Page 45 of Jude

Chapter 10

The first thing Judefelt was a tingling in his right hand. He tried to open his eyes, but they felt glued shut by something sticky.

He attempted to turn, but a lancing pain in his right side convinced him it was better to stay still.

His parched tongue traced over his swollen, split lips. The metallic tang of his own blood made him gag.

The memories hit all at once. Being at the air raid shelter, collecting the equipment, being discovered by the soldiers. Octavia being taken away. The beating he’d received.

Where the fuck was he?

Jude took several deep breaths, each one making his chest throb. With effort, his right eye partially opened. He blinked several times, and saw a pale-gray dawn light overhead. Wherever the hell he was, it stank like rotten meat.

Turning his head to the left, he came face to face with the blank-eyed gaze of a middle-aged man.

As Jude’s vision continued to clear, he could see there were more dead bodies around him. Swallowing his horror, Jude realized he was in a pit full of dead and dying people.

The sound of quiet, distressed moans filled his ears. There were other injured people in the pit.

Wrapping an arm around his ribs and easing himself away from the dead man lying next to him, Jude gingerly sat up. Something dug into his right shoulder. He reached around and realized he still wore the backpack containing the equipment from the air raid shelter.

The pit he was in was a long, wide rectangle, about thirty feet by twenty feet. It was full of bodies. Jude had seen this before. It was a death pit. The State used them as an easy way to clear up after a mass attack on a population. When they’d first taken over, these pits had been dug in every urban area.

He’d never expected to find himself in one.

Scanning across the sea of broken and damaged bodies, he tried to find Octavia. Had they brought her here too? The last memory he had was of her being dragged away by a tall, solid-looking soldier with acne scars and a dangerous glint in his eyes.

She’d been foolish to try to escape, but Jude had admired her courage as she’d fought the soldiers. They’d be nursing bruises for days.

Shifting onto his knees, Jude stifled a groan. He had no clue if there were any militia around. The death pits were usually operated by civilians. He didn’t know what they’d do when they saw one of their dead crawling out.

His hand went to the empty holster on his belt. Of course, they’d taken his weapon.

Crawling to the edge of the pit, stifling another gag as he slid on the cold flesh of other people, his fingers latched onto the side.

Jude risked a glance over the edge. There was no one about.

Pain bit into his side as he slowly stood. His chest was swollen and sore, but his arms and legs worked fine. Jude heaved himself over the edge of the pit. He took a moment to get his breath and fight the sickness that threatened to overwhelm him. One eye remained stubbornly closed, giving him limited vision. Anyone could be watching his escape attempt, aiming a pulse laser at him right at this second.

There was nothing he could do, other than hope they weren’t, as he scrambled across the muddy ground, heading toward some trees to give himself cover and time to think.

Jude’s earbud had gone, so he couldn’t comm the bunker. His wrist comm had been smashed.

As he reached the trees, he risked a glance back. What if he was leaving Octavia behind in that pit? She could still be alive. And where were Malachi and Heath? They’d been taken before him, but had they been brought here?

Where the fuck was here? The tepid light suggested he’d been unconscious for hours. He had to get a signal back to the base and let them know what was going on. They would know something was wrong, but would have no clue where he was.

Jude rested against a tree for a moment. He pulled open his shirt, his pulse laser vest gone, and saw deep-purple marks covering his chest where the soldiers’ fists had slammed into him. His head throbbed with a sickening regularity along with his heartbeat. He wasn’t sure he could keep going.

He slid down the tree and landed on his butt.

For a second, his head hung down. Defeat overwhelmed him. Octavia was gone. This was supposed to have been an easy mission. Grab the equipment and get out. The State must have seen them, tracked them to the bomb shelter, and gotten lucky.

“You’re not finished yet,” he said through gritted teeth. Jude eased the backpack off and opened the zipper. Letting out a relieved sigh, he saw most of the equipment was intact. He pulled out a receiver. Octavia had said some of this was broken. If he could get it operational, he could use it to get a message back to base. Let them know he was alive and needed help.

Jude pried a nail under the edge of the cover and yanked it off. Although the wires were frayed, nothing looked broken.

There was no way he could send an encoded message. If the State were listening to the comms channel he used, they’d pick him up instantly. It was worth the risk. He needed help to find the others.