The Belly of the Beast

Ch. 81, The Eden Trials

And it all came back to me. The room as it trembled and shook, an explosion, and a brief sense of falling, or flying, before the blackness overtook me. They hadn't killed us after all. They'd ejected us from the ship in... I glanced down at the exterior of what I'd thought was a room, but now realized was some sort of small ship itself.

We've landed on a different planet... A surge of hope filled me as I understood what it meant. We were on a planet. I was breathing air, real air! The Beast thought they needed to reduce population until they reached a planet that could sustain life. But we had found it! If they knew, we could save them all.

There were tears in my eyes, laughter in my mouth, and air sweet as sugar rolling in my mouth as I ducked back into the ship.

"Dag! Dag, wake up!" I took his head gently in my hands. His eyes opened, slowly, painfully. A half smile lifted his lips.

"Ow."

I laughed, wanting to kiss him, barely able to speak at the excitement bursting inside my chest. "Dag, we're on a planet! And it's green. The air is breathable. We need to get a message to the Beast." I turned away from him, going to the panel, trying to find a way to reconfigure it to send a message to the Beast.

Dagger groaned behind me, voice rough. "Z. Stop."

But I wasn't listening. I wouldn't stop. Not when my people were at risk. Not when we could save them. Not when Yana and Xyla and Nukas lives could all mean something. I climbed back out of the ship, looking up and shading my eyes as I stared up at the sky. I couldn't see the Beast from here. How far away were they? Was there any way to send them a message? Maybe there was a radio on our ship?

Before I could climb back in, Dagger pulled himself out and sat with his head between his knees. The landing must have hit him harder than it did me. Why didn't he look at the way the wind pulled the grass back and forth? Why didn't he look up at the blue sky above? I wanted to laugh and dance, and pull him down into the grass, to roll across the earth and glory in it all.

But first: "I think I can get a message to our people. Tell them the planet is livable." I laughed, high and clear, letting the sound dance up into the sky.

"You don't need to tell them," he whispered.

I turned back to look at him. Blood stained his shirt. "Why not?"

"Because they already know. The Beast had been circling this planet for 300 years. Along with several hundred others."

His words took a moment to sink in. I kept waiting for him to laugh or say he was joking. He didn't.

A gust of wind buffeted me, and I sank down to the metal of the ship, placing my metal hand flat against it. "I don't understand."

He finally looked up to me. "Any ark that tries to land without permission is destroyed. Instead, every 5 years, each ark sends two contestants, one male and one female, to fight for their ark's right to land on the planet. It's what I was trained for. The Letter Trials reduce population... but it's also a test. To find the worthy."

The worthy? A buzzing noise suddenly sounded in the distance, and both of us turned to watch as a small, black craft, no bigger than my head, flew across the land, heading straight for us. It came to a stop before our ship, hovering above us. A recorded voice played out over the grass and trees, and for a moment, it seemed as if the wind grew still.

"Welcome, Adam and Eve combatants. Prepare to fight for your people. The Eden Trials begin now."