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

going to get out of here alive. He’s right,” Tom said, rocking himself back and forth. There was a one-hundred-mile stare in his eyes as he got deeper and deeper into his own head. “We’re all going to die here. I should have never come. I should have never come.”

“Hey, we don’t need to hear any of that talk right now,” Boss Creed said with a frown. “You’re a survivor specialist. Start acting like one.”

“But I’m not,” Tom said, shaking his head. “I just said that so I could go on this excursion with you. I thought we were going to find some Transients and then head back, all done in a few days. I lied to come along. I just wanted to be the hero for once. I just wanted to help. I don’t belong here.”

“You lied about what you did for a living?” Stacy clenched her hands into fists.

I half thought she was going to move over to Tom and give him the beating of a lifetime. I wasn’t going to stop her. In fact, I couldn’t say I was wholly surprised by Tom’s revelation. He never struck me as the hardcore live-off-the-Earth kind of guy.

“Wonderful, freaking perfect.” Stacy set her jaw, stopping herself from saying more. As frustrated as she was, she understood the only way we were going to get out of this thing was with one another working together.

“Food and the rest of our supplies are on the beach,” I said out loud, already thinking about our options. “We’ve got a single rifle with a handful of rounds left, two flashlights, and a knife.”

Mutt barked from the beach, where he had taken up a position apart from the infected.

“Oh, and a Mutt,” I said with a smile on my lips. “I’ll take those odds.”

“How are you smiling at a time like this?” Tom asked.

“What other option do we have?” I asked. “I’m not going to lie down and die. That’s not who I am. That’s not who we are. We’ll figure this out. Mark didn’t sacrifice himself for us to give up now.”

I said this last part looking over at Hannah. Doctor Allbright and Lou were still with her. At the mention of her husband’s name, she looked up at me. Her red eyes could have bored holes through me. Instead of anger or tears, she gave me a resolute stare and nodded along with my words.

“There has to be hundreds of them,” Elon said, already working out a plan. “A head-on fight isn’t going to get us anywhere. We need a diversion or a way to sneak past them.”

“Maybe both,” Boss Creed said.

“What’s above this level?” I asked. “I know below us was a storage level and it’s pretty much been emptied by the crash, but what’s in the level above us?”

Elon thought a moment, trying to remember the schematics from when the Orion was whole.

“I don’t remember,” Elon said with a shrug. “I lost the data pad along with my blaster in the explosion.”

“I think it’s just another storage level,” Boss Creed said, searching back into his memory. “Maybe work supplies. I doubt any of it would still be there after the crash.”

“Only one way we’re going to find out,” Stacy said, motioning to me with her chin. “Let’s go check it out.”

“The rest of us will keep watch on the infected,” Elon said. “We’ll call to you if there’s any movement.”

“Be careful,” Boss Creed said, handing me his flashlight.

“Will do,” I said, taking the flashlight. I placed it in between my teeth as I scaled the side of the Orion.

The oncoming darkness didn’t help. The edges of the Orion were sharp and curved, footing from our soaked-through boots was slippery. After a few minutes of slowly ascending the edge of the Orion, Stacy and I made it to the next level.

This one was the third and uppermost level to have remained intact in this section of the Orion. Boss Creed was right. It was another storage level. The black crates that were strapped onto the sides of the wall had mostly been ripped from the level upon descent. There were two black crates left intact still held on to by the straps anchored into the wall. Stacy and I headed for those to see what was inside.

“Hey,” Stacy said. Something in her voice stopped me in my tracks. I gave her my full attention.

“Yeah?” I asked.

“I uh, I just wanted to say thank you for saving my life.” Stacy held my eye. “I’m not trying to get all mushy on you here, Slade. Just in case we get our necks broken by alien spore-infected colonists, I wanted to say I’m glad you got stuck on this insane planet with me.”

“Well, Stacy,” I grinned, “I think that might be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”

“You need better friends,” Stacy commented as we headed over to the first of the two crates.

“Naw, I got Mutt now. He likes me,” I said.

“You’ve got a lot more friends than Mutt now,” Stacy said as she unstrapped the heavy fabric holding the black crate in place. “I hope you know that.”

“Now who’s getting mushy?” I asked.

Stacy grinned.

We opened the first black crate. I shined the flashlight down on the contents, not really knowing what we were going to find. It was a power core for a rover. Rovers were small four-wheeled vehicles on board the Orion. They were going to be used as transportation for when we made it to Kronos Five. We all knew how that went.

“What is it?” Stacy asked, looking at the strangely shaped power unit and the cables running from it.

“It’s a power unit for a rover,” I explained to her. “Not going to do us any good here.”

“I guess asking for a crate of blasters was a little too much, huh?” Stacy asked.

“Yeah, that or a plate of sandwiches,” I said, patting my stomach.

“How can you think of food at a time like this?” Stacy asked.

“How can you not?”