Dead Man's Game Read online

  Jump and fly?

  I already expected to be told to do twice as much as the others, but he was going to ask the impossible. I didn’t like where this was heading.

  “I will take the lead and if I think you’re running too slow,” he pulled out a collapsible metal wand that he expanded out to form a short stick. I thought he was going to threaten to hit us, but a flash of electricity came from the end. “I’ll introduce you to Sparky.” He smirked, looking like he had done this hundreds of times, but the joke never got old.

  None of us laughed.

  “Form up.”

  The others moved as if they knew what to do, so I followed, hanging in the back and watching.

  They lined up. If there was an order, I did not see it so I went to the back. Each had their hands at their sides with their legs spread.

  I did the same.

  Something whacked my legs. I turned to see Jeffords with Sparky in hand. There had been no electric shock.

  “You are in the wrong place, soldier. Fix it.”

  I gritted my teeth but kept quiet as I looked at the line, trying to figure out the order. Nothing stood out. The first thing I looked for was height, but the tallest was in the middle and the second tallest was in the back. I was tallest of all.

  “Yes, sir.”

  I walked to the front and took up the same stance I had been in before Jeffords’ strike. I braced myself for another whack, but it never came. As the seconds passed I imagined worse and worse things Jeffords would do to me. I had picked the front because it was the only place I could fit. I didn’t think any of the others were going to move if I tried to get in between. Perhaps my guess was lucky.

  Maybe its alphabetical, I thought, my last name does start with A.

  Even more time passed and I resisted my urge to look around, assuming I would get hit again if I did.

  He is testing our discipline.

  I ground my teeth while I waited. Jeffords didn’t care that I’d missed the training. He was going to hold me accountable as if I should have known what I was supposed to do.

  Despite my urgent desire to find my family, it didn’t seem wise to try anything yet, mainly since I didn’t know where we were in relation to civilization.

  I desperately wanted another option, but it really did look like the only way out was through.

  Eventually, Jeffords took his place at the front of the line and started to run. I hesitated because I had not received an order to follow. I was afraid if I just took off I would get in trouble, but as he got further away I decided to jogged after him.

  I expected Jeffords to call a halt, so he could introduce me to Sparky, but nothing happened. The further we went, the more focused I became, almost forgetting where I was and what I was doing because the strain on my muscles began to build.

  16

  The first time we stopped for a break many of their watches beeped. I looked at mine but with the display deactivated I had no way of telling how much time I had left. I still had time before I needed to put on block again. I could put it on preemptively, but what would I do when my watch beeped later? He would expect me to put the block on again and if I didn’t, I would get into trouble.

  I was also likely to catch flak for not putting it on now.

  “Why aren’t you putting on block, maggot?” I had not noticed Jeffords approaching. Even though I knew it was not going to work, I decided to be straightforward.

  “My watch has not yet beeped, sir. Shall I put block on anyway?”

  “Do you think you’re special? Do you think your watch should be at a different time than everybody else? You think you are somebody? You think that because you can run faster that you got something different than the rest of them? Well I have news for you. You’re not special. You’re just a lowly flesh-eating maggot. A maggot who’s gonna get crushed if he doesn’t do what he is told to do, you got that?”

  “Got it, sir. I am a maggot.”

  “Do you think this is funny?”

  My face had not cracked a smile. I had made sure to keep it as still as possible. I’d kept my tone even so it could not be misinterpreted, but my effort failed.

  I stared into Jeffords’ eyes and decided it was not on me.

  How does he know me from before?

  I racked my mind but nobody reminded me of him.

  “I asked you a question, maggot. You think you’re better than me? You think you don’t have to answer questions?

  “No, sir, this is not funny. I am a maggot, sir. I got it, sir.”

  “I don’t like your insolent tone, soldier.”

  “I’m sorry, sir, I will work on it.” I was careful to speak in monotone. Whatever he had in mind, he was almost there, he was just working up to it. I saw enjoyment in his eyes as if he relished every moment.

  “I don’t like your attitude soldier, I don’t like anything about you. You’re squat ugly. Your body looks more like a tank than a man. Is that what your problem is? You don’t think you’re a man, so the rules don’t apply to you? You think you’re a different species cause you’re so big?”

  “No, sir. The rules apply to me, same as anybody.”

  “Then you better start acting like it or you’re gonna be on latrine duty tonight.” He paused as if the idea had just occurred to him, even though it was evident it had not. “Yes, that’s what we’ll do. You’re on latrine duty.”

  “Yes, sir. It will be a pleasure.”

  “Now you giving me lip? You really need to watch yourself, you’re gonna end up in a world of hurt if you’re not careful. You know what you’re also going to do tonight? You’re gonna get guard duty afterward. Latrine duty and guard duty. You’re gonna be the first maggot ever to have both on their first day of training. You’re gonna be the first maggot who ever had to do anything on his first night. You better start getting your act in order.”

  My lips were stern. I wanted to punch the man, push him into a small ravine that wasn’t far away, but I took the verbal abuse in silence.

  What other choice did I have?

  He had decided to pick on me, to haze me. There was nothing I could do about it. It was more than just basic initiation, since he was not doing it to the other guys, but what of it?

  If there was some unknown history between us, it didn’t matter. I would get through and move on to the next phase.

  “I think it’s time we pick up the pace, don’t you, Anders?”

  I refrained from looking at the others. Jeffords waited for a response. The others were doing better this afternoon than they had this morning. They might be up to it.

  They already don’t like me anyways. I started to shake my head and stopped, luckily Jeffords had glanced away and had not noticed. Until they get me alone.

  “Yes, sir, that’s a good idea. These boys are up for it.”

  “Hear that, y’all,” Jeffords said, “it’s time for us to pick things up.” He nodded his head towards me. “Don’t forget, you can thank this man Earl C. Anders here, this was all his idea. You see, he’s got it in his head that he’s better than all the rest of you. Unfortunately for any of you today, you are not going to disabuse him of this notion. It’s a good thing your bodies are built to take this kind of stress on the first day, because we’re gonna have to do it. I wasn’t going to but he made me. Remember today. Remember him. This is the reason why you need to try harder, to beat him. You won’t today. You might in the future.”

  Jeffords gave me a malevolent look before starting off again, much faster than before. I followed without looking back at the other men, trying to make sense of Jeffords’ actions.

  Was this a test?

  Perhaps they’d given me a two-day head start on the others so they had somebody to be a lightning rod.

  I shook my head, wanting very much to look back into the faces of those behind me, but I didn’t need to. These men had just barely woken up, been told their world was destroyed, and now they were being told they had to work harder because of me.
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  It was not like I had a choice in the matter. I could not have done anything to avoid this.

  But none of that would matter to them.

  I was being set up to take the brunt of their anger the first time I was alone with them.

  Was this something Jeffords did to every batch of recruits? Was it just my imagination Jeffords had recognized my name?

  At least they gave me two-days to acclimate.

  It would have been much more difficult to wake up and find myself in this crazy world.

  I wondered if they had deeper purposes than just motivating the men. Was it merely chance I’d woken up in a larger, more capable body? Or had that been on purpose as well? Had I possessed qualifications they wanted to tap into?

  I was starting to suspect Jeffords would have done something to delay me from joining up with the others during orientation if I wouldn’t have had a run-in with the creature.

  He wanted me to miss vital information.

  While we ran I tried to tune out my gasping for breath, my burning legs, the sun that beat down and felt like it was turning me into a crisp, even with the block, hat, and shades.

  I didn’t have a reference for any of this. I’d never been in the military, I didn’t know if isolation was a common training technique. I couldn’t rule out the possibility Jeffords was just picking on me and there wasn’t anything more to it than that.

  I had not run much more than a few miles at one time back on earth, but we went at least two miles before stopping for a break and even though the others were also gasping for breath, they’d done a decent job of keeping up. Jeffords seemed to know precisely how far he could push the men. Perhaps the bodies were designed for more use than was evident upon first waking.

  The ground we trod was flat and red. Jeffords didn’t follow a trail. He kept making turns to avoid crevices or other obstacles in the terrain.

  A peak appeared in the distance. A little later we were making for it. The closest side had a broad face that went up to the jagged peak.

  I hoped we would take a turn but wasn’t surprised when Jeffords headed straight for it.

  17

  Aren’t we supposed to take it easy today?

  That mountain did not look easy. When we started to veer away, relief flowed into me until I saw we were moving to avoid a crevice.

  Jeffords picked up the pace again.

  I checked behind and was surprised to see the other soldiers matched the increase. There were a few stragglers, but they were not as far back as I would have expected.

  The crevice was longer than it looked and we went well out of our way to go around it, but as soon as we could cross to the other side by stepping over a crack that was several feet long—it went down quite a ways—we headed straight back towards the mountain.

  When I heard groans I assumed they had also figured out what we were doing next.

  Our first day of training was not going to be the walk in the park Jeffords had promised.

  I should not be surprised, I thought, but I assumed he was telling the truth when I saw the others.

  Why tell us today was gonna be easy and then make it hard? He had already blamed this on me. I would be lucky to survive the night. I shook my head, thinking it was probably part of Jeffords psychological strategy, which was irritating. He made us believe it would be easy and then took us toward something that was challenging, almost impossible.

  They’ll be primed to skin me alive the first time we’re alone.

  I kept pace with Jeffords, despite the dull pain in my thighs and my ever-growing doubts. I was handling things better than I would have thought.

  Instead of heading straight toward the cliff, Jeffords angled toward the back.

  What was insurmountable from the front, had a trail going up the rear. As we approached I was not yet ready to be relieved. It looked difficult, in some places more like climbing than hiking.

  When we came to the trail Jeffords headed straight up without pausing or even looking over his shoulder.

  Stifling a sigh, I followed him up the mountain. Having spent most of the last fifteen years in either a library or an office, I had not done much in the outdoors. And even though this new body seemed to grow more robust the longer I went I was not looking forward to the climb. The trail was rocky, red dust covered everything. The plants alongside were completely covered in the stuff, making me think this was a standard exercise for the new recruits and possibly even the seasoned ones too.

  As we came to the first switchback and made a turn, I tried to distract myself by looking at our surroundings.

  I was on an alien planet, after all.

  Unless this turns out to be all a dream. Maybe opposing counsel slipped drugs into my water at the deposition. While preposterous, it was more believable then what I had been told.

  During our run I had not seen much alien animal life. At one point, I thought I’d seen movement in the distance, but hadn’t seen it again and assumed it was a mirage or something else playing tricks on my eyes.

  When I noticed movement in a strange looking bush I looked just in time to see a disappearing tail. It had small spines, making me think of a miniature stegosaurus. The creature at the ravine had tiny feathers that seemed like scales until I examined them closely.

  I had not got a good enough look to say if the miniature stegosaurus had feathers too.

  The makeup of the trail had been dirt when we started, but now it was littered with chunky red rocks.

  I almost tripped and only stayed up by grabbing a tree branch. I stifled a yelp and let go as soon as I was stable.

  My hand was burned. The plant had been dark green with orange leaves but had somehow fried my skin.

  The rocky terrain kept me from looking closely at my hand for several switchbacks as hazardous rocks kept cropping up in the trail. A few minutes later we had a smooth stretch that allowed me to examine the damage.

  Small bubbles had formed that made me think of heat blisters. I could not say if I had been burned or poisoned, the effect looked about the same. If Jeffords had not been such a tool, I might have asked him, but I kept my mouth shut because I would probably get punished.

  Not to mention he will have me do everything with the injured hand.

  I did my best to keep the pain out of my mind and did not touch any other plants. Perhaps part of what we were doing was getting exposed to some of the rougher parts of the environment right away so we knew what to expect.

  Some of the watches of those behind me started to beep and Jeffords called a halt.

  I thought they were all on the same time, I thought glaring at Jeffords’ back.

  “Those with beeping watches better lather block now.”

  My watch still had not gone off.

  Rather than risk telling him my watch had not yet sounded, I complied with the order and lathered it just as thick as I would have typically done.

  The block caused my wounded hand to sting, but had a subsequent cooling effect. The stinging subsided and while the pain remained it wasn’t as bad. The block apparently had a dual purpose.

  I was faster than the others so I took the opportunity to examine my watch. I tried to reset it by pressing the top button. Nothing happened. I tried again, holding it down this time.

  It made a rapid beeping sound that drew Jeffords’ attention.

  “What are you doing, maggot?”

  “I was just trying to reset my watch, sir. Mine was not scheduled to beep for a few more minutes.”

  “Did anybody tell you to press the button of your watch and hold it down? Did anybody show you how to do that?”

  “Nobody, sir.”

  Of course Jeffords has to make a federal case out of it.

  My watch continued to beep.

  “What you have done, soldier, is set it in a mode to beep every forty-five minutes, instead of ninety. This forty-five-minute timer is only to be used during the summer.”

  “Yes, sir. I am sorry, sir.” He had menti
oned something earlier about this being the cool time of year. If this was winter, I loathed summer.

  “Press your watch button and hold it again, soldier.”

  I did as instructed and after a moment, it beeped like it had the first time, letting me know the ninety-minute timer had started.

  “I’m torn, soldier. On the one hand I don’t want you to experiment, because you’re likely to get yourself killed by messing with things you don’t understand. On the other hand, it would be nice to not have you around any longer.”

  “I will do better, sir.”

  “I would give you more punishments, but I’ve already given you the maximum I’m going to give today, unless you have a major screwup.”

  I nodded as if I accepted his admonishment, but I had learned to reset my watch. There was probably another way to do it, but this was what I would use for now, at least when Jeffords was nowhere nearby.

  Jeffords frowned as if he could tell what I was thinking. He had not put on block with the rest of us, either time. I’d only seen him put it on the first time.

  A smile crept up on Jeffords’ face as he stared at me, making my insides turn to ice. I did not doubt he had just figured out something more he could do to make life miserable.

  “Everybody move out!”

  Jeffords started up the mountain without looking to make sure he was followed. As I started a man who hadn’t finished quickly smeared the rest of the block on his skin. I was once again right behind Jeffords, he had not told me to change position, so I figured the only thing I could do was stay on him.

  When we had first started up the mountain there had been waist high brushes and trees that were twelve feet high. The higher we went, the fewer bushes there were and the trees thinned out. We could see for miles and it was the same inhospitable desert in every direction.