The Perfect Ten Boxed Set

by Dianna Love

  Between dealing with the beast-turned-bird back at the school and getting sucked into this alternate dimension, I’d forgotten about my own time pressure. I had to be in Dr. Maxwell’s office by five o’clock.

  I had to find out who I was.

  Of everywhere I’d been since opening my eyes today, the school offered me the best place to learn who I was and somewhere safe while I figured that out.

  Except for the beast that was still there. But I’d take my chances with it to get Gabby and Tony back to safety. I didn’t fit into their world, but I believed they were in this world because of me.

  And right now, worrying about anything except escaping here and getting back to the school was laughable.

  Gabby huffed an exasperated breath at Tony. “You’re not the only one with time issues.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Tony said. “What’s pushin’ on you, sweet cakes?”

  “You, right now.” She dismissed him with a wave of one hand, and started stretching as if she had a routine that relaxed her.

  Tony ignored her and pinned me with a “what now?” glare.

  I hadn’t asked to be in charge and if Tony thought he had all the answers he could start sharing. “Okay, genius, if you want to keep going, we need water. Got ideas on where to find it?”

  Tony looked surprised to be put on the spot, but all he offered was a tired shake of his head. “Told you. I’m out of my element here.”

  Great.

  “Gabby?” I asked, not expecting much, but with her gifts she might be able to find water. When she gave me a confused look, I said gently, “You have some abilities. I’m not asking you to share what they are, but I dug my fingers into the ground during the last stop and didn’t reach moisture.”

  She nodded, took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “I’m not a diviner,” she murmured, though I didn’t have a clue what that meant. “But I’ll give this a try.”

  I shot a look at Tony to warn him not to ridicule her, but he actually watched her intently as if he hoped she could do something.

  Gabby dropped her head back and held her arms out to each side in a motion of opening up to the world. Her lips moved silently then she frowned and lowered her arms. When she opened her eyes, she cocked her head, listening for something. “Hear that?”

  “What?” Tony looked around. “You hear water, maybe moving like a stream or river?”

  She twisted her head one direction, then another, getting a fix on what I couldn’t hear. But she’d heard those bats before, way sooner than I had, so I turned my head in the direction she faced...and caught a faint sound.

  A high whine that sounded like a cry.

  “Is that a child?” Gabby stood straighter, pointing in the direction we’d been heading. “That way.”

  “A kid?” Tony looked confused. “I thought you were divining for water?”

  Gabby turned on him and snapped, “I’m not a magic wand! I hear what I hear and right now it’s the sound of a child crying. Some things are more important than you.”

  Tony jerked back. I didn’t blame him. Our rainbow butterfly had fangs. What had triggered that reaction in Gabby? The child’s cry?

  “I hear it, too,” I confirmed.

  Tony slapped his forehead. “That could be anything in this place.” He dropped his hand and said in a calm, logical voice, “Computers aren’t computers, flowers aren’t flowers so why should a cryin’ kid be a cryin’ kid?”

  He had a point.

  Gabby paid no attention to him, her voice turning to steel. “I don’t have an answer for you and that still sounds like a child. It could be hurt. Who’s to say someone else isn’t here if we are and I’d think you’d be interested in checking it out if that child arrived here in a pod as well.”

  The gears started turning in Tony’s head. “You’re absolutely right, sweet cakes. We can’t risk that bein’ a child left alone in this place. Let’s get humpin’.”

  Surprise at his quick shift in attitude showed in Gabby’s face. “Uh, okay.”

  I almost wished she hadn’t handed him such a convincing argument for checking out the noise. Tony perked up the minute he realized the arrival of another person might open the path to go home, which meant he’d go charging forward without thinking about the dangers.

  Tony looked right and left, anxious to move out. “Which way, sweet cakes? That kid’s our GPS to the pod area.”

  Gabby turned toward the sound of the child’s voice. “This way.”

  “Wait.” I grabbed her arm, feeling sudden determination rigid in her muscles. “It could be a trap.”

  In the moment that I touched her, I caught a buzz under her skin and saw a visual of Gabby as a young child, alone, crying. Who’d left her to fend for herself?

  And how had I seen that?

  “Or it could be just a child,” she said emphatically, shaking off my hand. “We haven’t found water or a way back. If there’s a child here then there may be other people here. Regardless, are you willing to gamble a child’s life and leave a vulnerable kid exposed to this place?”

  Something inside me shouted, “No,” that I’d defended younger ones before, but I had no idea when or where. Nothing felt right in this place, but if I was perfectly honest with myself, nothing had felt right since opening my eyes this morning.

  “What’s it going to be, Rayen?” Gabby asked, fidgeting to get going.

  Tony added, “Like you said, we can’t split up.”

  More than that, Tony had just admitted that he trusted my judgment. Something not to be taken lightly. Not if we were going to make it out of this alive.

  Were they right to trust me?

  I didn’t have a reason to stop them from going to the child other than sensing that sounds had been used as bait for traps at some point in my life. On the other hand, I couldn’t honestly live with the thought of ignoring a child in need. “We’ll go, but if it is a child let’s not race straight to it without a plan.”

  “Agreed,” Gabby said and Tony nodded.

  I didn’t like the thought of walking back toward the clearing where the sound was coming from, not with my gut still screaming the metal pod area wasn’t a safe place to be, even if it was our only connection to the school. But I raised a hand, indicating to Gabby to lead the way with Tony following and me taking up the rear.

  Not an ideal setup for defense, but I felt better suited for this terrain than those two and could keep an eye on both of them this way.

  The hike back to the clearing seemed to take a lot less time as the cry grew louder, though decreasing in intensity as if the child, or whatever, was winding down from full pitch bawling to a pathetic whimper.

  I noted purple light again through a break in the trees. But this time, the green stripes were back. The way the sky had looked when we’d fallen out of the pod. Call me superstitious, but I had an uncomfortable feeling about that sky.

  I jogged past Tony, calling to Gabby. “Wait up.”

  “What now?” she asked in a snappish tone. I looked at her more closely. Maybe I’d heard exhaustion.

  “We agreed to scope this out before walking up to the noise,” I pointed out.

  A child in distress clearly bothered Gabby on some internal level, but she nodded a reluctant agreement. “As long as...if it’s a child we’re going to help it and not just make a dash for the pod, right? If there is a pod.”

  I nodded. “If it is a child, and alone, we’ll take care of it.”

  “We doin’ this today?” Tony stood with his thumbs hooked in the pockets of his jeans, waiting. Sweat beaded down the side of his face, streaking through patches of dirt. He might have been a self-centered jerk at the school, but he’d been working with us better since the flower attack and I could tell he moved like someone capable of defending himself.

  I turned and eased cautiously toward the whimpering sound. When I reached the tree line, I crouched low, waving the other two down, making sure they hugged the multi-colored foliage enough to avoid being
blatantly visible to anything in the grass clearing.

  And there she was in a patch of packed-down earth. A small girl. Maybe five or six years old, curled on her side into a fetal position, hiccupping air like someone who’d cried out every last ounce of emotion.

  She looked so tiny and alone out there.

  But the flower that attacked Tony had been the vulnerable-looking bait of a carnivorous plant and this place was riddled with danger.

  The child was dead center in the clearing of the odd-colored grasses mixed with patches of bare ground. She wore a silvery dress, gold jewelry, sparkly shoes and her hair was braided and curled as if she’d been dressed for a party. Why didn’t she look like us–ragged from running for our lives?

  Had a pod dropped her here, too, or was she just lost?

  Tony whispered in my ear as he squatted up against me. “There’s no pod. We in the same spot where we arrived earlier?”

  I shared the disappointment in his voice, since I couldn’t deny hoping the appearance of a child meant adults would be nearby and show us the way home. But Tony was being calm so I answered him by pointing to where we’d clearly beaten down the grass while running from the bats earlier. The trail started from a flat area of grass, roughly conical in shape where the pod had been recently.

  So the grass did not grow back out there the way the jungle had?

  Gabby flanked me on the other side. “So what’s the plan?”

  A battle raged inside me, a tug-of-war between my drive to protect an innocent and the strong sense that I was right to be wary. “I’ll go get the girl. You two sit tight.”

  “What if the pod comes back while you’re there?” Tony asked. “We should all go so we can be together if that happens.”

  Gabby wasn’t agreeing or arguing, but I knew from her response to the child’s cry that she’d go along with anything that would allow her to help with the...kid.

  I shook my head. “Based on how that metal thing brought us here and left, we’ll have plenty of time for you to reach it if it shows up. I need you to watch my back. I can’t explain why, but I have a feeling this is some kind of a snare. If something happens to me, I don’t want you caught out there, too.”

  A sudden thrumming started. The vibration came from below ground. The pod? Or something else?

  I fought to keep my balance. What the–?

  Gabby floundered where she knelt beside me, her arms flapping to keep her balance. Tony cursed and growled.

  The earth movement shifted from a tremor through the ground to an eruption of rocks and dirt out in the open space. Something alive emerged from beneath the surface on the other side of the child, near the dark jungle where it bordered the far side of the grassy clearing.

  Like a giant crocodile on steroids, the creature’s head with a long snout burst out of the ground. Huge eyes stuck off each side of its head. The body kept coming. It used multiple arms to drag itself up. Had to be twelve, maybe fifteen, feet tall when it stood upright on two feet the size of giant palm leaves, but with talons. Thick hide covered in scales and a wide mouth full of pointed teeth. It let out a wild screech. A metal-tearing-against-metal roar.

  Tony sat up on his knees, eyes bulging. “What the freak is that?”

  Color drained from Gabby’s face. She stared open-mouthed at the beast emerging from beneath the ground then squeezed out a whisper. “The child.”

  A trap. I hated being right.

  Just as much as I hated what I had to do next.

  CHAPTER 10

  I wanted no argument and made that clear with my tone. “I’ll go. You two stay here.” When Tony stood, I shook my head. “If I don’t reach the little girl, you won’t either, so don’t follow me.”

  When Tony opened his mouth to argue, I gave a pointed look at Gabby whose attention remained locked on the kid.

  He caught my meaning to watch out for her, but clearly struggled to make the right choice. At the blowhard’s core, he was male and had probably been raised to protect females, but based on what had happened with that deadly vine, we both knew I had the best shot at saving that child. Even Tony had to admit that I was far faster than either of them.

  With a reluctant nod, he finally said, “Don’t hit a pothole, Xena.”

  The whole exchange took seconds I couldn’t afford to waste so I had no time to ask what a pothole was.

  Gabby had been paralyzed by the deadly scene unfolding until I gave her shoulder a quick squeeze of encouragement, ignored her terror and shoved to my feet. I took off running toward the child.

  “Rayen!” Gabby shouted behind me, delayed reaction kicking in.

  I couldn’t turn around. Had to trust Tony to do his part to hold Gabby back and keep her safe. This was now a foot race against the roaring creature that had emerged all the way out of the ground. Dull orange scales with bright blue swirling lines covered its body in dizzying patterns.

  It shook off dirt like a wet dog and swung its enormous head toward where Tony and Gabby hovered at the tree line.

  I risked a glance over my shoulder, relieved to see that Tony restrained Gabby. They were in the open, but not far from the jungle’s edge.

  Booming steps rocked the ground.

  I whipped my head back into the race.

  The strange croco-monster had dropped down on four of its limbs and ran with a side-to-side movement at a thundering speed. Bulging black eyes streaked with yellow veins flared wildly at me then dismissed me as too insignificant to get in the way of reaching its initial, and easier prey–the little girl. Two thick arms dangled from the monster’s upper body. Hands large enough to rip a human body in half or swat a grown man into next week had three thick-boned fingers each, with curled claws.

  This was not the Beast that had chased me in the desert. This was worse.

  The child let out a hair-splitting cry.

  With the ground shifting the closer the monster came, I did a quick double-step to stay on my feet.

  Forcing my legs to spin faster, I matched pace with the monster and angled my body into a headon collision course. I waved my arms and shouted wildly for the child to get up and escape.

  She didn’t move.

  “Get away. Move. Run!” I bellowed. Using all I had left, I sprinted the last few yards toward her.

  The little girl crawled to her knees, twisting about, staring at the monster. Wide-eyed, her panicked cry was drowned out by the thud, thud, thud of the predator bearing down on her.

  With an extra surge, I threw myself toward her, scooping her with my arms and hitting the ground hard, rolling to the right. But I had her safely cocooned.

  The ground rumbled and vibrated as the croco-monster catapulted past. So close I could smell its strange sour odor, feel the blast of its hide scrape my upper arms.

  Safe?

  Not hardly. Maybe Tony had been right to focus on the pod to get out of this place.

  Pushing back to my feet and hugging the child to me, I made a quick sprint to the jungle edge on the other side from Gabby and Tony. I careened around, facing the back of the monster. It skidded to a stop, snorting and stomping the ground.

  The little girl in my arms quivered. Too scared to make a noise. I felt her heart beating like bird wings as I stepped deeper into the jungle edge. I moved us behind the biggest, baddest palm-like frond, hoping to soothe her by being hidden.

  Where was the monster?

  Had it given up chasing me and the child. Why?

  I heard shouting. Inhaling air into my starved lungs, I shifted the child against my chest and eased back out into the open space until I could see Gabby and Tony. They waved their hands and shouted taunts at the croco-monster.

  They were the reason the monster had lost interest in us, but that appeared to be the extent of Tony and Gabby’s planning.

  How was I going to keep those two from being eaten?

  I couldn’t leave the little girl alone. Neither could I risk her life by rushing back into the monster’s path.

&nbs
p; Before I came up with a plan, the creature lunged forward and barreled toward Tony and Gabby who stopped yelling and turned to run back toward the jungle.

  Chugging air as if I’d never get enough, I set the girl on the ground.

  She crumpled to her knees, clinging to my leg as a lifeline.

  “Stay here. You’ll be okay,” I gasped, trying to untangle my legs without harming her and hoping she understood my words. I patted her feather-light hair to keep her calm. Would she stay put?

  No time to think as a cry of wild noises went up from deep in the jungle on Gabby and Tony’s side of the clearing.

  But Gabby and Tony had stopped shouting. They were looking around then all of a sudden stood transfixed at the edge of the clearing.

  Who, or what, was making all that noise?

  “Keep going!” I leaned forward to punctuate my words with my body. I waved at Gabby and Tony, yelling, “Don’t stop. Run!”

  Neither one moved, two bodies as rigid as trees.

  What was wrong with them?

  In a blink, twenty children varying in ages, sizes and looks exploded from the jungle on both sides of Gabby and Tony. The newcomers raced toward the monster, rather than away.

  There were others in this place. And they were crazy.

  None appeared younger than ten or older than me. All of them followed a tall male I’d call a boy, who appeared to be seventeen or eighteen. Hard muscle wrapped his body and he carried a rough-looking spear as a warrior would.

  Not a boy. And dangerous.

  He took two long strides on powerful legs and used his forward movement to throw his spear, stabbing the croco-monster between plating in its chest.

  The monster bounced back as if it had hit an invisible wall, then fell over on its side, writhing in pain. A couple of the kids levitated, hovering in the air over the beast, shouting taunts and waving sticks and fists.

  How’d they do that?

  Even from here, I could see the terror in Tony and Gabby’s faces.