The two outran the gunfire until it was a distant hum. Godric led the way with a firm grip on Luna's hand. He heard her weep every step they made, running further and further from her doomed brother.
Twigs and branches snapped from the left side of Godric. He came to an abrupt halt and spun around to the mysterious sounds.
One of Hazard's men charged forward at the two teens, breaking every branch in his way.
Godric dropped the lockbox and released Luna's hand. In one fluent motion, he whipped the revolver off from his belt and fired a close range hip-shot at the thug.
The gang member dropped to the ground before he could draw his weapon. His body remained motionless in front of them.
Godric nearly threw up taking another human life and seeing the face of the man he killed so close didn't help. He paused, listening to only the rustle of branches and Luna's cries.
The lockbox.
He picked up the lockbox with one hand, and with the other, aimed his revolver at the wild woods behind him. He fired a random shot in the direction of the gang.
Luna ceased crying for a moment. “What are you doing?”
Godric moved close to her. “It's the lockbox they want... not you... not me... not Byrd. Go back around, and save Byrd. You two can run while they chase me to the shipyard.”
It was obvious Luna despised the idea, but she also wanted to save her brother. “Don't stop running until you get there, okay?”
“Okay.”
She wrapped her arms around him in a rushed farewell, unfit for a potential final encounter.
Without another word, she darted through the woods to her right, breaking through the thick branches.
Godric stood alone with nothing but the sound of approaching footsteps. They were footsteps of men who wanted to kill him.
The lockbox dangled in his hand, and with one deep breath, he sprinted ahead, deeper into the unknown.
6
Loneliness… a feeling Godric felt his entire life, but it never weighed so heavy on his heart. Through the unfamiliar brush he charged, the lockbox tight in his grasp, fearing the end.
Although silent, he sensed a presence near and his demise approaching. No shots rang across the wild since he parted from Luna, but he sensed the gang following him.
The shipyard has to be close, Godric thought, weaving through the bushy terrain. If I get off Jeden, I can protect Luna and save Byrd. I owe them everything. I don’t care if I get an ounce of the profit. Please, don’t let them die.
Godric hacked loudly, a cough he feared would direct the Hazard gang to his location. The coughing fit continued with every step he took. With each passing second, his body grew sicker and sicker. Dehydration and hunger was getting the best of him.
Through the thick brush, he burst into an opening in the woods. Ahead of him, an open patch of land.
He lunged out into the opening and stared out in the distance. Before him was the shipyard, but between him and his destination, a wide cavern dropping to a river.
He reached a dead end.
His shoulders dipped, gawking at the broken ledge ahead of him. The grass was dark brown along the small patch of land. At the lip of the ledge, a steep drop to the cavern's watery grave.
The lockbox shook in his hand while his eyes filled with tears. He moved toward the ledge, listening to footsteps approaching him from behind. It was the end of the line and he sensed his own end.
He rotated around, facing the same opening he came from. At any moment, Kit Ramses and his thugs would show their hideous faces.
A figure emerged from the dark thicket, an unfamiliar figure. The older man stepped forward into the light of day, his eyes meeting Godric’s. With the daylight beaming on the exhausted old man’s face, Godric recognized the stranger. The white hair tied into a small, dangling pony tail. A rich navy blue jacket he wore with tails hanging behind him. Short as Godric, but the stranger was bulky, hinting he spent a lifetime staying in shape. He never saw this stranger before, but the traits of the intimidating man were unmistakable.
“Pro-Providence Hazard,” Godric said, stuttering over the only name he feared.
“Afternoon, kid,” the crime lord of Jeden said. “I believe you have something of mine, no?”
Godric stayed still as though the rain and muck from the past hours stiffened his bones. He simply stared at the man whose priceless rock rested in his grasp.
Providence moved forward in a calm fashion, a confidence of a victor. “It’s over, son. I ordered my men to stand back. You don’t have to die today if you give it back to me now. Hand it over.”
Godric remained silent. A statue frozen in time.
Providence sighed while he placed his hands on his hips. “What’s your name, son?”
Godric blinked slowly and took a deep breath. “Pandora,” he said, keeping his free hand close to the revolver in his belt. “Godric Pandora, sir.”
“Ah,” Providence said as if he knew the young man. “You’re a local boy, yeah? I recognize the last name. Well, young Godric, I need you to hand my box over to me. It’s quite dangerous.”
“I know what it is,” Godric said, finding a bit of confidence. “I’ve heard of Nirvana Gold before, just as I've heard of you, Mister Hazard.”
The old man’s lips pursed into a condescending smirk. “That is more than Nirvana Gold, kid. Where we found that, well, you don’t want to know―”
“But I do,” Godric interrupted. “I’ve come all this way, and if I hand this back over to you, I need guarantees my family and I will be safe from your men.”
Providence's smirk eased, changing into a more stern face. “A young man understanding the importance of protection for those he loves. I respect that. If you must know, the Nirvana Gold is contaminated… poisoned…” He chuckled under his breath. “Hazardous… no pun intended.”
Godric’s heart stopped, recalling his bare hands holding the mineral at the old woman's house. “What?”
Providence moved closer with his hands behind his back. “We found it deep in the depths of a far away planet. The young man who found it locked it away before he delivered it. Unfortunately, he was unaware of the radiated side effects the gold had. The surface of that little rock is enough to infect an entire planet and kill every soul on it in a matter of weeks. We studied the led-laced lockbox would quarantine the radiation.”
Godric closed his eyes in terror, knowing if true, he unleashed an unfathomable plague on Jeden.
The old crime lord continued, standing mere feet away from Godric. “The Nirvana is safer in my hands than anyone else. It took us years of work to track it down, so please, give it to me.”
With both hands on the lockbox, Godric raised it to show Providence, the broken lock tucked closer to his body. “Your intentions?” he asked, sucking in another cough.
“What?”
“What are your intentions with something so deadly? I feared you wanted to sell such a valuable mineral for profit to make your gang unstoppable. Now that I know how much damage this can cause, what do you plan on doing with such an abomination?”
Providence’s face twitched in anger. “Power exceeds money, son,” he said. “Having an ace in the hole like a radiated rock fit to murder millions across the galaxy outweighs simple profit. I am already playing the role of God on this crappy little rock you call 'home', imagine when I expand my rule over the galaxy. Now, this is your last chance… hand it over.”
Godric inhaled one last deep breath, a cough escaping his lips. He rotated the box around, showing Providence the broken lock. The old man looked at it, his face stone. His calm eyes widened into a terror Godric never expected from the deadly crime lord.
“You-You opened it?” he asked, stuttering like a frightened child. He covered his mouth as though it would prevent an already toxic atmosphere from traveling into his aged lungs. “You-You idiot… Do you understand what will happen now?”
Godric remained silent, his face calm and stern.
“Kit!” Providence shouted, his hand hovering over his mouth. He moved back toward the opening in the woods. Kit Ramses emerged from the thick brush to his boss’s aid.
“All good, boss?” Kit asked.
“Retrieve the box from the boy and then evacuate all our men from the planet. Take only what we need.”
The crime lord met Godric’s gaze one last time, the teen who wrote the script for his demise. The old man retreated into the woods.
With Providence gone, Godric was left alone with Kit, who wielded a revolver in his hand. His clothes and hat more rugged and battered than the first time the two crossed paths. There was a bloody crack on the thug's nose from when Godric smashed the lockbox into his face.
“It’s over, kid,” Kit said, slowly pacing forward. “Give me the box.”
Godric simply shook his head. “You and your men were going to kill us all,” he said. “Millions across the galaxy would be dead so you could rule. Rule over what? Radiated atmospheres and corpses?”
Kit appeared stunned Godric knew the true power of the deadly Nirvana Gold. “A simple fear factor, kid,” he said. “No one has to die. Just give me the box…” He raised his revolver. “… or die.”
Godric held the lockbox higher near his face, getting a good look at the rock. Luna entered his mind, along with her brother and his friend. “Is my friend alive?”
Kit shrugged carelessly. “He didn’t make it.”
His words punched Godric in his stomach and he took another deep breath, knowing he had few left. “Byrd agreed this was too dangerous to fall in the hands of the Hazard gang. Now that I know what it does, I know he was wrong.”
He held the box forward to Kit, who stretched his arm forward. The gangster went to grab the handle, but Godric whipped the broken lockbox open, revealing the ungodly rock .
Kit gasped and stepped back with his hand over his mouth.
Godric gripped the Nirvana Gold in his hand. He whirled around and chucked the rock across the cavern, where it free fell into the river below.
“NO!” Kit yelled.
He fired an energy blast straight into Godric’s stomach, forcing the young hunter to the dead grass in agony.
His vision blurred, making the outline of Kit peeking over the edge of the cliff. With a deep inhale, the gangster growled in anger. His emotions echoed through the cavern.
Godric, in pain, couldn’t help but smirk, knowing he stopped the Hazard gang from retaining an unstoppable power.
Kit raised his arm to his mouth. “Meet me at the shipyard,” Kit said in his communication device on his wrist. “Warn Hazard we lost the weapon, and it has infected the planet. It's in the atmosphere and will be in the water supply within hours... if it isn't already. Kit out.”
The gangster ran out of Godric’s vision, and based on the sound of bushes rustling, he assumed he was now alone.
Godric rolled to his back, staring up at the blue sky.
I’m sorry, Mom and Dad. I’m sorry Luna. I’m so sorry Byrd. I wish I could take it all back.
Tears welled in his eyes, but Godric paused, feeling something touch his chest. He leaned his head forward to lock eyes with a small, but familiar gaze.
It was the dark red eyes of the three-winged vroc.
Somehow… some way… the creature he once thought massacred stood on his chest, flapping its deformed wings.
The vroc cawed with malice, reminiscent of the morning he shot it.
Godric no longer feared for his life. Instead, he feared for every life on Jeden.
He hated taking the life of an animal like the three-winged vroc clawing at his chest, but he hated dying with the truth that the death of millions on Jeden was his fault.
In a way, he saved the galaxy by preventing other planets from meeting the same fate as his home, but the thought offered him little comfort.
He tried to focus on positive thoughts, not the bad omens like the three-winged bird, the haunting entity of Sunny Moon, or the god among men Providence Hazard.
Hunger was no longer a concern for him, realizing it was not the catalyst of his sickly cough. It was the infection of the hazardous gold.
With life fleeing from his body, he wished for numerous things. He wished greed didn’t get the best of him, curiosity didn’t tease him, and foolishness didn’t lead him and his planet to an unpredictable demise.
His only true wish was for him to go back in time and stop himself from ever opening the small black box.
Epilogue
Dianna Pandora sat alone in her rocking chair, fearing the worst for her son.
Three days ago, her son Godric left home early in the morning, but she hadn't seen or heard from him since.
She hated when he went hunting with his friends, but he had to as the provider of the family. Her husband, Isaac, had a severe back injury three years ago, making him incapable of hunting.
His disability didn't stop him from taking the family's shuttle across the wild of Jeden, searching for their missing son.
Dianna wanted to stay put in case he came home, but part of her couldn't handle the possibility of going out to find her son on the ground... dead.
The Hollow Galaxy had always been cruel to people, and she was not ready to lose her son. A simple and constant rock back in her seat was the only thing she could do while she waited.
A recognizable, heavy clanking sound shook the old cabin. Isaac’s shuttle, she thought, springing from her chair. Her hand snatched the cane against the wall and she waddled toward the front door. She hoped her husband walked through the door with their missing son.
Before she reached halfway across the room, the door swung open.
In the doorway, her aged husband assisted an injured person into the home.
It was her son.
“Godric, what happened!?” Dianna asked, nearly losing her balance.
“Hazard's men,” Isaac said, speaking up for his woozy son, who was filthy from the wild. “They tried to rob the kids, but they got separated.”
“Luna and Byrd?”
Godric raised his head and simply shrugged. “I'm here,” he said. He moved in close and embraced his mother. “All we can do now is wait.”
“Wait for what?”
Her son's expression changed into a defeated frown. “Nothing... just wait for my wound to heal. I need to regain my strength... that's all. Plus, we can wait and see if we hear from Luna and Byrd.”
The parents helped Godric to his chair at the dinner table where he sat in silence. Dianna put pressure on his wound with an old kitchen cloth. He didn't react or wince, simply stayed quiet with the same hopeless stare in his eyes.
Dianna leaned in to comfort her son, but something else grabbed his attention in the home's open doorway.
“Hey,” a voice said. “Room for one more?”
At the front door, Luna walked in, arm-and-arm with her brother Byrd.
Godric shot up from his chair, as if he didn't have a sizzling wound in his stomach, and raced over to his two friends. The three tightly embraced one another, relieved they were alive. Dianna's nerves evolved into a bit of joy, proud her son showed so much concern for his friends. But then she noticed rags wrapped around Byrd's legs, covering his sizzled blast wounds.
“Oh dear, Byrd,” she said. “Come sit and we'll patch you up, too.” By the looks of it, the poor kid was shot multiple times.
Godric returned to his chair with Byrd taking the seat next to him. Dianna gave Luna an extra cloth to help clean her brother's wounds.
With a sharp eye, Dianna examined the two injured young men. “Do you want us to call medics to come down here?Authorities have locked down transportation off Jeden for some reason, but we can have local medical officers examine you both.”
Godric, Byrd, and Luna exchanged knowing looks to one another. They each appeared hopeless, but with an odd sense of calm. Their looks dissolved into stern faces.
“Can we just have some dinner?” Godric asked his mom. “We haven’
t eaten in a while.”
The mother finished wrapping the cloth around Godric's body. “Of course.”
“Thank you. Love you, mom. It's good to be back.”
Dianna, more curious of her son's thankful attitude, leaned to his level. “Is everything okay?”
“Don't worry about it. What's done is done. I'm just happy to be here right now.”
Every world has a story . . .
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Three Omens: The Hollow Galaxy: Book I Page 5