The Circadia Chronicles: Omnibus: The Complete Colonization Sci-Fi Series by Heather Heckadon (books to read to get smarter .txt) 📗

“Leslie!” I yelled.

Smith’s eyes shot open wide in panic. Leslie did a slow turn to face me, his upper lip quivering and teeth gritting. “I’m sorry, did you just speak to me?”

“Yeah, I did,” I answered boldly. “Why are you doing this?” I drove my eyes into his demanding an answer. Everyone went quiet. Smith stood there trembling. The man sitting next to me tugged at my pants, trying to get me to sit back down. “What’s the point of all of this? I know there’s a reason you’re doing this! What is it? You can’t be this bad of a person. What gives?” I was calm. My hands were still now, no longer trembling.  I could feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins, flowing, as I waited for an answer. I just needed to know. I couldn’t believe this was all just over power, there had to be something else. This was low, even for Leslie. I just needed to know before he killed us all. I knew I would die for questioning him. I knew my friends probably would too, but I didn’t have a care in the world about anything but the answer to my question when I stood up.

He stared back at me for what felt like hours—even though I’m sure it was only a few moments—until he answered in a quiet voice. “You dumb, naïve girl. You think—”

“If I’m so dumb then shoot me. Shoot me, instead of her.” I glanced towards Sierra. “Come on, shoot me.” My eyes panned to see Smith’s eyes darting between me and Leslie.

Leslie looked down and shook his head. A tight grin swept across his face as he looked up. “Smith,” he said. “You heard the woman, she’d like to make a trade. Shoot her instead.”

Smith’s eyes bulged from his head. His arms held the gun that shook in his hands still aimed at Sierra. “I can’t,” he said.

“You can and you will,” Leslie growled. His lip quivered as he stared Smith down, his face red.

Smith’s eyes welled up, as his arms slowly swung in my direction. Once the gun was pointed at me, I stared back at his glistening eyes. “Do it,” I said.

“I’m sorry,” he said and closed his eyes.

I took a deep breath in. This was it. Smith was going to pull the trigger, and it would all be over. I never got an answer from Leslie, but in that moment it didn’t matter. It was too late. I closed my eyes and exhaled. Here it comes, I thought.

Boom. The percussion from the gunpowder lighting exploded in my ears, and I quickly squinted my eyes shut tighter and waited for the bullet...but there was nothing. I opened my eyes to see Smith staring down at the gun with wide eyes and a roar of smoke behind him. To everyone's surprise, the loud boom hadn’t come from the gun but rather the explosion that went off nearby.

Leslie’s house went up in flames. I shot a glance over to Leslie to see his reaction. He was knelt down with an arm up to block the intense heat that was beginning to radiate our way. I did catch a glimpse of his face though, and his expression was priceless. “What the hell?” he cried.

Boom. There was another hit to the surrounding huts. Three more explosions rang out as the crew began to panic. Some came running from the huts on fire, screaming. It was jarring, but I knew this was the time. This was the time to run.

The time to make a decision was now. For fear of being caught again I was scared to run, so I had to make sure I went in the right direction, and quickly. Naturally, everyone was running away from the explosions, so I decided to run towards them. Right past Smith.  Smith turned to look me in the eye for a second, but he didn’t make any motion to stop me. I took off for the field in a hurry, and the rest of the group followed. I heard a few captured behind me, but we ran like mad through the creek and the field. Spencer waited on the opposite side, waving his arms to draw our attention.

Chapter Four

AS WE ENTERED THE WOODS, Spencer led us away from the camp and into the wilderness of Circadia. He moved quickly, and we all struggled to keep up. Our breathing came rapidly as we jumped over downed trees and maneuvered through thick brush. No one chased after us. They were too busy with damage control in the camp from the explosions.

I threw a glance over my shoulder to see who had made it, and there were only about ten people following me. We had taken a drastic drop in numbers from the meeting area to the field, but at least we were out. Where we were going, though, I had no idea.

Spencer turned to give me a wink. “We have a lot farther to go, so let’s keep a good pace going.”

Deeper and deeper we went until we reached a large cliff. Spencer turned around to assess all of us, then said, “Follow me.” He began scaling the wall of the cliff. Hanging on to jagged rocks and ledges for support, he looked down to see that we weren’t following. “Hurry up, before someone sees you.”

I took to the cliff first, and the rest of the group followed suit. I grabbed for ledges of rocks that felt as though they would crumble away the second I touched them. Sweat ran from my face as I struggled up the cliff. My hands became slippery and shaky from the exhaustion. Finally, I watched as Spencer crested a ridge up ahead of me, and I pushed forward.

At first, my hand felt the ledge, then I hoisted my entire arm up over the edge to gain a grip.