Orion Colony Complete Series Boxed Set J.N. Chaney (books for new readers .txt) 📖

to the giant doors of the alien cave chamber. Mutt remained content to stay behind and explore the cave. I stretched weary muscles as the cool morning air hit me. Motion caught my attention from my right.

When I looked over, I saw a rock the size of my fist bearing down at my skull. I didn’t have time to register who was holding it. Pain exploded behind my eyes, stars filled my vision, then blackness.

9

I wasn’t fully conscious, I knew that much. Warm blood soaked the back of my hair and ran down my back. I was being dragged by someone. I didn’t have the strength to turn back and see who.

I swam in and out of consciousness. Memories of being taken somewhere came to me in short spurts like a heartbeat while I was being dragged by the back of my shirt over rough terrain, then nothing.

When I came to, I had no idea how much time had passed. Someone had tied me to the trunk of a tree, then things faded to black once more. My arms had been taken behind the tree and my wrists secured so tight, I thought my shoulders would pop out of their sockets, then the world faded to black again.

“Wake up, wake up,” I heard a voice playfully chant through the darkness of my unconsciousness. A hard slap across my face brought the taste of blood to my mouth. “I said wake up. It’s rude to ignore guests.”

My head felt like a baseball must feel after a homerun. I felt sick to my stomach. The light hurt my eyes and sent pain knifing through my skull. I looked up to see the back of a tall man. He wore black pants and black hood, but I knew who it was. I recognized his voice.

“I was wondering when you’d show up,” I said, spitting a mixture of blood and saliva to the side. “Thanks for your handkerchief the other day. It was thoughtful.”

Maksim still didn’t turn around. His shoulders shuddered with laughter. While the moment of manic glee passed over him, I took the time to test my bonds.

I was seated with my back against a wide tree trunk, and my arms were stretched behind me, making my joints scream with pain. Either a rope or some kind of leather strap held my wrists securely behind the tree. There was absolutely no give in the material securing my hands. Already it was biting into my wrists, cutting off circulation.

“You looked like you could use it more than me,” Maksim said, shaking his head. “That alien smelled horrible. It always surprised me how one can hide in plain sight. I slipped past the guards on the wall the night before. When that beast attacked, it gave me the perfect opportunity to get lost in the crowd. How many survivors do you have in your little compound now? Two thousand? It can’t be more than three.”

I didn’t give him anything. I didn’t know why he wanted me alive unless it was to torture me for information. He could have killed me at the exit of the cave. Instead, he took the time to take me all the way out here.

I looked around to see if I could recognize anything around me. The trees were those that belonged in a forest, not a jungle. They were interspersed and still thin, not close together like in the thick part of the forest near the mist marsh.

I could only guess, but I imagined he’d taken me to where the forest began, just south of the Orion. I would be barely out of yelling range, just far enough for no one to hear us.

“Not going to say anything?” Maksim said. “I didn’t expect you would. I imagined it would take some coaxing to get information from you.”

Maksim finally turned around. What I saw made my already sour stomach want to vomit on the forest floor. The right side of his face was burned to the extent it didn’t even look like skin clinging to his skull anymore, but rather bright pink mush that wrinkled like some kind of scaled snake.

The lip on the right side of his face curled up to reveal his teeth. He wore his hood, so I couldn’t see how much of his hair was burned, but to be honest, I didn’t want to.

“You see what I’ve sacrificed for my cause?” Maksim leaned in close to my face. “You see how deep my resolve lies?”

The stench coming off his burned flesh smelled like charred meat. He leaned in so close, our noses almost touched. “You see, Dean, this is what I’ve sacrificed. What are you willing to sacrifice, I wonder?”

“That fire that burned your mug must have cooked your brain too if you think I’m going to tell you or help you with anything,” I said. “What’s your plan now, to live a life bent on seeing the colony destroyed? Your Disciple friend already killed thousands and stranded the rest of us here. What more do you want?”

“I want the death of the Eternals and all who follow them,” Maksim said, rearing up to his full height. “And you’re going to help me.”

“Yeah, okay,” I said, not being able to help a smile crossing my lips. “Good luck with that, Two Face.”

Apparently, Maksim didn’t appreciate my choice of words to describe his new appearance. A fist collided with the left side of my jaw and another with my right cheek.

If nothing else, I could take a punch. Not a rock to the back of my head, but a punch, I could deal with.

I laughed, shrugging off the blows.

That pissed off Maksim even more. He sent another blow to my left eye then pulled up short.

“No, no, you’re used to this kind of brutality, aren’t you?” Maksim said, standing up straight. He let his fist fall to his side. “I could beat you into a bloody pulp and you’d just sit there and