Condemned (Death Planet Book 1)

by Grant, Edward M.

  She crawled toward a mound of earth in the far corner, sniffing as she approached it. The scent of another hound was in the air, among the human scents from above. But faint, as though it had passed by some time ago.

  She crawled on, into the dark circle of a tunnel entrance on the mound. The dirt walls of the tunnel were packed hard, and propped up by scraps of wood stolen from the buildings. She pushed into it, and crawled along, panting, until it opened out. She stopped and sniffed. Only her own scent filled her nose, no sign of anyone entering since she’d left.

  She crawled into the round cave she’d dug at the end, and rolled over onto the soft straw she’d piled on the right side. It crunched beneath her, and she wiggled her butt until she was comfortable. One-Ear followed, entering cautiously, sniffing the air around him. She reached under the straw for the sharp stone she kept there, just in case. Then he turned around and curled up beside her, sharing what warmth he had. Or, more likely, eager to share some warmth from her.

  She lay back, and stared at the ceiling, barely visible in the faint light that reached her through the tunnel. In a couple of hours, it would be black, as the sun set.

  The dull, brown dirt faded away, and Daniel looked down at her. His bright eyes bore right into hers.

  For some reason, she couldn’t get the boy out of her mind. She hadn't felt any desire for human contact before that day, particularly not men. Avoided it, even. Now she couldn’t stop feeling that desire. Every time her mind wandered for a few seconds, his bearded face and long hair appeared, looking down at her with his wide eyes, the way he had in the street.

  She wanted to see that again.

  She shivered. Had he put something in the pie? Poisoned her? Given her those plants that made people see things?

  Or was it something worse?

  CHAPTER 30

  The Guards shifted their weight from foot to foot as they slouched beside the open castle gates, below the King’s red eyes painted on the grey stone walls. Daniel sweated and gasped as he pushed the heavy hand-cart toward them, weighed down by piles of small, wooden kegs. His arms would fall off if he had to push it much further. The ground rose toward the castle, and the cart’s creaking, wooden wheels thudded over every bump in the street, and smacked down into every puddle, splashing mud on his legs. A long black cloak fluttered behind him. If the wind grew much stronger, it might blow away down the street.

  The flames of the burning torches beside the gate cast a flickering glow over the stone of the castle as the sun set behind the log walls of the city. He lowered his head as he approached the Guards. This was the only route he had into the castle, and, somehow, he had to get through.

  Think nice thoughts, and don’t look dangerous. Don’t give them a reason to say no. He tried to whistle a happy tune, but only a faint hiss emerged from his lips. His throat was too dry.

  “Halt, asshole,” Dean said.

  Daniel stopped, slowly raised his face toward Dean, and smiled nicely. Dean stared at him with narrowed eyes. The Guard on the other side of the gate tapped his sword.

  “Where do you think you’re going?”

  Thump. Thump. Thump. Daniel’s heart pounded. He was lucky he’d had a good workout pushing the cart that had turned his skin red with the exertion, or they’d be able to see him blushing from the far side of the city. He wiped the sweat from his brow on the back of his hand, then wiped that on the cloak.

  “Got a delivery for the Brawl.”

  Dean approached the cart, and studied the kegs. “What kind of delivery?”

  “Beer. Moses sent it.”

  “That fat poofter?”

  The other Guard laughed. “Pull the other one. Moses never does nothing for free.”

  Dean picked up a keg and shook it. Liquid sloshed inside. He put it back down. “Probably hoping he’ll get some action when they’re all drunk tomorrow.”

  Calm down, you’re just a delivery boy, remember. “He just told me to deliver it. I don’t know more than that.”

  Dean tapped another keg. “Could be poison.”

  “Why would Moses poison anyone?” the other Guard said. “The King would have his balls for ear-rings if he did.”

  “We should open one of the kegs. I could do with a drink.”

  The other Guard licked his lips. “Me too, now you say it.”

  Dean strolled around the cart. There must be a hundred kegs on there. Just don’t pick the wrong ones. He jumped at the sharp crack as Dean slapped his hand on a keg.

  “How about this one?”

  Daniel shrugged.

  Dean took another step, and grabbed a keg further toward the centre of the cart. “What about this one?”

  “All the same to me. I don’t know nothing.”

  Dean grabbed another, and pulled it from the cart. Liquid sloshed against wood as he swung it in his hands. “We’ll try this one, then.”

  He pulled a knife from his belt, stabbed the wooden bung in the top of the keg, then twisted the knife until the bung pulled free. He tossed it aside, raised the keg to his nose, then took a long, cautious sniff.

  He held it out toward Daniel. “Go on, then. Have a taste.”

  Daniel sniffed it himself, then coughed at the rotten smell. He’d never had beer back home. Guy said it was a low-class criminal’s drink the State banned long before he was born. But surely it was supposed to smell better than that?

  Or was it? Guy wouldn’t... would he?

  “What if it is poisoned?”

  Dean raised the keg toward Daniel’s face. “Then you’ve got two choices. You can drink it, and die quick from the poison, or you can not drink it, and die in agony when the King gets through with you for trying to poison him.”

  He had to get into the castle. Just ignore the smell, and drink. He grabbed the sides of the keg above Dean’s hands, and tilted it toward his mouth. Beer poured from the hole, and the cold liquid splashed over his chest. He gulped it down, despite the bitter taste, then coughed and backed away. He’d never tasted dog piss, but it surely couldn’t be much worse than that?

  Dean laughed. “Come on. Drink like a real man.”

  Daniel held his nose, took another mouthful, and gulped it down. The spilt beer ran down his chest and legs, and the smell filled his nostrils as his fingers released his nose.

  “Guess it’s alright, then,” the other Guard said.

  Dean tapped the keg. “But we’ll be keeping this as evidence, just in case.” He nodded toward the gate. “Get in there.”

  Daniel pushed the cart until it moved, then lumbered through the gates into the courtyard beyond, before they could change their minds. They wouldn’t have long.

  After he escaped from Red, Guy had taken Daniel aside, to a shed near the castle. A drone followed them in to watch, and Guy slammed the door closed after his own drone had chased it out. Then he argued for hours, before Daniel could finally agree to his plan.

  “If your comrades have to see you die,” Guy said, “wouldn’t you rather they see you die doing something important, giving your life heroically to help other people, not just because some shithead sticks a gun in your face and pulls the trigger so he can steal your shinies?”

  Hopefully, Daniel’s comrades would never see anything that might happen to him on Hades. Seeing what had happened so far might well be enough to kill some with grief.

  “Why don't you do it?”

  Guy pointed at his scarred face. “I'm an old man with one eye. I'm not cut out for Poster-Boy of the Glorious Revolution. If they put a statue of me in Slave Square, it would scare the kids. You'll be a hero, and a good looking one at that. People will flock to join us, and change the world.”

  It would be a better fate than rats fighting over his dead body in an alley. But he'd still be dead.

  “I just don't know if I can do it.”

  “I've got two dozen men waiting in the mountains, ready to rock. Moses is bringing them down on his boat tonight.”

  “Why would Moses want to join
the Revolution? He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who wants to free the people from tyranny.”

  “The slaves are just for show. He can move around easily as a trader, check things out, collect information. Moses is one of the Revolution’s best spies. But, if you don't do this, it will be a waste of time. The Guards will still be organized, we'll be dead, and the Revolution will be over. The King will crack down even worse on anyone who opposes him. There'll be executions every day for the next six months.”

  Daniel shivered. If his fear destroyed the one chance for real human rights here, could he live with all that on his conscience?

  “Why can't one of the others do it?”

  “We're thieves, rapists and murderers. If we killed the King and took over the city, would you believe us when we said we did it for the good of the people? Anyone with half a brain would run before we even had a chance to explain.”

  Daniel's stomach clenched. It wasn't just the spicy pie. He'd be blowing himself to pieces, just to help others. Would it be worth his life? He would never even know. What if it was all just a waste? What would his comrades think if he blew himself up, and the result was a world even worse than this?

  Guy slapped Daniel’s shoulder. “Kid, you're our only hope.”

  Or what if Guy was lying? Just playing some dumb game with the King, or trying to take control of the city himself? He’d done his best to help Daniel, but... maybe just because he needed someone to do this. Don’t trust anyone, remember. He looked into Guy’s eye, which stared back into his.

  There was something he needed to know.

  “What were you Condemned for?”

  “I told you not to ask.”

  “If you don't trust me enough to tell me the truth, why should I trust you?”

  Guy sighed. “Rape and murder.”

  “Did you do it?”

  “Shit, kid. It was twenty years ago. What does any of that matter now? I was young and stupid. I grew up, I learned my lesson, I figured out what's really important in life. You know you're not meant to be here. What kind of life would you have, if just turn away and let things stay as they are? You'll end up like me, growing old, wishing you could go back and start all over again.”

  “I just don't want to die.”

  “Think of your blonde. The Revolution would finally free her from that whorehouse. She'd remember you forever.”

  He thought of her face, her eyes, the way she distracted Red to help him escape. Perhaps there was still something inside her head that hadn’t been destroyed by the abuse she'd suffered. Maybe she could still live a real life, if she was free.

  Of course, she had been Condemned, like the girl from the pod who tried to trade him for her freedom. But so had he. For all he knew, half the people on Hades had been Condemned for opposing the State, not harming anyone. What could a girl like that have done to deserve her fate?

  “Come on,” Guy said. “You know you want to. You fought for freedom at home, you can give us freedom here.”

  “What if I change my mind after I get into the castle?”

  “The King will kill you, very slowly, and stick your head on a spike at the gates. When he hears I’m involved, mine will be up there, too. And the rest of my men. So don't get caught.”

  At least he'd be famous, and people would appreciate him. With any luck, the news would filter back to his comrades through their friends and the commissars. Even if they weren't proud of him for fighting for what was right, they'd still know he'd done something worthwhile with his life here, rather than just become another savage fighting for food and sex.

  “You just close your eyes,” Guy said, “set off the bomb, and it will all be over. There are much more painful ways to die around here. Much, much more painful.”

  After that, Guy had shown Daniel the bomb. He’d planned this whole thing even before they met, planned how to get in to the King, assembled the bomb, but never used it.

  “I did think about killing him myself,” Guy said, “but I’ve spent too many years struggling to survive every minute of the day to give up now. I’d chicken out at the last second, and screw it all up. And how would the Revolution begin, if there was no-one left to lead it?”

  “So you waited for the pods to arrive, and picked me?”

  “Not until I saw how you acted on Moses’ boat. I thought you'd just help me get organized, and we'd find someone else to do this job. When I saw the what you did there, I knew I’d found a man who really cared about people, and had the balls to carry this through. Slave Square just proved it.”

  Then he picked up the two kegs that made up the bomb, and slung them over Daniel’s shoulders with leather straps. He adjusted the straps until they fit, while Daniel struggled under the weight of the thing. He didn’t know about explosives, but something that heavy was sure to make a big bang.

  “I couldn’t even get to the King.”

  “Tomorrow is the annual Brawl. There’ll be fighting, and killing, and executions, and one big old party to impress the newbies who were able to take care of themselves, and not get caught. The castle will be busy tonight. You just have to sneak in with the bomb, and get close enough to use it.” Daniel's heart jumped as Guy slapped his shoulder. “You know it's the right thing to do. Go out with a bang. Free Hades, and make your comrades proud.”

  So, just after sunset, Daniel was pushing a bomb into the King's castle, with a choice between rapid, painless death in an explosion, or slow, painful death if they caught him.

  What had he been thinking?

  CHAPTER 31

  Guy swam slowly along the shallow, water-filled ditch from the castle to the river. Just don’t think of what else is in it. If he could close his eye and nose, he might not notice, but the stench of shit, and the occasional passing turd, kept reminding him. Just hope you don’t catch anything.

  The dumb kid better be following his part of the plan. Guy could have sent the drone up there to check, but he needed it right now. He moved his hands and legs as little as possible while still swimming upstream against the current. The sound of waster splashing might give him away. The dim glow of the moon, and the burning torches on the battlements, wouldn’t be enough for the Guards to see him unless they looked his way. And who would be dumb enough to swim up Shit Creek?

  He followed the stream into the hole beneath the castle wall, keeping his backpack above the water. He knew his way around there well. As he should. He was one of the slaves who built it. Long ago, when he first arrived on Hades, before they sent him to the mines. The rest, so far as he knew, had died there. He was the last to know all the castle's secrets.

  The world went dark as he swam beneath the wall. The drone flew ahead, its light-intensifiers showing him a grainy view of the world, then turned back to show him where he was swimming. Something splashed into the water nearby.

  The fresh, stinky turd floated past, heading downstream. Guy dodged past it, and grabbed the wall, feeling the rough surface of a rock outcropping until he found a place he could grip. He saw himself for a second through the drone’s cameras as it buzzed past, then looked up. Faint, flickering light glowed through a hole a few feet above the centre of the stream.

  A pair of plump, red buttocks poked out of a hole alongside it. The drone hovered to the side, watching. Guy didn’t have much time. Certainly not long enough to wait for some Guard to finish shitting and pissing, and get back to work. Particularly if he was doing it as an excuse not to have to deal with whatever might be going on upstairs.

  The buttocks twisted, and the roar of a fart echoed around the tunnel. The drone slid sideways beneath the wooden seat, and banged against the right buttock. The Guard’s ass twisted in the hole, and the drone smacked into it again.

  Orange light flickered through the hole as the Guard stood.

  “Fucking rats.”

  Guy waited a moment for the sound of the Guard adjusting his clothes, then stomping away along the corridor above. The drone whirred up through the hole, and hovered j
ust above the seat, surveying the surroundings. Only the flickering flames from the torches on the walls lit the corridor, and a cloud of smoke hung near the ceiling. The Guard was disappearing into the smoky haze, and the rest of the corridor was empty. The muffled sound of voices echoed around the dungeon, bouncing from too many walls to be intelligible. The King didn’t want anyone rescuing the prisoners, and security would only become tighter the further Guy ventured inside.

  Where was that damn kid?

  Guy grabbed the wall, tossed his pack through the hole in the seat, and pulled himself up toward it. The drone hovered in the corridor. After the King’s rooms, the dungeon was the best guarded place in the castle, and he’d have to abort his whole plan if the boy didn’t pull most Guards away. Worse, when he did, there would only be minutes to act before the excitement was over, and the dungeon swarmed with Guards again.

  He grabbed the sides of the hole, and pulled himself up. His toes scrabbled for grip in the gaps between the stones, slipped, then tried to find grip again. His muscles strained as he pulled himself higher, until his head rose through the hole. He pushed his arm out, grabbed the stones on the wall, and heaved as he tried to squash his shoulders together. He’d never have been able to fit, if he was as fat as the Guard.

  He pulled himself out, and swung his feet down to the floor. Water dripped from his naked body, and he smelled like shit. The latter wasn’t unusual around Kingston, and was why he’d left his clothes behind, but being naked and soaking wet in the dungeon could still be hard to explain. At least he didn’t have to worry about drying his hair, when he barely had any.

  He crept along the hallway, pausing to listen every few steps, and trying to stay in the shadows as he moved. The drone hovered nearby, and he sent it ahead to scout, buzzing along the corridor. One Guard stood at his post with a pistol in his belt. The drone whirred to a stop in front of his face, and he turned toward it. He tried to swat it away, but the drone dodged each time. Just keep him distracted.

  Guy took slow, deliberate steps toward the Guard, placing his feet carefully and gently on the stone floor to minimize the noise. The Guard tried to swat the drone again, but it dodged the other way, then moved in closer. The nearer its fans came to his ears, the less likely he was to hear any noise over the high-pitched, non-stop buzzing.