The Harvest (25 page)

“It’s going to work,” Ethan said. “They’re
trying to get between us and that exit.

Shane backed up with the survivors, headed
toward the hatch on the opposite side. The other teens weren’t
guarding it because it led through the busiest parts of the ship.
It didn’t make sense for them to go that way. They would never try
it if this weren’t just a simulation. Shane saw Steve get hit by a
blast that eliminated him just before he slipped around the other
side of the core. He knew it was not real, but it stirred painful
memories to see his friend get killed.

They made it to the main hatch just as the
defenders regrouped, slipping through it under a barrage of plasma
rounds exploding against the bulkhead. The hatch closed, and Anfisa
fired a shot into the control panel to disable it. They stood
huffing for air, looking at each other and listening. The ship
trembled, and a loud roaring sound carried through the thick blast
door, the reactor core erupting through the apex of the ship.
Silence came a moment later.

“Congratulations,” Anfisa said cheerfully.
“We have won!”

“I’m not sure I’d call it winning,” Ethan
said glumly. “We lost three people.”

“In war, casualties cannot always be
considered a loss.”

“Not sure I get your meaning,” Shane said,
shocked at how cold and academic her response sounded.

“This doesn’t mean it is good to lose
people,” she said, not sounding apologetic, “but every mission
comes with certain risk, and sometimes the cost of success is
lives.”

What she was saying made sense, but Shane
would rather approach every mission with plans to keep all his
teammates alive. He was about to say as much to her, but the
buzzing came in his ears. He was returned to his metal chair in the
training building, seated next to Kelly.

Her face was pale, her eyes sad. Shane
already knew she was one of the defenders who’d died in the reactor
chamber. It was apparent by looking at her expression that the
simulation did a good job of making the trainees feel their
injuries and experience death in such a way that it seemed as
realistic as possible. Looking up and down the last row of seats
where the Americans and the Australians sat, he could see everyone
but Ethan wore the same shocked expression, blinking and looking
down at their bodies as if checking to see if their injuries had
been real.

“That sucked,” Kelly finally blurted out. “I
got shot.” She looked at him with wide eyes, and he felt terrible
thinking she might have been the girl he took out in the
simulation.

“Yeah, it was bad in there,” he said
nervously.

“Where were you?” Her color began to
return.

“Oh,” Shane stammered. “I was in there.”

“On which side?” she asked casually. “Alien
or human?”

“Human.”

Her eyes grew wider, like she suspected he
might have been the one who shot her.

“You can see, that was a worst-case scenario,
with enemy waiting in ambush in the reactor chamber,” Jones said,
rescuing Shane from answering the next question he expected Kelly
to ask him. “In this situation, many sacrifices would have to be
made to achieve mission success. The human team did the right thing
by exiting through the main hatch of the reactor compartment,
though it would have been overrun by Anunnaki on a real ship.”

Jones paused, his gaze falling on Ethan, and
then Shane. “If you don’t go into this mission prepared to give
your life and to let your friends die, then it is unlikely that you
will succeed.”

Last
night was his team’s fourth turn at cleaning the bathroom, marking
the beginning of their fifth hellish week of training. It felt like
a year had passed. Sometimes, he wished the damn Anunnaki would
come so he could fight them, then they could all get some rest.

Shane huffed for air, leaning over with his
hands on his knees. They’d just lost the flag-capturing game to the
Israeli team. He was glad they’d won—it was their first time, and
it was great to see them cheering and laughing. Winning had become
relatively common for his team, and they didn’t celebrate anymore
like they did in the beginning.

Petrov limped through the briars covered in
paintball splatters, way more than was required to take him out of
the game. People just liked shooting the dude, and everyone was
becoming a better shot each day. Shane had learned the Russian
wasn’t all bad, even though Shane still occasionally wanted to kick
Petrov’s ass. He was just driven and would do anything to win. Who
could blame him for that?

Like a dog in a muzzle, he still barked all
the time, talking smack every chance he got, but he didn’t bite
anymore. Shane guessed it was because the big Russian was scared of
his team’s iron-fisted boss, Anfisa. Regardless, when they were in
the simulations, Petrov was amazing. And out of all the
flag-capturing games they’d played, he’d won four times.

The Israelis took turns waving their little
red trophy as they led the way along the backside of the buildings
toward the cafeteria and lunch. The rule was that the team who got
the flag was first in line at the next meal. This was quite the
reward, because Jones pushed them so hard that they were always
hungry. The highest team on the leaderboard got to eat next, thus
the Americans fell in behind the cheerful winners, who normally
found themselves further back in the pack.

Lily stepped out of the egress between the
buildings ahead. One of Jones’ clones was with her, and they wore
black suits and worried expressions. She raised her hand in front
of the Israeli team, stopping the procession.

Jones and Dr. Blain went forward and talked
to them in hushed voices. Then the scarred alien straightened and
looked at the teenagers, his brow furrowing.

“Listen up, people,” he shouted, climbing
onto the side of the hill high enough for everyone to see him and
helping Lily afterwards.

His somber tone capturing their undivided
attention, the kids fell silent. Shane worried it was dread
stealing the color from Lily’s tan complexion, but was also
suspicious that this might be just another twist in their training.
They’d been kept awake for seventy-two hours last week, so it
couldn’t be much worse than that.

“There has been a new development,” she said
firmly, scanning their faces. “We just intercepted a transmission
from an Anunnaki ship. They are going to arrive a lot sooner than
we expected. We must cut your training short and transport you to
your respective landing sites.”

“What?” Kelly gasped.

“We’re not ready,” Liam exclaimed.

Infectious panic swept through the group.
Although he did his best to hide it, Shane was not immune. His
heart thumped in his ears, and the hairs stood on the back of his
neck. He knew this day was coming, had even wished for it at times.
Now that it was here, he felt wholly unprepared for it.

“Do not let fear inhibit your ability to
carry out your mission,” Lily continued. “You were all capable of
defeating the Anunnaki without any training. What we’ve done here
will only increase your odds of success.” Her voice had a slight
tremor in it, and he wondered if she really believed what she
said.

“Go to the barracks and clean up,” Jones
ordered, no measure of sympathy in his voice. “Then muster at the
training building where we will do a final mission briefing.”

Giving each other stupefied glances, no one
moved.

“This is not the time for hesitation. I said
go!” Jones shouted. “Do it now!”

Accustomed to obeying his orders, the kids
jogged back to the barracks. Although he was worried about what was
to come, a surge of adrenaline reenergized Shane. Little was said
as they showered and changed. Everyone wore a wide-eyed look on
their faces—a mixture of excitement, nervousness, and fear seemed
to permeate the barracks.

“We need more time,” Kelly whispered to
Shane, stepping behind him as he pulled on a clean, black
T-shirt.

“I’m not so certain we do,” he said, turning
to face her. He took her shoulders in his hands and looked her in
the eyes. “We didn’t have any preparation before taking on that
gang in Atlanta and shutting down the weapon. We didn’t really have
a clue as to what we were doing, but our instincts carried us
through. The time here has taught us more than we need. We will
win.”

Kelly bit the side of her lip and nodded.
Shane didn’t know if they had a chance, but he did recognize it was
time once again for him to be the quarterback. He’d seen the look
of defeat on his friends’ faces before, and he’d wanted to quit
then too. But they’d pushed on, and they succeeded. Regardless of
what he believed their chances were, he had to convince his team
they could win, or it wasn’t even worth trying.

Nervous chatter rippling across the room, they took their seats in
the training hangar. Lily and Jones were already on the podium,
waiting for them to settle and wearing grave expressions that
charged the air with a sense of urgency.

“As we’ve said before, each of the seven
teams will be assigned to a different Anunnaki vessel,” Jones
began, speaking loud enough to hush everyone. “You are all well
acquainted with the mission plan.”

The LCD screen came on, showing a cutaway of
a pyramid-shaped starship. Then it changed to a map of the
earth.

“The American team is assigned to the command
ship. The Australian and Russian teams will attack the two
neighboring vessels at the pyramid complex in Giza,” Lily
explained. She continued, telling each team where their target was.
The Chinese would be sent to a Mayan ruin in Central America, the
Koreans to Southeast Asia, and the Israelis to the Aztec Pyramid of
the Sun in Mexico.

So Shane’s team had won this short-lived
competition. They’d get to take on the biggest of the Anunnaki
ships. He couldn’t find any joy in the victory, fearing the prize
might be death.

“The Finnish team is assigned to the Luxor
Pyramid in Las Vegas, the most recent example of the Anunnaki’s
influence on Earth,” Lily said. “You will join with the kids
gathering near these pyramids. When the Anunnaki ships arrive, they
will immediately begin taking on humans, giving them armor and
weapons, programming them for the cleansing war.”

“Be wary of the humans whose slave genes are
being activated by the Anunnaki,” Jones warned. “Until they are
fully under the enemy’s control, they will be swept into a
near-psychotic frenzy. They will be suspicious of anyone who is not
as enthusiastic about the arrival of the aliens as they are.”

Murmurs swept through the room. His mind
conjured all kinds of horrible behavior that would constitute a
near-psychotic frenzy
. Kelly looked at Shane, a range of
emotions from concern to anger swirling in her eyes. The one thing
he didn’t detect in those tumultuous blue windows into her thoughts
was fear. She was braver than any of them were.

Once again, he was struck by guilt for
wishing she would be left behind, that she wouldn’t be allowed to
go on this mission. They’d already cheated death in Atlanta, and he
feared there wasn’t enough luck left in the world to get them
through this alive.

“You’ll get your armor and pass into the
programing chamber. Once the neural upload to the slaves is
complete, they’ll appear to have regained free will, though they
will be fully committed to serving the Anunnaki. Then six members
of each team will slip away and place one of these on the front and
back of their torsos.” She held up a small dot, about the diameter
of a pencil eraser. “When it comes in contact with the armor, it
will unfold and create the Shock Troop emblem, covering your slave
stripes. It’ll also disconnect your armor’s onboard computer from
the ship’s computer, essentially making you invisible. This will
allow you more freedom to move around the vessel.”