Chapter 12

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed in being recognized. Looking back, I realized that they were recognizing the core traits that we look for in the military; leadership, fitness, and doing what's right. It was plain to anyone that Tom had a natural charisma of a born leader, someone that everyone would follow without question. It's not exactly “likeability”, though that's definitely a piece to it. He just had a gravity around him, and everyone fell into place around him, like a Sun.

Anna exemplified the physical standards we all strived for. While there were slightly different standards between Males and Females for biological reasons, when it came down to it physicality was physicality. Anna could destroy all of us in any physical competition, barring something requiring lifting a crazy amount of weight in which Tom would excel. But she was the perfect specimen, no argument there.

Bryce, on the other hand, was… a sort of surprise pick. From the first day, Bryce had no problem speaking his mind, going just far enough not to get another microphone to the forehead. But you could tell anytime he opened his mouth the MTI’s had that “oh, not you again…” look on their faces. Often, though, he spoke up with good reason. Maybe a question wasn’t clear enough, or directions were vague. And after that first day, he always asked it in the most polite way he could. It took me a long time to realize that he was probably the bravest of our bunch; he would always say the things that no one else was willing to voice.

As we laid in bed that night, the lights out, there was a feeling like tomorrow would be something different - that we were about to open a door we could never close. As I finally began to drift to sleep, I remember thinking about my brother, and wondering where he was these days as the darkness took me.

Week five wasn’t as crazy as we expected it to be. We reported downstairs as usual, but instead of reporting outside for some sort of hellish physical fitness routine, we were escorted to some Busses which transported us to the other side of base where there was a hospital. To be honest, I don’t remember much of this day.

We went inside, where we had to sign what felt like a hundred release forms, and then assigned to our own suites in a wing of the hospital. I remember getting into a gown, and a nurse explaining all the procedures that were going to happen; the risks involved, where the ports were going to go, and that I would be in here about a week. During that time, I would be healing, and they would be running tests on the ports to ensure they functioned as designed.

Stolen from NovelFire, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

So, you can probably guess by now, I came out on the other end just fine. No complications, and I actually got to eat some actual chicken! I don’t care what anyone says, hospital food was so much better than the cafeteria on base.

However, we did find out after being released, we lost another six trainees, leaving just 30 of us now. I never did find out what exactly happened, we were told “there were complications, and they could not progress any further and were removed.” That didn’t sit right with me, but as had been engrained in me the past four weeks… Don’t ask questions you don’t want, or need, the answers to.

Week six began much like the first four weeks had, except it was a bit less… intense. While we had all mostly healed up, there were a few of us that still had wounds that leaked a bit, and we had nurses assigned to look after us and check us after any physical exertion. By day 4 of week six, the new ports installed all over my body I barely even noticed. While wearing my fatigues you really couldn’t even tell I had them. Day 7 of week 6 is a day that will be etched in my brain for the rest of my life; it was the day we personally met Theodore.

As we assembled in the hallway on that Sunday, it was raining outside. We could hear it outside the small windows in our room, with the occasional rumble of thunder punctuating the rain drops. We stood waiting for one of the MTI’s to come up the stairwell, where they would bark some orders, and we would comply. Today, however, instead of a MTI in a wide brimmed hat coming up the stairs there was a chubby guy in a labcoat.

The man couldn’t have been much older than 30 years old, with slick backed hair and a hairline that was receding far too quickly. He carried a small holo-pad, and as he come up the stairs in the middle of our hallway, he looked left and right down our hallway. He turned around, and looked to be speaking to someone in the stairwell. He nodded, his gaze locking down our hallway and he walked toward us.

We could then hear the barking orders of an MTI as they crested the stairs, and obviously the orders were for the other trainees in the hallway; they were green, having arrived here 3 weeks after we had. Poor guys, I felt myself lamenting, as the guy that looked like a scientist pulled up to us.

He cleared his throat, and started calling out names from his pad, and as we responded he was checking us off one at a time. Nodding with finality as he called off the last name from our group, he cleared his throat as he began to speak.

“Uh, hello Trainees. My name is Leonard, I’m a research assistant here. I am here to do your Rig Orientation and introduction to Theodore. Today will be the first day you log into Babylon, and along with that… well, I guess I should leave some surprises, shouldn’t I? If you don’t mind, please follow me.”

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