Chapter 3

May 19th, 3624

Anya

The door flings open and the lights abruptly turn on at about five in the morning. Everyone else moans and growls at Adrian as he stands cheerily at the door. I usually like mornings, waking up at around seven or so on a normal day, so I’m not too terribly tired, but the shock of waking up so quickly throws me off a bit. I swing my legs around and stand up, suddenly noticing the folded outfits on everyone’s bedside table. I take mine and slide past Adrian to go change. He nods and then quickly goes back to his mission of getting the rest of the guys out of bed.

The uniform I’m given fits me perfectly. It’s a semi-short gray dress with a red waistband, and two large pockets on the side. The material isn’t uncomfortable either, so the short sleeves aren’t constricting me in any way. I leave the bathroom and find the other recruits standing in the hallway, now dressed in a uniform with the same colors as mine. They all look dead tired, rubbing their eyes in an attempt to stay up.

“Today,” Adrian starts loudly, “we will be starting off with just some basic drills. I’m taking you all into the main gym to do this. There is a chair on the side, Anya, for you, and everything you need will be right there next to you. As for the rest, we will start off with attendance each morning, regardless of the fact that there are only five of you. I will not be waking you up from this point on, so it will be your responsibility to set an alarm to get here, ready to go, at six sharp. Tomorrow, as with every Sunday, we will meet in the classroom right over here at the same time.” He points to the door next to the library. “There we will have a formal lesson. Usually it will be on weapons and strategy, but tomorrow I’ll be going over more on the numbers and scoring and give you a basic list of deductions. Classroom days will not be averaged like the rest of our training, so they’re almost a break where you learn all of the information for the week.”

He opens the door to the main gym and leads us inside. The whole room is a lot larger than I expected, stretching out really far out with high ceilings. I see the chair Adrian was talking about tucked into the back corner of the room, so I take an immediate left and sit down, noting the first aid kit and stack of towels under my chair. Adrian starts barking out orders, explaining different drills and then demonstrating them. Most of them look simple, not that I’d be able to do them, but they look just easier than I had expected.

 I feel really awkward just sitting here, watching them and not doing anything. I know a lot of soldiers have no respect for the caretakers, saying that they do nothing, but it’s not like we get any credit if we did do something important. My mom, for example, always tells me stories about how she’s saved countless lives of soldiers in the war when she first started out. I know all guys have some pride thing where they can’t admit that there are people better than them, but without all of the girls acting as nurses during the war, they would honestly be nowhere.

The recruits start to get into a routine, performing the same exercises for a certain amount of time, so watching them becomes not only weird but boring too. I take to examining the cut on my hand from yesterday. After lunch I was able to find actual medical supplies in the closet and wrap it correctly. The medicine I put on it has eliminated the pain. I should have paid more attention to the glass when I put it in my hand. Zeke gave me a really hard time about picking up after Scott though. I don’t get it. Why does he care? And more importantly why does he think that I should be treated like one of them when I am in fact just a caretaker? And if he really cared that much, why did I have to go back and pick up the glass alone after everyone left while he was running pointless races with Eli back in the track? I swear that boy is all talk. He’ll never actually do anything though.

I grab the gauze from the first aid kit and start to wrap my hand, as Adrian recommended so I don’t slice it back open doing a simple task or anything.

“Well, since you seem to be good at that, would you mind wrapping my wrist for me?” I look up in shock to a pair of dark eyes. Derek. I drop the gauze on the ground in surprise and it rolls under my chair. I duck my head down to pick it up and mentally slap myself for looking like an idiot. He’s probably judging me right now because of how stupid and startled I was. “Look I realize you might enjoy looking at the bottom of the chair as opposed to my sweaty face but I kind of need to get back to training.” After finally gathering up the gauze and ripping off enough for my own hand, I look up again and see a smirk appearing on his lips. Wordlessly, I wrap his outstretched wrist, which doesn’t look to be red, swollen, irritated, cut or bruised in any way, but I’m not in a position to ask him about it. He inspects it for a second and then turns back to the gym on his heels.

Derek jumps right back into the push-up drill they’re doing. I tape the gauze on my wrist and repack the medical supplies quickly, noticing that Derek doesn’t look to be unsteady on his wrist in the slightest. I know that it doesn’t mean he’s lying about it, but something about him feels off. His starting score is higher than even Scott’s was, and now it looks like he’s faking an injury. I mean maybe his wrist does hurt but I would expect him to either push through it or just take the gauze and wrap it himself. I guess I don’t really know what type of person he is, but his appearance leads me to believe that he has a personality like that.

I turn my attention to Eli. He keeps dropping his knees and collapsing on his elbows. It seems really clear that he’s having trouble keeping up with the rest of them.

“Eli!” Adrian screams. “If you don’t start trying harder you’re never going to get better! You need to actually DO the work!” He continues yelling. Scott, from the other side of the line, is smirking, clearly enjoying this. I clench my jaw. If he says anything to Eli I swear he’s going to regret it. “Everybody get back up! We’re going to start this exercise over so Eli can get it right.” A simultaneous groan falls over the entire group; well, over everyone except Scott. “Oh, and I won’t release you for lunch until Eli here can complete the set perfectly.” I didn’t even realize it was close to lunch. I guess awkwardly watching the recruits train passed time pretty quickly.

Adrian starts the drill over six times before Eli is able to complete it all the way through. It wasn’t perfect, but he actually did the whole thing without collapsing. “Alright I guess you can go now. But I expect this lunch break to help you to focus better later. You better be back in an hour, or there will be consequences.”

Panting heavily, the recruits rush towards the door, leaving Eli struggling to catch up. I grab the medical kit and catch up to him. “Hey buddy, how do you like training?” I ask. He starts to speed up a little bit and look at the ground. Guess he doesn’t want to talk about it. I enter the kitchen behind him and see most of the recruits already eating, but they’re kind of scattered on the couches around the room instead of eating at the table like they did yesterday. I grab a plate and a sandwich from the counter and sit down in a chair that’s tucked back in the corner, so technically I’m sitting with everyone else but I have no intention of really talking to any of them.

That is, until Derek spills his drink all over me. He completely tripped over the table, launching the water straight into my lap and smashing his glass on the floor. How does that happen two days in a row? We’re going to run out of glasses by the end of this year if the recruits are all this clumsy. They can do all of those random exercises but they can’t carry a stupid glass of water without shattering it. That makes sense.

 “Oh I’m sorry. I just couldn’t help falling for you,” Derek teases.

 It’s obvious he’s joking but I can’t seem to say anything other than “Wait, what?”

“Oh, I was just kidding. No need to get offended,” he laughs. I crack a smile in response while attempting to step over the glass without killing myself. “Hang on.” He grabs my wrist lightly then quickly drops it. “I don’t have any glass by me. I’ll get the towels for you. It was my fault anyways.” I’m pretty sure I see him flash Scott a quick look, but he turns too quickly for me to really tell.

Just as Derek comes back I see Zeke ball a napkin up in his fist. “Here, you might need this too,” he enunciates as he tosses the napkin at Derek. Derek catches it without even flinching and hands it to me along with an extra towel. “Careful, don’t cut yourself.”

“Oh thanks, I really needed that,” Derek adds sarcastically. Zeke rolls his eyes and gets up to grab another sandwich as I start to clean up the spilled water. Derek cuts in to make sure he’s the one to pick up all of the broken glass and then throws it out over-dramatically while smirking at Zeke. He pretends not to notice.

When the mess is finally gone Derek sets down his plate next to mine and sits on the couch that’s next to my little secluded chair. Everyone else is pretty much done by the time we actually start eating, but we still have twenty minutes before we have to be back in the main gym for training. “Thanks for helping me clean up the glass,” I say with a cheery, exaggerated smile, knowing that it’ll make Zeke feel bad about not helping me last time.

Derek catches on and replies “Oh it wasn’t a problem really. I would have helped you last time if I’d known you were going to get hurt. I didn’t realize that these glass pieces were that sharp. At home we only use the ones made of the ceramic-plastic compound they started using since the start of the war. Those are not only harder to break but they don’t produce such sharp pieces when they do.” It seems that the longer he goes on the more frustrated Zeke gets.

“That’s true. I feel like having real glass cups is weird when the chemicals in the glass could be used to create new weapons, or it could be traded for other materials,” I add.

“Oh, I never thought about that. But, on the other hand, who would we trade with? Anyone within a reasonable distance of us is under the control of the City. Trying to trade with the closest, non-City ruled location would take more resources than it’s worth.”

“That makes sense, but there are still those underground systems my mom has told me about. There are supposedly large groups of City double-crossers that use underground routes to feed us information.”

“Ah, yes but utilizing those people would just give the City ideas. If they have traitors, imagine how many the Federation has. I’m just imagining the amount of people that the City and all of its allies have in total. If those underground tunnels are real, they would have easy transport back and forth between them, and since there are so many people on their side they would have such a large range of people they could use as ‘spies’.”

“I was listening to my mom talk to the current head of military and she was saying how they never let anyone from the underground tunnels actually into the Federation. Everyone in here now was born here, and with our new DNA technology as well as the chips we have installed, it would be impossible for a traitor to pass as one of us.”

He smiles. “Oh I almost forgot about that. You know, don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re really smart for a girl.” I can’t help but smile back. The only person I’ve ever really talked to in my life was my mom and my little brother. All the other kids my age were afraid of me because of my parents’ authority position and my teachers thought I was ‘showing off’ when I tried to have a decent conversation with them. Aside from completely messing with Zeke, just plain talking to someone without being blamed for something or yelled at is really nice.

Zeke finishes his sandwich and angrily tosses his plate in the sink. “You have fifteen minutes to be back in the gym. I’d hurry up if I were you.” Then he leaves, slamming the door behind him.

Derek takes another bite of his sandwich. “Alright so what’s the story between you two? I’m sensing tension,” he adds, leaning closer to me. I just shrug in response. He leans even closer and bats his eyes at me pleadingly.

“To be honest I don’t even know,” I sigh. “We kind of have a long history you could say, but not in the way I know you’re thinking. We were good friends, and neighbors, when I was little but then after my dad died his family moved away and pretty much just shut us out, so he hasn’t talked to me since we were like eight.” I don’t know why I’m even telling him this. I guess I mean I’ve had this all bottled up for so long. It’s nice to talk to someone who’s actually interested in hearing about it.

“Oh so this is more of a family feud. I’m sure he didn’t mean to shut you out, but I mean at eight years old you pretty much just do whatever your parents say. And I know that all must have been tough after losing your dad. When my mom died I was devastated. I had never met my father so I had literally no one to turn to. So, I guess what I’m saying is that I understand your pain. It can be hard, but maybe now things will be different between you and Zeke. It can never hurt to start over, can it?”

I shake my head. “I guess I still associate him with that bad time in my life. I know it wasn’t his choice but he still saw me at school. He could have come up and talked to me or something. I’ll get over it eventually. I think it’s just that along with the fact that I’m here in the military training base that my dad used to run, and that Eli reminds me so much of my dad, it’s just too much.”

“I completely understand,” he says apologetically. He stands up and takes both of our plates to the sink. We have five minutes to be back in the gym, so it’s a good thing he noticed. I get up and sneak out the door. How could I have been so stupid? I don’t even know Derek and now he knows more about how I feel than Zeke does. Honestly if Derek wanted to he could single-handedly ruin my entire life here. All he would have to do was tell Scott about this and I’d probably be teased for the rest of this year. And Zeke would get taunted for this too, if they haven’t already noticed how he acted today. I still don’t get why he was so on edge. Derek hasn’t had a chance to screw up my life yet, so why is it such a problem that I talk to him?

As I open the door to go into the gym Derek is just leaving the kitchen. I take my seat in the back of the room. Rather than watching the recruits like I did before, I look around and notice a few doors lining the walls. None of them are labeled but I’m trying to figure out which one of them would lead up to the upper level track that looks down on the gym. The railing runs along the far wall of the gym and from this angle I can see part of the track-like turf on the floor. I don’t exactly know why we have this track in addition to the one in the room next door, but I’m sure there’s a strategic difference that I wouldn’t know about.

 

The recruits continue to run and condition on the hard, wooden floor. They were each given a water bottle at the beginning of the day, but hardly any of them touched it. Today they’ve been taking a lot of breaks in between drills just because Adrian needs to teach them. I wouldn’t be able to do that, but that’s only because while the females were taking basic skills courses in school geared towards running a household, the males were doing some basic conditioning like this to prepare them for any hard labor job or when they get drafted into the military. The only reason Adrian has to explain the drills is because Eli and Ryann haven’t graduated, so they don’t know all of the drills. This is why Eli is having so much trouble. Ryann was a year away from graduation. He would be used to drills of almost this magnitude, but Eli isn’t.

“Alright boys I think we’re done for today. Remember, tomorrow we’re meeting in the classroom for a Sunday lesson. I’ll only be teaching you up until lunch, and then you’ll be free to do what you want. I suggest something active whether it is an organized sport of some kind with all of you or individual practicing. Sundays will be the only time you have half days. But this will only continue if your averages are improving. If not then I’m going to start adding in mandatory workouts with me after the lesson. Tomorrow it will be basic just a breakdown of what we’re going to learn throughout the year as well as an explanation of some of the technology that we’ll be using. Now ordinarily I’d make the last place recruit stay for extra conditioning, but for today I’m going to let you all off without it, because you all need improving. Eli, just so you know, it would have been you. I understand you’re young but that does not exempt you from the standards,” Adrian says while writing down things on his clipboard.

He waves his hand towards the door and everyone scurries out. I stand up, grab the medical kit and head for the door when Adrian stops me. “Anya, I need to talk to you for a minute.” I nod quickly before he begins. “Tomorrow you will join us in the classroom because you could benefit from this lesson as well. As for every other day though, you will be either doing chores that I have for you, which I generally won’t do often as we don’t have too much to clean up, or watching the recruits train. I understand that that’s pretty boring but as we start getting into more difficult practices, I assure you that your small task of filling up the water bottles will be greatly appreciated.” He smiles.

“What will I be doing on Sundays when you have the lessons?”

“I’m going to try and make it so you really only have to do chores then, because it isn’t right for the caretaker to overhear the things we will be talking about after tomorrow; they’re too violent. They shouldn’t be too tedious, just basic things: organizing, cooking, tidying up, etc. On top of that I expect that you won’t distract the recruits. I understand not talking to them is hard since you see them all the time, but I will not tolerate any drama that causes scores to go down, understood?”

“Yes sir. I’ll keep the talking to a minimum.”

“Good. I suspected you would, since if anything happens I have the authority to send away you or any of the other soldiers and ensure they get sent to the front lines. Now as far as your free time goes, I would suggest being well acquainted with the storage closets and kitchen areas, since that’s where you’ll be working the most. Other than that your only main choice is the library. There are many different types of books in there from instruction manuals that may help you with some of the medical aspects of this job to full length novels in all genres,” he explains before turning towards the door to leave. I follow closely behind, stopping to place the medical supplies in the closet before joining the recruits for an uneventful dinner.

 

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Ghostly, blue eyes are staring through the darkness. They look innocent, but I know better. I don’t know why, but I don’t trust them. Blue is bad. Blue is Evil. Blue is death. The eyes come closer; close enough to reveal a face. But the face isn’t human. The shadow from the blue eyes illuminates the face of this creature in an unsettling way.  “Peace is darkness,” the blue eyed thing chants in a whisper. “Hope is worthless,” it continues, growing louder with every word. “Violence is law.” The figure steps closer. The blue radiates through the blackness like a beacon of goodness. But they are deceiving. I know the true evil in these blue eyes. “Peace is darkness,” the voice repeats, as the eyes grow larger and larger with each footstep-like sound. “Hope is worthless.” There is more blue now than black. The eyes have filled the room with their ghastly color. “Violence is law.” Everything is blue now. The evil has taken over and filled my line of vision. “Surrender yourself now to the chaos.”

 

I awake with a jolt, feeling my forehead to discover I’m sweating. It was just a dream. I was only dreaming. It wasn’t real. The color blue is the one thing I remember from the night my dad died. Everything else is a blur. I’ve always had dreams about it but none of them have seemed quite this real before.  It must be the military building. I’ve been thinking about my dad a lot more since I’ve gotten here. That must be it.

I look over at the clock flashing. Two am. And there is no way I can go to sleep after that nightmare. I quietly swing myself out of bed. I plan on going to the library for an hour or so just to clear my head. That is, until I see that the gym door is opened and radiating a really faint light. I cautiously walk towards it and peek inside. Another one of the doors inside has a light on and is wide open. Now I have to see what’s going on. I guess someone could have just left the light on but it wasn’t on during training, so I feel like someone else is up too, which is weird since it’s the middle of the night. I walk two steps forward slowly when suddenly the door slams. I instinctively run to the door and jiggle the knob. I know that there’s a lock on the inside that will help me get out, but nothing I do will make it open. Whenever I move the lock or the knob I hear a small scraping sound from the other side of the door, leading me to believe that it’s jammed. Oh great, someone locked me in the gym in the middle of the night, and my only source of light is from a random room that leads to who knows what. Could this get any worse?

Against my better judgment, rather than banging on the door and trying to get help, I decide to go towards the door with a light on. Maybe it leads to a way out? My footsteps echo in the silence in tune with my heart which is beating out of my chest in anticipation.

When I turn the corner of the stairs, the light becomes more blinding. My eyes adjust to reveal a small sprinters course with five 100 meter lanes which doesn’t explain why the lights are even on. That is, until I see the large window ten feet above the course. I didn’t even realize this place had windows. I feel like that would be pretty dangerous considering we’re all here against our free will.

I hear a slight movement coming from the windowsill above as a person comes into view. Now I’d like to know not only how he got up there, but what the chance is of it being the only person that I don’t want to talk to: Zeke. Well, I guess that at least means he wasn’t the one to lock me in here in the first place. On the bright side, he might still be mad at me for being a jerk to him at lunch, not that I was really doing anything wrong. I mean I do have the right to talk to people in case he hasn’t noticed. But maybe if he’s mad he won’t talk to me.

“Anya? What are you doing here?” Well, so much for that theory. I just look at him in confusion. He’s got a lot of explaining to do before I’m willing to talk. He is the reason I’m here after all. “I…I didn’t think anyone else would wake up. I just needed to clear my head. Everything’s been so crazy lately I just needed some time to myself,” he continues. I take this as my cue to leave. Unlike some people I can take a hint. Although, apparently that wasn’t his intention because he stops me before I hit the stairs. “Wait, no, that’s not what I meant. You can stay if you want to.”

“Good. The door’s locked.”

“Wait really? How did it lock? Did you lock it?”

“Yeah that’s exactly what happened. I decided that I wanted to spend my entire night alone in a gym. Who wouldn’t want that?” I roll my eyes at him as he leans slightly over the large windowsill edge. It looks deep enough back for him to comfortably sit on and face the window, almost like a balcony. The window itself takes up practically the whole wall, giving me the impression that the view from up there is really pretty, even if we are in the middle of nowhere.

“Well, you aren’t alone, technically. And if we are locked in as you say, then you really should come up here. It’s so peaceful. I almost feel like when I used to sit in my tree house as a kid,” he hints, knowing full and well that I used to sit in his tree house with him. If this is his way of trying to get me to forgive him he’s going about it wrong. “The scenery up here looks like what my house used to look like when I was little. I was so high up and I thought the view was spectacular. But the older I got the more insignificant it felt. Now I’m in a new place and I feel like a little inexperienced kid again, and I don’t know if I like that.” I don’t care. “But honestly you should come see this. Maybe it’ll remind you of something too.” Oh, real subtle. But I guess I am pretty curious as to what it looks like…

Whatever, I’ve probably been giving him too hard of a time lately. Just because I go up and satisfy my own curiosity doesn’t mean I have to go up and talk to him too. I step towards the rough brick wall and start to search for holds that I can use to climb up to him. The first few are easy to find but once I get about three feet off the ground I can’t reach the next ones. Zeke probably could since he’s a head taller than me now, but I’m short. Oops, guess I can’t go up and talk to him now. What a shame.

“Oh here let me help you,” Zeke says, scrambling to his stomach and reaching his arm over. Instinctively I take his hand to avoid falling. His arms are really strong and muscular and - wait no. Stop. This is the same boy that completely cut you off eight years ago and is now trying to make up for it by being nice. He doesn’t mean it. Stop looking at all of the good things and the memories and everything. He can’t change what he did and nothing he can do now will take back the fact that he left me when I needed him the most. He was the only person I had that still trusted me and he left too.

After an awkward climb up the rest of the wall, I’m greeted by the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen in my life. The vast open forest stretches endlessly into the night sky, and the stars are so clear I feel like I’m outside underneath them. The rest of training facility must be either behind us or next to us because I don’t see any other buildings. I could get used to a view like this.

“It’s pretty isn’t it?” he asks after a long silence. I feel so serene and happy that all I can do is nod and smile. Despite the awkwardness I endured coming up here, it was definitely worth it. “Look I know you don’t want to hear it but I really do want to be friends with you. It’s killing me that you won’t talk to me and that I can do nothing about it. I’ve tried everything Anya and I don’t know what else you want me to do,” he pleads, quickly jumping into the one topic I hoped we could avoid.

“I just hate that now you want to be friends, when it’s convenient for you, considering that I needed you for eight years. For eight years I had close to no one to talk to. I needed someone who I could just rant to about the City and cry to about my dad. My mom was always working to make sure that his loss didn’t impact our lifestyle and my brother was too young to remember, plus I know he blames me for dad’s death in general because he was fighting to save me. You were the only person I wanted to talk to, but you left. You ignored me. Why should I give you another chance?” I add calmly. There’s really no use in getting mad about it anymore. Maybe he’ll understand me better if I don’t scream this time.

“I was only doing what my parents told me to. I didn’t know you needed me. I thought you forgot about me.”

“What gave you that impression? Was it the fact that I used to wait for you in the mornings at school just in case you wanted to talk to me? Or the fact that I used to purposely walk by as many of your classes as I could just to see if you would even make eye contact with me? Or maybe it was how I walked home past your house every single day even though it was at least a half mile out of my way? I don’t know what else you wanted me to do. You were forbidden to talk to me, and following that rule was more important to you than some old, silly girl that you used to be neighbors with. I felt like I didn’t even know who you were. I still do. You’re completely different from the last time I talked to you, and I don’t know how I can be friends with someone who would change that quickly just to please other people.” My eyes start tearing up gradually as I’m talking. He’s making up excuses that don’t even make sense when he knows that I was trying more than anything just to talk to him. He clearly didn’t care.

His eyes shift away from me and look to the window. His eyes look watery too, but the moon reflecting off of his tears makes his brown eyes sparkle. They look so mesmerizingly beautiful and - wait no. Stop. I can’t do this again. I know that I technically forgave him before about this whole situation but I just still can’t get over it. I don’t think that I can be friends or even acquaintances with someone who would drop me in a heartbeat to please everyone else. But he has been trying really hard to get me to forgive him. I’ll give him that.

“I know. I realize that now. I just - I convinced myself that you didn’t want to talk to me anymore so that I could rationalize my actions in my head. That doesn’t make them any better but I just thought you should know that. You were right. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have left and I should have fought for you. I want to be friends with you again. Now, I lost all of my family too for this year at least, and you’re the closest that I have. I’ll prove to you that I’ve changed. Please, give me a chance,” he begs. I don’t respond. I turn back towards the window and stare into the distance with a blank face. It’s not that I don’t forgive him; I just don’t know if I can just give up on the grudge I’ve held. Call me stubborn but I don’t want to forget what happened for half my life and just continue on like we’re eight years old again. It’d mean that this whole fight was a waste of time.

I don’t know what suddenly rushes over me but I feel the urge to cry. Maybe it’s the stress of the situation, or Zeke constantly reminding me of the worst years of my life but I feel so overcome with misery that once I start bawling, I can’t stop. Every tear I drop slowly lifts the weight off my chest. Instinctively, I guess, Zeke puts his hand on my back to comfort me. It’s stranger and older but somehow feels more familiar than it ever has. In my moment of confusion and weakness I start to cry into his shoulder.

“It’s okay” he says awkwardly. I mean I can’t blame him for being a bit startled by that because I am too.

I let a few more tears run down my face and be absorbed by his light pajama shirt. Then I calm down. I open my eyes with a quick sigh as he continues, “I think you might need some sleep. It’s been a long day.”

He leans back against the side wall and stretches out his feet. I continue to lean against him and eventually settle in his arms and close my eyes. It doesn’t take long for me to transition into a dreamy haze. So now I don’t know if I’m imagining things, or if Zeke actually just kissed my forehead.

 

May 20^th, 3624 2:56am

TheDemonKorps8:   Router set up in the simulation room. But will have limited communications for now to avoid too much power being drawn from their generator.

87685155:         Perfect. Reports needed ASAP. What are we up against?

TheDemonKorps8:   Nothing threatening so far, and nothing too interesting either, in the process of finding things out, will sneak around if I need to. Not too much security on any level around here.

87685155:         Good to know. How are the soldiers?

TheDemonKorps8:   Some better than others. I need more time to become close to them. They may come to trust me and tell me things. This plan can’t be done in a day you know.

87685155:         And I trust you know that we don’t have much time. We shouldn’t be wasting any more resources on this war. You have until December 31^st. Then you will be considered one of them.

TheDemonKorps8:   I have until then for what? How are you going to determine how well I’m doing?

87685155:         You need to provide us with ALL the information I require. Then, if by the end of the year the plan does not go as I have anticipated, and if it was because of something that your information could have avoided, or if you decide to betray us in any way, even if it is only for a single person, you will be treated the same as those traitorous soldiers. We can’t afford for you to be wasting our time, as you know it was not my idea in the first place to send you. I was skeptical. But if this does go successfully you will be pardoned of any crimes, and you will have an unbelievable amount of power. Trust me when I say that it will be worth it. But it’s all up to you.

TheDemonKorps8:   I’m going to do my best. I’ll start with reports as soon as I get them. It shouldn’t be too hard to manipulate them. They all seem innocent and trusting.

87685155:         Good. Keep transmitting me information to the research facility. The information that we just received is enough for us to get started.

TheDemonKorps8:   Will do. I can’t promise it will be often, since I can’t raise too much suspicion, but I’ll do it as often and as discretely as I can. She’s a really easy person to terrorize. I already have her in the palm of my hand. 

Author's Note

The "computer" convo at the end is from a different person (normally its on a different page
does it make sense, and if you can, what does it make you think about the story/recruits, if it changes anything
and do you like those? I dont know if I want to keep them in or not