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

we were off. Mud sprayed on either side of the vehicle as we rocketed deeper into the mist swamp. More and more sounds penetrated the thick fog. The deep wailing followed us as we sped forward.

The strangest thing about the wailing was that it didn’t sound angry or annoyed at being wounded. It genuinely felt sad, like the cry of a lonely creature wailing.

“I couldn’t see what it was, did you?” Arun asked.

“Just those two arms that grabbed onto the back of the crawler,” Stacy shouted back in excitement. “It has to be huge, larger than the crawler or that rhinoceros alien that attacked the colony yesterday.”

I wanted to ask more questions. My mind was still reeling from what I had just seen. At the moment, it was all I could do to fight and keep the steering wheels straight. Going fast in the deep muck made the crawler sway from side to side. Heavy vibration traveled up my arms and into my chest as I fought the wheel.

“Dean, watch out!” Tong screamed.

I saw it at the same time his warning came. A thick tree stump was sticking out from the marsh, creating a roadblock. At first glanced it seemed like any fallen tree, but upon closer inspection, it looked more deliberate. Someone had set in place specifically for us.

I jerked the wheel violently to the left, tipping the crawler to one side, causing the right front and rear wheels to come out of the muck for a second. Before we could lose anyone, I slammed the wheel back to the right, refusing to let my foot off the gas. That thing was still behind us, it’s wailing was still too close for comfort, and there was no way I was slowing down.

A quick look in the rearview mirror told me we were safe for the time being. Both Arun and Stacy held on to the back of the cab with one hand as we rocketed forward. Their other hands were on the grips of their weapons. Like my own, their heads were on swivel, searching for any sign of the monster.

I finally had the chance to look down at the compass to right our path. We were only a few degrees off from our original heading.

“Good driving,” Arun told me.

“We can add that to the list of your talents,” Stacy said sarcastically. “You know, opposite the one where we note how bad you are at shooting.”

“Thanks for that,” I said dryly, finally allowing our forward momentum to slow. “I think we lost it. I don’t hear it anymore.”

“I think you are correct,” Tong said, swallowing hard. “I do not hear the sound of that creature anymore.”

“Creature or creatures, we still aren’t sure,” Arun reminded us. “Tong, how far are we out now?”

“We should be there soon,” he said, looking down at the gauge that had been tracking our distance since we entered the mist land. “The installation will be difficult to miss.”

That proved to be an understatement.

As if someone just decided the mist should part for us, it did. One second we were in the thick rolling fog, the next we’d burst through it like some kind of physical barrier.

The crawler had already decreased in speed, but when we burst through the fog, I decided to err on the side of caution and step on the brake. For the hundredth time since we landed on the planet, my mind was having a hard time figuring out what my eyes were seeing. I knew what I thought they saw, but that couldn’t be right.

A wide circle free of mist opened up in front of us. About two hundred meters directly in front of us was a black pyramid that rose five stories into the clear blue sky.

I stopped the crawler altogether, marveling at the awesome structure in front of us.

“Is everyone seeing a giant pyramid in a space where the fog just stopped?” Ricky asked.

“Yep,” I said.

“Good, I thought I was dead for minute or maybe hallucinating,” Ricky said.

“Tong, is this your installation?” Arun asked over the comms.

“Yes, yes.” Tong nodded vigorously. “This is the Tch tichs sa Installation.”

“Nope,” I said. “Definitely don’t understand that. Try again.”

“Uh, in your language, the Cerberus Installation,” Tong said, as if that was going to end all of my questions instead of opening up Pandora’s box of more. “Quickly, we must get inside. Ricky is not breathing.”

I looked over to Rick, who had just been cracking jokes a moment before. Sure enough, he wasn’t breathing.

18

“Rick!” I yelled, shaking his still form. His eyes were closed and he didn’t respond, no breath coming in or out of his lips.

“Hold on,” I pleaded. I pressed the gas pedal, sending us forward toward the pyramid. The ground here was hard again and the crawler’s tires gripped it, spurring us forward.

It was as if by some miracle this pocket of the marsh was shielded by some other worldly force. I didn’t really know where the pyramid opened, but I aimed the vehicle at the base and pushed the motor to its limits. From the outside, it looked like it was made of a single piece of black slate rising in clean lines toward the heavens.

“Ricky?” Arun asked, panicked. “Ricky, talk to me.”

Ricky didn’t make a sound.

We were at the front of the pyramid a second later, and I was out of the crawler as it came to a stop. I grabbed Ricky, not worrying about how I moved him. If we didn’t get him breathing soon, he was dead already.

Stacy and Arun unclipped themselves from the back of the crawler, along with Mutt. Tong jumped out of the passenger side seat, racing to the pyramid. He slapped a three-fingered hand on the cold rock surface.

A dull beep sounded as the surface read his hand.

Nothing happened.

Tong tried again.

I bit back yelling at him for the time being. I knew he was trying. Screaming at him wasn’t going to help.

Arun didn’t feel the same way.

“Tong, what’s wrong!?”