by C. S. Nelson
Summer cleared her throat. “We’ve already decided that Kevin will officially resign as acting commander, and Scott will take over for the duration of our time in the Shield.”
“A few weeks, Kevin?” The president sounded disgusted, shaking his head. “You managed to blow it in just a few weeks. I’ve never been so disappointed. You had so much potential.”
"I knew he didn't have what it takes," Summer muttered.
“What will happen to Kevin now?” Annie asked, ignoring Summer's snide remark.
Summer opened her mouth again but the president raised his hand to stop her. Annie could see on Summer’s face that she didn’t appreciate this. “We don’t know yet, Annie. We were just discussing that when you interrupted.” The president was hiding a mischievous smile.
“Do I get any say in this?” Annie asked. Everyone in the room gave her a strange look. “Seeing as I was the one who was kidnapped?”
The president shrugged. “I suppose that makes sense.”
Summer slammed her hand down on the table. “I’m sorry but why was she even allowed in here?” she barked. “This is a trial, not some sort of open forum for rangers to give their opinions.” Summer stared directly into Annie’s eyes. “Notice that all of your friends are staying silent.” She motioned towards the rangers sitting in the corner of the room. “There’s a reason you were chosen as rangers, and it has to do with your lack of critical thinking and intellectual abilities.”
Annie felt her blood boil at the obvious shot at her intelligence. She tightened her fists and inhaled deeply to keep herself from responding. This wasn’t an argument that Annie would win, and she knew that. “Now, now, darling.” The president leaned back in his seat, grinning at her. “I look forward to working closely with Annie. She has a bright future. I am eager to hear her opinion on the matter.”
Summer Henderson and the president stared at each other for a moment, communicating with only their eyes. “Very well,” Summer said through gritted teeth.
Annie cleared her throat. “I understand that Kevin disobeyed direct orders to stay in the Shield. However, as acting commander he made a decision to save lives. It was a dangerous mission, but any life saved should be considered a success. Today Kevin ensured that two more children will be able to come home with us when the ship comes to save us.”
Summer shook her head. “All that Kevin did today was show his own disobedience. Kevin is in charge, and his actions will affect the actions of all the rangers below him. It is vital to our society that the president is in control of this Shield, and we cannot allow insubordination to slip by without consequence. If we do, we are no better than the very beings that destroyed us. We need order.”
The president held his hands in front of his face, deep in thought. He sighed. “Summer is right. Kevin must be made an example. We’re so close to being rescued, we can’t have rebelliousness in the Shield now.”
“To the chambers, then?” Summer asked. A grin crept along her face as she realized that she would be getting her way.
Annie had heard this word before when she was in school. Everyone would joke when one of their friends got into trouble with the administrators about ‘being sent to the chambers’. But nobody knew what it meant. It had always just been a story they would tell to each other before falling asleep to try to give their bunkmates nightmares. But the chambers were real. Annie wondered how much of their childhood storytelling was based on secret truths.
The president laughed. “Summer, you’re being unreasonable. He will be demoted, that’s all.”
“I would like you to reconsider, darling,” Summer interjected. She was vicious today, bitter about having to work, and angry that the president was undermining her every step of the way. “There is a shortage of subjects in the chambers, and the new graduates won’t be available for months.”
“Yes, well, with the ship coming so soon we’re beginning to slow down with that project anyway.” The president’s eyes shifted, clearly uncomfortable with this topic of conversation in front of all the rangers. Annie and Kevin both stayed silent, hoping for the president or Summer to slip and tell them too much.
Summer’s head tilted slightly. “I was unaware.”
“Yes, well…” The president looked over his notes once more. “Kevin, you will be put on service. This will be a permanent change.”
Annie had never even heard of a ‘service’ career. Likely because the demand was so low that most graduating years wouldn’t even need a service category. “You’re demoting Kevin from acting commander to serving?” she asked. He was good at his job as a ranger. They were wasting his potential in order to display their power.
“Annie…” Kevin interrupted. “Don’t.”
She tightened her lips. She knew that he was right; if she kept speaking she would only make a fool out of herself. It didn’t matter what she said. Nothing would change Summer’s mind. “Guards, you may remove the newest member of our service crew.”
The guards stepped past Annie, picking Kevin up by his underarms, and dragging him past her. He gave her a sympathetic smile as he was pulled out of the room. Annie watched him with a neutral gaze, attempting to give no indication of the hurt she felt.
The doors to the office closed. She would see him again. Even if she had to check every building in the Shield, she would find him. She cleared her throat, trying to compose herself, before turning back to see everyone in the room staring at her.
“And now we deal with you,” the president said. Annie’s heart dropped. “The new ace.”
“It still isn’t legitimate,” Summer chimed in.
Annie couldn’t summon the energy to care about Summer’s disrespect towards her. It made no difference to her whether she was considered an ‘ace’ or not. “I understand if you want to discount my ace,” she said. It didn't feel as though it should have counted anyway. It was too easy when the suckers were caught off guard. There was no skill in shooting an enemy in the back.
The president raised his hand. “Nonsense. Kevin has integrity. He would not dare to lie about such an honor, he knows better. The question now is directed towards you, Annie. What would you like to do with your new title?”
“What are my options?”
“Most choose to be trained as my guards. Nicer living quarters, better food, safer. You may also stay where you are and help the commander, especially with training new recruits. Or if you wish, you may just remain as a ranger.”
“Are we not at an all-time low for rangers?” Annie asked.
“We are.” The president smiled.
“Then I will stay with my command.”
Everyone in the room seemed surprised, even the veterans who sat in the corner, listening intensely. “That’s very noble of you, Annie. I respect your wishes; however understand that I may call upon you at any time. I find you fascinating." Summer glared at the president, but he chose to ignore the look. "May I ask why you choose to stay, when a safer, nicer option is available?”
“I am not abandoning my fellow rangers when they need me. I was trained that no one gets left behind.” The president nodded. “Including children.” Annie turned and left the room before Summer Henderson could get a last word in.
Chapter 12: The Secret
Annie was angry. She was so blinded with rage that when she slammed the front doors to city hall open she slammed her fist into the wall. She swore and clutched her bleeding knuckles. She didn’t know where to go from here. People were still celebrating in the town center, but Annie didn’t feel like joining in. She wanted to go and find Kevin now, so he could talk to her about what happened, so they could finish what they started in the forest. But she had no idea where to start looking. This tiny Shield seemed impossibly big for the first time ever.
“Annie?” At the bottom of the stairs was Zed. He was leaning against an old light pole that had stopped working when the rest of the electricity went out, long before Annie had been born. It still gave city hall a classic f
eel that reminded citizens of life before The Hunt, when things were simpler.
“Did you see a man being taken by guards down these steps?" Annie asked.
"No, I didn't." He pushed off the light pole and stepped towards her. "Hello to you too."
"I really don’t feel like talking right now, Zed.”
“Well...are you okay?” he asked, ignoring her request, glancing subtly at her bleeding hand.
“No, I’m not okay. But I really don’t want to talk about it.” She started down the street, back towards basecamp. No sign of Kevin.
Zed nodded, following her as he had done before. “That’s okay, I understand. More of an introvert myself.” He smiled, waiting for a reaction. When Annie didn’t give him one, he cleared his throat and tried again. “Want to know why I’m not at the party?”
Annie sighed. Stubborn. “Sure.”
He snorted. “I got in a fight with your ex-honey.”
Annie eyed him. “Dustan?”
“Yeah, it was this whole thing. I bumped into him by accident, he turned around and I guess remembered my face from last month. He yelled at me, you know, began puffing up his chest in front of his new breeding partner. Tried to hit me.”
Typical Dustan. “I’m sorry,” she said. Zed seemed like a bit of an instigator. If he had gotten into a yelling match with Dustan, she was certain that Zed could have held his own. “I’m sure his testosterone is out of control with all the ‘procreating’ he’s been doing. Everyone probably looks like a punching bag to him.”
Zed shrugged. “Life around here is so boring. It was fun, keeps me on my toes. I can’t wait to run into him again.”
“Maybe life has always been this boring. Maybe even before the aliens attacked we were fighting each other to pass the time.” She smiled.
“Humans will be humans,” Zed agreed.
They were walking back towards the basecamp. It was just like they had done the month before, and just like before it was eerily quiet. “Hey! It was snowing earlier today, want to walk to the edge and see it?” It had only been a few hours before that the wonder of snowfall had captivated Annie. Kevin had shared it with her. Maybe she could do the same. All she wanted was something to take her mind off everything that had gone wrong.
“Like, to the edge of the Shield?” His carefree attitude had suddenly vanished.
Annie laughed. “Afraid the suckers are gonna grab you?” She reached out and grabbed his arm.
Zed’s arm twitched back out of Annie’s grasp. He laughed nervously, scratching his neck. “No, I’ve just never really been to the edge before. You know we aren’t supposed to.”
“I’m an ace now. Didn’t you see my face?” She pointed to the lines drawn across her cheeks and nose. “I can keep you safe, apparently.”
“Yeah, what is the deal with the lines?” Zed asked.
Annie paused. Everyone knew what an ace was. There was a time when rangers were truly respected. Before overpopulation had become an issue, rangers were considered heroes. Soldiers had been some of the most respected people that lived on these lands. They had been the only things standing between the aliens and the end of humanity. They had driven around in massive green and black machines, using enormous guns to destroy anything in their path. Annie had seen pictures of them in history class. It seemed like a complete other world.
Aces got the same respect that soldiers had gotten back in the day. Rangers were just rangers, those who hadn’t done well on the test, and those that were expendable. But aces, they were heroes. Annie didn’t feel any different. She had shot a couple of aliens in the head, but it wasn’t a challenge. They had all been caught off guard. She wasn’t confident in herself, that she could train anyone else, that she could be responsible for leading an entire mission. But there was limited time left here. All she had to do was stall for another year or so.
“It means I’ve killed five soul suckers.” Annie smiled. “I mean, I lost track out there. I may have killed five, I may have killed thirty.”
Zed laughed, but Annie could sense that he was uncomfortable, probably from fear at the thought of being at the edge of the Shield. “Want to see if we can fit thirty lines on your face?” he asked.
“You’ll have to draw them up and down my arms too.”
Zed rolled up the sleeve on her left arm, revealing the three long scars that had only recently healed. “Looks like you have a few already.” Zed traced his fingers along the scars gently.
Annie had only just noticed that they had stopped walking. She cleared her throat, pulling away slightly. For a few seconds she had forgotten about everything that was going wrong. “Every champion needs a battle wound. How else are they going to write about me in the history books?”
Zed laughed. He lifted his shirt up to reveal a small circular scar on his chest. “Does this make me a champion too?”
She ran her fingers across the raised scar tissue on his skin. She had seen a wound like this before on Mitch’s arm after Anthony had shot him. “You got shot?”
“Barely felt it.”
“How did you get shot? Who here shot you?” Annie asked. There had been small crimes committed in the Shield since she had been born. Items stolen, fights breaking out, when she had been very little she remembered hearing about a man who had been fatally beaten while fighting with another guy over a girl. She could understand now, more than ever, not wanting to share a significant other with someone else.
Yes, she had heard of small acts of violence in the Shield. But in her eighteen years she had never heard the news that someone had been shot on the inside. Especially a young boy; Zed hadn’t even graduated yet. Zed had lowered his shirt. “I haven’t been totally honest with you.” He pressed his lips together, but the edges curled into a smile, as they always did. Annie for a moment wished that she could be as carefree as he was.
“About what?”
“I guess you could say I’m not really from here.”
Annie crossed her arms. “You could say?” He covered his mouth with his hands, but Annie could see in his eyes that he was still smiling mischievously. “I don’t understand what’s so funny,” she said. Suddenly his lighthearted attitude was annoying her.
Zed lowered his hands, revealing a shit-eating grin. “I’m sorry, I’ve just been waiting for someone to notice and it’s been killing me. I didn’t get shot here; I got shot in my home Shield. A couple months ago, when my Shield broke down.”
“Oh yeah? Where was it?” Annie interjected. The only Shield that had been nearby was the one that Casey and Jeremy had come from. That, plus the fact that so few people lived longer than a few hours without protection when there were millions and millions of soul suckers on the prowl, made it hard to believe him.
“Across the lake. Right on the shore. One day I woke up and the Shield was just kind of gone. I woke up and it was raining. And I felt it. The suckers hadn’t noticed yet but it was only a matter of time. We all went to the docks, piling as many people into the boats as they could carry. Some people got left behind. It was chaos.
“Some boats sank trying to cross the lake. There was too much weight on them. We had brought so little food onto the boats with us, and they moved so slowly, that we were out in the lake for days without food. Once we crossed, people dispersed, going in every direction looking for Shields. But all the ones that we passed had also broken down.”
Annie swallowed hard. He hadn’t been messing with her. “So all the Shields are breaking down then?”
“They need so much energy,” Zed sighed. “The cores were only meant to be used as a temporary solution. I think the only reason that this one has lasted so long is because it’s so small. It was supposed to be a private Shield for the Henderson family, yes?”
Annie nodded. The Hendersons had planned to live in peace, forgetting that the world was ending and that so many people needed a place to escape. They took in everyone that came to their Shield, and it became a town just like every other Shield out there, just
on a much smaller scale.
“So, maybe this one will make it until the ship arrives. It would be nice to actually survive.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone when you arrived here?” Annie asked.
Zed shrugged. “I didn’t want to draw attention to myself. Your leader seems like kind of an asshole, no offence.”
“So, what, you just…” She pressed her fingers into her temples. “Showed up, pretended you’ve been here the whole time? No one has noticed that you just popped up in school?”
Zed snorted. “I’m not going to school.”
“You need to go to school, Zed! They need to place you in a career!” Annie was baffled.
“I don’t want to be placed in a career.”
“It doesn’t matter what you want,” she snapped. “You came into our home, you have to follow our rules. You can’t just wander around and contribute nothing to society. We need all the help we can get.” Annie had just turned down the opportunity to stay safe in the Shield, but had chosen not to abandon her fellow rangers. Zed, on the other hand, was trying to avoid doing any work whatsoever.
He didn’t seem bothered by her outburst, which only made Annie more furious. “Ever think that maybe you guys didn’t get it right?” Zed asked. “One test determines your fate? The president and Summer Henderson send some of you out to die, to bring them back food and comfort. They let some of you live the high life, breeding to produce test subjects. They don’t care about anyone else.”
“Test subjects?”
Zed’s eyes widened for just a moment, before he relaxed his face again. “Yeah. You know, all of you guys have to take that test when you graduate.”
“No.” Annie shook her head. She wasn't stupid. “That isn’t what you meant.”
He sighed. “I’ve been doing some exploring. I’ve stumbled across things I wasn’t supposed to see.”
“Like what?”
He smiled. “You will learn.”
“Zed…”
“In time, Annie,” he said. “Let’s just enjoy our walk for now.”