Byrd shook his head. “I’m in... I guess I have to be, right?”
Luna nodded as the three whirled around to the forest and sprinted for the trees. Godric’s heart raced. They were robbing the most dangerous gang on the planet and the prize was an endless fortune. If they could pull this off, he would never have to shoot another animal in his life.
2
Faster, faster―faster Godric ran through the forest. From behind, something held him back. Luna’s hand clenched his arm tight, slowing him from his sprint.
“Save your energy,” she said, trailing behind him. “As long as we make it to the shipyard by sundown, we’ll be fine.”
“Sorry,” Godric said, slowing to Luna and Byrd’s pace. “It's just... the faster we get off Jeden... the better. Do you realize what Hazard’s men would do if they caught us with this box?”
“Now’s not the time for that,” Byrd said, annoyed with his friend and sister. “You both wanted to go through with this, so let's keep pushing forward.”
The trio weaved through the trees at a quick pace, deeper into the vast green forest. Still miles away from the shipyard, but if the three teens kept up this pace, they’d reach there before dark. Godric moved quick, gawking at the lockbox in his hand. He carried it by its rich handle. A wealthy case for a wealthy prize.
He noticed Byrd stare at the lockbox as well, without the same enthusiasm he and Luna shared. “We’ll be okay,” Godric whispered to his concerned friend, who nodded in reply.
They continued to speed across the sloping terrain, breaking through bushes and bumping into trees. Even with no sign of the Hazard gang around, Godric’s heart raced as though the violent men trailed their footsteps.
Leaves and twigs snapped with each rushed step by the three teens. Their loud trek only added to the nervousness amongst the group. They were now thieves, stealing a fortune from Jeden’s most menacing man. Thoughts of terror poked at Godric's mind. His life would never be the same―for better or for worse.
Luna led the way, but she came to an abrupt stop, blocking Godric and Byrd from going any further. “Shush,” she said, her eyes widening. She scanned the surroundings. “Listen carefully.”
The forest stayed still, nearly silent, but something else echoed through the air. A distant hum resonated in the forest… a familiar hum. Godric’s grip tightened around the lockbox, his fingers slipping on something. He gawked at the box, still stained by the three-winged vroc's thick blood. His stomach turned as the hum grew louder.
Byrd moved ahead of them. “Hazard’s ship,” Byrd said, his face losing color. “They’re heading this way.”
“Quick,” Luna said, looking around the forest. “Find somewhere to hide.”
“Are you crazy? We can’t hide.”
“Well, we can’t outrun a land ship, Byrd. Do you have a better idea?”
“Just drop the box and run.”
While the two continued to bicker, Godric’s attention turned elsewhere. A knocked over tree rested firmly on the ground near them. “Look,” Godric said. “We can hide there until they pass. Let’s go”
The three ran toward the large tree where they found the earth beneath it opened up into a bank. Each squeezed into the cramped hole in the ground, hardly any room between the ground and the chipped bark above them. They tucked their legs inside, shrinking themselves to fit into the bank.
Byrd knocked elbows with his sister while he moved his rifle off his shoulder and into his hands. “No matter what happens, do not make a sound,” Byrd said, cocking the hammer of his weapon.
The only sound left was the loud roar of the incoming land ship. In the back of his mind, Godric hoped it was a different cargo vessel, a local passing through the wild. With the lockbox tight in his hands, he knew it could only be the ferocious gang seeking their valuable asset.
He peeked through the tall grass from under the tree. There was little room to move, but they remained hidden, difficult for any onlooker to spot.
To his right, trees shook and branches snapped. The loud cargo ship broke through the opening where Godric stood only a minute ago. Its engine roared, charging into the grassy place where the three teens did their best to blend in with the environment.
The engine to the ship was loud, but one thug was even louder. “They had to come through this area!” the gang member shouted over the engine. He wore a dim gray Stetson hat darker than his pale face. “Tracks lead past here. I say we keep going.”
The ship’s engine shut down and a tall, slender man jumped off the ship's bow to the ground. Godric recognized Providence Hazard's loyal assistant Kit Ramses. He was one of the deadliest gang members, the right-hand man to the leader himself. Providence never needed to spill blood by his own hand with Kit working for him.
“Everyone, get off,” Kit ordered in a nasty tone.
The five gang members with him jumped off the ship's platform. Kit raised the tip of his short-brimmed hat, allowing Godric to look at the rugged face of the criminal. His beard was clean, but his sharp cheek bones made his face more rough. His eyes darted back and forth while he examined his surroundings.
Out of the corner of his eye, Godric saw Luna and Byrd become more frightened.
The gang knew they were somewhere near.
Kit paced around the tall grass. Godric recognized the tracking skills of the gangster trying to spot their footprints. He hoped the grass was tall enough to hide them.
The five other gang members moved away from vehicle and joined Kit in the search. Kit smacked his lips, chewing a wad of red tar as most criminals in the Hollow Galaxy did. He carried an intimidating navy revolver at his side, holstered in a leather strap. Godric did his best to breathe softer the closer the gangster got to them.
Kit walked right to the face of the downed tree. So close, his brown boots were inches away from the teens. Each of them held their breath, faces stressed from the lack of mobility in the confined space. One little peep, and they’d be dead.
“Come out quietly,” Kit said, his eyes staying ahead of him.
Godric, Luna, and Byrd froze under the tree. They couldn’t tell if he found them or if he sensed their presence in the open woods.
The towering gangster’s eyes darted down to the hiding spot. He gazed straight into Godric’s eyes through the tall blades of grass. “Now,” he ordered. “Just let me see those hands.”
Godric gawked over to the others, who were too dumbfounded to even respond to the order. Byrd was already putting his rifle away in defeat.
They were at the gang's mercy.
Only one thing to do.
Godric backed out from under the tree, revealing himself, the black lockbox in his hand.
The other gang members drew their pistols and revolvers, taking aim at the young man.
“Hang on now,” Kit said, raising his hand to stop his men. “They mean no harm. Let them be.” Each gang member lowered their gun while Luna and Byrd joined Godric behind the fallen tree. Kit examined the hunters. “Who are you?”
“We’d rather not say,” Luna said, speaking up before Godric had the chance. It was a good thing she did because he would have been dumb enough to tell the dangerous stranger his name.
“I see,” Kit said, tucking his thumbs into his belt. “Well, my name is Kit Ramses. That box you have there belongs to our boss. I’d appreciate it if we could have it back, otherwise my boss will be pretty upset with me.”
His crooked smile was not sincere. Godric gripped the lockbox tighter. Luna stepped ahead, nearly falling back into the ditch. “We found it in the field while we were hunting,” she said. “Thought you guys were lawmen. We have no hunting permits, so we hid.”
Godric never heard such convincing lies in his life.
“No worries, kid,” Kit said, his face growing grimmer as though he knew the girl lied to his face. “What we have here is a simple misunderstanding. We too feared you were lawmen confiscating our valuables. You three don't look like thieves, so just give us the
box back and you can be on your way.”
The three hunters eyed one another. Godric’s eyes stayed on Kit’s hands, which edged near his holster. Even if they handed the box over, the odds of walking away alive did not seem likely.
Kit's stare turned to Godric. “Young man, go put it on our ship. We're in a hurry, so if you'd be so kind?” He directed his raised hand toward the ship.
Godric looked at Luna and Byrd who nodded at him to follow the gangster’s orders. He nodded back at them, made his way around the downed tree, past Kit. The lockbox shook in his sweaty hands. Each step he took, he feared the cruel stranger might fire an energy blast into his back.
Luna and Byrd followed.
Godric feared for his friends’ lives even more than his own. His own personal greed desired the Nirvana Gold. He didn’t want his selfishness to kill his friends, but he also wanted to save his family from a life of starvation.
“On the back will do,” Kit said, his finger extended to the ship’s stern. His other hand continued to rest inside his belt, edging closer to his holster.
Sweat streamed down Godric’s forehead. The gangster walked closer, trailing behind him. The second he placed the lockbox on the ship, Godric knew he was a dead man.
“We found more cargo scattered across the plains not far from here,” Godric said, doing his best to stay calm with his friends beside him. “I reckon it’s yours?”
“We’ll take care of it,” Kit said. His other men rounded the other side of the ship. Kit placed his fingers around his revolver. “Don’t you worry about a thing.”
The gangster whipped out his revolver, raising it to the back of Godric’s head.
Godric heard the steel click of the revolver's hammer cocking. He whirled around, with the lockbox in his hand, accidentally knocking the weapon from Kit’s hand. In shock of his luck, he shoved the lockbox forward into Kit’s nose, smashing it in with heavy force. The gangster shouted in pain and fell to the ground.
Godric jumped in fright as a loud roar screeched beside him. He faced the cargo ship where Luna was at the helm of it. “Come on!” she yelled over the roaring engine, one hand on the steering wheel and her rifle in the other.
Godric and Byrd hopped onto the ship's platform, firing warning shots at the other gang members behind them. Luna accelerated the sleek machine forward. From the floor, Godric saw the shocked gang members staggering to their feet behind the accelerating vessel. Wind whipped in his face while he counted the gang members. Kit was down with four other men while the ship sped away.
One gang member was missing from the pack.
Near the tail-end of the ship, a man with a long brown beard crawled atop the cargo. His forehead wrinkled together, a sinister twinkle shined in his eye. The gangster’s hand reached into the back of his pants.
Godric, with his belly flat on the ship, rotated his rifle toward the gang member, who pulled a revolver forward. He fired a shot at the bearded man, a thin silver stream smashed into his chest. The bearded thug flew off the ship and disappeared from sight.
The ship ricocheted back and forth, slamming into trees. One of the ship’s engines popped, revealing a flame from the broken thruster. The three teens held on as the ship stabilized from the rocky ride. They raced the cargo ship down a slope, putting distance between them and the vehicle-less gang.
The teens didn’t say a word to each other, staying silent as the ship cruised forward for several minutes.
Godric’s fingers trembled.
He killed a man.
Never in his days did he think he’d have to take the life of another human being. He had no choice but to kill the gang member. The man could have shot Luna in the back while she drove or even Byrd while he was down on the platform. Still, he could not form any justifiable reason for killing someone.
Distracted by what he did, he snapped out of his own personal regret as the land ship’s damaged engine exploded into an erratic dancing flame with a deafening BOOM.
“Get off!” Luna shouted. “Jump!”
The trio dove off the edge of the ship, slamming into the grassy hills. Cargo boxes slipped off the ship. Each one nearly struck the teens while they tumbled down the hill. Godric saw a box miss his head by mere inches, but something else smacked him in the back of his head.
He opened his eyes wider, rolling out of control, but noticed a thick calf smash into his head again. Luna was flailing right next to him.
They finally slowed to a rough halt. Luna’s groaning was nothing compared to his own squeaks of aches and pain.
The ship flew, full speed into a group of trees near the hill’s bottom, causing a small explosion on impact. Godric lifted his head to gaze down the hill. He sighed with relief knowing it wasn’t them launching into the sky in a fiery blaze. His attention fled elsewhere.
Something weighed in his grasp.
He used the butt of his rifle to roll over to his side. In his other hand rested the lockbox. Even in the chaos of stealing the ship of a notorious gang, he still held onto the precious rock. He gawked at the Nirvana Gold inside the case.
Luna shoved her hand under his armpit, and helped him to his feet. She met his eyes, then turned her attention to the lockbox in his hands. “You still have it?” she asked in a stunned but pleased tone.
He nodded in an equally surprised manner. How did I manage to hang on to this during all that? Luna appeared excited he still possessed the box that caused them so much trouble. Twigs snapped behind Godric, and he knew Byrd approached with a different opinion.
“Are you two insane?” Byrd said, his face irate and dirty from the tumble. “Leave that thing behind and let’s get the hell out of here.”
“Come on, Byrd,” Luna said to her brother, stepping ahead of Godric. “We knew what we were getting into when we took this thing. It’d be dumb to just leave the box now... after all of that.”
“It’d be dumb to give the Hazard gang any more reasons to kill us―”
“Quit being such an idiot,” Luna said, stomping on the ground and moving closer to her brother. “They were going to kill us the second we put the box on their ship. That guy was going to shoot Godric in the head if we didn’t make a run for it.”
“Luna,” Godric said, reaching for her shoulder. It was too late, and the siblings faced off in a shouting match.
“If you two weren’t greedy, we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place,” Byrd said. He moved closer to Luna, his eyes looking fit to pop from his skull.
“This is more than the rock, Byrd,” she said, not backing down from her taller brother. “What do you think the Hazard gang would get for this? They are powerful enough already on Jeden. Could you imagine the wealth they’d gain from selling this thing?”
Godric couldn’t agree more with her. Too long the people of Jeden did nothing while bullied by the Hazard gang. He never thought about the danger of allowing them to possess a mineral capable of buying off intergalactic governments. If Providence Hazard gets the Nirvana rock―the gang becomes unstoppable.
“Listen,” Luna said, pulling both boys in closer. “This was dumb, but now our families are at risk. We can’t allow them to trace us back home. We need to sell this rock. Think about it. This is our first time we can make a difference and deal a blow to the Hazard gang. Killing vrocs to survive is no way to live. Imagine the good we can do for Jeden if we get the chance to prevent Providence Hazard from buying out the entire galaxy.”
She refaced her brother, who looked frightened at the thought of three teenagers taking on the most dangerous gang on the planet. Gangs were not rare in the Hollow Galaxy, but it was rare having anyone stand up to them. “What do you say?”
Byrd turned away and walked toward a shattered crate. He knelt to retrieve an item. When he spun around, Godric saw a couple of the gang's revolvers bunched in his hands. “We’ll need these then, won’t we?” he asked, sounding more confident like his sister.
“We have made some distance between us and them,”
Godric said. “If we keep going now, we may still beat them to the shipyard.”
The trio nodded in agreement. Byrd handed a revolver to each of them. They shouldered their rifles and shoved their new weapons into their belts. “I’ll go see if I can find any more,” Byrd said.
For a second, Godric's gaze met with Byrd’s. His friend's eyes were filled with hatred and knew he despised Godric for forcing them into this mess in the first place.
3
An elegant planet, Jeden's days ended with the most gorgeous sunsets.
The day Godric stole from the Hazard gang, there wasn’t a ray of sunshine in the sky.
Rain poured on the three helpless teens, dark clouds over them not offering any mercy.
They trekked through the muddy grass, kicking their knees high to avoid slipping into the brown muck. Godric could not tell, but he was sure the sun was setting somewhere in the distance. Each step they took, the darker the world became.
“It’s too dangerous to keep going through the night,” Luna said over the heavy rain. “We should find cover somewhere. At dawn, we can continue for the shipyard and get a transport out of here.”
“And give the Hazard gang a chance to catch up to us?” Byrd asked, outraged by his sister’s idea. “Just be careful where you’re stepping and we’ll be fine.”
“There won’t be any transports anyway,” Godric said, coming to Luna’s aid. “We can’t be exhausted if somehow they catch up with us. Kit Ramses is too dangerous.”
He recognized Byrd doing his best not to yell at him, but it was obvious the youngest teen disagreed with his friend and sister. “I guess we can take turns taking watch,” Byrd said, wiping raindrops from his face. “If we find a good spot by a tree―”
Terrified, Luna swung her arm forward. “Get down,” Luna whispered with urgency, cutting her brother off from speaking. They squatted low to the muddy ground. “Do you see that light up ahead?”
In the distance, a light illuminated through the harsh storm. Godric gripped the lockbox closer to his chest and crawled toward Luna. Another light appeared near the the already lit shimmer. The more he focused in on the unfamiliar lights, the clearer they became.
Three Omens: The Hollow Galaxy: Book I Page 2