Eric Nylund - The Fall of Reach

He swallowed his fear and kept climbing up. He thought of the ice cream and chocolate brownies and how he was going to win.

John got to the top, grabbed the bell, and rang it three times. He then clasped the steel pole and slid all the way to the ground, falling into a pile of cushions.

He got up and ran smiling all the way to the Chief Petty Officer. John crossed the finish line and gave a victory cry. “I was first,” he said, panting.

Mendez nodded and made a check on his clipboard.

John watched as the others made it and up rang the bell then raced across the finish line. Kelly and Sam had trouble. They got stuck in a line to get to the bell as everyone bunched up at the end.

They finally rang the bell, slid down together... but they crossed the finish line last. They glared at John.

He shrugged.

“Good work, Trainees,” Mendez said, and he beamed at them all. “Let’s get back to the barracks and chow down.”

The children, covered in mud and leaning on each another, cheered.

“—all except team three,” Mendez said, and looked at Sam, Kelly, and then John.

“But I won,” John protested. “I was first.”

“Yes, you were first,” Mendez explained, “but your team came in last.” He then addressed all the children. “Remember this: you don’t win unless your team wins. One person winning at the expense of the group means that you lose.”

John ran in a stupor all the way back to the barracks. It wasn’t fair. He had won. How can you win and still lose?

He watched as the others stuffed themselves with turkey, white meat dripping with gravy. They spooned down mountains of vanilla ice cream and left the mess hall with chocolate encrusting the corners of their mouths.

John got a liter of water. He drank it, but it didn’t have any taste. It did nothing to fill his hunger.

He wanted to cry, but he was too tired. He collapsed in his bunk, thinking of ways to get even with Sam and Kelly for messing him up—but he couldn’t think. Every muscle and bone ached.

John fell asleep as soon as his head hit the flat pillow.

The next day was the same—calisthenics and running all morning, then class until the afternoon.

Today Déjà taught them about wolves. The classroom became a holographic meadow, and the children watched seven wolves hunt a moose. The pack worked together, striking wherever the giant beast wasn’t facing. It was fascinating and horrifying to watch the wolves track down, and then devour, an animal many times their size.

John avoided Sam and Kelly in the classroom. He stole a few extra crackers when no one was looking but they didn’t dull his hunger.

After class, they ran back to the playground. Today it was different. There were fewer bridges and more complicated rope-and-pulley systems. The pole with the bell was now twenty meters taller than any of the others.

“Same teams as yesterday,” Mendez announced.

Sam and Kelly walked up to John. Sam shoved him.

John’s temper flared—he wanted to hit Sam in the face, but he was too tired. He’d need all his strength to get to the bell.

“You better help us,” Sam hissed, “or I’ll push you off one of those platforms.”

“And I’ll jump on top of you,” Kelly added.

“Okay,” John whispered. “Just try not to slow me down.”

John examined the course. It was like doing a maze on paper, only this one twisted and turned into and out of the page. Many bridges and rope ladders led to dead ends. He squinted—then found one possible route.

He nudged Sam and Kelly then pointed. “Look,” he said, “that basket and rope on the far side. It goes straight to the top. It’s a long pull, though.” He flexed his biceps, uncertain if he could make it in his weakened state.

“We can do it,” Sam said.

John glanced at the other teams; they were searching the course as well. “We’ll have to make a quick run for it,” he said. “Make sure no one else gets there first.”

“I’m fast,” Kelly said. “Real fast.”

“Trainees, get ready,” Mendez shouted.

“Okay,” John said. “You sprint ahead and hold it for us.”

“Go!”

Kelly shot forward. John had never seen anyone move like her. She ran like the wolves he had seen today; her feet seemed barely to touch the ground.

She got to the basket. John and Sam were only halfway there.

One boy beat them to the basket. “Get out,” he ordered Kelly. “I’m going up.”

Sam and John ran up and pushed him back. “Wait your turn,” Sam said.

John and Sam joined Kelly in the basket. Together they pulled on the rope and raised themselves up. There was a lot of rope—for every three meters they pulled, they only rose one meter. A breeze made the basket sway and bounce into the pole.

“Faster,” John urged.

They pulled as one person, six hands working in unison, and accelerated into the sky.

They didn’t get there first. They were third. Each of them got to ring the bell, though—Kelly, Sam, and John.

They slid down the pole. Kelly and Sam waited for John to land, and then together they ran across the finish line.

Chief Petty Officer Mendez watched them. He didn’t say anything, but John thought he saw a smile flicker across his face.

Sam clapped John and Kelly on their backs. “That was good work,” Sam said. He looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, “We can be friends... I mean, if you want. It’d be no big deal.”

Kelly shrugged and replied, “Sure.”

“Okay,” John said. “Friends.”

0630 Hours, July 12, 2519 (Military Calendar)

Epsilon Eridani System, Reach Military Wilderness Training Preserve, planet Reach

John held on tight as the dropship accelerated up and over a jagged snowcapped mountain range. The sun peeked over the horizon and washed the white snow with pinks and oranges. The other members of his unit pressed their faces to the windows and watched.

Sam sat next to him and looked outside. “Nice place for a snowball fight.”

“You’ll lose,” Kelly said. She leaned over John’s shoulder to get a better look at the terrain. “I’m a dead aim with snowballs.” She scratched the stubble of her shorn hair.

“Dead is right,” John muttered. “Especially when you load them with rocks.”

CPO Mendez stepped from the cockpit into the passenger compartment. The trainees stood and snapped to attention. “At ease, and sit down.” The silver at Mendez’s temples had grown to a band across the side of his closely shaved hair, but if anything he had gotten stronger and tougher since John had first laid eyes on him two years ago.

“Today’s mission will be simple for a change.” Mendez’s voice easily penetrated the roar of the dropship’s engines. He handed a stack of papers to Kelly. “Pass these out, Recruit.”

“Sir!” She saluted smartly and handed one paper to each of the seventy-five children in the squad.

“These are portions of maps of the local region. You will be set down by yourselves. You will then navigate to a marked extraction point and we will pick you up there.”

John turned his map over. It was just one part of a much larger map—no drop or extraction point marked. How was he supposed to navigate without a reference point? But he knew this was part of the mission, to answer that question on his own.

“One more thing,” Mendez said. “The last trainee to make it to the extraction point will be left behind.” He glanced out a window. “And it’s a very long walk back.”

John didn’t like it. He wasn’t going to lose, but he didn’t want anyone else to lose, either. The thought of Kelly or Sam or any of the others marching all the way back made him uneasy... if they could make it all the way back alone over those mountains.