Savage: an Adult Dystopian Paranormal Romance: Sector Seven (The Othala Witch Collection)

by Conner Kressley

  No matter. I had come too far now, and, if I got caught, lMarshal Weston would make sure that I was watched so closely that I’d never get another chance.

  I made haste for the door and, once I was past it, turned hard left toward the long dirt path that led to the great door.

  The smell of burnt flesh and rotting insides told me I had made it back to the place where Chester had killed the Ravager well before I saw the thing, its horrible face twisted permanently in pain.

  Holding my breath, I kept running. I thought I heard a commotion behind me. I couldn’t be sure, but if I was right, it meant I had been found out. The Roamers would be after me in seconds now, and their horses could run a lot faster than I could. Still, I couldn’t afford to turn around and check. Even that second would have been too much time to waste.

  Instead, I pressed the button on the transportation disc. Without breaking stride, I threw it on the ground in front of me as soon as I felt it come to life.

  The red light blinked on as my feet touched the gleaming metal. I didn’t even need to slow down. Without a queue to line me up behind, the disc pulled away instantly. I didn’t have a chance to steady myself, so I fell backward as the force of the disc propelled me toward the door.

  I grabbed at the metal,surprised at how warm it was. Whatever engine existed inside the disc was hard at work and was putting off enough heat to make me more than aware of it.

  Force pressed against my face. Maybe it was because I hadn’t given myself enough time to settle atop the thing, or maybe I had turned it on incorrectly and hadn’t set the damn thing up the right way. Whatever the reason, I was having much more trouble with it than I’d had before.

  Transportation discs were pre-registered within the Sector and only had the capacity to travel between the Sector’s main gates and the entrance to the Outpost. Because of that, I knew exactly where I was going. There was no need to steer and no way for me to take control of the thing even if I could. I was a passive passenger, along for the ride…if I could hang on long enough, that was.

  The door of the Outpost whipped open as I approached. It screeched loudly as the aged metal pulled apart. If the Roamers hadn’t already been aware of my betrayal, they were now. This sound was loud enough to wake the dead, not to mention the drunk.

  My disc never slowed as it soared through the doors. I said a prayer as we left what I now knew to be the relative safety of the Outpost and was thrown out into the jungle.

  If everything went as it should, the jungle would be gone in a blink, as it had been the first time I’d traveled. I would be inside the Sector again in minutes, and I could rush to my father and make my case as to why I’d left later on.

  The heat of the disc had grown so much that I had to pull my hands off it. That didn’t make sense. I had just ridden one of these things, and I hadn’t felt this kind of heat.

  Looking down, I saw that a red light was blinking, and my heart flew into my throat. I had been in such a hurry, that I hadn’t tested the disc or even taken a close look at its condition. And here I was, staring at a blinking red light that anyone in the Sector or the Outpost could have told you meant that this thing was out of order.

  “Dammit!!” I yelled, though I was going too fast to hear my own voice as the words left my mouth. I had grabbed a junk disc and now I was rushing through the most dangerous place in the world on a wobbling prayer. All I could do was hope that the disc would work long enough to get me through this without burning me to death on top of it.

  I closed my eyes and muttered another prayer, and then I heard a sound.

  It was low at first, so low that I could pretend it didn’t exist. But soon, the sound of crunching gears and a dying motor couldn’t be ignored. My eyes whipped open, and I watched in horror as the disc began to tip to one side.

  It would dump me off just like I’d done with the tainted soup if I wasn’t careful. So I grabbed hold of the sides of the disc, my palms burning as I touched it, and pulled hard, trying to steady it.

  Relief shot through me—along with a scream of pain—as I leveled the disc out. When I pulled my hands off the burning disc, I winced as I looked at how viciously red they were.

  Then the entire bottom fell out of the disc.

  I heard a loud crunch as I felt the engine fall out of the disc. Looking down, I watched it fall away and disappear beneath the blanket of treetops and vines.

  Then the disc began to slow. The shell I was still sitting on did begin to cool down, but it also began to fall from the sky like a rock tossed off a cliff.

  Though I could see the Sector in the distance, shining like some cruel beacon of hope, I was still miles away from it. I’d never get there like this. All I could hope for was not to die when I hit the ground.

  The shell of that ruined disc dove through the treetops. I felt the sting of leaves and branches slapping my skin as I dropped through them, knocking them away as I clung to what was left of the disc for dear life.

  Closing my eyes again, I deferred from saying another prayer. I had made my peace with the Maker already. All I needed to do now was think of my father. Hopefully he would be saved somehow, but if not,at least I could look forward to his joining my mother and me whenever I got to the land of the souls.

  Then I hit the ground hard, my body jerking as the disc struck the jungle floor and skidded fast.

  Once again, my eyes flew open, and I saw a tree looming in front of me. The disc wouldn’t stop before we reached it. We were simply going way too fast for that.

  So, without thinking, I threw myself to the right, tucking and rolling as I landed on what felt like wet leaves and dirt.

  I heard the crash of an explosion followed by a wave of heat and light as the disc went up in flames, igniting the tree it had hit as well.

  My entire body screamed in pain as I looked up, my eyes aching as they adjusted to the brilliant light.

  I stood, wobbly at first but then steadier as I took a deep breath. Deep breaths wouldn’t help me, though. I was out in the middle of the jungle—the dark, deadly jungle. The Roamers had no way of knowing where I was, and even if they did, who was to say they’d come looking for me? I was a deserter, after all. I was a traitor, and who would risk good men going after a traitor?

  But what other choice did I have? All I could do was stay near this tree, near the blazing light of this fire, and hope that the Roamers would see it as some sort of distress signal.

  Of course, that also meant that I was visible to everything else that might exist out here in this awful place. And, if the fire didn’t spread quickly enough to drive me away, what was to say that someone or something else wouldn’t get to me before the Roamers could?

  I ran my hands through my hair and turned around. I needed to think. I just needed a minute. I wouldn’t get a minute, though. No sooner had my chest fallen as I let out a deep breath than I heard a loud and familiar growl.

  My entire body tensed as I spun around.

  I saw it right away, lit by the violent flames of the fire as it danced its way up the tree. The monster was bigger than the one we’d faced back in the Outpost, but it had the same claws, the same tail and the same face and teeth. It looked at me like I was dinner, like I was a plaything that it couldn’t wait to have some fun with.

  And here I was, defenseless, hurt, and exhausted.

  It was clear to me now, clearer than any vision or dream—or any memory, for that matter. The truth of this was as obvious as the fire in front of me.

  I was lost in the jungle, and a Ravager was about to kill me.

  Chapter 8

  My breath came fast and furious as I stood there, looking at the creature with wide eyes and a pounding heart. Ravagers were famous within the Sector as horrible killing machines. They were the subject of many of the scary stories we used to tell each other back in school.

  Still, I had lived a sheltered life as far as real danger was concerned. For all my bravado, for all the fervor I’d had when it came to join
ing up with the Roamers and defending our lands, I hadn’t had too much experience with anything truly frightening.

  In fact, the first Ravager I had ever seen up close had come courtesy of the Outpost itself, when Chester had shot it dead yesterday with the Remington that now sat tucked into my pants. Maybe that was why I’d been so useless while that was going on yesterday. Maybe my sheer inexperience had caused me to freeze in my tracks and stand there while Chester took care of the sort of business I had offered up the rest of my life to deal with.

  And here I was again, staring at a creature straight out of my nightmares and reacting the way a little girl might. The difference, of course, was that I didn’t have Chester (or anyone else) to protect me this time. If I was going to survive this, I had to handle it myself.

  The Ravager roared at me, its fangs glinting in the light of the quickly spreading fire. Whatever sort of wood these jungle trees were made of had to be like kindling, because I had never seen flames grow so rapidly before. Still, I had bigger (and sharper) things to worry about than the fire. I needed to get out of here, to find my way back to either the Outpost or the Sector (whichever I could reach the fastest) and find a way to convince the guards to open the gates for me without my Regent-approved transportation disc.

  All of that hinged on me getting away from this Ravager, though. Luckily, even without Chester, I still had an ace up my sleeve.

  The monster jumped toward me, its back legs springing it high into the air like some feral sky beast—which made it look all the more like a target. I pulled the Remington from beneath the band of my pants and felt a surge of energy as I hoisted it upward. These things had been banned ages ago, and, now that I had one in my hands, it was clear to me just why that decision had been made. The amount of force this thing could produce was very clear to me now. Even just holding it upward was enough to make me dizzy as the energy surging from its power source shook my hands, a force that made its way down my arms and into the rest of my body.

  But that force would soon find a new home in the body of the Ravager. Jus like what had happened to his comrade back in the Outpost, the result would be a hole in the gut and burned and rotting flesh.

  All I had to do was pull the trigger.

  “Say goodbye, beast!”" I said as loudly as my still-shaky voice could muster.

  The monster had begun its descent. It would fall on top of me in seconds and, when that happened, claws, teeth, and tail would make short work of my very vulnerable skin. That would never happen, though. This monster was never going to get that chance.

  I pulled the trigger, expecting that blast of blue energy.

  But nothing happened. The trigger barely moved.

  I panicked. The safety must be on. I panicked even more as I realized I had no idea where the safety even was, let alone, how to disengage it.

  The monster was almost on me now. It was all I could do to jump to the left, the Ravager narrowly missing me as it landed right where I’d been standing, its tail whipping across the ground as it undoubtedly would have done with me.

  I stumbled at first, but managed to steady myself and keep running. The Remington was still in my hand, still pulsating with energy that I couldn’t access. I heard the creature moving behind me. It was plodding through the leaves and grass that covered the jungle floor.

  This place was amazing. While the Sector and the Outpost were little more than dead patches of earth separated by walls, this jungle was alive and bursting with vibrant colors and plants I had never seen before. And I was seeing it at night. I could only imagine what sort of beauty this placed could offer in the daytime.

  I heard the monster’s steps grow more rapid as it began to run toward me. I suddenly realized that imagining this place in the daytime would very likely be all I would ever do if I couldn’t get this damn gun working. The Ravager would tear me to shreds well before sunup if I didn’t do something to stop it.

  Then the footsteps behind me stopped, and I felt a whoosh of air It only took one horrifying second for me to realize what the beast had done. Instinctively, my gaze shot upward, toward a sky that couldn’t be seen beyond the unimaginably thick canopy of trees overhead.

  There it was. The Ravager had taken to the sky again, leaping up into the air and bounding over me.

  It landed in front of me, spinning to meet me with drool coating and running off its bared fangs.

  I skidded to a stop, the useless gun still in my hands. I had no idea what to do. The brief training I’d received back in the Outpost hadn’t covered this sort of situation. The Roamers were all about working as a team, about joining together to take out a common enemy. Well, I didn’t have a team here, and my common enemy had me by two feet and a hundred pounds of grotesque but probably very efficient muscle.

  I stuck the gun out toward the monster, pulling and pushing at every lever and button on the too-complicated piece of equipment. If I couldn’t find a way to get the safety off, then maybe I could scare the monster enough to make it run away.

  As it inched toward me, I realized just how foolish that hope actually was.

  Panicking again, I realized no amount of pushed buttons and pulled levers would get me out of this situation. I just wasn’t familiar with the technology. So I did the same thing my father had always done when he was faced with a new wagon part that he didn’t quite understand.

  I knocked it against something, hoping that would fix the problem—in this case, the nearest tree trunk.

  I couldn’t have been more surprised when blue shots of energy started pouring out of the thing. There was a problem, though. The force of the blast was even greater than I’d imagined, and I couldn’t get it to stop.

  I did my best to point the relentlessly firing gun toward the Ravager. The Remington was buzzing with power, unloading illegal amounts of energy like a faucet turned on at full blast.

  That seemed to do the trick. The monster turned tail and rushed off into the distance But I still couldn’t turn the stupid gun off, and it was decimating the jungle.

  Everywhere a shot of blue energy struck, the target exploded in flames. Tree after tree, vine after vine, the carpet of vegetation on the floor of the jungle—it all burst into flame as I tried to get control of the out-of-whack Remington.

  As hard as I could, I slammed the gun against the tree trunk. To my great relief, the force of the blow shut the Remington off.

  Unfortunately, I still found myself surrounded by a burning jungle with absolutely no way to escape.

  The fire had encircled me as I tried to work with the gun. I was in the middle of an inferno. The fire from the teleportation disc had merged with the much larger fire caused by the gun, and it was coming at me from both sides. There was nothing I could do. Even climbing wouldn’t help me for long. Scaling a tree might buy me a few extra seconds, but it would only mean death would be even more certain as I plummeted to the earth once the flames had compromised the tree trunk.

  All I could do was stand there and burn to death in the mess I’d made.

  I thought about my father again, hoping that he’d be okay, that he’d find a way out of the cruel plan fate had in store for him. Then something strange happened: I thought about myself. I began to think about all the things I would miss out on if I died tonight, and oddly enough, none of it had to do with being a Roamer. I thought about Manny back in the Hills, I thought about watching my friends have children and build a future, and then I thought about a future of my own. I thought about having a chance at love, a chance at the feeling I’d had in that vision before the bombshell about my father had been dropped. I had never thought anything like that was possible for me. That was why I’d come out to the Outpost in the first place, at least in part.

  Now I found myself wanting that future—and, more than that, I found myself thinking it might be possible to have it after all.

  No matter. The flames were almost on top of me now; they were seconds away from swallowing me up along with the rest of the jungle. />
  I wondered how many creatures would die because of my foolishness.

  And then another odd thing happened.

  The fire stopped.

  Bright green energy fell upon the flames, like a strange and glistening dust cloud. I had never seen anything like it before, and, although I had no idea what it was, I knew what it was doing. Everywhere the cloud touched, the fire dissipated. The scorched earth began to heal and the trees began to grow and mend themselves.

  The green mist swirled around me, not touching me but quelling the flames that surrounded me.

  It whipped around like a twister before it evaporated completely.

  And then I saw him.

  A man was standing in the distance, glowing with the same green energy that had just saved my life. I tensed as he walked toward me. Who was he? What did he want?

  Then an entirely new sensation filled me. I recognized the line of his jaw. I recognized his broad shoulders. I recognized the streak of red paint surrounding his staggeringly bright eyes.

  This was the man from my vision, the man who had brought out so much love in me. He was real. He was standing right in front of me. And he was as mad angry as a man could possibly be.

  His hands were clenched into fists at his sides and his teeth were grinding together. When he spoke to me, his voice was as tense as the rest of him.

  “Tell me what you have done and why I shouldn’t kill you where you stand,” he said, then spit at the ground near my feet. “And perhaps, if you’re lucky, I’ll oblige.”

  Chapter 9

  The man from my vision was standing before me, his gaze tearing into me with enough malice in it to knock me off my feet. I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak; I could barely think.

  My visions had been powerful before. I’d seen the Great Quake months before it came to pass, but I was a child then and no one other than my own mother had believed me when I told them about it. Luckily, by the time the horrible thing actually happened, most of the people I’d told had either forgotten or were too afraid of being seen as crazy themselves to come forward about my prophecy.