Intuitions of War
Chapter 14: Enlisting
*10:00 AM, LONDON*
Harper had been walking around London for three hours now, though he didn't know that. However, what he did know was that he was getting somewhat close to where he could enlist in the army.
How'd he know? He had been asking people walking on the sidewalks, and everyone seemed to be pointing in a certain direction.
However, the person he just asked told him this:
"Take a right at the end of this road, and then you should see a humongous building with crazy big pillars. That's where you can enlist." The man Harper asked said, before continuing to walk off in a hurry, clearly late on something.
'I'm here!' Harper realized that he had basically reached the building, and began running as fast as he could to join this war.
'I'm finally here, I can finally do something to help my laziness!' Harper was pretty much bouncing with joy, and as he turned right, he saw it. The building where it would all begin.
Huge white pillars were in front of it, and being used to carry it. It looked like it had been fully painted white, as it was so crazily white that it was nearly blinding.
"Woah…" Harper was in awe of such a building. There was no such thing in Newgate, where he had come from. He was now in front of the building, and ascending the steps that lead to the entrance of the building.
The entrance was also amazing, it was two huge humongous doors that were at least five times the size of Harper himself.
'Alright, where do I go?' Harper was finally getting serious again, and as he walked into the building, he began to look around. He saw many, many lines of people waiting to seemingly talk with the person behind the counter.
'There seems to be multiple counters, and a person behind each one, and a lind behind each one.' Harper was beginning to realize just how much people were running off to join the war.
'Their families must feel like crap right now…' Harper, personally, didn't really have a family, but when it came to the other kids that were also homeless and orphans that were living on the docks, he really did feel like a part of something.
'Ever since they all died, it feels like something has been missing…' Harper knew the pain of losing something similar to family.
"No, it's not the time for me to reminisce on the past right now, I have a duty to fulfill." Harper basically slammed his mental thoughts down, and got into the line that seemed to be the shortest.
'Alright, and now we wait.'
--- sequence 2 ---
*10:30 AM, LONDON*
'It's finally getting close to being my turn now.' Harper was right after this guy in front of him to go and enlist in the army. He was really excited, and couldn't wait much longer.
Then, he heard the signal.
"Thank you very much sir, we'll send you to the base next week." The clerk behind the counter said this sentence, and the guy in front of him walked away. Harper took a deep breath, and calmed himself down.
'No need to get giddy over this, I'm gonna do stuff that is much more exciting when I'm in the army.' Harper focused on calming himself with this one sentence within the dwellings of his mind, and walked up to the counter.
"Ah, a youngin. Are you here to enlist in the army too?" The person behind the counter was a lady, and she was quite an attractive one.
However, Harper didn't really have a taste for romance.
'It just forces you to spend money on women and spend time on them, and then you keep doing that for the rest of your life.' He wasn't interested in romance in the least bit, so this attractive lady didn't pique his interest the least bit.
"Yes, I am." Harper said, courage and memories filling his mind and voice. He was beginning to get flashbacks, flashbacks of why he wanted to do this.
'So I can make the world a better place for me to live in.'
"Well, you get quite a few options." The lady behind the counter said, and handed a bunch of papers to Harper while taking a step back and seemingly lighting a fag and smoking it.
"Um… ma'am?" Harper raised his voice, and the lady looked up.
"What is it?" She said as she removed the cigarette from her mouth and made a smile with her crusty lips.
"I never really learned how to read, so if you could explain everything to me verbally…" Harper explained, and the lady suddenly seemed extremely interested.
A smile came up on her face.
'Oh crap' Harper had seen that type of face one too many times in his life, the face that people would make when they were planning on using him.
"See, I don't know how to read very well either, so if you want me to struggle and read it for you, it's gonna take a bit of money." The woman said, and gestured with her hand by making the shape of a coin with her fingers.
"You're trying to scam this young man right here?" The guy behind Harper piped up, and everyone else in line began to listen in as well.
"You know the financial situation in London is terrible, so what the hell's the matter with you, trying to scam a young man?!" One of the other guys in line yelled out.
"Yeah! I'll read it for him!" The guy behind Harper walked up to the counter, and began to read the papers, while the lady behind the counter looked like she was getting a bit anxious.
'Woah, way nicer than in Newgate…' Harper was surprised at how much people rallied to help him.
"Alright buddy, here are the options. You can join the Marines, and specialize in missions that come to water. You can just join the normal infantry, which is just combat on land, the one that has the most missions, people, and deaths. There's the airforce, but you won't be allowed to join it because of your age, and that's about it." The man read the options to Harper, patted him on the back, and backed up.
'Huh' Harper was surprised that he actually had a choice. He thought that he would be told where he would go, not that he would actually get to pick.
However, before Harper could pick, a man burst in from the door behind the counter.
"Oi lass, how come you didn't mention the recon unit!?" The man who burst through the door seemed to be extremely angry at the man for not bringing up something.
"And you, clerk! What do you mean tire yourself by reading?! You've done this so many times that you should have it memorized by heart at this point, yet you're still trying to rip people off!" The man was definitely angry.
"Well, the recon unit isn't popular at all, and even if he did know it, he wouldn't join." The man behind Harper said, but Harper flashed him a glare.
"Next time, tell me everything once both you and me are in the army." Harper silently told him this sentence, but the man definitely got it. Red appeared on his face, which showed that he was very clearly embarrassed.
"Clerk, how many people have enlisted in the army or ran away without hearing about the recon unit?" The man tried to calm himself down, and asked in what seemed to be the nicest tone he had.
"Uhhhh… basically nobody?" The clerk replied back, while still thinking about how many people she had actually told.
"Damn it!" The man flipped a table full of papers, and grabbed the microphone.
"Everyone, listen up! Don't listen to the useless shits that are behind the counter, and listen to me! You got the marines, the infantry, the air force, and the recon! Make sure to ask them for everything, and if you can, join recon, as it is extremely understaffed!" The man finished, and slammed the microphone on the table, while gesturing at the clerk lady behind the counter to get out.
"What?" The clerk lady was confused by the hand gesture, so the man made it clear to her by telling her directly.
"What? I'll tell you what, you're fired you dumb whore, now get out!" The man said, while ripping her name tag off her chest, and opening the door that leads to behind the counter. The lady began begging for the man to let her stay, but he wasn't having any of her crap.
'Real interesting guy he is.' Harper was amused at the situation, and how it turned out.
"Get out, now! Anyway, listen to me young man. You wanna join recon, that's where all the real action is!" The man behind the counter said, and Harpers interest was somewhat piqued.
"Explain to me what it is." Unlike the other forces of a military, Harper didn't know much about recon.
Actually, he didn't know anything about recon besides the term used to refer to it.
"Alright, first of all, the recon part of our military actually has a name, and so does the other parts of the military, but for now we'll focus on Recon. It's name is the Weasels, chosen by the Queen herself!" The man seemed quite proud of the name.
'Actually, he seems more proud about the part where he said the Queen chose the name.' Harper took a deep breath, and asked for a more in-depth explanation.
"Time to get serious, I guess. Recon can vary in difficulty, it can be really easy or really hard. See, if we're asking you to go and explore Paris for us and find tactical points where we could throw our army, that'd be hard. However, something like scouting out a village and listing how much soldiers it should have can be pretty easy." The man began the explanation, and Harper actually took a seat in the chair in front of the counter.
"A Weasels goal is to figure out the ins and outs of a place, and figure out how we could use it strategically for an upcoming battle. We won't ask you to scope out places unless we're to have a battle in them. However, we have a lot of battles within this war, so you can expect to scout out a lot of places." Harper was getting pretty tired of this explanation, but he was actually somewhat captivated.
'For some reason, I'm actually somewhat interested in recon…' The more he thought about it, the more he felt like he definitely would fit in recon.
"Once you scope out the location, and understand everything about it, you're to report it back somehow, whether it be through a radio, or coming back in person. However, here is the hard part of recon during wars. During wars, almost nobody is allowed to enter or leave countries, and it's even stricter when it comes to cities. Guards will be all over the place, you'll find militias, and more." The man seemed to be getting to something that was actually serious, so Harper started listening.
"That's why we try to recon at night if possible, as if you're questioned by a militia or something and you don't fit their description of someone that's 'safe', you could very easily be shot to death." Just when the man seemed to be done, he started again.
"However, there is one last part to recon. Finding out the enemy plans. If you can, find out what the enemy is going to do, and bring the information to us. Scouting out the location is the main part of recon, but this is also extremely important. The enemy plans can be used to counter whatever they do." The man finally finished, and Harper nodded one last time during the explanation.
"So, you inter-"
"Yes" Before the man could finish, Harper accepted that he would join the recon.
The man had a huge grin on his face, as if he had just figured out he was going to get married or something.
"Considering how useless the clerks are here, probably only a single person per week, maybe even a month, joins recon. So, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to hear about recon, and welcome you to the team, Harper!" The man said something that confused Harper.
"How'd you know my name?" Harper was intrigued as to how the man knew his name. Either way, he would have to tell them his name, but he was interested nonetheless.
"I told you, we scout out everything that we predict a battle is going to happen in, including Newgate." The man's face grew somewhat dim after mentioning Newgate, but Harper was quite surprised.
'Does that mean the army knew that the raid on Newgate was going to happen?' Though he could easily feel displeased with the army for knowing that the raid on Newgate was going to happen and doing nothing, he just felt even more interest in the recon.
"Heh, what's happened has already happened, stop worrying about it sir." Harper finally piped up something worth saying, and the man behind the counter smiled so widely that his teeth made him resemble a shark.
"Then, come back in a week and in the center of this building, which is right there, there will be one of the leaders of recon to pick you up, and formally look over everything with you. Once again, welcome to recon, little shit." Suddenly, the smile on his face didn't seem to be really welcoming anymore, but more of a predator looking at his prey, which in this case, was Harper.
Harper began to feel a bit uneasy.
'I feel like I've walked into a trap now…'