Alpha 9

by Rebecca Bosevski

  “Who are you?” Alpha questioned. “Who are these men?”

  “We are the world now. You are too late little wanna-be human. This place, your women, they are ours now,” the Director chided.

  Alpha Nine smacked him upside the head. He fell to the floor green blood escaping his ears.

  “They are Annoronian,” Alpha Nine called as his duplicate army took the guns they had seized from the solders and fired into their heads. Green blood splattered the room with each blow.

  Doctor M cowered behind a curtain, Alpha Nine pulled her to the center of the stage.

  “Do you bleed red or green?” he asked, taking the gun and putting it against her arm. He pulled the trigger. Green flowed from the wound.

  “Don’t kill me, I can help you!”

  “We don’t need your kind of help,” Bravo Two said, stepping up to join Alpha Nine on stage.

  “Oh, but you do,” she said her hand moved from her wound to her wrist.

  “Stop her,” Bravo Two called a second too late.

  Doctor M pressed a button on her watch and she disappeared in a bright blue laser light that shot down from above.

  “This is wrong, this is all wrong. We need to know what has really happened,” Alpha Nine called to the group.

  “We need to find the humans,” Bravo Two said, reaching out and touching Alpha’s shoulder. He flinched away.

  “You don’t have to fear me.” I am on your side.

  Alpha looked at her apologetically, he had gotten them into this, he trusted Doctor M. “What if there are no humans left?”

  “Only one way to find out.”

  “Any idea where to start looking?” Kilo One added joining them on stage with Alpha’s initial group. “Because you can bet those men outside are not human, see the way they spaced out back there?”

  One of the recently released Alpha’s stepped forwards.

  “I am Alpha Eleven,” he said as he sprang onto the stage in one leap. “Look at the knowledge we were born with. We know that outsiders tend to go below. Most of that facility was below ground, it makes sense to look there first.”

  “He is right,” Bravo Two said, smiling towards the other Alpha in a way Alpha Nine did not like. “Let’s look for a back exit to this place, better not to come out near the men outside.”

  A blue light lit the ceiling above him. In a second it beamed down, covered Bravo Two and she was gone. Alpha Nine stared at where her wide eyes had been only a moment before.

  More streams shot down into the room, lighting up the female duplicates, all of them…gone.

  “No!” Alpha Nine yelled to the ceiling, his heart pounding in his chest. “Where are they? We must find them. Everybody search the area.”

  “Yes Sir,” they replied and began the frantic search of the room.

  “There is no trace, Sir, they have vanished,” one of the group called out to him as they continued to search.

  “We did find an exit to the rear of the building,” Alpha Eleven said, joining Alpha Nine back on the stage.

  Alpha Nine didn’t register the comment. He stared up at the ceiling, at the place where the light beamed though and took Bravo Two.

  “Sir?” Alpha Eleven pressed. “Perhaps if we find the humans they might know where they have taken the females of our group?”

  Alpha Nine didn’t answer, he didn’t move.

  “Alpha Nine, we have to go,” Kilo One said, grabbing his arm and jolting him out of his frozen state.

  “They took her,” Alpha Nine said in a whisper as his eyes focused on Kilo One in front of him. “They took her and I did nothing.”

  “You couldn’t have done anything,” Kilo One replied, taking Alpha Nine’s other arm as well and jostling him a little to try to bring back the leader they once had. “If you want her back then wake up, we need a plan and we need it now.”

  "It was my fault. I made her come here."

  "Yeah, and I'm sure you'll hear about it once we get her back."

  Alpha Nine’s eyes locked on Kilo One and he nodded. “Yes we will get her back, all of them.” He shrugged off his grasp and turned to the others still searching the room for any intel. “Regroup,” he called out to them and in a moment, they rallied, some slid down curtains, others took the leap from the balcony landing perfectly in the aisles. They all stood to attention awaiting instruction. His instruction.

  “Sir, the exit to the rear seems to be the only other way out,” Alpha Eleven said from beside him.

  Alpha nodded in his direction then addressed the crowd.

  “We have lost our own today,” Alpha Nine called to the group. “We will get them back, but first we must secure the others. For all we know we have lost them too.”

  “What do you mean, Sir?” Alpha Eleven asked, as the others in the group begun whispering to each other.

  “I set the pods to a fast growth before we left, the others will awaken soon, they won’t know to stay inside, and if they are like us, they will find a way out too and then the Annoronians will get their females.”

  “But how do we protect them when we couldn’t protect the ones here?” Kilo One asked.

  Heat rose in Alpha Nine’s chest, his pulse quickened and he glared at Kilo One.

  “We bring back up the wards,” Alpha Nine replied, shrugging his shoulders to relax the pressure that had built behind them. “The protective shield that was protecting us can now protect them.”

  “We blasted it,” Kilo One said, tentatively. “How can we bring it back?”

  Alpha felt his cheeks flush and his scowl intensified.

  “We can’t," Tango Five said, climbing up onto the stage and drawing Alpha’s attention away from Kilo. “But the door is sealed, when I moved the wires from the door control to blast the barrier I programmed the door also; it will be near impenetrable without the codes.”

  Alpha Nine felt his heartbeat slow down, his body adjusting to normal. The flush disappeared from his face and his shoulders relaxed.

  “And you have the codes?” Kilo One asked, avoiding eye contact with Alpha Nine.

  “No,” he said, walking directly towards them. “He does.” He pointed at Alpha Nine.

  “What codes exactly did you use?” Alpha Nine asked.

  “The same codes you somehow knew to reprogram the pods, to open the doors and to get us out,” he replied. He smiled at Alpha Nine.

  Tango Five was more observant than he had first thought. “Now let’s go get our females back. What do you say?” Tango Five asked with false bravado.

  Alpha Nine nodded. “Okay, but we don’t know this world, we need to find the human resistance, there has to be one.”

  “Agreed, so where do we start?” Kilo One asked.

  “Remember what Alpha Eleven said, where would you go if your enemy was above you?” Alpha Nine asked, scanning the group.

  “Underground,” Alpha Eleven answered, smiling from ear to ear.

  “Exactly,” Alpha Nine said, putting his hand on Alpha Eleven’s shoulder. “Grab the supplies, who knows what we will find below.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Alpha looked out at the myriad of duplicate males.

  “If we are going to do this properly we need better handles,” Alpha Nine called to them. “Think short and easy. Everyone pick a name, and take this,” he said, reaching down and removing a marker pen from the director’s top pocket.

  “Write your names on the back and front pockets of your combat jackets. Pick something you will remember easily. Except my initial group, you guys try to keep your first handle, drop the number, or adjust it slightly. Then all of you regroup at the exit. Alpha Eleven, show me the way.”

  “Ben,” he replied, “I would like to be called Ben.”

  “Okay, Ben, show me this back exit you found.”

  The others picked names too, they had all of history to choose from but stuck with the smaller ones. Sam, Joe, John, Al, Mike and Tom to name a few. All easy names, and when they were done and only Alpha Nine
’s group still had mostly their original handles they squished in backstage to await further instruction.

  Alpha Nine peered out the exit door into the alley behind. The light had begun to fade but he could still see men walking around the streets, no real direction or purpose. A few steps in one direction, then turning and walking again in the other.

  “This is creepy,” Kilo said as he moved closer to Alpha.

  “There,” Alpha said, pointing towards a metal grate on the ground behind a dumpster. He stepped out into the alley, Kilo and Ben close behind.

  Ben lifted the grate and a stench of waste flew up at him. He scrunched his nose and turned away as Kilo peered in, the smell hitting him as hard. He gagged before covering his nose and mouth with his hand.

  “Do we really have to go in there?” Kilo asked, through his fingers.

  “Unless you would rather go back out there?” Alpha mused, holding up his hand. “After you?”

  He gave Alpha a playful angry look then swatted his hand away and took the first step down into the dark stench of the tunnels below.

  They all filed in after them, the tunnels glowed in green light and smelled worse than anything they had yet to experience.

  The duplicates carrying supplies tossed them down to the others before descending to join them.

  The emergency lights that lined the tunnels were covered in grime and barely lit the ways ahead in either direction, but their designer DNA meant their eyes adjusted quickly.

  The tunnels below the city were laid out like a maze. They followed them the same way they handled the maze, taking left turns wherever possible to try to keep track of where they had been. Kilo One also marked the walls where he could with the marker they had taken from the body of the Director.

  History told them that when up against a formidable foe, the rebellion went to ground. So, they continued through the tunnels searching for any sign of a human resistance.

  The tunnel’s stink worsened the deeper they went. Rats populated the insides of the walls and their scurrying made it difficult to listen for human movements.

  “Wait,” Alpha whispered loudly. As he raised his hand to stop the group, they heard the rats scurrying pick up speed and their high-pitched squeak rang out from within the stone walls. “Ready yourselves, the rats are running from something.” Alpha took a battle stance. Kilo and Ben quickly mirrored him on either side.

  They waited as the rats scurried faster along the walls, some spilled out into the main tunnel and continued away from the direction the group had been heading. A rat fell from above them, landing on Ben's shoulder. He leapt into the air, swatting the vermin from his shoulder and stepping into something squishy against the side of the tunnel wall.

  “I guess I hate rats,” he laughed as he scrapped his shoe on the cement floor to try to remove any of whatever he had stepped in. Not wanting to look he stomped and slid his boot blindly and when he stepped on something soft that squealed he jumped again.

  “Shh,” Kilo chastised, grabbing Ben's arm and pulling him to the side and clear of the growing numbers of passing rats.

  “Do you hear that?” asked Kilo from beside him. “There is a vibration, place a hand on the wall, you will feel it.”

  A tremor could be felt growing in strength as it passed over the tunnel walls.

  “You don’t think their rays could get down here do you?” Ben asked, shrugging off Kilo’s grasp and placing both hands on the wall to feel it better. “Could be the rats moving?” He looked to Alpha.

  “No, this is different, there is a buzz too. It is growing, the rats are moving away, their sound is decreasing.”

  They stepped a few feet forwards, towards the growing hum and as the last of the rats scurried past the noise peaked, a pulsing vibration that permeated their ears and brought some to their knees. Almost as fast as the sound peaked, it then passed over, getting softer again, allowing those that couldn’t handle the pulse to again regain themselves.

  “It’s gone,” Alpha said, standing on his toes to try to look over the group. “Is everyone okay?”

  “All good here,” said Ben from beside him. Echoes of ‘okay’ and ‘good, Sir’ followed. A few that had been brought down by the sound wiped blood from their ears but their advanced healing stayed the flow quickly, and their hearing was unaffected.

  Alpha led the team deeper into the tunnels. Sounds surfaced. Real-life noises, talking, footsteps. “The resistance?” Alpha questioned, not certain but hopeful of their discovery.

  “It can’t be that easy to find the resistance,” Kilo whispered beside him. “Surely the humans would be deeper, further down, with security of some kind at least.”

  Alpha agreed, the chances that they would happen upon them so soon was slim, but Bravo Two’s face was berating his mind, her eyes gleaming at him with tears exactly as they had seen when he first saw her. He didn’t know what they were doing to her, he only knew that he had to save her and the rest of his stolen team.

  At the end of the tunnel a raised platform bridge sat out across a dark abyss. The noises echoing up from below it. He peaked his head over the edge of the abyss, the smells were much better though. Something sweet that instantly made his mouth water. He licked his lips and tentatively stepped out onto a platform at the end of the tunnel, the noises echoed upwards from the darkness below him.

  There was a rusty ladder that clung to the side of the vertical drop; Alpha checked its strength, the bars were old but solid. He signaled to the others to follow then began his descent into the darkness.

  Each rung moved slightly under the pressure of his weight. The smell of life getting stronger the deeper he went. The others followed, each of them careful not to put any undue pressure on the rusted ladder, though it was hardest for those carrying the supplies from their lab.

  A sudden shout went out as one of the bags slipped from above, but Kilo caught it as it fell past him. He swung from the ladder for a moment by one arm before shouldering the strap and regaining his footing.

  Alpha reached the bottom of the black cavern. He started to feel his way around the walls, searching for a doorway, a tunnel entrance, anything.

  The others joined him, they began fumbling around each other unable to see or feel a way out. Suddenly, bright light erupted, momentarily blinding them all.

  “Don’t try to move, you will not survive if you do,” said a strong male voice, no trace of hesitation. Whoever he was, he meant business.

  “Team, be still,” he whispered to his group. Some not yet having descended the ladder clung mid step, the metal rungs of the ladder creaked as it strained under suspended weight.

  “Who are you and why have you come looking for us?”

  “We are looking for what remains of humanity,” Alpha Nine said as the light shone brightly into his eyes. “Lower the light, we are no threat to you, unless you are Annoronian.”

  “What do you know of the Annoronians?” the man asked, not budging the light from blinding the entire group.

  “The Annoronians have taken over up top, they abducted the females of my group. I need to know where they have taken them. Again, can you lower the light?”

  Whispers came from all around them and the light in their faces shook before returning to a steady hold.

  “We killed the one they called the Director then made our way down here, we don’t know what has happened, but we are ready to fight for whatever humanity remains on our planet. We just need to get our team back first. Do you know where they take them?” Alpha’s patience was wearing thin, he tried to keep his voice neutral but the leader in him was breaking through. “We want to help, we are no threat to you, we were made to help.”

  The light went off and they delved into complete darkness again, this time bright spots danced in front of his eyes for a moment, like the stars of the night sky he had seen in his dreams, what seemed like a lifetime ago.

  The whispers began again, and grew rapidly, they merged into a white noise that vibrated th
rough the space.

  “Quiet,” the man’s voice came again and instantly they silenced. “Our security system didn’t stop you back in the tunnels, so you we know you are not alien.”

  Alpha Nine remembered the vibration that brought some of his team to their knees back in the tunnels.

  “You say you were made to help, so face us, see for yourself what is left of humanity.”

  With a clunk small lights turned on around the wall of the room. Each bulb illuminating a meter radius circle around it on the wall. They glowed an orange hew over the space, and as the group’s heightened eyes adjusted after the blinding they had received they saw them, they saw the human resistance.

  The men and women standing in front of him were mostly aged mirrors of themselves, all of them staring down their younger versions highly armed, and most of them damaged. The Bravo across from Alpha Nine smirked and her eyes glistened in a similar way to Bravo Two’s, his chest ached seeing her. She had a large scar running down her cheek from her ear to the collarbone. Years old, already shimmering silver in the light.

  “We are all that is left of humanity,” the Alpha across from them said, gesturing to the older duplicates around him. “There are a few survivors from up top, but not many outlived the war.”

  “What happened?” Alpha Nine asked him, taking a step forwards to allow for the others in his group to continue to descend into the space below.

  “Come with us, I will tell you everything you want to know,” he said, nodding to a few of the men behind him to collect the supply bags Alpha’s team held.

  “Wait,” Alpha Nine said, raising a hand and halting his group. “How do we know you really are the resistance?”

  “Good, you might have learned a thing or two, you are right to be weary of any you meet. Here,” he said, taking a knife from his back. He placed the knife over his hand and slid slowly over the surface. He didn’t wince, but he did bleed. “You see, red.”

  Alpha nodded his approval to the teammates holding supplies. They took them without a word spoken, then the older duplicates dissipated down tunnels and away from Alpha Nine’s group.