by Dan Decker
Maybe it saw me looking because it let out another cry and headed straight towards us, crushing everything in its way. I had a distinct feeling it was no longer using smell to hunt us.
Strange that it only saw us when we were far away.
Roth changed direction and ran out of camp. I considered going a different way, liking my odds of survival better with the camp in between the grenling and me, but she knew what she was doing.
Roth increased her speed now that she had fewer obstacles.
As I followed my boots crunched the dry ground, kicking red rocks in front of me. My legs brushed against foreign bushes that belonged on a planet far from the one I called home.
I risked another look and saw that while we had left the monster behind, it still came after us. It had noticed our change of course and likewise adjusted its route.
The general stopped, her sides heaving. Surprise registered on her face when I ran up beside her, a look that was forever etched in my mind.
It wasn’t my imagination. She intended for the grenling to get me.
Panic crossed her face, but then was gone.
“How is this possible?” Roth asked between gasps. “You should have been…” She trailed off and did not finish what she was saying, it appeared she had thought of something that answered her question. Whatever it was she did not speak it aloud. “These things don’t stop coming, keep up if you can, our only chance is to run until somebody takes it out.” She made no move for her rifle, but that wasn’t a surprise. The creature was far away and the weapon didn’t look powerful enough to take it down.
I suspected she had picked it up just to have something. During my time as a prosecutor I’d heard cops mention they felt naked without a weapon. She was probably the same.
Roth held her watch to her mouth and pressed a button on the side, the display lighting up as she did. “This is Roth. Call in air support.” She lowered her hand. “They should have already done that but sometimes…” She didn’t finish her thought.
She took off without another look at me. Not knowing what else to do I followed, hoping I could stay up with her long enough to escape the grenling.
10
General Katrina Roth and I ran in the opposite direction of the cliff wall I had seen when I had first looked out the window of the infirmary tent. The land in front of us stretched for miles, but I soon learned it was far more treacherous than it looked. Roth was aware of the dangers, almost as if she had this area mapped in her mind because she kept making turns rather than running straight. At first I was baffled by her erratic behavior, but at one of the twists, I realized if we had gone straight we would have run into a ravine that was covered by brush.
Without a working watch I had no concept for how long we had been running, but my best guess was fifteen minutes. I was covered with sweat from head to toe. My exposed head, neck, and arms were already starting to feel crispy from the sun that was climbing ever higher in the sky. It was a massive red fireball and was considerably more prominent than the sun back home.
I could not remember my last drink of water.
My tongue was beyond parched and I feared if this went much longer I was going to keel over from dehydration.
I kept wanting to look at the sun but figured if it could scorch my skin so fast, the last thing I needed was to expose my eyes any more than necessary.
The general stopped and looked back. She was once again surprised to see I had followed. She did a better job of keeping it from showing on her face, but it was still there. I got the feeling once again she hoped the grenling would get me.
“There is no way you should’ve been able to follow me, there is no way.” She said the last as if to herself. “Even with…” She didn’t finish her thought.
I shrugged as I struggled to breathe. I could not have spoken if I’d wanted, I had that much difficulty. It felt like the inside of my lungs were burned and would never recover. Each breath was more painful than the last.
I checked on the grenling and was surprised it had only just left camp. Even with all the twists and turns, we had managed to gain ground.
“Are you good for more?” Roth asked. “It’d be a shame for you to come this far but not make it.”
I nodded while taking a deep, rasping breath, trying to ignore the feeling that if I were to cough, my lungs would come out in chunks. I could taste blood. I had a sharp intake of breath when I noticed the grenling coming faster now it was out of camp.
Things were going to be more difficult from here on out.
I could hear popping from weapons as soldiers back at camp fired on the massive beast. Judging by the way it kept swiping at its head, that was apparently where they aimed. Despite all of that it was fixated on us, even though the others were closer.
I had wondered if it could run and now it was in the open it picked up speed. While I wouldn’t describe it as running, it’s strange loping was fast enough it would shortly close the distance we had gained.
The general took off, yelling something I couldn’t understand. I didn’t need to puzzle out her words, the meaning was evident.
We ran straight and just as I was starting to think we were finally beyond the danger of the ravines, she took a sharp turn and ran up a small hill. I followed, coughing and hacking for breath as I did.
When I spat it was filled with blood. I was just getting to the top when Roth spoke into her watch.
“Air support should be here by now. Where is it? Why hasn’t somebody gone for the long gun? I’m out here alone without support.” She glanced at me pointedly but didn’t amend her statement.
I couldn’t understand the reply.
“I don’t care, pass it around if you have to, order everybody to take a shot, I won’t have a grenling tear through camp and live to tell the tale.” She released the button. “This should have been taken care of by now. All I have are fools to work with.” She looked at me as if to underscore how annoyed she was that I was still with her.
Roth growled. “Keep up if you can.” I heard a roar as she turned and ran down the hill. The grenling was now distracted by two ships. They hovered above the grenling’s head. They circled the giant as if trying to taunt it.
I followed the general as she took a sharp left at the bottom of the slope, taking us back toward camp. After running another fifty feet she slowed but I now had to push to keep pace with her.
My fried skin felt like it was falling off.
“We have to get you back,” Roth called back, “if you were wearing block we’d stay to watch the action. We have less than ten minutes to get you wrapped in a cocoon or your skin is never growing back.”
I gasped and coughed up more bloody phlegm. My arm was bright red with blisters.
Can I survive ten more minutes?
The camp was far away and the grenling was in between.
We would never make it in time.
Roth probably knew that, which was why she wasn’t pushing us.
Death comes.
I tripped and fell, throwing my hands out to catch my fall.
The ground was searing, so hot it felt like I was going to burn the palms of my hands, the only part of my exposed skin that had managed to escape Aldreda’s powerful sun.
Roth stopped, looking at me for a long moment, as if thinking of leaving me to die before finally bringing up her watch.
“We need help or this guy is going to fry.”
I tried to get up, but she put a hand on my shoulder while nodding at the grenling.
One of the ships peeled off and came our way.
“You’re probably dead but we’ll see what we can do. Wait for them.” She took off, yelling something into her watch as she did.
I was in too much pain to be enraged.
A few moments later the ship was overhead, the back door already opening as it landed. As I tried to get to my feet, masked soldiers with a stretcher appeared from within. I somehow managed to stand as they arrived. They helped me on to
the litter and took me to the ship.
As they loaded me, I had a clear view of the general running towards the grenling while the remaining airship fired a weapon.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Despite everything being thrown at it, from the ship and the soldiers, the grenling still lived, its arms batting at its face as I might have done to a fly buzzing around my head.
The ship’s weapon appeared to have missed all three times as the grenling twisted out of the way as if it had a sixth sense about the weapon.
Every part of my body burned. The top of my head felt like it had been cauterized by hot metal. My cheeks were so bad I couldn’t move my mouth without them flaring. My legs hurt worse than anything I’d ever experienced before.
After they carried me onto the ship I tried to sit up, but one of the soldiers put a hand on my chest and pushed me down. My heart raced. I couldn’t afford to lose time healing, but I had no other choice. As I was wheeled into the hold I tried to think of anything I might have done differently to escape my predicament, but could not. Despite my pain-ridden circumstances I felt a small twinge of pride that I had managed to pull off something to impress the fearsome, crazed general.
I tried to sit up when the stretcher stopped. I must have been delirious because I told them that I was burned, something evident to anybody looking at me.
They pushed me down, this time with one on either side of me. A mask was fitted to my face and one of them told me to count backward from ten. I didn’t get to five before I remembered nothing more.
11
To: Sergeant John Jeffords
From: Brigadier General Katrina Roth
Log date: 00429.208-011:17:59
Re: Recruit Earl Anders
Sergeant Jeffords,
Anders is a suitable candidate for General Adam’s program.
Follow chain of command at all times.
General Roth
12
I was tossed from a cot and landed face down on the floor, the impacted red sand grinding my face like coarse sandpaper. It felt like it had been solidified and coated with something that kept the red sand affixed. However it was done, it left a raw patch on my face. It gritted under my hands as I pushed myself up, only to be pushed down again. The sudden movement caught me off guard and my forehead hit the sandpapery ground. Somebody chuckled as they pushed my head to the floor and rubbed it side to side, chafing me further.
“Why are you maggots sleeping? Do you think you need sleep? Do you think you’re in the place for sleep? You are misinformed. These cots are for soldiers. You ugly, foul-smelling, yellow-blooded maggots look like something the cat drug in. Dead, strangled, half-chewed, and rotting.”
The man’s voice was harsh, he yelled at the top of his lungs. The speaker wasn’t the person holding me down, the voice came from somebody in the middle of the tent.
Despite the hand on the back of my head I wiggled free and flipped around to look at the man who’d assaulted me. He was thin and had a gleam in his eye that said he could have broken me with his hands even though I was bigger. I glared at him as I stood and noticed soldiers doing the same thing to other men.
More new recruits.
When the man tried to push me down again I put a hand on his chest and pushed back. I was big enough he didn’t repeat his attempt, the others were not so lucky.
My new body had some advantages.
It had been rare for me to encounter a man smaller than me back on earth. I was going to be in the ninety-fifth percentile of height and weight here.
Not even a second later a man was in my face, yelling. He wore a camouflage hat and uniform with the same drab red and grey colors.
It took me a moment to recognize him.
Jeffords.
He was different. His face was stern, his uniform impeccable, his mouth open, every inch of him a drill sergeant.
And he was furious.
“You think you can touch him? You think you can push him? You think you have the right you filthy bloodsucking rotting yellow maggot to do anything? You are sorely mistaken. Down on the ground, now!”
“No,” I said with a scowl, refusing to move while resisting the urge to hit him. Spittle flew from Jeffords’ mouth as he opened a new tirade that I tuned out. There were nine others who had been overturned from their cots. Each of them was smaller than me and were having difficulty becoming coherent. They barely understood what was happening.
I brought up my arm—still ignoring Jeffords as he screamed at me—and looked at the skin I had watched turn to a crisp during my encounter with the grenling. My skin was paler than before, but it was whole. I touched the top of my head and found the same. In some places on my arms, there were red splotches where my skin hadn’t healed correctly but the pain and burning were mostly gone.
It was no longer challenging to move. My body responded as it had back on earth, even though it was not my own. I turned my attention to Jeffords. He too was short, thin, and while he was in excellent shape, I could have easily crushed him if I had known what to do.
He was very short, smaller than the man who had overturned my cot. I hadn’t paid much attention before, but it was impossible to miss as he screamed several inches away from my face.
I knew better than to underestimate his ability to harm me, but I did not like the way I’d been rudely awoken. I had never signed up for an intergalactic army.
It was presumptive to assume I had.
Roth had been going there, but we had never arrived.
“I never enlisted,” I said interrupting Jeffords in the middle of a tirade about my bald head that included a negative description of the red splotches all over my skin. Apparently, there was a big one on the crown of my head.
Jeffords stopped, his mouth open as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He took a step towards me and grabbed my shirt.
“You’ve been conscripted.”
I smiled, making it as pleasant as possible. “How do you plan to force me to do something I don’t want to do?”
I took hold of my clothing, twisted until it was free, and shuffled back. I was tempted to do something more aggressive but it was safest to make only defensive moves. I had been careful to not touch him. I didn’t want to provoke him.
Isn’t this the type of behavior Roth warned me about?
I’d already proven myself by running from a grenling.
“If you think I’m going to blindly follow your orders because of this harsh environment, you are mistaken.”
Jeffords was beet red, he took in a deep, hoarse breath.
“You dare question my authority?”
By the look on his face, he’d never been in this situation.
I looked around the room and saw the others were in a stupor, looking as if they were about to fall over. I was steady on my feet and despite my previous ordeal, didn’t feel much worse for the wear. I didn’t know what they had done to me in the cocoon or how long I’d been out.
I wasn’t doing anything until I got some verifiable truth.
If they wanted to tell me earth was destroyed, I would believe it when they showed me the remains.
If these people wanted me to be a soldier, they better have a good reason beyond some wild rhetoric about an alien race. Saying the earth was destroyed and assuming I wanted revenge on some unseen foe wasn’t going to cut it.
Especially after the way I’d been rudely awoken.
“I’m not looking to challenge your authority,” I said, “but I’ve just been tossed like a sack of potatoes. You’re acting like I’ve agreed to something. You use the word conscripted, but I am not going to move a single foot until somebody tells me what is going on. Why have I awoken light years away from planet earth? Why are there monsters rampaging through camp regularly? You start answering questions, you might get some obedience from me, but until then. I am not moving an inch.”
Jeffords practically foamed at the mouth.
“Look at this. We got ourselve
s a regular old Patrick Henry, all up in arms for his liberty. His freedom. I got something to tell you, I got news for all of you, the world you think you came from is long gone. All the people you ever knew are dead. I won’t give you anything until you obey me. Now, I want you to step forward, kneel, and beg for me to forgive you. If not...” His smile was sinister. “I’m gonna let my response be a surprise.”
Throughout this whole ordeal, since the first time I’d awoken until now, I had mostly managed to remain calm, even stuffing away unanswered questions about my death.
Thinking of my family helped me do that. If something had happened to Ricky and Ava, if they were dead, these people had tipped their hand the wrong way. I had nothing to live for if it were true.
I thought they were lying, lucky for them.
My fingers formed fists, both slowly coming up.
Jeffords must have noticed the look in my eye because he took a step back. Bringing up his own fists as well. As a lawyer I hadn’t had much need for fighting with anything but words, but I had taken a self-defense class, just basic stuff. However, I suspected with my new body, even the limited moves I knew would be useful. I was more than double his size and weight.
When I pulled away from him earlier, even though he was trained, he had responded with verbal abuse.
If I manage to get in just one good hit…
I took a deep breath and looked around the room.
I’d only noticed the other recruits and had not focused on the men behind Jeffords. There were at least fifteen soldiers, and all were poised to pounce.
If I did somehow lay Jeffords out, they would be on me quicker than I could blink. Even with my rudimentary skills I could not take on fifteen trained men.
I did not see weapons, but they would have pistols or knives or other things.
Jeffords might be trying to make me angry enough to take a swing so he can make an example of me.
I could not let that happen.
His attempt to manipulate me would only work if I hit him.
