Condemned (Death Planet Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

that or die himself, he would. Maybe.
    He backed toward the cliff. Perhaps he could lead the hunter over it, as he had unwittingly done with the hounds?
    “Don’t even think it, boy,” the hunter said. “I saw what you did back there.”
    “I give up,” Daniel sighed. “I can't run any more.”
    The hunter chuckled. He stepped forward, swinging the spear with one hand, and reaching for the leather cords wrapped around his belt with the other.
    Daniel lunged at him, shoulder forward, trying to knock him over. The hunter sidestepped, pulled the spear aside, and smacked Daniel on the ass with the side of the blade. A drone buzzed down from the sky, and circled around them as the hunter prodded the spear toward him, always pulling the blade back before it could cut.
    “Think you can take me, do you? I could ram this through your guts before you even noticed.”
    He probably could, too. He controlled the spear so easily and accurately, he must have fought with it before.
    But there was one thing on Daniel’s side. The hunter didn’t want to kill him. If that was the aim, he'd already be dead.
    The drone buzzed down toward them, its cameras pointed at Daniel's face. The hunter's eyes flicked toward it for a split second, distracting him just long enough. Daniel swung his head forward, and headbutted the drone. It buzzed angrily as it flew backwards, and smacked into the hunter's face, the fans smacking against skin, and stunning him for a second.
    “Ah, shit,” the hunter muttered as he backed away, and the drone rocketed into the sky. As Daniel jumped into the bushes, the hunter reached up to his forehead, and wiped away blood dripping from cuts where the drone's propellers had slashed his face. “Guess you want it the hard way.”
    The hunter charged after him. Daniel dodged between the trees, keeping the cliff to his right, running away from the sea. Somewhere, there'd be a place he could descend, without killing himself. If he could make it that far.
    Something whacked against his leg, and he stumbled as the hunter pushed the spear between his knees. He winced as the blade drew blood from his calf, then his shoulder smacked into a tree trunk as he tried to regain his balance.
    His foot slipped toward the edge of the cliff, and the hunter grabbed him, wrapping his arm around Daniel's neck, and pulling tighter until he was left gasping for air that would never come. His feet scrabbled for grip as they slid out into open air. A drone buzzed in for a closeup on his face as he tried to push the hunter away with the last of his strength.
    The hunter's face grew red as he squeezed harder. The world around Daniel grew dark. So this was it. The way his life ended. Recorded for all the sick bastards to watch.
    There was a loud bang.
    Then they both went over.

CHAPTER 5
    C ocksucking, motherfucking assholes. Brunhilde trudged along the steeply descending dirt track between the woods. Not even awake five minutes, and the shitmunchers had set their weird, alien dogs on her, tried to stab her, and shoot her.
    Still, breaking bones and ripping off heads had relieved some tension. It was all she had wanted to do after the cocksucking troika handed down their decision, just before they put her to sleep. If they weren't just holograms, she'd have done it, too.
    Not that Brunhilde was her real name. It just sounded good, and somehow seemed to suit her brown fur. When Icepick had first suggested it, she'd thought he was trying to insult her, but, as he hung upside down from her paw, staring into her open mouth ringed with big, sharp teeth that ached to rip off his balls, he told her it was really the name of some ancient warrior woman. So he got to keep his favourite body parts, and she got a name she could live with.
    The nurses called her Alison, after the hospital dumped her at the barracks. What kind of name was that for a gangster? Icepick , now that's a real gangster name. Skullcrusher , another one, if a little unrefined for