Flight from the Dominion (The Gamma Earth Cycle Book 2) Page 3

  Daphne made a sharp breath and scurried away. She grabbed her doll and curled up on the sofa.

  Gabe handed the lighter up to Potus. “Can you blame me?”

  CHAPTER 7

  Gabe was taken back to the fountain plaza. It was illuminated by lanterns scattered throughout the room in various high and low places. It was there, right in front of the image of Bullywug, that he was held down on a stainless-steel table. His bonds had been taken off, but his hands and feet were strongly held by members of the Eyewatch. His struggles were in vain against the fully grown men. His limbs were still weak from his scrum with the chewba.

  At the end of the table at Gabe’s feet, Potus stood with a scalpel in his hand. “Praise to Bullywug!”

  “Praise to Bullywug!” members of the Eyewatch chanted.

  Potus continued. “The right eye leads. The left eye deceives. In Gabe’s case, it will be the both of them. I offered wisdom and ample supply, and he rejected it.”

  “That’s not true!” Gabe said.

  “Bullywug spoke to me. He is offended by this thoughtless transgression. He demands the youth’s eyes to quell his anger.” He held the scalpel up to the light. “He will have them! Hold the boy still,” he said matter-of-factly. “And gag him. The screams make such an awful sound that leaves me ears ringing.”

  “No! No! No!” Gabe fought against his captors. Daphne appeared behind his head. She had the hot-pink lipstick smeared all over her lips and the gag in one hand. “It’s pretty, yes, Gabe.”

  “No!” he shouted. Just as Daphne started to stuff the gag in his mouth, something swooped overhead in a flutter. It startled everyone. At the same time, energy filled him. He felt his heart pounding inside his chest. Squawk!

  “What is this?” Potus moved away from the table with his eye fixed on the mouth of the fountain. “I’ve never seen such a creature, but I’ve heard. This one flies.”

  The people’s heads twisted in the same direction. Feet shuffled, and there was murmuring. The dragon perched right beside the fountain’s mouth and licked the stream.

  Connected with the dragon, Gabe’s thoughts said, “Will you quit doing that? Can’t you see I’m in a bind? Where have you been?”

  Squawk withdrew from the water. His tongue flickered. When he rustled his wings, the crowd stirred.

  One of the men said, “Is it a sign, mighty prophet?”

  “Why, of course it is…” Potus said with a degree of doubt. “Come, come, creature. Let me see what you are all about.”

  Gabe caught Potus eyeballing the man carrying Saul’s spear. Another man with a long metal pipe joined the first and guarded both sides of Potus.

  Potus started beckoning to Squawk, using easy motions with his fingers. “Come down, little servant. Let us get a closer look at you. I believe this is one of those gamma dragons that the Dominion uses. I imagine that he could be very valuable if captured.” Under his breath he said, “Daphne, go and fetch our nets.”

  The red-haired woman with hot-pink lips hurried away.

  Gabe had had enough of the Eyewatch. The time for action had come. He summoned Squawk. The dragon launched himself from the top tier of the fountain, wings flapping, carrying the dragon through the air in a straight line to Gabe. The Eyewatch members holding him scattered. Sitting up, Gabe caught the dragon in his lap. Every eye in the room hung on Gabe. There was fear on their faces.

  Even Potus had a doubting look about him. Finally he said, “Is that your offering, Gabe? The dragon? Bullywug would be pleased with that. It would be a worthier sacrifice than your eyes. You could keep them, heh-he.” He licked his lips and came closer. “Just let me have the dragon.”

  Having channeled the dragon’s strength, Gabe spoke with renewed vigor in his voice. “Let me have my locket, you one-eyed idiot.”

  Potus gaped. A new line a sweat streaked down his cheek. “Don’t insult the prophet. It will spell your doom, child.” He set down the scalpel on the metal table but still held his wooden cane with his other hand. “I’m offering you a way out now. Leave the dragon, and I’ll leave you alone. It’s a fair trade, Gabe.”

  Gabe wasn’t certain why there would be such a sudden interest in Squawk. But there was a growing hunger growing in Potus’s eye. He wanted Squawk badly, which told Gabe that perhaps Potus knew a great deal more about the Dominion. Perhaps, Potus did have information he needed. Stroking Squawk’s scaly neck while cradling the beast in his arms, Gabe said, “Set your cane on the table. I want to show you something.”

  “Such as?”

  “Magic,” Gabe said, “with a special power that only I command.”

  Potus put the cane on the table.

  “I’d step back a few paces, if I were you,” Gabe said. Potus did so, along with many others. Holding Squawk from behind, he commanded the dragon to flame. Squawk spewed out a tiny stream of flame on the table. The wooden cane crackled. The audience let out frightened gasps while shuffling further away. Within seconds, the cane was burnt, leaving only a long streak of charred remains. The edges of the metal table glowed red-hot then began to cool. “Potus, give me back my locket, or I’ll set all of you on fire.”

  Potus looked as if he’d seen a ghost. The pie-eyed man’s trembling hand reached into his pants and produced the locket and set it down on the floor.

  Whispers started. “It is the wrath of Bullywug.”

  “He is unhappy with us.”

  “We are doomed.”

  “Pray!” Potus said to the members. “Beg for forgiveness. Quickly!”

  The Eyewatchers gathered around the fountain on hands and knees. Babbling filled the room.

  Gabe set Squawk down. The dragon slunk toward Potus and hissed. Potus, drenched in sweat, backed away. Eyes on the old man, Gabe picked up his locket. He saw the shiftiness in the old man’s eyes. A part of him thought that Squawk should finish the loon off. There was wickedness in the man, the same diabolical mindset the Dominion seemed to thrive on. Gabe backed away. “So long, you bunch of stupid, one-eyed wonders.”

  Squawk backed away with Gabe, but suddenly, the dragon turned on the table. More flames shot from his mouth, consuming the table. The metal groaned, sagged, and melted to the ground.

  When Gabe looked back to find Potus, he noticed the old man was gone. Good.

  CHAPTER 8

  Lantern in hand, Gabe gathered all of his gear and let Squawk lead the way out of the Under City. The dragon had found his way in, and the dragon could find their way out. Together, they jetted down the tunnels with metal tracks running down the middle in straight rows. Squawk hopped onto a landing that led up a flight of stairs. The busted-up steps made for difficult footing in a few places. Gabe skipped over them. By the time they made it to the top of the first landing, Gabe was huffing for breath.

  “Slow down,” he said to Squawk. His arms and legs ached from the movement. The fire Squawk had given him upon his arrival was lost. Now, his energy was sapped. The chewba’s poison had drained him. Clinging to the hand railing, Gabe huffed up the steps. It was as dark above as it was below. Behind him, he heard the scuffling of many feet. “Crap.”

  Potus was coming. Gabe knew he would. The man’s eye told it all, and it wouldn’t surprise Gabe one bit if Potus knew as much about Squawk as the Dominion did. Potus had the look about him, like an outcast of sorts. Gabe quickened his pace through the murk, crossing over a second landing and up another flight of stairs. Hunks of rubble blocked his exit. He relocated Squawk. The dragon was inside a hole in the rocks barely big enough for him to squeeze through. Gabe stuffed himself inside, ditched the lantern, and wormed his way through.

  He emerged minutes later, sucking in the cool evening air. His laboring, sweat-glistening body cooled as he sprawled out on the ground. The tall building blocked his view of the moon. Dark rows of broken clouds drifted by. It was just Gabe, Squawk, and the empty streets again. “We made it, Squawk. We made it.”

  Gabe lay on the ground for a long moment. The liberating feeling of
freedom from the dark weirdness below didn’t last long. His survival instinct kicked in. He needed to keep moving, but where? He rolled over to his side. Squawk sat like a dog beside him. The dragon’s eyes were like a hawk’s, engulfing everything they surveyed.

  “Let’s get as far from this spot as we can.” With a groan, Gabe forced himself back up to his feet. Leaning on his father’s spear, which was nothing more than a sharpened post from a road sign, he ambled into the lonely night. He made it a block and stopped to take a breath. He regretted not having eaten more grits. He was starving again. He resumed his trek down the sidewalk, seeking a place to rest.

  A wuff cut through the air. Gabe flinched. From out of nowhere, a net fell over him. The heavy netting bore him and Squawk to the ground in a nasty tangle. As they struggled in the web of lines, a figure approached. It was Daphne. In the night, the lumbering woman was as threatening as ever.

  “Why did you leave me, Gabe?” She wiped the smeared lipstick on her orange sleeve. “I thought I was your girlfriend.”

  CHAPTER 9

  Exhausted, Gabe was certain that the rest of the Eyewatch would descend on him at any moment. Squawk tossed in the net beside him. He said to Daphne, “Just free me. Together, we can escape.”

  “No, no, no.” Daphne shook her head. “You will live in the Under City with me. You will be my boyfriend forever.”

  Thuk!

  Something smacked into the back of Daphne’s head. Gabe made out a person with a long stretch of pipe standing behind the big young woman. As Daphne swayed on her buckling knees, she managed to turn on the assailant.

  “You!” Daphne said.

  The pipe struck Daphne hard upside the head, nailing her in the temple. The redhead crumpled to the ground. The person holding the pipe nudged the fallen woman with the pipe and said, “She breathes. Good lord, it was like hitting an animal. But I’ve always wanted to do that. Ignorant one-eyed goon.”

  Dumbstruck, Gabe stared at what he hoped was his liberator. It was the beautiful young woman who was the last in line when the Eyewatch greeted him at the fountain. Finding words, he said, “Thank you?”

  She worked him and Squawk free of the net. “It is I who should be thanking you.” She wore a pale-yellow prison jumper, and her eye patch was well sewn and scarlet. “Will your dragon bite me?”

  “Uh, no, I don’t think so. At least, you don’t seem to be agitating him.”

  She gave a winsome smile. “Good. And I hope I’m not agitating you either, Gabe.”

  “No, not at all.” He slung the rest of the net off of his shoulders and began working on freeing Squawk’s claws. “Stop squirming.”

  The young woman giggled. “He’s sort of cute for a slimy thing.” She extended her hand. “I’m Rann.”

  “Rann?”

  “It’s actually short for a longer name. But I don’t know you well enough to tell you what that is.” Rann had dirty-blond, wavy hair cut just below the ear. A pair of wind goggles hung around her neck, and she had a backpack. Her athletic body filled out her jumpsuit. Aside from the pipe in her hand, she appeared to have nothing else. “We’d better get moving. You scared the Eyewatch, but that won’t last much longer. When Potus wants something, he’ll set out to get it. Trust me. I know.”

  Gathering up his gear Gabe said, “I don’t trust anyone.”

  Rann lifted a brow. “Well, perhaps you shouldn’t, but you’d be wise to trust me now. I have knowledge of this city and other things.”

  “So do I.” Gabe referred to other things, not so much the city. With the bottom of his spear clicking on the sidewalk, he started down the sidewalk. He didn’t really want to leave her. He could use the company and the help, but he couldn’t easily trust people if he were to survive. “Good-bye.”

  “You’re leaving me, standing here?”

  He kept going.

  Rann followed along and closed in along his side. “Listen to me. It’s night, and you can’t just go walking around this city. That’s when things come out. Things like Daphne. Hah-hah.” She punched him in the shoulder. “Listen, Gabe. I need your help. I can’t let Potus find me again. He’s a vile man. He killed my parents and took me for a plaything. I swear it.”

  Gabe stopped and looked her in the eye. She seemed sincere, but what did he know? His stomach growled.

  “Look, I have food.” She slung off her pack. She unzipped the back flap, revealing bars of food in plastic packages. Gabe had seen them before in the streets of Newton. Merchants and buyers fought like wildcats over them. “You can have all you want. Oh, and I have fresh water too.” A pair of metal cylinders were snugged into the side of her pack by netting. “Take it.”

  He took one of the bars. “Why are you doing this?”

  “For my own protection, I guess. I saw you, and when your dragon came, I knew you were the only way out. Gabe, I need you, and you need me. You don’t have to trust me, but at least let me come along.”

  Something clattered inside one of the nearby buildings, causing them both to flinch.

  “Do you know a safe spot to sleep for the night?”

  She gave an eager smile. “Yes.”

  ***

  A dozen blocks away from where they met, they shimmered up a long pole inside the belly of a red-brick two-story building. There were some cots, a withered sofa, and cabinets and countertops on the upper level. It was a little like the coves in Newton. There was a fading poster on the wall of a woman in a very skimpy outfit.

  “What’s a fire station?” Gabe ate one of the bars Rann gave him. He studied the wrapper. “And what’s supper pro-tein?”

  Scooting over hip-to-hip with him she said, “It’s ‘super protein.’ I don’t know what protein is, but it’s good, isn’t it?” She chewed on a bar of her own. “This place is a fire station from the old world. My mom said they used big trucks to put out fires. Or course, there wasn’t a truck big enough for the world when it all caught on fire. No truck was that big.”

  “You’re mother saw the fire?”

  “Oh, heavens no. I think her mom told her that, or maybe her grandmother. I don’t know. Only a few can really remember. Like Potus. He’s a real crazy.” She took a sip of water from her canister. “So you’re looking for your mother?”

  Gabe’s attention was on Squawk. The dragon was curled up on a chair with his eyes closed. “Yes. I was supposed to find her here. Or find them.”

  “Them who?”

  “N. A.?”

  “New America. Hah. Well, you don’t find them. They find you. That’s how I understand it.”

  He turned to her with excitement. “You know of them?”

  “I know, but I don’t speak. But I suppose it’s safe here.” She wiped something off of his lip. “I was always told not to talk about such things because the Dominion’s eyes and ears are everywhere. But I’ve heard that N.A. has eyes and ears, and they also go by a different name.”

  “What?”

  “The Resistance.”

  CHAPTER 10

  Rann and Gabe talked for a while with Rann doing much of the talking. Gabe crawled away as she streamed on about her life. He fell fast asleep listening to her talk about how she looked older than she was. He woke in the morning with the sun glaring in his eyes. There was thunder too.

  He swung his feet to the floor and shed a blanket off that he didn’t have before. Rubbing his eyes, he looked at Rann. Her body lay on a cot with her back to him. The chair Squawk slept in was empty. “Oh, great.”

  The steady roll of thunder echoing in the streets caught him up into a standing position. He moved toward a fairly large portal window where the sun shone through. The streets were empty, and the sky was clear. It was still thundering.

  “Oh, no.” The booming sounds were all too familiar. It was the roar of motorcycle engines, much like the one the Count rode. Gabe felt his head pounding behind his ears as an image of the fearful woman came to life.

  “Gabe, what is it?” Rann said as she sat up, stretched
out her arms, and yawned. Her eyepatch was flipped upward, revealing a perfectly good left eye.

  “You have your eye!”

  “Oh.” She flipped the patch back down. “Yes, yes, I do, but I like it. It makes me look tougher.”

  “You mean that Potus didn’t cut your eye out like all of the others?”

  “Hah! No, he liked me the way I am.” She scratched her cheek. “And I’ll tell you an intimate secret: he’s not missing an eye either. And neither are the ones with eye patches, but in time, they’ll be cut. The more you give, the more you get.”

  “Everything is a lie,” he grumbled.

  “Well, you sound disappointed.” She flipped up the patch and batted her brown eyes. “Don’t you like them?”

  “They’ll do, I suppose.” He fixed his attention back on the window.

  “Is it raining?”

  “No, but it’s thundering.”

  Her eyes grew big. “Those are motors!” She rushed over to the window and squeezed inside the seal with Gabe. “I hear many!”

  “Sssh, keep it down.”

  “What, they can’t hear us. Not over that noise.” She grabbed his hand. “Come on.”

  There was a ladder mounted on the wall in the corner by the cabinets leading up to a hatch. She shoved the hatch open and climbed out. Gabe followed. There was a clear view of the streets in three directions. Rann hustled from side to side, searching for the source of the sound. Gabe did the same, shielding his eyes from the sun. A train of motorcycles moved slowly down the road. “I see them.”

  Rann slipped behind him with her body against his. She was a little shorter than him and rose on tiptoe to rest her head on his shoulder. “So many,” she said with awe.