Chapter Eight
It took us two days to reach the Atlantean outpost. Two days in which I nearly lost the will to refrain from strangling Lawrence and his crew of cutthroats many times over.
They were insufferable in their questions and threats and I did my best to inform them of truth as little as possible and to mislead them as much as possible. All the while that was going on was the constant war to keep from going crazy in the need I had to touch Christy.
She was mine to have and hold and yet I had to act as if she was just some woman that I’d rather not see dead for the benefit of Lawrence’s fickleness of heart. In combination it was all driving me crazy.
That was all behind now and increasingly I was looking forward more and more to what lay ahead. The planet was in view below us and we began to descend rapidly toward it.
“I thought you said this world was inhabited! All I see is jungle.” Claire said in doubtful question of me as she glanced away from one screen.
“Oh it’s inhabited.” I responded with before adding, “With monsters.”
“What!!!” Claire exclaimed.
“Yes it would seem the beings that you came to inquire knowledge of quite some time ago created for their amusement a bevy of flesh eating monsters by which they threatened their slaves with in order to get more work out of them. The slaves receiving outside help from my people rebelled centuries ago and were removed from this world, while their former masters were in tune treated to remain with the creations of their own evil imaginations. A few of them have managed to survive. Perhaps you can ask of them the answers by which to gain great power for yourselves. In general the world is used as a prison colony of sorts, but for only the worst of offenders mind you. I’d say you’ll fit right in Lawrence.”
Lawrence had drawn out his little control button remote and now shaking with fury he said, “You’ve double-crossed me for the last time!” And with that said he pressed the button.
I’d been holding my arms overlapped and shifting them I brought my wristbands to touch. The shock coursed into me, but departed just as quickly as sparks and smoke shot off the metallic wristbands.
Both bands fell off my wrists and I stood up flexing my hands. Lawrence backed up and in vindictive fear cried out, “Fry the girl!”
Claire felt at her pocket but then in realization said, “I can’t! Don’t you remember we couldn’t find the remote!”
“Shoot him, someone!” Lawrence cried out as I stepped forward to grasp a hold of a handlebar on the one side of the ship. One of Lawrence’s willing accomplices pulled a gun free and held it up his hand visibly shaking.
I shook my head and said, “I wouldn’t if I were you. You’re going to need all the bullets you have to ward off bigger predators than me.”
“What?” The man quivered out.
Leaning forward I said, “If you hadn’t noticed we’re descending quite rapidly to the planet’s surface. In fact I think we’re about to crash.”
“What!!!” Lawrence screamed out, as he wheeled to the forward window, which did indeed reveal the surface of the planet fast approaching.
Christy and Cornelius were both strapped in, but nobody else was and in the terror of the moment they were beyond accomplishing such a task.
Lawrence was practically foaming at the mouth as he wheeled from the window to face me once more, “You’re going to destroy my beautiful ship! You fool! Do you not realize what you’re doing? You’re setting the course of human advancement back several thousand years, if not more! We could’ve journeyed to the stars within another generation and had the ability to use this ship to procure ancient technologies in the meantime!”
“First of all it’s not your ship and second of all I like the Earth in its current primitive form without the likes of pompous little power-hungry jerks like you in complete control of it. The next generation on Earth can thank me for keeping them from the imposed butchery that your kind would enact upon the populace.”
“Why you insolent cur! Your kind need wiped out and believe me I’ll see to it! I …….” The ship hit the ground and people went flying.
My feet left the deck, but I held on to the bar for dear life as the ship bounced and careened about on its rough landing onto the planet’s surface. Finally it came to a stop.
The gangway hatch opened up as lights flashed all over even as a threatening alarm sounded out as steamy vapor filled the cabin of the ship. In the hysteria of the moment I called out loudly, “The ship’s going to blow! Everyone out now!”
Like a herd of cattle anxious to avoid a winter windstorm Lawrence and his bunch either ran or crawled for the opened hatchway as quickly as they could. I even helped one or two of them complete the journey to the open hatch.
That done I hung against the side of the gangway watching them disperse into the vegetation of the planet’s jungle environment as fast as their feet could take them. Chuckling softly I shook my head and pressed the button for the hatch to close. What a gullible lot they were.
“Look out Logan!”
I wheeled around to see Christy take down Claire, who had somehow escaped my notice in the mass exodus from the ship by the other crew members.
Both women fell to the floor and a shot rang out loudly. Of the two tussling women on the floor Christy fell off to the one side.
“No!!!” I screamed out as I ran toward the pair.
Claire screamed in fright as she saw her death reflected in my eyes and dropping the gun she scrambled off to the side. I let her go for the moment as I fell to my knees beside Christy.
Claire completed her mad scramble to safety and slipped through the closing hatchway just before it closed.
Christy’s eyes were closed, but her hands were clenched down low on her side.
“Christy?”
Her eyes opened and they reflected the pain she was in and I cried out brokenly, “I’m so sorry! This is all my fault! I should’ve had a better plan of getting them off board! I…..oh God please don’t die!”
Something flashed in her eyes and coughing piteously she asked in a choked voice, “Will you promise to do something Logan?”
“Anything!” I said brokenly, as I watched her eyes flutter and her breathing come roughly to her as if she had to gasp for continued life.
“I want you to get right with God.”
I nodded my head as I grasped her hand.
“I want to hear you do it now.” She said gasping for breath.
Tears streaking down my face I honored her last request by closing my eyes and saying, “Jesus, please forgive me for my many sins. I don’t deserve Your grace, but I ask for it anyway. Please don’t let her die!” I cried out with at the last as I opened my eyes.
She was smiling at me through the pain and in a whisper she said, “Kiss me.”
Leaning forward I did so. The loss of her and these last few moments by which to fill an entire life full of all I’d wish to experience over the course of a lifetime with her was too much. I broke the kiss off and pressing the side of my face against her chest I cried out, “Please don’t die!”
Her heart still beat firmly beneath my cheek and through the cloudy veil of my tears I saw Cornelius leaning back against a console shaking his head side to side with a wry expression on his face that was hard to read. Where was his sorrow over the loss of his granddaughter?
Raising my head I looked down at Christy’s face now remarkably free of the pain it had just been etched deeply with a moment before. Smiling sheepishly, as she held up a pocket-sized Bible she took from a hidden dress pocket she said, “I have a confession to make. I’m not dying.”
I pushed back from her and up to my knees as I stared at her in a mixture of joy and apoplectic anger.
“Utterly shameful.” Cornelius mused aloud.
I looked to him and looking pained he shrugged his shoulders, “I tried to teach her better, but she’s forever been the practical joker no matter how many times she was disciplined as a girl. This is by far though her greatest fall into deceit. Shameful!”
Looking concerned now Christy said, “I’m sorry! I promise not to do this again! I promise!”
Looking from her to Cornelius I asked, “Are you sure you spanked her hard enough as a girl?”
Looking reflective Cornelius shook his head no and said, “Apparently no. Would you do me the favor and see that it’s done right?”
“With pleasure!” I said savagely and with a gasp Christy tried to scuttle away, but I caught her and hauled her up to her feet alongside of me.
Cornelius had taken his belt off and with a gesture of offering it to me said, “Use mine. It’s thicker than yours and it should leave a good sting.”
“Grand Papa!” Christy exclaimed in outrage.
Leaning forward I took the belt, “Thanks!” I then proceeded to drag Christy toward the pilot chair at the head of the craft.
“You wouldn’t hurt me Logan! Would you?” She finished with uncertainly.
I didn’t answer and in panic she begged, “Please don’t! I’m sorry okay! I shouldn’t have done it! Can’t you forgive me?”
Sitting down in the chair I looked up to her face that was on the verge of tears and smiled broadly.
“Why you rat!” She burst out with.
Chuckling I tossed Cornelius’s belt to him. Cornelius sat down in the chair across from mine with a sigh of regret and said, “She truly deserved a spanking you know.”
“Where’s your spirit of forgiveness Cornelius?”
“She already has you wrapped around her finger boy.”
Chuckling, I nodded, as I pulled Christy down to sit on my one leg. Humor vanishing I removed the pocket-sized Bible that had caught the bullet and laid it down on the dash before me as living proof that there was a God of mercy directly involved in my life.
“Now we had better get out of here before any more attempts are made on your life.” I said, as I relished the feel of Christy being alive and well beside me.
Christy looked forward and asked, “But I thought we crashed?”
“More of a rough landing so to speak. The ship has a protective shield that spared the vessel from any major damage. I programmed all those alarms to go off and for the hatch to open.”
Christy looked from the screens to me with a look of marvelment written across her face as she said, “You really do know how all this technology works don’t you?”
“Yes, as unbelievable as it sounds. It must be in my blood.”
Smiling she looked forward again and abruptly shrieked as loudly as she could. I felt like shrieking as well, but I held it in.
“Upon my word!” Cornelius exclaimed, while I busied myself with pulling the ship up and away from the beast that seemed all teeth that was even now trying to bite through the forward windows.
Escape from the surface achieved I set the ship upon a new set of coordinates.
“What was that thing?” Christy breathed out as her face still bore a look of terror.
I shook my head and said, “Not sure, but I find myself almost pitying Lawrence right now. Well almost.”
*****
Claire felt as if her heart was coming out of her chest. The horrors of this world were unimaginable.
Why ever had Lawrence wanted to come here of all places? Logan had said it was a penal colony and well she could imagine it being an effective one.
Off in the distance she heard pistol rounds going off and the roars of the creatures that called this place home. Then there was screaming, which was abruptly cut off and well could she imagine the monster even now as it chewed up its victim.
Just as she had cleared away from the ship and the murderous wrath that she’d seen in the eyes of Logan she had seen one of the monsters dart past her in route for the ship. Now however, faced with the awfulness of this world, she wished she was back on the ship lying dead in a pool of her own blood, at least then there would have been a quick death as opposed to the every waking moment of horror that this place evoked.
There was more screaming in the distance. It was all too much. She put her hands over her ears and ran blindly through the vegetation in the opposite direction from the screams of mortal agony that continued to ring out behind her in the distance.
She didn’t even know why she ran as she had no hope of reaching someplace safe, but surely anything ahead of her was better than being eaten alive like those behind her. She half fell her way down a steep bank and crawling forward toward a stream of water she drank hungrily.
Something made her look up and in startlemeant she pulled back from the water at the sight of three bearded men dressed in little more than rags. They looked at her with eyes that didn’t reflect true sanity.
Swallowing down her anxiety she rose up off the ground, but with a freakish bound they were suddenly on all sides of her. Managing to find her voice she said, “What do you want?”
As one they laughed manically, before one sobered enough to say, “Why you honey. We want woman!”
“Ain’t seen one in years!” Said one of the others as he licked his lips before adding, “They be few women dropped off here and thems that do don’t last long.”
Panic mounting as all the civilized structure that she’d fought against all her life became suddenly absent from her she said, “But I don’t do men. I’m only interested in women. Now back off and leave me alone!”
Laughing all three of the men pointed to her as if she was the crazy one. Claire tried to run, but they caught a hold of her and the hell of this prison planet truly began in essence for her.
She began cursing everything and everyone that had in her eyes conspired to get her landed in this place of torment, but most of all she cursed God.