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

the beach up to the section of the Orion holding the prison cell block. From there, the escape ship would be just a couple of kilometers up the beach.

The stars across the night sky were breathtaking. We never got to see this many stars on Earth, and even when we escaped the lights of the city, they were never like this.

Mark and Hannah took the first watch, while the rest of us set up a meager camp and readied our dinner. I helped Elon erect the tents while the others worked on starting a fire and preparing the food.

“Your limp is almost completely gone,” I said to the Eternal. “How’s the pain level?”

“Manageable,” Elon said with an approving nod. He had shaved and straightened himself out since I had seen him in his semi-drunken state. He looked a lot better.

“We’re making good time. Although we’re out of range of communication with the Orion, I believe Captain Harold and his expedition team will be doing the same,” Elon said, back to his optimistic outlook on life. “We’ll figure this out, Dean. We’ll figure this out together.”

I was about to respond when the first scream cut through the cool night air.

13

We all looked at one another to make sure we weren’t imagining it. But how could we? The shriek was so loud, there was no way any of us had missed it. Like a fact we didn’t want to acknowledge, we came together, looking to Elon and Stacy for a plan of action.

The howl of unnatural agony came again. It was coming from the right of our encampment in the thick folds of the jungle foliage. The light of the stars and giant moon in the night sky made seeing anything in the dense jungle brush impossible.

My imagination was running away with me as I swore I saw a silhouette of trees transformed into nighttime monsters. Shadows from bushes turned into coiled alien snakes, and swaying leaves into slender alien monkeys that wanted to suck the eyes from our sockets.

“What is it?” Tom asked, aghast.

“Aliens or human?” Boss Creed asked.

“I don’t know, and I don’t intend on any of us finding out unless it comes out here,” Elon said, shaking his head. “I read the report of what happened last time an expeditionary force entered the jungle. We don’t need a repeat of that. We’ve skirted the jungle so far for a reason.”

“I agree,” Stacy said, keeping her eyes peeled on the jungle tree line where the intermittent screams were coming from. “There’s no way we need to go in after whatever that is.”

“It—it sounds like a tormented soul, nearly human or perhaps it used to be human,” Lou added.

“Comforting thoughts,” I said, scratching at the back of my neck. “So, what are we supposed to do? Pretend we don’t hear Casanova over there serenading us through the night?”

“Exactly,” Elon said, looking over at Mark and Hannah, who stood ready to aim their weapons at anything exiting the jungle interior. “We stand guard through the night in rotating shifts, two at a time.”

Mutt came and sat down next to me. He put his left forepaw on my right boot as if he were silently claiming me, telling me that I was his and I was under his protection.

I scratched the dog’s neck, feeling his soft gray and white fur against my calloused palm.

The rest of the night, including our shared meal, was miserable to say the least. Whenever a long pause would have us thinking it was the end of the macabre noise, another shriek would assault our ears. It never grew closer or farther, just stayed the same. Somewhere just out of sight.

“Still think this is a magical place, Padre?” I asked before I turned in for the night.

“Magic? Who said this place was magic?” Doctor Allbright asked from her seat around the fire.

“Maybe not magic, but special,” Lou said. He stared into the orange flames of the fire, his face painted in an eerie glow of yellow. “Something about this place is different, and I don’t mean it’s an alien planet. No one feels anything?”

Lou finally broke his gaze and looked up at us around the fire. I almost wanted to agree with him, he looked so desperate for an answer.

“I’ll bite,” Mark said, sitting at the edge of the fire with his wife. Boss Creed and Stacy were on watch. “During my time in the military, my unit entered a city. From the beginning, we knew something was off. I don’t mean dangerous off, although that was certainly a possibility—just different, somehow, special. There were birds that had no right to make that kind of climate their home, people were living to incredibly old ages, and the water, the water was so sweet.”

Hannah reached over and grasped her husband’s hand. She gave him a squeeze.

Mark was lost in thought. His eyes didn’t see the fire in our camp, the tents beyond, or even the jungle. He was back in that city with his unit.

“We found out from a local religious shaman that the city rested on a converging intersection of energy.” Mark licked his lips and continued his story. “I did some research once we got back. I guess there are running sources of energy that intersect across the Earth, on points that those crossing beams of energy meet, strange things happen. I mean, if you believe in all of that stuff.”

“But we’re not on Earth, unless…” Tom’s voice trailed off before coming back again. “Unless this entire planet is some meeting point for these energy paths that exist across the galaxy.”

“I’m not saying anyone is right or wrong,” Doctor Allbright chimed in. “However, none of this is validated. We’re only speculating here.”

“A lot of what we take as fact now was once speculation,” I said, mulling over the idea. “I don’t know if I believe all of this energy converging mumbo jumbo, but this place is pretty weird. It’s hard to argue against that.