by C. S. Nelson
She took a deep, relaxing inhale and smelled nature, real nature, for the first time in her life. A musty, dirty, and tangy smell all in one. Like the soil that they used inside where it was safe, but richer, and free. She felt breeze on her face, and understood why Dougie had been so excited about it. It was the most amazing thing she had ever felt. “Look at her, soakin’ it up,” Mitch laughed, breaking the silence. “Feels good the first time, doesn’t it? It’ll pass. The moving air isn’t worth the risk.”
Not even Mitch was going to ruin this moment for her. She reached down and pulled a handful of grass out of the ground. They didn't have grass inside the Shield, not fresh grass. Only dirt. She inhaled deeply, taking in the smell. It was incredible. Annie heard Dougie pass through the Shield next to her. He gasped for air, and she watched his face as disbelief and wonder passed over it. “Whoa.” He grinned, his eyes wide. “This is definitely worth the risk.”
Everyone laughed, even Mitch. Was this all it took to lighten the tension? Bonding over the smell of fresh air? “Enough,” Kevin said. The others turned and stared at him. “This is serious. We joke around when we get back inside that bubble.”
And with that, Kevin turned and started walking towards the woods. Annie, already feeling the heavy equipment digging into her shoulders, chased after the rest of them. There was no sound, except for the rustling of the leaves over their heads, and the crunch of the soil underneath their boots. Annie wasn’t sure if she had ever heard so little. She had this sudden urge to run, so she could escape going back into the Shield. She wanted to explore. She had heard that the world was big, that there were millions and millions of species of animals and insects, which were hard to find inside the Shield. In fact nothing was in their Shield unless humans had put it there, which meant no outside creatures at all. It hardly seemed fair that the ship was going to arrive and pull them away from Earth without giving anyone in the past few generations a chance to see what the planet was really like.
“Annie and Doug, don’t forget to constantly scan behind us,” Kevin called back at a volume barely above a whisper.
Annie looked over her shoulder, seeing nothing but trees and the shrinking safety of the Henderson Shield. “Clear,” she whispered back.
It wasn’t a long walk to the town, maybe forty minutes. But Annie’s shoulders were killing her by the time they reached the outskirts. She was sure that when they took the equipment off, her body would have been rubbed raw. Building after building on either side of them, coloured in bright paint that had inevitably faded over time, but was still more than anything Annie had imagined. Glass was still in a lot of the windows. Cars were parked on the street, which were an extremely rare sight around their Shield. Annie saw a hover-board leaning up against one of the shop fronts, an invention that had become wildly popular in the years before the sucker attack. She wanted to take it out for a spin, but doubted that it would still be sitting there if it worked.
The town was eerily quiet but didn't look like the end of the world. If it hadn’t been for the large black “safety zone 3km north-west” written on the sides of buildings, Annie wouldn’t have even known that the earth human species was nearly extinct.
She spotted the target in the distance, a building marked ‘Sammy’s Groceries’. She turned back to take one more look at the town, breathing in the fresh air. But her breath was taken away. “Spotted,” she tried to call out, but barely even heard it herself. “Spotted!” she said, a little louder.
Everyone turned, their weapons pointed. Off in the distance, where the town had started, was a soul sucker. Slowly creeping towards them, bent over, ducking in and out from behind trees. The sight of the thing made Annie’s skin crawl. Tall, lanky, grey skin that stretched over the creature’s bones. It had long, pointed fingers that stretched far down to its knees. But the most stomach-turning thing was its smile. Razor-sharp teeth, too big for the mouth, which stuck out in a gruesome, evil smile. A permanent smile that seemed to forever mock the humans.
Kevin came forward. “Good spot, Annie,” he said. He aimed his gun and fired, hitting the ground just in front of the sucker.
It growled at them, then turned and ran back into the trees. “Did it really leave?” Annie asked.
“Yes, but only to get others. It knew it wouldn’t have walked out alive if it had attacked. We have to move quickly now.”
Mitch snorted. “Maybe if you hadn’t missed.”
“I’m not the only one who’s missed around here.” Kevin walked past him, slinging his gun over his shoulder. He pulled up his sleeve to reveal a gunshot wound on his triceps. “I can remind you of that.”
“Enough.” One of the other rangers nudged Kevin as they began moving towards the store.
“Remember, grab what you can carry while still being able to run. Drop the food if you have to, your life is more important than a few cans of beans. Stay together.” Kevin pushed the door open for everybody, and Annie watched as they ran inside, their guns aimed, ready to take on anything that may have been waiting on the other side.
"How is the food still edible?" she asked.
"Someone wasn't paying attention in history class," Mitch snorted as he took off down an aisle. "Army left food full of preservatives everywhere they could when the suckers attacked. A final attempt to rescue us. We're just lucky everybody died before they had a chance to take any of it. Our own personal stash."
From the stories she had heard about the army before and during the attack, they appeared to be pretty useless. She and Dougie ran in, going to the nearest aisle without a ranger already down it. “Pasta?” she asked. Dougie nodded, and they shoved some in their backpack.
The shelves had a lot of empty spaces, probably from previous trips made by the rangers. She wondered what the food was that would have been the first to go from the shelves. She had always been fond of the thought of ice cream and cakes, but had never had a chance to taste any herself. She pulled a couple more bags of pasta from the shelf and knocked over a box that had been buried in the back. “What do you have there?” Mitch asked, coming from behind them. He picked it up from the floor, and his mouth dropped. “Annie’s found mac and cheese!” Mitch yelled in disbelief for the whole store to hear, his voice echoing off the empty shelves.
“Mac and cheese?” Dougie asked.
“No way!” someone yelled from across the store.
“We’re keeping that for ourselves, I hope,” Someone else called from the next aisle over.
Kevin appeared at the end of the aisle. “Oh sweet Jesus.” He walked towards them, reaching out to touch the box as if to make sure it was real. “Nobody is touching that but us,” he said. Everyone across the store cheered, while Dougie and Annie exchanged confused looks. Whatever it was, she was excited to try it.
“Shh!” Dougie called out suddenly. The rangers stopped excitedly chattering about the ‘best find of the century’ and the mood in the store fell flat. “Do you hear that?” he asked. He pointed up.
There were loud footsteps coming from over their heads. Someone, or something was on the roof of the building. “Zip up your bags,” Kevin ordered. “We’re leaving.”
Annie followed Mitch out of the aisle and the others out of the store. She looked back, but saw nothing on the roof. It was entirely possible that a stray branch had fallen or an animal had scurried between the rafters. But now that she had seen the panic in the veteran’s faces, she was ready to get out of there as soon as possible.
They ran, out of the town, and into the woods. Annie’s lungs burned after a few minutes. She was used to running, but not this fast, and not with so much weight on her back. It was ironic to her that she had done so badly on the obstacle course during testing, which ended up being parallel to this situation, and had still become a ranger. It made the whole test feel like a sham. Annie was building up the courage to ask if they could walk for a few minutes, her lungs burning so badly she swore that they were going to burst, until she glanced over her shoulder. Th
ey were being followed.
“Behind!” Annie wheezed. The others turned.
“Oh, shit!” Mitch yelled. “There’s too many, keep running!” He took a couple shots, but Annie didn’t have the energy to look back to see if he had hit any.
The others followed Mitch’s lead, turning and taking a shot before running full speed for another thirty seconds. Annie wanted to help, but she was too terrified. What if she turned back to see one of the creatures right behind her? “Come on, Annie, we need you!” Dougie nudged her in the side before turning back himself to take a shot. The fear that had engulfed him when they left the Shield was gone. He was a true ranger now.
As he turned around, Dougie tripped, landing on his chest hard. Even in all the commotion, Annie could hear the sound of the air being knocked out of his lungs. “Doug!” Annie screamed, stopping in her tracks to lift him up. “Help!” she yelled out to the rangers who were sprinting farther and farther away from them. As she pulled Dougie back to his feet, she felt a cold hand grasp her arm tightly.
She looked down to see the grey fingertips of a soul sucker. She screamed, frozen with fear, as it clawed into her arm, leaving three long and deep scratches across her triceps. They began bleeding immediately, thick lines of red blood pouring down her arm and onto the forest floor. She felt her legs buckle beneath her own weight, and fell onto her back as the creature climbed on top of her. Its eyes locked onto Annie’s, dark soulless eyes that made her heart hurt. She didn’t want those eyes to be the last thing she’d ever see. But there was nothing she could do as the soul sucker pressed its lips against hers and began breathing in. She felt the energy being pulled from her body. The world around her darkened. Annie heard the thump of a bullet hitting flesh, and the death grip on her loosened as the creature fell to the forest floor.
Annie’s ears were ringing. Dougie was standing over her yelling but she couldn’t hear what he was saying. She was pulled up onto her shaky feet. The sounds of the world began making their way back into her head. “Annie, let’s go!” Dougie pulled her, and she began running again, in pain and disoriented. She could hear her heart beating in her ears. She could see the blood pouring from her arm. But her chest wasn’t burning anymore. She was moving because of pure adrenaline.
It was only after they had reached the Shield, diving through it as the last of the surviving soul suckers gave up on their chase, that Annie grasped her arm in tears and fell to the ground. Kevin handed his bag to Dougie, and scooped her up in his arms effortlessly. “You’re alright, Annie. Nothing a few bandages can’t fix,” he whispered to her, still out of breath, as he carried her back to the sleeping quarters.
“I locked up out there,” Annie cried. She had thought, arrogantly, that perhaps she had been ready for the dangers that this career entailed. That if she had been the only one to survive the simulation, maybe she would have been some sort of prodigy, saving the lives of those around her and acing faster than anyone had ever done before her. But she hadn’t done any of that. She had been a liability.
“You saved Dougie. You saved his life.”
Annie let her head fall past Kevin’s chest, and looked back at the rest of the rangers who were following them home. They all looked concerned for her, even the veterans. She and Dougie exchanged a smile, before she looked back at Kevin. “This mac and cheese better be worth it.” She said. The wounds were still open on her arm, and she watched as the blood dripped down her forearm and into the grass with each step Kevin took.
“It’s life changing,” Kevin smirked.
They entered the sleeping quarters, where all the new rangers who hadn’t been chosen to go out were waiting for them. “Annie’s bleeding!” Anthony yelled, jumping down from his bunk and running up to Kevin. “Is she okay?”
“She’s alive, isn’t she?”
“Annie,” Anthony wrapped his arms around his friend gently. “Are you okay, Annie?”
Annie smiled before drifting out of consciousness. “I’m alive, aren’t I?”
Chapter 6: The Treehouse
Annie walked as quickly as she could across the Shield, soaking up the curious views of other citizens who stared at her bandaged arm. There were few injuries inside the Shield, so it wasn't difficult for anyone to see that she must have had a run in with a soul sucker. She didn’t blame them for staring shamelessly; just a few weeks before when she hadn’t been a ranger she would have done the same.
There was a gathering in the center of town where everyone could relax, take a day off from work, and meet up with people they hadn’t seen for a while. Annie had told Anthony and the other rangers to go ahead without her, and had stood in the mirror fixing her hair and putting on some of the makeup that Mia used to create during school out of any materials she got away with stealing. She was seeing Dustan, for the first time in weeks, and despite the sadness she had felt when they had separated, she couldn’t wait to see him again. He would be proud of her, especially when she showed him her injury.
The town center was crowded with every citizen of the Shield. Most had already found their friends, chatting and laughing with their friends from school who had been separated into different careers. She passed through the crowd, waving hello to some people she recognized but didn’t want to stop and talk to.
“Annie!” She turned to see Dustan smiling at her. His hair had been cut since she had last seen him, but then again so had hers. He was fresh and clean looking. He was wearing new shoes. Annie wiggled her toes in her own worn shoes that she had been wearing for almost a year now.
She ran into Dustan’s arms. Finally a feeling of familiarity. “I missed you so much!” she cried. Even in his new clothes, he still smelled the same.
Dustan released her, holding her at an arm’s distance so he could take in her beauty. She had grown so much in the past month. “What happened to you?” he asked. While he was fresh and clean, Annie was covered in scrapes and bruises, most noticeably the bloodied bandage covering her arm.
“Soul sucker.” She shrugged as though it hadn’t been the most terrifying experience of her life. “It was nothing, really.”
Dustan grinned at her, running his fingers through her short, dark hair. “That’s my girl.”
Music sounded, thick brassy trumpets that had been found before Annie was born, out in one of the surrounding towns. The crowd fell silent. A woman stepped up onto a platform in the middle of the town center, wearing the nicest jacket and matching skirt that Annie had ever seen. Summer was the only known living relative of Albert Henderson. Although Albert Henderson deserved to be remembered as a hero, Summer had done little to deserve the respect and status that she had been given, in Annie’s opinion. Annie had only seen her when she had come to the school once a year to provide an update to the students on what was happening in the rest of the world. Annie had never liked Summer Henderson, who always seemed to have new clothes, and unheard of technology that somehow never made it to the rest of the citizens of the Shield.
“My fellow humans,” she began. “Once a month we take a day to enjoy each other’s company. To laugh with our friends. Appreciate this day with the ones you love. And remember, only eighteen more of these days until the ship arrives and saves us all.”
There was cheering and screaming as Summer stepped down from the platform. “She is the sweetest woman,” Dustan said, watching her as she made her way through the crowd. “She talks with the breeders a lot. She actually spends most of her time with us. She’s just fantastic.”
“Summer Henderson doesn’t have better things to do with her time than hang out with the breeders?” Annie asked. “Isn’t she supposed to be in charge of communication? Like finding out if any other humans are still out there?”
Dustan scoffed. “We do more than breed the next generation. We’re philosophers, free thinkers. We discuss the past, present, and future. After all, we need a break from…”
“All the sex?” Annie interrupted. She raised her eyebrows at him.
“
Come on, Annie.” He rolled his eyes. She remembered now why she had been ready to end things with Dustan on their last day of school, pulling away from him. “God damn it, you know I didn’t choose my career just like you didn’t choose yours. Neither of us have a choice, but both of us have a duty to fulfill.” It was rehearsed. Dustan was feeding Annie a line that he had been working on since they had separated on the day of the Test.
“Yes, but my duty is protecting us and yours is overpopulating our already overpopulated town.” But Annie knew he was right. He couldn’t help the career path that had been chosen for him just like she couldn’t do anything about being a ranger.
“Hey Dustan!” A sweet singsong voice exclaimed from behind Annie. She turned, and saw a beautiful, light haired and fair skinned woman. The girl pushed past Annie and wrapped her arms around him. The kind of girl that Annie wished she looked like.
“This is Jessica,” Dustan said, his arm around the blond girl’s slim waist. “She’s my partner, for the time being.”
Annie remembered a time where Dustan had gotten jealous just from her having simple conversations with Dougie. That was a different time though, Annie realized, a different Dustan. “Until we become successfully pregnant,” Jessica continued, still clutching onto the arm of Annie’s boyfriend. “And then he will switch partners and I will take about nine months off.” She grinned. “Between you and me, girl, I can’t wait to have a few months off. Get away from the boys for a while. It’s nice to spend time with just the girls.”
“I wouldn’t know. I share a room with over thirty men and women,” Annie said. Jessica laughed uncomfortably, clutching onto Dustan. “You two seem so close already.”
“Summer says the next generation will be happier and healthier if their mother and father are well connected.” Jessica smiled at her. Was she so genuinely unaware at how difficult she was making this situation for Annie, or was she doing it intentionally?
Annie stood for a few seconds, taking in the moment, unsure of how to react. “I think…I need to go.”
