Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
“That’s what I heard too,” Penny murmured back. “Do you remember coming here at all? Did they bring us in a ship?”
“Sorry.” Shurla shook her head. “Don’t remember a damn thing about how we got here, hon. I woke up myself a minute before you did. I just hope—”
“Silence!” shouted one of the orange Oompa-Loompas in his high, androgynous voice. “We have come to the statue of the Noble One—our Shining Star and Glorious Leader who has called us all to his Glorious Cause. All must gaze upon his visage and show respect.”
Penny didn’t want to show respect to whoever the statue was of, but she stared at it anyway, to avoid being drugged or attacked again. Her hands were tied behind her back and there was no way to get out of the cart, which was surrounded on all sides by the Oompa-Loompas in their silver jumpsuits.
As she studied the immense statue, which rose at least eighty feet in the air above her, she couldn’t help thinking that it looked familiar somehow. Which was crazy—there was no way she could know the man who had captured her out here so far from Earth—in a whole different solar system light years from her own. But she couldn’t shake the feeling she had seen the “Glorious Leader” before, though she couldn’t put her finger on why she thought that.
“And now that respect has been paid to our Glorious Leader, we may move on,” the head Oompa-Loompa said.
The hover-cart began to glide along again, carrying them smoothly through the lush blue, green, and turquoise jungle and Penny wondered where they were going. She was about to ask Shurla if there was anyone who might miss her and come looking for her—which was her only hope, since she had never gotten to make her interstellar call to the Mother Ship—when the cart stopped again.
Looking up, Penny saw why. There was a shimmering green barrier across the road, keeping the cart from going any further. On the other side of it, barely visible through the energy field, was yet another silver jump-suited Oompa-Loompa.
“Who goes there and why do you come to the Compound of the Glorious Cause?” he demanded, leveling a weapon at them.
“We have come to pay tribute and honor to our Glorious Leader,” the head Oompa-Loompa of their own group shouted back. “And we bring new breeders to further the Cause.”
“Welcome home then, faithful one. Welcome to the bosom of the Shining Star—he who leads all of us in the Paths of Greatness,” the guard behind the gate said. And then the barrier was deactivated, allowing the cart to have clear access forward.
The entire exchange had the feeling of a scripted call and response—as though the guards on both sides had said the same things about a thousand times. Clearly they were used to going out and capturing people and then bringing them back to their compound.
The question was, did the prisoners ever escape? Or were they stuck here for life…or death?
The thought sent a shiver down Penny’s spine.
Now, whispered a little voice in the back of her head. If you don’t get out now, there’s no getting out. Run, Penny! RUN!
She turned to look over the side of the cart. Yes, her hands were bound but if she could throw herself out of the open cart and head into the jungle, she might get away. The undergrowth was so dense she could lose herself in it and never be found. She—
“Do you see that pretty yellow flower over there, breeder?”
Penny’s head jerked up and she realized it was one of the Oompa-Loompas talking to her.
“Wh-what?” she quavered, uncertain what he meant.
“There—just there inside the boundary of the road.” He pointed one stubby orange finger and Penny saw the flower he was talking about. It really was beautiful, she thought. Like a Tiger Lily but with a bloom as big as her head.
“Yes.” She nodded. “What about it?”
“That’s a Death Touch bloom. Barely brushing against its petals would kill you in an instant.” The Oompa-Loompa smiled at her, as though he was just making friendly conversation. “And it is one of the least poisonous plants here in the Deadly Jungle. A jungle which covers all of Yown Alpha. It is beautiful but there is death at every turn—and no way to escape, since we here at the Compound of the Glorious Cause are the only ones on the entire planet.”
“What are you saying?” Penny asked. She tried to sound defiant, though inside her heart was sinking down to her feet.
“That to escape is to die,” the Oompa-Loompa told her. “And why would you wish to die when we can offer you eternal life? Many years after your mortal body has perished, your genetic material will live on among the NeverBreeders.”
“The who?” He was saying too much, she thought—throwing too many religious buzz-words at her. “Who are the NeverBreeders?” she asked.