by N. W. Harris
“The slave gene’s worst influence,” Lily said somberly, nodding down at the unhinged boy.
Jones, Anfisa, and Tracy came through the door onto the roof, joining Shane and Lily.
“So what’s next?” Shane whispered, tearing his eyes away from the gore below. “How are we going to rescue Kelly and the others?” He feared if he didn’t latch onto a goal and cling to hope, he’d lose his mind.
“We need to return to the base where you were trained,” Jones replied with a hushed voice, glimpsing over the wall. He didn’t appear as disturbed by the carnage as Shane felt. How many planets had this former Anunnaki soldier seen destroyed before he concluded his people were evil and rebelled against them? “We have everything we need there, including the refurbished spacecraft that originally brought us to this planet.”
“You’ve got a UFO?” Shane asked, hope and excitement flooding through him. “Why didn’t you tell us before?”
“You didn’t need to know,” Jones replied coldly, not looking at him.
“Does it fly?” Tracy asked. She sounded ready to leap into the craft and charge into space with its plasma cannons firing.
It sucked that Jules was held captive on the ship with Kelly, but the tough ROTC commander seemed even more motivated to go on the offensive because of it. He couldn’t think of a better person to have at his side than Tracy if they were going to attempt a rescue mission.
“Yes, but it’s not like you can attack a recruit ship with it,” Lily replied. “It would be destroyed before we left the atmosphere.”
“Won’t they see the base from above?” Anfisa sounded analytical. Shane had come to realize her mind worked a lot like Tracy’s.
“No,” Jones replied. “Advanced stealth technology shields the base. If we can get back there, we can plan and execute our attack without the risk of discovery.”
“But if we can’t use your spaceship to attack them, what are we going to do?” Shane asked, unable to imagine any other way to rescue the lost team besides blasting a hole in the pyramid-shaped recruit ship and plucking them out.
“If we can reestablish a link to them,” Lily said, pointing at the sky, “then we can reactivate their earbuds. Then they may be able to use an escape pod to leave the ship.”
“But they’ll just shoot the pod out of the sky as soon as it ejects,” Anfisa countered.
“We can show them how to launch all the ship’s escape pods at once,” Lily said. “The Anunnaki will think they have a malfunction and will hope to recover the pods, so it’s unlikely they’ll want to destroy them.”
“And I suppose we need to get back to the base to reactivate their earbuds?” Tracy sounded as impatient as Shane felt.
“Although we may be able to establish a weak connection with the computer we have here, yes, we do need to get back to the base,” Dr. Blain answered. “The spaceship hidden there will supply the power we need to make a significant connection.”
It sounded like a Hail Mary pass. The Anunnaki had to be on high alert after watching the rest of their ships get destroyed. They probably watched the slave recruits closely to see if any of them weren’t behaving as expected. Even if they could reactivate Kelly and the other’s earbuds, how were they supposed to step out of the ranks to launch the escape pods? As frustrating and worrisome as it was, Shane once again had no choice but to go along with the rebel’s long-shot plan.
“Okay then,” Shane said, walking toward the door that led off the roof. “Let’s get going. Are we going to fly back?”
“No. We can’t fly,” Jones answered. “We’d likely be seen by the enemy. We have a submarine waiting in the Mediterranean Sea, at Alexandria.”
“A submarine?” Shane glanced at the rebels. They always seemed prepared for everything that came up, as if they knew what was going to happen before it did. It rekindled his suspicion of them. “How far away is Alexandria?”
“Two and a half hours by car,” Jones replied. “But we’ll have to make it to the edge of Giza on foot; the roads are all blocked.”
“We need to split up into small groups to get through the city,” Lily said. “The kids out there will be more likely to attack a larger group.”
“And we can’t travel while the enemy ship is overhead,” Dr. Blain added. “If anyone gets hurt, I can’t treat them unless the ship is on the other side of the planet. They’ll detect the energy signal emitted from my medical equipment.”
Shane was about to respond when a shriek came from the street below. He ducked and crept over to the parapet wall. The boy with the string of ears backed up against a dumpster. A group of kids who wore shredded clothes and some kind of masks over their faces closed in on him. The boy was insane, and his ear-collecting habit made Shane sick, but he still couldn’t stand watching these other kids stalk him.
When Shane started to raise his gun, Jones put a hand on his shoulder. “We can’t risk getting discovered,” he whispered, a stern warning in his eyes.
Shane knew he was right. He watched in horror as the masked kids moved closer to the shrieking boy, thrusting what looked like makeshift spears at him. They closed around him, corralling him against the wall. Then they all lunged on him at once, silently stabbing him with their weapons. He fell to the ground and stopped screaming after the first few blows. The murderous kids thrust their spears into the boy again and again. The grunts of their effort and the wet sounds of their blades piercing flesh echoed between the tall buildings.
The behavior of these deranged teenagers made the murderous rampage of the animals seem mild in comparison. When the butchery was complete, the masked kids turned from their prey and moved down the street. They squatted low as they walked, looking more like animals than humans. Their heads twisted left and right, searching for their next victim. A wedge of moonlight shined down into the street. One of the crazies stepped into it, and Shane saw what his mask was made from. Even after all the crap he’d endured, Shane instantly grew nauseous. The kid wore the skinned-off face of one of his victims, black eye holes and mouth gaping and frozen in silent terror.
“They’re really messed up,” Tracy whispered, grimacing.
“Yeah,” Dr. Blain replied, sounding like she might get sick. “And we have to make it past thousands of them to get to the sub.”
“The enemy ship will cross beyond the horizon in fifteen minutes,” Jones said, urgency in his gruff voice. “It will only be on the other side of the planet for forty-five minutes.”
“Then we should go now,” Shane replied, heading for the door that led downstairs.
The rebels and his friends followed, climbing down the ancient, wooden steps into the dark building. Without the noise of the mob passing outside, the creaking of the staircase sounded like it was amplified through a loudspeaker.
“Have everyone meet on the first floor,” Shane whispered over his shoulder, staying on the balls of his feet in an attempt to reduce the noise.
Tracy and Anfisa split off at different floors, gathering the kids hiding in the building. Within a couple of minutes, armed teenagers crowded the first floor of the hotel. They were quiet silhouettes in the darkness, shadowy faces with rifle and shotgun barrels poking up between them.
The rebels had mentioned they were training others to help in the fight against the Anunnaki, but Jones had kept Shane so busy during his own training that he’d never really wrapped his head around the idea that there were more than forty-nine teens rallied for the fight. He realized there must be others at each of the landing sites around the globe, and he felt marginally reassured that a small army stood in opposition of their formidable enemy. Hopefully, the rest of the teams he’d trained with had survived and were headed back to base as well.
Shane stood near the door. He looked toward Jones, who nodded at him, indicating he should take charge. It was such a strange thing; he couldn’t imagine why the more experienced rebel would default to him. The room was dark, and he could barely make out so
me of the kids’ faces. Enough moonlight slipped through the cracks for him to identify Maurice, Tracy, Steve, and the rest of his team standing off to one side. Laura stood with them, a rifle over her shoulder on one side and the stub of her arm hanging from the other. Her cold and vengeful expression made him worry she’d lost her nurturing spirit in the battle that took her arm. How much more could they all take before their flickering humanity was extinguished?
Shane took a deep breath, wishing once again that Jones or Lily would take charge. But the things the Anunnaki soldier said to him in the escape pod, and his concern that the rebels might try to take over after the war ended, reminded him how important it was for these few mentally stable teens to be used to taking orders from a human. Shane didn’t want the increased responsibility, but once again, the ball had fallen in his lap, and he knew he had no choice but to run with it.
“We’re going to break up into groups of ten,” Shane announced just loud enough to be heard by everyone in the room. “We’ll leave at fifteen-minute intervals.” He spoke his plan as he created it, military strategy almost second nature to him now. “Captain Jones will give you the route. My team will go last.”
Shane glanced across the room and found no objections. He told Tracy to split up the young soldiers and then slipped around the group, making his way to the basement door. He wanted to pay a visit to the Anunnaki soldier being held prisoner. Jones and Lily might try to stop him, so he intended to sneak away while they were busy. He had no clue what he’d ask the alien and didn’t expect to learn anything, but his instincts demanded he pay her a visit. There was no guarantee she’d make it through the city alive, and he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to learn something more about the enemy.
At the door to the basement, he turned and looked toward Jones and Lily. Jones talked in a hushed voice to the first team, and Lily drew their route on a map. The rebels were prepared. Not only did they have weapons in the hotel, they also had bottles of water, dried food, a stack of maps, and backpacks for each of the kids.
Tracy made her way through the room, ensuring everyone had found a group. The other teens whispered to each other, sounding excited about getting out of the hotel. With all the craziness that passed outside earlier, they were lucky the dilapidated building hadn’t become a tomb. The pop of distant gunfire quieted the teens.
“Be careful out there,” Jones warned. “Don’t draw attention to yourselves.”
The captain unlocked the front doors and pulled one open. Moonlight flooded into the room. When everyone’s attention turned to the luminous exit, Shane slipped onto the stairs leading down to the basement and eased the door shut behind him.
“At ease,” the helmetless Shock Troop soldier who stepped off the elevator into the berthing said. “Gather around.”
Kelly’s body relaxed. She and the other teens made a half circle around the alien. When her alter ego glanced at his face, Kelly tried to glean as much as she could from the Anunnaki’s expression. He gazed upon the human slaves with a slight grin, seeming to admire them. It wasn’t the same look the soldier in the inspection chamber had given her. This alien’s gaze was less objectifying. She immediately guessed he’d treat the human slaves with more respect than some of the other aliens, but that didn’t give her much comfort. Her father and grandfather had always been caring and kind to their cattle, and the animals still ended up at the slaughterhouse.
“I’m General Athos, and this is Lieutenant Pelros,” the Shock Troop soldier began. Both had black hair and the general only looked slightly older than the lieutenant did. They looked a lot like Captain Jones. “You’ve been through a lot,” he said with tenderness in his voice, “losing your parents and watching your world crumble around you. Can you tell me why we have come and taken you aboard this ship?”
Kelly and the rest of the teens raised their hand. The general pointed at Jules.
“Our planet was attacked by an alien species you’ve been at war with for hundreds of years,” Jules responded. “Your people picked up the radiation created by the weapon that killed the adults. You’ve come to help us fight back.”
“Exactly,” General Athos replied, sounding pleased.
It sickened Kelly to hear her friend’s response. The Anunnaki’s control over the humans was ironclad. Not only could they force the slaves to do their bidding via the slave gene, they’d also brainwashed them to make them believe they were fighting to save themselves.
“You have all agreed to obey our commands until we’ve freed your planet from the grasp of our common enemy?” the general asked.
Kelly felt her head nod in affirmation and saw the rest of the kids do the same. Funny they believed they had a choice.
“At times, we’ll ask things of you that may seem unrelated to the mission, but you must obey. You need to have faith in us if we are to help you save yourselves.”
The general looked at each of them with a firm expression, though his eyes hinted at paternal concern. Kelly knew it was another level of manipulation. The Anunnaki had been enslaving species for millennia, and they’d fine-tuned the process to an infinite degree. It wouldn’t surprise her if the human slaves ended up loving their masters, if they weren’t already programmed to do so.
“I believe you will obey my commands, and that together, we can free your planet,” the general continued. “Unfortunately, not everyone on this ship feels the same. Many of our leaders require verification of your obedience, and they need to see you are physically and mentally capable of fighting for your freedom.”
The general paused, glancing at each of the teens once again. Kelly sensed he’d rallied many soldiers to march into battle in the past. She guessed even the Anunnaki soldiers, those who weren’t enslaved, would gladly charge to their deaths for him.
“Our ways of testing may seem strange, even archaic,” he said, “but you must do as I ask if we are going to convince my people to fight with you.”
Again, vigorous nods came from the teens. They acted eager to prove themselves. Kelly was filled with dread, expecting the bloodthirsty Anunnaki had planned some trials that would leave her and her friends more scarred than they already were.
“You have been separated from the rest of the kids because you exhibited superior intellect and courage. Our preliminary scans tell us you are natural leaders, and you will likely command the rest of the kids in the retaliation against the enemy.” The general clasped his hands behind his back. “The people in this room stand the best chance of proving we should support humans. I need three volunteers.”
Kelly’s hand shot up. Her alter ego glanced left and right, and she saw the rest of the teens raise their hands. Their eyes widened, and she half expected them to start shouting, Pick me, pick me.
“Let’s be clear,” Athos warned, raising his brow. “The tests will be mortally dangerous.”
No hands dropped. The general’s narrow mouth turned up into a satisfied grin.
“Okay, I’m going to select the three of you who scored highest on our scans,” he said and glanced down at a small computer screen on the right sleeve of his armor. “Kelly, Jules, and Ethan, please come with me.”
The general pivoted and stepped into the elevator. Kelly looked at the other teens and could feel the triumphant expression on her face. Her alter ego seemed to gloat at being chosen over them. It was not how Kelly would’ve behaved if she had control, and she worried what other things this fabricated personality would make her body do. She strolled forward, her two friends beside her.
General Athos and Lieutenant Pelros stood at the back of the elevator, facing out with the other two soldiers on either side of them. Kelly entered with Jules and Ethan, and they turned around so they looked into the barracks. The teenagers left behind eyed them with envy as the doors closed. It was incredulous—Kelly and her friends may well be off to their graves, and the other slaves wanted nothing more than to be in their shoes. Butterflies swirled in Kelly’s gut, anticipatio
n of what was to come seeming to affect her alter ego as much as it was her.
She didn’t feel the elevator moving, but after ten long seconds, the doors swooshed open. A garbled roar of excited conversation spilled in. Kelly’s eyes darted left and right, scanning the room filled with Anunnaki. Most of the aliens were soldiers, wearing red armor and no helmets like Athos and Pelros. A few, operating computers and stations around the perimeter, wore white jumpsuits.
She stepped off the elevator and made room for the general to lead the way. The Anunnaki noticed their entrance and a hush swept through the chamber, all eyes turning to see the three humans who were to be served up for tonight’s entertainment. A low growl captured her attention. The noise came from three cages in the far left corner of the chamber. The cages stood much higher than the tallest Anunnaki, and she could see furry, black lumps in each.
“Those will prove you can control your fear,” General Athos explained, following her gaze.
Terror squeezed Kelly, the primal sort she expected rabbits felt when they saw a dog. The animals looked big enough to take down a rhino. Ethan and Jules stood on either side of her, eyes wide and jaws slack.
“Stilapian wolves. Their home planet is in a much earlier state of evolution than Earth,” the general explained. “Like the wolves on Earth, they are pack animals. They’re vicious head-on, but accustomed to having a wolf on either side of them. They don’t protect their flanks.”
Athos spoke encouragingly, as if he was coaching them. Kelly sensed he really wanted them to survive these trials, and he sounded like he believed they would. Unless the aliens provided some big guns to fight the creatures with, she didn’t see how she and her friends stood a chance. The hairy lumps she saw upon entering the chamber were just the animal’s shoulders, rising as tall as an elephant. Kelly guessed the creatures must weigh several tons each.
