Condemned (Death Planet Book 1)

by Grant, Edward M.

  “You sure as fuck hung around him a lot. Must have been getting something for your time.”

  Stubby smacked the back of Guy's head. “Just how did he escape, anyway?”

  “I don't know. And I don't know where he is. You should let me go, and find him yourself.”

  Stubby prodded Guy’s back with the point of his sword, then rubbed his stomach. “You’d better know where that fucker Moses is. Because I’m getting hungry, and it’s either you or him going on the barbie tonight.”

  Who was most likely to kill Guy? The King, or the Meat Packers? Right now, it was Stubby. Or the fat hound that was salivating every time it looked at him. If Moses was anywhere, he was probably with the King, helping the bastard search.

  Best bet was to avoid both, and try to find a way to escape. Not that he had much chance with those fucking hounds. If he broke free and ran, he wouldn’t get far through the woods on his bare feet before they caught him.

  Shit. He was so fucked.

  “Where’d you get the boat?” he said.

  Stubby smacked him with his sword.

  “We borrowed it,” Red said.

  Snake chuckled. “Not much point taking it back, though, what with them being dead and all.”

  Guess that made these assholes pirates, too. What were the odds of them letting him live if they found Moses? Probably about as good as they were for the boat’s previous owners.

  Well, then. Only one option made sense. Lead them toward the King, and hope they’d start a fight with the idiots he’d sent out looking for the Brain. So long as they didn’t know Guy broke him out, he had a chance.

  If he did, well... would it be much worse for him than whatever Red would do?

  All he had to do was head back toward Kingston, and they’d run into the King and his mob sooner or later. They were just working their way toward the sea, spread out as far as they could cover. He couldn’t miss them. Heck, he should be able to hear them from a couple of klicks away.

  Then he just needed a distraction that would let him slip into the woods, unnoticed.

  He listened. Yeah, there they were. Men yelling, hounds hissing, men...

  Screaming.

  What the fuck was going on?

  CHAPTER 83

  The Brain dropped the control switch, and the long cable that attached it to the pod, then crawled through the undergrowth. He'd tried to hide the cable in the dirt, but he hadn't had much time. They only had to dig a few millimetres to find it, then they could follow them back to him. It had done its job already, blowing the explosive bolts to release the parachute, and let it fall into the mass of men around the King. Now they were screaming and shouting as they tried to beat off the borers. A hound yelped, and hopped madly from foot to foot with a borer's tail poking out of its face, and the borer's head buried deep in its skull. It smacked into a group of men who had formed a circle to bat away the borers that leaped toward them. The sharp plates on the hound's back slashed across the chest of one of the men, who dodged, and tried to push it away.

  That would keep them busy for a little while.

  The King turned on the spot, blowing a cloud of smoke and steam across the clearing that would only help to hide the Brain's movements. At least for the few seconds he needed.

  He crawled toward a tall bush. Two heavy metal cylinders lay inside it, beneath a pile of rocks, with a short, conical nozzle between them, a small sphere on top, and a cable at the rear. Sunlight reflected from the shiny metal tubes connecting them, and the metal framework that held them together.

  His trap had taken hours to prepare. First, smearing his scent on the trees to lead the hounds in circles as they tried to follow him. The King and his idiot army were too stupid to realize they were retracing their steps in the dark. Then dismantling the pod enough to rip out all the components he needed, and reassembling them.

  The boy had made a good decoy, to get them into the right spot. Very good, in fact, with that little game he’d played with the King, not even realizing the real part he was playing in the plan. Now the Brain was ready to make use of it.

  The King’s heavy metal feet stomped backwards across the clearing. The Brain grabbed the metal frame, and adjusted the angle until the nozzle pointed toward the King. The men who weren’t trapped by the borers had courageously backed away and crowded around him, rather than stay and fight.

  Good.

  The Brain crawled through the undergrowth to a bulky battery hidden behind a tree. Cables were already wired to the negative terminals, and more ran across the ground nearby.

  He grabbed one, and touched it to the positive terminal. A click came from behind him as a valve opened, and the helium the sphere contained pressured the big, cylindrical tanks. He glanced at the bush, then toward the King. His men were crowded more closely around him. Even better.

  He grabbed another cable, and touched it to the battery. The cylinders clunked as the fuel valves opened, and the rocks piled around it rattled as the metal frame jerked against them. Hot air blasted the Brain’s face, and he ducked behind the tree. The flame from the nozzle ignited the cloud of hydrazine he had spread across the clearing from the fuel tanks of another of the pod’s thrusters. He was lucky the pod had malfunctioned, and not vented them before impact.

  Men’s hair and clothes caught light in the brief flash fire. Others burned in the flame from the thruster, which stretched from the nozzle beside him to half-way across the clearing. Their mouths opened to scream, but he couldn't hear them over the roar of the flame. Others ducked behind tree trunks.

  The smell of roasting meat filled the clearing as they rolled on the ground, trying to extinguish the flames. Others just rolled on the ground in pain, as the King knocked them over and stomped on them as he tried to escape the fire. The long, bright flame flickered over his exoskeleton, but just left dark burn marks on the paint.

  The Brain grabbed two more cables, and attached them to the battery. The thruster he'd hidden on the far side of the clearing bucked as it ignited, and blew another long trail of flame into the mob. The men trying to escape that way screamed as the flames blasted into them.

  The first thruster rattled and shook as it twisted under the force of the flames, until it pointed almost toward the group fighting the borers. The Brain reached for the cables to shut it down, but the flame sputtered and went out, the fuel exhausted.

  He peered around the tree at the carnage beyond. Hmm, that was suboptimal. He'd expected to kill at least 80% of the men with the borers and flamethrowers. He'd only managed about 70% dead and wounded, and more were now staring into the clearing from the treeline, attracted back from their searches by the noise, but too scared to join the fun. With Simon's help, he would have done better.

  But Simon was gone, and that bastard killed him.

  The King’s gaze met his. The Brain smiled, and twisted the last of the cables onto the battery terminal. Then backed away through the bushes. The King’s arm whirred as he raised his hand and pointed to the Brain.

  “Get him,” the King yelled.

  CHAPTER 84

  Daniel dug his fingers into the dirt as he clung tightly to the ground, and wished he could bury himself. He was lucky that Moses had pushed him down before the air caught fire, and it had only singed his hair. Moses had yelled, and dove to the ground beside him, then the world went crazy with flames blasting through the air, and men screaming around him.

  His stomach rumbled at the stench of cooked meat. He shouldn’t even be thinking of food with men screaming and dying all around him, but he’d eaten so little since he arrived that he just couldn’t help it.

  A gun boomed, and splinters exploded from a tree trunk near the bush the flames had come from.

  “Don't shoot the Brain,” the King yelled.

  “Can I stab the fucker?” Pig-Face said.

  “Just get him alive.”

  The flames behind Daniel sputtered and went out. For now. He looked up. Burned bodies smoked on the ground across the
clearing, and melted drones tried to spin up their fans to fly, but the plastic was just a warped mess. Some of the King’s army had survived the attack with only singed skin and surface burns, but most of those remaining were hiding behind the fallen trees, too scared to stand in case the flames came back.

  For that matter, so was Daniel.

  A body smoldered on the ground barely a metre away. Smoke rose from the red, steaming flesh of what used to be its face. The burned remains of the lips still moved, and the lidless eyes twitched. A sword lay on the ground beside it, the metal blackened by the flames.

  Daniel pulled the dying man’s fingers away from the sword hilt. He shivered as the flesh came away in his grip, then tossed it aside. He grabbed the blood-smeared sword hilt, and twisted the blade in his hand. The metal was heavy—heavier than any sword he’d used in VR games—and the rough leather wrapped around the hilt rubbed against his skin. He had no idea how to fight with one for real, but it was sharp, and stabbing it into some vital part of the King’s body had to work.

  He rose to a crouch, and held the sword ahead of him as he crept toward the King. He followed the side of a fallen tree trunk for cover, past the smoking bodies of more dead men.

  “Haven’t you found him yet?” the King yelled.

  “He’s the fucking Brain,” Liam yelled back. “Of course we haven’t found him yet.”

  “Then look harder.”

  Daniel climbed over the torn roots at the base of the trunk, and through the smashed branches of the tree beside it. The King faced away from him, staring toward the trees on that far side of the clearing. He wouldn’t even see Daniel creep between the fallen trees and shove the sword into his back. And whatever happened after that hardly mattered.

  He took another step, keeping his head below the top of the trunk, out of sight of any Guards who might have survived. They seemed to have been smarter than most of the other men in the King’s army, and had hit the deck as soon as the flames began. He’d only seen a couple of dead or dying men in the Guards’ uniform so far, so most must still be alive.

  Another few steps. He was barely five metres away.

  Then a hand slapped down on his shoulder.

  CHAPTER 85

  The hand heaved on Daniel’s shoulder. He twisted around, swinging the sword without even thinking. Moses dodged back, then swung his leg, and kicked Daniel in the face. He fell, and the sword slid from his grip, sliding across the dirt until it smacked against another fallen tree trunk. He slammed down on a burned body. Bones cracked as they broke under his weight, and burned flesh cushioned the fall.

  Moses grabbed the sword with one hand, and Daniel’s arm with the other. “Got you, my boy.”

  Daniel kicked for Moses’ balls, but Moses smacked his leg away with the side of the sword blade. Daniel glanced around. A knife lay in the dirt near the roasted body of a dying hound. He grabbed it and threw it toward Moses. The knife twisted in the air, the blade turned, and the hilt smacked into Moses’ chest. It fell harmlessly to the dirt.

  “Not very good at this, are you, boy?” Moses said. “I was going to keep you, maybe let you join my crew. But perhaps it’s about time I just put you out of your misery.”

  He tossed the sword from hand to hand, then swung it again. Daniel glanced around him. No weapons, only bodies. He grabbed a shield, and held it up just in time for it to take the blow that Moses had aimed at his head. Moses swung the sword again, toward his legs this time, and Daniel pulled them back.

  Hounds hissed, and men howled behind him. Feet thumped on wood as they clambered over the tree trunk behind Moses.

  “Mosssesss, you fucker!” Red yelled from the trunk.

  Moses glanced toward them. Daniel threw his arms out, and smashed his shield into Moses’ groin. Moses grunted, and dropped the sword. Daniel grabbed it, and held it toward Moses, his heart thumping from the exertion, and throat dry from fear.

  Moses looked at Daniel, then at Red and his men. Their hounds hissed at him.

  He turned, and ran.

  “Get him,” Red yelled, and released the hounds.

  One hound ran after Moses, while the others sniffed the dead bodies around them. Two opened their mouths wide, and bit down. One ripped flesh from a dead hound, and a burned man screamed as the other tore away his arm.

  “You can eat after,” Slaphead yelled, and kicked the hounds. They hissed, tossed the meat down their throats, then joined the chase. Red and the other hunters followed.

  The King turned toward the noise. Daniel held up his sword and shield, and stepped out past the tree trunks, toward him. This time was really the last time. He would die, or the King would die. The King stood between two tree trunks in the middle of the clearing, while his remaining men searched the woods for the Brain.

  This was the single combat Daniel had wanted. The King turned toward him, and Daniel smiled.

  “Men, to me,” the King yelled.

  Well, maybe not single combat for long.

  CHAPTER 86

  Kevin crept through the bushes. The King was yelling behind him, and the other Guards were pulling back, crunching through the plants as they forced their way back to the clearing. Kevin wasn’t. If the King was going to kill him for not finding the Brain, he was going to find the Brain, or run away.

  If the King got killed as a result, so be it. Kevin could be back in Kingston boning a princess before the day was out.

  He should really get a new job, anyway. One where his boss didn’t threaten to kill him at least once a month. The King had always said there was only one way out of the Guards: buried six feet under the dirt of Kingston. But there had to be another city somewhere on Hades where he could hide out.

  A branch snapped up ahead. Kevin crouched low as he crept toward it, watching the ground so his own boots wouldn’t snap anything, and warn whoever was hiding there.

  Besides, if it was another fucking bear, he was going to turn and run screaming before it could do anything. There were far too many things living in these woods that wanted to eat him, and he needed to keep his head on his shoulders.

  He sniffed. None of the mouldy fur smell the bear had filled the woods with before. Though was that only after the fight? He raised his sword. The ridges where the leather was sewn around the hilt dug into his palm as he squeezed it tight.

  Something slapped down on his shoulder. He swung the sword, and barely stopped before the point slashed across Liam’s stomach. A second later, he wished he'd let it stab him.

  “What are you doing?” Liam muttered.

  Kevin ran his finger across his throat, to try to tell him to shut up. Liam just pushed Kevin’s sword away, then leaned closer to whisper to him.

  “The King’s yelling. Shouldn’t we get back?”

  “Yes. So why aren’t you?”

  “I thought...”

  “You thought you’d rather hide in the woods than get burned to death. Smart lad. Same here.”

  Leaves swished against each other. Someone, or something, was definitely moving out there. Kevin nodded toward Liam. “Go get it,” he whispered.

  Liam went to the right. Kevin took the other side, creeping round the back of the tree to their left. If something nasty was out there, one of those fucking borers, maybe, Liam could get it first. If not, well, Kevin would take the credit for leading the capture. Either way, he was better off hanging back.

  Liam crouched as he pushed through the bushes on his side. Sunlight glinted from the blade of his sword as he glanced at Kevin. Kevin waved him on, and took a step toward the twitching bushes. The movements were further to the left now, as though someone was crawling along the ground beneath them, toward him.

  He tried to control his breathing as he crept toward the movement. Then he lifted his foot to take another step, and it caught on something.

  He crouched to pull it away from his foot. Was that a root? No, some kind of thin cable. Nothing like that would grow there. What was that doing buried under the dirt?

 
He grabbed it and pulled gently. The cable was wrapped around the tree, then ran across the ground through the bushes to the left. Someone must have laid it there, and tried to hide it from anyone who passed through. On the far side of the tree, it ran toward the King. No point going that way.

  He crouched as low as he could, and followed the cable into the bushes. It was hooked under a root, then hidden beneath leaves as it crossed the ground beyond.

  The yells from the clearing covered some of the noise as he crept forward. Liam’s crunching footsteps covered more. A man lay on the ground ahead, hidden beneath a thin layer of dirt and leaves placed over a mound of broken branches.

  Dirt was smeared over the man's face, but there was no way to mistake that familiar brain tattoo on a bald, rain-splattered head that was staring toward Liam.

  “It’s just a fucking rabbit,” Liam yelled.

  Kevin lunged forward.

  CHAPTER 87

  Steam and smoke filled the air as the King stepped toward Daniel. He swung the sword and fidgeted. What was he going to do, anyway? He’d expected to sneak up on the guy and stab him in the back, not fight from the front where the King had all the advantages.

  The King raised his left hand in a fist, ready to punch Daniel with a blow that would probably kill him. Then the right hand reached down to his waist, and swung up again, now holding his revolver. The hammer clicked down. Daniel raised the shield high, and dodged to the right as the gun fired. The bullet blew a cloud of splinters from the wood, and smacked into the tree trunk behind him.

  The King’s metal-clad thumb pulled the hammer back again. That settled it, Daniel would be safer close to the King than far away. He held up the shield and ducked behind it as he ran toward the King.

  The gun boomed again. Splinters exploded from the wood above Daniel, and the bullet hissed past his scalp. A man yelled behind him, as the bullet smacked into his chest instead.

  The King tossed the gun aside, and swung his fist.