The Harvest (8 page)

“What was your family like?”

Maurice glanced up, his eyes wide like he was
taken off guard by the question.

“They were the best kind of people,” he said
earnestly. “My dad was a preacher in a church in Stone Mountain.
Mom was a nurse. All they ever wanted to do was to help others, to
make the world a better place.” He looked at his tray, chasing a
brussel sprout around it with his fork.

“Did you have any brothers and sisters?”

Shane didn’t want Maurice to dig up painful
memories, but it had made him feel better when he talked to Kelly
about those he’d lost. And if he was going to continue to fight
alongside these kids, he wanted to get to know them.

“Yeah, a grip of them.” Maurice gave a little
smile. “I was the youngest. I had a sister and two brothers who
were in college and two other sisters who were all grown up and
married.” He paused, his eyes glistening. “Veronica, the oldest,
was pregnant.” His voice trailed off.

“I’m sorry,” Shane said quietly, hoping he
hadn’t asked too many questions.

“It wasn’t so bad before this morning.” The
thick kid’s lower lip trembled. “I had my faith—believed they were
all in heaven.”

“What changed?” Shane hated to see Maurice so
distraught. The kid had been a rock through the battle in Atlanta.
Shane needed him to be strong now.

“Lily said we were made by aliens,” Maurice
replied, sounding disgusted. “Don’t you see? It defies everything
we learned in church. Makes me feel like my whole religion is a
farce.”

“I don’t see it that way,” Shane replied.
“Just because there’s more to our history than we knew before
doesn’t mean heaven doesn’t exist. I know my granny, my mom and
dad, and everyone else is up there looking down on us right now. I
can feel it. Just because some of what we’ve been taught might be
wrong doesn’t mean what you feel in your heart isn’t true.”

Shane was half impressed with what he’d just
said. It sounded like some of Granny’s counseling. Looking at
Maurice, he smiled, but inside, he felt a twinge of shame. Maurice
seemed way more qualified to give spiritual advice. Shane wasn’t
even sure he really believed what he’d just said. He was trying to
make Maurice feel better, and his own doubts made him feel like a
liar and a hypocrite.

“You know what?” Maurice raised his head.
“You’re right.” He reached across the table and put his hand on
Shane’s forearm. “Thanks, brother.”

He nodded and then glanced around the room,
unable to keep looking into the boy’s brown eyes with the
uncertainty eating at his insides. However, he knew he’d done the
right thing. If he was going to lead these people, he had to put
their well-being and peace of mind above his own.

The cafeteria had at least sixty tables in
it. Red-haired Rebecca and another girl who’d been a victim in the
assault at the gym monitored the youngsters, sitting at a table on
the other side. That corner of the room had more chatter and even
some laughter coming from it. He envied the little ones, some young
enough that they’d forget most of this in a few years if they
survived what was to come.

“What about you?” Maurice looked at Shane,
his eyes showing compassion and an innate desire to ease the
suffering of others. Fitting for the son of a preacher and a nurse.
“What was your family like?”

“Mine was a bit of a mess, but I loved them
just the same,” Shane replied honestly.

He told Maurice about his mom, and how she’d
died of cancer a while back. Then he talked about Granny before
mentioning the weapon killed his aunt and father. Maurice was easy
to talk to, and he didn’t feel as much pain as he expected while
recanting the story. Perhaps he was starting to get over their
deaths, or maybe it was the numbness haunting him from the moment
his aunt died—he couldn’t tell which.

“Y’all got something deep going on there?”
Maurice said, a mischievous grin on his face.

Shane realized he’d been looking at Kelly as
he told the last half of the story. She was heading across the
cafeteria toward their table. He felt his face get warm and
returned his attention to Maurice.

“I reckon we might,” Shane replied and
cleared his throat.

“Well, that’s a good thing as far as I see
it,” Maurice said. “As long as we got love, we’ll be alright.
That’s what my pop used to say.”

“Hey guys,” Kelly said, walking around the
table and sitting next to Shane. She forced a smile at them, and he
could see she was having trouble digesting everything too.

“Hi Kelly,” Maurice replied, smiling in
return.

Shane was glad the old Maurice was back. His
steady and ever-present cheerfulness was good medicine.

“At least they have decent food here,” Shane
said, watching Kelly dig in.

He took a bite of his roll and imagined what
it would’ve been like to have her cut through the crowd in the high
school lunchroom so she could sit next to him. It would’ve been
insane. Shane would have risen from near obscurity to the height of
teenage royalty had this captain of the cheerleading team chosen
him over all the other boys in school. He chuckled at the
thought.

“What?” Kelly glanced at him.

“Nothing,” he replied, embarrassed.

“I’m so hungry,” she said with an apologetic
tone, and then started eating slower.

“Me too,” he replied, trying to convey he
wasn’t laughing at her.

The funny thing was that Kelly was probably
oblivious to the power she’d had in high school. Like a fairytale
princess, she was humble and sweet to everyone. Before, Shane
sometimes wondered if it was just an act, if maybe she was being
condescending. Now he realized she was genuinely a kind person,
though, she had a mean streak of which he never wanted to be on the
receiving end.

Steve and Laura came to the table, followed
by Jules and Tracy. They finished lunch without much talk. Once in
a while, one of them would look up from their food over to the
other tables, perhaps envious of the higher spirits of the little
kids or just checking on them to make sure they were all right.

These were good people. Each had proven they
would fight alongside him. They’d give their lives if necessary.
This was Shane’s team, and he wasn’t going to let them get
manipulated by anyone. But Lily might be telling the truth—she sure
seemed to be. He had to build up their confidence, make them
believe they could stop the Anunnaki. A lover of proverbial quotes,
Coach Rice had told him confidence was the ocean on which the
victorious sail. Even if Shane didn’t think they had a chance
against the Anunnaki, he had to make his team believe he thought
they would win. His own fears and concerns must be suppressed, and
he had to help them overcome theirs.

“So what are we gonna do, boss?” Steve asked,
wiping his mouth with his hand and then rubbing it down his
shirt.

“We’re gonna train,” he replied firmly.
“We’re going to practice and learn everything these rebels can
teach us. We’ve got to bust our asses every day until the Anunnaki
arrive.”

“We should act like a military special forces
unit if we are going to have a chance,” Tracy interjected. “We
should wake up early and run. We need to get in the best shape we
can.”

“Agreed, and we should do some calisthenics
too,” Shane added. “At least some push-ups and sit-ups.” He’d
played sports long enough to know being in good shape would only
help them. And the less time they spent thinking about how
impossible their mission was, or about lost loved ones, the
better.

“Who are we kidding?” Laura said, hysteria
pitching her voice. She was sitting on the other side of Steve,
hidden behind his massive frame. “I don’t mean to be a downer, but
how can a bunch of teenagers defeat space soldiers who have been
traveling around the universe for thousands of years, kicking the
crap out of entire worlds for fun? I mean, has it occurred to you
guys that it sounds like no one has ever beaten them?”

“Yes, Laura, that has occurred to me,” Shane
replied quickly. He could see Tracy was about to snap at her, and
he knew it wouldn’t help. “But we are different. The Anunnaki have
never fought humans, so we don’t know what our chances are.” He
gave each of his friends a stern look. “No one ever wins a fight
going into it thinking they’re gonna lose. We have to believe in
ourselves, or we definitely don’t have a chance.”

Laura didn’t respond, but her comment put a
damper on the mood of the kids around the table. After a moment,
Shane stood and lifted his tray, taking it to the window on the
right side of the cafeteria and dumping the remains of his meal
into a trash can. Sliding the tray through the window into the
kitchen, he could see some of the kids from his and Maurice’s
groups washing dishes and helping prepare food.

When he turned around, Kelly, Steve, Laura,
Maurice, Tracy, and Jules were behind him. They all dropped their
trays in the window and gave him a
what’s next
look.

As if on cue, a man in a black jumpsuit
entered the cafeteria and glanced around. When his eyes found
Shane’s, he walked briskly toward them.

“I’m Jones,” he growled, glaring at them like
they weren’t worthy of his attention. “I’ll be in charge of your
training.”

Other than a large scar running from his
temple to chin, the alien resembled the other male clones. But his
facial features were where the similarities ended. Jones’ broad,
muscled shoulders threatened to burst the stitches of his black
shirt. He wore his dark hair in a crew cut like Tracy, and he stood
tall, with his big chest thrust forward.

“Is it just the seven teams who’ll be
attacking the Anunnaki?” Tracy asked, unmoved by the alien’s drill
sergeant demeanor. “Won’t we be getting more troops?”

“We’re recruiting as many kids as possible
for the fight against the Anunnaki. On hidden bases around the
world, teams will be trained to attack different parts of the
Anunnaki ship. This base is being used to prepare the special
attack squads that have the most important role in the
mission—destroying the reactor. Here, your group will compete with
the other six teams to determine which is the best and, therefore,
which will attack the Anunnaki flagship,” Jones rumbled.

After barely taking a breath, he continued,
“Each human opposing the enemy must be given an earbud to suppress
the slave gene. We have a limited supply of the earbuds, but we’ll
give them to as many kids as possible to build several small forces
for an exterior attack on the remaining Anunnaki after you and the
other teams have completed your missions. Once the reactor is
destroyed, and they are released from the enemy’s control, you will
also recruit the humans who were enslaved. The Anunnaki will be
outnumbered. Now, if you’ll follow me, I’ll take you to the
barracks.” Jones spun away, putting an abrupt end to the
questions.

He led them out of the cafeteria and onto the
tarmac. The lush treetops reached up behind the hangars to their
left, the forest of the Appalachian Mountains stretching away from
the base. Shane imagined there was nothing but wilderness for
hundreds of miles in every direction.

The thought of all of that uninhabited forest
comforted him. He used to spend hours in the woods when he was
younger, his imagination turning trees into skyscrapers and his
arms into wings. Granny descended from Irish hillbillies who tamed
this forest and lived off the land. She taught Shane how to run a
trout line in the crisp, cold rivers and make a rabbit box to catch
a meal. Intent upon keeping her family’s history alive, she even
showed him how to create medicine from the wild ginseng and herbs
that took an experienced eye to find.

He wished he could remember more of what she
taught him, but he was confident he could survive out there just
fine. If only he could flee with Kelly and his friends. They could
build log houses and live peacefully amongst those towering
pines—could try to put their broken lives back together and find
some semblance of happiness.

The video Lily had shown them warned that any
such escape to isolation would be short-lived. The enemy was too
advanced and Earth too small for them to hide. The Anunnaki would
find them. No—Shane, Kelly, and his friends had no choice but to
fight.

“Why do you guys have names like Lily and
Jones?” Jules asked, walking in the shade of the half-pipe-shaped
hangars with Tracy separating her from Jones. “They don’t sound
like names of extraterrestrials.”

“Most of us were born, or should I say
cloned, on Earth,” Jones replied, sounding annoyed with having to
answer another question. “Lily was one of the original two who
crashed in New Mexico. Lilith is a popular name on our world.”

“An interesting choice, if you know anything
about the biblical legend of Lilith,” Maurice mused. “The original
disobedient wife of Adam turned baby killer.”

“This is our home now, and we’re willing to
die for it,” Jones growled. He seemed easily annoyed by trivial
conversation. “Though we will never be human, we don’t want to be
thought of as alien either, so we’ve chosen earthly names.”

“I meant no offense,” Maurice murmured, his
eyes wide as he looked at Jones.

His comment got Shane wondering. Lilith the
baby killer—he wasn’t familiar with that story. It renewed his
suspicion, but a thumping coming from the west distracted him.

A Black Hawk appeared above the treetops,
flying so low that the tallest pines scraped its belly. Clearing
the buildings, the helicopter dropped to the tarmac. Lily came out
of the hangar where she’d met with Shane and his friends earlier,
jogging across the fractured blacktop to greet the new arrivals.
She slid open the side door and seven Asians, four guys and three
girls, stepped out, all wearing matching blue tracksuits with red
stripes down the arms and legs. Seeing these kids and recalling
what Jones had said about the contest against the other six teams,
Shane’s competitive nature took over, distracting him from all
other thoughts.