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

We all looked toward where the sound was emanating. The roar came again, a sound unlike anything I had ever heard. The animals in the jungle that had been chirping or squawking before silenced or maybe they were all smarter than we were and had already fled.

“We should get going,” I said. “We should get going, right now.”

Boss Creed scooped up Ira’s smaller frame and swung him across his shoulders. As one, we began to run back the way we came. As I turned to go, I caught sight of something large in the jungle. A tree crashed as the trunk splintered. Roots ripped upward as another tree was overturned.

Get moving, you idiot, I told myself. Get moving, if you want to live.

“Come on, Mutt,” I said as I turned to run. “Let’s go, boy.”

The dog didn’t need to be told twice. He turned and retreated along with us, back outside of the jungle’s depths. The ground shook beneath our feet as some impossibly large creature made its way in our direction.

My heart pounded in my ears as loud as the blaster fire Meenaz used on the alien snake. I forced my legs to run faster. My arms pumped on either side of my torso.

We broke through the jungle tree line a few minutes later. Boss Creed panted hard as he carried the extra weight of Ira on his shoulders.

We reached the open grassy field in front of us and kept going. Whether the beast chasing us lost our scent, decided to stay in the jungle, or something else, it stopped.

Boss Creed wasn’t the type of man to ask for help, even when it was clear he needed it. Ira was just a kid. He couldn’t have weighed more than a buck fifty, but I could see the toll it was taking on the larger man.

“I’ll take Ira for a bit,” I volunteered.

Boss Creed looked at me for a moment as if he were going to refuse the offer. Then he rethought his answer and nodded. He transferred Ira over to my shoulder with all the care as if he were transporting a newborn baby.

I could see everything in his eyes he wasn’t saying. Boss Creed had been in charge of his expedition to the north. He blamed himself for Ira’s death.

I wanted to console him, but I didn’t have the words. I wasn’t exactly the nurturing type myself. Heck, I just straight-faced lied to a dying man that we would get him home.

We walked the rest of the way back to the Orion in silence. Meenaz kept her eyes on the ground in front of her. Boss Creed took the lead again. Mutt kept pace by my side, looking at me and Ira’s body over my shoulder in turn with sad, soft whines.

Ira’s blood and the blood of the snake creature he still carried on him soaked into my clothes. I ignored it and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other.

The smart pad used to communicate with the Orion was destroyed in the attack. We had no way of reaching them now. Halfway back to the Orion, we caught sight of figures moving toward us on the horizon.

I recognized three of the four figures. Stacy, Ricky, Doctor Allbright, and a tall man I hadn’t seen before. They all came toward us at a jog.

All of them besides Doctor Allbright had blasters in their hands.

“What, what happened?” Stacy asked as they ran the rest of the way to meet us.

Doctor Allbright immediately came to my side to look at Ira.

I shook my head at her, gently placing Ira on the ground.

“We were attacked in the jungle by a creature that looked like some kind of giant snake,” Boss Creed answered. “It got Ira before any of us could stop it.”

Ricky walked over, checking me for wounds. There was a concerned look on his face.

“No one else got hurt,” I told him, rising to my feet again.

I caught Stacy’s eye and gave her a sad smile.

She returned my look with a nod.

“How did the creature get the drop on you?” the one man in the group I didn’t recognize asked. He spoke with the authority of someone who was used to being obeyed. “Why weren’t you better prepared?”

I knew his type. I already didn’t like him. He had the same look in his eye I’d seen so many times before from trainers at the gym. It was the look that weighed you and passed judgment even before you opened your mouth.

“It’s my fault,” Boss Creed said, shaking his head. “I didn’t see it.”

“None of us could have seen it,” I added. “How are we supposed to see creatures that blend into the jungle interior that we don’t even know exist in the first place? How can we prepare for that?”

“We’ll get a full report from you once we get back to the safety of the Orion,” the man said, already turning to go.

I stood stunned for a minute. I was about to open my mouth and lay into the guy. Tell him we just lost a man not far out from being a kid, when Meenaz did it for me.

“While you’re worried about your report, we’ll be burying Ira,” Meenaz nearly screamed. “That was his name, by the way. You don’t look like you even care, but that’s his name.”

The man stopped and turned toward Meenaz. A predator’s grin crossed his lips. I looked at him this time, really looked at him. He was taller than me. His arms were slender but muscular. If I had to guess, he was somewhere in his mid-forties. A shock of grey and white hair rested on his head.

“I care more than you know, Meenaz Grey,” he said with the same dangerous look in his eye. “I cared for Civil Authority Officer Ira Stone as much as anyone. But he’s dead now. He’s gone, and there’s not a thing we can do about that. What I can do