made so much noise about it I was asked to leave. So please, don’t tell me it isn’t real.”

  I steal a glance at Will. He looks as shocked as I feel. In fact, after a quick glance around the room, I see that everyone wears the same expression, except Jericho and Sully.

  “You mean to tell me thousands of people live together safely?” I ask and feel the corners of my mouth falter, tears welling in my eyes. The idea of it is all that I’ve wanted, all that I’ve dreamed of for June. And Sully claims it is real, that he has been there.

  “More than ten thousand if you want to be more precise. But that was before I left.”

  My jaw comes unhinged. “More than ten thousand,” I gasp.

  “Yep, and they’re just content to live there, to hide is more like it, and grow their food hydroponically with their livestock on hand. I guess you could argue they have everything they need, you know, if you think living like rats in a sewer is a life worth living. I didn’t.” Sully stares off toward an unseen place only he sees. “I couldn’t take existing in hiding, knowing eventually we’d be found, and that other people in the world were dying.” He swallows hard. “I mean, Urthmen are dumb, but even if they take decades. I’m sure they’ll find the underground city. One of the humans will slip or a solar panel will be discovered.”

  “I had no idea,” I murmur.

  “No one does, unless they’ve lived there as I have. But it’s not some great place like you think it is, especially when I would go out on supply runs and see the suffering in the streets. I’d go back down and shake my head, wondering why we were so content to just be, you know, to just lie down and die about everything.”

  Sully’s arms are folded across his chest. His fists are balled tightly and I can see the rage flaring like firelight in his dark eyes, rage and regret.

  “So how did they manage to avoid the Urthmen?” Will asks.

  “The city is in the desert. Nobody journeys out into the middle of the desert without a reason. And even if they did, they wouldn’t see it.”

  “I don’t understand,” Oliver says.

  “This place, the city, it was the most elaborate underground shelter ever built. Some say it was designed centuries ago to house intel on foreign countries, kind of a spy files city. It is literally the size of a small city. But as soon as the first bomb fell and the war officially started, the files were cleared out and the President, along with the entire government, was sent down there.”

  “Who’s government? What are you talking about?” Will asks, his brows gathered.

  “Ours,” Sully answers. “We are all descendants of Americans. Our ancestors were from shelters.”

  My mind spins in circles as it struggles to process what I’ve heard. Reeling, I ask, “How do you know all this?”

  “I learned it in history class.”

  “History class?” I ask incredulously. “You went to school?”

  “Yeah, all kids did in the underground city, which is called New Washington, by the way,” Sully says offhandedly.

  I reach out and grip Will’s arm for support. He immediately wraps an arm around my shoulders and I feel the hardness of his thick muscles flex and he safeguards me from falling. “I can’t believe this. Schools, New Washington, all of it, it’s like a dream,” I mumble incoherently.

  “It’s not a dream, trust me,” Sully says and his gaze examines Will’s arm draped over my shoulder protectively. I squirm, but Will does not let go.

  “So you know exactly what happened in the war, how the world came to be this way,” I ask more than state.

  “I do,” Sully answers. “If you really want to know, I can tell you about it.”

  “Please, tell me. Tell all of us what happened,” I say in a voice far stronger than I feel.

  I gulp hard against the lump of dread that has collected in my throat. Sully has information, answers to so many questions that have plagued my brain since I was old enough to understand the condition of the human species. And now, all of those questions are about to be answered. I hope I can handle all of it. I hope I can handle the truth.

  Chapter 15

  “It started in 2059 when a terrorist organization composed of religious fanatics called Jaish-e-Al-Queda overthrew several governments in the Middle East in a coordinated, multi-country coup,” Sully begins.

  “A coup?” June asks?

  “A takeover is what a coup is, and in this case it was violent,” Sully answers. “So America learned of this and sent the military to a place known as Pakistan to guard their government from being removed from power. See, our government knew Pakistan was the only country in the Middle East with nuclear capability of firing on America,” he continues to a rapt audience.

  The room is still, as if everyone waits with bated breath for him to keep going, to share with us what set our current situation into motion.

  “While the military was over there, here, the people were freaking out. They knew World War III was coming, that the religious fanatics didn’t care if they died as long as they killed us first. They believed that in the afterlife they would be rewarded for killing evil Americans.”

  “Oh my gosh,” I gasp. I’ve never been given insight into the original cause of the war. I only knew that it happened.

  “This war was going to be the end of the world as far as all of North America was concerned. Underground shelters were built all over the county as more and more people panicked. The underground city was redesigned for the President and Joint Chiefs of Staff so he could keep a working government in the event that the worst-case scenario came to pass.

  “What America didn’t know was that while they were so busy worrying about a nuclear holocaust, Jaish-e-Al-Queda had operatives in Iran, one of the countries they overtook, who worked alongside scientists and created a weapon known as Anthricin, a hybrid of the highly toxic protein ricin found in the seed of the castor oil plant and anthrax, a disease caused by bacteria found in spores.”

  “Wait, what?” I stop Sully from going on. “What does all that mean?”

  “Biological weapons,” he says and I feel the hairs on the nape of my neck stand on end. “After a few years of experimenting, Jaish-e-Al-Queda had in their possession bacteria and viruses that would cause widespread sickness and death among humans and animals. They eventually loaded Anthricin into rockets and launched them with the intent to kill.”

  “That’s what caused the Urthmen to be the way they are and the Lurkers and the spider monster and that enormous bat you killed when we hid in the tree,” June turns to me and says in one breath. Her cheeks are rosy but the rest of her is pale. I move from Will and envelop her in my arms. Her heart patters madly against my midsection.

  “It’s okay, June,” I whisper in her ear. “This is history. Sully is teaching us about the past.”

  In truth, I am sickened by what I am hearing. The idea that human beings, regardless of where they lived and what ideologies they held, intentionally killing one another is unconscionable. What for is the real question: Power? Money? Greed? Control? I can’t imagine anything worth killing another of my species for other than the protection of my sister, or myself. And now the people present are added to that list. This religion of which Sully spoke, was it worth ending the entirety of civilization? The members of Jaish-e-Al-Queda must have thought so, and were stark-raving mad in my opinion.

  Will’s voice, smooth and steady like water flowing over rocks in a slow-rolling river, returns my attention to the here and now, to the future. “The humans in the underground city, New Washington, they are descendants of survivors of the attacks?” he asks.

  “Pretty much,” Sully answers. “But this group, Jaish-e-Al-Queda, they didn’t start in North America. The
first rocket loaded with their biological weapon was launched at Israel, their fiercest enemy. As soon as that happened, Americans took cover. Rich and powerful people had space reserved in the underground shelters. The rest were left to wait.”

  “Why didn’t we do something? Why didn’t America fight back?” I ask.

  That fiery glow undulates in Sully’s eyes when his gaze lands on me. Is it pride that lights the fire or something else entirely? I wonder. “The American government did. They fired on Iran first. But Jaish-e-Al-Queda got wind of it and, before the country was obliterated, launched their missiles here.”

  “There was no turning back once that happened,” I say slowly, the gravity of what humans, my American ancestors, experienced knocking the air from my lungs. “The people who weren’t in shelters, their fates were sealed.”

  Sully nods somberly. “Those who weren’t killed in the first few days went mad as their bodies deteriorated slowly, transforming them, mutating every cell inside their bodies.”

  “The viruses did what they were supposed to do,” I say, my voice barely a whisper.

  “And it affected every living creature. I guess one of the countless things Jaish-e-Al-Queda misjudged was how quickly their weapon would spread. Everyone on the planet who was exposed became infected, but not all died. The ones in the underground shelters were okay. But above, they changed into something else, something monstrous.”

  “Early versions of Urthmen.” I complete Sully’s thought.

  “Exactly,” he says.

  A stunned hush befalls the room. We heard the stories from our parents, but for some reason, hearing Sully recount it as he does gives us a better feel for it, more of a firsthand account. His words are chilling. Our origins are simpler to explain. The Urthmen are another story entirely.

  “The President and Joint Chiefs launched nuclear weapons and destroyed the rest of the world knowing what had happened in Israel after the biological weapons detonated. Reports came in about creatures. America and Canada were the only places where nuclear bombs did not fall.”

  “So North America really is the only place where life exists?” June asks. I hear the tremor in her voice, the fear. We’d been taught that North America was the only inhabitable place on the planet where life was supported, but we never knew for sure. We’d only heard stories passed down from generation to generation. Somehow, hearing him verify those stories, I feel more terrified and isolated that I did before.

  “No one knows for sure, but that is what is believed. That is what’s taught in school,” Sully answers.

  “The President and his people went underground. I get that. But what happened afterward, after years passed?” Oliver asks.

  “I’m sure you heard some of it from your parents. The stories have been told for centuries. But I’m guessing it was much worse than what any of you heard.”

  “Why is that?” Will asks. The trace of an edge returns to his voice. “Why would our parents or family withhold the truth from us?”

  “As I said, it’s just a guess. I don’t know that they did or didn’t. I know if I had a kid I wouldn’t feel comfortable telling her how our ancestors were torn to shreds by mutant versions of their own species when they came up after more than two decades of being holed up.”

  I hear a pair of startled gasps. I assume one was from June and the other was from Riley.

  “See what I mean?” Sully says to Will without the slightest hint of arrogance. “They heard filtered versions. They don’t know that the President and the others thought they’d destroyed every living thing in the world and that whatever altered beings, if any, existed, they’d be long dead before they surfaced. They thought they’d reclaim the planet and everything would be fine. They were wrong.”

  Sully does not speak dramatically. He shares his knowledge offhandedly. Perhaps that’s why his words are so haunting. I wrap my arms around June more tightly to combat the chill that’s settled deep in my bones despite the pleasant temperature of the room.

  “How do you know the same hasn’t happened to the people of the underground city?” Oliver asks concernedly.

  “I don’t,” Sully says bluntly. “Not for a fact at least. But facts or no facts, I’m pretty sure everyone’s fine and things are still humming along down there,” he adds and his eyes shine with what I suspect are unshed tears. He blinks and looks to his feet for a moment then continues. “Those people, my kin, they could live forever down there, right under the radar of those mutant monsters. They’ve got livestock and indoor food growing capabilities.”

  “But the President and everyone down there after the war, didn’t they have all that stuff too?” June asks.

  “They had what they thought would carry them for more than two decades, and they had guns. They thought that when they ran out of supplies, they could come up then return.”

  “Wait a second. Didn’t their guns do anything against the monsters when they came up?” Oliver asks.

  “At first, yes. Heavily armed men and women were able to fight them off for a while. But they soon found out they were outnumbered. As their ammunition dwindled so too did their numbers. They were slaughtered shortly after their ammunition ran out.

  “The offspring of the warped monsters were in their teens at the time and had more intelligence than their parents. They were what Urthmen are today. They led their older, diseased family members, and they destroyed every modern weapon they found, knowing that without them, humans couldn’t beat them. They knew they had the survivors outnumbered and would eventually kill off the entire human race. And they nearly succeeded. There aren’t many of us left.”

  “But why?” June asks, tears streaming down both cheeks. “I know what they did, but I don’t understand why. Why did they hunt humans then? Why do they hunt us now?”

  “That, June, is the one question teachers and history books do not have the answer to, not a finite one they agree on. Some say the potent combination of the two viruses altered more than just the DNA of affected people, that it changed their brains and gave them a bloodlust.

  “Others say they resented humans that were unchanged, hated them with such passion that they became murderous, motivated by the purest of jealousy. But those are just two of the many theories. No one really knows. Only the original ancestors of Urthmen held the answer to your question, June,” Sully says.

  I feel as if a frigid thread has made its way into my veins, into my lifeblood, and has instilled cold in me that will never warm. I heard a milder version of Urth’s history, just as Sully thought, And I suspect everyone in the room save for Jericho and Sully had the same experience, for we all bear the same troubled expressions. Being reminded that the first Urthmen were humans whose DNA was scrambled by a senseless attack perpetrated by other human beings still staggers me. Knowing the details compounds the shock I feel with a thick layer of disgust.

  “I want to go there,” June releases me and says. She turns to Sully. “I want to go to New Washington. Can you take me there?” She swipes tears from her face with her fingertips.

  “It’s probably long gone,” Will says gently.

  “No,” Sully disagrees sharply. He looks June directly in the eye. “New Washington lives on now as it did during those first two decades after the war, only better, more efficient.”

  “You said yourself you don’t know for sure if it’s still there,” Will counters but without condescension.

  “I said I don’t know for a fact. But I know my city. And I know it’s there. I feel it in my bones,” he says with confidence that is inspiring. “June, if you want to go there I’ll take you. But I won’t stay down there. I can’t be underground, cowering, while other human beings are up here being slaughtered.”

  “Uh, she’s not going anywhere, Sully. Not without me agreeing first,” I say. The words fly from my mouth of their own accord, reflexively like breathing. June is my sister, my responsibility, not Sully’s. He may be a new addition to our clan, but he is, by no means, in charge
.

  Amusement twinkles in his eyes, only this time I do not find it charming. “Okay then Avery, do I have your permission to take June to the underground city I grew up in?”

  “No,” I answer immediately, defiance carving into my tone. “You do not. My sister stays with me.”

  “Oh Avery, I’m afraid you misunderstand me. If she wants to go, we all go to New Washington, together.” Sully’s words are like a slap to the back of my head, unexpected and disorienting at the same time.

  “What?” is all I manage to say.

  “We’re not safe here, you know that, right?”

  “Uh no, we seem okay to me, what with all your cameras and wires and gadgets, and guns,” I say and sweep my arm, gesturing to the piles of equipment and miscellany he has.

  “It would seem that way. I get that. But we killed a prince today, the Prince of Planet Urth.”

  “We didn’t kill anybody. You killed Prince Boart-Boy, whoever he is. Not us,” I remind him.

  “And you would have done the same in my position,” he fires back.

  He is right, of course. I am stuck, at a loss for words temporarily. My insides grow hot, thawing the iciness from earlier. “Fine. You’re right. I would have,” I concede. “But that’s not the point.”

  “Neither is who killed him. The fact of the matter is he’s dead, and Urthmen, stupid as they are, know that one of their own didn’t take him out. A human did. And which humans made a big old spectacle of themselves at a very public place?”

  “We did,” I roll my eyes as his point gels.

  “Precisely,” Sully says with barely restrained triumph.

  I realize in that moment that we do not have a choice in the matter. We must leave. June, Will, Oliver, Riley and myself must journey with Sully and Jericho out into the unknown. We must find the underground city, New Washington.

  Chapter 16

  I look among Will, Oliver and Riley for an answer, for some form of confirmation that they are or aren’t on board with venturing off in search of the underground city. The children appear to be more than willing to go. But Will is a different story.