Flight from the Dominion (The Gamma Earth Cycle Book 2)

by Craig Halloran

  Flight from the Dominion

  The Gamma Earth Cycle: Book 2

  By Craig Halloran

  Flight from the Dominion

  The Gamma Earth Cycle: Book 2

  By Craig Halloran

  Copyright © 2017 by Craig Halloran

  Amazon Edition

  TWO-TEN BOOK PRESS

  P.O. Box 4215, Charleston, WV 25364

  ISBN eBook: 978-1-946218-11-7

  ISBN Paperback: 978-1-976145-39-1

  www.craighalloran.com

  Cover by Eamon

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recorded, photocopied, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

  Publisher's Note

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  CHAPTER 36

  CHAPTER 37

  CHAPTER 38

  CHAPTER 39

  CHAPTER 40

  CHAPTER 41

  CHAPTER 42

  CHAPTER 43

  CHAPTER 44

  CHAPTER 45

  CHAPTER 46

  CHAPTER 47

  CHAPTER 48

  CHAPTER 49

  CHAPTER 50

  CHAPTER 51

  CHAPTER 52

  CHAPTER 53

  CHAPTER 54

  CHAPTER 55

  CHAPTER 56

  CHAPTER 57

  CHAPTER 58

  CHAPTER 59

  CHAPTER 60

  CHAPTER 61

  CHAPTER 62

  CHAPTER 63

  CHAPTER 64

  CHAPTER 65

  CHAPTER 66

  CHAPTER 67

  CHAPTER 68

  CHAPTER 69

  CHAPTER 70

  CHAPTER 71

  CHAPTER 72

  CHAPTER 73

  CHAPTER 74

  CHAPTER 75

  CHAPTER 76

  CHAPTER 77

  CHAPTER 78

  NEXT BOOK IN THE SERIES

  OTHER BOOKS AND AUTHOR INFO

  CHAPTER 1

  Gabe walked through the abandoned city that the broken road led them to. It has been two days since they’d arrived per Mabel’s orders. The winds whistled through the framework of huge buildings, girdled in metal and stone, making an eerie howling. He picked up a hunk of stone and chucked it down the road. It skipped and stopped in the tall weeds that split through the cracked pavement.

  “Do you see anything?” he asked Squawk, who walked by his side. It had been two days since their arrival, and they hadn’t seen any people.

  The dragon turned his head up at Gabe. His lizard tonged flicked out.

  Gabe scratched behind his ear. “I suppose that’s a no. Why would Mabel send me here if there aren’t any people?”

  The city was nothing but block after block of wreckage. Dusty glass panes were still intact in some of the windows. Cars in the streets were buried over the wheels in dust and grit. Compared to the compound Gabe escaped from, the place was huge. It dwarfed anything he’d ever imagined. If there were people, they could be anywhere. Carrying his father Saul’s spear, he ambled along, poking his head into building after building Every so often he’d call out, “Hello?”

  Squawk stuck by Gabe’s side. His piercing reptilian eyes probed high and low. He fluttered his wings from time to time and craned his neck. There was something very cunning about Squawk. He seemed more like a person than a dragon.

  A dark rodent scurried over top of a manhole a few dozen feet away. It froze in its spot with black eyes locked on Squawk. It was rat—a big one with two tails—and half the size of a raccoon.

  “Squawk,” Gabe whispered. His heart raced, but it wasn’t his; it was Squawk’s he felt. The dragon hungered to hunt. He was ready to chase and kill. Gabe fought to control the dragon, but in truth, he was hungry too. He let the dragon run. “Go for it!”

  With claws scratching over the busted pavement, the dragon took off in a dead sprint. The big rat bolted to the other side of the street and quickly vanished over the threshold of a building. Squawk went in right after it and vanished from Gabe’s sight.

  Feeling his heart charging inside his chest Gabe trotted after his friend. If the hunt was in Squawk, it was in him. His nostrils flared. His senses were heightened. He smelled odors that he’d never noticed before. He took a quick glance at the top of the building. It stood well over a hundred feet tall. The first time Gabe had seen the building, he got goosebumps that lasted for days. The place was stark and intimidating. He hated to go in for fear of it swallowing him up or collapsing on him.

  “Here goes.”

  He went inside, his boots crunching over dusty debris. The main floor was like a hospital with corridors splitting off into windowless darkness. There was no sign of Squawk or the rat. It was just Gabe, the new dimness, and the chronic, chilling whisper of the wind. With a new layer of sweat on his brow, he decided to poke around a bit. He’d become more familiar with the new layouts and architecture. A suspended stairwell caught his eye.

  “Huh,” he said. He moved along to the base of the steps. There were two of them, leading up, side by side, with thick black rubber ribbons for handrails. Lettering caught his eye near the bottom of the stairs. He dusted it off, revealing more lettering, and sounded out, “Esca-la-tor?”

  With hesitation, he stepped onto the first step. One by one, he trekked upward, overlooking the vast lobby below. Once he made it to the top, he put his hands on the railing and looked down. He still felt Squawk chasing the rat through the unknown. The sensation took some getting used to, and this wasn’t the first time it had happened. Squawk had gone on chases before that woke Gabe from dead sleep covered in sweat. The bond was unique, almost imposing. Under a strange compulsion, he spit over the rail.

  “Huh?” His voice echoed hollowly. He turned away from the rail and walked around the next level. A person sat behind a desk with their back to him. A dried-up head of hair hung over the back. The person slumped backward in the seat. Gabe made his way in front of the person and got a clear look. “Ew.”

  It was the bony, skeletal remains of a woman. A nametag on the chest of her rose-colored clothing said, Sandy. Her jaw hung open, and her head rested on her shoulder. Gabe touched the nameplate. “Sorry for you, Sandy. I hope you don’t mind.”

  He rummaged through he
r desk drawers. The first drawer he opened creaked so loudly it gave him a shiver. He cast nervous glances over his shoulder and got right back to it. Inside the drawers, he found papers, pens, and folders with more lettering on them than he could ever imagine. He found some of what he saw interesting and read through a few lines. This wasn’t his first pick—or dead body for that matter. They were all over the city: people dead where they’d lived until time and the winds took them.

  From one of the deep drawers, he removed a heavy satchel with a strap and a brass plate that read, Dooney.

  “Jackpot.” He stuffed his hand into the bag. He pulled out object after object: a plastic tube, a small mirror, and a tiny set of scissors. His fingers made a fierce search and found some small coins in one of the side pockets. His heart leapt. “Yes!”

  He stuffed the shiny copper and silver into his trouser pocket then dumped the rest of the bag’s contents on the table. He stuck a few more odd objects into the pack of supplies that Malak had given him. That pack had gotten much heavier since he arrived in the dead city. Every time he opened his pack, he thought of the hardened dragon hunter who’d made his life miserable, but in the end, sacrificed his life for Gabe, Squawk, and freedom. It made him think of his father, Saul, who he missed so dearly. He set the purse back in the dead woman’s lap and said, “Thanks.”

  Something scurried up the escalator steps. Gabe turned toward the sound. Squawk appeared at the top with a big, dead rat in his mouth. He had a victorious gleam in his eyes.

  Gabe smiled. “I guess it’s time to eat.” His stomach churned. He’d already eaten almost all of the hardened meat Malak had given him. He thirsted too. Another scuffle of claws scraping on the floor caught his attention. He moved to the top of the stairs. Something crawled up the steps. His heart shot into his throat. The dog-sized varmint had hungry yellow eyes. The sharp teeth in its mouth dripped saliva. It was the biggest critter he’d ever seen.

  “Squawk, I think something’s as hungry as we are.” The vermin bolted up the stairs. “Run!”

  CHAPTER 2

  Gabe rushed back to the deck where he’d left his spear and snatched up the weapon. By the time he turned back, the nasty critter was on the second level and facing off against Squawk. Head low and growling, the quick beast circled the much-smaller dragon.

  Summoning his courage, Gabe said, “Squawk, get away from it!”

  The growling beast with the look of a starving predator in its eyes slashed at Squawk. The dragon skittered back, balled up, and fluttered his wings. The beast inched forward, head low, with the brown fur on the back of the nape of its neck raised . Underneath the creature’s brown pelt of fur were rippling knots of muscle that powered its flesh-rending claws.

  Swallowing the lump in his throat, Gabe pointed his spear tip down and shuffled toward the bearish beast. “Get out of here, you thing.”

  The creature swung its head at Gabe. Saliva dripped from its snout to the floor. It lunged.

  Squawk zeroed in on the beast’s flank. He sank his teeth into flesh and fur. The beast let out a vicious howl and attacked Squawk. The two predators became a tangle of talons in a nasty scrum. Fur flew. Lizard skin was bitten and clawed. The beast’s body seemed to swallow Squawk up into its massive folds.

  “Nooo!” Gabe yelled. He advanced with the spear and charged. The tip of the spear bit deep into the beast’s shoulder. Out of nowhere, a tail with tiny spikes uncurled from the beast and lashed out. It coiled around Gabe’s ankle and locked on. Shocking pain shot through Gabe’s arm up through his shoulders. “Gah!” He dropped his spear. With ravenous animal strength, the beast yanked Gabe to the ground and pounced.

  Squawk intercepted the beast’s lunge. His jaws locked onto the windpipe behind the sagging skin of the monster’s neck. The dragon fastened on. The beast bucked like a wild mule, jerking Gabe’s leg in the socket. He cried out. It scrambled over the floor, half dragging the young man. Squawk’s bite was that of a vise. The brute animal’s struggling subsided. Its bullish neck oozed blood. It sagged to the floor and died.

  “Guh!” Gabe panted for breath. Gingerly, he unraveled the spiny, rope-like tail from his leg. There were tiny needles all over it. “What is this foul thing?” His leg burned like fire. The sensation spread through his body. The walls of the room started to bend. He caught a glimpse of Squawk. The dragon’s muzzle was bloody. His head was cocked when he looked at Gabe. “Help.”

  Squawk made a little chirp.

  Gabe felt his eyes roll up into his head. His body seemed to spin in midair, and his stomach filled with sickness. He flopped backward into a blanket of darkness. He was out cold, unaware of how hard his head smacked the floor.

  ***

  With his heartbeat pulsating in his ears, Gabe woke up. His mouth felt like it was filled with cotton. His body felt swollen. He tried to force open eyelids that felt like they were filled with lead. Finally, he managed to open them to a crack of light that flickered in the distance. He knew he wasn’t where he’d fallen asleep. It was some other unknown location, damp and musty, below ground perhaps. It was hard to tell, as his vision was blurry.

  He strained against bonds he couldn’t see. His hands were tied behind his back with coarse rope that dug into his wrists. His ankles were bound as well. He called out for Squawk and realized his mouth was filled with cloth.

  Oh, no!

  He struggled on in vain, his mind racing. He remembered fighting the monster. There were painful needles digging into his skin. Blackness. His body was ravaged with hunger. He trembled in the darkness. He had no sense of Squawk. His chest tightened, and he panted quickly through his nostrils. He tried to scream.

  What is happening to me?

  CHAPTER 3

  Someone grabbed Gabe, waking him from his restless slumber. He wriggled for a bit, but the strength in his limbs was gone. Instead, he felt himself lifted from the damp ground. He couldn’t get a good look at who picked him up, but whoever it was was strong. Gabe found himself slung over a shoulder like a bag of wheat and carried out of the room into a tunnel hallway. The surrounding light was dim, and he assumed the person who carried him also carried a lantern of some sort.

  It was a long walk down the tunnel that had metal tracks on the ground. The scuffle of every step echoed. The person carrying him had a limp and faint, ragged breathing. Gabe squirmed. A hard slap on his bottom stopped him.

  They’d traveled for minutes when they ducked into another tunnel, much smaller than the last. The stones on the wall were rectangular and pale yellow and stacked in neat rows. Finally, they exited into a cavern filled with decrepit storefronts and square tiles on the floor. Somewhere, water was running.

  Gabe tried to spit out the gag. He’d do anything for a drink. He bent upward, looking down the path where they had come. There was nothing but the lonely alley.

  Oh, Squawk, where are you?

  He was taken inside a room that was similar to one of the many rooms on the first level of the hospital he used to live in. It was a drab and stuffy place with picked-through racks of clothing on the wall. There were some chairs made from colorful plastic with metal legs. He was sat down in one of them and got a first look at his captor. He flinched. A burly woman with red hair in tangles stood before him, wearing a suit of grimy overalls that had been bright orange at one time. Her left eye was missing as well as many of her teeth. She gave him a goofy grin.

  “Uh-uh-uuuuh!” Gabe’s fingers gripped the bottom edge of his chair. He tried to hop away. The meaty-armed woman busted him with a hard slap to the side of his head. Gabe’s neck’s muscles felt like noodles. The woman, in her twenties, if he were to guess, let out a weird, mirthful, hooting chuckle.

  “Easy, Daphne. He’s a boy, not a plaything.”

  Gabe got a look at the new man. He was much older than the others. A checked cloth hung over his left eye. His gray hair hung just over his eyes, and his face was full of beard. He wore an orange jumper like Daphne’s, but it was cleaner. He was raw-bone
d and leaned on a stick of polished wood for a cane.

  “I’m Potus.” His toothy smile wasn’t reassuring. His voice wasn’t either. There was something off about him. He approached Gabe with some effort, keeping his weight on his cane. He stretched out his fingers, touching Gabe’s face. “Shine the lantern closer, Daphne.”

  She stuck the lantern in Gabe’s face. He smelled the burning oil.

  Potus continued eyeballing him. It went on for long and uncomfortable minutes with the old man’s fingers probing him. Finally, Potus said, “The swelling has come down. You are very lucky. That chewba should have killed you, young man. Very deadly.” He tousled Gabe’s hair. “Nasty things, but good eating. I’m amazed you killed it.” He got nose-to-nose with Gabe. His voice became stern. “Where, boy, do you come from?”

  Gabe shrugged. Potus appeared irritated. When he didn’t answer, Daphne slapped him upside the head and said in a blunt, impersonal voice, “Answer!”

  He made some muffled pleas through his gag.

  Potus’s eyes brightened. “Oh, I see the problem.” He pulled the rag out of Gabe’s mouth and dropped it on the floor. “Can you speak now?”

  “Uh-huh,” he managed to say.

  “Well, out with it then. Where are you from, boy?”

  “Newton.”

  “Newton?” Potus leaned back, stood as straight as his crooked back would let him, and rubbed his chin., “Never heard of it. So you must be lying.”

  “I’m not lying. It’s the only name of any place I know.”

  Daphne crowded him. Her knee touched his thigh. She sank her fist into her hand.

  Gabe shrank back in his chair. He got the feeling that if he spoke out of turn, the goonish girl would wallop him.

  “Name.” Potus snapped his fingers. “Name! Name! Name!”

  “Gabe!” he shouted.

  Daphne slapped him upside the head.

  “What did you do that for?” Gabe felt his neck turning red. “I answered his question, you goon!”

  She drew back.

  “Stay your hand, Daphne. Our guest, Gabe, is merely restless.” Potus tapped his cane on the floor twice. “You hunger, you thirst. You will be fed, young man. You need to regain your strength after you lost so much to the chewba. Lucky, very lucky. Chewbas paralyze their prey using their peculiar tails and eat them alive. It makes a very grotesque scene.” He cleared his throat. “Daphne, fetch a pail and some grits. Tell the others that we require them for our new guest. He is clear of the chewba’s poison now.” Using the handle of his cane, the old man gently rapped Gabe on the head a few times. “Now, Gabe, tell me what brings you to the Under City.”