Battle for Earth

Space

Adrenaline raced through his veins. He pumped his arms as he raced the other boys down the length of the ship. Alex pulled ahead, making him push harder and faster. He reached out and touched the wall that marked the end of their race. Looking over at Alex, he saw that he'd lost.

"Dang it, Alex."

"Every time." Alex replied, grinning. The boys all exchanged fist bumps and walked in the separate directions to their dorms. Two boys lived in each dorm, where they slept, ate, and stayed. They were only allowed to leave these dorms once a week for physical activities with the rest of their quarter, and once a month for tests. Cato hated the tests. They were painful and scary.

Every first day of the month when Black came to their rooms, they dreaded what would come. The boys always did as they were told, because the last time someone had disobeyed Black's orders, they didn't come back to their dorm. Black was a Grey Coat, do she ran the tests for Cato and Alex.  On the first of February, Black knocked on dorm number 662. Cato opened the door and both him and Alex stepped out into the brightly lit hallway. They made their way down to room P13, where their tests were always done. The lady opened the door without a key, though it was always locked. She moved straight to the table holding every medical device a person could ever need, and more that Cato had never seen her use. Alex and Cato sat down in chairs side by side and strapped themselves down. They had been doing this for as long as they could remember. Never once could Cato remember disobeying Black. She never spoke and none of the children knew her name, so they called her Black.

As he and Alex sat tensely in their seats, the lady motioned for Cato to hold out his arm. With experienced hands she inserted a long needle into his arm, pushing a few drops of a faintly green liquid into his vein. The liquid burned in Cato's arm, and he gasped at the pain. Black picked up a new syringe and did the same to Alex, who grimaced in pain. It pulsed through Cato's veins; not enough to kill him, but enough to cause him to gasp in pain. When the lady moved away, Cato read the label on the bottle of green liquid. It read 'Morath', which Cato knew was a kind of poison. He panicked, thinking maybe Black had decided to kill him and his friend.

"Alex. It's poison!" He hissed frantically. He panicked silently, not wanting to make Black mad. She had returned to the table of tools, and was picking up the next instrument. When she turned around, Cato almost passed out at the sight of a shiny scalpel in her hand. He was sure she was about to kill him. He watched as she strode toward him, motioning for him to hold out his arm. He did as he was told, not daring to rebel. Black wrapped her pale, brittle fingers around Cato's left wrist. She brought the scalpel forward, and cut a short clean slice midway down Cato's forearm. He whimpered from the pain, and stared at the cut after she moved to do the same to Alex. He knew by the size of the small cut that she was not trying to kill him.

Black picked up two small chips from the table behind her, and grasped Cato's arm once more. He squeezed his eyes shut and felt her smoothly slide the chip into his arm. She moved a small piece of connet over his cut, and it healed, leaving a faint scar. He had only seen her use this once before, when he had fallen and scraped his knee three years prior. Connet was a thin cloth woven of a special smoke. It was commonly used amongst the older children, as they trained often. What exactly they were training for, none of the children in Cato's quarter knew. He'd never seen anyone from the other quarters, but he'd heard rumors that there were girls in one.

Back in their dorm, Cato and Alex discussed the their most recent test.

"It was so weird, you're sure that she poisoned us?" Alex asked incredulously.

"Yes I'm sure. The bottle said Morath."

"But she's never poisoned us before... maybe she's trying to slowly kill us?"

"I don't know. But what was the chip that she put in our arms?" Cato asked.

"Not sure." Alex studied his arm. "That fog stuff was cool though. Any idea what that was?"

"Yah, it's called connet. Black used it to heal my knee a few years ago." The boys sat quietly for a moment then changed into their sleeping garments and crawled into their beds. Using a black pen, Cato drew a small 'x' over the date on his calendar. He grabbed his book and made his way up the ladder to his bunk. He waved his hand and shut off the lights in their room, then tapped his lamp to turn it on. He stared at the cover of his book. It read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It showed Harry and Hermione sitting on the back of a Buckbeak the Hippogriff. Their broad smiles irritated him. Why were they smiling? Nothing about their situation was worth a smile. He ignored it and opened the book. He struggled to keep his eyes open but lost himself in his reading anyway. After a solid hour of reading he shut off his lamp and drifted off to sleep.

The next morning Cato woke to Alex cursing and hopping around on one leg. With a tired laugh he asked what was going on.

"I dropped my hammer on my foot." Alex hissed. Cato laid back down, smiling. Alex spent his plethora of free time sculpting. He used anything he could get his hands on. He had gotten pretty good at it too. Sighing, Cato sat up and swung his legs over the edge of his bed. He looked over at his bookshelf, he noticed that he was running out of books. Cato's hobbies centered around reading and making up stupid games for him and Alex to play if he was able to tear Alex away from his work. He changed into proper clothes and reached for his book. He was just sitting down when the two boys heard a sharp knock on the door. Alex looked at him curiously and moved to open the door. Confusion filled Cato when he saw Black standing in the doorway. Tests only happened once a month, and their most recent test was just yesterday. Cato jumped to the floor and followed Alex out the door.

Cato tugged nervously on the straps holding him down. He wondered why Black had come back for them the day after a test. She immediately made her way to the table of instruments. She returned to Cato holding a syringe with the same green liquid as she'd used the day before. Cato held out his arm and watched as the long needle sank into his skin. His vein burned from the poison, and his nerves were tingling. He felt slightly light headed, but it only lasted a minute. After both boys had both been poisoned, Black sent them back to their dorm. As soon as the door was closed Alex stood up and started pacing the room, a small wooden carving clutched in his fingers.

"This has never happened before. Why'd we have tests two days in a row?"

"I don't know." Cato sat on the edge of Alex's bed, deep in thought. Never, in all the time he'd been here, had he been to two tests in two days. It was odd.