Free Gods of Anthem by Logan Keys Page A

but in these last few months, it’s like you’ve filled out even more, if that’s possible.”
    Vero’s “filled out” quite a bit herself, but I don’t say that and instead hand her a towel. “Just get out of the pool, GI Jane.”
    “Who’s that?” she asks.
    I laugh. “Never mind.”
    After the flood of undead, most people didn’t keep up with old entertainment. But I’m a buff, and my library’s extensive. The UG paid us a good chunk to do their experiments and I’ve not really had a chance to spend any of it (where would I?), so I traded up items for a huge interactive flat screen that’s now in my barracks. Movies, music, and entire collections have been pulled off of old drives from various runs where we made good finds.
    Vero and I dress and head back.
    When we arrive, everyone’s waiting in formation, and Sergeant Nolan’s glaring. “Push-ups,” he says between chugs of his Mountain Dew, and we move to our hands onto the hot pavement.
    Vero fizzles out quickly, so I slow down, trying to draw heat away from her. If we get sacked, we go down together.
    Sergeant Nolan rushes forward, along with Cory, to spout insults into our faces.
    “Get up, you worms!”
    Vero starts back in, and I follow suit. We have each others’ backs like that.
    I hope she can finish this. It’ll be my fault if she can’t.
    Sergeant Nolan chuckles when he catches me checking on Vero. “I see we’ve got ourselves a couple of love birds, here.” He puts a foot onto my shoulder, forcing me down. “Well, c’mon, Romeo. We don’t have all day.”
    I lift his added weight and begin counting again. By number three, though, my arms start to shake, and I jerk to the side, letting his foot fall, effectively spilling some of his soda.
    Sergeant Nolan kicks me in the side, and my face scrapes the ground when I land.
    He chuckles like it’s all too much fun. “Private, is it true you have some sort of crazy Special? I heard you turn uglier than a coyote with rabies.”
    The platoon shuffles with muffled laughter.
    “Sir, yes, sir.” I ignore the burning in my palms and begin to do push-ups again.
    “You some kind of werewolf, Private?”
    “Sir, no, sir.” Sweat drips off the tip of my nose in a steady stream.
    “Then what is it?”
    “Sir, it’s a genetic mutation, sir.”
    “Well, forgive the hell out of me, Private. Do you see ‘doctor’ anywhere on my lapel? Do I look like one of those freak scientists? Answer me, Private!”
    My teeth grit. “Sir, no, sir.”
    “If you turn into something dangerous, tell me now, ‘cause I don’t need no bigfoot lab-rat screwing up my platoon.”
    “Sir, yes, sir.”
    Sergeant Nolan leans in, his face next to mine. “You keep that kind of crazy locked up tight, you hear?”
    “Roger that, Sergeant.”
    He kicks me again, and I grunt. “You gonna do it now? Huh?” He kicks me a third time, and I feel a stirring inside. “What did you say? You want to challenge me, soldier?”
    My vision shrinks, and my voice turns strained. “Sir … no … sir.”
    There’s a darkness within me now, put there by the same scientists who’d electrocuted me before injecting every color serum imaginable until I thought I’d die. I’d wanted to at certain points. If the body is like a bag of sand, then the grains filling it under the skin had to be removed, to make room for … it …. They’d sieved some of me out and replaced my insides with something only imagined from the farthest and coldest galaxy, a consciousness so foreign and inhuman—both ancient and young—it’s there, primordial and evil, sifting through that sand, waiting for freedom.
    I sense its shift now.
    “Leave him alone!” Vero yells, then counts again, doing push-ups, fast.
    Cory chucks her beneath the chin and shakes his head. “Looks like our virgin’s about to get his cherry popped, Sarge.”
    “Virgin.” Sergeant Nolan puts a foot on my hand, stopping me. “Virgin…? You telling me monster boy here