Chapter 2
Sergeant Sheila Adams
“Sergeant Adams, you are needed at the gate,” Casper said to me.
"Thank you, Casper. I will be down at the gate as soon as I finish here,” I said.
“But Sergeant Adams, you were also needed to overlook the food rationing warehouse inventory after this,” Chrissy Jones said to me as she came to my side.
I exhaled in frustration. This was what my life had been like since founding the colony of Providence. I seemed to be the only leader in the community of five hundred humans. Yes, I had an extensive military background, and I was a natural leader, but it was very frustrating to have every single person look to you to make sure that the infrastructure was working properly. When it wasn't, they came to me, no matter how much I trained individuals to manage the areas of the community. It seemed that I had all the answers, and I didn't. No one person could be in charge of such massive tasks.
“Yes, I will see to the rationing after I go to the gate. The rationing can wait,” I said to her.
She rolled her eyes and walked off.
Richard looked at me with sympathy. Then he continued to work on the engine of a generator. “You spread yourself too thin, Sergeant,” he said to me.
“Yes, I know. But if I don't do it no one will,” I said.
“But if you don't take care of yourself, you will get sick, and then where will we be? Chrissy Jones wouldn't be able to wipe her ass without you,” he laughed.
I laughed with him. Richard was an older man in his sixties, and the maintenance man in the community. He always made me laugh and look at things with a lighter tone. It was helpful in my stressful situation.
"Thanks, Richard. What do you think the damage is here?” I asked.
“I can fix this one for sure. The other generators might be a little tricky. If we could find solar panels, we would be in business. But I would recommend that we switch to wood for heat. There's good forest out there,” he said.
“Beyond the fence? Yes, I know. But this isn't exactly a military community. There are only fifty trained soldiers with me that made it here. The rest are civilians. I can't exactly persuade them to go beyond the fence into the forest where we could be attacked by cyborgs. I think they would all rather freeze than we go out there,” I said.
“I volunteered to go,” he said.
“Yes, I know that you would. But you are needed here. You are our only mechanic, engineer, fixer guy,” I smiled. He laughed.
“Is that my official title, Sheila?”
“Yes, make it official. I will figure out something to get wood from the forest,” I said.
“You always do,” he said.
“Keep me posted here. Why couldn't I have landed in a community on a sunny beach instead of in the middle of a winter wonderland?” I said.
“I ask myself the same question every day,” he said.
“I have to go to the gate. I will come back before nightfall to check in,” I said.
He continued working, and I walked down the sidewalk of Main Street in the Village. Snow crunched under my combat boots. I was glad that I had been wearing my army uniform and accessories when the ambush came years ago. It was the reason why I had those weapons and accessories with me to this day.
I remembered that ambush every day; it was clear in my mind, as though it was yesterday. It was because that was when I lost him. Devon. He was my fiancé, and we were scheduled to get married at the end of the year. But then it all happened. The sudden appearance of the Clenok cyborgs. Suddenly every single unit in the armed forces was called to battle. We thought it would be swift. Of course, we could defeat mindless machines. We could outsmart them and just annihilate them. But we had underestimated them. Because of this, we lost, all over the planet.
In the final battle that I was involved in, Devon died in my arms. I never got that image out of my mind. It was why I actually liked to be in charge of the small community of Providence. If I was overworked and constantly busy, then I did not have to think about Devon. The only time it would enter my mind was when I laid down to sleep, which was only for a few hours a night. There was just too much to do, and it seemed I was the only one capable of making things happen around here. We were under a constant threat that Clenok cyborgs could find out where we were and invade. So far, we had remained an isolated secret and never had an attack. I was glad for it; this community would not stand after an attack.
Fifty soldiers and I had stumbled upon this community after a battle that left our entire unit dead. We had tracked for over twenty miles to get back to our base, but when we got there, the base was gone. The cyborgs had annihilated our army base. So we kept on moving, the fifty soldiers and me. We traveled for three days until we came upon the Providence community. We took safe refuge in the community, always expecting it to be temporary, until we could get back to the army. But news reached us over the following days weeks: there was no more army. All of the Earth armies had been annihilated; we didn't even know how many humans were left on Earth.
A year went by, and we finally realized that Providence was our permanent home. We fifty soldiers were now trying to guard the five hundred civilians that had absolutely no military training whatsoever. They were a small mountain town full of school teachers, cooks, stay-at-home moms, and blue-collar workers. Over the years, we did our best to train them, but there weren't very many weapons to be had. Our greatest achievement was building a massive fence around the colony. But even this was not very advanced, just a lot of rolls of twisted barbed wire that we hoped the cyborgs would tangle themselves in if it ever came to that. Luckily, we never had to test it because they never came. Over time, we would get a traveler here and there that told us about other isolated human colonies. It was hopeful, but there was nothing much that we could do about it. We couldn't move five hundred people to another community hundreds of miles away; it wasn't possible. And I had too much honor to abandon this town and go on my own with my soldiers.
So in Providence, we stayed; this was now my home in the new world overwhelmed by cyborgs.
“Sergeant Adams, you have to come to the gate now,” Casper said as he ran up to me in a panic.
“Yes, I know. You already told me that before. Can't you see that I am headed in that direction?” I said rolling my eyes.
“No, we have incoming,” he said.
“What? Why didn't you say something? The Clenok!” I said as I started to run full speed towards the gates.
“No! It is not the Clenok,” he said running at my side. I stopped.
“What?”
“At least we don't think it is. They are airships. Like we have never seen before, we don't think they are cyborgs,” he said.
“Airships? What? What do you mean?” I ran toward the gate again.
“Sergeant! Look!” a guard shouted at me as I approach the gate. I climbed the spiral staircase to the top of the gate. I was astounded by what I saw. There were several white, sleek ships flying slow and low toward us. Then they stopped and hovered. It was nothing I had ever seen before. Everyone stood there with their mouths hanging open. I was one of them. As a military person, I knew that I should be on guard, but I was so shocked.
“What the hell is that?” Casper said.
“Aliens…” the guard muttered.
“I don't think it is the Clenok,” I said.
“The door’s opening,” Casper said.
I looked directly at the ship in the lead position. The door opened. Then three objects flew out of the ship. They looked like creatures from this distance with a large wingspan almost five feet wide. What was it? Then as they grew closer, I realized, they looked like human men, only different, and with wings.
“Holy crap,” Casper said.
“Definitely not cyborgs,” the guard said.
“Then what is it?” I whispered.
They landed one hundred yards in front of the gates. Three men that looked half-human and half-dragon, and very tall. Their skin seemed to glisten in the sunlight. The wings were emerald green in color and somewhat translucent, like stained glass. They wore tight gray pants tucked into heavy boots, and no shirt. They were muscular and toned and looked fierce. I was in a panic. There was no way that we could compete with whatever these things were. They wouldn't even need weapons, but they had an entire air fleet at their back.
Then one with silver long hair stepped forward.
“Humans! My name is General Azlo Bron. We come in peace! We are the Veruka from Tivoso. We have come to you with a message from a human colony called Haven Brook. We wish to hold counsel with you!” he said.
Everyone at the gate was quiet. Then they looked at me. It was up to me to answer, of course. But at this moment, I did not know what to say. It was hard for me to make a judgment call. If I said yes to these Dragon men and they betrayed us, then it would be on me. I wasn't ready to say yes just yet. I stepped forward onto the ledge of the gate.
“My name is Sergeant Sheila Adams! How do we know you come in peace?” I shouted to them.
“If we did not come in peace, you would already know!” he shouted up.
“He has a point. They could've just invaded,” Casper whispered to me.
"How do they know about Haven Brook? That is one of the colonies we used to have communication with,” the guard said.
"These are all good points. But it could be a trick,” I said.
“So then what?” Casper asked.
“I will walk out to this general and speak with him myself,” I said.
“No! You cannot. If anything should happen to you…” Casper said.
“If anything happens to me, it means that they are hostile. If they are hostile, then Providence doesn't stand a chance against them anyway. At least right now we give the illusion that we have some strength. Right now they do not know what lies beyond the gate. It could be a vast army for all they know,” I said.
“I will come to you for council!” I shouted down to them.
“We are honored!” the one called general Azlo shouted.
I made my way down the stairs of the backside of the gate. I checked that my pistol was tucked into my back. It was fully loaded. I pulled a knife from my boot and then pushed it back in. It was all that I had. Not that it would be any defense against these massive dragon men. I nodded to the guards. They slowly pushed open the massive door of the gate.
“Close the gate behind me,” I said.
“Sergeant, are you sure?”
“Yes, that is an order,” I said.
I walked out of the gate and took a deep breath. Seeing these Dragon men directly in front of me, one hundred yards out, was startling now that I was on even ground with them. They looked bigger than they did from on top of the gate. I was trembling, but I wasn't going to let it stop me. I took slow steps as I looked around. The fleet that hovered in the air behind them was impressive. It was bittersweet to see such a military strength again, as it was not my own. Where had they come from? They had mentioned some place called Tivoso; was that another planet?
I walked closer and closer. Now these dragon men were twenty feet in front of me. That was close enough. I stopped.
“Who are you? Why have you come here?” I asked.
The one that had been talking took one step closer. I could see him, all of him now. He had blue eyes that were so stark blue they reminded me of sapphires. His skin glistened in the sun like a fine powder of glitter, but his chest looked harder, almost like hardened armor or scales. His long silver hair moved across his face with every movement. He was very tall, with a completely toned body; he looked like a statue. I felt my gaze turn from a curious nature to one of arousal as I looked him over. It had been a very long time since I had been with a man. No one interested me. But this Dragon man was somehow making me feel desire and lust at first sight.
He looked at me up and down. I shifted from one leg to another. His long gaze and long pause were making me uncomfortable. Why was he looking at me like that?
“Your name again?” he asked.
“I am Sergeant Sheila Adams,” I said.
“Sergeant. You lead armies?” he asked.
“Yes, now if you'll answer my question, General Bron: who are you and why have you come here?” I said adamantly. I didn't want to talk about leading armies because then he would be asking me questions about whether I was running an army right now in Providence.
“Sergeant, as I said before, we come in peace. We are not of Earth; we come from a planet called Tivoso. We came here several months ago and landed near the human community of Haven Brook. The community of Haven Brook welcomed us. We came to Earth to help the humans defeat the Clenok cyborgs. We helped defeat an invasion of cyborgs at Haven Brook. We still have our army based there. But my king sent myself and a few of my other colleagues to seek out isolated communities. We have found a possible way to defeat the keddle, and we are supposed to spread that knowledge to every human community we come across. That is why we have come to Providence. The humans in Haven Brook showed us where to find Providence, and we are here now,” he said.
It was a lot of information to take in. It sounded like lies to me. But I would have no proof of it anyway. There was no way to know if this thing was telling the truth or not.
“Tivoso? You are not of Earth. You are aliens?” I asked.
“We are aliens to you, just as humans are aliens to us,” he said crossing his arms over his chest. I could tell that he was cocky. He was even being smug with his answer.
“Fair enough, but what are you? I have never seen creatures such as yourself,” I said.
“We are shifters. We shift into weredragon form as you see us now. We are also able to shift out of it and become more like yourself, without the wings and hard scales,” he said.
“Shifter?” I asked confused by what he meant.
“Would you like me to demonstrate?” he asked.
“No, that won't be necessary,” I said not wanting to see what tricks they could do because I did not want the guards on the gate to take it as a sign of hostility and start shooting, no matter how curious I was to see this creature shift.
“Will you grant us entrance to Providence so that we may fight at your side against the cyborgs, and share the information we have from Haven Brook?” he asked.
This was a moment of truth. What could I say?
“How do I know that this is not some sort of trick? I let you in, and you enslave us? Or something else horrible?” I asked.
“Yes, I can see why you would be suspicious of us. We just arrived out of nowhere. You have no cause to trust me. But know this, Sergeant, if you truly are a sergeant: we will share this knowledge from Haven Brook with or without your permission. We will not let the humans behind your gate suffer from an attack of cyborgs simply because of your stubbornness. We have come from Tivoso with a mission to help the humans defeat the Clenok cyborgs, and that is what I am going to do. I am a Veruka of honor. My king gave me a mission, and I will see it through, no matter what you think of it. So you can either let us in, or I shall speak with someone else from Providence,” he said.
I narrowed my eyes at him. How dare he. He meant to undermine my supervision of Providence. I was the one in charge: not him.
“There is no one else to speak to. My people answer to me and obey my orders; they will not listen to an alien that could destroy them in seconds,” I said.
“Oh, I see that you at least have the sense to admit our superiority to your kind,” he raised a brow at me.
“What? That is not what I said. You are putting words into my mouth,” I said.
“Yes, it is exactly what you said. Now you can either stand here arguing all day, or I can take my fleet and enter your community without your permission,” he said.
Dammit. He was right. But I didn't want him to know that. I had no choice but to go along, but it would be on my terms.
“These are my terms: this fleet of yours will set down where they are, or hover if they wish, but they will stay put outside the gates. You and these two beside you may walk through the gate with me into Providence. Then we will see about this information you brought from Haven Brook. Only then will I decide whether or not to let your entire fleet in, if you are truly here to help us battle the cyborgs,” I said.
He said nothing. He took two big strides toward me and covered the distance between us easily. No history would directly in front of me towering over me. I looked up at him, trying not to tremble. He was a fierce presence, very dominating. Then he put his hand out to me.
“I agree to those terms, Sergeant,” he said.
I was hesitant. But I placed my hand in his, and he shook it. My hand felt three times smaller than it ever had in his large hand. He looked down at our hands clasped together and then looked at me. I swear his blue eyes sparkled. I pulled my hand away from him quickly and turned my back to him.
“Follow me,” I said as I began to walk to the gate. I could feel him walking behind me with his two men. I never thought I would see weredragons in my entire life, but then again, I never thought I would live to see the day that machines took over Earth. There were so many surprises. I didn't know what to expect next. In my heart, I truly hoped that they were there to help us fight. We needed their help; we needed it desperately.