The Hollow World: (Pangea, Book 1)

by Michael Beckum

  It seemed most likely that the group had been attacked by one or more of the endless numbers of dinosaurs that roamed freely around this savage land, a drifting death that had descended on the slavers, unintentionally freeing their captive. So what did that mean for the remaining red dot? For Nova? I watched with sweating helplessness as the dot remained lit, held still, then finally began to move back along the way it had come, back in the direction where Zash had told me Sa Fasi lay.

  It had to be Nova! She was alive! And free again!

  Suddenly my strength returned. I searched the decline and found a clear path leading down into the valley below—a wide savanna filled with grazing ankylosaurs—dropped quickly from the crook of the tree I sat in and began a near run down the slope. Keeping my eyes perpetually on the hills where Nova had to be, I hurried past clusters of the curious, armor-backed dinosaurs, nearly tripped over some smaller grass eating bipeds, and raced across the flat plain that separated me from what I hoped would be my final climb to the woman I loved.

  A few hundred yards up that slope I checked my GPS and watched as the screen suddenly jerked, and the purple dot that indicated me became suddenly very close to the other red dot, as if some satellite somewhere were updating its information, recalculating perhaps because I’d been traveling faster and further than either of us realized.

  From somewhere above me a hissing noise caught my ears, a horrifying sound that reminded me of the pterodactyls I’d heard in the Grigori temple. Rounding a slight outcropping of rock I saw it was a pair of the winged rats cautiously beating the air, practically hovering in and down on something I couldn’t see on a ledge not far from me. A spear occasionally jabbed into view, forcing the flying beasts back, but they quickly regrouped, circled, and descended again, and again. Fearing it was Nova in danger, I scrambled quickly over stones and roots on a serpentine path in her direction.

  In some distant time an earthquake had shifted dramatically along a fault at this point and ripped the planet, creating the path on which whoever was being attacked now fought, while also forming a wall that jutted straight up about ten feet to block my progress. I searched frantically as the Ingonghus continued their attack, and found a few random vines and a fallen tree that offered a sort of bridge upward. I leaped on it, grabbing the vines for support, and tested my exhaustion and balance by racing as fast as I could manage along the long dried pine.

  The trunk of the fallen tree stopped a few feet below the path’s ledge, so I had to jump to get up there, losing my spear in the process. Heaving with almost the last of my strength I hauled myself over the lip, and stood on the narrow precipice with a young, dark-haired girl—bloody and naked—cowering on the narrow platform, her face buried behind one of her arms, as she angrily stabbed out at the attacking monsters with the spear in her other hand.

  The pterodactyls had withdrawn and flown off, but were circling again, lower this time, and I watched as one folded its wings for a fast dive on its prey. I dove with my knife just before the creature’s open maw reached the frightened girl. The stone blade plunged into its skull just behind the eyes—a lethal jab for which I was grateful because I’d been aiming for its heart. With twists and jerks it died quickly then rolled off the ledge, disappearing from our lives.

  But there was still one more.

  The second Ingonghu had followed its brother, darting fast toward the girl, but my sudden appearance must have startled it because it veered to one side, and then arced off and away from us, back into the sky.

  I made use of the moment to check on the girl, and watched as she raised her eyes over her forearm in astonishment. Very slowly she lowered that arm to reveal her astonishment. The expression she showed would be difficult to describe, though it was plainly as complicated as my own—because the wide eyes looking back into mine were the stunning, sea-blue eyes of my Nova. Nova the Beautiful.

  “Nova…” I said, the emotion nearly overwhelming me.

  “Brandon?” she whispered, and I couldn’t tell if she were pleased, surprised, horrified, or all of the above. “How did you find me?”

  “I…” I began.

  “Not now,” she interrupted, pointing behind me. “Ingonghu.”

  Once more the beast was sweeping toward us, so quickly that I had no time to unsling my bow. Its open mouth rocketed toward me like two massive blades pointed at head and heart, and all I could do was duck slightly to one side and punch the hideous thing in the face. This time I hit him exactly where I wanted, and with a hiss of pain and rage the reptile was knocked in a heap on the ledge where it scrambled frantically trying to right itself. Very quickly it jerked itself upright, dove off the path. I hoped it was done with us. But within seconds we saw it rising up in the distance, making a graceful sweep over the treetops on a curve that would bring it right back to where we stood.

  I quickly nocked an arrow in the bow Zash had given me, preparing for another attack, and as I did I looked down at the woman I loved so much it hurt, to catch her stealing a loving glance at me; but as soon as she saw my eyes on hers, she immediately turned away.

  “Pay attention to your work,” she said, snippily.

  “Come on, Nova,” I said, smiling. “I know you’re glad to see me.”

  She turned furiously and glared directly into my eyes.

  “I hate you,” she said, “and if you don’t pay attention to that Ingonghu I’ll be hating your corpse.”

  I couldn’t help myself. I smiled again, and turned to meet the winged reptile/bird/fantasy creature—whatever the hell it was to the palaeobiologist establishment this week. To me it was now—as to Nova—an Ingonghu. The cruel bloodhound of the Grigori. The long-extinct pterodactyl of the outer world.

  This time I met it with a weapon it had never faced before. I’d selected my longest arrow, and with all my remaining strength bent the bow until my weakened arm fairly vibrated with the strain, resting the very tip of the shaft upon the quivering thumb of my left hand, I waited, waited, as the great winged beast plunged once more toward us. A hundred yards away… fifty yards… twenty… my arm shook horribly.

  I loosed the arrow straight for it’s open mouth—and prayed.

  I didn’t see where it went. And the thing just kept coming. I had missed, and now we were dead.

  The Ingonghu slammed into me and knocked me across the tiny ledge, one of its beaks impaling my shoulder. I fairly flipped backwards over Nova, and slammed directly into the cliff face where the two of us collapsed—man, and dinosaur—me about to become its next meal, it to dine—first on me, and then on Nova.

  But neither of us moved.

  The head of the Ingonghu lay still, beak jutting through my shoulder, its eyes filmy and unmoving. A little freaked, I pushed the thing’s nose out of my wound, shoved it aside, and stood quickly away from it.

  I turned toward Nova, who knelt nearby, staring at me with wide, fearful eyes. Her expression betrayed her real feelings. She had been terrified—for herself, yes, but mostly for me.

  “Nova,” I said lovingly, feeling overwhelmed just to be near her again.

  “I hate you,” was her only reply; but it sounded less sincere than it had before.

  “You hate me?” I asked, smiling, and not believing her.

  “I do,” she said, tears forming in her eyes. “I really do.”

  I stepped closer, gently, patiently, holding my arms out to my sides. She stood and backed away, only stopping when she reached the edge of the precipice.

  “Can I take your hand?” I asked.

  She moved both behind her back.

  “I want to hold it over my head, then close to my heart,” I said, “and never let it go.”

  She tried to stay angry, but I saw her face melt, and one tear slipped free of a lid and trickled along her cheek.

  “You can’t have me, now,” she said, trying to sound defiant, but only sounding deeply sad. “I belong to Gudra, The Ugly.”

  My heart collapsed, and I can only imagine my face did as
well, because with those words, her expression fell as far as mine, and she turned away from me.

  “I’d gone home,” she said, sadly. “To Sa Fasi. After we had escaped from the Angara in that tunnel, Hajah tried to rape me, but I beat him senseless, and ran. He laughed and laughed, but he didn’t follow. Without him I made my way back home; but because of Gudra I wouldn’t enter the villages, or let any of my friends or family know I’d returned. I was too afraid of what would happen when Gudra found out. So I circled the tribe, watching for some sign that might tell me what to do, trying to decide if I should just leave as I’d done before. But I knew the Angara would be coming, and I didn’t want to face them alone.

  “My father and brother would do what they could to protect me, but I didn’t see either of them as I circled my people’s caves. They must have been out looking for me. So—unsure what to do—I lived in a fissure beside a valley not far from Sa Fasi that my tribe rarely goes to, just trying to think of an answer.”

  That explained why the red dot hadn’t moved. Not because she’d gotten home, but because she was too afraid to finish the journey.

  “Eventually one of Gudra’s brothers saw me when I got too close to my father’s cave, he told Gudra, and Gudra came after me. He chased me for miles and miles, across many different lands, and then I ran right into the Angara who were looking for me. They took me prisoner, and then took their time heading back to Emibi, not realizing the danger they were in. I actually tried to convince them to move faster—told them Gudra would kill them all with only one hand, and they just laughed.”

  “But he found them, and he did kill them” I said, at last understanding the sudden disappearance of the three, blue Angara dots on the GPS.

  She nodded. “He went after the last one and I ran. But…”

  “He’ll be back soon,” I said, feeling the exhaustion of the recent fighting and my torturous journey to get here.

  Again, she nodded. More tears trailed down her cheeks, and fell to the earth below. A fearful rain of tears.

  “He will kill you, Brandon,” she said quietly, but with complete certainty. “And he would have the right. He took my hand. I struggled, but he’s so strong, Brandon. So strong. He raised it, and held it aloft before the Angara, then to his chest.”

  I swallowed hard. Because I’d been ignorant. Because I hadn’t known…

  “I am his wife, Brandon, because he did what you would not.”

  I tried to take her in my arms but she slapped me away, lowering her eyes and crying a torrent. I was devastated. Lost. We both were. All this time I’d thought of nothing but Nova, and how I would make this stupid, insignificant custom work for me instead of against me. And now… now it was even more against me than before.

  “It can’t mean anything,” I said. “Just because he did it in front of some Angara…”

  “It is custom, Brandon!”

  “And then he killed the Angara!” I snapped. “This is ridiculous!”

  “He followed our customs!” she snapped back, turning to glare in my face. “And it has meaning because he gives it meaning, and he will kill you to protect his commitment to that meaning just as he did the Grigori servants! You cannot beat him, Brandon! I don’t love him! I will never love him as I…”

  She paused. Her cheeks reddened beneath her liquid filled eyes. I took her shoulders in my bloody hands and plead into those eyes.

  “I love you, Nova,” I told her, my own eyes moistening. “I will never love anyone the way I love you. I will die without you. I didn’t know your custom. I would have done it then, would do it in front of anyone, a million times had I only known…”

  “And he would still have killed you,” she said, turning her head and resting her wet cheek against my chest. “I would rather know you live, than be tormented with the thoughts of your body being eaten by worms while Gudra forces himself into me. It will keep me alive through anything to know that you, too, are alive, and perhaps happy, somewhere else.”

  “I’ll never be happy without you,” I said. “I’ll fight for you. Is that allowed? Can I kill him and take you back?”

  “What kind of bizarre customs do you have on your world? No, Brandon, you cannot kill a man and take his wife. And as proud as I am of your bravery and skill, you would have no chance against Gudra, anyway.”

  “We can run…” I said.

  She clutched at my chest like a little girl, and thought about it. I reached my hands up to hold her, and slowly, inevitably, she melted into my embrace, resting her open mouth against my chest, and kissing me, gently. Very slowly her arms went around me, to cling tightly. I returned her squeeze, and felt the love flow between us, once again.

  “We could,” she whispered, with finality. “For a little while, anyway.” Her hands caressed my back, my bare behind, my thighs, and then returned to my shoulders, gripping me fiercely, almost desperately. “At least it would be something.”

  “I love you, Nova,” I said.

  “And I love you, Brandon,” she replied, her voice breaking with fear, and sadness. “So, so much.”

  And so we ran. She had just come up from the valley I’d passed through, so we continued on up the hill and over, our only goal: to move faster the Gudra.

  But I already knew there would be no escaping him. He would find us. And he would kill me.

  * * *

  GUDRA

  * * *

  “HE CAN’T BE FAR behind me now,” Nova said. “He’s a master tracker, so we will have to move quickly and carefully to escape him. When he comes he will kill you—rape me for leaving him—and carry me back to his cave.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Can we stop dwelling on how severely outmatched I am against Gudra.”

  “At least you’ll be dead. I’ll still be alive, with his dick stuck up my ass.”

  I laughed, and she did, too.

  “Perhaps we can go to the sea,” she suggested. “If he catches us there, I can throw myself into it as he kills you.”

  “Seriously,” I said over my shoulder. “Enough with the ‘he’s going to kill you’ crap, all right? I’m a resourceful guy. You never know.”

  She laughed a little, and I just shook my head. All this negativity was beginning to get to me. What kind of monster was Gudra, The Ugly?

  “We’ll go on until it gets dark,” I said. “And then tomorrow…”

  “Until what gets dark?” Nova asked. “What’s a ‘tomorrow’?”

  I stared at her for a second, then shook my head.

  “Never mind. It doesn’t… how odd.” I said to myself. “The word is in the vocabulary, but not the meaning.”

  Before long we found a rift in the cliff which had been widened and extended by an endless age of rushing water draining through it from the plateau above. It gave us a rather rough climb to the summit, but eventually we stood on a level mesa that stretched back for several miles and melted into the mountain range. To one side lay the broad inland sea, curving upward into the horizonless distance where it merged with the paler blue of the sky, so that for all the world it looked as though the sea lapped back to arch completely over us, briefly disappearing beyond the oversized sun, and then back down the other side. We were alone atop a sea of blue.

  Not far ahead lay a dense forest, but to the left the country was open and clear to the plateau’s farthest edge. We chose open and clear, and had turned to resume our journey when Nova touched my arm. I turned to her, thinking that she was about to finally admit that she loved me, too; but I was mistaken.

  “Gudra,” she said, nodding toward the forest.

  I looked, and there, emerging from the thick darkness of the wood, came an immense whale of a man. He was still too far off and covered in shadow for me to distinguish individual features, but I didn’t really need any clearer picture to know that I was doomed. The man must have been seven and a half feet tall, and built like someone who ate steroids with every meal.

  “You’re right,” I told her. “He is going to kill
me.”

  “I told you,” she said. But her voice was fearful, not triumphant.

  “Run,” I said to Nova. “At least I can earn you a good start. Maybe hold him off until you’ve gotten a few miles away.”

  “Brandon,” I heard her say through tears and sobs.

  I couldn’t look at her. Couldn’t bear it. So, without a backward glance, I moved forward to meet The Ugly one. I was going to my death for Nova’s sake, and I could think of no better cause.

  As Gudra stepped further from the shadows I began to understand how it was that he’d earned the title of ‘Ugly’. Apparently the fight with the bear had not been an easy victory. It—or something else even meaner—had ripped away the entire left side of his face. The eye was still there, but in an open socket, held in place by scarred muscle-tissue and tendon. His nose, and all the flesh from the center of his lips outward was gone, so that his jaw bone and teeth were exposed, and apparently grinning from within the horrible disfigurement.

  From what was left of his features I could see that at one time he may have been as handsome as any young man, and probably admired and desired by many women. Being mauled might have been part of what made him brutal and angry—all the angrier to find his mate running away with someone else. But there was more than possessiveness in his expression.

  Both eyes moved rapidly side-to-side from Nova, to me, then back again. For all Nova’s beliefs and thoughts that Gudra’s motives for marrying her were entirely selfish and borne solely from a desire to become chief of the tribe, she had obviously missed the fact that he did, indeed, feel something for her, and he didn’t like what he was seeing between us. It amped up his fearsomeness to a terrifying level.

  Abruptly, he broke into a run, and as he advanced he raised his tree-trunk of a spear. I quickly knelt, nocked an arrow and struggled desperately to steady my aim as best I could. My arms shook horribly from exhaustion and fear, the arrow tip refusing to stay in place on my vibrating thumb. My trembling combined with his movement made it impossible for me to target, and so I whispered a silent prayer and just let the damned missile fly.