IMPERIUM

Chapter Three

The sweet feeling of summer was hot as it ran its reach along the skin. Waking up beside her, seeing the brown river of hair and beautifully constructed eyes, removing all worries of what will happen if they were to find us.
"Will!" David rushed into the room, nearly knocking the door down. I looked over to where she had lay in sleep, but David had awoken her.
"Yes, David?" I asked prompting for more information.
"Imperium has come into town, they're taking sign ups. I was thinking that-"
"That you would sign up?" David had been my friend for many years, always trusting and loyal as a dog. But if he was to sign up in the Imperial Force he would be gone from our small world, from our town.
"Yes." He looked at me, expecting a confrontation.
Summer in Victoria can spiral to high forties celsius, and of late it had been building up.
"Why? If the Imperials so desire an army they will take us anyway, we are of age to be taken under Service, now that we have turned eighteen."
"But Will, you do not want to join with them, you have said as much many times before." David complained with an exaggerated sigh and shrug of the shoulders.
"Yes, as I have said before, I have no wish to join with them," i replied after looking at her. So beautiful was she, I could not leave her here. Could not run off to join the Imperials as David and I had dreamed for so long.
"Brother, we have been trying to get the required academy scores to enlist as Commanders for years. And now that we have them, you do not want to enlist?"
I looked up from her gaze, and studied his pose.
"Yes."
David surrendered, he had no wish to enlist without his friend, no wish to sail into the distance without his brother.
"Then we must move. If the Imperials find that we have no even shown our face in town they will get suspicious." David stated as he walked to a window and looked out.
I rose from the bed and stood beside him. Sure enough an Officer stood outside our door, backed by two Centurions.
"We best get out in the town then," I told David. "Although we should avoid the Imperials at the front door."
I looked at her again, she had changed her clothing as we had been speaking.
"She should come too," David said, more to me than to her.
I shrugged at her, and she looked at him.
"We can go out the back door, and around behind the neighbours. That way they should think we have been out all along," she told him in agreement.
We left as she suggested, out the back door and behind the neighbouring houses. We rounded a fence and found ourselves in the main part of town. People everywhere were talking, debating or enlisting into the Imperial Force.
I noticed for the first time what David was wearing, he had donned on his Imperial Academy coat and cap. With the Imperium broach he bragged of his high achieving score in the Academy.
I looked at her for a time, noticing that she had changed into was that status of a mate to an Imperial soldier, exaggerated by her slim build. I hid my pride as I once again looked over the scene that lay before us, and we walked into the crowded town's main street.
We walked past men in Imperial over coats, men in officer uniforms, and armed Centurions as their escort.
The enlistments were happening at a large work bench to the side of the street, sitting here were at least six officers, their ranks indistinguishable to my basic knowledge. David on the other hand, he knew which rank wore what type of coat and cap.
We turned away from the enlistment table and, one step away, were ambushed by an Imperialist Officer.
"G'day men! Not enlisting today?" He said in a merry voice. And then, more directly to David's bragging, "Even after achieving such high scores in the Academy?"
"No, Sir. Not today, perhaps another time," i replied steadily. I took her hand and guided her around the Imperial, almost evading the potential torrent of questions. David was not so lucky.
"You." He said to David as he stood in before him, blocking his path although David was much taller and broad.
"What about me? I am with him." David replied hastily, not wanting to be caught behind the fast approaching tsunami.
"Yes, you. You where your uniform with pride, and yet you are not going to enlist?"
"Actually, Sir," I had to think fast to save David from drowning. "The academy has requested David to do some extra research and so he cannot enlist this month."
"Oh? Who is the Head Master there?" He had not turned to me, but asked David the question.
"Head Master.. Erm.." David hesitated, not sure how to go about it.
"Head Master Erm?" The man raised an inquisitive brow, "Well! I guess we will have to catch up next month then David!"
I did not believe that we had fooled the man, but nonetheless he had let us walk away without further questioning.
I kept my eye on the Officer, not sure what to think, as he walked over to two officers who were standing straight.
"What rank are those officers?" I asked David, not looking away.
"Uh... the two on the left is a senior and the other a junior. Both on the left are higher ranked than the man who addressed us." He replied as he studied all three men.
"Then why are the senior officers saluting the junior?" I asked, and yet it was not David who answered.
The junior officer had removed his over coat and had received a much different one from one of the officers.
"Uh, Will, the junior officer has just been promoted to General." David said, going pale.
The officer who had approached us beforehand was no officer, but a General of the Centurion corps.
Why he had hidden his identity from us we have yet to know.
We walked on past more officers and many more citizens of our town. All citizens of age in the town were out and about investigating the Imperial force and deciding whether to sign up or not.
Not once did I let her go, I wanted to get her and David as far from the Imperials as we could go. Knowing that the fake information we had given the General would probably label us as rebels or traitors just made it worse. I have to get out of here, and more importantly, I have to get her out of here. When the Imperials come to take us to join them, I have no intention of her being in the middle of it.
"Where are we going?" David asked, following closely behind us.
"I am putting her onto the next train to the Capital." I said, not looking back.
"No," she said, resisting my insistent and yet light tugging of her arm.
"I have to have you safe and away from here. When it is over we will come find you, I promise." And we did not say anymore words after this as we hurried to the train station.
David, trudging speedily behind us as he tried to keep pace, was much less believing of my promise. He knew what would happen when the Imperials found us. We would be sentenced to forty years of service minimum.
We continued down the street and around a short bend to the station. What lay in front of us stopped us.
A group of Centurions stood on the platform for the train to the capital. An officer of some high rank looked at us, and pointed. The Centurions followed the length of his arm and looked at us.
"Go." I said to her, "You must go to the station, do not look like you are with us." I prompted. She stopped and looked at me, tears swelling in her eyes. I pulled her behind the corner and out of sight, I hugged her in a silent goodbye.
David and I ran on, away from the slowly approaching Centurions, until we could not run any further.
We walked around a building neighbouring the road which we had ran, and we were greeted by three Centurions and the General.
"Ah! Just the men we were looking for!" The General exclaimed to his escorts.
"Officer Drake," he called to the back of his group. An Officer in Centurion armour walked around the other three, the shiny black overcoat dark against his armour.
"By order of Imperium," the Officer named Drake began. "You are here by required by law to join the Imperial Force."
"And if we decline?" David asked them, almost too casually.
"Then the girl you were with, and yourselves, will die as traitors," The General said, then, "Thank you, Drake."
I looked at David and he knew, since her life was at risk, that I would give up without complaint.