Free The Reaper Plague by David VanDyke Page A

that this was a necessary thing, even a good
thing, powered her fists and feet as she demolished an undeserving
human body.
    If only he’ll accept his reconstruction.
    Her final blow was more of a push, almost
gentle, that curled him into a fetal position. She stood above him,
deliberately blood-drenched, waiting until he lifted a feeble hand
in surrender.
    Of course I could have taken him down at
any time with a precise kick to snap the knee joint or a knife-hand
to the throat. But what would they have said? Okay, she’s quick,
and skilled, and maybe she got lucky. Now they know I’m
unbreakable, and they’re not.
    Now they know I’m the biggest, meanest
damned dog in this junkyard.
    Repeth stepped back, momentarily raising her
crimson fists overhead. The copper-iron smell of blood surrounded
the tableau. Taking a calm breath, not straining at all as she
pitched her voice to carry beyond her own platoon, to the other
formations nearby, she called, “Anyone still think Edens can’t
fight?”
    Silence reigned. Not one of the normals would
meet her eyes.
    She went on. “No? But now we have a little
dilemma. Corporal Donovan is messed up . He has two choices,
only one of which is the right one. He can go to the hospital, lie
in bed for a week, and miss the mission. Or he can go get an Eden
virus shot in the readiness line and tomorrow morning he
will be good as new. Better than new, because you know what else?
Not only will he heal ungodly fast from any future injury, he’ll
live a thousand years, they say.”
    A buzz swept the normals’ ranks, some
discussing immortality, some healing, all of them unsettled. She
went on louder, overriding them. “Officially you don’t have to take
the Eden shot unless you want to. Maybe you’re afraid it will turn
you into a Sunday-school-sucking wimp. Well I go to Sunday school.
Anyone think I’m a wimp?”
    Build the image, feed the myth. Tell the
story, because people live and die for the story . She swept the
ranks with her eyes. “Do you think maybe the Unies lied to
you?”
    She let those questions sink in before she
continued, putting sarcasm and contempt into her voice. “And here’s
the clincher, people. The vaccines will probably – probably – protect you from the Demon Plagues. But none of us are
getting the super-soldier nano treatment you might have heard
about. And this assignment will be dangerous. Everyone has a much
better chance of living through it if they have the Eden virus and
the nano-vaccine that goes with it. So frankly, you’re an idiot if
you don’t get the shot. And I don’t want idiots in my platoon. So
it’s your decision, but if you haven’t got it by the end of the
week, I’ll do my best to get you transferred out. You can go be a
burden to someone else.”
     
     

 
     
-13-

    When Skull awoke again his mind was rainbow
clear where before there had been only blacks and whites. He felt
young again, but his hands still showed their age. That proved the
EP hadn’t gotten him. Getting up, he went into the waste closet -
what passed for a bathroom, but there was no mirror. I’ll ask
Raphaela later .
    Never had he felt so dependent on someone
else, so out of control of his own destiny. Seemed like a good
idea at the time. Kill some aliens, be a hero. Stupid and
short-sighted. I always prepared thoroughly until now. Not like me.
Must have been the nano. Here I am trashing the others, but the
power-high got me too.
    The rancor and self-loathing he was
accustomed to circled at bay, unable to break through his new and
better mood. For the first time since Linde died, he didn’t want to
kill something for breakfast, but thinking of his dead love threw
him back to the day that gutted his life.
     
    ---
     
    Linde was beautiful, viewed as only a young
man does, perfect beyond perfection. She was everything to him, and
his world had been complete that day as a thousand cubic
centimeters screamed between their knees, her body pressed against
his