Page 5 of Prison Moon
Chapter Two
The temperature dropped twenty degrees when Sara stepped into the shelter of the trees. The thick canopy above her head blocked most of the sun, leaving the jungle a cool, crisp break from the oppressive heat of the Wastes.
The fear she felt when she first woke on the alien ship was nothing compared to now. Her heart hammered in her chest as if it would burst. Her eyes stung with tears she didn’t have time to shed and the urge to sit down and start screaming was so strong she had to force herself to not give in and do it.
A flash of movement to her right caught her attention. She glanced that way and saw Marcy. She shot her a look as they ran, jumping limbs and scrambling under brush until her lungs screamed for air and her legs ached from exertion.
The noise behind them grew. She looked over her shoulder and saw a mass of bodies in varying shapes and sizes, the snarls and growls turning into horrified screams, some human, some not. The human screams went silent a few moments later. She lifted her knees up higher, the phrase, run for your life, whispering through her head. She didn’t know what was happening to the other women who were on that ship with her and she didn’t have time to stop and find out, or mourn the fact she knew some of them weren’t going to make it. Neither would she if she didn’t keep going. Keeping Marcy in her peripheral, she ran until the pain in her legs and side were so intense tears filled her eyes, the noises behind her grew distant, and the trees in the jungle started to grow farther apart. Vines crawled stone walls and the smell of dirt and something that reminded her of wet moss filled the air.
A tree larger than any she’d ever seen in her life loomed, in the distance. The trunk was as large as a building, gnarled roots stretching like bony fingers were half unburied and snaking across the ground. As they neared it, she stopped running.
The far side of the tree was sitting on a structure of some kind, the roots draping the top and running down the front to crawl back into the dirt. It was four stories tall, great columns standing sentry by the open doorway. Vines crawled up the face of the stone to partially hide it from view. The stone was crumbled in places and large pieces of the structure littered the ground. It was abandoned now, nothing more than half-fallen rubble and broken stone.
Marcy stopped beside her and leaned over, bracing her hands on her knees. Sara sucked in gasps of air, placed a hand on her side and tried to walk off the stitch of pain aching at her waist. She looked through the trees behind them. Whatever had been coming for them wasn’t any longer. The growls and shrieks were now silent.
“What do you think that was used for?”
Sara huffed out a breath and looked at the stone walls in front of them. “Hard to say.” She stopped pacing and faced the structure, looking up the length of it. It was massive, whatever it was. The entrance was big enough for six people to walk inside abreast. Strange writing covered a stone tablet over the door and ran down both sides. “A bigger question is, why is it here? If this is a prison moon, why build something like this only to let it go to ruin?”
Marcy stumbled to the structure and sat down near one of the huge columns flanking the door, resting her back against the crumbling stone. “I don’t know. Maybe it wasn’t always a prison.”
“Maybe.” Sara turned in a slow circle, taking in the surrounding jungle. It was quiet here. Too quiet, actually. There wasn’t a rustle of leaves, not a chirp of insects or birds. The entire area was—tomblike. “Do you hear that, Marcy?”
Her new friend raised her head. “Hear what?”
“Exactly.”
Marcy raised an eyebrow.
“Listen.”
Long minutes passed as Marcy looked left, then right, before looking back at her. “It’s too quiet.”
She nodded and joined her next to the stone structure. “Think we should be worried?”
“When I hear something coming through the trees growling, then I’ll be worried.”
She had a point. Her legs ached as she lowered herself to the ground. “I can’t remember the last time I ate.”
“Me either. I’m starving.”
She gave the too-quiet jungle a once over. “You don’t suppose there’s a Shop n’ Save hidden out there somewhere, do you? I’d kill for a candy bar.”
Marcy snorted a laugh. “If only.”
“I know. I could drink a gallon of water, too.” She sat until her breathing returned to normal, then stood. “Now what?”
Marcy shrugged. “I don’t suppose hailing a cab will do much good.”
“Probably not.” She studied the surrounding jungle. There was nothing but trees and vines as far as she could see. “Do you want to stay here or move on and look for food and water? As much as I’d like to hide and never come out, the rule of three will take us out if we do.”
Marcy’s raised eyebrows said she had no idea what she was talking about.
“The rule of three. We can only go three weeks without food, three days without water, and three minutes without air. I’m not worried about the last one but the first two will kill us even if we manage to stay out of sight and nothing finds us.”
“Well, when you put it that way, food and water is the main priority.” Marcy stood and pulled down her short skirt. “I wish they would have given us something less revealing to wear. I feel naked in this getup.”
Sara ran her gaze over Marcy’s short dress. Shewaspractically naked. She could see enough through the shimmery material to know Marcy preferred a bikini wax and was a true redhead. “I think the less part was on purpose.”