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  “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 ourselves 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.

  Their brutal awakening had put me into a defensive position. Now that I was waking up I realized what was really going on.

  I unclenched my fists and stepped back from Jeffords—not even realizing I had taken a step towards him—and put my hands behind me.

  While I was not going to take a knee and beg, an apology was in order. Might makes right, or so the saying goes.

  “I was mistaken,” I said.

  Jeffords stared at me, as if trying to decide what he should do next. He looked ready to attack, he seemed prepared to insist I kneel as ordered, but then he looked around and saw all the other conscripted men and probably thought it would be a misstep to push any further.

  We were not volunteers.

  He needed us to willingly comply. He needed our cooperation if he was going to train us. I kept my face free from emotion at the small victory.

  “I won’t accept your apology right now,” Jeffords said through clenched teeth, taking a different tact. “Perhaps one day I will. You are on thin ice, soldier. Ice so thin its cracking all around you and you’re practically falling into the water. I suggest you toe the line. There is a war on and while we will give you a chance to acclimate, there will be a quick end should you not.”

  I nodded but said nothing.

  “Okay, you corpse eating maggots,” Jeffords said. “I am Sergeant Jeffords. We don’t believe in coddling recruits and we don’t believe in holding back truth. What I just told this man is true. The world you came from is gone. Long gone. You’re so far away that if you ever even traveled back, you wo
uld not recognize the world you left behind. Apes and dolphins are the primary life form now. Got it?

  “But that’s okay because you’re not gonna have time to think about anything else. You have been volunteered into a rare army, an army made of human men. The last of its type that will ever exist in the universe if we don’t win this war. We fight for humanity. The next three months of your life are gonna be the most miserable you’ve ever known.

  “But the good news is at the end, you will be well adapted to survive our new environment and any other harsh place capable of supporting life. I was once like you. I had no choice but to follow.” He nodded my direction. “This man made a wise decision. Men who push too far get terminated after opportunities for re-education.”

  I suppressed a snort. Re-education was likely a bullet.

  “Look at your hands, look at your feet, this is not the body you knew. That body is gone. You will never get it back. Nobody here can replicate the body you had before. You have been randomly assigned a new one. This body is superior to your old in several ways. First, you will notice you have perfect vision and some built-in resistance to ultraviolet light. Make no mistake, you will still need to wear hats, shades, and block, but no more trips to the eye doctor. Second, it is rare to get sick. This is not to say you cannot get ill but many of the diseases and sicknesses that bothered you back on—” a strange look crossed his face, “—earth, will not bother you here.”

  It was as if he experienced a moment of nostalgia, a moment of longing, but there was something there as well that was stronger than either of those.

  Why did he act as if he knew me when he heard my full name?

  If I could reestablish our relationship, perhaps I might get better information about our current situation. He’d been free enough when talking to Dolores. I needed to get him alone when he wasn’t playing drill sergeant.

  “The first thing you guys must learn is to wear block at all times. One of you,” he glared right at me, “has already learned that painful lesson. The sun is brutal. If you do not wear proper protection every time you go out, you will find yourself in a world of hurt. Fifty-five minutes out here without block is enough to put you into a two-day coma with pain for the rest of your life if you are unfortunate enough to wake up. We have limited resources. Coma victims don’t last long.” He paused to emphasize the point just to make sure everybody picked up the true intent of his words. “If you are exposed for seventy minutes, you are dead. Your eyes fare better than your skin but its best to wear shades and a hat at all times.