Finding Solace (Ancient Origins Book 2) Read online

  “Let me off,” she screamed. Her words fell on deaf ears as the man buckled in beside her and the pilot battled to keep the plane on track. The crying and yelling of the children was too loud. Solace couldn’t make herself be heard, then it was too late.

  The craft rose high before nose diving toward the earth and the rapidly closing sinkhole. Solace’s guts fell as she watched the ground race closer. They descended into hell and all went dark. Silence ensued. Down they went into the bowls of an abyss. A sick scraping sounded as the sides of the plane hit walls, sparks flew lighting the interior in glimpses. Terrified faces gazed back at Solace and she knew they mirrored hers. The plane shot from the hole as it screeched to a close behind them. The engines sputtered and died. The plane leveled off as the wheels hit the bumpy ground. Rock formations and dingy colored shrubs flew by, it was daylight.

  The man beside her stuck out his arm as she was bumped forward. He gripped the other side of her seat pressing her back. Solace closed her eyes and concentrated on breathing while she clung to her seat. Teeth rattled, hers and others. The pounding of her heart ricocheted inside her ears. Clamping her teeth together helped her to think.

  The plane swerved to the side, forming a circle. The move was the pilot’s effort to slow it down. It came to a halt and everyone took a collective breath. Solace took note of the people on board. A tall man with a broad build stared back at her. He had short darkish hair, rugged good looks and wore tanned pants and a tan vest. He wasn’t from Doom’s village, but there was something primitive to his attire. He sprung forward and peered over the captain’s head.

  “Where the hell do you think we are now, Joe?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine, Lochlan.”

  “Damn. I hope we finally landed somewhere we can understand.” He gazed at Solace. “I’m Lochlan. What you’re on is called a plane, so don’t be scared.”

  “I know what a plane is.” Though Solace tried, she couldn’t keep the dry sarcasm from her tone. “My name is Solace, the children are Cole, his brother Blue, that’s Em and Nina and the one unconscious is Nick. I’m guessing you all know Flight, by the name of Joey Jr.” The boy grinned at her from his father’s arms.

  “Are you okay, buddy?” Joe asked his son.

  “I knew you’d come, Daddy. I told them but they never had their listening ears on,” Joey said.

  “I’m Joe,” the one holding his son began. “That’s Lochlan, Bastian, and Tain.” Solace wasn’t certain who was who with the other two men from the flippant introduction.

  “Besides the boy over there are any of you hurt?” Joe asked.

  I’m dying, Solace was thinking and was about to rage at Lochlan who’d basically kidnapped her. She was stopped by movement.

  A huge black man went to open the door but was detained by Lochlan raising a hand. “Wait, Bastian. We better sit tight for a bit and check everyone over.”

  Solace unbuckled the belt at her hips and went to Nick. The sixteen year old was still unconscious, slumped in a corner with Em pressed to his side. His wounds weren’t as bad as Solace first thought, it was the bump on his head that concerned her. She lifted his eyelids noticing they were responsive to light.

  “Are any of you doctors?” she asked.

  All gave a negative shake of their heads. Everyone turned when Nina screamed and raced into the arms of Lochlan. The surprised man had his arms to his sides until the girl screamed again. He pulled her tight. A massive snout was in the window and Solace shuddered when it snorted hot breath to fog the window inches from her face. Her heart began to pound at the ramifications gazing back at her. This isn’t my earth. Why isn’t this my earth?

  “What is that?” Nina said, still howling. “That’s not on Doom’s planet.”

  “Look.” Blue pointed.

  Solace gazed at where the four year old was pointing. A herd of scutosaurus were curiously gazing at the plane. Massive turtle-like creatures munched bushes. The earth beneath their feet was a light color of brown. Balls of dust from the ground flew then settled when they moved.

  “Crap,” Bastian said. “Where there’s a vegetarian there’s bound to be a synapsid. Yep, shit, over there. A gorgonopsid.”

  “What’s a gonogos?” Blue asked.

  “Trouble,” the last man, Tain, spoke.

  The herd scattered when a beast crept into vision. Solace stared at it. Ten feet in length, long saber fangs and covered in patches of tawny colored hair matching the sandy dirt beneath its four feet.

  “All righty boys, it’s time to lock and load. I’m starving,” Lochlan said. He disengaged Nina from his arms and sat her down in a nearby seat with a quick easy smile.

  Solace grabbed his arm. “You can’t go out there.”

  “Not yet. We’ll let the dino do the dirty, then kill it when its victim is down. That way we don’t waste as many bullets.”

  To each window they crept as the meat-eater charged its victim. Small faces in silent awe, eyes wide and round. Adults in anticipation of a meal. Plowing face first into the herbivore’s side, the gorgonopsid took a bite causing a gaping hole, intestines swung to drag across the bloodied ground.

  “Gross,” Nina whispered.

  “Cool,” was Blue’s reply.

  “Nasty,” Em said, while Cole nodded.

  The reptile stumbled, tried to flee, then fell. A massive shake of the gorgonopsid head with its huge jaws clamped around the throat and the scutosaurus was dead. The rest of the herd remained a safe distance from the plane and meat eater. The dinosaur dove face first into the belly. When it came up for a breath, its muzzle was covered in dripping blood. It chewed, then tossed back its head to swallow.

  “Well, that beast can consider itself field dressed. Time to go hunting,” Lochlan said.

  The pilot and three other men held their semi’s tight, leaving the plane and, with caution, approached the pair of dinosaurs. The great beast dwarfed them and paid them no attention. Solace watched as the gorgonopsid ripped off another mouthful. Shots were fired. The gorgonopsid staggered, the food in its mouth plopped to the ground. The creature centered its gaze onto the four miniscule beings as though to take a better look and Solace swallowed hard. Another round of bullets exploded. The staggering beast’s front legs buckled, ass in the air for only moments, it crashed to its side. Solace could feel the earth tremble and all four men seemed to jump then settle. Both dinosaurs were dead.

  Joe took out a large knife and while the others watched for intruders both inside the plane and out, he sliced huge chunks. Tain shook out a plastic silver blanket and they piled the meat onto it dragging it back. Soon a fire was built and meat was roasting. Solace made a broth for Nick who woke from the noise of the guns. The teen glared at her but accepted the food. Outside, Joey, who refused to answer to the name Flight, sat next to his father. Em, Nina, and the twins opted to take their food after it was cooked into the plane to sit with Nick.

  The day had been grueling for all of them. Joey fell asleep at his father’s hip. Joe carried him into the plane. The children were tucked into seats for the night with thin blankets as the adults sat talking by the fire. Solace was passed a cup of steaming hot coffee. She knew the men meant well, thinking they saved her. All were pleasant and polite. Good with the other children. She needed to get home. This planet wasn’t as safe as the last one if she could calculate the time period. Her emotions were torn in two. She desperately missed Menace, but the children needed her. Her emotions were a swirl of questions.

  “Did you get to the last planet you picked us up on via earth?” Solace asked.

  “If you mean the earth we began in with my plane the answer is no,” Joe said. “And how do you know it’s planets and not a vortex or different planes of existence we end up in?”

  “I don’t know. It’s a guess, you might be right. How many places have you been to?” Solace asked.

  “Five, well six counting here,” Lochlan said.

  “Joe here wanted his boy,” Bastian said and
clapped the man on the shoulder.

  “We can’t stay here,” Lochlan said.

  “No kidding, we need a place to fuel up soon. Next place we land better have something to juice up the plane.” Joe sighed.

  “What I wouldn’t give for some sense of normalcy. By the way, I’m Tain.” He was the last to introduce himself to Solace, though she’d guessed his name. Tall, blond, built and dangerous looking, his slight smile softened his rugged features. His eyes were as blue as the sky.

  “I need to go back,” Solace said.

  “What?” From all four men.

  “Menace is on the planet you took me from. You should have left me there with him.” She settled her accusing gaze on Lochlan. Dark brown eyes widened in surprise.

  “From what I saw you were battling for your lives. I felt like shit leaving the other woman there. Grabbing you was pushing it. If I could have gotten my hands on those two other kids instead I would have.”

  “I know what it must have looked like, but we were winning the battle and those two kids, Kiki and Luke, would never have left willingly either. You might have had a hand severed or been bitten, and not just by the children. The boy Luke and his older sister Kiki have lived on that planet for three years with the boy Nick, who by the way hates everyone. Clarity and Doom have made the children part of their lives, and they would die to protect them. So would I and Menace. I know Menace is alive and he will be worried for all of us. I was hoping you were taking us back to our Earth. I could have found the sinkhole that brought me to the other planet and returned. I could have gotten these kids to family. It’s obvious you have no control over where you’re going. Menace will be worried sick when I don’t return.”

  “Why would you think we have control over sinkholes? Do I look like a magician? Menace? Who the hell names their kid Menace?” Bastian asked, his dark eyes wide.

  “The same type of people who would name their son Doom. The world they live on is wild. Dinosaur hybrids, the Neandersauri, with a flesh and bone covered skeleton inside a flesh and bone covered skeleton. Hybrids, dinosaur slash Neanderthal slash crazy weird-as-shit things. A meteor never hit that Earth or plane of existence or whatever.” Solace tossed the last of her meat in the fire. “It’s imperative I get back after we get these kids to a safe place. If you don’t know where we’re going next we could end up anywhere. We need to get away from here, which I do know.”

  “Even if we wanted to take you back, there’s no guarantee we’ll hit the right sinkhole. You’re right. This is a crapshoot of places. Or different planets. We have no clue. Do you?” Lochlan said.

  “No, but I’ll try every sinkhole until I get it right. I’m going back.” Solace stood, resolved. She dumped the remains of the liquid in her cup onto the ground, watching as the soil absorbed it greedily.

  “Listen,” Joe said, his gray eyes burning with passion as he spoke. There was a five o’clock shadow to darken his features making his chestnut hair seem deeper in color. “Every sinkhole is a crap shoot. You wouldn’t believe the shit we’ve seen. When we set out, we never once went back home. It’s always been in different places we landed. Some are worse than the one we grabbed you from. I’m sure we landed in the same spot three different times in different places. Or we went back in time. I’d like to fucking go ahead in time and find some damned fuel and go home. We may or may not end up on that planet or place of yours again. The one thing I’m certain of is this place is no good. From the type of dinosaurs here, you know the Earth is about to become a mass of volcanic eruption. I for one don’t want to be around when that happens.”

  Solace knew he was right about the planet, or place they were in. Ultimate destruction was at hand the longer they stayed here. The particular dinosaurs gave the era away. Solace had no more clue about where the sinkholes took them than the others. Crappy crap shoots.

  “How much fuel do you have left?” Solace asked.

  “Enough for maybe two more sinkholes. Wherever we land next better have something or we’re up shit creek.”

  Lochlan laughed. “Look around. We’re already in the creek. I can feel the heat of the earth under my ass. From the looks of this era we may be out of time sooner than we expect.”

  The sun dipped in the horizon. “This time period doesn’t have much daylight.” Bastian glanced around. “As much as I’d love to stick around and see what happens in this era, it’s not a wise idea.”

  “I’m having trouble with the air,” Tain said. “Or maybe it’s the smell of the air.”

  “The volcanoes will start to erupt.” Lochlan rose. “We’re safer piled together in the plane. First light, we can work on the engines. Daylight is bad enough, but working on anything in the dark is asking for trouble.”

  Solace silently agreed. She climbed into the plane and settled in a vacant seat as everyone piled inside and the door was closed and barred. Lochlan maneuvered across from the door, sitting on the floor, wide awake taking first shift. Solace was certain this was going to be a long night.

  Chapter Three

  The clanging of metal woke Solace. As she sat up from her slumped position, Cole climbed into her lap.

  “I miss Mences.”

  “Me too, sweetheart.”

  Solace ruffled his dark blond hair smiling. Blue joined them. He also missed Menace, the child’s deep blue eyes were filled with sadness. His shock of red hair was in disarray. He wrapped little arms around her neck and she hugged him back. She hadn’t failed these children, and this was her only consolation. She did need to get back, but now she knew the children were safer with her no matter where they landed.

  “You stole me.”

  The stilted outraged words were from Nick. Solace gazed at him. “We hoped to save your life. I had hoped this plane would take us back to our Earth. You need a doctor. You’re injured.”

  “Many times injured,” he snapped back and held out his crooked arms to her. He pointed to his many scars on his scantily-clad body. “Many times heal, me heal me.”

  “You were exposed in the open. We were afraid you would be killed.”

  “I go back.”

  “I hope so,” Solace said, her tone quiet.

  Nick glared daggers at her until she narrowed her gaze onto him refusing to back down. The sixteen year old harbored a hate of Doom to his core. At six years, he watched his older brother being left in the forest for the time of the sacrifice. Nick was slashed by a Neandersauri that also broke his arm while he was trying to aid his brother, and was left where he fell. The hybrids didn’t want children, and he never saw his brother again.

  The teen was a survivor, and Solace knew he went on to help other children. He saved the girl Kiki and her young brother Luke who were now with Doom and Clarity—Solace hoped. Solace wondered if she would ever find out what happened. Until then, the wild child Nick was hers to deal with. His irregular speech was clipped from being nonverbal for years. Kiki taught him or reminded him of his language. Solace couldn’t imagine the lonely life of a battered broken child unaided on a dangerous planet for so many years. A thought occurred to her.

  “How many children have you lost in your care, Nick?” She remembered Kiki telling her the children of the alternate Earth didn’t fare well on Menace’s planet. Those children were meek, quiet, and un-disputing, lambs with no backbone. Or perhaps it wasn’t a lack of a backbone but more trusting in everyone and everything. Nothing on their sweet unsuspecting planet prepared them for fight. Whereas children from Solace’s Earth like Kiki, Luke, Nina, Em, and the twins were fighters, thinkers, and tiny rebels. They could learn to defend themselves and had.

  “Not my fault. Not lead to slaughter.”

  “No, not your fault, but I bet you blame their loss on Doom.”

  “Some childs want adults, not Nick.”

  Ah, I see. “So some children saw the villagers and felt they would be safer with Doom?”

  “I warn. Not listen.”

  “Some of the children found their way to him an
yway.”

  “Not all.” He appeared uncomfortable.

  “You refused to take them to Doom, didn’t you? They were killed along the way.”

  “Better dead than with Doom. I not lead to slaughter. You not get it.”

  Angrily Nick turned his head to look out a window. She breathed a sigh of relief not wanting an argument because she did get what he said, and the guilt he was feeling showed in his body language. She then quickly glanced back when he spoke, his surprise apparent.

  “Not see that before.”

  Solace shifted the twins to crouch at another window. A gorgonopsid was watching the front of the plane. It was so close she fell back against a seat. Nick hadn’t seen the one the day before, only partaken of its victim’s meat. Struggling to her feet she saw Bastian and Lochlan at the engine. The dinosaur was fast, and it stood at a man’s height with two feet of skull. The twelve-centimeter saber fangs were glistening. Tufts of fur flittered around its body as the dinosaur weaved back and forth. A huge glob of drool slid to the ground from the side of its mouth. Breakfast was on its mind.

  Solace banged on the window to get the men’s attention then pointed. Lochlan saluted her with his gun. Shaking her head she moved to a seat and faced Nick. There came a rapid series of shots. The earth bumped under them. Nick clamped his hands to his ears until the loud bursts stopped.

  “Bombs in guns?” he asked.

  “Sort of. You listen to me. This Earth is in its beginning dinosaur stage. Soon the volcanos will erupt. If you take off and run away and aren’t here when we leave, you will be left behind. So suck it up, soldier. If you want to see your world again, stay put.”

  “I not leave. I go back for Doom.”

  “The hybrids killed your brother. Doom was as trapped as you are. He’s not trapped anymore. The weapons Clarity has armed Doom and his villagers with make your bow and arrows look like child’s play. You’d do better to join their ranks.”

  “No join. No one help me.”

  “No you didn’t need help, but you’ve had a taste of companionship. I saw you. I saw you run to help Kiki. I saw you pick up the sword and try and swing. You care. You kept them alive; you saved them. Why not let someone save you?”