Forging Zero Read Online Free PDF

jumped to his feet.  Heart hammering in terror, he began
backing away from the scene.
    Harry’s
emaciated corpse slumped to one side, oozing purple slime down its Sesame
Street T-shirt, half his head missing.  Joe stared at the body, beginning to
hyperventilate.  They’re going to kill us all, he realized.  The other twelve
kids in the center of the room began to scream.  The aliens quieted them
ruthlessly, slamming several of them into the glossy black floor to shut them
up.  One sat up bleeding from his ear, blinking desperately.
    Tril
waited for silence, then spoke to his companions, the translator once again
switched off.  An alien had to hold a freckled kid in place in front of him while
he screamed and writhed to get away as they made their exchange.
    “Stop
it!”  Joe lunged forward to help the kid.
    Before
he had taken three steps, an Ooreiki grabbed him and yanked him back.
    “Don’t!”
Joe said, “Don’t do it!”
    Tril
ignored him and turned back to the freckled kid.  Like he’d done with Harry, he
said, “The battalion leaders have made their decision.  Twice I requested a
place for this one, and—”
    “Please
don’t shoot him!” Joe cried.  “He’s just a—” The alien holding him wrapped a
tentacle around his throat and tightened it, silencing him.
    Tril
cast Joe a dark look.  “—and twice I was denied.  No Congressional soldier
would take him into his fold.  Thus, he has no place in the Army.”
    Joe
kicked his aggressor and struggled free.  “Don—”
    The
little boy’s scream ended in a wet burp.
    “You
son of a bitch!” Joe screamed at Tril.  “You evil son of a bitch!”  Three
aliens converged on Joe and dragged him to the ground, their stinging tentacles
biting into his skin, leaving bloody welts in their path as he struggled
against them.
    The
third child, an extremely small toddler, was claimed before Tril could shoot
her.  Joe looked up to see Kihgl pushing her into his group.    The tentacle
Joe had shot off ended in a dark brown stain on one side of his head, making
him appear lopsided.
    Joe
couldn’t watch the rest.  He closed his eyes and slumped his head against the
floor, waiting for it to end.
    The
next two children were claimed by another scarred alien, though this one was
paler than Kihgl.  Upon seeing his pale face, Joe had an instant of recognition
that left him cold.
     
    Smoke
wafted from the burning street.  Joe stared at a black boot, his head and
stomach on fire, the night exploding in bright, beautiful colors all around
them.  Sam was gone…escaped with the others.  The alien stared down at him
through its sleek black helmet with the cold fury of a wasp.  “How old do you
think it is?”
    “Sixteen,
is my onboard’s guess, Commander Lagrah,” one of the glossy, black-suited
aliens said.  “Maybe fourteen, with growth irregularities.”
    There
was cruel purpose in the alien’s pale brown eyes as he said, “I’m sorry, Gokli. 
What did you say his age was?”
    There
was a long pause.  “Twelve, sir.”
     
    Lagrah. 
His name is Lagrah.
    Then
the aliens holding Joe wrenched him to his feet, shattering the memory.  When
he looked up and saw Commander Tril standing in front of him, all Joe could
hear was his own frantic heartbeat thudding in his ears.  Tril was looking at
him, his sticky brown face a picture of satisfaction.
    “Go to
Hell,” Joe said.
    Tril
made a guttural rapping in the base of his neck—an alien laugh.  Languidly, his
big, gummy eyes on Joe, Tril made an alien garble at its companions.
    Scanning
their squashed, indifferent faces, Joe knew he was going to die.
    Tril
asked again, looking back on his fellows where they stood with their selected
groups.  None of them moved.  Joe could feel the gunman’s satisfaction as he
snaked a tentacle to the small black device around his neck and switched it on.
    Tril
waited until the room had fallen silent, until every eye single was on him.