by N. W. Harris
When he closed his eyes, his mind raced, spinning out of control to the point where he was short of breath. Opening his eyes only made him feel how heavy they were, made him painfully aware of his exhaustion and of how he desperately needed sleep.
There was a rustling, and his sheet lifted. Startled, Shane opened his eyes and saw Kelly slipping into his bed.
“Do you mind?” she whispered.
“Of course not,” he replied, moving over against the partition to make room for her on the narrow bunk.
“Can’t sleep.” Kelly pulled the sheets over her and pressed into him.
“So you decided to come over and spoon with me?” Shane teased. The arch of her back fit perfectly into the curve made by his front.
“I guess so,” she said. He couldn’t see her face, but he sensed her smile. “Your first time?”
He blushed. It sounded like the question might have more to it than just spooning. A fire ignited in him, and he felt possessed by her smell and the delicate texture of her skin. He could barely breathe, but he was also painfully aware of all the other kids around them. Not to mention, the rebels’ cameras probably had a night-vision mode, so everything they did was being watched.
“Uh, yeah,” he whispered, his lips near her ear. “Aside from a near-death experience under a school bus in a tornado. You?”
“Yeah, me too,” she whispered, sounding as breathless as he felt. She pushed her hips tighter against him and sighed.
Shane breathed in the smell of her hair, soothed by her presence but also boiling inside with passion. The turmoil in his mind vanished, all his attention on the areas where she pressed against him, only their T-shirts and underwear between them. As exciting as having her this close was, it also relaxed him. He wouldn’t disrespect her by trying anything while they were so exposed in the barracks, but his mind was free to imagine all the things he’d do if they were alone. It took him away from the traumatic past, and it stopped him thinking about what lay ahead. Happier thoughts, of tasting her lips again and of exploring her body, filled his mind. Although his veins pulsed with excitement, having her this close was a comforting distraction that allowed exhaustion to sneak in. Pulling her even tighter to him, he closed his eyes with a grin on his lips.
“Rise and shine, tadpoles. Get on the line!” Jones yelled. “The last one in push-up position has to clean the head.”
“Damn,” Kelly said, rolling out of bed.
Steve was already up, giving them a mischievous look. Kelly darted across the aisle onto the girls’ side just as Tracy rolled out of Jules’ rack. Shane, Steve, and Maurice rushed to the line and dropped into push-up position.
“You guys too?” Steve teased quietly, raising his head to look at Tracy, who was directly across from him.
“Shut up, dude,” she whispered back, glaring at him. “It’s not like you didn’t already know.”
Steve chuckled again.
“You’re having way too much fun over here,” Jones shouted. “Push-ups on my count—up, down, up, down… ”
The routine was the same as the day before, push-ups and sit-ups on the cool barracks floor until they’d all created puddles of sweat beneath them. Then they were allowed a fifteen-minute bathroom break, where everyone rushed to pee and brush their teeth. Jones yelled the entire time.
It amazed him how no one seemed embarrassed, and everyone stayed out of each other’s way. In one day of suffering together, they were starting to become gears in a well-oiled machine.
Petrov even moved to let Shane spit in the sink when he was brushing his teeth. Shane was cautious the boy might be setting him up for a prank. Or perhaps losing one of his buddies humbled the Russian, and he’d play nicer today. Anfisa’s scolding last night might have had something to do with it too. Regardless, Shane was glad for it. In the end, Jones was right. They were all in this together.
On the tarmac, the predawn air was cool. Shane settled into a mellow pace next to Steve at the back of their group, ensuring no one got separated and ambushed in the dark again. Cruising around the loop, he tilted his head back and half closed his eyes, wishing he could get a couple of more hours of sleep. Laura made pained grunting sounds every minute, but she kept going. The Aussies plugged along behind them, forming a formidable unit of fourteen people.
Up ahead, he saw the Koreans and the Chinese run through the circle of light cast by the lamp above a hangar door. They cruised along with an appearance of relative ease, their quiet confidence enviable. He hoped his team would adopt a similar demeanor as their training progressed. But then again, they had won yesterday, so he reckoned he shouldn’t be too critical.
By the fourth lap, Maurice and Laura were wheezing, barely moving faster than a walk. Steve was still plodding along with his shoulders square and his chest pushed out, as Shane expected he would until his heart burst if he was put to the task.
“Pick up the speed, or I’ll run you until you all puke!” Jones shouted at them as they passed.
“Come on, guys,” Shane encouraged. “There’s a bottle of water waiting for us in the training building and another lap coming to us if we don’t hurry.”
It was enough to get Laura moving faster. She was at the front of his squad, and set the pace for everyone else. They came around the north side of the tarmac, and Shane was relieved to see Captain Jones standing at the open door to the hangar where they’d had the morning lecture the day before, directing people to enter.
“I never thought one of these metal chairs could be so comfortable.” Maurice groaned and tilted up the bottle of water he found under his seat.
“Today, we will do a walkthrough of an Anunnaki recruit ship,” Jones announced, climbing up the metal stage onto the podium. “Place your hands on your laps and relax.”
Kelly reached over and grabbed his hand, tugging it between them so she could hold it discreetly throughout the simulation. In doing so, she moved closer to him, causing their bare legs and arms to touch. He smiled at her, his heart threatening to explode and kill them both when she smiled back. When he felt the warmth and softness of her skin pressed against his and she looked at him like she was now, time ceased to exist. The rest of the world vanished, and he felt completely alive again. Her spirit seemed to penetrate into his through the connection of their skin and eyes. Her lips beckoned him like cool water did a man who had gone thirsty for days. He had to stop himself from leaning over and kissing her, almost forgetting they were sitting in a crowded room with Jones glaring down at them.
Buzzing in his ear and a flash of bright light tore him away from her. A warm breeze kissed his face, and he opened his eyes, the joy of being so close to Kelly dissipating. He was standing in a field. A large, pyramid-shaped mound covered in neatly mown sod was in front of him. The rest of the students stood on either side. They wore regular clothes, not the crimson armor of the day before. He had on blue jeans and a white T-shirt. Kelly was standing a few people away, like the aliens had separated them on purpose for the simulation. She wore jeans as well, but had on a tight, black tank top that kicked the embers of the fire she’d started, sending a warm shower of sparks through him. They exchanged a heated glance and he sighed, wishing for time they couldn’t have.
Lily stood on the lawn in front of them, wearing her usual black pantsuit and a kind smile on her face. Shane liked her. She was the first person from this alien race he’d met. He trusted her more than Jones, though maybe it was just because Scarface never smiled. At the same time, it unnerved Shane how he was willing to trust her so quickly, how he’d wanted to the moment she’d walked into that farmhouse.
Her gaze swept across the group, connecting with everyone. It seemed to convey a mix of admiration, superiority, and concern. He suddenly wondered how old she was. She must have been an adult to be flying the ship that crashed in New Mexico, yet she looked less than thirty now. She was silent long enough to make them shift uncomfortably and glance at each other, like they were unable to bear her omniscient scrutiny an
y longer.
“You’ve all seen these before,” she said, pointing at the mound behind her. There was a flash of light, and they were suddenly standing in the blazing sun, desert sands stretching out around them.
“They are scattered across the globe.”
An Egyptian pyramid was in front of them, twice as tall as the first mound.
“Humans used pyramids for many purposes; burial grounds, temples, and gateways to other worlds,” she continued.
Another flash transported them to a jungle. Shane rubbed his eyes and swallowed the nausea caused by the shifts. Monkeys shrieked and leapt through the treetops. Vines entangled a Mayan pyramid whose peak pierced the lush, green canopy.
“Whether the builders had direct contact with the Anunnaki or were instructed subconsciously, they were all driven by the same purpose.”
They flashed to another ruin—this one Shane immediately recognized. It was a pyramid in Teotihuacan, the center of the ancient Aztec empire. He’d just learned about the bloodthirsty warriors at the end of the last school year. He gazed up and down the Avenue of the Dead, stepped pyramids of various heights on either side.
The sunlight glinted off something in the clear blue sky. Shielding his eyes, he glanced up and saw a golden craft flying high above the ruins.
“That’s an Anunnaki recruit ship,” Lily explained, pointing skyward. “The primary interplanetary vessel used by the enemy.”
As it drew closer, he could see that the dark bottom of the vessel was hollow.
“Nearly all the pyramids your ancestors built are landing sites, and they are on every continent in the world except Antarctica and Australia,” Lily explained.
“Thank goodness for that,” Liam whispered.
“The pyramids are docking terminals where the ships can draw resources from the planet,” Jones boomed, stepping next to Lily. “A large percentage of the older kids left on Earth are gathering toward these structures now, driven by what to them is an irresistible and instinctive urge. In reality, it is a residual effect of the limbic manipulator, designed to aid the Anunnaki in harvesting their slaves.”
Shane imagined the world outside of this base. Without parents or governments, the good kids must be fighting roving mobs of juvenile delinquents like the ones who attacked the Leeville gym. And gangs like Shamus’ would be fleeing the millions of rotting corpses left in the cities, terrorizing the rural areas in search of food. Meanwhile, they all unconsciously migrated toward these ancient sites, their fates decided millennia ago.
“There are thousands of pyramids on Earth, many of them undiscovered.”
“How can we possibly fight that many ships?” Tracy asked, showing no qualms about interrupting Jones.
“Fortunately, the first wave of recruit ships will be smaller,” he replied. “Another, larger fleet will arrive to clean up the mess, after the primary recruit ships select their slave soldiers.”
“What happens to Earth when they are done?” an Israeli boy asked.
“They will destroy everything that humans have created, returning the planet to the Stone Age and thereby reducing the likelihood that humans will evolve enough technologically to turn on the Anunnaki. Then they’ll leave a few kids with wiped brains behind as seed for a new crop to be available in the distant future.”
So it was a cycle. Earth was simply a farm. Even if they succeeded at their impossible mission, it wouldn’t be the end. There was no happily ever after. Humans were being dragged into a centuries-old rebellion if they destroyed the recruit ships, or an unjust war against other aliens that had been going on for thousands of years if they failed.
It should have scared the crap out of Shane—he expected that would be the normal reaction. Instead, it just pissed him off. He looked around at the other kids and could see most of them seemed to have a similar reaction—another reason they must have been chosen for the assault.
“We should blow up all the pyramids before they get here,” a Finnish boy said. “To keep them from landing.”
“I like that you are thinking,” Lily replied. “But if we do that, they’ll know we are planning to resist. It’s better they land, thinking there is no threat on the planet and it will be an easy harvest. This will allow us to ambush them. We need to try to capture these ships so we can use them to fight the second wave. Besides, the ships don’t need a pyramid to land. They’re using them for resource extraction.”
“What will happen when the chosen team destroys the command ship?” Anfisa asked, her tone indicating that when she said chosen team, she meant the Russians.
“The other recruit ships all operate on orders from the command ship,” Jones answered. “Disabling it will cause chaos, which will allow us to overwhelm and capture all the ships.”
“And you know where the command ship will land?” Shane asked.
“That part is easy. The primary recruit ships are the largest in the fleet, and the command ship will be the largest of those. Aside from dirt-mound pyramids, which can’t support the ship’s resource extraction process, there is only one pyramid in the world that is big enough.”
“The Great Pyramid at Giza?” Laura said.
“Exactly,” Lily replied. “And two other recruit ships will land in the same complex.”
While they spoke, the ship had descended. Nearing the ground, it kicked up gusts, throwing dirt on them and making them turn away and shield their eyes. It dropped down onto the Aztec temple, its concave inside fitting perfectly over the structure. Letting out a final hiss, it fell quiet. The ship itself was a massive pyramid, the same kind that had destroyed Lily’s rebel army and created the wormhole that sent her here. Its ominous exterior was composed of what looked like a seamless sheet of gold.
Shane was dumbstruck. Although the vessel had a sinister purpose, it was magnificent. The video Lily had shown them when they first arrived didn’t do it justice. It looked ten times bigger than the pyramid it sat on, its apex reaching high into the clear blue sky.
A rising curtain of molten gold, a section of the ship’s gleaming surface vanished upward from the bottom. It formed a forty-foot tall opening, looking in on a stark white interior as brightly lit as the world surrounding it. Shane imagined it was a giant tick, landing on its terrestrial host and sucking the life from it. What resources besides people were these invading marauders after?
Gazing into the silent, bright interior, he tensed, half expecting an army of Anunnaki soldiers, clad in red armor and sporting plasma guns, to march out and slaughter them.
“This is one of the regular recruit ships. Although the command ship is larger, they all have a similar design,” Jones said, leading the way into the apparently empty vessel.
Shane’s neck hurt from surveying the vast chamber just beyond the entry. He was surprised at the ship’s inside, expecting it would look futuristic and utilitarian like the gray passageways and the reactor chamber he’d seen on the TV loop in the barracks. But instead, a pyramid with stepped sides that seemed carved from solid marble was hidden beneath the reflective outer surface. The inner pyramid with fluted pillars and statues of toga-wearing deities looked dreamed up by some ancient Roman or Greek architect. Each massive step had guardrails along the edge carved with intricate designs.
Lily and Jones led them to a futuristic escalator that carried them up the side of the inner pyramid. Everyone’s jaw was slack, their eyes wide with disbelief as they surveyed the vessel.
“This outer region of the ship contains the Anunnaki living chambers,” Lily explained.
The horizontal steps of the inner pyramid had wide boulevards with railings on the edge and elegant apartments forming the vertical part of each step. Fluted marble columns rising at regular intervals along the railings supported the sparse frame of the sloped outer skin, which Shane guessed must be created by some kind of energy field. White sidewalks framed lawns of lush grass, and palm and fruit trees delineated each apartment’s square yard. The lavish dwellings were occasionally separated b
y terraced gardens that ran at an angle up the full height of the pyramid.
“The plants in these outer portions of the ship clean the air of carbon dioxide, make oxygen, and provide food.”
Sunlight shone brightly through the golden exterior, which looked completely transparent from the inside. He imagined the views of space must be spectacular from the opulent homes. Shane looked behind him and grew dizzy. They were so high up that a tumble down the escalator would be fatal. He leaned forward so he’d fall up the steps if he lost balance and returned his attention to the stepped living areas they rose past, determined not to look down again.
While all the apartments looked elegant enough for royalty, it was apparent as they went higher that the elite of the alien society lived near the top. The distance between the steps increased by fifteen feet every so many levels, adding a floor to the apartments until they were five stories tall. They had elegant balconies on each floor, and grand entrances with pillars on either side. If the lost city of Atlantis ever existed, Shane reckoned this might be what it looked like.
Three quarters of the way up the golden outer pyramid, the wide escalator brought them to the flat top of the marble inner structure. He stepped out of the way so the other kids could get off and made sure a guardrail was between him and the five-story fall to the highest apartment’s courtyard. His jaw remained slackened with awe as he surveyed the city complex that sat atop the artificial mesa.
A grassy park, punctuated by trees, surrounded the city. To accommodate the sloped exterior, the buildings on the edges were shorter, and toward the middle, they were taller. Shane could see a massive, circular structure standing at the center of the city, its outer walls constructed of layers of arches.
“That looks a bit like a Roman coliseum,” Petrov mused. He was standing beside Shane, his mouth agape like the rest of the teenagers.
“Unfortunately, it is used for a similar purpose,” Lily said. “Anunnaki citizens can buy slaves and train them for sport. Then they enter them into contests for public entertainment.”
