Ch. 1: The New Earth CoalitionA Chapter by Mister SuedeIntroduction of the main character, who receives a rude awakening.Present Day, Settlement 0012
I
remember the day I was recruited like it was yesterday. It
was a beautiful, sunny, cloudless day in July. It was a Sunday, and I was
luckily out of school. I had just survived finals week, and, as a side effect,
the life was pretty much gone from me. I’d noticed long ago that I’d had a
limited propensity for school, but summer always came around just in time to
rescue me from death by boredom. I
was just pulling on my underwear when I heard the doorbell ring. “Could
you get it, Matt?“ I heard my mom, Claire, exclaim. She was making breakfast in
the kitchen; I could smell from here that it was bacon and eggs, and I could
feel my stomach churning at the thought. “I’m
only in my underwear, ma. Gonna need you to get it this time.” I
heard her grumble a bit. As she walked to the front door, I pulled on the rest
of my clothes. A button-up with long sleeves that I proceeded to roll to my
elbows, a pair of loose-fitting jeans, my black sneakers, and my glasses. Since
I’d gotten a haircut recently, my dark brown hair was short, but it was so
thick that I couldn’t ever style it for real. I usually settled for a simple
left-handed part. I’m
gonna take a moment to explain something. It had only been about sixty years
since we’d begun colonizing, and, with our eyes on establishing functional
towns and cities, technology hadn’t had much time to re-evolve. We were stuck with
relics of the past, although those ‘relics’ were the only technology I knew. I
was only sixteen at the time, born to New Earth like my mother and father, and
unlike those who’d lived before the Great Catastrophe, we didn’t have flying
cars or instant food materializers. Hell, before about ten years prior to that
day there had barely been any cars at all. Industry had been developing slowly
over time, due to a relatively small population, and priority was put on
manufacturing practical things, not luxuries. Not
only was science divided into those categories, but the medical field was
overflowing with new problems. Diseases that came from native wildlife spread
through the original survivors’ populations like wildfire, although over the
course of the many years it finally lowered to relatively manageable levels,
mainly due to the excellent recordkeeping of vaccination techniques. Regardless,
technology wasn’t advanced. At least, not at the home or everyday front. We
still had doorbells and coffee makers and even microwaves. The same was not
true for the military. From what I’d heard, the New Earth Coalition, which had
been one of the first governmental powers established due to the war, had had
plenty of time to dedicate to weapons and equipment advances. I’d caught wind
of rumors about truly terrifying things that were being developed, but, at that
time, I had no real idea. So,
that being said, my technologically average apartment, combined with my
relatively average and boring day-to-day life had me living pretty laxly, which
is why what happened next may as well have been a punch to the gonads. I
stepped out of my room, barely heard my mother call me to the front door, and,
as I turned the corner of the hallway, stopped dead in my tracks. Standing in the
doorway, in full dark blue Coalition attire, was a man. He was tall, built like
a brick, and had the face of a man who’d seen many more interesting things than
the inside of a middle-class, single mother’s apartment. He
looked straight at me, his gaze examining every single feature, down to the
last skin cell. It was obvious that he was a recruiter. My
mind began to race. Was there any reason the military would want me? I knew
that they could forcibly recruit any person over the age of sixteen if need be,
but I was nothing special. I was of average build, I had average endurance, and
I wasn’t even very agile. I had good grades in school and I was at the top of
my class, but at that time I didn’t figure that would’ve been taken into
consideration. The only thing I could think of that would make me of any
interest to them was my dad. My
father had been recruited by the Coalition, too, y’see. He’d been like me; I
like to think I inherited my brain from him. He’d been promoted to Captain soon
after his deployment, and was repeatedly commended for his bravery and skill.
That was before he’d passed away about two years ago. A spear to the chest took
him away from my mother and I. A spear.
In the wars we learned about in history class, death was dealt by nuclear bombs
and guns. Spears had been dead for centuries, dating all the way back to
medieval times. Now, the fear of medieval life was alive and well once again.
It was a scary thought. Regardless,
I had no idea why the military would want me, and there was no reason for them
to be here about my father. We’d buried him long ago, gotten any medals he may
have earned. I gathered myself, turned to address the man directly while my
mother stared, speechless. “Can
I help you, sir?” I asked, putting my arm around my mother, who happened to be
hopelessly short. Her face was contorted in what looked like a mixture of
surprise, fear, and perhaps even a little anger. The
man grimaced almost imperceptibly. His eyes did not move from me. “I’m afraid
the NEC needs you. Now.” Direct,
concise. The mark of a true military man. “Sir, I’m sure you have the wrong
kid. Don’t you look at school records? Athletics? I’m far from military-grade,”
I said, speaking lightly and chuckling a bit to avoid shedding light on my
obvious attempts at averting my gaze from his. He
looked me up and down once more. “Listen, kid. I agree with you and I know you
don’t like it. I don’t like it, either. You’ve got the look of a scrappy,
good-for-nothing little runt. But I don’t call the shots and I don’t choose who
we recruit, I only pick ‘em up. So get your s**t, say goodbye to your mom, and
let’s get the hell outta here.” I
stood for a second, taken aback by his rather straightforward response. It had
been a long time since someone had addressed me like that, and I found myself
without a response. Quietly, without meeting his gaze, I nodded and lumbered
back to my room without looking back.
Claire
looked up at the man with tear-filled eyes. “Tell me what you intend to do with my son,”
she said. Her voice wavered, but her eyes never moved or blinked, despite their
red rims. “Quite honestly, ma’am, I have no idea. Like
I told him, I just bring ‘em i-“ “Don’t give me that bullshit. You’ve already
taken one person away from me. You owe me a better explanation than that.” The
man looked at her, clenched his jaw, contemplated for a moment, then nodded. “I don’t know for sure, ma’am. All I can tell
you is that he’s going to be on the front lines,” he said, his voice tinged
with what seemed like regret. “I can assure you, ma’am, he won’t be alone.
There’ll be others just like him, people he can relate to. People he can form a
real team with,” he said, wringing his hands together nervously, “I know about
your husband, ma’am. I know what kind of man he was; everyone does. If your
son’s got any bit of his father in ‘im, he’ll be just fine.” Claire
looked him straight in the eye, examining his face for any sign of dishonesty. “I don’t care what your job description is.
If my son comes home in a casket, I’ll give you a real taste of a woman’s scorn.” “The name’s Eugene Grant. If you need me,
ma’am, I’m always at the recruiting station,” he said, holding out his hand.
Claire regarded it, then turned and walked toward Matthew’s room without a
second word.
I
was putting the final things in my hastily packed suitcase when my mother
entered the room. She crossed from the door to my bed - nearly seven feet - in
a flash, throwing her arms around me in an embrace that would’ve crushed an
I-beam. “Come back to me safe, Matt. I don’t think I
can stand another funeral,” she said. Then she cried into my side. We stood
there for a long time, until she was finally finished and had lost her voice. I
tried to stay strong, but am not ashamed to say I eventually sobbed just as
hard. After
we were both finished, I said a solemn goodbye, still unable to grasp the
gravity of the situation I’d been thrown into. When I got down the stairs of
the apartment complex and stepped out into the open air, I laid eyes on the
large, black SUV that the man had driven. It was the kind of thing a man would
buy in a midlife crisis, so obnoxiously large and bulky that I was surprised it
fit in a single lane. I gave the man a look that I hoped said, “Really?” but he
didn’t seem to notice. As
I turned toward the backseat, the giant man grunted, jerking a thumb toward the
front. “I ain’t no damn chauffer, kid,” he said. I
threw my suitcase in the backseat, grabbing my portable mini-computer from the
front pocket. I’d loaded my favorite games onto it from my full-sized desktop
and I fully intended to get into gaming mode. I got comfy in the passenger
seat, put my headphones on, and pressed the power button. The
giant man reached across the seat, grabbed the computer, and calmly tossed it
out the driver-side window. “Hey, what the hell? That thing cost me 700
bucks! I built it myself!” I yelled, pulling my headphones down around my neck. The
man looked at me, his eyes blazing. “Listen up, you little s**t. Your mother is
worried sick about you, in case you hadn’t noticed. You’re going to war, and whether it was your choice or
not, you will be fighting. Now, if
you don’t sit down, get a bit more serious, and grow a pair, then you will
be going home in a God-damned body bag, if
they can scavenge your body from the teeth of the monsters that you civvies
seem to think are cuddly f*****g teddy
bears,” he said, every muscle in his neck taught with rage. He
said nothing during the remainder of the trip, and I decided I preferred it
that way. I thought hard on his words. Though they’d been a bit harsh, I knew
he was right. The inhabitants of my society needed soldiers, and they would
take what they needed. If no one would volunteer, there was no other way. No
matter how unfortunate, I was stuck in this situation, and I knew that I owed
it to my mother to make it through safe and sound. I made my decision then. I
would survive, no matter the cost. © 2015 Mister SuedeAuthor's Note
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