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Posted By: Mir Jan 06, 2005 - 11:53 am

Jeromy stared at the man, at the point of the gun. He was completely frozen in fear.

“At ease men.”

The gun instantly lowered, and the men snapped to attention. In unison, they saluted the Major. None of them paid any more attention to either Jeromy or the corpses left so pitifully at the entrance as they waited for further instructions.

“Men; bags to Command, corpses to ground.”

Major Carter grabbed Jeromy, “You…take these to the Command tent.” He shoved two of the bags at him, “Follow the others, and don’t draw attention to yourself.”

Jeromy grabbed the bags, staggering under their weight. The two others and a soldier that the Major tossed a bag to, along with Tom and the men that were guarding him, began walking across the field. Jeromy started after them, attempting to stay close to Tom. His friend was still in shock, staring blankly at the muddy ground. He didn’t seem to notice anything that was going on around him, not even his friend casting worried glances at him.

The other men led Jeromy and Tom across the expanse of muddy and torn field. They moved up a hill and stopped at the top, turning several times to get their bearings before they headed off again. For a long while they continued to march, then stopped and repeated the process, making Jeromy wonder if they really knew where they were going. By the third time, Jeromy was growing exhausted from the weight of the bags, but he didn’t dare complain. He wanted to live a little longer.

Finally the group crested a hill, and spread out below was a huge camp completely filled with tents. Rank upon rank of Special Forces moved about, going from place to place. There were dozens of large canvas tents, all being attended by the Special Forces. A large gathering of soldiers in normal uniforms, all appearing to be in custody like Tom was sat in the center of the camp, surrounded by armed guards.

The men that Jeromy was with continued down, the ones with bags splitting off from the ones that were guarding Tom. Neither group even looked at him to see if he was following them as they continued through the camp. He sighed, and with great reluctance followed the others carrying bags. They wound their way through the crowds and lines, making good time towards their destination, whatever it was.

“You! Soldier with the bags, halt.”

Jeromy froze, turning to see who had yelled at him. A woman in the dark uniform of the Special Forces with a collar embroidered in red was walking towards him at a quick pace, her gun raised and pointed at him.

The woman had dark blonde hair and deep blue eyes. She was in fine condition, had to be since that red meant that she was a unit leader for the Special Forces, “Soldier, what unit are you with?”

Gently setting the bags down, Jeromy snapped to attention, “Unit 3 Ma’am.”

The woman’s eyes narrowed, “You’re a normal soldier, what are you doing here?”

Jeromy kept his eyes looking straight forward as he spoke, “Major Carter ordered me to take these bags to Command.”

There was a distinguishable grunt from the woman; then in a swift motion, she flipped her gun and smacked him across the face with the butt of it.

Jeromy’s head snapped to the side and he fell to his knees, tears welling in his eyes from the pain. He could feel blood running down his cheek. She had hit him right on the cheekbone, barely missing his eye, and had split the skin. He was lucky that she hadn’t removed his eye in the process. He felt the pressure of a gun barrel against the back of his head, “Did you enjoy it when the others died soldier?”

“How’d you know…?” He found himself cut off as the cold metal jabbed hard into the base of his skull. His sentence died off.

“Major Carter always kills the stragglers. He never spares more than a few.”

Jeromy’s head drooped slightly and his shoulders slumped, “…I didn’t know. I was leading everyone out and his group caught up to mine, he said that he didn’t know the way out and ordered me to lead him. When we got to the exit…he held me back…I don’t know what I could have done.”

The gun remained steady, “You were leading people out, even after the announcement that you had been officially lost?”

Jeromy nodded slightly, “My friend was there too, as well as everyone else. I couldn’t just let them die.”

The barrel withdrew and Jeromy felt a hand pulling him up. The woman snorted, “Dust yourself off soldier, and get back to work.” She leaned close to him as she holstered her gun, “…It was pointless wasn’t it; everyone died anyway.”

Jeromy shook his head, “My friend is still alive, and so am I.”

The woman helped him pick up the bags, “…That means that you’re very lucky. Just remember that Major Carter is very dangerous.” She made a motion for him to follow her, “You lost your way, I’ll guide you Soldier.”

Jeromy shouldered the bags again and followed the woman. She led him through the twisting maze of tents to a very large, red tent. It stood out drastically from the other tents, making Jeromy wonder why he hadn’t spotted it from the hill, and why it had been so hard for him to find at all.

The woman opened the tent flap and ducked in, followed closely by Jeromy. The inside of the tent was busy with people moving pack and forth from desk to desk, shuffling papers and examining maps. No one even seemed to notice Jeromy or the woman to begin with. The woman moved over to one of the desks that was piled particularly high with papers, “Major Gode, this Soldier has more papers for you.”

The man behind the desk looked up, his large glasses were perched precariously on the end of his nose, as if they had slid down and he had been too busy to push them back. He had roughly cut brown hair speckled with grey and a small, hooked nose. His eyes were an off shade of blue verging on grey, and his skin was pale from lack of sunlight, and he couldn’t stand over 5 feet or weigh more than a 100 pounds. He smiled when he saw the woman, “Ah, Lieutenant Cecila Maddin, always a pleasure to see you.”

The woman, evidently Lieutenant Maddin, nodded politely, “Major, I’m glad to see that you’re doing well. This soldier has some papers that I believe you would be interested in.”

Major Gode looked over to Jeromy, “So…who are you?”

Jeremy’s shoulders slumped. He was growing very
tired of explaining this to everyone. He opened his mouth to speak and stopped, the Major was smiling at him, “Ah…so you’re one of Major Carter’s new men. You must have done something that he liked. Yes, please set the bags right there.” He pointed to a pile of similar bags. Evidently this was where the bags were supposed to go.

Jeromy gratefully dropped the bags onto the pile, sighing with relief. He looked around and suddenly realized that he now had nothing to do, no orders, no guidance. His legs suddenly gave out and he sat, letting all that had happened sink in. He realized what he had done, “They’re dead…”

The Lieutenant looked down at him. Her expression softened slightly, “You need some rest, follow me.” She helped him to his feet and led him out of the tent. Outside everything was continuing as it had. No one seemed to notice his delicate mental state or that he had to be supported as he walked.

Cecila spoke softly as they walked, “That was the worst; it shouldn’t get too much worse from here. After a while you’ll begin to forget, everyone does.”

Jeromy tuned it out and continued to lean on her as she walked him through the camp. Eventually he realized that they had already passed the place that all of the captured soldiers were being kept. He was about to voice a question about it when she stopped in front of a small, plain looking tent, “You can stay here for now. Clean up a bit and put on something a little more suitable. You’ll find a uniform waiting for you…rest a little. You’ll need your strength soon.” She ushered him in and closed the flap behind him, leaving him alone.

Jeromy found himself in a dimly lit tent. A single cot sat to the side, and a small table sat next to it, with a basin of water, some medical supplies, a hunk of bread, and a Special Forces uniform laying on it. A short stool was tossed carelessly to the side, and a short cabinet completed the furnishings. With a sigh,
Jeromy began peeling off his stained and torn uniform and washing himself with water from the basin. He carefully cleaned and bandaged his wounds and redressed, chewing the bread eagerly. The uniform was a military style shirt that was a dark blue, almost black color accented with silver buttons with matching pants. He tugged uncertainly at the collar for a while before lying down on the bed and closing his eyes.

It didn’t seem like long at all before someone was roughly shaking him awake, “Wake up soldier.”
Jeromy groggily opened his eyes and rolled over, blinking to adjust to the light. For a moment he couldn’t remember where he was, then everything hit him as he saw the Lieutenant standing over him. He sat up quickly and attempted to salute from his seated position, only landing a stinging blow on his nose in the process. He blinked back the tears and continued to salute.

The Lieutenant shook her head, “You are to report to Major Carter immediately for your detail assignment.”

There was the slightest twitch in Jeromy’s right eyes as the Lieutenant spoke, but he stood, brushing past her and proceeding out of the small, cramped tent. Outside the camp was still looking much like a busy ant colony, with dozens of soldiers steadily streaming between the tents. The sun was low on the horizon, and the light hit Jeromy right about eye level, causing him to squint and shield his eyes.

“Follow me.”

Jeromy turned and saw that Lieutenant Maddin had left the tent as well and was motioning for him to follow her. She looked slightly pale, evidently not liking the prospect of having to go to see Carter. Jeromy couldn’t blame her…the man had killed a dozen men for no apparent reason.

Cecila again led Jeromy through the twisting maze of drab tents. She glanced over her shoulder occasionally to make sure that he didn’t fall behind. The last thing that she needed was him to get lost. If he were late to his first meeting with Major Carter…she could almost see the blood. She couldn’t help but feel sorry for him…but he had joined the army at his own risk…still. She shook her head to clear it and stopped, pointing to the entrance of a tent not much larger than the others, “In there.”

Jeromy flinched slightly when she pointed, then ducked under the tent flap to enter. Inside was dim, and it took a moment for Jeromy’s eyes to adjust. When he could finally see, he could make out the Major sitting behind a desk, writing something on a notepad. He was hunched over, the desk and accommodations not nearly fitting his large frame, and he didn’t seem to notice Jeromy enter. Thus, Jeromy was left standing as Major Carter continued to write.

A long while passed, and Major Carter continued to sit and write, not even attempting to notice if someone was there. He seemed to be completely absorbed in his current actions, maybe even purposefully ignoring Jeromy.

“Major?” Jeromy’s voice was quiet and tentative…he didn’t want to get himself into trouble for speaking out of turn.

The Major continued to write…not even pausing. Evidently he hadn’t heard Jeromy.

“Major?” Jeromy’s voice was louder this time…but not by much.

Still Major Carter continued to ignore him; he was either really dense, or really dedicated.

“Major Carter!” Jeromy snapped to a smart salute, sure that his shout would get the Major’s attention.

Major Carter looked up, seeing Jeromy standing there. He blinked a couple times, and then slowly set down the pen and stood, “Ah…there you are soldier.” With a broad smile, he moved around the table and patted Jeromy on the shoulder, “At ease soldier, would you like some tea?”

It was Jeromy’s turn to blink, “Tea?” Somehow he didn’t imagine this behemoth of a man to drink much tea. Major Carter stood about six and a half feet, and was broad through the shoulders. He had short blonde hair and hazel colored eyes that seemed to faded from green to gold and back again. His features weren’t as much soft as blunt. Mostly though, he was imposing because of his sheer mass. He wasn’t fat, but he was bulky and it was obviously all muscle.

Carter smiled, “Of course you want some tea, everyone likes my tea. I have a special recipe you know. I learned it from my grandmother when I was only this big.” He bent forward and held his hand about two feet off the ground.
Jeromy took a step back and assumed a slightly more relaxed position, even though his muscles were completely tense and his brain was on overdrive. He couldn’t afford to let down his guard around this man, or he was sure that he’d be killed.

Major Carter moved back to his desk and pulled open a drawer, removing two small cups and a pot of steaming tea from it, causing Jeromy’s eyebrows to rise in surprise. The Major didn’t seem to notice as he poured some tea into the cups and set the pot on a small table to the side of his desk. He continued to smile as he handed one of the cups to Jeromy, “You know, you’re the second person to save my life, I usually don’t get into situations that I can’t handle.”

Jeromy accepted the steaming cup and carefully juggled it between his hands. It was hot!

Major Carter didn’t seem to notice as he pulled up an oversized stool and sat on it. Knowing that he shouldn’t stand when a superior officer had sat, he quickly sat cross-legged on the floor. The dirt under him was cold and hard, but he’d suffered worse; he was more concerned with keeping the cup from burning his hands and keeping a wary eye on the Major.

“You know that I’m an Elite, right? Takes a lot to get that ranking, let me tell you…I don’t take disobeying my orders lightly.” Major carter took a sip of the tea, “…Maybe I should have added a touch more honey…maybe some cinnamon.” He swirled the cup and sniffed at it, like some people did to fine wine.

Jeromy remained silent as he watched the Major. Could anyone be that insane? He had killed a dozen men earlier, lost one of his unit, and now he was worrying more about tea than anything else. Some people seemed to have strange priorities.

Finally the Major took another sip of the tea, “Well, at least someone was there to get everyone out. You’re really a hero…you know?”

Jeromy’s look of surprise didn’t go unnoticed by the Major, “It wasn’t your fault that I had orders to kill all of those that I saw on the way out. As you could see by the number of those taken into custody, several others felt the same way. The only one that didn’t bring anyone out alive was Major Spring Fetrow. She evidently has no problem following orders. She’ll do anything to try and get that new promotion.” Major Carter carefully set down the cup, “Anyhow, I was wondering what you’re name might be.”

Jeromy cleared his throat, “My name is Jeromy Ray Landun, sir.”

Major Carter scratched his chin thoughtfully, “Landun…that name sounds familiar…where have I heard it before?” After a moment, he shrugged, “Guess it doesn’t matter. Now, why’d you come see me? I’ve been babbling long enough.”

Jeromy’s jaw dropped open, “You sent for me so that you could assign me to…”

Carter laughed, “Of course, the assignment. Lieutenant Maddin brought you over right? She’s asked for you personally. Trust me, she doesn’t take requests like that lightly, and neither do I. I was going to put you in one of the units that I personally see over…but I think I’ll honor her request this time. As of right now, you report directly to Lieutenant Maddin.” He reached out and patted Jeromy on the shoulder, “Good luck with that one though, she’s a little insane.” Carter roughly grabbed Jeromy’s freehand and shook it, “Welcome to the special forces.”

Jeromy winced at the grip and winced even more as he felt the heat seeping through the small glass. He attempted a smile and quickly stood, “I should be leaving Major, sir, getting back to duty…”

Major Carter slapped him on the back and pushed him out of the tent, not even giving him time to set down the cup. He found himself standing outside of the tent under a starlit sky.

Lieutenant Maddin was leaning against another tent, waiting for him. She gave him a brisk nod and started walking, without explanation as to where they were going. Jeromy quickly followed, juggling the cup as he walked. Somehow he thought it would be a bad idea for him to lose it.

Major carter suddenly stopped by a small, blue tent, “You will spend the night here. In the morning, you will report to the unit you were assigned to and follow your commanders instructions word for word, do you understand that?”

Jeromy snapped to a smart salute, the tea sloshing dangerously at his side, “Yes Ma’am.” He quickly ducked into the tent before he could say anything else. He would have enough trouble tomorrow without any further instructions.

Inside the tent was a light blue sleeping bag and a small stool. On top of the stool was another uniform, identical to the one that he was wearing. There didn’t seem to be anything else in the confined area.

Falling into a sitting position on the sleeping bag, Jeromy realized that the tea had cooled enough to drink. Slowly sipping at it, he allowed his mind to replay the events of the day. Perhaps it had been fate or luck that had spared him…at least Tom was alive somewhere. Hopefully he could do something for his friend, but for now he had to survive and keep going.
The tea was actually quite good, strong, but with a light hint of spices and honey. He couldn’t place the flavor, but it left a pleasant warming sensation in his stomach. Soon he found himself lying inside of the sleeping bag, eyes closed and snoring peacefully.

*****

Jeromy awoke in the morning to a strange and insistent whine in his ears. It sounded like a bee was buzzing around in his head, but he couldn’t get it out.

He sat up and shook his head, feeling unusually groggy and slow. His stomach lurched as he moved, and nothing seemed to have changed, except that it was a little lighter outside, maybe early predawn.

With a great effort he managed to drag himself from the sleeping bag and change into the new uniform. He straightened out his hair as much as he could and rubbed his stomach, feeling a knot in it. It growled slightly as he touched it…it had been a while since he’d had a decent meal…

Slowly he checked his wounds and rolled up the sleeping bag. He carefully laid his used uniform on the stool and stepped back. There wasn’t much he could do when he had nothing more to set things on or store them in, but he may as well make the place look as good as he could. It was sort of a habit he’d had since he was young.

Finally satisfied that he was ready to find Lieutenant Maddin, he sighed and ducked out of the tent. There was already quite a bit of movement around the camp. Soldiers were moving from tent to tent and streaming through the area in front of him, seemingly ignoring him altogether. No one had really even spoken to him since he got here except for Major Gode, Lieutenant Maddin, and Major Carter. The soldiers seemed completely absorbed in whatever their current task was.

“I wish she would have told me where to find the units.” Jeromy spoke softly as he walked, he didn’t want to draw attention to himself until he was sure that he was lost. He’d rather find Captain Maddin on his own.

Jeromy wandered around the in the twisting maze of the camp for a long while. It was beginning to grow much lighter by the time he stopped to lean against a tent; surprisingly the flimsy thing held his weight.

Looking both ways down the alley that he had been walking, he was sure that he’d been here before, but everything looked so similar. He was going to have to ask for directions…even though he didn’t like the prospect of having to stop one of the roaming soldiers and ask for directions.

As he stood, he heard a muffled cry and a brief struggle, then footsteps approaching. He turned to look and saw two of the Special Forces men dragging one of the captured soldiers along. The soldier was leaning heavily on the men that held him, and had a small trickle of blood running down his face. It was quite evident that he had tried unsuccessfully to get away.

Jeromy felt a chill from the scene.

“Hey, you two.” Jeromy stepped forward in front of the two, blocking their way.

Both paused to look at him, the first significant contact he had had with his fellow special forces. He wasn’t looking forward to it. He would have preferred to have as little contact as he could with them, “I’m looking for Lieutenant Maddin. Where can I find her?”
One of the men gave a slight smile, “So you’re the new one that the Lieutenant got, rumor has it you saved Major Carter.”

Jeromy nodded slightly, “What of it?”
The other one shrugged, “Nothing really, we’re under Major Fetrow…she’s working the human aspect of the mission.”

Jeromy raised an eyebrow, but didn’t speak; he wasn’t sure that he wanted to know.

“She’s in charge of the soldiers that we have in custody.” The first man spoke again, his smile still there, “We’re moving them to another camp right now…they’re going to go through Special Forces training before being assigned to units.”

Jeromy nodded, “Sounds fair to me.” He looked to the rather pale soldier and winced slightly, “So, do you know where I can find Lieutenant Maddin?”

The second man shrugged, “Sure. I’ll show you the way.” He pushed the bleeding soldier over towards his comrade, then motioned for Jeromy to follow him, not even looking at the injury or making sure that the other Special Forces man caught him.

Jeromy followed, casting a sympathetic glance at the soldier and getting an evil glare in response. He looked away and followed the man from the Special Forces as he led Jeromy through the maze of tents, “You will receive that look from every one of them, none of them appreciate what we’ve done here.”

“Huh?” Jeromy was so surprised that the question actually slipped out, something that rarely happened to him, “What did we do here?”

The man shrugged, “We destroyed those monsters and secured valuable documents that can be used to further our protection of the people.”

Jeromy nodded, not saying anything. They’d done it alright, but they’d also destroyed innocent soldiers in the process, and had utterly toppled everything that Jeromy thought was right and just in a single night, not to mention ruining the lives of all those that had managed to survive. They had accomplished their goals, but at a very high cost, one he was not sure had been worth it.

The man stopped at another drab tent, and motioned to it, “Lieutenant Maddin is in here. Her unit was assigned to clean up detail, but she’s still swamped with paperwork, all of the commanders are, even the Majors. Good luck.” He gave Jeromy a slight wave and headed back in the direction that he had come. Jeromy watched him for a while, and then ducked into the tent.

“Lieutenant Maddin?” Jeromy’s voice was soft, because he didn’t want to wake the sleeping woman at the desk. It looked as if she had put on a new uniform, and a half-eaten plate of food sat on the edge of her desk. Papers were scattered randomly over the area, and she was lying with her head on a stack of them, breathing deeply and calmly. She looked so peaceful as she slept.

Slowly the Lieutenant’s eyes fluttered open and she sat up, blinking a couple times to clear her eyes, “Yes soldier?”

Jeromy immediately saluted and stood quite still, “I have been assigned to your unit Lieutenant.”

Cecila carefully began organizing the papers on her desk into neat and tidy piles, “You can stop saluting; no one is around to see.”

A look of surprise crossed Jeromy’s face and he reluctantly assumed a more relaxed position, “Yes Ma’am.”

The Lieutenant stood, “I’m really surprised that Carter honored my request, it must have been a whim again. He does that every so often.” She moved around the desk and pulled up a spare chair, motioning for him to sit, “Please, make yourself comfortable; I still have a lot of paperwork to go through.” She went around the desk again and sat back down in the chair, picking up a paper and scanning it.

Jeromy delicately sat down and placed his hands on his lap, trying to keep from fidgeting nervously. He wasn’t used to commanding officers being so casual, and he had kind of been expecting to be assigned to clean up detail with the rest of her unit. He must have been late, but he was sure that she was going to send him anyway.

Cecila continued to ignore him as she shuffled some papers and continued to scan them. Absentmindedly, she reached for the plate and pulled it closer to her, picking up a piece of bread from it and slowly chewing it as she read. For a long while she sat there, scanning papers and every once in a while picking up a pen and signing something. She didn’t appear to notice that there was still food on the plate for quite a while.

“You can finish what’s on the plate if you want…I’m not going to eat anymore.” Cecila spoke without looking up; she merely continued to shuffle through her papers.

Jeromy only hesitated for a moment as he pulled the plate over to him and began demolishing the bread and dried fruits that were still on it. He didn’t care if the bread was slightly stale, he was ravenous; he hadn’t eaten much in two days.

Cecila finally looked up, an expression of slight surprise on her face, “How long has it been since you ate?”

“I haven’t really had anything but a little bread and a cup of tea since the day before yesterday Ma’am.” He immediately stopped eating, raising his head to look at her.

The expression grew more surprised, “You haven’t eaten in two days and you weren’t going to ask if you could have something to eat?” She looked to the plate, “What, are you full?”

Jeromy shook his head, “No Ma’am, I’m still quite hungry.”

Cecila quirked an eyebrow, “So, why aren’t you eating?”

“Well…you addressed me, so I had to respond and I couldn’t eat at the same time…”

Lieutenant Maddin shook her head, “You are really a piece of work, you know that? Finish eating, and then we’ll talk. I still have to finish this paperwork anyway.” She bent over the papers again and left Jeromy to finish what was on the plate.

It was a long while before Cecila set the last of the papers to the side and rose and stretched, “Well…I’m going to go get something to eat in the main tent; by how you finished that plate, I’m sure you’d like to come.” She patted him on the shoulder in a friendly manner, “Come on, you are my body guard after all.”

Jeromy’s jaw dropped open, “What?”

Cecila nodded seriously, “Major Carter assigned you to me as a body guard. I asked that you be assigned to my unit…but as I said earlier, he had a whim. You never know what he’ll decide to do.”

Jeromy stood and sighed, things were confusing around here. At least the person he was supposed to be guarding seemed to know what she was doing, and didn’t seem to difficult to get along with…at the moment. He still clearly remembered the feel of the gun digging into the back of his skull, and he still had the wound where she had nearly taken out his eye.

Lieutentant Maddin made a motion for him to follow her, “This way please soldier.”

Jeromy nodded and quickly followed her from the tent. The sun was already sinking low on the horizon, casting an eerie red light over the camp that reminded Jeromy of the lights that had been in the compound. He noticed that some of the other men walking about seemed slightly disturbed by it. They were shielding their eyes and glancing at the blood red sky. None of them looked too happy about the weather.

Slowing down, Jeromy shielded his eyes and looked to the sun as well. It was blood red, staining the clouds and sky crimson with its last dying rays of light. Something dropped in the pit of Jeromy’s stomach.

“It’s an omen.” Cecila had stopped to see what he was looking at and had noticed the sky. She was staring at it like everyone else.

Jeromy looked to her questioningly, “You believe in stuff like that?”

Cecila turned to him with a worried look, “If you survive long enough, you will too.” She swung around and continued walking, Jeromy only a few steps behind her…but even as he saw the main tent, he realized that he had lost his appetite.

“What are you doing?” Cecila looked up at the man that was addressing Jeromy. He was a rather short man, not imposing physically.
Jeromy looked up, his face somewhat blank. The Lieutenant couldn’t blame him after what he had been through recently. He bent over his food again and poked at it with his fork, “What’s it to you?”

The small man sneered, “No one but officers are supposed to sit at this table.”

Jeromy shrugged, still poking at his food, “You don’t look like one to me, so what’s it matter to you?”

As the man began to turn a very pretty shade of red, Cecila slid over and took a seat closer to Jeromy, “Is there a problem here soldier?”

Jeromy shook his head slightly, “No problem Lieutenant, just having a conversation.”

The man blanched slightly at the sight of the red collar, “Lieu..Lieutenant, this man should not be eating here.”

Cecila cocked her head slightly, “This is my personal bodyguard. If he were to sit anywhere else, he would be disobeying his orders to protect me.”

The man’s face went completely pale, “Bodyguard?” He suddenly looked to Jeromy again…seemingly more impressed by Jeromy’s sullen attitude, “Excuse me sir, I’ll be leaving now.” He turned and rapidly departed.

Jeromy continued to poke at his food, not even seeming to notice that the man had left, “Lieutenant, what’s going to happed to my friend?” He didn’t look up as he spoke, he continued to stare at the plate in front of him.

Lieutenant Maddin shrugged, “From what I heard, everyone that was taken into custody is going to be shipped to a training camp, and if they manage to make it through that alive, they’ll be assigned to a unit based on the current need for new recruits.”

Jeromy finally looked up, “If he makes it through alive? What kind of training are they going to put him through?”

Cecila shrugged, looking slightly distraught, “I can’t tell you. It changes depending on the timing. When I went through it was mostly just survival…but they increase the difficulty every once in a while to something like real battle training…it all depends on the time that they enter and what the military needs most at the moment.”

Jeromy huffed, “So Major Carter says something, and I’m automatically in, but my friend still has to go through something that could get him killed?” He shook his head, “It’s not fair, it’s just not fair.”

The Lieutenant shrugged, “Most of life isn’t; it takes hard work, talent, and a lot of luck to stay alive.”

Jeromy bent over his food again, “I know that, but Tom’s the only friend that I’ve ever really had. When I was growing up, my brother always had everything, friends, girls, even the attention of my parents. As far as they were concerned, he could do no evil. Tom was the first person who ever thought of me as a friend, and I let him down.”

Cecila shook her head, “He has a chance. If he hadn’t been with you, he would have probably wound up like most of the others, so don’t blame yourself. It was the powers higher up that gave those orders, and no one can interfere with them. We just have to make do with what we can.”

Jeromy sighed and took a bite of the food, not seeming to taste it, “It’s just so frustrating. I know that there’s something I should be able to do for someone.”

The Lieutenant shrugged, “If you say so, but you’ll learn to watch out for yourself first if you stay around her long enough.”

Jeromy took another bite of food, mumbling as he did so, “I don’t think I’ll like myself much if I stay around here long enough.”

Cecila cocked her head, “What was that soldier?”

Jeromy swallowed what he was chewing, “Nothing Lieutenant.”

Lieutenant Maddin shrugged and moved back to where she had been sitting, some distance away from him. As she stood, she leaned close to him, “Tomorrow we’ll really begin your training.”
Jeromy watched her walk off with a somewhat nervous look…his training? He had thought that he had gotten out of the Special Forces training. Well, at if Tom had to do it, then he couldn’t complain. He turned back to his food and began picking at it again. Tomorrow it was then.

Posted By: Mir Jan 06, 2005 - 11:53 am

To be continued...

Please leave comments.

Posted By: Neurolanis Jan 27, 2005 - 01:26 pm

Wow. I didn't know until now that you're actually a very good writer, Mir! Err, I mean Xyster. You leave nothing in terms of craft and structure, wording or grammar, to pick at! Your "voice" is somewhat dry, but then so are some of the finer writers'. It flows evenly and doesn't cheat, lie, or demand anything from the writer. Besides patience, perhaps. I couldn't help but feel that it needed a bit more juice, but that's just my opinion. I didn't read the first chapter, and so I had to gather some things together as I read.

Until about three quarters of the way through I was thinking that this chapter should have been named "Finding Lieutenant Maddin!" As that seems to be the plot of it, you know. Obviously this is heavily military-based and I was surprised to find no elements of fantasy in it, but then that may come into it later on. Jeromy seemed somehow underplayed to me, as if who and what he is was being kept a secret, but again I didn’t read the first chapter so I don’t know what I missed. Anyway like I said, very well written! Honestly! And if you have any questions feel free to ask.

I told you I'd take a look at it sometime.

Posted By: Xyster Jan 31, 2005 - 05:40 am

Thanks. I actually have some more stories in here. You're right about Jeromy, some very important things about him are being kept hush hush for a while. Chapter 3 makes things get a lot more interesting...and strange.