Sandstorm Box Set

by T. W. Piperbrook

  “Darius!” Neena said, feeling a moment of joy she hadn’t expected.

  “Let’s go!” Kai yelled.

  Without another word, they raced into the desert, traveling in a diagonal path to meet the people. Raj, Samel, and Kai kept up, but several times they slowed for Helgid, who couldn’t move as fast. Approaching the line, Neena heard a wave of panicked shouts and frightened cries.

  What looked like a smooth procession from a distance was actually chaotic. Men, women, and children urged each other to move faster. People pushed to get ahead, or fanned outside the line and raced ahead of others. Looking ahead, Neena saw a bottleneck at the cave entrance. The round, black opening was the closest point of safety. There were other cave openings, of course, but they were father away.

  The colonists wanted safety now.

  Neena and the others ran until they intersected a spot in the middle of the line. Far ahead of them, Darius stood to the side of the line, calling out instructions.

  “Keep moving! Help your neighbors!”

  No one listened. People looked over their shoulders, cast each other aside, or refused to give up a step. Some stumbled and fell, shielding their heads from hundreds of running boots. Neena paused to help up an elderly man who had trouble getting to his feet. He thanked her with a breathless nod.

  A rumble drew their attention to the colony. Neena turned.

  Fear spiked inside her.

  The beast’s ugly back came into view before disappearing again underneath an alley. Humps of dirt marked where the beast broke the surface and pushed layers upward, leaving ridged mounds in its wake. Houses crumbled and fell. Errant screams filled the air.

  “It’s coming this way!” someone screamed, inciting a renewed panic in the line.

  People pushed each other more violently. A few dropped their bags or spears, abandoning them. Neena’s heart pounded as she fought against a stampeding mob, each of whom measured their lives as greater than their neighbors’.

  “Stay calm! Keep moving!” Darius yelled, from somewhere out of sight.

  “Raj! Samel!” she cried, as the rush of people carried her brothers away. She picked up speed to get to them. An elbow hit her side. Neena lost her wind, doubling over. She staggered a few more steps, swayed by the crowd. Raj and Samel screamed her name, holding out their hands. In horror, she watched them tossed around, unable to control where they went.

  A cry drew her attention behind her.

  She turned.

  Helgid fell. The old woman screamed as trampling boots beat the ground around her.

  “Helgid!” she screamed.

  From next to her, Kai shouted, “I’ll get Raj and Samel to the caves! Help her!”

  Neena raced back for Helgid, grabbing her arm. The old woman cried out in agony, struggling to get to her feet. People swarmed past them, kicking up sand.

  “Get back! Get away!” Neena shouted, but of course, no one listened.

  Blinking the spraying sand from her eyes, she attempted to lift the old woman. Helgid shrieked in agony.

  “My knee!”

  Neena looked down, watching Helgid struggle. She’d either torn something or broken a bone. But that didn’t matter, because Neena wasn’t leaving her.

  “Lean on me for support!” Neena yelled. “I’ll get you out of here!”

  Draping one of Helgid’s thick arms over her shoulder, Neena muscled her up and led her a few staggering steps. More of the crowd raced past them. Neena glanced over her shoulder, watching the beast’s back push the ground upward less than a quarter klick away. It was coming in their direction.

  Of course, it was.

  The stampeding crowd might as well be The Watcher’s storm horns, calling it closer. Every panicked footfall was a lure. A person slammed into Neena, knocking Helgid’s arm from her shoulder. With a shout, she lost hold of Helgid.

  “Helgid!”

  Helgid tumbled weakly to the ground. Looking backward in the other direction, Neena noticed the majority of the crowd had passed them. Only a few people remained behind, helping the wounded. She no longer saw Darius, Kai, Raj, or Samel.

  Were they in the caves?

  She only hoped.

  She glanced around frantically for anything that could help her.

  Her eyes landed on a spear.

  An idea struck her. If she could retrieve the weapon, she could use it to help support Helgid.

  “Wait here!” she cried.

  Crossing a few dozen steps to reach the spear, she hefted it, verifying it was intact.

  “I’m coming!” she told her friend, turning back around.

  A seam parted in the ground, fifty feet behind Helgid.

  Moving fast.

  Helgid looked at Neena, horror on her face.

  “Neena!”

  Neena ran at full speed.

  In an instant, the world slowed.

  Helgid’s face was a mask of panic, as she reached out for Neena.

  The desert exploded.

  A backlash of sand, blood, and dirt launched Neena backward through the air. Sand choked her scream. Somewhere in the haze, she saw the massive beast rise with Helgid, taking her away.

  And then her friend and the beast were gone.

  Neena landed hard on the sand on her back. A torrent of silt showered her. She struggled to breathe. Pain wracked her body. She spit blood and sand, closed her eyes, and raised her arms to protect her face. The spray seemed to last forever.

  The sand settled.

  Her ears screamed.

  Helgid!

  Cracking her eyes, she saw only dust and a gaping hole where the creature and her friend had been. Tears she had no time to process slid down her cheeks.

  Her boots were sliding.

  The sand in front of her had become an avalanche, pulling Neena toward the center of the beast’s empty hole. Primal fear stabbed her stomach. She dug her palms into the sand, searching for a handhold. But the sand slid too quickly. In horror, she felt her body sliding toward the abyss.

  Chapter 66: Neena

  “Neena!”

  Hands grabbed on to her shoulders as someone took hold of her. The person slid her backward across the sand. A familiar voice called her name. Turning, she saw Kai through the hazy cloud of dust.

  Neena pushed herself upward, stumbling across the sand away from the hole, as Kai draped her arm across his back. From somewhere close—too close—she heard the beast’s rumbling. She smeared blood and gore from her face and ran next to him.

  “Don’t look! Just move!” Kai hissed at her.

  Neena didn’t stop or turn around as she stumbled with Kai across the desert.

  Through the dust cloud, she saw the mouth of the cave, three hundred feet away.

  A cluster of people were still trying to fit through the entrance. Others staggered toward it, clutching their stomachs for breath, or helped by their loved ones.

  Neena stuck one boot in front of the other, fighting against a wave of pain. More tears slid down her cheeks.

  Helgid was gone.

  She could still hear the woman’s blood-curdling shriek. She hadn’t even had a chance to say goodbye. It was as if the heavens had lifted her up and away. She forced away her grief. If she wallowed in it too long, she’d die.

  The ground shuddered underneath her boots.

  The cave was two hundred feet away.

  A hundred.

  Colonists waited at the threshold of light and dark, yelling for their loved ones who had almost made it, urging their helpers to hurry. Most were tucked in rows behind others to get distance from the desert and the monster. Neena figured there must be hundreds inside the cave.

  They kept running as the last of the straggling people made it inside.

  At any moment, the ground would explode upward and the monster would slice her and Kai in half, or a new hole would open up below them, sucking them under.

  She and Kai ran faster, and then they were taking the last steps to the threshold, moving out
of the sun and into relative darkness.

  Soft sand gave way to hard stone.

  The rumbling behind them stopped.

  Neena wiped the last of the blood and sand away from her eyes as they fought for a position further away from danger.

  She scanned the faces at the cave’s entrance. A young mother held her child close to her, staring with panic-drenched eyes. An elderly couple clasped each other’s trembling hands. Kai brought her deeper into the cave, threading past several more groups of stunned colonists and to a group of people she could hardly see in the darkness, until she felt their arms embracing her. Two tear-streaked faces looked up at her. Raj and Samel. She swallowed, feeling a relief she almost didn’t believe.

  “Where’s Helgid?” Samel asked.

  Neena didn’t answer. She couldn’t.

  Her brothers hugged her tightly, burying their faces in her shirt. Together, they cried.

  Somewhere in the darkness, Kai found her hand again. Looking to her right, she saw Darius in the semi-darkness, holding his cane.

  “You’re okay,” Darius said, his voice cracking with emotion.

  “I think,” Neena said, through her flowing tears.

  A high-pitched noise ripped their attention back to the desert.

  She and the others took a step through the crowd, getting a better view of whatever was coming.

  “The monster is back!” someone hissed.

  A few people gasped in shock, or fright. Others adjusted to get further back in the cave.

  But it wasn’t the monster.

  A cluster of men ran down the last alley between the hovels and the patch of sand, getting closer.

  Staring at the oncoming people, Neena noticed their poised spears and their determined gait.

  The Watchers.

  Chapter 67: Thorne

  “To me, men!” Thorne cried, racing out into the patch of desert, where the monster had traveled just moments before.

  Clenching his spear, Thorne cast away his fright and summoned his anger. He thought of Gideon’s last, rousing words. He thought of Wyatt’s pale, tortured face.

  Thorne didn’t have eloquent speeches. He had only his sharp spear, his will, and his men.

  Running out to the first of the holes, he raised his spear and stared down into the crevice, searching for skin in that blackness, or a monster’s demonic eyes. He saw nothing but layers of dirt and an impenetrable dark. He followed the edges of the hole with his feet. At some point, the monster would rise again, and Thorne would thrust his spear hard and true.

  Even if they couldn’t kill it, perhaps they’d shine a light into its primitive brain and ward it away.

  He scanned the patch of desert between the cliffs and the hovels for movement. Shadows moved in the mouth of the cave. Some of the colonists sought refuge there. They looked to Thorne and his men for protection.

  He couldn’t fail them.

  Behind him, the breath of three-dozen searching, loyal men cut the air, as they formed an offensive line not unlike the ones in which they stood in front of the crowds, at every meeting.

  A vibration shook his boots.

  Thorne waited, scanning the ground.

  Something moved far below him.

  He recalled what he’d heard, or been told, about the creature. Noise drew it.

  He lowered his palm toward the ground. His body language spoke his orders. His men understood with their eyes.

  Stay still.

  Slowly, he cocked back his spear, waiting for enough flesh to show that he could find a target. His men followed his lead, raising their weapons with equal determination.

  Something moved below the surface. Or was it his imagination? Maybe the sand played tricks on him. Maybe the creature was gone. Perhaps it had fed, and moved on. It was a hope even he didn’t believe.

  “There!” one of his men hissed, loudly enough to startle the others.

  Three-dozen heads swiveled. Spears changed aim. A patch of sand lifted with a small breeze. Or had something else moved it?

  Dirt and sand exploded underneath a group of his men, twenty feet away.

  Blood sprayed.

  Five Watchers shot upward and disappeared, as if they had never stood there at all. They screamed in a way Thorne had never heard from such brave men. The creature’s enormous bite ground the men’s flesh, severing their limbs and silencing them forever. Blood and flesh rained down on Thorne and his remaining men, knocking some of them over. Opening his eyes from the backsplash, Thorne saw a shadow large enough to block out the sun, coming toward them. It was too late to throw their spears.

  Thorne dove to save his life.

  Landing on his belly, he held onto his spear. He looked upward in time to see the creature’s body arcing over him. Sharp, spear-like protrusions lanced the air from the side of the creature’s shadow; thick scales protected its massive girth.

  The creature flew through the air with a grace Thorne wouldn’t have imagined from such an enormous creature.

  It landed with a thunderous crash. More sand splattered, as men were crushed beneath its body. Thorne closed his eyes and covered his face as the wails tapered off.

  Opening his eyes, he saw a Watcher teetering on the edge of the creature’s first hole. Another raced toward the slipping guard, but not in time to stop the man’s slide and his plummet. The Watcher flailed his arms and fell. The other man backpedaled.

  Thorne looked around, quickly counting his losses. Nine men had died.

  “Get up!” he commanded his remaining men. “Raise your spears!”

  The fallen men took to their feet and retrieved their weapons. Feeling the loss of their brothers, they looked around with new fear in their eyes, but no one balked at his order as they positioned between the two new holes the creature had punched in the ground.

  Together, the men reared back their spears and waited. All fell silent, watching their feet.

  Far below them, the creature tunneled.

  They followed the underground noise, from the sand to the giant holes, and back again.

  The rumbling stopped.

  Thorne watched and waited, looking from his men to the sand.

  Thorne noticed a dead man’s fallen spear nearby, covered in gore. An idea struck him. In a few quiet steps, he walked over to it, bent, and picked it up. Ignoring the slippery wet blood on its handle, he drew back his arm and waited.

  His men watched him intently.

  Picking a spot twenty feet from his men, in the center of the two holes, he launched it in a curved arc, watching it stick in the ground.

  As one, his men and the people in the cave watched.

  At first, nothing.

  The breeze blew, ruffling their shirts and their hair, so they had to listen more closely.

  The ground burst open.

  The creature tore from sand to sky.

  Watching it ascend, Thorne yelled, “Launch your spears!”

  His men threw their weapons. Two-dozen spears spiraled through the air, heading for the creature. A few missed their mark, but most struck the side of its massive girth. Thorne squinted to see the damage to the rising shadow.

  One by one, the spears fell to the ground, like kindling sticks thrown at solid rock.

  None stuck.

  He watched them land with a fading hope.

  Maybe his goal had been a foolish dream. They’d never defeat the creature.

  They’d never even wound it.

  Chapter 68: Thorne

  New fear struck Thorne’s heart—not for him, but for his men. He glanced over at the caves. Perhaps safety was the only option.

  “There!” one of his men interrupted, pointing a finger at the creature’s still-rising body.

  Thorne followed the man’s gesture. He shielded his face, as if that might help him see into the shadowy mass.

  “I don’t see any of those scales in that spot!” the man shouted. “Maybe we can wound it there!”

  Thorne and his men stared at the rising cr
eature, watching a spot of sunlight glint off its underbelly. Thorne saw a smoothness that might be an injury, a missing scale, or a trick of the sun.

  Or a hope that they desperately needed.

  Scanning the ground, he located their fallen spears. “When it lands, retrieve your weapons!”

  As one, they watched the creature’s eastern arc through the sky, until a boom hit the ground and a spray of sand shot upwards. The creature’s enormous tail gyrated around the hole, slithering into it. They shielded their faces and ran toward the spears. Thorne reached a weapon and hefted it, checking the end. The blade was dulled from impact, but it was still sharp enough to penetrate skin.

  He hoped.

  Thorne looked around, spotting another fallen weapon from a man no longer alive to use it.

  With two spears in hand, he called his men into a new line. To their east were four of the creature’s holes. Steadying themselves, Thorne and his men listened to the rumble in the ground and planned their next attack.

  “I’ll throw another spear,” he said, just loudly enough so that his men heard him. “When it rises, aim for that smooth spot!”

  His men nodded. They understood.

  Having made his stand, he reared back his arm and threw in a circular arc. His aim was true. The spear flew through the air and stabbed the sand with a thud. Moments later, the ground exploded.

  The creature rose upward.

  Thorne looked for the same spot in the creature’s hide, fearing they had imagined it.

  It was there!

  He launched his weapon at it. His men followed suit. Dozens of spears soared in the creature’s direction as the beast rose sideways.

  This time, a few weapons stuck.

  A screeching, cacophonous noise erupted from the beast’s mouth.

  Something black dripped around the stuck spears and to the ground.

  This time it wasn’t his men’s blood.

  Creature’s blood.

  Thorne’s hope grew as the creature writhed back and forth before breaking into a new hole, spraying more dark, inky blood over the ground as some of the spears fell out. Several of his men gave a triumphant cheer. And then they ran for the ground, searching for their spears. A few of the weapons had landed at the midpoint between the holes. Others were farther away, leftover from the first Watchers to die.