Planet Urth: The Savage Lands (Book 2) (24 page)

“
No one knows for sure, but that is what is believed.  That is what’s taught in school,” Sully answers.

“The President and his people went underground.  I get that.  But what happened afterward, after years passed?” Oliver asks.

“I’m sure you heard some of it from your parents.  The stories have been told for centuries.  But I’m guessing it was much worse than what any of you heard.”

“Why is that?” Will asks.  The trace of an edge returns to his voice.
  “Why would our parents or family withhold the truth from us?”

“
As I said, it’s just a guess.  I don’t know that they did or didn’t.  I know if I had a kid I wouldn’t feel comfortable telling her how our ancestors were torn to shreds by mutant versions of their own species when they came up after more than two decades of being holed up.”

I
hear a pair of startled gasps.  I assume one was from June and the other was from Riley. 

“See what I mean?” Sully says
to Will without the slightest hint of arrogance.  “They heard filtered versions.  They don’t know that the President and the others thought they’d destroyed every living thing in the world and that whatever altered beings, if any, existed, they’d be long dead before they surfaced.  They thought they’d reclaim the planet and everything would be fine.  They were wrong.”

Sully does not speak dramatically.  He shares his knowledge offhandedly.  Perhaps that’s why his words are so haunting.  I wrap my arms around
June more tightly to combat the chill that’s settled deep in my bones despite the pleasant temperature of the room. 

“How do you know the same hasn’t happened to the people of the underground city?” Oliver asks concernedly.

“I don’t,” Sully says bluntly.  “Not for a fact at least.  But facts or no facts, I’m pretty sure everyone’s fine and things are still humming along down there,” he adds and his eyes shine with what I suspect are unshed tears.  He blinks and looks to his feet for a moment then continues.  “Those people, my kin, they could live forever down there, right under the radar of those mutant monsters.  They’ve got livestock and indoor food growing capabilities.”

“But the President and everyone down there after the war, didn’t they have all that stuff too?” June asks.

“They had what they thought would carry them for more than two decades, and they had guns.  They thought that when they ran out of supplies, they could come up then return.”

“Wait a
second.  Didn’t their guns do anything against the monsters when they came up?” Oliver asks.

“At first, yes.  Heavily armed men and women were able to fight them off for a while.  But they soon found out they were outnumbered.
As their ammunition dwindled so too did their numbers.  They were slaughtered shortly after their ammunition ran out.

“
The offspring of the warped monsters were in their teens at the time and had more intelligence than their parents.  They were what Urthmen are today.  They led their older, diseased family members, and they destroyed every modern weapon they found, knowing that without them, humans couldn’t beat them.  They knew they had the survivors outnumbered and would eventually kill off the entire human race.  And they nearly succeeded.  There aren’t many of us left.”

“But why?” June asks, tears streaming down both cheeks.  “I know what they did, but I don’t understand why.  Why did they hunt humans then?  Why do they hunt us now?”

“That, June, is the one question teachers and history books do not have the answer to, not a finite one they agree on.  Some say the potent combination of the two viruses altered more than just the DNA of affected people, that it changed their brains and gave them a bloodlust. 

“
Others say they resented humans that were unchanged, hated them with such passion that they became murderous, motivated by the purest of jealousy.  But those are just two of the many theories.  No one really knows.  Only the original ancestors of Urthmen held the answer to your question, June,” Sully says.

I feel as if a frigid thread has made its way i
nto my veins, into my lifeblood, and has instilled cold in me that will never warm.  I heard a milder version of Urth’s history, just as Sully thought,  And I suspect everyone in the room save for Jericho and Sully had the same experience, for we all bear the same troubled expressions.  Being reminded that the first Urthmen were humans whose DNA was scrambled by a senseless attack perpetrated by other human beings still staggers me.  Knowing the details compounds the shock I feel with a thick layer of disgust. 

“I want to go there,” June releases me and says.  She turns to Sully.  “I want to go to New Washington.  Can you take me there?”  She swipes tears from her face with her fingertips. 

“It’s probably long gone,” Will says gently.

“No,” Sully disagrees sharply.  He looks June directly in the eye.  “New Washington lives on now as it did during those first two decades after the war, only better, more efficient.”

“You said yourself you don’t know for sure if it’s still there,” Will counters but without condescension.

“I said I don’t know for a fact.  But I know my city.  And I know it’s there.  I feel it in my bones,” he says with confidence that is inspiring.  “June
, if you want to go there I’ll take you.  But I won’t stay down there.  I can’t be underground, cowering, while other human beings are up here being slaughtered.”

“Uh,
she’s not going anywhere, Sully.  Not without me agreeing first,” I say.  The words fly from my mouth of their own accord, reflexively like breathing.  June is my sister, my responsibility, not Sully’s.  He may be a new addition to our clan, but he is, by no means, in charge.  

Amusement twinkles in his eyes, only this time I do not find it charming. 
“Okay then Avery, do I have your permission to take June to the underground city I grew up in?”

“No,” I answer immediately, defiance carving into my tone.  “You do not.  My sister stays with me.”

“Oh Avery, I’m afraid you misunderstand me.  If she wants to go, we all go to New Washington, together.”  Sully’s words are like a slap to the back of my head, unexpected and disorienting at the same time. 

“What?” is all I manage to say.

“We’re not safe here, you know that, right?”

“Uh no, we seem okay to me, what with all your cameras and wires and gadgets, and guns,” I say and sweep my arm, gesturing to the piles of equipment and miscellany he has.

“It would seem that way.  I get that.  But we killed a prince today, the Prince of Planet Urth.”

“We didn’t kill anybody. 
You
killed Prince Boart-Boy, whoever he is.  Not us,” I remind him.

“And
you would have done the same in my position,” he fires back. 

He is right, of course.  I am stuck, at a loss for words temporarily.  My insides grow hot, thawing the iciness from earlier.  “Fin
e.  You’re right.  I would have,” I concede.  “But that’s not the point.”

“Neither is who killed him.  The fact of the matter is he’s dead, and Urthmen, stupid as they are, know that one of their own didn’t take him out.  A human did.  And which humans made a big old spectacle of themselves at a very public place?”

“We did,” I roll my eyes as his point gels. 

“Precisely,” Sully says with barely restrained triumph. 

I realize in that moment that we do not have a choice in the matter.  We must leave.  June, Will, Oliver, Riley and myself must journey with Sully and Jericho out into the unknown.  We must find the underground city, New Washington.

Chapter 16

I look
among Will, Oliver and Riley for an answer, for some form of confirmation that they are or aren’t on board with venturing off in search of the underground city.  The children appear to be more than willing to go.  But Will is a different story. 

The muscle at the side of his jaw is working continuously.  Hard and unreadable, his features betray nothing. 

“Will, what do you think about all this?” I ask him.

The only way I know he’s heard me is when his eyes finally rest on me.  And even then, they reveal nothing
. 

Sully’s eyes dart between us
, and he claps his hands together loudly.  “How about I give you two a moment to hash things out?”

“Thanks,” I say to Sully absently. 

Sully joins Jericho and they disappear behind a mountain of supplies.  With them out of earshot, I turn to face Will.

“Well, what do you think?” I repeat my question. 

“Sounds like it doesn’t really matter what I think.”

His words land like a slap across my face.  They sting and I was unprepared for them.  “Will, I never—” I start but he interrupts me.

“Never what, meant to ask me whether I want to go off with these two guys, who, by the way, we know nothing about?”

“No that’s not what I was going to say—”

“Well it doesn’t matter now I guess.  Ask me, don’t ask me.  You call all the shots now.  You said so yourself,” he huffs and tosses both hands in the air. 

“Will,” I say gently.  “It’s me.  What’s going on?”

“I know I almost got us killed.  I know my actions at the house are what got us caught and landed us in the arena, but that doesn’t forfeit my right to decide for myself, or at least be consulted before life-changing plans are made.”  His tone is less angry, and I understand what he is saying.  I never meant to make him feel as though I’d stripped him of having a voice in what we do or where we go.

“I’m sorry,” I say plainly.  Judging from the stunned look on Will’s face, I can see he is taken aback. 

“What?” he asks, his face scrunched in confusion. 

“I’m sorry I made you feel as if a mistake surrendered your right to be involved in your destiny.”

His shoulders slump and any hostility I sensed seconds earlier seeps from him.  He rubs his forehead then scrubs both hands over his face.

“We don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” I say and lightly touch his forearm.

He lowers his hands from his face slowly, but not before he clasps a hand over mine, holding it in place.  “Yes we do,” he says and meets my gaze.  His eyes are the sky and land merged, paled by light so that they are a translucent blend of blue and green.  My breath catches in my chest as he holds me with them.  “Yes, we do,” he says again. 

“The children will be—” I start to say.

“Not just for them, but for us too.  We could make a life there.”

The intensity of his words and the gleam in his eyes suggest that there’s more to leaving than simply finding a safe haven to hide from the monsters who roam that planet, that maybe the opportunity to actually live rather than exist is real.

A quiver races from my chest and passes through my stomach at the notion.  Envisioning life without the constant worry and tension of ever-present danger seemed like a dream before today.  As hard as it is to imagine, I find myself yearning for it too. 

But with that yearning comes the continual niggle at the back of my brain.  Living
secretively in an underground utopia, as magical as it sounds, does not erase what is going on in the rest of the world.  It does not make me immune to the plight of my species. 

A calling beckons me, ringing through my core like the toll of a bell, and I know what must happen. 

“Yes, that is true,” I tell Will as my eyes well with tears.  “So I take it you want to go?” I sniffle then ask him. 

“Yes, I do.  I want to go to New Washington,” he replies, his eyes shining. 

Without warning, Will closes the distance between us and embraces me tightly.  I feel his heart pounding against my chest, keeping time with my own frantic heartbeat, and I am lost in his scent, his warmth.  Time and planning cease to exist.  Wars and monsters, danger and death, all of it falls by the wayside as I inhale his rich, musky scent.  My arms reach out and match the ferocity with which he clutches me.  I am dizzy, giddy with an inexplicable joy so filling it borders on sadness.  I feel as if I am floating, suspended above my own body on the wings of a mighty bird.  And I am not afraid.  In fact, I don’t want to come down.  He lowers his chin, dipping his head so that his lips hover just above mine.  His hot breath feathers against my mouth, only this time, I am ready.  I know what he intends to do and I will let him.  He inches close, our hearts drilling in sync.

“So are we going, Avery?” June
asks. 

I snap my head in her direction, her
voice anchoring itself to me and yanking me back to reality.  My hands fall to my sides and I step away from Will, embarrassed, though unsure why exactly.  “Uh yes, we’re going,” I answer.

“Yay!” June cheers.  “Riley, Oliver, we’re going!” she calls out to the others. 

A lively eruption occurs among the children followed by a buzz of excitement that is palpable.  I look at Will to see whether he can feel it to, but his eyes are cast downward.  I want to reach out to him, but as soon as my hand rises from my thigh, Sully’s voice fills the room.