Space Cadets (6 page)

Dolores

I awoke slowly and painfully. I was about to scream out from the agony until my thoughts caught up to me and I realized if I did, I’d just draw the Skeptics to our location.

A heavily muscled lady was busy standing me up and patting my naked body down with a warm towel. I’m not into tough chicks but apparently my dick is.

She smiled, smacked me on my bare ass and said, “Get dressed son. We got some killing to do. I’m Dolores.” Then she went off to thaw out Mr. Humboldt.

By the time they were done, Dolores asked us, “Where are the weapons you guys keep for training. I had to float in bare so they didn’t detect me.

That statement made my sphincter contract. Floating in bare means you come in with nothing but a suit full of air because any electrical signal, no matter how faint, could be picked up. And anything metallic would ping and give your location away too. This she-hulk had floated across empty space with no thrusters and nothing but a bag of air to sustain her.

We’d been told about this tactic in class but we’d been assured we’d never have to employ it because it was suicidal and idiotic. I instantly liked her because of that.

Mr. Humboldt started to tell her about the weapons stores but they were at the opposite end of the camp and Dolores was clearly pissed that there was no easier way to get the job done.

I stared at Mr. Humboldt and said, “This is a time of war so I expect to receive no reprimand for this.”

He nodded his agreement so I said, “I have some guns in a false panel in my dorm.”

“You could be kicked out for that.”

Dolores locked him in a hateful stare and said angrily, “You could be punched in the nuts if you don’t shut up. If we get the guns and defeat them, this young man will be a hero.”

I added, “I never really cared about getting kicked out anyway. That’s why the teachers stopped threatening me with it.”

Mr. Humboldt’s face flushed red. He didn’t mean to be a chode, he’d simply reverted back to teacher mode. He said, “Let’s get those guns then.”

Cache

My dorm wasn’t that far from the cryo-bay. It was an odd sensation walking past all of my frozen fellow students, knowing their consciousnesses were very far away and completely oblivious to what was going on around their real bodies.

Dolores whispered, “Which way?” as soon we exited through the door.

I whispered back, “I’m down to the right. It’s the sixth door.”

“That’s the best bit of news I’ve heard since I got to this shit-hole. Let’s go.”

For the first time, I noticed she was wielding a ball-peen hammer as a weapon. I’d have laughed had she not looked so formidable with it.

I accessed my dorm room and we crept inside. I kicked in the false panel and pulled four guns out, placing them neatly on the bed. Then I went back and grabbed the ammo box and put it beside them.

Mr. Humboldt picked a pistol up and examined it. “Tony Bishop received twenty lashes when this went missing.”

I smiled. “I always hated that prick. I only regretted him getting the blame when the girls fawned over him afterwards and tended to his cuts. He got laid because of that gun. He has me to thank.”

Humboldt shook his head but I could tell he was suppressing a wicked smile. I know he was starting to like me more and more every minute. Plus, if I hadn’t stolen the guns, we’d have to traverse the entire length of the camp to get to the nearest gun. That would’ve taken thirty minutes, easily. And if we had to get there stealthily, that time would double. And that’s only if we survived the trip.

Dolores clapped me on the back, knocking the wind from me. She picked up the PQ5000 and that pissed me off. It was my gun of choice. I was more accurate with that than any other weapon.

Then she put it back down and snatched up my two Dannon-Cannons. They’re called that because when you get shot with one, you turn into a sludge-like substance. It doesn’t really resemble yoghurt but none of our nicknames make much sense. They’re like a Chinese whisper; you never know how they started.

I have to admit, she looked better wielding those two bad boys than the assault rifle.

Humboldt went to reach for the PQ5000 but I beat him to it.

He looked like he might hit me until I said, “Sir, have you ever seen what I can do with one of these? I’m very accurate.”

He snatched up the Rapist, so called because if you get shot with it, you’re fucked (we’re not very cultured here).

I checked the attachments on the PQ5000. It had a Popper attachment that was very dangerous. It shot an explosive ordinance that was powerful enough to take out a ships hull. The concussion alone could kill you if you were too close. It had a Zipper attachment too. But because it was an energy weapon and the damn thing had been sitting for so long, it probably wouldn’t work.

I plugged a single Popper in, making sure to lock the safety in place. It was almost always a bad idea to fire a Popper. It never seemed to end well.

Dolores said, “None of these weapons are silenced so it makes no sense for us to stay together to maintain an element of surprise that’s just going to disappear the first time one of us pulls the trigger. We need to split up and take them all at once. We will use the element of chaos and mayhem to draw them out.”

For some crazy reason, that appealed to me. I guess I was more worried about protecting Dolores and Humboldt than protecting myself. Alone, I could be reckless and fearless without any repercussions besides losing my own life.

Without warning, Dolores bolted out the door and took off to the left, running at a full sprint down the hallway. Humboldt looked at me and then we both dashed out of the room too.

Firefight

We both went right and then Humboldt disappeared down the first connecting hallway we came to.

I slowed down just a bit. I checked through the little face-sized windows in the doors as I passed. I heard a bang behind me and I hit the deck, turning onto my butt as I did so.

A dirty looking guy with wild eyes was thirty feet behind me, the barrel of his gun smoking.

I didn’t think, I just reacted, and blew his torso away from his legs. I know I sat there, stunned and shocked for too long when another guy bolted down the corridor the same way. He saw his comrade and then he saw me too late.

I knew I’d gotten lucky. You can’t freeze up like that during combat and get away with it more than once or twice.

I got to my feet and moved quickly now, intent on getting as far away from that pile of sizzling gore and bones as possible.

I rounded a corner and tripped over something large and firm. I caught myself with my hands but they slipped out from under me when I tried to get back to my feet. My hands were covered in thick, cold blood. I turned around and saw a face I recognized. It was one of the juniors, a newer arrival. The look on her face made my blood boil. She looked terrified. I wiped my palms on my pants and took off at a sprint, hopeful now to run across one of those fucking Skeptics.

Another blast from behind set my hair on fire.

I didn’t have time to pat it out. I rounded a corner and then stopped. I peeked back out and fired in rapid succession. One of the shots hit home because the woman stopped firing and started to scream. I came at her quickly, dumping a three round burst into her chest.

I knew I must have passed a room or an area just full of Skeptics because they kept coming up behind me.

I decided to backtrack and I was immediately rewarded with a shot right to my left hip. The adrenaline kept me on my feet and I returned fire, hitting the guy between the eyes.

I passed him, feeling kind of faint from blood loss already. I also realized that when my hair had been set aflame, the projectile had also sluiced off a little chunk of my ear.

I saw the dead junior with the terrified death stare and then I saw three of the bastards beyond her, approaching fast. I skidded up to her dead body, falling as I went, and used it for cover. My aim was true enough to take each of them down, one after the other.

A fevered part of my mind wondered if my weapons instructor, Mrs. Salazar would be proud of that. Of course she wouldn’t. These were her friends.

I chanced a quick look at my mangled hip. I could see white showing through the oozing blood and I knew that didn’t bode well for me.

I felt very faint. I made a conscious decision to look away from the wound. It was just helping the shock take hold of me.

I heard heavy footsteps approach from ahead. There were a lot of them too. I felt my mind slide around all willy-nilly. I knew I was about to go blank any second.

I switched the safety off for the Popper.

I laid the gun across the junior’s body and then put my head on her, pretending to be dead.

I left one eye slightly open to see them.

A woman came around the corner, but she was rolling like a log to avoid getting hit. She came to a rest on her belly and put a round into the poor dead junior. I didn’t flinch.

She gave a hand gesture to whoever else was around the corner.

I almost coughed when nearly a dozen men and women came out and joined her, hefting her to her feet.

Before they could take a single step towards me, I let loose with the Popper.

I jammed my eyes shut tight and covered my ears with both hands. The boom still rattled my teeth and interrupted my heart rhythm.

I was lucky the hull was several walls away or else we’d have all got put out into the black.

Surprisingly, a guy was still writhing around among the piles of awful. He was moaning. I knew if I didn’t put him down, those moans would turn to screams.

I aimed center mass and squeezed but my aim was suddenly off and I blew his arm away from its socket. The look on his face will haunt my dreams forever and rightly so. I endeavored at that moment to never miss my mark. I took aim again and when I squeezed, he stopped moving.

I slumped into the junior. Her body was cold and damp and she smelled of excrement. For some reason, that was soothing. I felt myself drift away.

Recovery

I awoke slowly. My eyes hurt and so did my head. I saw a familiar face swim into view. It was Mr. Humboldt and he looked worried.

I tried to sit up but he stopped me. That just made me mad, so I sat up and batted his hand away before he could push me back down again.

He said, “You need to rest son. You lost a lot of blood and you’ve only been out of surgery for five days.”

I tried to say,
Five Days? What happened?
But instead I said, “Ugh, uggghhh,” and then I coughed.

I took a glass of water he handed to me and drank it back. I said, “What happened?”

“That muscular chick, Dolores found you, nearly dead of blood loss. She chucked you over her shoulder and carried you to the medical bay. She even started a drip and got you bandaged up before a real medic could be brought in. She saved your life.”

“I’d like to thank her.”

“She left last week.”

“How long have I been out?”

“Ten days. A lot has happened since then. The students are all back and I’m hiring new instructors. I was promoted to Rector.”

“Congratulations,” I said, not giving a shit about his career advancement.

“Some of the other camps have already been liberated. We’re gaining ground and rebuilding.”

I asked, “How many Skeptics did you get? Did you get hit too?”

“I didn’t come across any and neither did Dolores. You killed every last one of them. They’re probably going to give you a medal for what you did. You’re a bonafide hero.”

I laughed at that. How preposterous?

I said, “What about Mrs. Salazar?”

She was teleported back into her body this morning. She’ll be taken away and be put on trial. They’ll probably give her the firing squad.”

I didn’t mention that that kind of bummed me out. I had grown quite fond of her in the hour before she turned out to be a blood thirsty terrorist.

“What about the alien ship?”

“They’ve cracked a bit of the code thanks to that box you identified as a recent add-on. The funny thing is that it looks like the aliens only tried to erase their destination from the banks. They left their departure point, so we know where the alien planet is, more or less.”

“Are you kidding? What’s the brass going to do about that?”

He looked at my side and said, “Your stitches are seeping, you idiot. That’s enough questions. You need to lie down and rest.”

I tried to fight him off but he was stronger than me at that moment.

I watched him leave the room and as a nurse tended to my stitches; I allowed my mind to ponder the possibilities. If we took the fight to the Bleeders, they’d be surprised. They thought we were a backwoods people incapable of such things as interstellar flight. They thought we’d just stay put until they returned to exterminate us. They would all die for underestimating the human race.