Zed (The Zed Trilogy Book 1)

by C. S. Nelson

  Everyone followed her gaze to below their feet, and before they knew it, soul suckers were climbing out of the ground around them. Rising from the frozen ground, with dirt rolling off of their backs. The grins on their faces that made Annie sure that they had climbed straight out of hell. She had always known that this was how the suckers had first shown themselves, hundreds of years before. Hidden below their feet, waiting for a moment to strike. But she had never seen this attack herself. It was horrifying, watching them wriggle out of the earth like worms, with that sickening smile still spread from cheek to cheek.

  They had been caught off guard. There were at least eight of them that Annie could see in the chaos. Before anyone had a chance to yell out any orders, the suckers began to attack. Annie began swinging wildly at the two that were closest to her, trying to ignore the mocking grin that haunted her every time she closed her eyes.

  It was a scramble. There was no order to the ranger's defense. All the warnings the new recruits had received finally made sense. Annie only saw blurs around her, screaming from her fellow rangers, and howling from the aliens.

  The fight didn't last long. People had scattered into the woods, trying to avoid being overwhelmed by more than one at a time. As Annie re-approached the clearing, she did a quick headcount. Apart from a couple of injuries, nobody seemed to be missing from the group. Annie looked over as Anthony came to the clearing, relieved.

  "Is everybody okay?" Scott asked. "Everybody here?" He was nursing a rather large cut on his cheek.

  "I count twenty-eight," Kevin said. "Same number we came out here with."

  Scott smiled. "Good. Now, everybody needs to cut themselves before we can go back."

  “What?” Anthony asked, his eyebrows rising. His face went pale.

  "Quickly," Scott repeated, smearing the blood off his cheek to show everyone. "We made a lot of noise. We need to go back as soon as possible. Leave the boxes."

  Kevin pressed the knife into the tip of his finger. He held up his hand to show bright red blood dripping out of the wound. “It’s just a precaution,” he said to the rest of the group.

  People followed his lead, slicing open their fingers to hold up to the group.

  Annie pulled her knife out, trying to hide her shaking hands. “It’ll only hurt for a second,” she told Anthony, who looked as though he may pass out at any moment from the thought of having to cut himself. “Come on, same time.”

  Anthony nodded, taking out his knife and holding it to his finger.

  “Ready?” Annie asked. Anthony didn’t take his eyes off the blade. “One…two…three!” She nicked the end of her finger with the knife, wincing from the pain. She held up her hand, and Scott nodded at her.

  She looked at Anthony, who still hadn’t moved. “I can’t,” he whispered.

  “Anthony, you have to,” Kevin said impatiently. “We have to move on with the mission. This place is crawling with suckers.”

  “You just put a bullet through one of their heads,” Scott added. "You’re a big boy now. If you don't do it, we can't let you back."

  He shook his head, tears rolling down his face. “It’s going to hurt, don’t make me…please.”

  “Anthony, cut your finger,” Annie ordered, filling the older sister role that she always felt she had to around him. Anthony shook his head more aggressively, his forehead wrinkled and his eyes squeezed shut. “Anthony, cut your finger now.” She demanded, tears welling up in her eyes.

  “No!” he cried.

  Something was wrong. “Please,” she whispered desperately. “Anthony. Please do it, Anthony. Please.”

  He turned slowly and locked eyes with her, and Annie knew. She slashed her knife through the air, cutting Anthony’s arm, and cried out. Blue. He growled, but there was a bullet through his head before he had a chance to make a move.

  “No!” Annie screamed, grabbing his body before it hit the ground.

  “Annie, it’s not him,” Kevin said. “We have to go.”

  Annie wept into his chest for a few seconds, unable to control herself. She knew this wasn’t him. His real body was lying still on the forest floor somewhere out of sight. But she couldn’t stop. “We have to get his body.” She looked up at the other rangers, all of whom were staring at her. Most looked sympathetic, but a couple just looked like they wanted to leave.

  “We need to go. We’re clearly surrounded, Annie. This is not an option,” Kevin was firmer this time. His patience was wearing thin. “I'm ordering you to stand up.”

  Annie stood up on shaking legs, turning back towards the direction of where he had come from. They couldn’t just leave his body here in the woods to decay with the monsters. She felt an arm on her, pulling her back. “Let me go!” she demanded.

  “I see one, left!” one of the rangers from the back yelled.

  “I see one too!” Doug called from the side.

  “We’re going.” Kevin picked her up and threw her over his shoulder effortlessly. He began following the rest of the group back towards the Shield.

  She screamed for Anthony over and over as she was carried farther from her best friend’s body. They couldn’t just leave him. Not out here.

  “I’m so sorry,” he whispered.

  They were surrounded. Through tears Annie could see the aliens closing in. She gasped one more time, and Kevin could sense that she was back in reality. He put her on the ground and everyone scattered, running for their lives and leaving the boxes, and Anthony's body, behind.

  ◆◆◆

  One by one the rangers flung themselves through the Shield, crashing onto the ground on the other side. Annie had thought about nothing but moving her body as quickly as she could, until she pushed through and emerged on the other side. She hadn't been injured in the battle. In fact, the only mark on her was the self-inflicted scratch on her finger to prove herself human. She lay on the ground, breathing deeply and letting her tears dry to her cheeks. She turned on the cool grass, staring at the sun in the sky. It was a beautiful, sunny autumn day. The kind of day where you wanted to be outside. It wasn’t fair that her best friend died on such a gorgeous day, where everything else seemed to be right.

  What was even worse was that his body was going to be left out there. By tomorrow animals would have gotten to it and it probably wouldn’t look like Anthony anymore. If he had just screamed, or yelled, or done any thing that would have let Annie know that he was in trouble, she might have been able to save him. But she knew the way he reacted when he was panicked. He froze up. Then Annie realized that he probably had screamed and yelled for help, but it was deafened amongst the fighting between everyone else. She had let him down. She had promised that she would always take care of him, and Annie had let him die in the woods. She prayed that he had passed before he understood what was happening, that perhaps his death was a quick one.

  Her view of the sun was blocked by a head. “Annie,” Kevin panted. “Are you okay?”

  Annie didn’t have a response that she could put into words. He was gone. Five minutes ago he had been stronger than she had ever seen him be. He had just saved the life of a fellow ranger, something no one had faith in him to do. Now he was gone. It wasn't fair. “No…” was all that she had the strength to say.

  “I know…not…mentally,” he said between gasps for air. “But did…you get…hurt?”

  Annie sobbed. Kevin stood, wrapping her in his arms and carrying her back to the camp, where she lay on Anthony’s bed and sobbed some more.

  Chapter 9: The Letter

  “Can you describe, one more time in detail, what happened out there?” The president leaned back in his chair. He was displeased. Annie had never seen the president when he was upset.

  Annie stared at the floor as Kevin cleared his throat. “We were caught off guard. A large group of the suckers came out from the ground, and we all got split up. By the time everyone had eliminated the threat and we had reunited, he had already been taken out.”

  “Hmm…” The president n
odded thoughtfully, his fingers pressed against his thin lips. “So, you are to blame for his death.”

  “Um,” Kevin stammered, “Well, no.”

  “You don’t sound very sure of yourself, Commander.”

  Annie glared at the president. “It wasn’t Kevin’s fault,” she said. "No one could have expected that many of them to come out from underneath our feet at the same time."

  The president pursed his lips, before shuffling a couple of pieces of paper on his desk. "I have a few different testimonies here that state that you were already attacked by one of the creatures before this incident. Instead of turning back, as you've been trained to do, Kevin urged you all to push forward and continue with the mission."

  The rangers were throwing their acting commander under the bus. "Who said that?" she asked. "Kevin wasn't the one that said-"

  Kevin put his hand on her shoulder. “Annie, don’t,” he whispered to her. But it hadn't been Kevin, Annie remembered. Scott had been the ranger to encourage everyone to continue. Kevin didn't want her to continue speaking, but the smug look on the president’s face made it impossible for her to keep quiet. Her best friend had just died, and the president was grinning at them, taking joy in watching Kevin squirm.

  “It was your fault, Mr. President. We warned you that this would happen. We told you that Anthony wasn’t ready. And yet you ignored us, mocked us, told us how invaluable our lives are. We held our own out there. It's surprising that more of us didn't get murdered. You're lucky you have any rangers left at all. Now Anthony is dead, and I hope that weighs on your conscience for the rest of your life.”

  There was a thick tension in the room. No one was sure what to say after her outburst. Then the president began laughing. He stood up from behind his desk and stepped over to Annie and Kevin. He got uncomfortably close, but Annie refused to take a step back. She needed him to know that she wasn’t afraid of him. She stared at him, but instead of looking into his eyes, she was transfixed by the long scars down his face. “I like you, Annie,” He said. His breath smelled of spearmint and coffee, two things that Annie had never had the luxury of tasting. “You’re…fiery,” He brushed his finger across her cheek. She looked away. “I would like to work closely with you in the future.”

  “I’m not interested.”

  “Annie!” Kevin hissed.

  The president chuckled again, the three long scars stretching across his face. “Can you all leave? I would like to talk to Annie alone.” He said to his guards. Annie swallowed hard, realizing that she didn't want to be alone in a room with this man.

  Two guards took Kevin by the shoulders and dragged him out of sight. Annie felt less safe now that Kevin was gone. She was vulnerable. She turned and looked back at the president, who was leaning against his desk and eyeing her. “Can I go back to basecamp now?” she asked.

  “Just hear me out, Annie.” He had dropped the smug voice, attempting to sound human. Annie could see through the act. She already knew the president was a monster. She had heard the rumors about him, and now that she had met him in person, it was much easier to believe them all to be true. “You’ve got the kind of attitude we need at our meetings. There isn't enough passion in the Shield anymore, now that people assume they no longer need to fight for their lives with the ship so close.”

  “Meetings?”

  “Run by Summer. It is often attended to by the breeders, Summer, and myself. I think we made a mistake placing you in the rangers. I think you belong with the rest of us, the deep thinkers.” He sighed. "I have always thought that just a single test was as inappropriate method to determine the future of our youth. I didn't belong in the rangers either, Annie. I had to work my ass off to get where I am now."

  Annie scoffed. “So you didn't make a mistake in placing Anthony in the rangers, even when we begged you to move him, but all I have to do is be rude to you in order to convince you to relocate me?”

  “Oh no, of course not. You will continue with the rangers. I've never been one to want to raise suspicion. But you’re different, Annie. You don’t blindly follow commands; you understand that every decision must be thoroughly thought out. Not even your acting commander can say that for himself.”

  “If you don’t like Kevin, why did you promote him?” Annie crossed her arms. Whatever kind of trap this was, she wasn’t planning on falling into it.

  “We were backed into a corner, really. He was the only option at the time.” Then the president raised his hand, stopping Annie before she had a chance to argue. “This invitation should not be taken lightly, Annie. I am offering to you every secret that this Shield holds. Everything that we know. I want to see the way your mind thinks. I want to see if you have any ideas that we haven’t been able to come up with. I am formally inviting you to our monthly meeting. They take place on the second Tuesday of the month.”

  “I must politely decline.” What motive could the president possibly have for inviting her to these meetings? Annie was fresh out of school, had barely survived her missions outside of the Shield, and had no political pull whatsoever. The president was toying with her, a tactic commonly used by him. She may have been young but she wasn’t stupid enough to fall for his games.

  The president shrugged. “There is a lot that goes on in this Shield, Annie, that most will never know about it. This job isn’t easy. We were all thrown into this safe zone hundreds of years ago with no information, no promise of help. We continue to thrive solely off the hope that we will be saved soon, with one message sent from Mpho that gives us this impression. By the way, would you like to see the original message? It’s truly fascinating.”

  Annie knew that he was attempting to distract her, but she had to admit that she was intrigued to see the only communication that they had received from the planet that claimed to be on route to save them. “Okay…show me.” She was disappointed in herself before the words even left her mouth.

  The president smiled and stepped around his desk. He rooted around in the drawers until he pulled out a worn piece of paper. It seemed odd to Annie, that such a valuable piece of information was being held in a junk drawer under his desk. “This was our interpretation of the message relayed through the sky. Be careful with it, it’s the original copy.” Annie slowly opened the letter, afraid that it may turn to dust in her hands, to find a handwritten note in a dying pen. It was clear that it had been written in a panicked state, quickly and unevenly. Some of the words were scratched out so hard that the pen had almost torn through the paper.

  Humans of Earth,

  Recently we became aware of the creatures that have taken over your planet, destroying your population in the process. Know that we have sent a ship large enough to fit you all. It should arrive 2488. We will continue to watch your planet and ensure that we stop to pick up all surviving humans in your safe zones.

  Please maintain hope,

  Humans of Mpho

  Annie put the note down. “That’s a pretty serious promise,” she said, handing the note back to him. She remembered a conversation that Kevin had with her weeks before. He didn't believe that anyone would make a promise to save another planet hundreds of years in the future. Annie wasn't sure how much faith she could put in a note with this little detail.

  The president nodded, carefully refolding the note and placing it back in his desk. “When humans left to explore the galaxy in the very early 2100s, some went to the darkest corners that we didn’t know existed. I’m assuming these humans are incredibly advanced. But I’m just as ignorant to these people as you are. That letter is all I have as proof.”

  Annie thought for a few moments. This man was not the president that she had known. He was normal, charismatic even. This man didn’t seem so bad. Probably just another part of his act. “Do you believe that they’re going to come?”

  “I like to think that they’ll come, yes.” The president shrugged his shoulders. “I haven’t put my heart and soul into it. It’s why we continue with the breeding program, why we don’
t just consume the food in the Shield until we run out. If, for some reason, the ship doesn’t arrive, I’d like to see the human race continue.”

  “And what about when the Shield falls?” Annie asked. She knew, as well as everyone else in their home did, that the Shields were dropping off. Even holding on for two years seemed questionable.

  “Well, hopefully we would have come to a solution by then.”

  Annie stared at him for a long moment. She couldn’t tell which side of the president was fake anymore. “I’ll go to your meeting,” she said. She supposed that she had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Plus, if she felt uncomfortable, she would never have to go back to another one.

  “I’m pleased to hear it.” The president smiled. “The next one will be in three weeks time tomorrow. Come to this room at four and we will go together.” Annie nodded. She didn’t know whether or not this was a good idea, but at least she had a few weeks to consider it. “I’m glad you reconsidered. Will you please send in Kevin on your way out?”

  Annie’s heart dropped. “Why?”

  The president sighed. “Annie, someone needs to be punished for the death of a young boy. Often when rangers are killed, it is known to be a faultless crime. Unfortunately, this is not one of those cases. It is clear that direct actions by Kevin lead to Anthony’s death. I've been told that a sucker was killed that had made a lot of noise. The leading commander should have known that it was not safe to continue the mission.”

  “He isn’t…”

  “Guards!” The president interrupted. He was bored of her protesting. They came bursting through the door before Annie had a chance to turn around. She was grabbed. “Nothing personal, my friend.” The president nodded at her. “I hope to see you at the meeting.”

  Annie was carried out of the room, with one man holding onto each of her arms tightly. She didn’t bother struggling; she couldn’t escape their grasp. She passed Kevin who was being dragged towards the office in a similar manner. The look that Kevin gave her made Annie realize that Kevin already knew that he was going to be punished. “I’m waiting outside,” Annie mouthed to him.