by C. S. Nelson
There was a long few moments, as Zed pulled desperately with his mouth pressed against hers, trying to rip Summer’s soul from her body. Annie, and the rest of the breeders couldn’t believe their eyes. Finally, Zed released, and Summer stood there, grinning. “You idiotic girl,” Summer said, wiping the alien saliva from her face with a couple delicate fingers. “You know I am the only one who can save this planet. I am the only reason the ship is arriving to take us home.”
Annie was baffled. “You’re immune?”
“I’m immune.”
Annie’s plan had gone entirely out the window. She couldn’t actually kill Summer. Zed, without second thought, smashed the butt of the gun into Summer’s nose. She dropped to the floor unconscious. “Oh…” Annie looked at him. “Yeah, that works.” Zed threw Summer over his shoulder and headed back up the stairs. Annie looked around the room, grinning at all of the people who had been trying to murder her for the last couple days. “This has been fun, hasn’t it? The whole back and forth thing?”
There was no response.
“I’m going to miss you all and I hope that you manage to find someone else to blindly follow.” She stuck her middle finger up to the sky and backed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
When Annie got to the top of the staircase, she found Zed wrapping rope around Summer’s arms and legs. He was already back in his human form. They had managed to take her, completely undetected by anyone that wasn’t in the room downstairs. “Good work, Annie,” he said.
“Are you kidding? That was all you.” They wrapped each other up in a massive hug.
“You’re going to go down in history, do you know that?” Zed whispered into her ear.
Annie couldn’t imagine people speaking of her after she died. She believed that her name would be lost after her so-called friends had been finished mourning. By the time the next generation had come around, no one would have even known that she had existed. She had always been content with that. She had always preferred to seek happiness rather than approval. But then she had been placed in the rangers, and everything had changed for her.
“I think you’ll go down in history. The silver person to help us in our time of need.”
“Humans have already decided that we are the enemy. It doesn’t matter what I do in my lifetime, that will never change.”
He had finished tying up Summer to the point that if she had woken up, she would have still been immobilized. “Then why are you helping us, Zed?” Annie asked.
“I was tired of watching your people die.”
“What’s the real reason?” Annie probed.
There was a long silence. “I want to come with you.”
Annie shook her head. “Zed, you can’t leave behind your entire species. You would never see anyone you knew or cared about ever again.”
“I don’t care about them. I’ve never fit in,” he scoffed, scratching the back of his head. “Hell, we killed my brother.”
“Even if you wanted to, you really think my people are going to trust you to come aboard a ship with us? You said it yourself. You’re our enemy. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, they’ll never trust you.”
Zed looked down at the ground. The snow was still falling, slowly accumulating on the buildings that had never been touched by it before. “I won’t make you try to help me, but I’m going to get on one of those ships. I don’t care where I go; I don’t care if I die when I get there. I can’t keep living this life here. I’m just as trapped as you are.”
Annie knew what it felt like to be alone. She had been dealing with it for only a few days, but it had felt like a lifetime. “You’ve thought about it?”
“Every day since I met you.”
She sighed. “Then we’ll get you on that ship.” Everything inside of her was screaming no. He was a confused teenager, in silver person years at least. Everybody felt as though they didn’t belong. But if he left Earth, he would never be able to come back. What if he regretted it? What if he turned on her?
But the look on Zed’s face when Annie promised to help him get off this planet was the greatest smile she had ever seen. He was relieved. Annie didn’t have time to weigh the pros and cons. Zed had saved her life more times than she could count. For now, at least, she had to just trust him.
The time was nearly 4:30, which meant that they had only an hour to come up with a plan. Annie wanted so desperately to help the people that were being herded onto this ship. They had no idea that the needle they had just received would completely destroy any memories of who they were. They had no idea that they were flying towards another planet, another experiment, another way to die. But here they were, stuck in a side alley with an unconscious Summer at their feet.
Then, it struck Annie. She knew what she had to do. It was going to be messy, in fact, she wasn’t even sure if they would survive. But it was the only way that Annie could think of to protect the people. Otherwise they would be put on another planet where they would be forgotten about for another few hundred years, or until they conquered the planet and allowed the people of Mpho to move in comfortably.
“I have a plan,” Annie said. She watched Zed’s eyes light up with excitement. He was already on board, it didn’t matter what she had to say. “I don’t think you’re going to like it.”
For forty-five minutes, Annie and Zed did their best to make Summer Henderson as unrecognizable as possible. Annie felt guilty, as she hit Summer’s closed eyes with the butt of her gun to cause them to swell up. Her nose was already broken from Zed’s initial hit. She was still unconscious. By the time they were finished, even Annie wouldn’t have even known it was Summer in front of her. She just looked like an unfortunate young woman that had been beaten within an inch of her life. She was going to be in a lot of pain when she woke up.
The sun was setting. The ship was going to leave any minute now. “Let’s go,” Annie said.
She put her gun down her pant leg to keep it hidden from sight. Zed slung the tied up Summer over his shoulder. She was still unconscious, which was good for them. Annie still didn’t know if they would get away with their plan. They ran as though their lives depended on it, partially for the plan, and partially because their lives did.
Just as Annie had thought, they had timed it perfectly. By the time the ship was in view, it was five minutes before it was going to leave. The soldiers that had been standing guard out in front had begun climbing back in. There were just a couple left standing around the ship’s entrance, as the doctors packed up and stepped back inside.
Annie had wiped the ace marks off of her face. She had torn her shirt in a few different places, but made sure that her scars were covered in case any of the soldiers recognized her. They had taken Summer’s blood and wiped it strategically across their bodies in order to look injured. She was ready to deceive.
“Help!” she screamed as they approached the ship.
The soldiers that were mid conversation ceased talking, and turned to look at them. One of the soldiers waved the others inside and stood guard as Annie and Zed ran towards him. “Stop where you are,” he called through his helmet. Both of his hands were on a large gun.
Zed and Annie came to a halt, twenty feet away from the guard. “Help us, please. They’re coming.” Annie exclaimed anxiously, turning and looking over her shoulder.
“Four minutes to takeoff,” An automated voice echoed over the field.
“We haven’t had anyone approach the ship in over an hour,” The guard said, glancing briefly at the watch on his wrist. “What has taken you both so long?”
Annie motioned to Summer, who was slung over Zed’s shoulder. “We found her, tied up, beaten, just outside the jail. Somebody must have let the prisoners go to get to the ship, and they must have…they must have…” Annie sobbed into her hands. There hadn’t been any prisoners in the town jail in almost two years, but it was the most realistic explanation Annie could think of. Fortunately, this guard had skipped most of his Earth i
nformation readings before the mission.
The guard sighed. “I’m so sorry,” he said, to no one in particular.
“Please, can we still get on the ship?” Zed asked. “It took us so long to get here. We had to keep hiding from the monsters. There are suckers everywhere, sir.” It was disturbing how convincing a human Zed was.
The guard looked over his shoulder. The doctors were long gone.
“Three minutes to takeoff.”
The guard looked nervous. “Um…we’re really supposed to give you the injections before you enter the ship. You know, to keep everyone safe.”
Annie gave Zed the look. He threw Summer’s body to the ground and pounced on the guard, before he even had a chance to react. Zed ripped the helmet off his head and began to suck the life out of him. The guard screamed, flailing his arms around, trying to punch Zed in the head to get him off. But it was futile.
Annie hadn’t wanted it to come to this. She hadn’t wanted to take another human life. She had never thought, just a few short months ago, that this was where she would be. Not only was she an enemy of the people of Earth, but now she was also an enemy of the people of Mpho as well. But she was going to fight until the very end. She was going to fight for the lives of all the people on board.
Annie looked away in disgust as Zed’s body changed into the guard’s. He quickly stripped down and took the clothes off the guard’s body, putting them on himself, and gave a little squeal of excitement. Annie had forgotten about how powerful they felt when they took a human’s life. He had probably never felt this strong in his life. When Annie looked back, his face was unrecognizable. He was blond now, with blue eyes, and a thin, pointed nose that was too small. His arms were thicker, and he had a tattoo of his soldier number on his forearm.
“Two minutes to takeoff.”
Zed picked up Summer’s body and ran it onto the ship. The entire entrance was empty. Every soldier had gone deep within the ship to take their seat and prepare for take off.
He came back down to see Annie standing over the dead soldier’s naked body. “Am I a bad person, Zed?” she asked. She looked up at him, and was still uncomfortable with his appearance. She would have preferred his alien body, even.
“Annie, you’re going to go down in history. And you’re going to go down in history as a hero to the people of Earth.”
Not if they lost.
Then they heard a voice yelling from behind them. Annie turned around to see Dustan, sprinting towards them from the other end of the field, so quickly that he lost his footing and jolted forward a couple of times. “Wait, wait for me!”
“One minute to takeoff.”
“He is not coming with us,” Annie said, crossing her arms, as she watched him run across the field.
Zed nodded, his body tensing up.
“Please, I want to help you!” Dustan screamed as he ran.
The engines turned on.
“He isn’t going to make it in time, anyway,” Zed shrugged. “Let’s get on the ship.”
The two of them stepped onto the platform, feeling the rumbling of the ship underneath their feet. Dustan was about halfway across the field now. He wasn’t going to make it, Annie told herself again. She wouldn’t have his blood on her hands. He wasn’t going to make it.
The countdown started. “Ten…nine…eight…”
Dustan’s legs moved so fast that Annie was convinced they were just a blur. She could see the want in his eyes, and she knew. He needed this. He needed to make it to the ship. He was just as desperate to get away from the breeders as Annie had been.
“Seven…six…five…”
Dustan was close. So close.
“Four…three…two…one.” The rumbling below their feet became so aggressive that Annie nearly lost her balance. She had never felt a machine so powerful. In fact, she had never seen a running machine larger than a car still working on Earth. And even those were a rare sight. Annie hadn’t known that humans were so capable of such amazing engineering. But then again, the people Mpho hadn’t come to a scientific dark age when they were attacked by aliens.
The roar from the engine was unbearable. Both Annie and Zed covered their ears with their hands as the ship slowly wobbled off the ground. They were hovering about six feet off the ground when Dustan made a leap for it. His hands grasped onto the bottom of the ramp, and as the ship slowly lifted off the ground, he dangled like a rag doll. His fingers were grasping so tightly that his knuckles were white.
“Annie,” Zed screamed. She looked at him, at his foreign face, and knew exactly what he was trying to say with his eyes. Even though they weren’t Zed’s eyes, she could read him like a book.
She shook her head. No. Dustan wasn’t coming with them. Not after everything he had done.
He looked at her again, which made Annie swallow hard. She looked down at the hands that were desperately holding on to the ramp. He was trying to pull himself up, but the shaking of the ship wouldn’t allow him to do so. Annie stepped forward to the edge of the ramp. She could step on his hands, make him fall off. They were only up thirty or so feet; he would survive the fall, probably.
But her body was acting independently from her mind. She latched her arm firmly around one of the pistons that was holding the ramp door open, and slowly reached towards Dustan’s hands. She grabbed onto his wrist and tried to pull him up, but she couldn’t. Annie was too weak after such an exhausting day.
Then she felt Zed wrap his arms around her body, and gently pulled her back towards the inside of the ship. He was trying to be gentle, Annie could feel it, but he still wasn’t familiar with his newfound strength. Slowly, Dustan’s body was pulled up over the ledge of the ship. They were safe, away from the howling wind.
“Thank…thank you,” Dustan sobbed. “I’m so sorry.”
Annie was silent.
“You’re on our side now?” Zed asked, ready to shove him back out if he heard any answer he didn’t like. Dustan was on all fours, trying to catch his breath, with tears streaming down his face. It gave Annie satisfaction to see him looking so pathetic for once.
“I was brainwashed. I…I…I was told lies. That if I killed Annie, I would be told the ultimate truths. I would know every secret this Shield held. Every secret Mpho kept from us.” Words were spilling out of him like vomit.
Suddenly, she felt overwhelmed. Annie was no longer interested in the things that he had to say. She stood up and stepped back to the edge of the ramp, wrapping her arms around the piston. The engine was still unpleasantly loud, but Annie didn’t hear it. She felt the wind whipping her face. She watched as they rose higher and higher into the sky, a view that she never thought she would see.
At the edge of the field, Annie saw a group of people. The breeders. She recognized the president’s black pressed shirt, so obvious in the pure white snow. He was standing at the front, staring up at the ship, watching his lover Summer Henderson fly away from him. The people of Mpho, when they realized that Summer had accidentally been shipped to the other experimental planet, were going to have to come pick her up. If she was as truly valuable as everyone had claimed her to be, at least. Annie waved to the president. She had won. At least, she had won this time.
The president, being the good sport that he always had been, waved back.
Annie looked back at Dustan, Zed, and Summer. It was like the beginning of a bad joke. A murderous alien, a traitorous ex-boyfriend, and a bitchy scientific phenomenon board a ship…
How was Annie going to save her people with this group of miscreants? She had no idea. But, she supposed, she had a short light-speed flight to figure it out. And she would, for Anthony, and for planet Earth.
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