Condemned (Death Planet Book 1) Read Online Free

him a second wind, and he plunged on through the woods. The hunter yelled behind him, and Daniel’s feet moved faster still. If the hunter was trying to scare him into giving up, he was doing it the wrong way.
    But how long could he run? Not so long as the hounds, that was for sure. He needed a plan, but he was too hot, sweaty and tired to think of one. Climb a tree? Even if he could get up there with his hands tied, the hunters would just knock him down with their spears. Turn and face them? Yeah, right.
    The hounds lunged toward his feet, and he dodged left and right, barely missing a tree trunk as one hound passed on the far side of the trunk while the other attacked from his. He glanced back. He couldn’t see the hunter, but the man must be back there somewhere. Daniel pushed the last of his energy into his legs, and charged on. At least he would make them chase him until he could run no further.
    Then the trees disappeared.
    His feet slipped as the ground fell away. The trees were no longer in front of him, but far below, stretching out toward the distant sea. He fell on his ass, his boots scrabbled for grip as he slid toward the edge of the cliff, and his fingers dug into the mud beneath him until he came to a stop.
    The hounds yelped as they went over the edge, then bounced on the rocky cliff as they fell toward the trees below. The first smashed through branches, bounced from the ground, and writhed in the undergrowth.
    Until the other slammed down on top of it, with a bone-breaking crunch. Neither of them moved after that.
    Daniel dug his fingers into the ground behind him, and pulled himself back until his boots found some grip. Then he pushed himself up onto safe ground, and collapsed as he gasped for breath. His heart was thumping so fast, it would have burst if he’d run any further. His guts ached, and his stomach churned, from hunger as well as exertion.
    He pushed himself to a crouch, leaned on the tree trunk, and took a slow step back toward the plain. Which way had he come, anyway, with all those twists and turns in the chase?
    Trails of crushed undergrowth led in many directions where they had dodged and chased their way through it. The hunter was still out there somewhere. Daniel couldn’t go back toward the pods. He should follow the edge of the cliff, instead, and find some way to get his hands untied. With the look of the cuts he'd accumulated from the plants, it couldn't be too hard.
    Now he'd stopped running, he could finally see the trees in detail, close up. The leaves weren't actually black, just such a dark green that it was barely visible from a distance. The leaves on the branch in front of him moved, and a tiny face peered out, with dark, staring eyes between eight fat, spider-like legs. It leaned forward through the gap between the leaves, the legs whirring as they moved, and tilted its bulbous body until the eyes stared at him.
    He leaned closer. The body was smooth, like plastic, the legs hinged. It wasn't a real spider, just another drone, watching him and recording. Was nowhere safe from them? Something dark and round caught his eye on the tree trunk. Another camera, built into the tree? Was the forest even real, or something they'd built to torment the new arrivals?
    Leaves swished against each other as plants moved behind him. The battered point of a spear poked out between two bushes. A hairy face peered out above it, and a leather-clad body appeared below the face as the hunter stepped out, and swung the spear toward him.
    The hunter smirked as he approached. “Come on, boy. A cock in the ass must beat a spear in the guts.”
    “Comrade...”
    “There’s none of that comrade shit here, boy. It’s every man for himself.”
    Daniel stared into his eyes. Even if he got his hands free and grabbed the spear, could he stab the man? Shove the point into his body until it tore through vital organs, veins and arteries, and the hunter died, slowly, gagging on his own blood?
    If it was