Grunt Life Read Online Free PDF Page A

Proctor Todd caught me in a head lock. I swung at the air for a moment, then stopped moving.
    Olivares sneered, then turned on his heel, holding up a middle finger by way of goodbye. Classy.
    “Okay. Okay,” I said, and Proctor Todd let me go. I watched the departing back of my brand new enemy and congratulated myself. It usually took me at least a day in a new place to establish lifelong enemies. I think I’d broken the record.

 
    Only the dead have seen the end of war.
    Plato
     
     
    CHAPTER FIVE
     
     
    T EN MINUTES LATER we were all inside our own little rooms. Evidently, Proctor Todd had been waiting for us. Now that we were here, they could begin. On the command of stand back , bars slammed into place from the ceiling and the floor. Each bar was as thick as the grip of a baseball bat and more solid than the stone beneath us. We weren’t going anywhere soon. In fact, it looked like we were locked up like uncommon criminals.
    I could see the cells across the room from me, but not those to my left or right. Still, I could hear grumblings at the locking of the cells. Evidently they hadn’t been locked until now. I had to wonder what they had thought would happen. It seemed an obvious conclusion.
    Five minutes later the big voice returned.
    “ Please review your tablets. Follow the guidelines for your release schedule. ”
    In a fabric pocket at the base of my single bed was a tablet computer. I touched the screen and it indicated, with the outline of a hand, that it wanted my palm print. I pressed my palm to it and the screen went blank for a moment, then switched to a command screen.
     
    WELCOME PVT BENJAMIN CARTER MASON.
    ARE YOU READY TO BEGIN?
     
    Suddenly a voice erupted from my left. “Fuck this shit, puta !” I heard a crash and saw a tablet hit the floor and shatter.
    Olivares—had to be. I shook my head. I wasn’t so sure he didn’t have the right idea. Still, I was willing to try.
    Movement caught my eye and I saw a Rodney heading towards Olivares’s cell. I watched as the side of the robot opened up and a new tablet was proffered on an extender arm. Olivares took it. No sooner had Rodney turned away than the tablet was arching through the air, crashing and shattering, skidding to a stop near the first one.
    The robot seemed to assess the situation for a moment, then disappeared into a niche in the wall where he had entered the room.
    I resumed looking at my tablet.
    I didn’t know how long the others had been here, but I had to figure for some of them it had been quite a long time.
     
    WELCOME PVT BENJAMIN CARTER MASON.
    ARE YOU READY TO BEGIN?
     
    So I was a private, now, huh? I’d been a staff sergeant when I left Afghanistan two weeks ago. Quite a demotion. Still, I was no longer in the U.S. Army. I was now in TF OMBRA and I guess I had to prove myself. For a moment I wondered if the Army would put me down as AWOL. After thirty days, they’d convert that to Desertion, which was a serious and jailable offense during war.
    Then I pictured Mr. Pink’s curious mug addressing my commander and I felt better. Somehow, someway, I imagined that it would be handled.
    I pressed the screen, but nothing happened. I spoke to the tablet. “Yes. Begin. Start. Go. Commence. Fuck.” Still with no response.
    I checked the sleeve I’d found the tablet in and pulled free a thin Bluetooth earpiece. I found the power switch and placed it in my ear. A circle appeared in the top right corner of the tablet. When it stopped pulsing, I figured it was ready.
    “I am ready,” I said.
    The screen switched to the logo of TF OMBRA—a triangle like I’d seen on Proctor Todd’s beret, but with the addition of the letters TF at the base of the triangle. The voice began to speak.
    “Welcome to Task Force OMBRA. You have been chosen to be a member of a special brigade tasked with saving your planet. We call the threat to Earth the Cray. During the next several weeks you will learn about this creature and our