“It’s easieeeeeeer to ruuuuuun! Replacing this paaaain with sooomething numb!...” I had been driving for nearly thirteen hours and just hit the chorus in Linkin Park’s song Easier to Run and was singing my heart out. I’d loved the man’s music since I was a kid, but I hadn’t yet listened to any of his latest stuff. I turned towards my phone after the chorus and felt a shiver run through my spine. I was a little under an hour away from Rugby, North Dakota where the tower was supposed to be located and was driving past some huge depression in the ground. Glancing at my phone to see if it was some sort of landmark, my eyes widened in surprise.
“That’s supposed to be Devil’s Lake” I muttered to myself. ‘Hmmmm if all that water evaporated once the tower hit the ground, then it’s no wonder I could feel the tremors all the way in Kansas…and now that I’m looking, there are zero signs of life outside the car.’
Outside of my car it looked like a post-apocalyptic wasteland out there. It was comparable to how the land looked in those Hiroshima videos I’d watched as a high school student in U.S. History class. ‘Wait, could there be radiation out here? I didn’t prepare for that…how could I have prepared for that? Bio-hazard suits are too bulky…I’ll be in the tower soon so no use fretting over it I suppose.’ Hoping there would be no radiation, I drove for another twenty minutes and could just make out the top half of the white tower standing against the backdrop of a cloudless starry sky. It stretched straight into the sky and stood as barren as the land around it.
As I drove close enough to see the base area of the tower, I saw tons of lights and movement down at the bottom. There was a blockade not far off in front of me and as I got close enough for my lights to hit it, I noticed the gun toting camouflage dressed men in front of the blockade’s gate. ‘I suppose it only makes sense that the military is here…’
Slowing down, I rolled up to the gate’s guards and they both of the walked up to the driver’s window which I had rolled down a couple moments ago.
“Can we help you, son?” One of them, a big and burly rough looking one asked me in a gruff voice.
“Uhhh, yeah…I’m one of the…marked? I was hoping to get into that tower for whatever reason the aliens want me to be in there.” I replied a little perplexed at my own situation.
“Oh, you’s a brave one ain’t ya?” The skinnier and apparently more country of the two asked me.
“Brave? I’m sorry, I don’t under-” I began to say, but was cut off by the words of the bigger soldier.
“We’ve had to drag in a few of you in the past couple hours already and they’re staying in the barracks under strict watch. Although, there were also even a couple of kids that showed up already on their own same as you…”
I was taken aback by this information. ‘It’s been a little over twenty-four hours since the towers landed, how many people could’ve gotten here before me and how did they find out they were marked?’ I had yet to find the mark on my body, not that I’d looked much after that strange dream I’d had with the voice.
The burly soldier continued speaking while I thought to myself, “Anyways, there’s thirty-five people here already who showed up before you. More than half of them had to be rounded up and those ones are in confinement with one another. The ones who came here willingly are staying at another place by themselves with one of our sergeants. We’ll let everyone enter the tower at the end of the week. Apparently, there’s a worldwide tally attempting to count the number of marked so that we know how many we’re missing once it comes down to it.”
“What if we don’t find them all say like twelve hours before the deadline?” I asked already sure of the answer.
“Well, with all them countries working together…that’s some serious manpower, tech, and resources don’t ya think? If we’re missing some, then we hunt harder than we was. Only reason these ones’ve been found so quickly is ‘cuz they was scattered across the nation in various juvenile detention centers or even hardcore jails.” The skinnier guard replied in a thick southern dialect.
‘How did that type of people become chosen?’ I incredulously thought to myself. The burly guard seeing me sit there, unsure of what to do, looked around and coming to a decision he said, “Hey kid, unlock your doors and I’ll come in and direct you to your barracks. The roads are under reconstruction so it’s a bit difficult to drive.” I nodded and unlocked the doors. He went around the front and hopped into the passenger seat with me.
The gate opened and I drove through it listening to the directions he was giving and suddenly a question popped into my head. “Hey, so uh are you guys going through our luggage?”
“Yeah, we are. Those kids from the detention centers only have the clothes on their backs, but any other person coming through here has to be checked. Just in case they’re psycho and want the world to end, they could do that just by killing one of the marked. You catch my drift?” I nodded at everything he said.
‘Makes sense I thought.’
“So, I’ll be real with you...I have a machete and a hatchet in my bag in the backseat. I really only have it for survival reasons so…” when I said the word machete, the soldier’s eyes widened in surprise and he turned towards me slowly. He turned back away and pointed me down some random road which I signaled to turn into.
Scratching his head he said, “Well, I don’t see a real problem with it if it’s for survival...worst comes to worst, they’ll confiscate it until you have to enter the tower.” I breathed a sigh of relief.
‘It would’ve really sucked if I’d had to drop the only weapons I had.’ We reached a small rectangular one-story building with a number three on it that looked to have been hastily erected, but was still in good condition. ‘Man, they must’ve been putting in work as soon as that tower landed.’ Parking my car, I hopped out, grabbed my bag and leather jacket in the backseat and hauled them into the driver’s seat. ‘This thing really is ridiculously heavy. I bet it’s all that water in here.’ Throwing my jacket on, I heaved the pack up with a low groan and onto my shoulders. Stepping out of the car, I saw the soldier was waiting for me in front of the car.
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“Sorry, this thing is damn heavy. I’m Alex by the way. I appreciate all the help” I said while I put my hand forward towards him.
He looked at my hand for a moment and then, “Mike…and no problem, kid. Just walk through these doors and there’ll be someone in there to help you out.” Nodding to him, I walked towards the door as he began fiddling with a radio on his chest. ‘Probably radioing for a ride back to the gate’ I thought as I opened the door into the tiny building.
As soon as I walked in, I took in the scene before me. There were twelve thin mattresses total with six on opposing sides of the rectangular building. A window in the top-center of every wall in the building let in some moonlight that was currently useless due to the three light bulbs running the length of the ceiling. The door I had come through was the only one in and out of the building. All, but one of the beds were occupied with people that looked to be around my age and they were all staring at me. I stared back for only a few moments and looked down to my right where a silhouette was sitting in a chair next to the door.
It was another soldier. This one seemed more relaxed than the other two soldier’s I’d talked to as he wasn’t wearing his combat jacket and instead had on a sweaty white tank top. He was lounging on his chair lazily and looked up at me as I walked in. “Name’s Sgt. Kesler. I’m your C.O., you can take that last bunk at the end there.” He lazily nodded off towards the collection of beds and after looking at him for a couple more seconds, I walked towards the only empty bed at the end of the right side. ‘I guess they won’t be checking my luggage like that Mike guy just told me. Probably just a scare tactic.’
As I walked down the aisle, towards my new bed I heard whispering on all sides. There were eight guys at the front of the room and three girls towards the back where I was going to be sleeping.
I slung my stuff off my shoulders and onto my new bed. Turning around and facing them all I happily said, “Hello! Very nice to meet you all. I’m Alex. I’m a nineteen year old college student.” Mostly all of them were looking at me with blank looks.
Suddenly, one of the guys from the front said, “Hey, quit screwing around and show us your mark.” It was a blonde haired kid with piercing blue eyes. His build was quite similar to mine although he may have been a couple inches shorter and with his smooth baby face I’m sure he never had a problem hooking up with any girls.
“Ah, uh-huh…my mark. Well I’m sorry to disappoint, but as far as I know I have no mark.” I smiled and scratched the back of my head, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna head to bed. I don’t know how all of you got here so quickly, but I’ve been driving all day and I’d like to get some sleep.” Moving my pack off the bed I turned away from the others and shrugged off my leather jacket tossing it towards the pack on the ground. Tearing my boots off, I stood back up and turned away from them all once more.
The voice of that blonde kid rung out once again from behind me, “It’s on your back, idiot. Or are you telling me you haven’t looked there yet?” I instantly froze.
‘I sure as hell hadn’t checked my back yet.’ I thought to myself.
“Hmmmm, no I haven’t looked there yet. I have to thank you, even if you were quite rude about it.” Shrugging my shirt off, I heard gasps from behind me and once again that kid spoke up.
“What the hell are you playing at? Why do you have a vest on?”
Turning to face him, my eyes narrowed. “Are you serious? Why do I have a vest? Do you not remember what happened that day?” Striding towards him, I saw his mouth quirk into a small smile as though he was happy to get a reaction out of me, but it quickly vanished.
“I had no part in what happened that day. No monsters came and attacked me, but we’ve been invited by the aliens to come into their towers. Maybe they’ll use us as a sample and determine if we’re to be saved or not! Like statisticians would, you know? Through diplomacy!” I looked at him as if he were crazy.
Staring him right in the eye, I said, “And that’s why you’ll be one of the first to die.” Turning around and looking around the room, I saw that all the people in the room except for Sgt. Kesler, two guys, and one girl were looking at me like I was crazy. Turning my gaze back onto the blonde haired kid in front of me I said more softly, “Look man, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but if you go in there with the mentality that it’s going to be pure diplomacy…you’ll die. I’m just trying to give you a heads-up. We’re on the same side here…”
Turning around, I had the intention of going to lie down, but before I could-
“Hey…I’m sorry. Even I’m not so dull as to think everything’s going to be that simple. They threatened everyone on the planet…here, look…” As he spoke, he got up and began taking his shirt off.
“Oh, man, look I don’t really swing that way.” At this point, his shirt had come off and he had a slight blush of embarrassment on his cheeks.
“No! Just…look.” He turned around and on his back I could see it. A pure blue water drop shone in the light of the barrack and it seemed to be rippling as if it were really water. The drop of water was fairly small and only took up the area that was the small of his back.
“Okay…It’s just a tattoo, man…” but even I didn’t sound too convinced with my own words. As I watched, the drop of water continued to ripple and I caved. “Alright, it’s not a normal tattoo. I get it.” When I said this, he turned around and put his shirt back on.
Sticking his hand out to me, he said, “My name is Bryce. I’m sorry about being rude. I’m twenty and I’ll soon be taking over my father’s business.”
Eyeing his hand for a moment, I reached out and grasped it. “Like I said, my name’s Alex and I’m sorry for losing my cool. I lost a lot that day and it’s a sore subject.” He nodded and looked at me expectantly. We stared at each other for a few seconds until I couldn’t take it anymore. “What, Bryce?” I quickly said to break the awkward feeling.
“I showed you mine, so show us yours!” He shouted as if it were obvious.