Kingdom of Monsters by John Schneider (latest novels to read .TXT) 📕

questions they were being asked – skills, age, fertility.

They were to be taken to a refugee camp but had been informed resources were strained.

Allison and baby Lucas were in.  Bud, on the other hand, Rosa found herself worrying about.  He was not a young man, and the skills of a former journalist were not in great demand.

He was on-board for now, but as one of the soldiers – one of the sharp-shooters – had remarked, he might get 'phased-out' later.

This had been after they had picked up Shanna's entourage.

The soldier, whose badge identified as Wilkes, had expressed surprise that the new group was three-to-one men.

“That's actually the opposite,” he remarked, “of our marching orders.”

“Pardon?” Rosa had asked.

“When pulling in civilians,” Wilkes replied, “first rule – three-to-one, women to men.”  He shrugged.  “The way I understand it, productive females are greater assets than males.”

“Assets,” Rosa repeated.

“It's tougher for us fellas,” Wilkes said, nodding sympathetically to Bud.  “On the other hand, we're always at breeding age, so less age-restriction.  Fair's fair, right?”  He chuckled a little.  “Besides, three girls for every guy sounds like a good party to me.”

Rosa nodded mildly.  “And this is where you're taking us?”

Wilkes nodded back.  “They're calling it the Arc Project,” he said.  “Repopulate the Earth.  Except they're trying to slant the odds over Noah's two-by-two.”

Breeding stock, Rosa thought.  The sort of thing scientists once theorized about – most often in pipe-smoke, spit-ball fashion.

Hypothetical supposition of dystopian extremes were now apparently guiding policy.

Wilkes smiled at Rosa reassuringly.  “Don't worry.  A doctor?  Besides being female and all, you're doubly valuable.”

Rosa absorbed this silently.  Had the species really been brought so low that such measures were actually in place?

Never mind the other implications...

For the immediate moment, Rosa pushed the incoming thoughts away – that was just too wide-open to speculate on, based on the hearsay of a field-combat soldier.

It did not, however, on any level, sound good.

That was when Shanna had spoken up.

“The Arc Project is Dr. Shriver's plan,” she said.  “I know him.  He's basing it all on breeding rates with comparable animals, and minimum genetic diversity necessary, and simply assigning the numbers to humans.”

She shook her head.  “The problem is, humans need a society.  Reproduction is only part of the issue.  What he's setting up at the Mount is an ant-farm.”  She considered.  “Well, more like a chicken-coop.”  She sighed.  “That's the problem with myopic experts.”

Shanna leaned forward across the aisle, offering her hand to introduce herself.

Rosa felt the odd glow, the almost bewitching air about her.  While she shook Rosa's hand, Shanna smiled back at her, as if the touch told her more than her eyes.

Clearly, Allison had felt it too.  When Shanna knelt beside her, it was like a hissing stray cat cozened right up and purring.  And Bud, the guard-dog, allowed her within Allison's inner-space.  Rosa had barely been granted that privilege during Lucas' birth.

Shanna's entourage was also an odd cast.

The most obvious was a braggadocios lout, with the nerve to call himself 'Maverick' – a nickname, she hoped – along with an older gentleman, who appeared to be his father, and simply referred to as 'Mr. Wilson' by their third, somewhat milder companion, who introduced himself as Cameron.

All three of them hovered around Shanna like a troop of protective malamutes.  And while it was clear they were all with her, Cameron seemed to be the one at her side.

“We were traveling west,” he told Rosa, “but we got recaptured refueling at a depot in Idaho.”

Not 'captured', Rosa noted, 'recaptured'.

Who exactly were these people?

“That was where you picked us up,” Cameron said.  “We'd been there three days when we got word all civilians were being moved.”

The second soldier, a stern fellow, whose badge labeled as Garner, had tapped his rifle butt on the floor like a stomping hoof.

“That's not something you need to be talking about.”

Cameron smiled obligingly, sitting back.

Maverick had leaned forward.

“You know,” he said to Garner good-naturedly, “I've only known you an hour and I'd already like to kick your ass.”

Unimpressed, Garner lay his rifle across his lap.

“You know,” he said, “I'd like to shoot you.”  His marksman's eyes leveled back at Maverick's.  “Best we don't act on our impulses, don't you think?”

Maverick nodded to Rosa, smiling winningly.

“Hey, honey,” he said confidentially, “if you haven't noticed, this guy's a douche-bag.”

Rosa nodded back, acknowledging freely that there was no shortage of douche-bags handy.

As if to put a stamp on it, Mr. Wilson reached out and swatted Maverick across the back of the head.  “Keep a lid on it, boy.”

Maverick cussed, rubbing his head, but subsided.

Rosa found herself wondering what this idiot could have done to make him important enough to be a prisoner.  So far, he seemed to be a solid selling point for three-to-one women – an impression that was helped not at all, as he nodded at her with a wink.

Something about his swagger reminded her of Lieutenant Walker, both seemingly overdosed in testosterone.

Of course, the difference was just as obvious – Lucas Walker had been an elite cut of military discipline.

It was a similar discipline that she saw in both Wilkes and Garner.

Still, she wondered what Lieutenant Lucas might have made of the two of them.

There had never been a feeling of being expendable under Lucas' watch.  At the same time, he also made you willing to follow him through Hell.

But priorities had changed since Lucas had been alive.

Rosa wondered what the mission statement would be now.

Despite being an 'asset'', as Wilkes had phrased it, Rosa felt very expendable.

She blinked, realizing Shanna was looking at her, and when she spoke, she seemed to answer Rosa's own thought.

“We're all assets,” Shanna said.  “That's why we're going to the mountain.”

Rosa eyed her warily.  She felt an inexplicable impulse towards liking this woman, and her analytical mind didn't trust it.  Rosa had known charming people before and knew that personality did not presuppose character.  There was, after all, the charm of the Devil.

“Why are you an asset?” Rosa asked.

Shanna smiled.  “Oh dear.  As