The Deadliest Earthling

by Gibson Morales

  There was a small bang in the back of her head.

  She was waking from a dream. Ash and acid seared her throat and lungs.

  Wiping dust off her face, she found a body piled on her. That got her alert, and she remembered the grenade.

  It was one of the injured cadets. Heavy too. As she moved, he moved.

  “What happened?” he said, massaging his head.

  All around, people awakened. Not all, but most of them, coated in dust and wood chips. Had the grenade caused all of this? The doorframe and outer entryway were a wreck of blackened wood, embers still burning. The whole place smelled of smoke. But inside the lobby, there weren’t any signs of a fire, only dust and debris hanging in the air.

  More than likely the wailer had knocked her and everyone else unconscious, then turned off after a set amount of time.

  She tensed. Were the Anunnaki still lurking? A few seared bodies past the door spoke to the dead guards, but she didn’t see any Anunnaki. Not even on the black patch of grass where the grenade landed.

  She must’ve killed a few. They’d probably removed the bodies, though.

  It amazed her how little the thought of killing Anunnaki in and of itself bothered her. Rather the idea that she’d lost control and broken free of her restraint shocked her. How could she have stayed out of the battle for so long only to toss a grenade at the Anunnaki?

  It wasn’t the instinct to survive. She’d known the wailer wouldn’t have killed her. Just knocked her unconscious.

  A vague, troubling sensation muddled her thoughts as if it might’ve happened a lifetime ago. She dug into the recesses of her mind and became aware that maybe watching Hamiad fire his gun pushed her closer and closer to finally taking action. Deep down she had wanted to shoot too. It didn’t seem right to rely on him for all the heavy lifting just because of a promise she made to her mother. A sudden burst of anger exploded in her. How could simple words bind her like that?

  Shame replaced the anger as she considered how much those words meant to her mother. Subconsciously, she’d wanted to help Hamiad, though, and that urge must’ve won out in the end.

  Sarah cursed inwardly. Why did the Anunnaki wait to attack them here? They could’ve taken her out at so many other points when they weren’t near all the wounded and weak. Stranger still that most people in the lobby had survived, only slightly worse for the wear. A few more cuts, a bruise or two. Nothing life-threatening.

  And then it dawned on her with a brief sensation of nausea. Zatra.

  She rushed through the hall. Every step of the way her lungs pinched, aches straddling her legs and back.

  It didn’t matter.

  She tore up the stairs and discovered one guard sprawled along them. Another guard lay at the start of the second floor. And a third filled the doorway, groaning. The Anunnaki must’ve followed them to this room.

  Five rushed strides delivered her to the room. The floor hosted Zatra’s cold and utterly motionless form. A dark red circle on her forehead explained it. Too large to be a bullet wound, but exact enough that it wasn’t a raw injury. The Ascendi or one of his soldiers had executed her.

  She stepped back, the giant lifeless mass that had been Zatra now a sickening reminder of all the death that had brought her to this point. Her throat tightened, and she discovered hot tears streaming down her face. But she didn’t feel outright sad. Not the way she knew sadness. More like her body had reached the quota of pain required for crying and produced tears automatically.

  She waited for pain to come, but there was only the numbness. Sniffling, she caught the scent of roses. In the bathroom, they hugged the bottom of the bathtub in a dark red, wilted. She stepped over to the tub and began plucking them. As she did, a cloud of misery churned in the back of her mind.

  She brought the wilted petals to Zatra’s body and spread them one by one over her. She saw the oval of Zatra’s face and thought of her mom. The omen was obvious, but Sarah told herself this meant nothing. Because omens didn’t always come true. Still, she couldn’t shake off the sense of impending disaster.

  As she placed one petal atop Zatra’s forehead, someone’s coughing froze her in the moment. The beating of her heart echoed a hundred times louder than it really was.

  Turning, she saw the guard reaching his hand out from the doorway.

  “I found someone,” Sarah cried. Maybe Utbashi’s doctor could save him. But the Anunnaki left so many wounded and hurt. The doctor and nurse would already have their hands full.

  “She gave me this,” the man said in a ghost of a voice, “before they came.”

  A designator rested in his grip, like a curled-up watch.

  Sarah could only guess that Zatra might’ve completed her tinkering. Etched a warning message into her designator. Could it really be a way to report the Ascendi’s misdeeds? The Sinsers had monitored this, sanctioned some of what happened in Utbashi, but only because it started with humans firing on Anunnaki. Not the other way around. And if they knew the Ascendi Major meant to betray them, she saw no reason they would let him live.

  Sarah accepted the designator gently.

  “Thank you.”

  “Bring me water, please,” he said.

  She ran to the bathroom faucet, turned it on, and filled her cupped hands. Upon returning to the man, she saw only his shut eyes. No breathing.

  The water splashed to the floor. It sounded so loud. She listened. Except for the ringing in her ears, Utbashi was silent. She introduced a long sigh to the quiet void. At least the battle was truly over, then.

  Her eyes found their way to Zatra’s body. There was nothing more to do for her. But she could take the designator to Anunnaki, who would do her justice.

  Downstairs, Krem’s face lit up with recognition. He raced over, and they hugged.

  “Is everyone okay?” she asked, checking the lobby. People wandered, attending to the wounded. Guards passed out canteens and pieces of dried fruit. Ibdan and a group of recruits cleaned scraps of the door and a couple of chairs that the blast had torn apart.

  “Mostly,” Krem said. “Hamiad and Skunk are going to the temple. We figure we’ll need to start healing everybody.”

  Her face dropped.

  “What?” Krem said, grinning. “We did it. We beat the Anunnaki. Everything our instructors taught us really worked. Hit and run. Guerilla warfare. Eventually they lose too many resources trying to fight us.”

  She nodded, trying to seem happy. What would they do when they saw the temple? Would they know that she had lied? Or would they think she’d misheard the Naga soldiers?

  “Come on.”

  Together, they worked their way through the streets and around to the bazaar. Smoke issued from the mess of broken carts, scattered goods, and other debris. Sarah bit against the tip of her tongue. A couple of small fires raged—the explosives they’d heard earlier.

  Craters in the cement confirmed that. People lined the temple moat, blocking most of it from view, but parts showed through their legs. From their angle, it looked cracked. And she could see smoke billowing from the temple’s crown shikhara.

  When she and Krem found their way through, nothing remained but a demolished temple, collapsing at the ceiling. A large opening chewed out the ceiling, as if a small explosive had blown it up. That’s where Hamiad must’ve hid the wailer. Chunks of rubble filled the doorway, making passage inside next to impossible.

  She didn’t want to see this. What was the point of confirming what she already knew?

  “I’m going to look for survivors,” she whispered to Krem.

  “You sure it’s safe?”

  “They already have what they wanted.”

  “You saw them take it, then, too?” a recruit said.

  “It?” another recruit asked.

  “The violet jewel.”

  The Conifer.

  Chapter 16

  Getting away from it all was probably the best decision she’d made all day. The nicer streets of Utbashi rested on elevate
d ground, and she found herself a hill that let her see the surrounding area for miles. The lush jungle woven into swampland. Farther on, mountains and long stretches of green. Peacocks cawed in the distance. She let herself imagine all of that up close. The night before came to mind. The tigers, mosquitos, Zatra. Maybe she didn’t want to see all of it, but she did want to watch it fly by from the inside of a train.

  Standing there sent a stabbing sensation through the bottom of her feet. She sat down, removed her brown boots, and massaged them, feeling the blisters and cuts. It still seemed a miracle that all four of them had survived. Especially if drones were monitoring the city. Were they still monitoring it now?

  What if they had arrived at the hotel a minute later? They would’ve run right into the Anunnaki. Only that seemed far too coincidental when she thought about it that way. Almost as if the Anunnaki chased them to the hotel. She pushed the thought away, but it kept bouncing back.

  How had they known where to find Zatra, anyway? Samir never told them she was in the hotel. They wouldn’t have begun monitoring the city until that morning at the earliest. It wasn’t like they’d heard her speaking Nebirian with Zatra. She would’ve had to be outside for that. She became aware that she had spoken Nebirian in the open, though, when they rescued Krem and Skunk at the crop field. Was it possible the Anunnaki monitored that and assumed she’d translated for Zatra? If they thought she would lead them to Zatra, they would’ve tracked her, as they had.

  Without meaning to, she had led the Anunnaki right to the hotel. Then the guards ran up the stairs, and the Anunnaki followed them. Never mind the grenade. She could’ve avoided the whole scenario if only…

  She discovered her index finger dirtied. She’d run it through the ground, making a collection of scribbles.

  She noticed a shadow from around the corner of a building.

  “You were perceptive,” said a man. She whirled around and discovered a rifle aimed directly at her.

  “What?” Panic swarmed in her.

  “Noticing the missing survivors. Pity you have to die.”

  His eyes twitched, and he looked horrified. Somehow she got the sense he didn’t want to do this.

  A blur of motion from the corner. Krem and Skunk tackled the man, pounded his face, and wrestled the gun away.

  “Knew he looked suspicious!” Skunk yelled.

  At that moment several gunshots went off in the distance. Krem cursed as two guards moved in and restrained the man.

  “What’s going on?” Sarah cried, her insides squirming.

  “Are you okay?” Krem asked, offering her a hand. She took it and hugged him. Not such a bad thing to fill up on hugs while she could, she thought. Lots of hugs seemed a good thing right now.

  “Where’s Hamiad?” she asked.

  “Tracking the other survivors of the temple. Turned out you were onto something, going to look for them.”

  “Yeah. One of them showed up after you left and tried to knife another recruit. He’d gone insane,” Skunk said. “Then we saw a guy with a gun, sneaking off in your direction. We figured we’d better make sure nothing happened.”

  “And we remembered how things got really quiet before the Anunnaki left. Almost like our soldiers at the temple had given up the wailer’s location freely.”

  “But why would they?”

  Krem wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Given what we’ve seen, I have a theory. Mind control.”

  “Mind control?” On impulse she said it in disbelief. But after a second of thought, it wasn’t so farfetched.

  “There’s a healing Conifer and Johnny’s optical Conifer. There could be a Conifer that controls people’s minds. And if the Ascendi tried to find this Conifer, maybe he’s after others. Maybe he already got one.”

  “Anunnaki don’t have mind control otherwise, do they?” Sarah asked, trying to think if she’d heard anything on it. She couldn’t say she had.

  “Nope.”

  “So what? The Ascendi controlled these guys and sent them to hide? To attack us after they left?”

  Krem shrugged. “I just don’t get why the Ascendi wouldn’t use it first thing if he could.”

  “Come on,” Skunk said. “There could still be Ascendi sleeper agents around.”

  They walked back toward the hotel, wisps of smoke billowing from the windows. A number of locals and recruits filled the main road. Something seemed to steer them to the infirmary. They followed the recruits heading in there.

  Outside, a recruit stacked his rifle next to a row of guns against the wall, then entered.

  The locals stared at them with wrinkled and weary faces. For a moment Sarah worried they would somehow blame her. But they simply watched, and Sarah gave up trying to understand why.

  The stench of the dead and wounded, now being bandaged or cleaned off, was thick in the air.

  Samir saw Sarah’s group and gravely beckoned them to a bed surrounded by several cadets. Sarah didn’t know what to expect, but her feet kept grazing the floor.

  It was Ibdan. He lay pale and motionless on the sheets.

  She noticed Hamiad there, gaping in horror.

  “One of those traitors got him,” Samir said quietly.

  Hamiad placed his hands on Ibdan’s arm. His eyes were as somber as on the rooftop the day before. He wasn’t the only one. Another cadet wiped his eyes. He didn’t have to make the excuse of sweat or debris in them. Skunk turned away, his fists shaking. One recruit whimpered.

  She discovered an intense pang of guilt in herself, lowered her head, and walked to the other end of the hospital room.

  “Are you sure you feel okay?” a guard asked.

  “I’m me. Not the Ascendi,” Katherine insisted.

  Sarah noticed her restrained in a bed, three guards holding down her entire body. She wasn’t struggling, though. A nasty bruise coated her forehead.

  “Answer me a few questions first,” the guard said. “Were you at the temple?”

  “Yes,” Katherine said.

  “What happened?”

  Sarah stepped in closer, trying to hear this over all the other talking.

  A flash of horror crossed Katherine’s eyes.

  “We were at our positions. Mostly hidden. We noticed the Anunnaki trying to enter, but our rifles did nothing against their shields. And we were all out of explosives. They smothered us, and pretty soon I had this weird feeling. Like someone wanted to introduce themselves to me. It wasn’t scary, but really uncomfortable. I started hearing voices, and…things got foggy. I heard the Ascendi tell us to stand down, and we did. And the Anunnaki gathered around the temple. Then the Ascendi ordered us to disable the wailer. I could hear his voice clearly, but only in my head.”

  Sarah looked at the recruits gathered around Ibdan. She didn’t know what to say to this. How could she console them? Start with an apology. She’d caused it, hadn’t she? If she hadn’t lied about the Anunnaki retreating, they could’ve stopped the Anunnaki at the temple with a grenade. The small entrance would’ve served as the perfect choke point.

  Those at the doorway stood clear as villagers carried out bodies covered by black sheets to bury. If they went to the temple instead, would Ibdan be alive? Would the Anunnaki have the Conifer? She couldn’t rule out the role a booby trap might’ve played. The grenade might’ve changed everything—ended the Ascendi’s life, forced the Anunnaki’s retreat. And Samir would’ve snuck Zatra out safely onto the train.

  Sobs broke out from Katherine. The guards eyed each other uneasily. Clearly not what they’d signed up for.

  Sarah walked over. “I can watch her,” she said.

  They nodded. “Thank you. If you need us, call.”

  With that they went to check the other wounded. Sarah briefly wondered how many suffered if they needed this building and the hotel.

  “Katherine, right?” she said.

  Katherine held back another sob. Her red hair and freckles made Sarah think of her friend Dolores.

  “It’s okay,” S
arah said. “We’re alive, aren’t we?”

  Katherine tilted her head to the side, eyes waning. “He could’ve used mind control from the start,” she said, as if a thousand miles away. Almost locked in a trance. “No one would have died, then. But he didn’t want to seem weak to his soldiers. He wanted to earn their respect. Do things without a crutch. Can you believe that?”

  She couldn’t tell if Katherine was trying to find the positive in this or if she was shocked by the Ascendi’s ruthlessness. Sarah decided it for her.

  “Well, I guess his soldiers don’t respect him now.”

  Katherine shook her head, still speaking half-possessed. “He’ll find other ways to earn it. Because he wants to use the other Conifers.”

  She fainted. Sarah gave a cry, but saw her chest rising and falling. Rest would fix her. And Sarah decided she could use some rest herself.

  Chapter 17

  She dreamed of her mother. Of her first date with Mitchell. Not more than a couple of months ago, she had been nervously preparing.

  She’d eyed Mitchell a few times in class or passing down the halls, admiring his well-thought-out answers to their English teacher’s questions and the way he recited famous poetry like it was flowing directly from his soul. Like he’d composed every line with someone special in mind.

  One shade the more, one ray the less,

  Had half impair’d the nameless grace

  Which waves in every raven tress,

  Or softly lightens o’er her face;

  Where thoughts serenely sweet express

  How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

  Add in his deep-set eyes, clean, kempt blond hair, and sharp jawline, and he was probably one of the best-looking students outside of the cadets. And they seemed so brutish and raw, whereas he embodied slickness and confidence.

  When Tobias said he wanted her to go out with his friend’s son, she couldn’t help but groan aloud, thinking it would be a recruit. Or some nauseating nonrecruit.