Planet Urth Boxed Set

by Jennifer Martucci

  Melissa locked eyes with her father fleetingly before shutting and locking the door to her bedroom. She understood her father’s secret instructions. Though Gabriel was not privy to their clandestine code, he could only hope that it contained an escape route.

  In that instant, Eugene capitalized on Gabriel and Christopher’s grave mistake. They had taken their eyes off him for mere seconds allowing him ample time to advance.

  As he and Melissa’s dad turned to refocus on the leviathan, they realized they were under attack. Eugene descended on them, moving faster than was humanly possible.

  Reflexively, Christopher Martin discharged his weapon hitting the behemoth in the shoulder. Eugene howled in pain. Gabriel waited to see if he had been stopped, then quickly discovered that while he was wounded, the bullets did little to halt his advancement.

  Shocked at the ineffectiveness of his artillery, Christopher cocked and aimed the shotgun and attempted to squeeze off another round. But before he could successfully fire his weapon, Eugene swatted at him with his enormous hand. The blow sent Melissa’s father crashing into the far wall of the hallway. The shotgun landed at his feet. His body was still.

  Eugene began to move toward the felled man. Anger and fear melded as Gabriel realized he stood about to battle with the personification of Death. Though not cloaked in a long black cloak and not a mere skeleton of a man, Eugene performed as Dr. Franklin Terzini’s personal Grim Reaper, as an executioner. It was the sole purpose of his creation. But Gabriel was unwilling to allow Eugene the opportunity to orphan Melissa. He stepped out from the recess and made his presence known.

  Gabriel confronted Eugene, his posture defiant, prepared for the inevitable physical confrontation that would ensue.

  Incensed by Gabriel’s impudence, Eugene launched a rage filled assault. He delivered a punch with unparalleled speed. Gabriel narrowly dodged the blow. He did not recover from its velocity in time to see the second swipe coming. It crashed into his skull just above his temple, knocking him to the floor. Pain exploded from his head. He saw a burst of blinding white light followed by a pinwheel of colors.

  Stunned and reeling, Gabriel’s eyes slowly focused. He lifted his chin and looked over his shoulder. From his prone position, he spotted the shotgun more than an arm’s reach away. He extended his limb as far as it would allow, his fingertips grazed the warm steel of the recently discharged weapon.

  Watching his attempt, Eugene extended his powerful arm outward and seized Gabriel’s foot. He dragged Gabriel toward him, positioning him away from the gun.

  “Did you honestly think you’d be quick enough to get that gun before I crushed you?” Eugene spat.

  He towered over Gabriel, obviously enjoying the moment before he would release his vengeful, violent fury.

  ***

  From her bedroom, Melissa listened in horror to what occurred outside her bedroom door. Helpless to assist the two men she loved, she realized she needed to obey her father’s instructions.

  Melissa crossed her room and opened the window. Leaning out, she lifted one leg and hoisted herself out on to the roof of the garage and slid down the length of the shingled surface on her backside and grabbed a large, outstretched branch of the mature oak that hugged their home.

  Once enveloped in its sturdy branches, Melissa moved down, navigating its interlocking limbs before landing on the lawn below. She looked left then right, contemplated which neighbor was closest. She went to the right, though not to seek a neighbor’s help, but to reenter her home.

  Melissa pushed open her front door and dashed into the kitchen unnoticed. From the ten-slot wooden knife block sitting atop the kitchen counter, Melissa selected a twelve-inch butcher knife. It had not been used since her mother was alive, but the blade retained its shine and a razor-sharp edge.

  Peering around the corner from the kitchen, Melissa had a clear view of Eugene. He stood with his back to her. With stealth and silence, she swiftly stole up the stairs. She saw that Eugene was intensely focused on Gabriel. He did not notice her approach until seconds before she reached him.

  The abomination loomed over Gabriel. He raised his muscled arm to strike at him as Melissa sprung into motion.

  As she mounted the treads and was just steps from him, Eugene inhaled deeply. It became clear to her that his sense of smell alerted him to her presence. He shuddered and snapped his head to the side as she plunged the blade of the butcher knife into the center of his back.

  Eugene cried and grabbed for the knife between his shoulder blades. Melissa slipped past him to the opposite end of the hallway and into the spare bedroom.

  Using the distraction, Gabriel scrambled to the shotgun. Once the weapon was in his hands, she watched as he rolled onto his back and leveled the weapon at Eugene. He squeezed the trigger, blasting a bullet directly at the behemoth beast.

  The shell exploded into Eugene’s chest, knocking him back several steps. As he staggered, Gabriel got to his feet. Once standing, he pumped the shotgun extracting the spent shells as Eugene approached. He fired again, hitting Eugene once more in the chest and knocking him back to the top of the stairs.

  Gabriel then stepped forward and engaged the weapon a final time. The round sent Eugene flying down the staircase before landing, a lifeless mountain, at the front door.

  Gasping and crying simultaneously, bordering on hyperventilation, Melissa moved immediately to her father’s side as Gabriel descended the staircase.

  Her father’s body was in the hallway, in the alcove where he’d initially been when he’d warned her to get into her room. His eyes were closed and a thin rivulet of blood ran from a gash in the side of his head. Although she always viewed her father as strong and capable, indestructible, Melissa now saw him as the mortal man he was.

  She called his name and lightly tapped his cheek.

  “Come on, Dad!” she pleaded. But he remained unresponsive. She pressed her fingertips to his neck searching for a sign of life. A strong pulsation radiated from his carotid artery.

  Relieved, Melissa hugged her father and cried.

  ***

  At the bottom of the steps, Gabriel stepped cautiously around Eugene. When confident that Eugene would not strike, Gabriel used his middle and index fingers and depressed a point midway down the length of Eugene’s neck.

  In the hollow between Eugene’s windpipe and the thick, ropey muscles of his neck, Gabriel examined him for a pulse. None was detected.

  Eugene’s corpse presented a problem for Gabriel. Eugene’s distinctive facial characteristics and exceptional size, together with the circumstances surrounding his death, would raise questions.

  Gabriel needed to leave.

  He ascended the staircase and joined Melissa at her father’s side. Christopher Martin stirred. Melissa sat upright.

  “Dad, are you with us?” she asked and put her face in front of his.

  “Oh! Missy, what the hell happened to me? I was out for a while,” Christopher murmured, his voice thick, his eyes darting and disoriented. “That thing,” he continued “that was some kind of monster. No man is that big and those eyes,” he rambled.

  “Shh, don’t speak Dad. Save your strength. I’m calling an ambulance,” Melissa said as she pulled her cellular phone from her pocket.

  The screen illuminated at her touch. After selecting the corresponding prompt, a keypad appeared. Melissa depressed the numbers 9-1-1 and gave the relevant information to the operator. An ambulance was sent.

  Gabriel turned to Melissa. “You understand that I need to leave now,” he said earnestly. “This is what we wanted to avoid. I have no choice. Questions will be asked, questions that will lead to Dr. Terzini, to me.”

  Wiping the tears that streamed anew, Melissa nodded her head in understanding.

  “I understand, Gabriel. Will I ever see you again?”

  “I’ll call you later, after I speak with Terzini,” he managed, his voice quavering with emotion. Gabriel took Melissa’s hand in his and whispered, “I love
you.”

  “I love you, too,” Melissa breathed.

  Gabriel descended the staircase again and, stepping over Eugene’s colossal corpse, left her home.

  He climbed into the driver’s side of Kevin Anderson’s black Infiniti and turned the key in the ignition. Gabriel’s Ford Explorer was still at Harbingers High School.

  As he rounded the corner of Blackstone Drive and began traveling on Top Hill Road, the sound of wailing sirens drew near.

  The siren howled like an injured animal, warning of the approaching emergency vehicle. It marked a painful comprehension of what was to happen.

  Gabriel knew that there was only one way to insure Melissa’s safety. He needed to kill Dr. Franklin Terzini.

  Chapter 23

  Gabriel obeyed each speed limitation imposed and was mindful to stop at every yellow light to not draw unwanted attention to the fact that he was driving a dead man’s car.

  He drove with vigilance and caution until he reached the private gravel-filled road that doubled as his driveway.

  He did not bother entering the house. Instead, he strode directly to the unremarkable patch of sod that covered the portal to Dr. Franklin Terzini’s underground research laboratory.

  Using the keys that remained in his pocket from days earlier, Gabriel disengaged the locking mechanism. With a soft whoosh, the door opened.

  He moved down the concrete staircase, stepping down slowly on each tread. The corridor was already illuminated indicating that Terzini worked, waiting for confirmation from Eugene that Melissa and Gabriel were dead.

  To the right resided an alcove with a fold-down cot, a chest of drawers and a nightstand. The sparsely furnished niche was Terzini’s living quarters when he slept. Atop the chest of drawers sat an instrument resembling a thin, black notebook. The apparatus was not a notebook, however. It was Dr. Franklin Terzini’s personal computer, a device that contained hours of filmed research and development and journals of the results of hours of experimentation.

  Gabriel took Dr. Terzini’s computer before continuing, a single purpose propelling him.

  Stalking down the center of the formidable facility, Gabriel spotted a small figure perched on a steel swivel-top stool. He was hunched over a stainless-steel table looking into an electron microscope.

  Dr. Franklin Terzini peered through the dual lenses, unaware of his visitor.

  Gabriel approached his maker. He reached his hands out behind the collar of Terzini’s crisp, white dress shirt. In one swift motion, his hands would clutch his maker’s neck, squeeze and collapse his windpipe. Terzini’s death would guarantee Melissa’s safety.

  Gabriel wrestled with the idea of murdering his creator. Aggression against Terzini was a breach in protocol. Killing him would be an epic violation. Gabriel doubted he could do it.

  His hands began to tremble. His breathing became shallow. Beads of sweat dappled his forehead. His anxiety-riddled body would not comply with what his mind instructed it, urged it to do.

  He spun Terzini in his chair to face him. Shock marked the geneticist’s features.

  “Surprised to see me?” Gabriel asked through clenched teeth.

  “Gabriel! I don’t know what to say,” Terzini began in a shrill voice.

  “Then don’t bother saying anything,” Gabriel interrupted, “I will do all the talking.”

  “Eugene is dead,” Gabriel continued evenly. “I killed him. But not before he murdered three teenage boys. Their bodies and my SUV are in the woods behind the high school where the killings took place.”

  Gabriel paused, gauging his maker’s response. Terzini’s face was blank, unreadable.

  “Eugene went to Melissa’s house, tried to kill her father. I stopped him. His body is in her foyer. An ambulance is heading there now. A police cruiser will not be far behind. You know what all of this means, don’t you?”

  Terzini bobbed is head in affirmation.

  “Investigations, autopsies, everything will eventually point to us. We will have to leave.”

  Terzini opened his mouth to speak. Gabriel raised a hand, warned him against doing so.

  “You will not destroy me. And you will not harm Melissa,” Gabriel commanded. “Do I make myself clear?”

  “Yes,” Terzini muttered feebly.

  “If you so much as imply that she will be contacted by you or any of your creations, I will go straight to the FBI and tell them everything. They will lock you up and destroy all that you’ve achieved. You will be powerless to stop them. You will sit idly by and rot in prison while untrained strangers rub the Earth clean of your existence.”

  Then, Gabriel leaned in closely and whispered, “I have your laptop. It has hours of footage of everything you’ve been doing down here. That will be my insurance policy.”

  Dr. Franklin Terzini assumed a more sickly pallor than usual. He swallowed hard, but did not speak.

  Gabriel offered his final condition.

  “You will leave, tonight. And never return to this continent. I will monitor you from wherever I go. If I get the slightest inkling that you are planning anything that involves Melissa, you will suffer.”

  His maker nodded, indicated he understood Gabriel’s demands.

  Gabriel turned and walked, with Terzini’s personal laptop computer tucked under his arm, the length of the clandestine facility to the concrete staircase that rose to the grass above. He fastened and secured the steel door before replacing the patch of grass on top of it.

  After crossing the property, he entered the Gothic Victorian for the last time to pack a few items for his journey and to retrieve a large sum of money.

  He would wait until sundown to handle the last phase of securing Melissa’s safety.

  Chapter 24

  Gabriel James waited until nightfall before going to Melissa Martin’s home on Blackstone Drive.

  Turning off the headlamps of the nondescript tan Toyota he drove, he left the vehicle at the bottom of her hill and went on foot to her driveway.

  He looked up into the blackened universe. The sky was clear save for vivid balls of yellow and blue ornamenting it, creating impressive, eddying shapes. To most, the glow would have been awe-inspiring, exquisite. But to Gabriel, the clarity of the evening and all its beauty was obstructed. He lowered his gaze to his feet and the pavement they walked on, concentrating on the rhythmic sound they created as each foot alternated, one in front of the next, until he reached the edge of the Martin’s property.

  He stepped across hardened, icy grass and approached the tenacious oak that stood sentinel beside the garage. Its bark, furrowed and scarred with wounds of battles past, was beautiful in its imperfection. Standing beneath the boughs of the majestic oak, Gabriel marveled at the sheer dimensions of the tree, at its many paradoxes.

  He placed a foot tentatively on its rough outer covering as he reached up and grabbed a branch. He began climbing pausing briefly to admire how each branch, though pliable in form and function, refused to relinquish its interlocking grip.

  Gabriel gazed up into the network of branches that reached and stretched, expanding to the heavens.

  But his destination was not heavenward. He was going to Melissa’s bedroom window to say good-bye, a descent into a personal hell.

  Reaching the top of the garage, Gabriel scrambled over frost-coated shingles and saw Melissa’s delicate features framed in the windowpane.

  Throwing open the pane, Melissa smiled and gestured for Gabriel to enter.

  “Hurry, you must be freezing,” she urged.

  “I’m fine,” Gabriel offered.

  He knew Melissa immediately sensed falsehood in his demeanor; his lips smiled, but his melancholy eyes betrayed them.

  “What happened with the police?” he asked.

  “My dad and I gave our statements. I mean, I didn’t mention Terzini or anything. I just told them that we were in the woods talking out by the maintenance building, you know with Kevin and his friends, when this enormous lunatic came out of nowhere and at
tacked. I said he must’ve followed us home, here, because we were witnesses. They seemed to buy it. My dad and I said we thought he was drugged out or something because the attack was unprovoked.” Melissa paused then added, “They’re looking for you, to take your statement.”

  “What’s really weird though,” Melissa continued, “is that we gave our statements, like, four hours ago and we haven’t heard anything since. I mean, is that normal? There was a dead body in our house, for heaven’s sake! You’d think there’d be some kind of follow up or something.”

  Gabriel sat silently, his heart aching.

  “What’s happening Gabriel?” Melissa asked alarmed.

  Gabriel was reluctant to answer right away. He gazed into Melissa’s pellucid green eyes as he measured his response.

  “I’m leaving tonight,” he said finally.

  Melissa did not ask why. He could not answer her if she had. His lips would not form the words. His throat constricted so tightly it threatened strangulation. Heaviness settled in his chest.

  Wiping tears with the back of her hand, she asked, “Will I ever see you again?”

  “Yes,” Gabriel whispered, his throat burning, struggling to articulate each sound. “You will.”

  “What about Terzini?” Melissa asked. “He wants me dead.”

  Gabriel’s thoughts immediately refocused to the reason for his departure. The raw, squeezing feeling dissipated briefly and allowed easier communication. “You won’t need to worry about him. I have dealt with him,” Gabriel offered cryptically.

  “Dealt with him? How?” Melissa worried.

  “Put it like this, I have an insurance policy of sorts. I have very incriminating audiovisual feed that, if placed into the correct government branch of law enforcement, could end Dr. Franklin Terzini. He would never risk offering up his life’s work for you.”

  “Why wouldn’t you just give it to the authorities now, turn him in? Then you could stay, with me,”