“That can happen on Earth?” As he raises his eyebrow in shock, I’m struck by how adorable he looks pulling that expression.
I try not to let myself dwell on how good looking Marduke is because I find it distracting. He’s got a confidence about him that makes him sexy. He’s strong and powerful, and while he’s hard and toned in all the right places, I love how soft his lips are. I love his deep green eyes and the dimples that appear when he smiles.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asks, his shock changing to confusion, although he gives me a little smile as I touch the dimples that appear.
“I love these,” I admit.
He doesn’t get the chance to respond to that, however. Geyt finally comes over and Marduke steps back to give her room.
She runs more scans over me, never needing to actually physically touch me. She then asks me a lot of questions about how I have been feeling. She says the man she was just talking to was another doctor who has studied the human reproductive system for several months. I suppose Marduke’s people weren’t just feeding back information on weapons. He believes our two species are very similar, and the only difference is that the women on Oden usually remain pregnant longer than a human pregnancy.
Longer is a far better outcome than earlier. She gives me several health bars, like she’s fed me before, and tells me to try and eat one a day. They will give me and the baby the correct nutrients that we obviously won’t get from the white mush. She also explains that babies are born in the same way as they are on Earth, so that is a relief. Until I think about a baby coming out of my vagina, and then I don’t feel so relieved.
Obviously women used to go into labour everyday on Earth, but no stories I have ever heard have ever painted it in a good light. And I will now be expected to go through it not only without my mum, but probably on an entirely different planet.
You have got to be kidding me.
I feel a mixture of better and worse from seeing Geyt, so when Hank finds us still in the medical tent, I jump at the chance to talk to him and ignore all the baby talk.
“You okay?” he asks me, concern in his voice as he looks me over.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Marduke just wanted me to get a check-up before we go.”
Hank nods, but I can tell his mind has already left me and this medical tent. “I got you some packs. We’re taking minimal food and water, so we’ll have to find water and that weird fruit when we’re in the forest again.”
“When do we go?”
“Now. More of those creatures have been spotted on the edge of the forest. Kane thinks they’re going to try to infiltrate the camp again soon. We’re going to sneak past them, and while everyone left behind holds them off, we’ll destroy the nests.”
“They’re here again?” I am dismayed. What happens if we do destroy the nests, only to come back and find nothing left?
“Yes, so let’s get moving.”
I nod, glancing back at Marduke. He doesn’t look pleased, however he definitely can’t argue that staying here is the safer option now. Both options are bad and they’re the only two we have.
Kane and a man Hank calls Hunter are in our group. Hunter is the bomb expert, and he has the ingredients to make the bombs in his pack. Or at least, I hope it’s in his pack.
I feel the weight of my own pack and wonder if Kane might be okay with us coming along because he wants us to accidently blow ourselves up.
I ignore the thoughts of what might be in our packs and look ahead to the forest. I can’t see any of the creatures, which makes me even more wary. Where are they? Are they watching us?
Making it into the cover of the trees from the forest is a relief. I glance back at the camp and hope it will still be there when we get back.
I have no I idea that, when I step foot into that forest, I would never be making it back to the camp again.
Chapter 12
Marduke
Kane leads us through the forest and away from the other groups. They’ve tried to map out an area for each team to search, but with the forest being so large, I am positive it’s going to be more difficult than they’ve planned. We only took a week to travel through the forest to get back to the camps, but that was going in a straight line. Searching means zigzagging. Then there is the other issue of what if there are many more nests than they’ve planned for? How many bombs do they have the capability to handle? We also have no way of checking in with the other teams, so if a team is in trouble or annihilated, we’ll never know. So how will we be certain if they have cleared their area?
When I point this out to Kane, he throws a fit. He shoves me against a nearby tree and stands over me, his hands gripping my hoodie as he leans into my face. “You got a problem, freak?”
“Kane!” Mattie is at our side immediately, pulling on Kane’s arm.
He reminds me of Ival, just from his physical presence. I would have just as much hope throwing Kane off as I would him.
“Let him go!” she demands angrily.
“I know you want us to fail, that this is all part of some sick plan you and the other freaks have going. Well, once these fucking creatures are destroyed, you’re all next.”
Mattie slams her fist into Kane’s arm again and again while Hank is now on his other side, pulling on his arm.
“Why did you let me come out here if you think I’m going to sabotage you?” I ask, curious, not afraid that he is going to seriously harm me right at this moment. If he wants me dead, he has two weapons on him right now plus however many in his backpack.
Something flickers over his face, something gleeful and smug, but then it’s gone and only anger is there. “Like I told Hank, we needed everyone we could get.” He shoves away from me, and just as I push off the trunk, he takes a quick swing and punches me in the side of my face.
The force alone is enough to make me lose my footings, and I am jolted as my body impacts harshly with the ground, my still sore shoulder from the crash crunching under my weight.
“Marduke!” Mattie gasps.
I dizzily glance to my side, expecting to see her couching over me, but instead she’s holding a handgun and pointing it at Kane. She hasn’t been given a weapon, so I’m assuming she has managed to take one of Kane’s.
“What the hell is your problem? Marduke isn’t the enemy here,” she growls at him, her finger unlatching the safety.
“I’d put that away if I were you.” Hunter steps up to Mattie and my head spins even faster to see he is holding a gun to her.
“Mattie, please don’t,” I plead, shaking my head and ignoring the way that makes pain shoot straight to my brain as I try to clear my vision. I get up on my knees, beginning to feel my balance returning.
“Look, how about everyone just lowers their weapons and calms the fuck down?” Hank suggests, a gun also in his hand, although his is down by his side. He stands close to Hunter, though, and I know he’s ready to defend Mattie if needed.
“He just threatened Marduke’s life!” Mattie yells at Hank, her arm steady and aim still trained on Kane.
“I know, but right now we have bigger issues to face. How about we see if we can get out of this forest alive before we worry about what happens after the creatures are dead? Screaming out our position isn’t going to help us,” Hank reasons calmly.
I stand with one hand moving to the trunk behind me to secure myself and ensure I don’t just end up back on my ass. My other hand touches the spot where Kane hit me. It already feels tender and sore.
I look over at Mattie, seeing her arm slowly beginning to lower, and my body releases some of the tension I hold. However, it only takes a second to run me back over. Kane leaps at Mattie, his movement looking more like a blur. He shifts to the side so her aim is no longer on him. In the second it takes for him to get to her, he twists his body so he has his back to her, links his arm over hers and forces her arm to bend until she cries out in pain and her hand loosens over the gun.
“Let her go!” I yell ou
t, rage rushing through me. I ignore the gun changing hands, and this time, I punch Kane in the face. He stumbles back a step, his arm unlinking over Mattie’s, but he doesn’t fall to the ground like I did.
My fist now matches the ache in my head; however I don’t pay attention to it. I stand in front of Mattie, protecting her from his gaze while I glare at Kane, who is holding the gun now, pointing it at my chest, the barrel touching me.
“I could just end this now,” he threatens.
“And I’d have to end you, and no doubt Hunter would then end me and Mattie would probably turn psycho and kill him. Then our team of five will be down to one, and we wouldn’t have even lasted an hour. Great plan, asshole,” Hank snaps at Kane, his fury evident.
“Do you hear that?” Hunter interrupts us, the urgency in his voice shifting us from our anger-fuelled argument to pause as he listens to the silence surrounding us. Except there isn’t silence, there is a rustling of leaves and a small vibration along the ground.
“Oh, shit, run!” Hank hisses, and the standoff is forgotten. We all take off sprinting.
My backpack knocks my back awkwardly as my feet pound along the uneven ground. I keep Mattie in my sights and hear the thuds of Hunter running behind me. Hank and Kane are ahead of us.
We run for a while, only stopping when Hank and Kane begin to slow down. I don’t think we have put enough space between us and the Claws that were no doubt closing in on where we had been, but as I near them, I realise their attention has shifted.
They are no longer panicked as we were when we all took off running. They are not even watching behind us for anything that might be chasing us. They are starring ahead, through a small gap in the trees.
I take hold of Mattie’s hand, needing the reassurance that she’s okay. I consider just keeping hold of her hand and making a run for it. It’s clear Kane isn’t safe to be around and has no problem not only harming me, but also Mattie. I can’t have our unborn baby and her anywhere near him, yet before I can drag her away from here, she pulls me towards Hank, staring over his shoulder. Curiosity makes me look, too.
In front of us is a nest with ten large eggs and three Claws that are patrolling the small area. One squeals loudly, its head looking up towards the sky. Before any of us have enough time to try to figure out what it’s doing, another loud squeal responds in the distance. It’s a noise that echoes around us, and I am paranoid enough to feel as though it came from the direction behind us. If they are communicating with each other, then these Claws could have been warned to expect us.
Hunter moves his backpack around to his front and immediately begins pulling stuff out while Kane crouches down to help him. I pull Mattie aside while they work.
“I don’t like this. We were being chased a moment ago. We shouldn’t stay here,” I nervously say.
“This is why we’re here. We can’t ignore this nest.” Mattie stares at the side of my face, her hand moving to gently touch me. I don’t know what she sees until her hand makes contact and I wince in pain. “I can’t believe he did that to you.”
I cover her hand with mine, holding her against my already bruised face. “It’s not safe around him. We shouldn’t be here.”
I never agreed that coming into the forest was the safer option, but I could see how stubborn Mattie was going to be about this. She mentioned wanting to do the right thing, wanting to advance this fight and do her part. She even tried to justify it by saying the camps might not be safe anyway. While she has a point on all of those things, none of them are worth coming out into this forest with a madman and facing the worst of the Claws. These Claws are in protective mode and will be more ruthless than any Claws that come for the camp.
I know that, deep down, she is doing this for Hank. He has asked her to come, he’s used a promise she made before she knew she was pregnant, and he has used guilt to get his way. I am not going to fight him over his words to her because I know he loves her. I know he thinks he’s doing the right thing and that having her with him is better than him being out here on his own where he can’t be sure of her safety.
But seeing Kane’s hostility growing worse towards both Mattie and me has me worrying about him more than the Claws. I have no doubt he’s just as ruthless as those creatures, but in human skin.
Yet, as we stand only feet from a nest, I’ll concede Kane isn’t our biggest problem right now.
“So, do you just throw it and it’ll explode in the middle of the nests?” Mattie quietly asks Hunter, already ignoring my warning and pulling her hand away from mine. I wonder if maybe there is more to this than wanting to be here for Hank and feeling obliged. She might have denied it, yet could she not want this baby? Is this really just a way for her to forget about being pregnant, and risking her life could be a way to end not only our baby’s life, but hers as well?
“It’s not a grenade; it’s a bomb.”
“How do we get it over to the nest then?” She frowns in her confusion.
“It just needs to be placed in the middle and the fuse has to be lit. It’s just a basic formula. We did what we could with what we had.”
“Can’t we just light it from here and throw it in?” Hank asks.
“Sure, if you want to just destroy only the bomb as it smashes to pieces on the ground and not have it detonate at all. Then we can give away the fact that we’re here.” Hunter rolls his eyes.
“It might not break apart,” I reason.
“What if the fuse goes out from the wind blowing through the air? It’s not worth the risk,” Hunter growls at us, his voice still quiet but beginning to rise.
“How are you even going to light the fuse?” Mattie questions, her arms crossing over her chest as she glares at Hunter.
“We’ve got some matches,” he murmurs. He’s mixing several ingredients together, none of which look familiar to me, and I also see he’s got a bag full of bolts and nails. I don’t know why he needs such things, however my mind quickly moves back to the bigger problem at hand.
“So wait, we have to get passed those three very protective creatures to plant a bomb in the middle of a nest?” I sputter out.
“Not we, you,” Kane snaps, his eyes lighting up with mirth as both Mattie and I realise why exactly I have been allowed to come.
“What?” Mattie hisses, and without any thought to the fact that Kane has held her at gunpoint earlier, she stands directly in front of him and slams her finger into his chest, poking him. “You have got to be kidding. He won’t make it one step before one of those creatures cuts him in half.”
“Maybe that isn’t a bad thing.” Kane smirks.
“Is that why you let us come? So we’d sacrifice ourselves?” Mattie sounds as furious as I feel.
“It’s an outcome that I found acceptable.”
Mattie looks about ready to hit him, so I quickly place both hands over her upper arms and pull her back. Having a fight right next to a nest is not the smart thing to do.
“I’m not going to do it.” There is no way I’m getting myself killed over something so stupid and leaving Mattie and our unborn baby alone.
“I thought you might say that, which is why I’m going to take my gun out and shoot your little girlfriend here unless you comply.”
Hank growls. “What the fuck, Kane? This is getting out of hand. Listen, yes, someone is going to have to go in there. I’ll fucking do it if I have to, though. No one is getting shot. We’ll cause a distraction, get those creatures away from the nest, and I’ll sneak in, set the bomb down, and light it up. Then, we meet back up and find the next nest.”
“Done.” Hunter breaks the tense silence that follows.
“Hand it over then.” Hank waves his hand impatiently.
“No, the freak goes or I start shooting. He’s the least valuable here, and I won’t risk you until I have no choice.”
Suddenly, there’s an explosion going off in the distance, blasting through the air closer than I’ve expected. We all freeze to listen as all three Claws
cry into the air, tortured howls reaching them in reply, before two of them leave. Only one is left guarding the nest.
“Now’s the perfect time, go!” Hunter hands me over the bomb and I have no idea what I am meant to do with it.
“Light the end part of the string. I’ve cut it long enough that you should have time to get to the edge of the clearing before it goes off.”
“The edge of the clearing! Why not make it longer just to be safe?” Mattie argues.
“We don’t have a limitless amount of the stuff. Now fucking hurry up!” Kane yells, attracting the attention of the lone Claw.
It raises its head, ready to call for help, but Hank fires his gun and his aim hits the Claw directly through the neck. It sputters to the ground and quickly dies.
Hunter next gives me a match, something I’ve never used before, along with an empty box with a rough feel to the side.
“I’ll do it.” Mattie tries to take the bomb off me, but I pull away. There is no way I am letting her anywhere near those nests, and we do only have a short amount of time. Kane isn’t going to let this go down any other way; therefore I might as well get this over with now.
“I’ve never used one of these—”
“Just scrape the side and it’ll light up. Go!” Hunter pushes me towards the opening.
“When you’re done, run to the left,” Hank hisses as he holds Mattie back. With two suns on this planet moving slightly off side from each other, North, South, East and West aren’t navigational tools that can be easily used on Roth, so I’m grateful he’s used left as his choice of stated direction.
I run towards the nest, knowing I have to be quick. Screeching noises sound off in the distance and it’s possible those noises are for the Claw that we’ve just killed, and by not responding, we might attract them back to us.
As I near the eggs, I find the heat coming off them to be stifling. It’s as if each egg is actually a heater. What’s more, when my exposed hand brushes passed one, it burns me. I carefully navigate towards the middle and place the bomb gently on the ground.
Roth Page 14
