New Waters

Chapter 1

I snap my eyes open, my heart racing. It takes me a moment to realize where I am, it calms my nerves a bit when I do realize my surroundings; but even then, my heart is still racing, like a coyote chasing its prey. Maybe I was the prey and THEY were the hunters.

I feel the cold, hard concrete beneath my body. The ground ridged against my back. The wind outside roaring in my ears, it could be felt from the inside, sneaking through the cracks of the building the new recruits were put in, and there were many, along with the recruiters, new ones and with the ones who had been here the longest, since the start of the Effort. Like myself. I shiver but, I think, not from the cold.

My head feels light, but on the other end, my body heavy, laden. The cold, hard ground felt utterly uncomfortable to lay on, making me shift and sit up in the make-shift bed that I had set up two nights before, which was merely an old, scraggly blanket strewn on the floor, along with my jacket and extra clothes as a use for a pillow. My actual blanket was a small, fuzzy, throw blanket my mother gave to me before I left for The Effort. It was a small reminder of home, something that would relax me when I found quiet times alone, which were rare.

I glance to the window on my right, the sun just barely setting. I had fallen asleep right after my Duties were done for the whole week, which was around lunch time. I've always put in my extra time and completed tasks way before they were due. I guess this is what The Effort does to you. Teaching you the core of reality, where to sleep when you could find it, run when you needed to, know that people are always watching you, find the necessary resources for survival. That's what it's all about after all, survival. Know when to dodge the bullet, even before it leaves the chamber.

I rub my eyes wearily, and lightly slap my face with both of my hands, trying to wake myself up. Normally, I was always on high alert. However, I had been pushing in more and more hours every day. Garnering only a maximum of two hours of sleep, and on some days, less than that. Barely catching sleep and always on my feet, I had grown acute to hear the smallest of sounds, but I fell into a deep sleep after lunch, unaware of any sound nor movement. Which is not good, not to me or to the ones that needed me to be alive in order to guid them.

A hear a soft mumble on the left of me, and turn to see who was making the sounds. It was a boy, an old recruit, who had been in here a year longer than I have. He's name was Ivan, we had trained together on more than several occasions, and both of us grew a small case of puppy love towards each other. His hair was a brown shoveled mess, slightly unkempt from sleeping. He was curled into a ball, his body pressed up against the head of my makeshift bed. He had put in a little less time than I had for the past couple of weeks. He was tuff and a natural at shooting a gun and running. Just like me, he had run track since he was in middle school.

I turn my body to face him and smile down at him, he looked peaceful and adorable when he slept. Ivan was the type to be a flirt, but for some reason, I had found myself starting to find him wildly attracted to the blue-eyed boy. He seemed to return that, before, before I had started dating another guy who was here the same time I was. Sam Abalnek, a wild and reckless type, and a complete idiot. By a short time, Ivan quickly moved on and started dating this girl, Taryn. I guess you could say that it didn't work out, for either of us. Taryn and Sam had been sent to Caventempt, a higher up Effort, and ended up together. Ivan and I had lost touch a bit, but still found a way back and feel an unending case of puppy lover, or more, and trained only a couple of times throughout the year.

I had already turned away from Ivan and was staring at the door of the building we were in, when I hear Ivan speak.

"Classy, Norri," Ivan mumbled out.

"What?" I turn my face back towards Ivan, flushing a bit.

"Classy, classy, Norri." Ivan mumbled once more to me. He wasn't actually speaking towards me, I realized. He was talking in his sleep.

"Shh, Ivan."

I jump at the voice I heard that told Ivan to shush up. I crane my neck around and see who it is. It's Emmie, one of my friends who had ended up at the same level Effort that I had been chosen and sent to; two years back.

"He's such a nuisance sometimes, Norri ," Emmie remarks to me.

"Yeah, he can be a handful." I move my legs and position them under my neck, having my neck rest on my knees, as I held my legs.

"I just woke up. Remind me where the hell we are again?" Emmi asks me, with a smile. She's a little forgetful and a trouble sometimes, as well. But I love her to death. Something like this casual remark brings me back to before we were placed for The Effort. It feels nonstalgic.

The cold reality hits me, though, as I sit up sternly and I feel my body tense up.

"Blindfrent." I choke out to Emmi.

Blindfrent was a town where no one hardly ever goes to anymore, a ghost town still in the beginning stages. Also were most of The Effort had lost its recruiters and civilians alike.