“We so swear it,” the voice echoed from above.
“Will?” Jack asked, as everyone turned to face the small boy. “Make sure.”
“You will do just like you promised, and not hurt anyone anymore!” he demanded.
“Then take your friend and get him treated,” Sam said, stepping aside. “And get yourselves to new tanks. Just let us know what we need to do to get you the samples you need.”
“Thank you,” the voice from overhead came again, as the robot guardian began moving once more and entered the room.
Sam watched the large metallic being reach down and gingerly retrieve the injured alien before rising once again and turning to depart. Just a moment later three more of the guards arrived and a pair of them collected the remaining invaders, only to depart with them. Sam couldn’t help but hope that they were not being tricked, but something told her that it was all going to be okay.
After the pair of robo-guards left with the aliens, the remaining robot simply stood at the edge of the room for several minutes. It made Sam uneasy, but she did her best not to stare at it, that is, until it began to speak.
“Please follow. A room is being prepared to collect your samples.”
Chapter Nine
Exiting the light transporter thing, on the heels of the robot, Jack was more than a little uneasy about the whole situation. They had descended twenty or more floors, and it was all Jack could do to keep up with the machine that was their guide. If it was a trap, he knew that there was nothing he could do. He was too drained. Even now, the only way he managed to stay upright was to count his steps in an effort to distract himself.
Behind him, Sam, Will, and Tammy followed, all huddled together, as if afraid of losing one another in the strangely lit corridors. Thankful that their destination was not far, Jack grinned as the robot stopped and swiveled at the waist to look upon them.
“Past this door are two chambers. In the first, you will be sterilized and freed from contaminates. It is suggested that you hold your breath. In the next chamber, automations will take samples of your hair, blood, marrow, and skin. There will be some pain, but we will do our best to reduce that which you will endure.”
With a sweep of its metallic hand, the robot ushered them into the room and Jack looked about quickly for any sign of a trap. All too quickly he realized that there was literally nothing to see. The room was small and devoid of anything at all, minus a light on the ceiling and two vents on opposite walls. As the door sealed closed behind them, the light above changed to something akin to orange as a buzzer sounded from somewhere unknown. Taking a deep breath, Jack noted his companions doing the same as a thick fog blasted out of one of the vents, obscuring his vision completely. One, two, three, Jack began to count and when he hit twelve the fog dissipated quickly, and he watched the last of it being sucked out of the opposite vent. The buzzer stopped abruptly and with it the normal shade of light returned. Even so, Jack held his breath, just in case.
Turning his head to look about and see if anything had changed, he saw the opposite door from the one they had entered, open. Looking beyond the now open passage he could see what was obviously a medical room of some sort. Everything inside was either stainless steel or high gloss white, and worktops were covered in instruments and vials. Leading his companions into the room, he was surprised to find it equipped with four chairs that looked straight out of a human dentist’s office.
“Please make yourselves comfortable,” a familiar synthetic voice boomed from the ceiling.
Tired as he was, Jack didn’t even hesitate. Taking the nearest chair, he fell into its cushions with a sigh, and watched as everyone else did the same.
“We will begin with one at a time, to ease your minds as to our motives,” the voice came again.
“That would be great. I’ll go first,” Jack announced.
A few seconds passed as hisses and whirring sounds began all about Jack, and he watched as two small robotic arms appeared from beneath his chair and another folded down from the ceiling. Trying to keep an eye on all three was difficult, and Jack found himself turning this way and that in order to see what it was that they intended. He had never been a big fan of needles, and hoped they didn’t intend to take too many samples.
“Please remain still,” the voice came again.
“Okay, but one at a time,” Jack replied.
Watching as two of the arms settled in their motions, the third one from beneath him approached his arm with what appeared to be a metal straw. Bracing himself for what he was sure was an enormous needle, Jack winced as a blast of blue fluid sprayed his arm, coloring his skin. Within seconds the blue fluid was absorbed and touching his arm where it had sprayed him, he found it completely numb. Already, he was beginning to like the way these guys did things.
After the arm with the numbing spray vanished, the second arm from beneath his chair arose with what was certainly a needle, but numbed as he was, Jack simply turned his head as it neared and felt nothing. Not so much as a poke. The blue stuff was good.
As he turned to watch the arm retreat with a large vial of his blood, the third arm lowered from above and with some sort of vacuum, sucked his hair into it and with a buzzing sound it again backed away, allowing his hair to fall atop his head once more. Oh, how he seriously needed a haircut.
“If you need more hair, feel free,” Jack stated loudly.
“We have a sufficient amount. Next we will be sampling your bone marrow. It is not as invasive as the methods used by your people, but can be uncomfortable. We will be securing your arm for this process.”
The robotic arm from above returned with a metallic cuff that it placed about Jack’s wrist, as another cuff was placed at the very top of his bicep by one of the arms from below. Testing their hold, Jack surmised quickly that he wasn’t going anywhere. Arm three reappeared a moment later with a strange attachment with a selection of tools upon it. Though he couldn’t determine what most of the tooled fingers were, one was quite obviously a drill bit. Gritting his teeth, Jack looked away.
Whirring and hydraulic sounds ensued as Tammy and Sam gasped in shock.
“That’s cool,” Will said at a time both girls seemed utterly grossed out, but even so Jack wasn’t about to look.
Several moments and lots of odd sounds later, a loud snapping sound erupted beside him and wondering if one of the tools had broken off in his arm, Jack cautiously turned to see that the procedure was complete. There upon the skin of his arm was a tiny incision, perhaps a centimeter long, with a single small staple holding it closed. Seconds later, Jack watched as all three arms retracted, their jobs complete, as three new arms appeared above and beneath Samantha.
“I shouldn’t have watched,” she said, closing her eyes tightly and grasping the arms of her chair as if it would rocket her out of the room at any second.
Ten, perhaps fifteen minutes later, all three had given their samples and, no worse for wear, they looked about the room with nothing else to do.
“Do you think they have food?” Will asked.
“I dunno, buddy. They have our packs, and we had food, so I suppose that in a sense they do,” Jack replied.
“Your belongings have been delivered to a chamber below. We would ask you to stay for a time until we are certain that the cloning process is viable with the samples you have provided. In the meantime, you are free to travel about the tower, but we ask that you do not destroy anything else,” the voice from above stated.
“And what of your promises?” Jack asked.
“We are arranging for the retrieval of all species from your planet that are not indigenous and have a safe home world to return to. Even now our ships are spooling up to do biological sweeps. Three species of man will remain on Earth. Your own, your companion’s, and a species similar to primates that already inhabit your world, though more advanced intellectually.”
“How many people are left?” Sam asked.
“Of your species, over three billion remai
n among our world ships around your world.”
* * * * *
Sam felt even more sick to her stomach. Over half of the world’s population had been lost. Billions gone. She could no longer follow the conversation, though vaguely noted that Jack and Tammy both spoke, raising questions of their own. In a daze she rose from her seat to follow her siblings out of the room where they were guided away from the synthetic voice. Half. Gone.
She recalled the resistance and how it was mostly children and teens. Those adults who had survived had only done so because they had easy access to anti-radiation medicines. Not only was half of the population of the world gone, but the vast majority of those would be adults. Hundreds of millions, if not billions of children were now orphans. Who would take care of them all? How could they rebuild the world without the knowledge and educations of the adults? How would they survive?
Then the thought arose about those that had died. Where did they go? Then it dawned on her. It was obvious. If the goal was to let several species duke it out to see who was the best and most durable version, then it only made sense that there was a lot of fighting in the beginning. A lot of struggle. Some of the species they had encountered, the giant apes, like Fairy Pickle and the insect-like humanoids, all were carnivores. Given the months that had passed, Sam shuddered at how many had fallen victim simply to be a source of food for the other.
Looking around to change her train of thought, Sam noted that they were traveling down yet another corridor. Though they all looked pretty much the same, a myriad of miscellaneous steel panels interlaced with oddly spaced lighting and such, this one felt different. It took her several moments, following on Tammy’s heels, to realize what it was that was different, but when she did, she was pleased. Here, unlike anywhere else they had been that she could recall, there was a breeze. Fresh air was blowing through the corridor, giving it an open and airy feel, not to mention a much better scent.
Peeking into rooms as they passed she was surprised to find the vast majority of them vacant of anything. Here and there a room would have cages, or tables, and one even had parts that she presumed belonged to the robot guards. All in all, she believed that the honeycomb of rooms was more or less to provide structural support to the tower above, something she wouldn’t have even considered had Dad not been an architect.
Looking into yet another room with her neck severely bent as they passed, Sam couldn’t help but crash directly into Tammy who had stopped abruptly in front of her.
“Here is your chamber. If at any time you are lost, simply find an automation to guide you back,” their robot guide said in monotonous English.
“Thanks,” Will replied. “Is there food?”
“Your belongings have been delivered here, sustenance will be provided.”
“Sounds good to me,” Will replied before bounding through the door.”
Following her companions into the room, Sam was instantly impressed. The chamber wasn’t exquisite or lavish by any means, but everything was here. Like a model dorm room had been pulled from a college or something, the room sported two pair of bunk beds, one on each wall to the left and right. Between them a square table sat in the middle of the room with four tall-backed chairs. Books were piled upon shelves and magazines sat stacked neatly in one corner. A LCD TV adorned one wall and attached to it was a game system with a pile of games. Posters even adorned the walls and much to Sam’s delight, a large bathroom was visible through a door off the back of the room. The aliens knew far more about them than she had guessed, and they had taken every precaution to make them comfortable.
“Don’t get me wrong, guys, this looks wonderful and all, but I don’t feel good about it,” Sam admitted.
“I was just thinking the same thing,” Jack added
“Give it a chance. Give them a chance. They can’t break the promise they gave to Will, right?” Tammy said.
Sam wasn’t sure. As much as she wanted to believe it was all okay, or would be okay, it almost seemed too easy. A bed. A bathroom. Television? It was too much too fast. They had been on the run for weeks, fighting, struggling, and scraping just to survive and here, where they were supposed to defeat their enemy, they were instead treated to accommodations of the like they hadn’t seen in the better part of a year. Her stomach was in knots over being able to actually use a toilet. Sam didn’t know whether to be happy or cry, so she did both.
* * * * *
Will was ecstatic, there was food, games, and a bed. Heck, he might even take a bath. Maybe. After he ate and played some games, of course. He couldn’t believe that everyone was just standing around and looking. They had just saved the world and the aliens from all over too. They were like intergalactic superheroes. What could be better than that?
Crossing the room towards the TV, Will dropped down to his knees and began sorting through the games to see which ones the aliens had. Impressed by the selection, he selected one and removed it from its case before pressing the disk into the game system. Too cool. He never would have thought that at the end of this day he’d be in an alien city, playing a game about killing aliens. Awesome.
Standing again to find the remote to turn on the TV, he heard Sam sob loudly and turned to witness the tears streaming down her cheeks. Though he hadn’t ever noticed until now, Sam looked a lot different than he remembered. Though her clothes were more than abused from weeks of travel, they no longer fit her right. They were too big. Where her eyes were usually bright, looking like she was always smiling, they were dim now, and full of sadness. Her cheeks, usually a bit round, were thin, no longer reminiscent of Mom.
Running into Sam’s arms, Will found that he too was crying, even though he really wasn’t sure why. He missed Sam the way she had been before, even if she ignored him most of the time. He missed being dragged away from his toys to watch Jack at a track meet in a neighboring town. He missed school and all the things he learned there and all his friends. Most of all, he missed Mom and Dad, and maybe that was why both of them were crying. Maybe they both thought that winning and defeating the aliens would bring everything back, but instead they were in an alien city thing, excited to see stuff, rather than what they all really wanted. Maybe that’s what made them cry. Will didn’t know, but he felt a little better when Jack and Tammy joined in to hug them and together they stood in the middle of the room for a long time.
* * * * *
It was several hours later when one of the robotic servants of the invading aliens returned with a simple message which Tammy joined her companions at the door to receive. Peeking over both Sam and Jack’s shoulders, she looked at the robot, seeing nothing that would distinguish it from any other.
“All the species delivered to Earth have begun being collected and sorted for return to their planets. Within a few short weeks the task should be completed and those species with a safe home to return to will begin their voyages back.”
“Thank you for the update,” Jack replied to the metal visage of a humanoid.
Without another word the robot spun and stalked away, allowing them all to return to their meal. As they gathered around the table once more, Tammy sat with her friends and shared a meal of pickles, corn bread, and the remainder of the scavenged MRE meals from the elementary school what felt like a lifetime ago. It wasn’t anything particularly grand, or even tasty for that matter, as she had been eating the same things for some time now. But it was special.
It was nice to sit down and eat a meal with friends without fear that at any second you might have to run for your life. It was a wonderful change to know that you could sleep at night without fear of something finding you that might want to eat you. It made Tammy very happy to know that she was safe for the first time in what felt like forever, and now her people had a world that they could call home.
Finishing her meal, she stood and stretched, eyeing the bunk beds for what must have been the thousandth time.
“Do you guys think it is night?” she asked.
“It sure f
eels like it,” Jack answered.
“It always feels like it,” Sam added with a grin.
“Bed time?” Will asked.
“I think that’s a good idea,” Sam said, standing and pushing in her chair.
Tammy was impressed. A few hours to relax, and a fully belly seemed to have been just what all of them needed. And a shower. That had helped a lot too.
“Okay,” Will said, bouncing up from his own chair and making his way towards a bunk.
“Not so fast, little man,” Sam said, stopping him in his tracks.
“How come?” Will asked, tilting his head to the side.
“You need a bath first,” Sam replied with a semi-stern voice.”
“Aw, c’mon. I’ll still be dirty tomorrow. I can wash it off then.”
“Nope. Not happening. Go and take a bath,” Sam ordered, pointing towards the bathroom.
“You know I can make you change your mind, right?” Will asked.
“You know I can pin you down and tickle you till you pee, right?” Sam replied.
Tammy couldn’t help but laugh. Trying to fight it as it came, she wound up snorting, causing all of her friends to turn and look at her, each of them beginning to laugh as well. With her cheeks growing warm, Tammy turned to hide her embarrassment.
“Oh no you don’t, snorty!” Will said, giggling.
“Who are you calling snorty, stinky?” Tammy replied, “I’ve been around you after pickled eggs and didn’t say a word.”
“Well played, Tammy,” Will said before sticking out his tongue.
“That’s enough,” Jack chimed in,” You get in the tub.”
Tammy watched as Will’s chin dropped slightly, and he jutted out his lower lip a bit before stalking into the bathroom and closing the door. As she looked to her friends, they all smiled at Will’s display and went about clearing the table before choosing which beds they would be sleeping in.
Children of the After: The Complete Series Page 45