The muscle at the side of his jaw is working continuously. Hard and unreadable, his features betray nothing.
“Will, what do you think about all this?” I ask him.
The only way I know he’s heard me is when his eyes finally rest on me. And even then, they reveal nothing.
Sully’s eyes dart between us, and he claps his hands together loudly. “How about I give you two a moment to hash things out?”
“Thanks,” I say to Sully absently.
Sully joins Jericho and they disappear behind a mountain of supplies. With them out of earshot, I turn to face Will.
“Well, what do you think?” I repeat my question.
“Sounds like it doesn’t really matter what I think.”
His words land like a slap across my face. They sting and I was unprepared for them. “Will, I never—” I start but he interrupts me.
“Never what, meant to ask me whether I want to go off with these two guys, who, by the way, we know nothing about?”
“No that’s not what I was going to say—”
“Well it doesn’t matter now I guess. Ask me, don’t ask me. You call all the shots now. You said so yourself,” he huffs and tosses both hands in the air.
“Will,” I say gently. “It’s me. What’s going on?”
“I know I almost got us killed. I know my actions at the house are what got us caught and landed us in the arena, but that doesn’t forfeit my right to decide for myself, or at least be consulted before life-changing plans are made.” His tone is less angry, and I understand what he is saying. I never meant to make him feel as though I’d stripped him of having a voice in what we do or where we go.
“I’m sorry,” I say plainly. Judging from the stunned look on Will’s face, I can see he is taken aback.
“What?” he asks, his face scrunched in confusion.
“I’m sorry I made you feel as if a mistake surrendered your right to be involved in your destiny.”
His shoulders slump and any hostility I sensed seconds earlier seeps from him. He rubs his forehead then scrubs both hands over his face.
“We don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” I say and lightly touch his forearm.
He lowers his hands from his face slowly, but not before he clasps a hand over mine, holding it in place. “Yes we do,” he says and meets my gaze. His eyes are the sky and land merged, paled by light so that they are a translucent blend of blue and green. My breath catches in my chest as he holds me with them. “Yes, we do,” he says again.
“The children will be—” I start to say.
“Not just for them, but for us too. We could make a life there.”
The intensity of his words and the gleam in his eyes suggest that there’s more to leaving than simply finding a safe haven to hide from the monsters who roam that planet, that maybe the opportunity to actually live rather than exist is real.
A quiver races from my chest and passes through my stomach at the notion. Envisioning life without the constant worry and tension of ever-present danger seemed like a dream before today. As hard as it is to imagine, I find myself yearning for it too.
But with that yearning comes the continual niggle at the back of my brain. Living secretively in an underground utopia, as magical as it sounds, does not erase what is going on in the rest of the world. It does not make me immune to the plight of my species.
A calling beckons me, ringing through my core like the toll of a bell, and I know what must happen.
“Yes, that is true,” I tell Will as my eyes well with tears. “So I take it you want to go?” I sniffle then ask him.
“Yes, I do. I want to go to New Washington,” he replies, his eyes shining.
Without warning, Will closes the distance between us and embraces me tightly. I feel his heart pounding against my chest, keeping time with my own frantic heartbeat, and I am lost in his scent, his warmth. Time and planning cease to exist. Wars and monsters, danger and death, all of it falls by the wayside as I inhale his rich, musky scent. My arms reach out and match the ferocity with which he clutches me. I am dizzy, giddy with an inexplicable joy so filling it borders on sadness. I feel as if I am floating, suspended above my own body on the wings of a mighty bird. And I am not afraid. In fact, I don’t want to come down. He lowers his chin, dipping his head so that his lips hover just above mine. His hot breath feathers against my mouth, only this time, I am ready. I know what he intends to do and I will let him. He inches close, our hearts drilling in sync.
“So are we going, Avery?” June asks.
I snap my head in her direction, her voice anchoring itself to me and yanking me back to reality. My hands fall to my sides and I step away from Will, embarrassed, though unsure why exactly. “Uh yes, we’re going,” I answer.
“Yay!” June cheers. “Riley, Oliver, we’re going!” she calls out to the others.
A lively eruption occurs among the children followed by a buzz of excitement that is palpable. I look at Will to see whether he can feel it to, but his eyes are cast downward. I want to reach out to him, but as soon as my hand rises from my thigh, Sully’s voice fills the room.
“I hear we’re going,” he says.
“Yep, looks like we are,” I nod.
“Any idea how we’re getting there?” he asks.
I can’t tell whether or not he’s joking. One eyebrow is cocked and he smiles his perpetual, crooked smile, but I’m still unsure.
“Sully, you’re joking, right?” I ask.
“No, not at all.”
“What? Come on!” I say.
“No really, I mean, we can walk. It’ll probably take us about five years to get there. Of course, we’ll either starve, be eaten or killed by Urthmen before then, but I’m willing to try!”
I shake my head, trying to right my thoughts. Surely I didn’t hear what I thought I just heard. He is obviously just teasing me, isn’t he? I wonder.
“Come on, enough already.” I glance at the kids. Their moods have deflated substantially. “Cut it out, you’re scaring the kids.”
“What do you mean? I’m just being honest,” he replies.
“Sully, stop it, all right. It’s not funny. You have the truck and a camper. We won’t have to walk,” I look toward the kids and smile halfheartedly.
“True, I do have the camper and the truck, but you’re forgetting one crucial component: gasoline. As in, I don’t have any. And without gasoline, those vehicles don’t operate.”
My jaw goes slack and I do not blink. Part of me contemplates slapping Sully right across his arrogant face. But I don’t. Instead, I close my mouth and swallow hard then grind my molars. “So you got my sister and Riley and Oliver excited over nothing?” I lean in and smile, talking through my teeth quietly
“I said I’d be happy to escort June there,” he replies in little more than a whisper, and with that twinkle of amusement I found charming before, but now find grating.
“You gave them hope and now you’re taking it away,” I narrow my eyes and practically growl.
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re beautiful when you’re mad?” he murmurs.
“Has anyone ever told you I eviscerated the last person who said that to me?” I reply in the same tone he used and watch as he takes a step back. “Gasoline,” I return his attention to our conversation. “Where do we find it?”
“It’s guarded by Urthmen, but that’s the least of our problems.”
“Why is that?”
“Do you have any idea how dangerous it would be to take a vehicle on Urthmen roads cross-country?” he asks.
“Maybe you should have thought of that before you let us believe we could have a semblance of a life.”
Sully’s head rears back as if I did decide to slap him. His eyes are wide and devoid of laughter. He looks almost remorseful.
“What?” I ask him. “What is it?”
“Nothing,” he answers quickly and looks at his feet.
“No really, what is it?”
“It’s just that, it’s what you said. You and June haven’t ever had any sort of life.”
“We haven’t. We’ve always been on the run, even when we lived at the cave or at the compound. We were constantly threatened,” I admit.
Sully and I are practically nose to nose. Consumed by anger and disappointment seconds ago, I forgot we stood in a roomful of people.
“Is there a problem?” Will interjects and reminds us both that we are not alone.
“Nope,” Sully says and his face returns to its usual inscrutable expression.
“We just have to work out a plan to get some fuel and we’ll be on our way,” he says and slides a glance at Jericho before returning his attention to me. “Looks like we’re going on a road trip. Is everyone in?”
“I’m in,” I say.
“Me, too,” Will adds.
“Count me in,” June claps.
“And me,” Riley cries out.
“Let’s do it,” Oliver chimes in.
I look to Jericho who stands with his head bowed and his hands clasped over his belly. “Hey,” Sully calls. “How about you? You coming with us?”
“Of course! Did you think I’d let you go off and get into trouble without me?” Jericho lifts his eyes and says with a hearty chuckle.
“All right then, I need everyone to huddle up,” Sully waves us all toward him. “We need to formulate a plan to get gasoline,” he begins when everyone circles around him. I hang back a moment and watch Riley and Oliver, Will and June, the people I love, and feel my chest tighten. I will miss them. They belong in New Washington. They deserve to be safe and happy. They deserve the life they always dreamed of. But I do not. Another fate awaits me, one less peaceful, one far more complicated.
I will go with them to the underground city, and I will try to convince the people there to fight. If things are as good as Sully says they are I doubt anyone will join in my crusade and I will leave without Oliver, Riley, and Will. I will leave June, too.
We know what we have to do as a group, and now I know what I must do as an individual as well. I have not shared the conclusion I’ve reached with anyone, not Will, not even June. I fear that saying the words aloud might break me, and I sincerely doubt my voice would hold if I tried. My chest clenches at the thought, at the expression on everyone’s face when I announce what I will do. I am glad I will have many days to work myself up to it, to steel myself. Still, as I watch June talk excitedly with Sully, offering her input, her silvery-blue eyes sparkling with something I have never seen in them before—true hope—I worry that even with time to prepare, my revelation will not get any easier. I also fear that she will never forgive me. But I hope someday she does.
Until now, hope has been a futile emotion I barely allowed to breeze through my brain in passing. All I could do daily was try my best to be courageous, to survive. Neither June nor I would have ever dared to anchor ourselves to it as we have now, since Sully shared with us news of the underground city. But all that has changed.
Hope is what I am banking on for June’s future. Hope is all that motivates me; hope of a better life for June, hope for safety and stability, and hope for a future that includes more than just existing from one day to the next, but actually living and embarking on new experiences.
I hope June is happy one day and that she is able to reconcile with my decision to leave if that is what comes to pass. I hope she finds it in her kind and decent heart to forgive me, her last living blood relation, for leaving her to defend the people of Planet Urth.
Coming Soon:
Planet Urth: The Underground City (Part 3)
About the Authors
Jennifer and Christopher Martucci hoped that their life plan had changed radically in early 2010. To date, the jury is still out. But late one night, in January of 2010, the stay-at-home mom of three girls under the age of six had just picked up the last doll from the playroom floor and placed it in a bin when her husband startled her by declaring, “We should write a book, together!” Wearied from a day of shuttling the children to and from school, preschool and Daisy Scouts, laundry, cooking and cleaning, Jennifer simply stared blankly at her husband of fifteen years. After all, the idea of writing a book had been an individual dream each of them had possessed for much of their young adult lives. Both had written separately in their teens and early twenties, but without much success. They would write a dozen chapters here and there only to find that either the plot would fall apart, or characters would lose their zest, or the story would just fall flat. Christopher had always preferred penning science-fiction stories filled with monsters and diabolical villains, while Jennifer had favored venting personal experiences or writing about romance. Inevitably though, frustration and day-to-day life had placed writing on the back burner and for several years, each had pursued alternate (paying) careers. But the dream had never died. And Christopher suggested that their dream ought to be removed from the back burner for further examination. When he proposed that they author a book together on that cold January night, Jennifer was hesitant to reject the idea outright. His proposal sparked a discussion, and the discussion lasted deep into the night. By morning, the idea for the Dark Creations series was born.
The Dark Creations series, as well as the Arianna Rose series and the Planet Urth series, are works that were written while Jennifer and Christopher continued about with their daily activities and raised their young children. They changed diapers, potty trained and went to story time at the local library between chapter outlines and served as room parents while fleshing out each section. Life simply continued.
As the storyline continues to evolve, so too does the Martucci collaboration. Lunches are still packed, noses are still wiped and time remains a rare and precious commodity in their household, but it is the sound of happy chaos that is the true background music of their writing. They hope that all enjoy reading their work as much as they enjoyed writing it.
Books by Jennifer and Christopher Martucci:
The Dark Creations Series (A YA paranormal romance series)
Dark Creations: Gabriel Rising (Part 1)
Dark Creations: Gabriel Rising (Part 2)
Dark Creations: Gabriel Rising (Part 1&2)
Dark Creations: Resurrection (Part 3)
Dark Creations: The Hunted (Part 4)
Dark Creations: Hell on Earth (Part 5)
Dark Creations: Dark Ending (Part 6)
Coming Soon:
Planet Urth: The Underground City (Part 3)
Arianna Rose: The Gates of Hell (Part 5)
The Arianna Rose Series (A paranormal romance series)
Arianna Rose (Part 1)
Arianna Rose: The Awakening (Part 2)
Arianna Rose: The Gathering (Part 3)
Arianna Rose: The Arrival (Part 4)
The Planet Urth series (A YA science-fiction/futuristic series)
Planet Urth (Book 1)
Planet Urth: The Savage Lands (Book 2)
Thank You So Much For Reading Our Book!
We deeply appreciate your readership and would love to hear from you!
For information about upcoming releases (or just to say hi!) please visit our website at http://darkcreationssaga.com or at http://on.fb.me/1dlUUF5 To sign up for our mailing list and receive information about upcoming release and special promos, please visit http://eepurl.com/Jp7yz
Thank you again for reading!
Love,
Jennifer and Christopher Martucci
Oh, One Last Thing Before You Go…
When you turn the page, you may be given the opportunity to express your thoughts on Facebook and Twitter automatically. If you enjoyed our book, would you take a second to click that button and let your friends know about it?
If they get something out of the book, they’ll be grateful to you, and we will be, too!
Thank you so much!
Love,
Jenny and Chris
er, Planet Urth: The Savage Lands (Book 2)
Planet Urth: The Savage Lands (Book 2) Page 18
