by Holly Hook
...Matt had deceived me.
Mr. Skeleton walked to the side of the tiny theater and flipped a switch. The other Grounders shuffled out of the way. The room dimmed, and the hologram projector burst to life above the vent Matt and I had wanted. Marv pulled against his captors. He didn't have time for this, nor did he care.
Was I the only one in the dark?
Of course not, because this couldn't be true.
It wasn't.
Soothing, ambient space music played through the room, and holographic stars floated above the platform. I stopped pulling against the big Grounder as the film zoomed in. A narrator—Henry—began to speak about the formation of the Solar System billions of years ago. A thick cloud appeared, and the sun came to life as the dust collapsed and spun. The planets orbited around it, gathering material.
I held my breath and watched. The movie zoomed in on the young Earth, which looked like a ball of dingy gas.
“Early Earth was a far different place than today,” Henry continued in a flat monotone. “The atmosphere was rich in carbon dioxide, methane, and ammonia. It was in this environment that the first life on Earth evolved.”
A primordial ocean spread across the platform. Thick, smog-like clouds hung overhead. Lightning forked to the surface.
“In these early oceans, creatures later known as Grounders evolved,” Henry continued. We sank. A reddish blob appeared, floating in the water and propelling itself with tentacles. I shuddered. More rose from the depths, forming a school. Reddish algae floated on the surface of the water, and I caught a glimpse of crimson leaves waving in the sea. “The atmosphere of early Earth was ideal for this original form of life. However, things were about to take a darker turn.”
The Grounders vanished, only to show a smaller planet in space, one with oceans, fluffy white clouds, and reddish landmasses.
Ancient Mars.
I shuddered. I wanted to close my eyes but I couldn't.
Henry continued as if he were taunting me from the grave. “A different form of life evolved quickly on the Red Planet, one that was DNA-based. By four billion years ago, Mars teemed with microbial life. Some of these organisms remain preserved as microbial mats and other types of fossils that you have seen in the Exhibit.” He paused. “And during this era, asteroid impacts often happened in the Solar System.”
An asteroid crashed into Mars with a flash of light. Small chunks of the planet flew into space, where they floated against a backdrop of stars. The calming music continued, but I felt like screaming. I wanted to yell at the Grounders to turn off the film, but I couldn't form the words.
“Some Martian microbes hitched rides inside the rocks blasted off their home planet,” Henry continued. “Pulled sunward, many of these rocks made it to Earth.”
Meteors crashed into Earth's ocean.
My life exploded, and they were the pieces.
“These Martian microbes quickly took over Earth, changing the atmosphere to one that its original lifeforms could not tolerate,” Henry continued. “Grounders and their related lifeforms had to retreat deep into the Earth to survive. There they waited, for billions of years, as these invaders evolved into green plants, animals, and eventually humans.”
An icicle stabbed into the pit of my stomach and spread through my body. My knees trembled.
A forest—a green one—stretched into the horizon. A mine took its place. The tunnel continued into a darkness so thick that I felt I would vanish into it.
“Humans liberated Grounders from their prison with the advent of deep Earth mining one century ago,” Henry said. “We discovered that we could use your bodies to our advantage, and after decades of work, we have begun to return Earth to its previous state. We--”
“Shut this off!” I shouted. I wasn't sure if I yelled in anger or terror.
Maybe both.
Henry went on to the deportation program. He said something about the fairness of the draft but Mr. Skeleton flipped the switch with a final click, and the lights came on. The holo-screen went dead.
I was shaking. My ears rang. Matt gazed at the floor as if ashamed of his green face. I hyperventilated. No longer could I keep up my strong stance. It was such a non-Earther thing to do.
Why was I thinking that? We were the alien invaders.
Everything made sense now.
"You now understand," the Great Council guy said, stepping towards me. He seized the collar of my shirt, holding a letter opener with the other hand. “We are sorry that your planet became inhospitable, but fair is fair.”
I couldn't pull away. The hooded man yanked the fabric towards him and slid the opener underneath my Earther patch, cutting the fibers that held it in place.
"No," I croaked. "Don't!"
With a quick motion, my patch—my identity—fell to the floor. The Grounder released me and backed away.
I was going to throw up. The room tilted as a wave of dizzy horror washed over me. The world exploded into tiny shards of glass that stabbed me from every angle. The floor rose, and the big Grounder released my arm as I fell.
Chapter Thirteen
A hand caressed my cheek. “I understand if you hate me,” Matt said.
My ears rang, and I opened my eyes. Matt looked down at me, nervous and regretful. I lay on something hard. A table, judging from the way it wobbled the tiniest bit when I shifted.
I passed out after watching the film that Winnie and the rest of my class had seen right before their order to board the ship. I didn't even care that it made me feel like a wimp. Those few minutes had hollowed me out. I felt like a shell.
The Grounder was right. I wasn't an Earther at all.
Matt had lied. What was I, then?
I knew the answer, and horror filled my chest, making my heart race. I had even fired heat rays and piloted a tripod. I shuddered. I swore and closed my eyes, then remembered that we were still in the Grounders' custody. I forced them open again as the ringing in my ears subsided.
“Why didn't you tell me?” I asked.
Matt helped me sit up on the table. Paper crinkled. We were alone in a small office that might be a medical bay. A kit hung on the wall along with a medical monitor. The ache in my arm from Calvin's knife had gone. I rubbed the area. Smooth skin. Someone had removed my makeshift bandage. Someone had done medical treatment on me while I was unconscious. I did have one small dressing on my other arm that I hadn't seen before.
Outside, an announcement told us that another ship would take off in ten minutes. They had taken us into the spaceport.
“I didn't want this to ruin you,” Matt said. “When my father and I got deported, I tried to run away from this spaceport. The Grounders gassed me, and when I woke up, my father sat there while they told me the truth. And then he accepted our fate. He wouldn't fight. He sympathized with the Grounders and started working with them. He wanted me to go to his side.” Matt balled his free fist. “I know what it feels like to have everything ripped apart.”
Matt had no trace of a lie on his face.
The film was right, then.
And now I had to view myself the same way I had once looked at the Grounders. The feeling was so...alien.
I swore again as Matt let go of me and turned away. I put my face in my hands, staring at the darkness. Another announcement came on about a departure.
“Now what?” I asked.
“We still need to rescue your parents and save all of us still on Earth. Tess, hold it together.” He wrapped his fingers around my arm.
I wrenched it away. “Just leave me alone.”
“I know that this sucks. I get why you're mad at me. I was trying to protect you from this.”
Now I knew why Matt was afraid to get too close. But at the same time, he couldn't help it. Would it have been any better if this news had come from him? Maybe. Maybe not.
“I appreciate the effort,” I said, lifting my face from my hands. Matt stood against the wall, near the hanging first aid box. I would never look at him the s
ame way again. Heck, there was no way I'd look at myself or anything else the same. “Do my parents know about this?”
“I doubt it,” Matt said. “Mostly, just the scientists who made the origin of life discoveries, and the people who get deported know the truth."
So my parents were deluded, too, along with Grandpa Luis. Luis the Murderer. It took a new, horrible ring.
I forced my anger at Matt to move aside. He hadn't had any good options here. Tell me, and get me angry. Hide our real origin, and get me mad anyway. He had landed in a no-win situation when he got off that ship and ran into me for the first time.
But I wasn't sure if I would forgive him...or myself.
“Tess,” Matt said. “We still have a mission. My father got the Grounders to agree to let him take me back to Mars and keep me under supervision. We still don't know about you. He and Dr. Komorowski are working that out with them.” A grave look came over his face, and he stepped away from the wall. “The Grounders now know that your first name is Tess, thanks to the doctor. She recorded your name during your visit with her. They also know that Luis Volker has a granddaughter named Tess.”
“The witch is here?” I got off the table. The faintness faded into the background. I was getting stronger. That horror got replaced by another: the Grounders would not want to let Luis the Murderer's descendant live.
“Yeah. Dr. Komorowski came in the cylinder with my father, but she must have gotten out of it before he did, and we just didn't see her. He brought her along to heal any injuries I might have. The doctor didn't realize she was putting you in danger by giving out your name,” Matt said. “She's the one who healed the cut on your arm while you were out for ten minutes. And no, I don't know what happened to Marv and Celeste."
My heart raced, and I eyed the bandage on my other arm. “Did she--”
“Give you the plant cell injection,” Matt finished. “She did. I tried to stop her, but she wanted you to have it in case the Grounders let you go with us.”
More panic exploded. I held up my arms to the light, checking for any color change. So far, my skin appeared the same. I swore again. Everything was going downhill, and fast.
“It takes a few weeks to turn color,” Matt said. “You're fine for a bit. You won't notice anything for a couple of days.”
"I'm--"
"Going to turn green."
Another wave of dizziness swept over me. I gripped the table. "Crap."
I saw the trap. If I managed to survive this, and it didn't look likely, the Grounders wanted to make it virtually impossible for me to stay on Earth. I felt like throwing up all over again. But surviving was the issue right now. My name was out. The Grounders knew I was a danger—perhaps even one Leader Kassam couldn't supervise and control.
“Okay. Great,” I said. “How am I going to explain this to my parents?” I didn't want to shatter their worlds. “Better yet, how are we going to get out of the spaceport?” Matt could go with his father right now and survive. He didn't have to die.
“The place is full of Grounders,” Matt said. “There are a bunch outside the door. Right on the other side, we have the main room where we saw all those people getting converted. I didn't see a tub of Grounders, so I think you're safe from that. Besides, they won't want someone who won't blend in with Earth society soon.”
I shuddered, thinking of what he meant. “Then what?” The only two options were deportation (bad) and execution (really bad.) I knew the latter was most likely, and it would probably be by whatever means they planned to use to wipe out those who remained on Earth.
“We lost our weapons,” Matt said. “They're still in the theater unless they retrieved them. He shoved his hands into his pockets and paused. “But I still have my gas mask. They took yours, but I wasn't wearing mine when they caught us in the theater.”
I remembered the electric baton that I had dropped to the floor. If I had that, I would have a slight chance of escaping.
“So you have a plan,” I said, eyeing the door. Any moment, Grounders would come through and announce my fate. Leader Kassam had no reason to spare my life. He didn't know me.
“Sort of,” Matt said. “The thing is, you'd have to do the dangerous part. While I give you a distraction, you run to the storage room and pick up Marv's heat ray on the way. Kill any Grounders that follow. Now, remember the forklifts and the industrial vehicles back in the storage room? If you can get to one and drive it, you should be able to mow down Grounders long enough to get back to me, and then get us both out of here. There must be a way to get the forklift outside. Then we climb into Marv's tripod and get the heck out of here.”
“Don't call it that.”
“That's what it is,” Matt said. The situation was one cosmic joke that wasn't funny. “Tess, I hate this, but if we're going to get out of here and save billions of people, we have to own this alien invader thing.”
My mouth went dry and I shuddered. I already had, more than once, and that terrified me. “But you're leaving your father.”
“The Grounders won't kill him. It would destabilize their relations with the Identity, which they need right now. And they've already agreed not to kill me. That's why I need to be the distraction.”
“Your plan makes sense,” I said. “I hate it because I have to do it. What if the Grounders took our weapons out of the theater?”
“They will soon. I didn't see the Task Force bring our stuff when they brought us here. The Grounders think that no one is there to worry about, so it's not the priority right now.” Matt spoke like someone much older, like a leader.
“Okay,” I said. “We do this.”
I might be the villain, but I wanted to live. It was instinct to try to stay alive. My parents were still captive with no reprieve coming. The rest of humanity would die soon if I didn't take these actions. Matt was right—we had to own what the Grounders told us, at least right now. We had to give them their expectations.
It might be the last time we saw each other, and I wouldn't even have the dignity of dying as an Earther. But I couldn't give up. That was one thing the Grounders hadn't taken from me--perhaps the only thing.
“Run once you have an opening,” Matt said.
He yanked open the door, and I caught a glimpse of two dozen Grounders, all in Task Force uniforms, standing in small groups around the perimeter of the spaceport room. Metal doors remained closed, trapping people inside the deportation rooms.
Matt bolted out into the center of the room as Grounders turned their heads. Then he bolted to the right, opposite where I must have to run.
All two dozen Grounders ran after him.
“Sir, you must remain in the medical bay.”
“We will not harm you.”
“Come back, sir.”
I took my opportunity and ran out of the room, leaving safety behind.
Chapter Fourteen
I felt naked without a weapon, but I ran. The spaceport was confusing, with a few hallways branching off. I had two options. The offices, or another hallway that led to a double door at the end. The doors opened automatically for another Task Force woman. The light of the museum corridor shined behind her, and I knew that was where I needed to go.
She also carried my baton and Marv's heat ray.
I charged. The Grounder had my baton under her arm, not ready for use, and the heat ray would do nothing against me.
She froze. “You are to remain inside the med--”
I crashed into her, and we both went down. I raised a fist and punched her in the jaw. Something clicked overhead, and a white vapor emerged from floor vents and spread through the corridor beyond. If it hadn't been for Matt's gas mask, I would go no farther.
The Grounder dropped the heat ray, which glowed orange inside. Footfalls approached. I seized the weapon and rose, leaving the baton with the Task Force woman. The metal door to the corridor was closing. It might lock. I rammed into it, pushing it open, and I bolted into the hallway where Winnie and my friends had fallen wee
ks ago.
It filled with white vapor, which couldn't penetrate my mask. I pumped my legs faster as the Grounders pushed into the doors behind me.
“She has the weapon,” a Grounder man said.
Instead of fleeing, the Grounders picked up their pace. My breath came in gasps. I burst into the theater, nearly tripping over my backpack. I scooped it up as I ran, slinging it over my shoulder. Once I fired, the gun would take a few minutes to recharge. I had to get as close as I could to the forklift before I used it. It was my only hope.
“Girl.”
“Please, surrender your weapon, and we will not harm you.”
Grounders could lie. I couldn't stop. I rammed into the next set of doors and burst into the Mars Exhibit. A chill rushed over me for more reasons than one, but I didn't slow. The gas surrounded me, grasping with wispy fingers and hiding the microbe mats from view. The model tripod loomed overhead.
I would not look. Instead, I burst into the main Solar System room and made the final sprint to the storage. Dodging the meteor on the floor, I realized that the storage room door remained open. No one had locked it yet.
Whirling around, I lifted the gun.
A dozen Grounders, all wearing gas masks, filed into the hallway after me, two at a time, and they didn't stop as I pressed the button to fire.
A transparent beam shot forth and caught the Grounders in its ray of death. The first two grimaced and went down, grasping at their necks. The rest followed in turn, falling on top of the first row and making horrible thumps as their skulls struck the walls and floor. Smoke curled out of high collars. Mouths opened in silent screams that would haunt me forever. I hadn't seen death this close before.
I continued to fire even after the final two Grounders went down. The beam ran out, and the gun made a tiny click. I had no time to get sick or think about my newly-discovered, terrifying identity. I bolted into the storage room, spotting the ring of keycards on the floor. I scooped them up and ran to the nearest forklift, one with an enclosed cabin. It faced a large garage door that must open into the main room.