The Arrival
We landed amid a clearing inside a thick forest. Clive and I jumped off the helicopter and looked around.
He frowned and approached Sergeant Paris.
"Where's the campsite?" he asked. "You're not going to try and kill us here, are you?" I looked around and realized that we were out of nowhere. I cleared my throat, terrified. We're with an adult soldier who just threatened to kill us a while ago. This can't be it.
The soldier looked at him thoughtfully. "Actually... I will."
And his eyes widened. Then he snarled at us. He yelled. "Rarer!"
For the love of Yolly!
"Aaaaah!" we screamed, and we scampered off.
"Hey! Come back!" I heard him calling after us, but we ignored him. Clive and I went on a run for our lives, tackling each other off the course. One determined to outrun the other. Well, if there's someone who's getting killed first, that's not me!
I ran faster. Moments later, I stumbled down hard on the ground.
Clive stopped running when he realized I had fallen down. I tried twisting my ankle and winced. I've sprained myself.
"WHAT THE FUCK!" he yelled at me. "He's coming! Get up!"
I can hear his footsteps, and indeed, he's coming.
He pulled me up, and I whimpered. I stumbled down again when I tried to take a step forward.
Clive looked around anxiously then growled. He turned his back on me and knelt down.
"Hurry up and get on!" he said.
"No," I told him. "You should go. If Paris arrives, I'll strive to fight him off to buy you some time."
"No way!" he told me and faced me. "We're surviving this together!"
"Well, we both die, and no one will know he did it," I said. I never went scared thinking about death before. Maybe it's time I think about it, sincerely.
"I don't care!" he said. "Just get on!"
He looked revolted but optimistic. I leaned on him, and he lifted me up on a piggyback ride. He just stood up when a uniformed woman appeared before us. The presence I detected from behind the nearby foliage was human, after all. I thought it was some kind of mammal.
"What the hell is this all about?" she asked.
"Lieutenant Margeary!" Both of us exclaimed. I felt relieved.
We heard footsteps from behind, running in our direction. Sergeant Paris halted, scratching his head.
"Explain the melodramatic, out-of-place pledge of survival I happened to hear, soldier," the lieutenant's eyebrow arched, waiting for whatever explanation Paris is about to recite.
"I just, uh," he laughed. "I didn't expect them to exaggerate like that!"
"You said you're going to kill us!" I said and looked at the lieutenant intensely.
"You frightened them," she said after looking at me.
"I was just playing a prank," Paris said and exhaled. "I'd be running for a while, wouldn't I?"
She nodded. "Carry the girl."
Paris walked towards us and took me from Clive. Clive didn't argue but eyed him keenly. I leaned towards him when he gestured to take me. It's safe now.
"One second, you two were killing each other," Paris said, shaking his head. "Another minute, you're the best of friends."
Clive just spat on the ground. He looked at me, pissed.
"Hey," I said. "I was a victim too, in case you didn't notice?" I raised my injured foot at him.
"Whatever," He said and walked ahead towards the lieutenant.
I knew we had arrived the moment I saw the dome towering over the trees. It was colossal. A couple of minutes more, and we're now standing in front of a metal door. The lieutenant pulled out her radio and asked for entrance.
When I looked behind us, I saw other kids just arriving with their escorts. When the metal door slid open, my eyes widened at the vast space before me.
The dome was bigger than I thought. It was a fortress all along, housing a field bigger than anything I've witnessed before. There were a couple of buildings around and finally, I saw it. The line of warplanes lying around like gigantic toys. The floor was made of marble. It appears that the place was designed to withstand flame. It is swarming with soldiers and kids--- soldiers who are visibly waiting for someone and students who're as awed as I am, gawking at the place.
We followed the lieutenant and approached the crowd a couple of steps away from the entrance. When they saw her, they saluted in unison. The kids just frowned.
"I am Lieutenant Kira Margaery, and I am your interim captain for a while before the appointed captain arrives," she announced in a voice loud and firm for everyone to hear. "In other words, I'd be the head of this facility that'd see to it that you are taken cared of properly until further notice."
I don't know much about the armed forces hierarchy, but I'm pretty sure a lieutenant title is not that high up in the ladder.
"Where is the captain?" asked a kid further in the front.
"Captains, colonels, and generals are currently attending an impromptu Military summit at the Grand Edifice."
They're at the President's Manor.
After answering the kid's question, she continued. "As you had witnessed, the place is not your usual camping site. No tents. Bonfire. Or whatever it is that you had imagined before stepping inside."
"What is this place?" asked a kid who firstly received warning glances from the soldiers around before finally hearing the answer he seeks.
"This is one of the country's military bases. A headquarters for the infantry protecting the northern lands," she answered and stared at the curious kid before continuing.
"Thousands of kids from this country had been drafted," she elaborated and started explaining the situation. "Only thirty percent of that number managed to pass. And all of you kids here is just a part of that number."
"Are there other kids still coming here?" asked a different voice. A pretty girl from the right raised a hand. "Or are there more bases where the rest of that thirty percent are kept?"
"For a girl," the lieutenant smiled meekly. "You are pretty sharp. No, and yes correspondingly."
"How many are we?" shouted another kid from the far back.
"In this site," she looked around. "Five hundred."
Whispers.
"Silence!" said the woman. And they all shut their mouths. "Your first assignment is to think of a new name. A code name, for that matter. Because the moment you stepped inside this place, you had been stripped of both your past and identity."
"You'll think that this first rule may be absurd or childish, but," said the lieutenant, scanning every kid around. "All you'd be is the country's disposable henchmen. Like every uniformed person, you see here. Your life is for the country and the country alone. You're immediate family members, after getting notified, received the money. You can think that you've been sold to the government."
"What?!" most of the kids were shocked to hear that, but I remained calm. A smile was actually creeping on my lips. At least, mom and Jerry received funds.
I smiled
You hit the jackpot, Selena Garcia. I think you've just found your life's purpose. She ignored the noise and proceeded. "The President and the Defense Secretary actually want to keep you in the dark regarding this matter. It is your right to know, and you have no option left but to accept it as soon as possible.
"You cannot deny this or refuse this, children. Try escaping, and you'll die early and from the hands of no other than your fellow countrymen. Find your purpose and bear in mind that even if everyone you know had cast you away, you are still here. Fighting for their safety. Fighting for the country. Our ancestors had fought for our freedom, and it is in our hands to protect what they have achieved. The gift they had bestowed upon us is ours to protect. And we will bring honor to our own graves. We live for the country, and we shall die for it wholeheartedly."
Silence.
I looked around and witnessed how the kids' expressions changed. Surprise turned into self-doubt. Then, fright. Lastly, defeat. They were smiling now. Pompously. The strong woman before them had bent their views, and for a matter of minutes, they're now sharing the same beliefs. I don't know what amazes me. Is it the lieutenant's ability of persuasion or the malleability of these children's minds?
They are children. They should listen to the elderly.
"Unlike the uniformed soldiers who are in front of you," she continued. "You will be reborn and be branded a name of your own choosing. Private Gil shall handle your registration."
She turned to the person she mentioned and left. Sergeant Paris and two more soldiers hurried after her.
A woman, yet she's respected. She's visibly stronger and more intelligent than the rest. I wonder if I could be a woman like her.
We were asked to fall in line. I saw Clive eyeing me for a second, then looked away. He's still mad, and I don't know why. I ignored him, and as I filled up the paper I was given, I paused, staring at the blank space where I should write my new name.
How about Garcia? Ugh. New name, dude. New name.
This is harder than I anticipated. How about Kyla? Trixie. Perrywinkle?
Damn. I'm wasting my time. Some of the kids had been escorted to their 'bunks.' But here I am still contemplating something as trivial as a name.
I should be supergirl or Wonderwoman. What about Darnae? Strong women. Queen Elizabeth?
Damn it.
How about Cat woman? Meow?
My eyes widened. I grinned. Better leave it simple and not so flashy. I wrote my new name and handed my application to Private Gil. He looked at the paper and then took a glance at me. Shaking his head, he took the other report from another kid. Then he picked up something from the hands of the soldier next to him.
"Here's all the information you need regarding your bunk number and the subjects you're to take," he told me, and I took it. There's a map too. "That's for you to find where your classes are. Move on now, Meow."
I saluted, grinning, and he saluted back. Not grinning.
From this day onward, I'm Meow---The name that will turn everyone 'into cats.
I carefully took my first step to the policewoman I'd soon become.