Solomon had to return to his room to collect his weapon, having only carried his pistol to the briefing. He was so used to the safety and predictability of earth. This will not happen again he told himself. He will always be armed accordingly.
The warning klaxon was sounding once more throughout the red sector, a noise that truly got the adrenaline flowing sufficiently through the once calm veins of every person who was scuttling around the dirt, a wall of dust was beginning to rise from under the soldiers boots. Quickly getting to his room, Solomon found his whole squad, armoured, armed and ready, the greeted him with a brisk salute, as he rushed through his door.
"Okay, guys, quickly, pop these patches on, they're your new call signs!" he said as emerged from his door passing them the new patches with 'Red 1-1' stitched upon them, "Follow me, and we'll get us some new kills." he said loudly as he set off towards the South Gate where the attack was coming from. Solomon passed the box of call signs to Decius and told him to carry it until they joined with their company at the south gate, as he relayed the orders from Broom to meet at that gate.
The South gate was no more than a thin metal fence fit between two dirt mounds that was electrified. Only turned off to allow people to move the gate and enter or leave. The wall was quite simply, a man made wall of dirt. Literal dirt. Sand had been piled eight feet high and levelled on the top and walled with sandbags, high enough to kneel behind.
Once the new Call signs had been handed out to the First Company Solomon began giving his orders. The electric gate stayed electrified however, Solomon looked behind him, where the soldier who had control of the electricity flow to the metal gate stood, he was as still as a statue. "Thirty seven minutes." came the voice of Commander Broom. Solomon looked at at the top of the wall where Broom had positioned himself. Looking down upon the military unit. "Thirty seven minutes. And only six of the ten companies have shown up, so far." said Broom, struggling to hold back his frustration. "the camp is breached and people are dying! if this was a real attack, you would have been responsible for that."
Lucius came charging down from in between the two checkpoint bays that overlooked the gate, his company following quickly behind his thundering feet that pounded the soil into sand. The look of confusion quickly spread across their faces.
"you all have failed!" spat Broom "reduced rations for every single late squad!"
Reduced rations was always a harsh punishment. A dehydrated powder that when added with water turned into a ball of bread. Highly nutritious, awful tasting. Solomon ate alone that evening, sat on within his small room on his little bed, he was missing The Evergreen, he was missing Eve. He was missing his string chair. He knew, if there was an alert, it took him seven minutes to the armoury, five minutes to arm himself, another four minutes to report to his station. He knew all the short cuts, all the routes, but here, nothing. He was a lost sheep. He was not going to allow himself to fail on the next drill, whenever that may be, even if there is another one! There was a soft knock at his door, it was Lyra. A white dust shawl covered her beautiful face, but Solomon knew by her eyes, that it was her. "Care for a walk?" he asked, grabbing his rifle, a map and his cloth olive scarf that he tied around his face. That evening a harsh dust storm had swept into the Red Sector.
Lyra and Solomon walked all the streets within the Red Sector, finding the best routes, The Red Sector was not overly large, one mile in each direction from the command building, surrounded on all sides by the dirt wall with sandbags on the top. Four electrified gates had been erected on each side of the sector, North, East, South and West, easy enough to find on a compass, easy enough to retreat and reinforce when needed. After three hours, Solomon was confident he knew the Red Sector as well as The Evergreen. Solomon began to make a plan. First thing, he was going to assemble his company, and perform training runs from their barracks to each of the gates with his new directions. Now that Solomon had mapped The Red Sector, he eased up a little, talking with Lyra was so easy. Even when he was tense and serious, she always made him smile. After a while they got back to Solomon's door. Which was only a couple streets away from the barracks, that took Solomon so long to get to earlier that day. Even in the harsh dust storm, Solomon's room did not look inviting in the slightest. With a sigh he turned and said goodnight to Lyra who leaned against the door frame with smiling eyes, her face still covered by the dust coated material that now resembled more of a yellow shade than white. She lifted up a bottle of strong alcohol and some packaged cooked steaks from her bag and watched Solomon's smile spread broadly across his face, letting the dust stick to his teeth and he quickly began coughing, which made Lyra laugh. "Come on in, then. Let's have a date." he spluttered, gasping for air.
Solomon awoke the next day with the ever familiar ache inside his skull. The single bed did not offer much room for two people. But Solomon felt both sides of the small mattress. Where was Lyra? Solomon sat up, causing his head to pulsate. casting his tired eyes around the room, to see nothing but emptiness. Sadness swilled into Solomon's heart that was already working overtime to eradicate the alcohol from his bloodstream. After dressing himself, he sat on the end of his small bed and stared at his feet, trying to engage his mind for the morning's exercises when the door opened, bringing in a soft salty breeze, and also sand. A slender figure danced in, "Good Morning, handsome" said Lyra who was carrying two large drinking containers filled with an orange liquid. "Where did you get that? We're on reduced rations..." asked Solomon suspiciously eyeing the drinking container. "Drink it, and I'll let slip." ordered Lyra with a playful smile. Fresh orange juice. Solomon's taste buds danced with joy as the beautiful orange liquid passed into his body.