Taming a Planet (Trapped in Time Book 2) (22 page)

The shirtless man inserted a crank into the side of the hollow leg not lashed to the tree. He turned it and the upper beam began moving upward. He smiled and lowered it. He turned to a warrior standing next to him, “Launch the rocket.” The warrior went over to the sand and pushed a pole with a long cylinder into the sand. He ignited a small flame and attempted to light the rocket. The wind instantly blew it out. It finally took the Torturer pulling a company of warriors over to stand close together to block the wind for the fuse to be lit. The rocket shot into the sky and blew up in a loud explosion. Andy looked out at the fleet and saw a boat being lowered from the center ship. He saw a blonde haired woman being lowered by a rope around her chest to the boat. She was coming.

He watched the boat riding the swells as the crew pulled hard on the oars. When it was two hundred yards out, he saw the woman had a leather mask over her head. The Torturer had learned that victims were more terrified at the sound of him sharpening blades if they couldn’t see him. He took pleasure in touching his victims with the blades of his knives and seeing them try to jerk away. The mask would be removed before he made the first cut. But first, he was going to stretch out with his prey. He laughed at the thought and watched the boat arrive at the beach.

The Admiral climbed out of the boat and nodded to the two warriors carrying Melody. They dropped her into the waves rolling in and she went under. They waited a moment and then pulled her up; she was racked with coughs getting salt water out of her lungs. They dragged her over to the frame and dropped her on the sand face down as the torturer smiled. He took a long bladed knife and cut her clothes from her neck to her feet and pulled them away from her. He nodded to his assistant and he went over and removed the ropes binding her arms and replaced them with a loop. He took the rope below the loop and bound her wrists together. He nodded to the two warriors and they lifted Melody and slipped the loop over a hook on the top beam. She hung with her feet a foot off the ground and the torturer pushed her. She screamed as she swung back and forth from the hook. Andy was worried. She was going to be severely hurt if this continued. He saw what they were going to do.

The torturer stopped her swinging and nodded to the assistant. The assistant took another loop and bound Melody’s legs together at the ankles. He took the loop hanging from them and slipped it over a hook in the middle of the bottom beam. He held it there until the torturer turned the crank and took out the slack. He turned the crank three more times and Melody was stretched tightly between the upper and lower beam. She screamed on the last turn of the crank. The torturer smiled, looked at the Admiral, and nodded. The Admiral raised his arms and warriors carrying huge megaphones ran out of their ranks toward the tree line. The warriors were in formation over a front that was close to a mile long and every hundred yards a warrior with a megaphone ran forward. They began yelling that if the traitors did not turn themselves in, the woman was going to die.

Andy saw Melody was in a bad way decided he wasn’t going to wait any longer. He pulled his red blaster and moved silently down the tree. Just as he arrived at the lowest branch, he heard it. He smiled as the noise grew and the Destroyers at the tree line turned and ran back toward their lines. The torturer, along with his assistant and the Admiral, turned and stared at the forest next to the beach. They could hear the roar of predators and the roars were getting closer and louder. They left the frame and walked closer to their line of warriors and stood behind the largest concentration in the center; the noise was so loud it hurt their ears.

The first shots fired came from the northern end of the Destroyer line but were instantly followed by all of them as thousands of carnivores burst through the trees running toward their lines.

Andy slipped down from the tree and walked up behind Melody and put his camouflaged hand over her mouth and said, “Don’t scream!” Melody almost screamed but heard the voice and tried to see who it was but she was pulled too tight to turn. Her arms kept her head pinned between them, “I’m going to cut you down in a moment and cover you with a blanket. I’m going to pick you up and carry you out of here. I need you to be quiet and as still as you possibly can. Nod if you understand.” Melody was scared out of her wits at the roars of the predators and it was a good thing she was blindfolded where she couldn’t see them rushing into the ranks of the Destroyers thirty yards in front of her. She nodded and suddenly felt the tension in the rope holding her legs disappear. She felt the rope holding her arms suddenly slacken and she fell on the shoulder of someone, who threw a covering over her as he began running toward the water. She couldn’t see anything and she whimpered in pain as her joints protested the stress they had endured. She bit her lip and felt the man carrying her pick up speed as he started running on the hard sand.

• • •

Mitchell saw Andy moving down the tree and knew he was going to do something stupid. He began climbing down and as he reached the bottom branch he heard the predators coming. He slid down the trunk keeping the tree between him and the Destroyer lines. He pulled his blaster and saw Andy cut Melody down and start running his way. Andy arrived and Mitchell took her off his shoulder and threw her over his shoulder as they continued to run. Andy took her after a hundred yards and they continued to carry the moaning woman up the beach. They didn’t have to worry. The gunfire and roars of the Dinosaurs drowned out everything. The ships finally got their act together and began firing their cannons into the trees beyond the beach. This continued for a very short time before they grew silent.

Three archers met Andy and Mitchell behind the destroyer line and assisted them in carrying her. They ran past the end of the Destroyer line and continued for another three hundred yards and then entered the trees. Andy dropped to his knees and said, “Scatter and keep a look out for them!”

Melody felt the ground under her and suddenly felt something being slipped over her legs, “What are you doing!”

“I’m putting a uniform on you to help me hide you, be still.”

Melody was embarrassed. She knew whoever was pulling the clothes on her was seeing her nude. She started shaking her head and said, “Take off this mask! I’m burning up.” She felt hands on her head and the head cover was pulled off. She looked around and didn’t see anyone and she started to panic; she could still feel hands pulling up the uniform. “WHERE ARE YOU!?!”

Andy reached up and pulled his head cover off and continued to pull the camouflage suit up to Melody’s shoulders as he slipped her arms in the sleeves and buttoned the front. She looked at him and Andy saw shock on her face. He said, “Look at your feet.”

Melody looked down and didn’t see her body. The suit he had put on her made her invisible. She looked at Andy and said, “I know you!” Andy’s eyes narrowed and Melody saw his confusion. “You started appearing in my dreams a year ago and continued until two months ago. Who are you?”

Mitchell heard the exchange and knew Andy was going to be hit by the remarks. He rushed over as Andy lowered his head and put his face in his hands. Mitchell whipped off his head cover and lifted Melody to her feet, “Can you walk?”

Melody tried to stand and collapsed. Mitchell caught her and Andy shook his head and removed his hands. Melody saw an anguish that was soul deep. “Mitch, take her up the beach and keep going until we come for you. I’m counting on you to make sure she comes to no further harm.”

“I will, Andy.” Mitch looked at his squad of five archers and said, “Let’s go.” Mitchell picked up Melody and started running. She screamed over his shoulder, “WHO ARE YOU!”

Mitchell said harshly, “Not now! You’ve already caused him enough pain!”

Melody was being pummeled by the running archer and the pain in her joints was unbearable but she refused to cry out, “What do you mean?”

“He was married to your sister. She was killed two months ago and he’s still suffering from the loss. We knew you were a twin,” Mitchell took a breath and continued, “but we didn’t know you were an identical twin. Seeing you brought her death back in full force for him. We’ve got to have him at his full wits for the coming fight.”

“Why?”

“He is our leader. We depend on him to guide us and I need to get you as far away from him as I can. God, I hope he can pull himself together.”

Mitchell put Melody down and another archer picked her up, “He must have loved her very much.”

Mitchell took quick breaths but managed to say, “You have no idea how much.” The archer began running and Melody remained silent. Harmony was dead. She had run a year ago and that is when the dreams started. She suddenly realized that she was more in touch with her twin sister than she ever expected. She endured the pain of being carried until an hour later she yelled for them to put her down. She was taken off the archer’s shoulder and stood on her legs. She managed to stand and take a few steps. “Let me walk for a little while.”

“We need to keep moving.”

“I suspect they won’t be coming this way. If your leader is as good as you say, he’s planned to keep them occupied.”

Mitchell stared at Melody and swore it had to be Harmony. She saw his expression and raised an eyebrow. Mitchell shrugged, “This is going to take some getting used to; you are so much like your sister.”

“Was she a good person?”

“Are you?”

Melody was surprised by the question and said, “I guess so.”

“Then you should know she was as well. Let’s keep walking. If you need us to carry you, let me know.” Within another hour, Melody was quickly walking and then jogging along the beach. That’s when they heard the rapid fire booms of the Destroyer’s rifles. They stopped and looked back but Mitchell said, “Keep moving; what’s happening there is beyond our control.” They began moving quickly north again as the number of shots ringing out in the distance became a continuous roar.

• • •

The number of dead and dying dinosaurs on the beach were too numerous to count. The same could not be said of the Destroyers; they lost thirteen hundred and seventy eight warriors to the onslaught. The Admiral and Torturer stood up from behind the heaviest concentration of warriors and shook their head. The torturer turned around and screamed, “WHERE DID SHE GO?”

The Admiral turned around and saw the frame was empty. He looked at the torturer, “Could a predator have taken her?”

The Torturer ran to the frame and screamed, “There’s no blood and the ropes are cut clean.”

The silence after the roar of the dinosaurs was eerie. The Admiral started to respond to the Torturer when they head a female’s voice emerge from the trees, “I will never surrender to you dung heads.”

It was followed by a male voice yelling, “Tell my brother I hope he dies choking on his own blood!”

The Admiral looked at the Warrior’s Commander and yelled, “Go and get them.”

“This could be a trap.”

“If I have to tell you again, your troops will be led by a new Commander!”

The Commander knew he had no choice. He yelled, “Form up and move out. Find those people and bring them to me.”

The eight thousand plus Destroyer Warriors began moving into the trees with their rifles raised. This was incredibly stupid but they had no choice. Their best hope was to run the ones down that had yelled and bring them back to the Admiral. The lines rushed forward and disappeared from the beach.

• • •

The ship’s Commander sat in a chair on the stern of his ship and watched the slave being hung on the wooden frame. All of the warriors were gathered around him and they laughed at what was happening and the betting began. They could even hear the muffled yells from the megaphones as the warriors on shore called for the surrender of the two traitors. Then, they began hearing roars. The roars grew louder until they rolled over the high tide between the ships and the shoreline. The ships had been allowed to drift close to shore on the high tide, but not too close. The eruption of the dinosaurs out of the trees was stunning in its impact. The Captain’s Deck Watch Leader said, “What’s going on?”

“What do you mean?”

The Deck Leader pointed, “Look at the slave!”

The Commander forced his attention to the wooden frame and saw the slaves feet were hanging free of the rope holding them. Suddenly the slave dropped and disappeared. The Captain stood up and yelled, “Launch a boat; we need to tell the Admiral.”

The Deck Leader said, “Would you want to take a boat into that?”

The Commander turned and saw a wave of giant carnivores follow the thousands of Raptors on to the beach and he said, “Hold on that order!” He looked at the ship anchored to the right of his vessel and saw the ship’s Commander looking at him. He had to have seen the slave’s disappearance as well. He held up his hands saying, “What the heck just happened?”

The other Commander raised his arms and shrugged. Suddenly, the other Commander and all the warriors gathered around him burst into a dark orange mist and blew away in the wind. Their clothes fell to the deck. Stern He was shocked for an instant and started to yell for his warriors to spread out. He only had time to open his mouth before he dissolved and blew away in the wind with all the warriors surrounding him.

Some of the ships followed protocol and had their cannon crews manning the stern cannons whenever warriors were on shore. They began firing into the trees beyond the Destroyer positions but their fire soon diminished and then stopped.

• • •

John and the first five members of his team came gliding in on the easterly wind and lined up with the Destroyer ship they had been assigned. John flew over the middle of the ship as two fliers passed on each side of the vessel. They began firing their red blasters as they arrived at the ship’s bow and continued to fire until they had passed the stern. The next fliers came in less than two hundred feet behind them and swept the decks again. The first team swung around as soon as they cleared the stern of the giant ship and turned back into the wind tacking against it.