The Deadliest Earthling

by Gibson Morales

  “Now, aren’t you oversimplifying things a bit?” Hassan said with a hint of annoyance.

  Johnny felt a strong sense of urgency as Frank grabbed him again. “Look, I’m not telling you to fight the Anunnaki at the bunker. But I need to get there. That earring is going to help get us all the information we need to stop the Naga’s new weapon. Yeah, you know what I’m talking about.”

  Hassan and the other men looked stunned. None of them spoke, and for a moment the man loosened his hold on Johnny. His words had sunk in. Or, at least, gotten their attention.

  Finally, with a furrowed brow, Hassan sucked in a breath and collected his thoughts. He leaned forward. “I can’t help Dagos. But maybe, just maybe if you two were to escape and I sent out a few soldiers to catch you, well…you would end up at the bunker.”

  Johnny couldn’t stop the smile that came over his face.

  “Don’t smile yet. The Naga can’t know about this. You two really will have to escape our compound. The soldiers will be on full alert. And there are bound to be more Anunnaki out there than my fighters. You’ll be hard-pressed to reach the bunker before they catch you.”

  “I might have a way to up my odds,” Johnny said. “That amulet there has a few special tricks.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’ll see. Sort of.”

  Chapter 38

  Despite their size, the two men guarding Hassan’s quarters did not so much as bat the fly buzzing around them. That was until Johnny and Morris, both cloaked, bolted out of the room and snatched up the rifles Frank and Skip had left sitting against the doorframe. In astonishment, the guards swung into combat stances.

  “Get them!” Hassan bellowed.

  He, Frank, and Skip were staggering to their feet as though they’d just been knocked down.

  “What happened?” the guard asked.

  “Never mind. Get those two! They escaped under some sort of cloaking device.”

  Now the guards were really confused.

  Johnny and Morris charged through the narrow, dark halls, the biggest challenge evading all the soldiers walking around. For Johnny it felt as intense as a morning at the obstacle course and then some. If they weren’t quick, the compound would shut down, trapping them here.

  Already shouting echoed through the hall behind them. Hassan had raised the alert.

  Johnny swerved left, barely dodging a vigilant-looking soldier. He and Morris skidded to turn sharply as the hall curved. According to Hassan, they needed only follow it straight. But it all started to look the same. The dim light made navigating even more difficult.

  Johnny glanced over his shoulder and saw Frank, Skip, and three other men charging through with assault rifles. They hailed orders to guards up ahead.

  The guards grabbed a wooden board and brought it toward the doorway. Johnny’s pulse quickened. They had to get past that before their only escape was cut off.

  Pumping his legs, he thought of his training at New Bagram again. Instead of Hamiad racing to beat him, though, Morris was lagging behind.

  “Come on!” Johnny shouted.

  A few nearby soldiers heard him and tensed up.

  An idea struck him.

  With a flick of his Conifer, the guards at the door saw a hologram of him and Morris. The other men cried out all at once, no orders audible for several seconds. They leveled their rifles with quivering hands. The wooden board fell as the soldiers ordered the fake Johnny and Morris to freeze or be shot.

  The real Johnny and Morris slowed just enough to quiet their footsteps, then crossed the threshold.

  Past a sharp corner a layer of sandbags and barbed wire protected two machine gun turrets. All the windows were boarded up, leaving only crevices for the sunlight to peek in. A corroding van jammed the doorway. All in all, it didn’t look like a promising exit.

  “Spread out and we’ll find them,” Frank said.

  He, Skip, and ten soldiers clogged the hall.

  Johnny searched for an exit desperately as Frank’s group fanned out.

  He tried to dislodge the board on one window, but it was nailed on tight. Meanwhile, the men spread their arms and legs out and swept through the room in a line. Johnny figured they’d discover him in a minute or two.

  He grabbed the van’s back door handle to force it open, rattling the door. Locked.

  “There!” The soldiers hurried toward them.

  Johnny grabbed his cousin and pulled him down. Lying against the ground, the opening beneath the van came into view. As Johnny propelled himself against the dirt, something jerked him back. He cursed and turned around. The end of his thobe had caught onto a pipe. Beyond it the boots of soldiers encompassed the van.

  “Check underneath.”

  Johnny struggled to free himself. The angle made it impossible.

  “I got it,” Morris whispered.

  The thobe freed up and they fled into the street.

  Johnny scanned the area. No Anunnaki, but his ears bristled with the hums and cracks of their weapons. In less than a second, he spotted the hill with the bunker. He pointed to it, and they started to run. With a mechanical groan, Frank, Skip, and several other men filed out of the van’s front door. Johnny gave them only a quick look. The Anunnaki were the real threat now.

  The first warning came as Johnny reached the intersection. Four freedom fighters stumbling down a distant street, blood smeared over parts of their military jackets. There was no way to know what they were involved in, but the coast was clear, so Johnny and Morris continued.

  He mentally traced a path from the street to the bunker. A few strange-looking birds floated a hundred feet above the bunker. So strange, he rubbed his eyes. That didn’t help any. They still looked like flying humanoids. Anunnaki with anti-gravity boots. And they were aimed for the bunker’s hill.

  A curse escaped him.

  The Anunnaki used airborne troops for special operations only. Killing the Eagle qualified as that. They weren’t supposed to attack for a few hours, though. The only explanation was that they had moved the takedown ahead of schedule as a security measure.

  Morris noticed the flying Anunnaki and gave an expression of utter uncertainty.

  “Let’s keep going. But we’ll need more than these,” Johnny said, meaning their rifles.

  They jogged through the street with the occasional burst of rapid gunfire and shouting. The hill loomed over them like a dark rain cloud. The aerial troops were getting so close, Johnny didn’t want to look away. He might miss something crucial.

  Then a group of dead militiamen stopped them in their tracks. Johnny tried not to give in to the wave of nausea in his stomach. Instead, he focused on the RPG-7 rocket launcher lying on the ground next to them.

  “Can you blast them from here?” Morris asked.

  “It’s too far.”

  One of Sergeant Sledge’s rules of war stole over him as they ventured closer. Anunnaki were particularly vulnerable when they landed. Not even their elite soldiers responded well against this type of attack.

  With Johnny lugging the rocket launcher and his cousin clutching a rifle in each hand, they barreled through the streets to the base of the hill. A number of small shops and vendors crowded the road, customers watching the flying Anunnaki as if they were aerial performers.

  And the show was over. They were landing. Johnny positioned himself on the hood of an old truck, raised his scope, stabilized the shot, and kissed it on its way.

  With a burst of smoke, the rocket jutted forward. The resounding blast momentarily deafened him, the missile splitting through the air. At the same time, the Naga set foot on the slope.

  Flame and dust flew up first. After a split-second delay, the rumble of the explosion met his ears. The spectators cheered and clapped. He’d struck gold. None of the Anunnaki could have survived that.

  But other Anunnaki dotted the hillside. A mix of frustration and disappointment sweltered inside him. The ones he killed were the reinforcements, not the core assault
team.

  Morris handed over one of the rifles, and they started the final climb up. Walking under clotheslines and around goat pens, Johnny locked onto the small mud-brick shack they were searching for. He’d only seen it in the diagram Dagos showed him, but the eyeball-in-a-circle Watcher symbol tagged on a rock next to it looked promising.

  “Over there,” he said, cocking his head.

  As they passed under a clothesline with a faded desert camo military jacket, he tore it off and replaced his thobe with it.

  At a glinting in the corner of his view, he looked up. In the distance, a shining silver ship cut through the sky. Even squinting, he couldn’t distinguish its frame except that it vaguely looked cigar-shaped from the front. And its wings curved up ever so slightly at the ends. It was impossible to say the exact size or distance, but he knew it dwarfed an Anunnaki glider.

  So what the heck was this thing doing here? He thought of the Anunnaki craft from the Shroud War. He’d studied drawings in his classes. Back then the Anunnaki used larger ships. They could afford to. Now they stuck to smaller, more efficient ships. This made no sense.

  A couple of booms reverberated from the hill, tremors running up their feet.

  “That sounded like the bunker,” Johnny said.

  “Sure you want to go in there?” Morris asked.

  Johnny gestured to their guns. “We’ve got these, don’t we?”

  They ran the remaining twenty feet to the shack. There really wasn’t much to it. Johnny wrenched up a faded gold-and-grey rug as his cousin searched the walls, but nothing indicated a hidden entrance. Johnny frowned, digging his teeth into his bottom lip. He threw over a small desk, drawers sliding out. Nothing.

  “You sure this is the building?” Morris asked.

  “Has to be.”

  At the sound of dirt skewing down the slope, Johnny pulled back the slide of his M16 and crouched in the doorway. Morris squatted next to him. But it was only a couple of kids tumbling down a loose patch of dirt on their rears.

  Again the Anunnaki ship sprang up in the sky, looking at least as big as one of the jets at New Bagram. Close enough that the sun bouncing off it bothered his eyes. He turned away, cold sweeping down his neck despite the midday heat.

  “Here,” Morris said, pulling his hands from the wall. Cracks webbed across pieces of depressed clay. “If I just press this spot, it—”

  At the same time, Johnny leaned in, brought his leg up, and pounded against the cracking wall. In a plume of dust, plates of mud-brick cascaded to the floor. Johnny snorted, his nose itching like crazy. After a sneeze, he looked to see a dark corridor ready for them.

  Chapter 39

  Johnny charged up the iron ramp, Morris bringing up the rear, when a familiar voice said, “Freeze.”

  A mountain of a man stood under flickering halogen lights. Blood and sweat covered his face, his shotgun barrel staring them down.

  “It’s me. Aldrin, sir.” Johnny saluted.

  Sledge’s face dampened in confusion. “Dagos said you were far away.”

  Two more figures appeared, both wearing combat uniforms and black Kevlar vests. Soldiers he had never seen before. Simple logos showed a snake between teeth. Snake-eaters. The most dangerous and elite Watchers. What he assumed he’d be one day. Johnny figured Dagos had requested them through a radio SOS. A desperation decision.

  “Where’s Dagos?” Johnny asked.

  “Bogged down in a firefight inside.”

  “Why aren’t you helping her?” Johnny snapped.

  “She ordered us to withdraw. Trust me, she has a plan for killing the Berserkers.”

  Berserkers were here? Johnny shuddered at the thought of Dagos facing the elite Anunnaki soldiers. What did Sledge mean she had a plan to kill them? Did she also have a plan to survive?

  “Hurry up, Aldrin,” Sledge said, starting down the ramp.

  Johnny ignored him.

  “That’s an order.”

  “I’ve got other ones, sir.”

  Sledge imposed his size on him.

  “Orun’s orders,” Johnny said.

  Sledge lifted his head back a couple of inches. “Good luck, then. You okay on ammo?”

  “Should be.”

  “Here.”

  Johnny accepted two pieces of wax. Makeshift earplugs that he popped into his ears.

  Morris tapped the side of his rifle. “Now, how do I fire this thing again?”

  “Wait,” Johnny raised a hand. “Go with them.”

  “What?”

  “There’s a good chance this won’t end well.” He handed the earring to Morris. “In case it doesn’t, at least someone can use this.”

  Sledge frowned. “Use that earring for what?”

  The question caught Johnny off guard. “Orun gave it to me before getting captured. So it’s probably got special data about the Conifers.”

  Sledge gave an almost imperceptible shake of his head. “I hate to break it to you, but it’s more of a sentimental gift for Magu.”

  “Magu?” Johnny asked, the word dry in his throat.

  “Orun’s student. He’s also an Anunnaki.”

  Johnny’s stomach bottomed out. All this way, he’d assumed the earring stored vital data on the Conifers’ location or maybe the Anunnaki’s new weapon. But no. This was only a gift. Even though Orun had never promised him anything, somehow he felt a deep betrayal.

  He let out an exasperated sigh and caught Morris watching him with concern.

  Making a fist, he extended his arm to Morris. They bumped fists and he plastered a grin onto his face, trying to forget his disappointment. “I’m only being dramatic.”

  Morris grunted like it was no big deal. “Yeah I knew that. Still…I’ll say a prayer for you.”

  “Can’t hurt,” Johnny said, trying to hide the tremor in his voice.

  Morris winked and followed Sergeant Sledge and the other soldiers down the ramp.

  “And watch out for that Anunnaki ship,” Johnny shouted. Sooner or later that thing would arrive. And he didn’t know what it might do.

  He shouldered his rifle on entering the bunker complex. Despite the booming gunfire and his earplugs, he heard a constant ringing as he approached the door at the end of the hall. No doubt a wailer. The Anunnaki used the high-pitched ringing to induce nausea, vertigo, and general loss of control in humans. Even with his earplugs, the wailers would take effect in fifteen minutes. Not that he intended to stick around.

  Taking those steps into the fray, a fog surrounded him. Because if Orun’s earring contained no special data, there was no guarantee of collecting the three Conifers. No real plan besides rescuing the Eagle. He’d taken the oath, and now the New Bagram refugees were more at risk than ever. Two days. The realization screamed out at him. Two days before the benefactors sold him, the Eagle, and everyone else out.

  Panic formed at the edge of his mind. A poison feeding off his mental fog. Seconds later, he discovered the Eagle and Colonel Laura firing their AK-47s from behind a sideways filing cabinet. Beneath them, a second pair of rifles lay emptied, plus hollow magazines and shell casings. Dark red bandages and splotches of blood decorated the floor. In the doorway across, he recognized a soldier with a shaved head. Beyta, one of his New Bagram instructors. Shaking as he pounded away with a machine gun.

  The scene stole over Johnny, both refreshing him and warning him of the seriousness of this moment. He inhaled a deep breath, trying to remember all the battle tactics he’d learned.

  Dagos drew away from the filing cabinet to Johnny. Her eyes momentarily gleamed with surprise.

  “Go with Sledge,” she shouted over the din of gunfire, betraying any happiness his presence brought her. “He’ll get you to safety.”

  Johnny searched for words. How the heck was he supposed to find the Conifers by himself? Or did the Eagle forget about that?

  An obvious question, because she added, “They’ll help you find the Conifers.”

  “We should retreat,” Johnny yelled.


  Dagos looked at him intently. He couldn’t tell if she understood or would order him to leave.

  “More on the way!”

  Juan’s voice echoed through the hall, coming from the bunker’s bedroom.

  In a single stride, Dagos positioned herself behind the filing cabinet and unloaded two bursts as her daughter slipped a fresh magazine into her rifle. Johnny joined them. Suddenly, the Eagle whipped around.

  “Get the hell out of here.” She thrust out her arm and shoved him with a push of her wrist. Gunfire from Laura drowned out the rest of the Eagle’s screams, but she was staring daggers at him.

  Suddenly she lunged out, grabbed his military jacket in one wretched hand and pulled him in close to her. Flat-out disturbed, Johnny’s breath lodged in his throat.

  “The Eagle and the deadliest earthling die today. But not you. You live,” she said, the words full of frustration, fear, desperation. What was driving her to do this? To go out the way the Anunnaki wanted to kill her?

  The Eagle and the deadliest earthling die today. But not you. You live. He was the deadliest earthling, though. His mind juggled that idea around. No he wasn’t. Only as much as Skunk had really been “Skunk.” The Eagle had lived by her title for so long, who else could she be? She meant that she was ending her life and taking his new title with her. For him.

  “Aldrin?” Beyta raised an eyebrow, apparently just noticing him. “This place is gonna explode in five minutes!”

  So they had rigged the bunker with bombs. That’s what Sledge had meant by a plan to kill the Berserkers. The Eagle was trying to lure the Naga in. Then they would all go out with a bang.

  Confusion caught like gum in the neural hairs of his brain. This made no sense. What did sacrificing herself achieve?

  If she just followed him outside, they could leave safely. She would only throw away that opportunity if there was something more to gain by staying. But the only thing he could think of was her cementing her legacy as an Anunnaki killer to the very end. That couldn’t be it, though. He strived to understand what more there could be.