Chereads / TITAN UPRISING / Chapter 2 - Chapter 2 Serving for sometime

Chapter 2 - Chapter 2 Serving for sometime

The golden rays of the setting sun showered a small, cramped room with its glorious light.

But apart from that there was nothing else that looked glorious since everything inside the room was in a mess, with many waste papers and dirty clothes littering the floor.

A small wall mount screen was turned on but no channel was being aired since the signal cable was not connected to an antennae, in fact the cable extended from the television and ended in coils on the floor.

Lying on the bed was a young man of about twenty one years, his eyes half closed. This was Xavier Thorne.

Xavier was tall and athletic, his looks leaned more on the average side but that didn't really matter to him now since he had bigger problems than his looks right now.

Being an orphan from an early age, Xavier had to learn how to survive on his own. The streets taught him that the hard way.

After attaining the age where he could get a job, Xavier of course secured a job that would in the least ensure that he could feed himself.

But the responsibilities kept on piling up and he reached a point where he could no longer be able to pay the bills anymore, which explained the scattered papers on the ground.

They were actually reminders for him to pay his bills, which included tax and other national obligations like that.

Also stashed among the scattered papers was the reminder to pay the rent of the apartment he stayed in.

The rent was two months overdue but with his silver tongue, Xavier had managed to keep the grumpy old land lady at bay.

The only reason he had remained with a nonchalant approach toward his problems was because he was supposed to join the military soon, this was his escape from all these burdens.

But to say 'join' would have been an over statement since he was not going willingly but what could he possibly do.

One of the national obligations was that a male citizen was bound to serve in the military for a period whenever call upon and after they had served, they would be free to continue on with their lives.

And lately, the commander had been frequently calling upon the male youth citizens to perform their sacred duty. Refusing would be tantamount to treason.

Of course there were some crazy ones who joined at their own free will, pushed by circumstances.

Those who served in the military were exempted from financial national obligations and the fact that the military had been relatively silent was more assurance that new recruits would not be facing anything life threatening any time soon.

' it will be a holiday for me ' Xavier thought . 

Joining the military was better than being sued in court for not paying his debts right?

With this thought, Xavier fell asleep. The reason he slept early was because he was going to get up really early in the morning.

He plans to sneak out before the grumpy land lady wakes up and bombards him with many questions.And the fact that he goes on daily jogs in the morning would make his escape less suspicious.

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Xavier jolted from the bed and his feet immediately landed on the scattered papers on the floor. Darkness seeped from the cartainless window and into the room. 

The world was in complete silence, and the only sounds that permeated the darkness was Xavier's rugged breathing.

This was the usual time that Xavier always got up for his daily jog, when everyone was deep asleep.

 "Let's go"

Xavier spoke in a low voice as he stood and walked toward the miniature bathroom at the room's corner.

After freshening up, Xavier donned his jacket that was on the floor near the door.

' there's no way that old lady is awake at this time' this was Xavier's thought as he opened the door.

The staircase that led to the exterior of the apartment was filled with darkness but didn't hinder Xavier's movement in the slightest, since he had walked along the staircase countless times.

But his seemingly smooth operation was not going to be smooth at all, at the bottom of the staircase was his grumpy land lady – looking up at him with a questioning look.

'what is she doing up at this time, it's the dead hours for crying out loud' 

But Xavier didn't halt his steps least the land lady starts suspecting him.

" And where are you going, in the middle of the night?" The land lady asked him when they both met at the bottom of the staircase.

" Obviously for my morning jog, and you? " Xavier answered and asked one of his own, not to get the answer but to stop the old hag from asking more questions.

It did its work properly because the land lady went back to her own apartment without answering him.

After that instance, Xavier jogged until he reached the park and relaxed on the bench that was just outside the park.

For some reason the military personnel he spoke to at the telephone booth near the apartment he stayed at said that he would be picked up by a black van at this location.

Even before he could ask about the details and why the secrecy, the person on the other end hung the phone up.

Now Xavier had a lot of questions which he really needed answers to but those were worries of another time.

Right now he was just grateful that this opportunity had presented itself at the right time.

' to all those who I owed money, I'm sorry ...but I'll repay the debt by serving my country diligently hehehehe' Xavier thought, all giddy inside.

After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, Xavier finally saw the alleged back van from a distance.

Its black polish was hidden well by the darkness around with only the brightly burning headlight giving its location away.

The van wasn't slowing down in the slightest even as it approached, Xavier started to doubt if this was the van he was supposed to watch out for.

But his worries were unaccounted for since the driver engaged the brakes causing the an to come to a screeching halt in front of him.

The sliding door was opened and an imposing figure could be seen seated with the tademark military uniform, an emblem of a shining star on the left shoulder of the uniform.

He only spoke one word:" Xavier"

It was my name, this prompted me to stand and board the vehicle and it continued moving forward.

Inside the van were others like Xavier, new recruits. Maybe of a similar circumstance like his, maybe due to personal reasons.

But all in all, they were going to be comrades in the end.

The van was dimly lit by its dome lights allowing Xavier to get a good look at his comrades to be.

The fact that seats inside the van were arranged in a way that they faced each other also made this possible.

A young lady interested him the most among their small group which consisted of five men and three women. Xavier had a keen eye and he noticed that she didn't possess that dumpy air around her like the rest of them.

Also the fact she was glowing, unlike the rest of them, definitely meant that she had not joined the military because she was forced by circumstances and it was most probably her own choice.

'crazy' this was the only word he could use to describe her.

Nobody spoke a word to each other and the one who broke the silence was the military dressed officer by the door when he told us to get out when the car finally stopped.

After getting out of the van, Xavier took his time to get a good look at their current location. They were at a ship dock that was lit by the street lamps that were placed equidistant from each other.

 

The place was deserted just like the rest of the streets at this time.

A lone boat was floating in the black waters, with the words 'flat and happy' engraved on the side of the boat.

" Board the boat everyone" the military officer spoke as he led the way to the boat.

The smell of fish got stronger as the group neared the boat. That made sense since the boat was a trawler.

' it seems that all the military has relocated to that island ' Xavier thought. It was not a secret that the southern continent military force had relocated to the unclaimed island for a training program.

So even without the military officer telling them where they were going, Xavier knew that their destination was the unclaimed island.

After bordering the trawler, they were off ...leaving behind their old life and heading off to start a new one.

Xavier couldn't help but smile wryly.