Planet Urth Boxed Set

by Jennifer Martucci

  Melissa cursed and shifted her position and tried again.

  As she expected, there was still no service. She watched in horror as a blow landed against Gabriel’s back, causing him to arch his body and howl in pain followed by another swing that struck him in the arm. A third hit landed against his thigh, knocking him to the ground.

  His face was pained. With no other choice than self-preservation, she saw that Gabriel remained on the ground and protected his head with his arms as Kevin and his cronies advanced.

  Their assault was tireless. Melissa watched as Kevin, Eric, Chris and John kick Gabriel about his body with fervor and conviction. He could do little to defend himself. They were fierce, merciless.

  Melissa swore again, raging at Kevin and his group, at her inability to call the police. She was powerless to help Gabriel.

  Gabriel would not be able to sustain many more blows. He was bruised and bloodied.

  Without thinking, she jumped out of Gabriel’s Ford Explorer.

  Stepping into the hellish rainstorm, Melissa began screaming in a voice panicked and piercing, alien to her ears.

  “Leave him alone!” she shrieked repeatedly.

  Kevin turned toward Melissa. He no longer resembled the handsome, star-athlete beloved by most people at Harbingers High School. He looked like a wild-eyed criminal, like a monster. Rivulets of rain streamed down his face lending him a distorted, demonic expression befitting his malicious actions.

  He glowered at her and shouted, “You’re next bitch! Don’t think we’ve forgotten about you!”

  She knew his threats were anything but hollow.

  She listened as John, Eric and Chris jeered at her as well, taunting as they kicked at Gabriel.

  Gabriel screamed at her from his prone position.

  “Run, Melissa! Get out of here now!” he screamed.

  Melissa paused, briefly immobilized. She knew she must leave and get help but could not fathom abandoning him. Her heart and her mind contended with each other, one preventing the other from acting effectively. Finally, words were formed on her lips. She heard herself say to Gabriel, “I’ll get help!” then she reluctantly turned from him and ran.

  With her head down, she strode as fast as her legs would allow. Her mind had a single objective: get help; despite the consequences, she needed to get help. She ran against the rain as it gusted and mixed with snow periodically, deeper into the woods.

  ***

  From the leaf-littered floor of the woods, pain radiated from every part of Gabriel’s body. Despite his injuries, he was thankful that Melissa was gone. His attackers had retreated for the moment. Gabriel lifted his head. He sensed their silence was anything but reassuring. As he did so, he saw Kevin watch as Melissa ran off into the woods. On his face, he wore the realization that she would quickly happen on another trail that led her to a residential road, a road where she could easily be granted access to contact the authorities. He watched as Kevin clenched and flexed his jaw contemplating his next move.

  Suddenly, Kevin roared, “Get her!” to Eric Sala, a track star, and fellow football and basketball teammate. “Get that bitch back here! I don’t care if you have to drag her by her hair to get her back here!”

  On command, Eric sprinted into the thicket after Melissa.

  Unadulterated rage coursed through Gabriel’s veins as Kevin ordered Eric to accost Melissa. Adrenaline surged through him, enabled his battered body to rise.

  “You will not touch her!” he howled standing erect and squaring his shoulders.

  Chris charged at him with his aluminum baseball bat. Gabriel anticipated the blow, allowed it to strike his body. Instead of absorbing the swipe, he tensed his abdominal muscles at the precise second of impact and immediately dropped his arm on the bat trapping it. Then Gabriel yanked the bat with both of his hands, seizing it from Chris’s grasp.

  With the weapon in his hands, Gabriel used the butt of the bat and struck his opponent squarely in the jaw.

  Devastated by both the force and swiftness of the blow, Chris Mace staggered and fell to the ground clutching his chin and writhing in pain.

  Gabriel turned, now armed, and confronted John DeNardi who approached behind his fallen comrade. Confounded by what he had witnessed, John advanced more cautiously than Chris had.

  Gabriel noticed that John approached, tentatively at first. Then, trying to surprise him, John charged. He swung his weapon wildly, recklessly. With no specific target intended though, John’s swings were easily deflected by Gabriel.

  Gabriel blocked and dodged the many, fevered strikes. John struck with zeal but without strategy. As he stepped back drawing both arms to one side trying to swing the bat with all of his might, Gabriel saw that John left his back exposed, vulnerable. Gabriel calculated the ideal time to launch a counterattack against him. He spun and rammed the butt of his own bat forcefully into the back of John’s head. John dropped to the ground and fell, unconscious.

  With John and Chris down, Kevin Anderson remained the last member of the group on his feet. He looked at Gabriel with deep concern, with fear. Gabriel guessed Kevin had not planned to fight him alone. He did not want to let Kevin off so easily this time, but time was a complication. Time was ticking away. Eric still trailed Melissa. And Eugene was undoubtedly in pursuit of her as well, though it was unlikely he was in the woods. Nevertheless, Gabriel could not consider Eugene at the moment. Instead, he focused his anger on Kevin and faced off with him.

  Mixed precipitation teemed down from grayed heavens as they stood before each other. Each droplet rained angrily, pointedly, pelting and pummeling them, obscuring movements.

  But Gabriel held a genetic advantage. With his unmatched vision, he assessed Kevin’s every action, each step taken. He noted the slightest shift in his opponent’s body and was prepared for an attack from any angle. He did not need the advantage of his superior sight, however, to see that Kevin no longer retained the arrogance he enjoyed earlier when all his followers were present. He assumed the pallid hue of a man outmatched.

  Yet despite the inkling that he would be bested, Kevin attacked first. He intended to land a blow to Gabriel’s head.

  Gabriel studied how Kevin swung his bat with speed that was both astonishing and impressive. Familiar with the feel of a bat gripped in his hands, the star baseball player who captioned his school’s team handled the equipment with acuity, with adroitness.

  But Gabriel’s reflexes were unparalleled. As the club approached his temple with a mere fraction of a second to spare before impact, Gabriel dropped on one knee. Narrowly avoiding a blow to the skull, he swung his weapon directly into Kevin Anderson’s kneecap.

  The knock brought Kevin down hard on the thicketed ground.

  Howling in pain, the celebrated athlete gripped his injured knee.

  Gabriel then balled one powerful fist and hurled two blows in quick succession. One landed on Kevin’s temple while the other fell on his jaw. Kevin’s head slumped back as consciousness escaped him.

  Though his adversary was unconscious, he wanted nothing more than to hammer at Kevin with both of his fists, to dole out the punishment he deserved. But there were more pressing matters, more dire situations to contend with. He needed to find Melissa. He needed to protect her from Eugene.

  Summoning every ounce of restraint he had, Gabriel refrained from beating Kevin Anderson to a bloodied pulp. Instead, he dashed off in the direction that Eric Sala ran to find Melissa.

  Chapter 20

  Kevin Anderson regained consciousness and found himself on the brush-covered floor of the wooded area behind his high school. Rain and sleet pounded him. Intense pain radiated from his fractured kneecap.

  Cold, wet and wounded, he rolled to one side to ease the pressure on his broken bone. As he turned, he felt his face throb. Instinctively, he raised his hand to his cheek. Beneath his fingertips, he felt swollen, tender flesh. He squeezed his eyes shut in agony.

  Kevin opened his eyes to a sight that had gone unnoticed ear
lier. In his blurred line of vision he saw his friends, Chris Mace and John DeNardi, struggling to their feet in the thicket. Both had been bruised and beaten. But he no longer cared about them. Gabriel was nowhere in sight; his friends failed him.

  Despite pain searing through his body, Kevin seethed. Word of his fight with Gabriel would spread quickly. Respect for him would be lost, impossible to regain. Something more than his body began to hurt: his pride.

  He realized he would not be superior to his peers anymore; it was a realization more painful than he could articulate.

  A noise interrupted Kevin’s self-pity. It directed his attention from his friends, as well. His eyes were drawn to a dense cluster of bushes that moved noisily.

  From inside the bushes came a rustling louder than the lashing elements. Rain and sleet pelted his face as it cascaded and whipped about from overhead. With his vision obscured by the elements, Kevin squinted at the brush as it parted.

  Kevin stared in shock and disbelief at what emerged from the bushes. It appeared to be a man, but it wasn’t. It was larger and more heavily muscled than any man he had ever seen. Kevin gaped at what loomed in the distance.

  The being’s brawny body was impressive, intimidating. But the genuine horror of its manifestation was its gruesome face. It was not human.

  Like a nightmarish apparition arising from a cryptic tomb, the immense creature stepped out from the brush.

  Through precipitation that poured and pounded, feline yellow eyes glared at Kevin hatefully, murderously.

  Instinct urged him to flee, but his injured knee prevented him from doing so.

  Instead, Kevin squeezed his eyes tightly shut. He was certain the figure before him was a hallucination, a result of a severe concussion. He shook his head from side to side, tried to clear the image from his mind.

  Yet when he stopped shaking his head and opened his eyes again, the monster remained. And it had busied itself.

  Kevin looked on in shock as the creature grabbed Chris Mace, writhing, off the ground by his neck and hoisted him high in the air to meet his unnatural honey-hued gaze.

  Chris squirmed and flailed to free himself from the clutches of the veritable boogeyman. He cried out in terror, pleaded for his life. But his pleas were pointless, it was impervious to appeal.

  Kevin watched as the leviathan glowered at Chris. He heard a loud cracking sound as it squeezed his friend’s neck.

  Chris stopped moving, his body hung limp.

  The yellow-eyed behemoth threw his friend’s corpse to the forest floor and shuddered. He seemed to rejoice in killing him.

  An intense piercing noise suddenly echoed through the woods. It clawed at Kevin eardrums. He moved his hands to cover his ears before realizing the noise was coming from him; it was the sound of his own panic-stricken screams.

  The goliath remained, unperturbed by his shrill cries. He seemed intensely focused on John DeNardi. John sat motionless on the ground, paralyzed by shock, catatonic from fear. Kevin watched as the beast lifted John by the front of his T-shirt, raising him with ease.

  The spell of unresponsiveness was broken and John suddenly comprehended his fate. Sobbing uncontrollably, he tried to maneuver his body out of his T-shirt, but could not. The giant had him throttled.

  Then, in one sinuous motion, the fiend slammed John’s flailing body against the trunk of a mature tree. He stopped moving. The blow killed him. The monster released his body, allowing it to fall to the saturated copse.

  He turned toward Kevin and advanced, quickly closing the distance between them.

  Kevin no longer worried about Melissa or Gabriel. His reputation at Harbingers High School was suddenly irrelevant. A gush of fluid warmed his lap.

  Wounded and saturated in his urine, Kevin looked up pleadingly into the face of pure evil and saw not the vaguest capacity for mercy. He saw hatred.

  The monster lifted his leg and suspended his foot over Kevin’s head.

  With tears in his eyes, Kevin Anderson drew his last breath as he stared up at his final vision, the sight of an enormous booted foot as it came crashing down on his skull.

  Chapter 21

  Amid the smell of fear-saturated secretions of teenage boys who had recently met their demise, a new scent perfumed the air. The sweet aroma permeated the atmosphere despite the downpour from the angry heavens.

  As the wind blew stirring branches and limbs and whipping colored leaves in its wake, a familiar scent lingered: vanilla, caramel and coconut.

  The notes alerted Eugene’s senses. Inhaling deeply, he immediately recognized the intoxicating fragrance.

  His mouth salivated profusely and his body shuddered.

  Thunder rumbled through the trees, shook the forest floor.

  Eugene stalked off after the trail of Melissa Martin.

  ***

  Gabriel sprinted, aluminum bat in hand, into the wind and precipitation that refused to commit to being frozen or liquid. Alternating between sleet and rain, it stung his face as he ran as quickly as he could.

  In the distance, he saw them. Eric Sala tackled Melissa to the ground, her body slammed against the leaf covered forest floor. Writhing and kicking frantically, Melissa attempted to free herself. Eric straddled her, seized her wrists and held them in one of his hands then raised the other to slap her into submission.

  Gabriel saw the impending strike, but had only seconds to close the considerable distance between them. It would be impossible for him to physically halt what was about to ensue. Instead, he looked to the aluminum bat in his hand and made a decision.

  His rapidly approaching footsteps diverted Eric’s attention. From atop Melissa, he snapped his head up quickly to see who advanced. When he did, he glimpsed Gabriel hurling an object into the air.

  Instantly, the expression on his face registered recognition of the article racing toward him. An aluminum baseball bat tumbled end over end, too rapidly to dodge.

  The barrel of the bat caught Eric Sala in the upper-portion of his forehead. A loud popping sound echoed as the aluminum struck his skull. Blood trickled from his hairline and he collapsed sideways, unconscious, off Melissa.

  Though violence was not part of his original objective, it became an increasingly necessary tool in securing both Melissa’s safety and his own. He did not like engaging in violent behavior but was comforted when it shielded Melissa from harm. As he rebuked his aggression internally, he moved toward her. Melissa was sitting, stunned and silenced by the precise and effective attack he launched.

  Gabriel rushed to Melissa’s side. “Are you okay?” he asked frantically. “Has he hurt you?”

  “No, no. I’m all right. What was all that screaming I heard?”

  He reached out and helped her up.

  “It’s time to go. Now!” Gabriel told her.

  “What? I mean, what the hell happened? What was all that?” Melissa stammered, lost for words.

  He did not have time to fully explain that the bone-chilling cries she heard indicated Eugene’s arrival.

  “Melissa, he’s here,” was all he managed.

  “Who?”

  “Eugene! Eugene is here now! We have to go!” Gabriel ordered. “You have to double back. You can’t make it on foot to the street. It’s too far. He will outrun you. You’ll have to double back. Get to my car!”

  “But the car is pinned between Kevin’s car and the maintenance shack,” Melissa countered.

  Gabriel recalled that the daytime running headlamps of Kevin’s sports car were on during their skirmish.

  “Not Kevin’s car. His car was still running.”

  Gabriel did not know how to tell her that Kevin was dead, that he had been killed by a murderous beast created by Dr. Franklin Terzini, the same man who created him.

  Despite Kevin’s malicious intents, his death was abrupt. He found himself briefly mourning the death of a fellow human being.

  “Okay. Yes, you’re right. His car was still running. But won’t Kevin try to stop me?” Melissa asked.r />
  “Melissa, Kevin will not need his car.”

  Gabriel paused to insure Melissa fully comprehended what had happened.

  “Ever again,” he finished.

  “I’ll stay back and draw Eugene here. That should buy you enough time to get to the car.”

  “What? No! I’m not leaving you Gabriel!” Melissa shrieked.

  He knew she did not have the slightest chance of outrunning Eugene, doubted whether he could either.

  “You have no choice, Melissa. You can’t outrun him. I can at least slow him long enough to get you safely out of the woods.”

  “But Gabriel, he’ll kill you,” Melissa whispered, her voice thick with emotion.

  “I’ll distract him until I hear you pull away. Then I’ll run to the parking lot,” Gabriel managed. “If I’m not out when you get to the lot, leave.”

  A tear streamed down Melissa’s dirtied cheek as she breathed, “No. I won’t leave you here to die.”

  “Go Melissa. Now! I’ll make it back to you. I promise!” Gabriel pledged in hopes that his assurance was more than empty words.

  Reluctantly, Melissa took off deeper into the woods.

  Once she disappeared, Gabriel bent and retrieved the aluminum bat from the ground. He found a large, mature pine. Intending to hammer the bat into the formidable trunk, certain that Eugene would hear the sound, Gabriel drew the bat back but stopped midswing as he heard footsteps approaching swiftly through the brush. Eugene stepped into view.

  Gabriel fortified his stance clutching the bat in both hands like a sword. He faced Eugene.

  Spreading his thin lips across menacing fanged teeth, Eugene’s face contorted into a hideously sinister smile before he spoke.