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

by Craig Halloran

  Gabe soaked it in with a few quick glimpses. It all happened so fast. He hadn’t moved. He searched for Rann. He located her, cowering against the partition wall between the gamma tunnel and the Dragon Den. Waving his arm, he called out for her. “Rann! Rann! Don’t move!”

  Someone blindsided Gabe, knocking him hard to the ground. A man wrapped himself around Gabe’s legs and was trying to tear off his helmet. Gabe headbutted the man in the nose. The blow set him free.

  Pop! Pop! Pop!

  Many people flinched, including Gabe. The Count had reloaded. Blue Guards fell dead at the foot of the stairs. On the stairs, Gunther fought like a wild beast. He busted up the inferior men with punches that could crack concrete. Masses of people ran everywhere, but they avoided the wild man and the Count.

  Gabe scrambled after Rann. She saw him coming and started to run away. “No, Rann! It’s me, Gabe!” In the back of his mind, he knew this was the moment that he was supposed to make his move, according to the note he’d read. Things are moving. Be ready. Remember the exits. Escape the Dominion. He needed to fetch Squawk and run, but he wasn’t going anywhere without Rann. He ripped off his helmet and called out for her again.

  Rann didn’t look back. She disappeared in the sea of people. The citizens fought against one another in a tangle of limbs.

  Gabe fought his way through the crowd. He slipped through hands and tripping legs. They wanted his gear and armor or him dead. He came across one man with a knife in his hand. The man stabbed at him. Gabe twisted away. He gave the man a hard knock in the ribs with his elbow and kept going.

  I have to find Rann!

  Fighting had broken out everywhere. The dead Blue Guards’ spears found themselves in the wrong hands. More innocent blood was spilled to wild stabbing. In the center stage, the fighting worsened. Drunken men battled for position on the platforms. Some of them seemed to be having a jolly good time, dressed up in stolen gamers’ gear. The arena had become a place of madness. Gabe was caught up in their midst.

  Gabe heard a scream so shrill it was unmistakable. The Count and Gunther had battled their way through the wreckage of raging people. They had Rann in tow and headed into the safety of Gunther’s tunnel. Before the burly man vanished inside the mouth of blackness, he pulled a lever mounted on a platform made for showy display. A distinct sound of chains grinding on gears caught Gabe’s ears. He looked up.

  The massive rectangular Cage of Chaos was coming down fast. The citizens paid it no mind. Gabe struggled against two men who tackled him to the ground. They were tearing away at his gear once again. He kicked and screamed. “No! No! Let go of me, you idiots!”

  The sky of metal came down, crushing many of the mindless to death.

  Gabe was trapped.

  CHAPTER 71

  The reveling and drunken rioters fought like wild cats and ravenous dogs inside the Cage of Chaos. One man stood on top of the rolling ladder, singing and dancing an awful jig. The angry flock tipped over the staircase. The metal contraption busted the back of a Blue Guard who jabbed his spear at the Dominion supporters.

  Gabe tried to shove his body through the narrow bars. He managed to stuff his shoulder in, but that was about all—that and a foot. He wasn’t the only one trying to find a way out. A woman with shaggy gray hair and a tattered peach dress squeezed her way out. “Listen to me! Go to the lever! Go to the lever!” he shouted at her. The woman scrambled away. He lost sight of her in the sea of people. “Crap!”

  He noticed a person crushed underneath the cage. There was a small gap between the body and the metal floor. He tried to crawl though the gap. His head wouldn’t fit. “Yinzers!”

  The battle was bizarre. Dominion supporters fought against the citizen resistance. They argued back and forth. Many were on their knees and hands, clawing at the bars, begging for forgiveness and mercy.

  He got it. Even with superior numbers, there was great fear. Some wanted to fight, but not enough. Surely, the Resistance must have known that. But why did they do what they did? The chances were so slim. Was it all a distraction to free Gabe? Certainly, there must have been more to it than that. So many people wouldn’t risk their lives just for him.

  I should have run. More people are dying because of me, and I blew it. I’m such an idiot.

  “Gabe!” Stewart swam through the crowd toward Gabe. Clancy and Earl were with him. He tugged on the bars. “You’re really screwed, aren’t you? This thing’s a deathtrap.”

  “Get me out of here?” Gabe said. “Push the lever back!”

  “What lever?” Stewart followed the direction of Gabe’s finger. The battling masses hid the device from their line of sight.

  Gabe pointed to the gamma tunnel. “By the tunnel! You can’t miss it! Just go! I have to save Rann!”

  Clancy stuck his husky face up to the bars. “We ain’t helping you. The Dominion will kill us! You do it!”

  “You idiot, I’m inside the cage!” Gabe grabbed Clancy and Stewart by their shirts. “Please, you have to do this! It’s now or never!”

  “We’ll do it,” Stewart said, “but you owe us big. And keep our names out of it when you get caught. You will get caught. We’re doing this, and we’re gone!”

  “Wait!” Gabe held Stewart fast in his grip. “Pull the lever, then go after Squawk. He’s in the Dragon Den. Get the keys in the workbench and let him out. He’s in cage number twenty. His name’s on it!”

  Stewart’s eyes lit up. “We can go in the Dragon Den? Hey, he won’t eat us, will he?”

  “No!” Gabe pushed them away. “Go!”

  The three boys scurried away, quicker than rats fleeing a sinking ship, their bodies lost in the flailing masses. Cries of pain and desperation filed the air. A gap opened up between Gabe and the lever. It was still pushed forward. An oversized Blue Guard with a wooden club painted black stood at the lever. The thick-necked man fought all comers off with heavy swings that cracked people’s skulls.

  Fingers locked on the bars, Gabe screamed, “Nooooo!”

  Stewart, Clancy, and Earl fled on fast feet in the opposite direction. Gabe’s heart melted in his chest. He was never going to get out of the cage in time. In a last-ditch effort, he closed his eyes and reached out to Squawk.

  Free yourself if you can, boy. Free yourself!

  Gabe envisioned fire and the cage metal melting. It was all that he could think of.

  Something hard hit him in the back of the head.

  Thok!

  His ears rang. Bright spots filled his eyes. He kicked wildly. His heel hit a knee. The blow sent a toothless vagrant carrying the shaft of a broken spear tumbling to the ground. With his head throbbing, Gabe jumped on the man’s back. He grabbed hold of the length of wood and twisted it free from the man’s hand. He beat on the man’s head with it. His frustration boiled over into rage. “Leave me alone!”

  The man covered his face and scrambled away

  A loud groan of metal captured Gabe’s attention. The cage began to lift. He dove at the bars. Many people were oblivious, but others started to try to squeeze through. Gabe exhaled, thinning his body as narrow as possible. He crawled through the gap. Freedom!

  Coming to his feet, he spied a familiar face behind the lever. It was Tim. The Blue Guard who’d guarded the lever lay still at Tim’s feet. Tim’s eyes found Gabe’s. The black man showed a slight smile and gave a quick approving nod.

  Gabe started forward then stopped in his tracks. His heart turned waxen. A black dragon with a head three times the size of a man’s snaked out of the tunnel. Its citrine eyes were hungry. Wide jaws with rows of sharp teeth opened. Saliva dripped from the jaws. Tim’s expression turned to confusion. His eyes widened. The coating of sweat on his face seemed to freeze. He turned.

  The monstrous dragon’s head chomped down like a striking snake. Its jaws covered Tim’s head. It clenched down on Tim’s neck and tore his head off. Tim’s headless body crumbled. The dragon stepped out.

  CHAPTER 72

  The screaming
in the coliseum reached a new level. Gabe’s numb hands covered his ears. He walked backward as the monstrous beast’s hulking form cleared the tunnel. The dragon was much like the one he slew with Buggy. It was broad in girth but moved with ease. One head had twisted around the corner when another came out. The dragon had two heads.

  Gunther emerged from the tunnel. The gorilla of a man jumped onto the lever platform and shoved it back again. The Cage of Chaos hit the ground with a loud crash. More bodies were trapped and mangled under the cage. Men and women, pinned underneath, screamed for their lives until their bodies gave out.

  The dragon slipped all the way out of the tunnel, revealing the fullness of its wingless, serpentine body. Muscular limbs covered in rigid scales moved with the suppleness of a cat. Two long tails swished back and forth in quick, swiping movements. It was the beast Gabe had only partially seen in Gunther’s den. It was far bigger than he could have imagined. The dragon’s hawk-like eyes landed on Gunther. Its nostrils flared and snorted.

  Gunther uncoiled the whip that hung from his belt. He cracked it hard in the air in front of the dragon. “Feast, Hemi! Feast!”

  The dragon’s teeth clacked together. It reared up to full height. Standing ten feet high, the dragon let out a tremendous roar. It took off after the crowd fleeing for the partition wall, closing the distance in short strides at blazing speed. Both heads struck at the same time, snatching a man off the wall and tearing him in two. The dragon hungrily devoured the man in throat-filling gulps. Bloody flesh hung from both of the monster’s mouths.

  Gabe’s survival instincts collided with his good sense. His legs wanted to take him as far away as he could go. It was run or die. Coiled up inside of him was something else: Rann. He needed to find his friend. Gabe’s fingers peeled away from the steel bars. He cast a quick look at the dragon.

  Oh, my!

  Hemi ran roughshod through the stands. Chairs were crushed under his weight. The dragon pounced everything that moved. Claws lashed out. Bloody parts of bodies went flying. Inside the Cage of Chaos, everyone cowered into the center. The heat of battle that fed them had turned to stone-cold fear. They trembled and clutched one another like children cowering from a storm.

  Move, Gabe, move!

  Gunther had sauntered to the side of the cage opposite Gabe. Quickly, Gabe darted to the partition wall. No one was there now. He crouched down by the wall between the two entrances to the den. He scurried toward Gunther’s tunnel entrance, eyeing the trainer the entire time. His feet bumped against Tim’s dead body. Gabe prayed this man hadn’t given his life for him like so many others. He stepped over the body and made his way to the tunnel. Gunther’s back was to him still. The trainer, as if he had eyes in the back of his head, turned. The corner of his mouth curled up in a snarl.

  No!

  Gabe dashed into the tunnel. He was halfway through when the crack of a whip sounded. Hot coils of leather encircled his neck. A powerful force ripped him off of his feet. “Gack!”

  Gunther hauled Gabe’s body out of the tunnel with his whip. He laughed. “Gabe, are you trying to be a hero? Hah! I thought you would go after your dragon, but you are going after the girl. How foolish.” He grabbed Gabe by the face in iron fingers. “There is a reason chivalry is dead. It will kill you.”

  Fingers clutching at the leather around his neck, Gabe labored to breathe. Gunther dragged him into the open space at the end of the cage.

  “Please, stop struggling, Gabe. It’s futile.” Gunther watched Hemi feasting on the people in the stands. “It will be interesting to see how the Blood Law is interpreted after today. So many dead, all on account of your rebellion.”

  Choking out the words, Gabe said, “I had nothing to do with it. I didn’t know. I’m as surprised as you.”

  “I don’t see it that way, and I don’t believe the Count does either. The Dominion knows all, Gabe. Spies with big ears and eyes are everywhere. The Resistance’s activity increased the moment that you arrived.” Gunther looked down at Gabe. “We don’t believe in coincidences. We were ready for something, but this, I admit, was bold. They tried to assassinate the Count. It would have been a fatal wound, had it not failed.”

  “You should have let them.” Gabe managed to loosen the whip. “He doesn’t care about you.”

  “No, he does. He’s bought and paid for my loyalty many times over. You see, I have my pets. They mean a lot.” Gunther stepped on Gabe’s chest. “Hold still.” He loosened the whip. With a snap of his wrist, the whip snapped. “Hemi! Come!”

  The dragon punched its paws on a wriggling man. Bones snapped, and cartilage tore. The dragon slunk back over the partition wall and into the arena.

  “You’re too much of a liability, Gabe. I’ve been told to do the same thing to you that I did to your girlfriend Rann. I’m going to feed you to Hemi.” The dragon came to Gunther with its scaly faces splattered in blood. Reaching out with one hand, Gunther petted the dragon. “You should have escaped the Dominion the first chance you got, Gabe, but like a fool, you didn’t. Good-bye, Gabe.”

  CHAPTER 73

  The wingless dragon stood behind Gunther with a hungry glare in its eyes. Bloody saliva dripped from its mouth. Gunther smiled.

  “No so fast, Gunther.” The Count emerged from the tunnel. Clovis and his personal Blue Guards were with him. He used a white handkerchief to wipe splattered blood from his face. In his other hand, he held a pistol. “I’m going to recant my decision for the time being.”

  Gabe sat up. His heart shot up into his throat. He was certain that he was about to be devoured.

  The Count handed his handkerchief to Clovis and said to Gabe, “We will have a trial and make an example of the young man. All of them.” He scanned the dead bodies scattered across the arena floor and in the stands. Others were still trapped inside the cage. “We’ll start the first trial now.” He faced the cage bars. There was a door mounted in the cage, locked with a padlock and chain. “Gunther, open it.”

  Gunther fished a key out of his denim pants and opened the cage.

  “Gamers, make your way out. Take the gamma tunnel to safety.”

  Seven gamers slipped out of the cage. One of them was Stewart. Roger and Silvia helped him out. They quickly made it to the tunnel. There was no sign of Harlan or Mandy. Gunther sealed the door shut.

  “All of the traitorous gamers’ assistants, please come forward.” The crowd parted. Most of the gamers’ assistants had lost parts of their armor. They were bruised up and bloody. “Line up in a row.”

  The men made a single line.

  The Count paced back and forth in front of the cage. “Who’s behind all of this?”

  A bearded man with a medium build stood at attention and shouted, “Let freedom reign!”

  The Count pointed his gun at the man and fired. Blam! The bullet hit the man in the head. He flopped to the ground.

  “That was the wrong answer,” the Count said. “There are only eight of you, and I still have plenty of bullets left. By stepping forward, you’ve admitted guilt, hence, your trial is over, and your blood can be spilled.” He lifted a finger. “But if you cooperate, your sentence won’t be death. It will be prison.”

  The men in the row cast nervous eyes at one another. A stout man with a grizzled beard said, “Don’t tell him anything. He can’t get away with this. Justice will be—”

  Blam! He dropped dead with a hole in his head.

  “Stop it!” Gabe said, unable to control his words. “This is wrong!” Gunther slammed him hard in the back of the head. The heavy-handed blow knocked him down on his chest.

  With his back to Gabe, the Count said, “Don’t speak unless spoken to. Continuing, who is behind this Blue Guard rebellion?” He was met with downcast eyes and silence. “Come now. We started with eight of you, and you are down to six.” His voice rose. “Who is behind this?”

  Blam! The man on the left end of the row fell with a hole in his chest.

  Blam! On the opposite side, the fourth man die
d.

  “Nothing!” the Count said. “I must say, the Resistance is building more loyal servants. This concept of New America has stuck in their heads. Such a brave bunch to give their lives for such a meaningless cause. A shame.”

  “You’ve given us lives that are meaningless,” a Blue Guard in the middle inserted. He was a middle-aged man, mostly bald with a barrel chest. “We just want a taste of what the Dominion has—for everyone.”

  “Ah, now that’s interesting.” The Count holstered his gun. A smile formed on his face as he turned to face Gabe and the others. “This man is confessing to his simple wants and needs. I can respect that. Granted, he’s not answering my question, but he has told me what motivates him. A promise. A promise of freedom and prosperity. Fairy tales from the old world are what we like to call them. The truth is, if you were meant to be Dominion, you would have been Dominion. But you weren’t.”

  Gabe’s anger stirred. He pushed himself back up, glaring at the Count but holding his tongue. Death to the Dominion.

  Without looking, the Count drew his gun and shot at the man. He missed and hit the one beside him, killing the man instantly. “Oh, my. Wrong person.” He fired at the man and killed him. “And then there were two.”

  The citizens in the cage cowered by the bars. Many were on hands and knees, begging for forgiveness and mercy.

  “Stop with all of the begging, people. I’m killing them, not you, though some of you are traitors, I’m certain.” The Count tapped his gun on the bars. “Now, there are two left. Which one will be wise enough to confess what I need to know?”

  “I’ll tell you,” the man on the right said. He wasn’t very tall, but he was stocky. He had a split in his beard. “It was one of your own.”