Planet Urth Boxed Set

by Jennifer Martucci

  “It looks like there was a struggle,” Yoshi observed then moved to the overturned chair. “See here, where the chair is turned over is right below the open window.”

  Gabriel noticed the chair as soon as he climbed through the window. He narrowly avoided injury because of its positioning. Hearing Yoshi formally catalog each suspicious characteristic of the room justified his growing concern, exacerbated it.

  “And her phone!” Alexandra cried. “It’s right here.”

  Alexandra bent down and picked up her friend’s cellular phone. She touched the screen causing it to illuminate instantly. Her fingertips moved quickly as she tapped at the monitor before reporting her findings.

  “Eleven missed calls. They are divided pretty evenly between my cell number, her dad’s and Daniella’s,” she said then added, “And there are no numbers on here that I don’t recognize so your stupid Eric theory is just that, stupid.”

  “Is this her purse?” Yoshi asked as he lifted a black, rectangular handbag.

  “It is!” Alexandra confirmed. “Something terrible has happened. Melissa would never leave without her cell phone and purse.”

  “It’s Kevin,” Gabriel heard himself say. He had been thinking it all along but was loath to speak the words aloud for fear that verbalization might somehow validate his suspicions. He knew his thought process had been irrational, foolish even, but an indescribable presentiment warned him that Kevin and his friends were somehow connected to all that had happened, even if peripherally.

  “You really think so?” Alexandra asked.

  “That’s the guy you read about at the Internet café, right?” Yoshi questioned.

  “Yes and yes. He is the guy I read about,” he said to Yoshi then looked to Alexandra and said, “I think they’re involved, directly or indirectly.”

  “What do we do next? Call the police?”

  “We can’t do that,” Gabriel cautioned. “All we have here is an open window and a cell phone. And also, I’m not supposed to be here, remember?”

  “Right,” she replied. “So what’s our next move?”

  Gabriel thought for a moment and suddenly the answer became clear.

  “Let’s go to my house,” Gabriel said.

  “Your house?” Yoshi and Alexandra said in unison.

  “You know, the house I lived in when I was in Harbingers Falls with Terzini. Think about it, it would be the perfect place to take her. It’s abandoned, secluded and no one but me would think to go there and look for her. And they think I’m gone.”

  “Huh, interesting,” Yoshi mumbled as he stroked his chin pensively.

  “Let’s not waste time standing around,” Alexandra stated as she exited Melissa’s bedroom, strode to the steps and out the front door.

  Gabriel and Yoshi followed. They all climbed into Gabriel’s rented Jeep and traveled to the house he lived in with Dr. Franklin Terzini just five months earlier.

  The drive took less than ten minutes. The Jeep mastered the narrow, winding roads of Harbingers Falls as if it perceived the intended route, hugging each sharp turn and adjusting to varying road conditions expertly. When finally he reached the private road that doubled as his driveway during his earliest days, a familiar knot twisted in his stomach. He turned down the long, gravel-filled path and his former residence came into view. The house, constructed with cream-colored brick and trimmed in forest green, was a Victorian Gothic-style structure. It had been constructed from materials of different colors and textures and displayed ornate carvings in a foliated pattern. Pointed arch windows and doors highlighted potential entryways for curious teenagers looking for a deserted place to hang out and party. An expansive deck wrapped around from the front of the house to the rear and was filled with leaves and debris. Even in a state of abandonment, the overall appearance of the house was stately, impressive.

  “Holy shit!” Alexandra gaped. “You live here, or used to live here?”

  “Um, yeah,” Gabriel replied self-consciously.

  Gabriel drove them to the end of the long driveway and parked outside the three-car garage port.

  “This place is amazing,” Alexandra commented again.

  “It is pretty impressive,” Yoshi chimed in and thumped Gabriel on the back. Yoshi was the only one among them who knew the details of Gabriel’s origins and of his stay in Harbingers Falls. He also knew of what lay beneath the grounds of the grand Victorian.

  “Thanks, I guess,” Gabriel said awkwardly.

  After exiting the car, they climbed the steps of the porch and Gabriel produced a key. Though the house had not changed much on the outside save for a broken window, the inside had undergone tremendous change. Books had been toppled from built-in, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, the exquisite furniture had been defaced with cigarette burns and food stains, beer cans littered the once-pristine hardwood flooring and a suspicious odor he could not place lingered in the air.

  “This place smells like pot,” Alexandra announced.

  “Pot, as in marijuana?”

  “That would be it, smarty pants,” she replied.

  He watched as Alexandra walked around inspecting his former home. “There doesn’t seem to be anyone here, now,” she observed. “But I’m guessing there are, like, a million places she could be in this place.”

  “Yeah, and there weren’t any cars on the property or surrounding area,” Yoshi offered. “I don’t think she’s here, man.”

  “Well, let’s look here in the house first. Then we can look elsewhere,” Gabriel said ambiguously. “Obviously, this place has been someone’s hangout. And Kevin, Chris, John and Eric were the only people other than Melissa that knew where I lived.”

  “I’ll look upstairs,” Alexandra said as she moved to the staircase.

  “I’ll look in the downstairs,” Yoshi said. “Gabriel, why don’t you start on this floor?”

  Each began their respective search. Gabriel unearthed nothing of interest. He found ashtray and empty cigarette boxes, more beer cans and bottles and an abundance of trash that ranged from gum wrappers to empty potato chip bags. Nothing stood out as evidence that Melissa had been there.

  Suddenly, a loud shriek sliced through the stillness of the abandoned house.

  “Oh my God!” Alexandra screamed from upstairs. She repeated the phrase continually in the same terrified pitch until Gabriel flew up the staircase and down a long corridor to his former room. Yoshi arrived seconds after he did. They flanked a trembling Alexandra and looked in the direction she pointed.

  Before them, in what once existed as Gabriel’s closet, was Eric Sala. His body slumped lifelessly against the far wall. Bruises covered the ashen skin of his face, neck and arms mottling him with discolorations of varying shades and sizes. His eyes stared straight ahead in a perpetual expression of vacancy. But his mouth betrayed the vacuous, drawn appearance of his eyes for it remained open, as if screaming silently in horror.

  Alexandra finally stopped screaming, shock seemed to have settled upon her. Her skin had paled unhealthily and in a trembling voice she said, “I can’t believe what I’m looking at. I mean, he’s–he’s dead.”

  “He looks like he was beaten to death,” Yoshi added softly, unable to look away from the horrendous display before him.

  But Gabriel hardly heard them over the thundering in his ears. His mind raced as terrifying, unthinkable scenarios played out. He began to panic.

  He sprinted out of the room and inspected the remaining three on the floor, entering and searching closet spaces and corners.

  “Gabriel, you okay?” Yoshi asked. “I know he wasn’t your friend or anything but that was gruesome.”

  Sweat dappled his forehead as he feverishly tore off dusty bedding from beds and stooped to look under them.

  “Don’t’ you get it, Yoshi?” he began. “If something happened to her, to Melissa, I saw her and could have stopped it.”

  Yoshi looked at him solemnly.

  “We both saw her and how could we have predicted or s
topped something like that.”

  Alexandra’s voice distracted them again from hallway.

  “Guys!” she called. “Guys, we have to go, now! It’s them! They’re here!”

  She stood looking out a large window in the center of the corridor and pointed with a shaky hand to the long, gravel-filled driveway beyond its pane. A sleek black Infiniti Sports Coupe sped brazenly down the pathway and raced toward the house.

  “We’ve got to leave Gabriel, now! They’ll kill us! They’ll kill us, too!” Alexandra shrieked.

  Pure, unadulterated rage began to course through Gabriel’s veins. It throbbed and hummed through him like an electrical current, connecting and awakening every cell in his body. His senses felt heighten, charged beyond their extraordinary capacity. Every part of him hissed and crackled like high-voltage live wiring, exposed, dangerous.

  “We’re not going anywhere,” he growled.

  He descended the staircase, took two at a time, until he reached the landing. He positioned himself before the front door. He fortified his stance, and waited.

  Kevin Anderson opened the unlocked front door. John and Chris trailed behind him. As he stepped through the threshold, a look of shock flashed across his features. His face revealed that he did not expect to see Gabriel waiting, readied, on the other side of the door. Gabriel watched as he instantly regained his composure and smiled sardonically at him.

  Gabriel felt his temper flare. Yoshi joined him and stood at his side.

  “Where is she?” Gabriel demanded.

  “Don’t know, but now that you’re back, she is dead,” Kevin said confidently.

  Gabriel struggled to control the rage that surged inside him and refrained from fighting Kevin in that moment; to do so would have been reckless. He needed information; he needed to know where Melissa was.

  “You know where she is, Kevin,” Gabriel accused. “Are you going to tell me, or do I have to beat it out of you?”

  “Oh no, you’re scaring me, Gabriel,” Kevin mocked. “Ha! You’re a joke. And you don’t even realize that once you’re dead–and you will be dead very soon–we’re going to kill her, too!”

  “Like hell you are!” Gabriel exploded.

  “Temper, temper Gabriel!” Kevin warned. “We’re different than we used to be. We have the same modifications you have, and there are three of us and just one-and-a-half of you.” He gestured to Yoshi and laughed. “We’re stronger and faster than you. You’re the one at the disadvantage now.”

  Kevin began to laugh, a strange, staccato laugh. Everything about him, his posture, his facial expressions, his attitude and mannerisms, was different. Gabriel had had several run-ins with him in the past; he’d never behaved as he did now. He had possessed a swagger in the past, but never the courage or means to back it up.

  Gabriel moved boldly toward Kevin, disregarding the considerably height discrepancy.

  “Stop running your mouth and show me,” Gabriel challenged.

  Without hesitation, Kevin charged at him, moving faster than Gabriel remembered, faster than was human. Midstride, Kevin extended his formidable arm and swung his fist at him. His athletic rapidity and reflexes was far quicker than Gabriel remembered, more coordinated. Yet Kevin maintained his aimless, emotional style. He remained careless, sloppy. And though Kevin’s disordered attack was swift, Gabriel perceived it as if it were happening in slow motion, how Kevin sprung forward punching with his right fist while his left knee lunged ahead, vulnerable, exposed.

  Gabriel immediately capitalized on Kevin’s weakness, his careless approach, and turned on the ball of his foot while the other launched out and drove directly into Kevin’s kneecap. A sickly snapping sound reverberated through the abandoned Victorian followed by a howl of pain as Kevin began falling to the floor. But before his body ever touched the once gleaming hardwoods, Gabriel hurled a roundhouse kick. His airborne foot connected with Kevin’s face just as his splintered leg met with the floor below him. His body jerked backward on impact and his large frame was thrust against the interior wall of the vestibule. As he slammed into the wall, he knocked a massive oil painting from its supports. It crashed down atop his head just as he collapsed to the floor. He did not move or stir as consciousness seeped from him.

  “I guess some things never change,” he muttered as he regarded Kevin’s still form huddled against the wall.

  Gabriel assessed that despite modifications evidenced by Kevin’s improved strength and speed, his abilities still remained superior in every sense. His training in Motuo County served to further enhance his genetic aptitude, to refine his talents. Hours spent training with Yoshi and his father in the ancient martial art of Kalarippayattu sharpened his awareness of his surroundings and opponents, reinforced his reaction time and reflexes, improved his flexibility and offered him a stratospheric level of combat proficiency.

  The sound of footsteps behind him caused Gabriel to turn and glance up. As he did, he saw that Chris and John had descended upon Yoshi. He quickly moved to assist his friend.

  John challenged Yoshi and clearly operated on the assumption that his enhanced might would be sufficient to best his diminutive adversary. Gabriel noticed from the corner of his eye how he swung with tremendous force but wildly, making plain that he possessed strength but lacked strategy. Yoshi, on the other hand, bobbed and weaved as if he anticipated John’s every move avoiding blow after blow with speed and dexterity. Yoshi handled the genetically augmented athlete who outweighed him by roughly one hundred pounds and stood nearly a foot taller adroitly, expertly. John did not show signs of physical exhaustion but Yoshi appeared tired by toying with his opponent. He quickly switched from avoiding blows to deflecting them, and answering them. Within seconds, Yoshi demonstrated the power of his extensive training and landed direct shot after direct shot in succession until John, bested, fell to the floor a huddled heap of defeat.

  Chris, seeing his altered comrade felled, circled Gabriel tentatively, as if formulating a plan of some sort. Whatever plan he may or may not have intended to execute was swiftly upended when Gabriel surprised him and attacked first, striking him in the torso. Chris doubled over immediately and clutched his midsection. As he hunched forward, Gabriel placed the entirety of his might behind his fist and punched him in the face. The blow knocked him from his knees to the floor. His body flopped sideways then fell still.

  Gabriel and Yoshi, saturated with adrenaline, were prepared to topple anyone who attempted to stand. Neither spoke but both remained intensely focused breathing in short, quick breaths. But a strange squeal diverted their readied concentration. The sound bordered on delight and repulsion and came from the landing at the bottom of the staircase.

  Alexandra stood perfectly still with her hands covering her mouth emitting a perplexing vocalization. Her mouth was concealed prohibiting Gabriel from gauging her reaction, whether it was happy or horrified.

  “Alex,” Gabriel said softly. “Are you okay?”

  She did not respond but went silent instead. Fearing shock, Gabriel rushed to her with Yoshi steps behind him. When he was just an arm’s length from her, he moved cautiously toward her, unsure if her eyes even focused on him.

  Without warning, she became extremely animated.

  “Holy shit!” she exclaimed exuberantly. “That was fucking awesome! Melissa said you could fight, but I never dreamed you could do that! And Yoshi, you’re an ass-kicking machine!” Her words escaped her lips rapidly. She fired each in such quick progression, Gabriel had trouble keeping up.

  Gabriel’s attention was dissuaded from Alexandra’s rambling to movement from Chris. He moaned audibly and waved his arm feebly. Gabriel looked to Alexandra who did not appear to be suffering from shock and with a nod, left her in Yoshi’s charge.

  He stepped from the landing and crossed the foyer to the far corner of the passage and collared Chris by the front of his shirt.

  “Where is she?” he demanded and drew his fist back and angled it to strike. “Tell me!”

>   “I don’t know, really. We didn’t do anything to her,” Chris said in an even voice then mumbled, “Yet.”

  Ire rose within Gabriel, the likes of which he’d never felt before. His fisted hand trembled with fury as he discharged it with the force of a spring-loaded bullet, blasting it against Chris’s nose. Blood gushed from it immediately and bone rendered under the tremendous impact of his punch. Gabriel released Chris’s shirt and allowed him to fall back to the floor writhing and whimpering in pain.

  He returned to where Alexandra and Yoshi stood and caught the tail-end of their conversation.

  “Where did you guys learn to fight like that?” he heard her ask as he approached.

  “I taught him everything he knows,” Yoshi bragged.

  “Wow, that was amazing. You kick ass for a little guy,” she gushed.

  Yoshi face reddened to a bright shade of scarlet as he beamed at Alexandra’s compliment.

  “Ahem,” Gabriel interrupted.

  “Did you find out where she is?” Yoshi asked.

  “No. He said he didn’t know where she is. And I believe him.”

  “Where the hell could she be?” Alexandra asked in a panicked voice.

  “I don’t know,” Gabriel answered. “I think we should go back to her house. We had to have missed something.”

  “What about them?” Yoshi asked and gestured over his shoulder with his thumb to Kevin, John and Chris.

  “I don’t know what to do about them, but I doubt they’ll be going anywhere for a while,” Gabriel replied.

  Gabriel, Alexandra and Yoshi stepped around the hunched and cowered masses that were strewn about the entrance hall and out into the warm afternoon. They climbed into the Cherokee and headed back to Melissa’s house.

  Chapter 23

  Eugene pressed the end button on his cellular phone and terminated his brief but informative conversation with Dr. Franklin Terzini. His maker had shared news with him, news that generated a swirl of excitement within him.