by N. W. Harris
The royal signaled for another door to be opened, and the three young humans, tiny in comparison to the massive wolves, rushed out with their backs to each other and their spears pointed outward. Athos whispered a prayer to the gods, begging them to give his new recruits courage and strength. He desired the support of the people so he could save Anu, but he also wanted to see Kilnasis weep when his wolves perished under the hands of these legendary recruits. After all, throwing the royal into the arena would only give him temporary satisfaction. Seeing this selfish aristocrat lose his bets, as well as his prized wolves, would bring Athos joy for years to come. Of course, if the citizens voted to support Athos’ plan, the wealth Kilnasis would gain would make his loss on these games insignificant.
Every part of Kelly’s body felt electrified as she ran into the arena, adrenaline surging in her veins. She held her spear pointed out, Ethan and Jules standing with their backs to her in the same defensive posture. Thousands of Anunnaki filled the stadium around her, cheering and pumping their fists in the air. The closest wolf was the largest, standing a football field away and studying the new arrivals to the arena floor. Its nostrils flared, and a red tongue bigger than the hood of a pickup slapped its black lips and nose, pushing drool out between its twelve canine teeth.
Stories she learned in church and school about the Roman coliseums and the people put to death in them for punishment and entertainment flashed through her mind, chilling her through her center. Time seemed to stand still, the beast deciding how best to approach its meal. She prayed this was just another horrible dream, and she’d wake up safe on Earth, at her home in Leeville, with Nat down the hall and her parents asleep downstairs.
The two smaller wolves were on the other side of the arena, mirroring each other’s movements. The neural upload she’d received taught her most Stilapian wolves hunted in packs and showed her how to take advantage of this characteristic. It also warned of the dangers of a lone beast; the ones that didn’t travel with the rest. They were more cunning and aggressive than the individuals in a pack. Athos had acted as if they were only going to have to face those that stayed together. Why would he lie when they were about to die anyway? Terror gripping her, Kelly was certain she and her friends would perish here. There was no way three teenagers with spears were going to kill wolves that were as big as elephants.
The largest wolf charged first. As if that were the signal, the other two rushed toward Kelly and her friends, coming at an angle as if to keep the lone wolf from getting their meal.
“Hold your ground,” Kelly yelled, dropping the Taser end of her spear into the white sand and pointing the sharpened end toward the approaching beasts. “When they draw near, we’ll attack the flank of the twin closest to us.”
Ethan and Jules’ alter egos obeyed, anchoring their spears with the points aimed at the monsters. The twins ran side by side, charging in so they blocked the larger wolf from its prey.
“To the right,” Kelly shouted, running toward the wolves at an angle so she could get past their jaws while their attention was on the larger animal.
All three friends made it past the closest wolf’s head just as it shifted its gaze toward them. They thrust their spears into its side, the strength-enhancing armor helping them to drive the weapons between the massive predator’s ribs. The wolf let out an ear-piercing yelp, not unlike a dog’s but hundreds of times louder, and leapt sideways into its twin.
Kelly and her friends held tight to their spears, retrieving them as the beast fell.
“Retreat,” Kelly shouted.
They kept their primitive weapons aimed and ran backward, putting fifty yards between them and the wolves before they stopped. The fallen beast’s yelps diminished to a whimper, its life pumping out in a crimson pool on the arena floor. Its twin sniffed it, seeming mournful for a moment. The larger wolf crept around the other two, it head low and its eyes focused on Kelly and her friends. It seemed cautious, wary that its meal was more dangerous than it expected.
“Keep close,” Kelly ordered, wishing she could replace the spear with a high-powered rifle.
The large wolf crept across the sand. It led with a slightly open mouth, and any lunge at its eyes would land her between its teeth. They couldn’t kill this one head-on. Her mind raced to find a way to attack this wolf’s flank, going for its heart like they did the first one. A growl rumbled across the arena. She could barely hear the sound over the cheering from the Anunnaki, but the depth of the creature’s report made her guts tremble. The wolf paused, glancing back at the surviving twin.
“Look out,” Ethan warned. “I think we pissed that one off.”
The twin stepped around its dead sister. Its lips pulled up in a furious grin. It didn’t seem like it surveyed Kelly and her friends as a meal anymore. Now it looked like all it wanted to do was tear them to shreds. Its desire for revenge burned in its small, black eyes.
Whether because of some strategy that was beyond what was expected of the lone wolf’s miniscule brain, or because it was afraid the twin would attack it if it didn’t move, Kelly couldn’t tell. The biggest wolf shifted out of the smaller beast’s way and stopped. Its eyes did appear to have a glimmer of intelligence; the notion that it was waiting to see what the smaller, angrier wolf would do scared the hell out of her. There was no time to think before the angry twin charged.
“Split up,” Kelly yelled, pushing Jules to the left.
Jules and Ethan dove to one side, and Kelly went to the other. The angry wolf twisted its head toward her two friends at the last moment, exposing the soft spot at the base of its neck. Kelly screamed and drove the spear from over her head with both hands like a Neanderthal throwing herself into a mammoth. The neural upload provided before entering the arena had conditioned her to be deadly accurate with the weapon. The wolf’s jaws slammed shut inches from Ethan, and at the same time, Kelly’s spear slid through its thick skin and muscles, skewering its heart. The monster dropped, its head bent back under its body. Its momentum caused it to slide forward, knocking Kelly down and pinning her leg under its massive shoulder.
She twisted her body to escape and saw the last wolf in the air. As she feared, it took advantage of their distraction. It landed with its open jaws on Ethan, his head and torso disappearing into its mouth so only his arms and legs still showed.
Instead of devouring him in one bite, the beast flung the Aussie’s body sideways into Jules, sending both of them flying into the arena wall. They fell in a pile, dead or unconscious. The wolf turned its attention on Kelly, seeming to want to kill them all before it settled in for its meal.
It didn’t growl like the beast she’d killed. This one crouched low, studying her with hungry and curious eyes, like a cat about to pounce on a cricket. Kelly’s heart raced. She pushed her hands into the dead beast and pulled her leg, trying to get free. The biggest wolf used the moment when she looked away to leap.
With reflexes that seemed supernatural, Kelly grabbed her spear and pulled it free from the dead wolf’s heart. She flipped the tip up and cringed in anticipation of the crushing blow of the monster’s teeth. The big wolf landed, open mouth on the spear. In Kelly’s rush, she’d flipped up the wrong end. Instead of piercing the beast, the electric prod discharged, creating a flash and a crack like a bolt of lightning. The predator yelped and leapt away, a puff of smoke rising from the charred flesh in its mouth.
It ran across the arena, shaking its head and blinking its eyes. Kelly pried her leg free and sprinted to the sidewall where her friends lay. Ethan’s head was gashed, blood flowing over his slack expression. Jules didn’t appear to be injured, but she lay on the ground motionless next to him.
“Damn,” Kelly’s alter ego cursed. She didn’t know if it was part of her programing, or if her real personality influenced her slave self, but her voice cracked with concern.
Glancing at the lone wolf, she picked up one of her friends’ spears and rushed to the corpse of the second wolf she’d killed,
keeping the surviving beast’s attention on her and off her friends. The biggest wolf had recovered, his eyes following her as he warily crept closer. It shook its head and licked the right side of its chops every few steps, as if the jolt still caused it discomfort. Taking advantage of its lingering pain, Kelly ran straight at the animal. Jules’ spear was in one hand, raised and ready to throw, and the other hand held her spear low.
The battle cry came from her again as she charged. The wolf hesitated, perhaps frightened. It shifted its head as if it contemplated retreat, and Kelly threw the spear.
A deadly javelin, the weapon’s needle-sharp tip found the wolf’s eye. It sank deep, and the wolf yelped and howled. It dropped its head to the ground and put a paw over the handle of the spear as if to pull it out. Only a couple of yards from the wolf, Kelly leapt into the air. The armor sent her much higher than her legs could have on their own. She spun the remaining staff in her hand and landed atop the wolf’s shoulders, spear tip first.
Her momentum drove the weapon deep. When her feet landed on the wolf, half the spear’s shaft was buried. The animal bucked, and Kelly hung onto the weapon, pushing it deeper and twisting it while still viciously screaming. It finally succumbed to the injury and let out a long, deep growl with its last breath.
Riding inside this highly upgraded warrior version of herself, Kelly was stunned by what had taken place. At first, she pitied the wolves. She’d always liked hunting, but it was because the animal was dying for a good reason. The slaughter that had just taken place was purely for entertainment, and she derived no pleasure from it.
Her alter ego gazed up from the wolf, looking across the arena as if she’d just remembered her friends.
“Jules? Ethan?” she shouted, leaping to the sand. She ran to them, acting concerned for their well-being though she’d apparently just met them. It gave Kelly hope that her alter ego seemed to care.
A door in the side of the arena opened, and a line of Anunnaki in white uniforms rushed out. Some ran to Ethan and Jules, and the others split up between the wolves.
Kelly got to her friends just after the aliens, who produced small healing pins like the one Dr. Blain used. She heard the cheering of the crowd, which she was certain had been constant since she entered the arena, but she’d forgotten all about them during the fight. Turning around, she looked up into the seats, rising fifteen stories above her. Most of the spectators rose to their feet, looking like their team had just won the Super Bowl. Higher up, she saw the thin frame of the pyramid ship rising to the apex that pointed at Earth.
The golden skin wasn’t visible from the inside. It looked like nothing separated the atmosphere of the ship from the vacuum of space. The Earth shined brightly overhead, the sun reflecting vivid blue, green, white, and tan off its surface. The vista was such a beautiful contrast to the dark horror inside the spaceship.
There was a cloudless view of North America. Her alter ego focused on the southeastern United States. Kelly knew her sister was down there, and her determination to get back to her grew as she studied the dark green area of the southern Appalachian Mountains. Was her alter ego also looking for Nat? A wave of fear crushed her hope. What if her slave persona remembered where Nat was and told her masters? Kelly had to find a way to keep that from happening.
When he came out of the basement, the hotel was quiet. Everyone but his team had left and was working their way toward Alexandria.
“We’ve got to get as far as we can before daylight,” Shane whispered to his friends, who’d all turned toward him with expressions that said they awaited his command.
He led the last group, composed of Steve, Maurice, Laura, Tracy, and Jake the Australian, out into the street. Dr. Blain, Lily, and Captain Jones also joined his team. He was upset with Jones for shooting the Anunnaki prisoner, though the captain’s argument for why he’d done it was convincing. He couldn’t imagine trying to keep track of her while worrying about all the unhinged teenagers roaming the city. Shane couldn’t come up with a better solution, but killing the alien in cold blood wasn’t justified.
Everyone carried a gun and as much ammo as they could, and they slipped onto the blood-soaked streets of Giza, making their way north. The moon set, casting the city in darkness. Shane jogged ahead of the group, glancing back every block to make sure they stayed on his heels. They ran for twenty minutes, the warm night causing sweat to soak Shane’s black T-shirt. He stayed alert, searching each side street and alley they crossed.
The exercise helped to clear his mind. What he wouldn’t do for an hour of laps around the tarmac back at the hidden base in the mountains. He needed to unravel his thoughts, to sort out what he was going to do to rescue Kelly and the lost team, and he couldn’t give the problem his full attention until they were out of danger.
The sound of gunshots caused him to drop behind a burned-out car. It was still warm, and smoke wisped out from its interior. Shane welcomed the acrid smell of charred rubber and plastic; it was a refreshing cover to the odor of rotting people the city drowned in.
“Take cover,” he hissed.
His team already hid behind other cars and aimed their weapons at the vacant lot from where the noise had come. Dr. Blain ducked down last, and a bit too late. A shout came from the street on the other side of the lot. The first light of dawn shown behind them, revealing the silhouettes of a group of teenagers crossing the far street into the other end of the vacant lot. Their guns held to their shoulders, they hopscotched between piles of rubble, hiding like experienced soldiers as they approached.
“Damn it,” Laura cursed. “They’ve got on Anunnaki armor.”
“And there are too many of them,” Jake added.
“We have to outrun them,” Shane concluded. “Stay low until we get beyond that next building, then run with everything you’ve got.” He glanced at each member of his team, ensuring they’d heard his orders. “Go!”
He sprinted out of his hiding place, keeping his head down and the barrel of his gun pointed at the approaching teens.
“Stop,” one of them shouted with an authoritative tone.
When Shane and his friends didn’t obey, the red-armor-clad teenagers opened fire. He was relieved to see the flashes of light from their gun barrels and hear the sound of their guns going off, having feared that they might still have plasma rifles with a charge in them. A bullet whizzed near his head and made a ting as it tore through the side of a van he passed, scaring the relief out of him. Plasma rifles would have given the deranged kids an advantage, but the lower-tech guns could kill him and his friends just the same.
Keeping his attention on dodging the wrecked and abandoned cars cluttering the road, Shane pointed his gun in the direction of the aggressors and fired. He didn’t risk looking back to see if the rest of his team reached safety until he got past the vacant lot, though the report of their weapons said they were on his tail. Using the corner of the first building he came to for protection, he spun and targeted the closest teen in red armor. The kid wasn’t wearing a helmet, and just enough dawn’s light illuminated his face to make Shane hesitate. Jones ran past him, followed by the rest. Laura was the last one in the exposed area in front of the vacant lot. The kid in red armor dropped to his knee and took aim, appearing determined to shoot at least one of them. Shane reluctantly squeezed the trigger, and the boy’s head snapped back, the bullet finding the only vulnerable spot.
“Thanks,” Laura shouted as she ran past him.
The calmness in her eyes was unnatural given they were being shot at. Shane felt it too. They had become jaded to combat, jaded to death.
“Keep going,” he replied, running alongside her.
Bile rose in his throat. He hadn’t been forced to kill another human since Atlanta. There, he’d fought kids who’d made the conscious decision to join Shamus’ gang and do bad things. The boy he’d just shot had murderous intentions, but it wasn’t his fault. The Anunnaki did this. He suddenly felt better about seeing J
ones execute the alien prisoner.
He glanced over his shoulder and could see at least thirty teenagers in shiny, red armor pursuing them. Shane and his team pulled away. The power depleted, their armor had lost its strength-enhancing capabilities. Otherwise, his team would already be dead.
“Damn it!” Steve shouted. “We’ve got a herd of freaks at twelve o’clock.”
At the front of the group, Steve held his gun to his shoulder, charging toward the teens stepping out of the shadows on the next block. The sun had not yet risen above the horizon, but it cast enough light for Shane to see these kids weren’t in armor. They wore rags and only a few of them had guns. The rest carried weapons of opportunity, everything from homemade spears to meat cleavers.
“What’s up with their faces?” Laura asked. She still ran alongside Shane.
Their heads looked swollen, too big for their bodies. As he got closer, he realized they were wearing masks. Like the kids he’d seen from the roof of the hotel, these wore the cut-off faces of the dead.
“What do we do?” Steve yelled over his shoulder, slowing down.
“Keep running toward them,” Shane replied. “And shoot back at the kids in armor who are chasing us. Maybe these will think we’re part of their group.”
He glanced over at Tracy to see if she agreed with his strategy. She had already flipped the barrel of her gun so it pointed back and ran sideways up the street toward the kids wearing skin masks. The rest of his team implemented his orders as well, and they fired their weapons toward the pursuing teens in red armor.
“Don’t even look at them,” Shane shouted when Laura twisted her head toward the masked kids. “They have to believe we’re with them.”