Together

Chapter 18★ Amy

I follow Tom along the wall. These are the worst seeing conditions in any of the battles. The lights are on but not bright enough to see the actual flash suit, and not dim enough to see the flashing lights on the suit either. We hear commotion from ahead of us, and I see shots being fired. All are aimed towards the formation. Every person in the formation is hit repeatedly, but we keep going. We run along the wall parallel to the formation. I hear Bonzo yelling at his soldiers to keep firing. About the time we reach gate A, the formation abruptly changes direction and starts heading back toward gate B. This is our chance.

Tom leads us across the wall to gate A. Our enemy is shouting in confusion and rapidly firing at the fleeing formation. They don't notice us. I press my head to one of the corners and so do three other people. Tom floats through the center and the lights come up. Bonzo turns and sees us standing inside gate A. He looks to the formation, then back to us. His face darkens. Tom hands me the hook. I put it on and unfreeze everyone. The Dragon soldiers get themselves untied and start cheering. Petra and Dink and the others who were frozen in the beginning come around the stars cheering. I hand the hook back to Tom and go to join my friends.

★★★

We head, singing, back to the bunkroom. I see Fly sitting on his bunk. I look and see Petra is still here, but no one seems to care. I run over and hug her.

"Brilliant shooting," I say. "I missed being on your side so much." She laughs and hugs me tighter. I let go and smile at her, and she is immediately swept into a hug by Dink. I look around and everyone is hugging every one else. We're just missing Ender. I look around and see him smiling in the doorway. I motion for him to come in but he shakes his head. I weave my way over to him and hug him.

"You didn't seriously think you were getting out of this, did you?" He laughs,hugging back.

"No, but I was hoping to." I let go and Tom, Dink and some other boys rush over and hold up Ender's hands.

"Ender!" They yell.

"Ender!" Everyone replies enthusiastically, and then Ender is trapped in a group hug. When everything finally settles down, I look and see Ender gesturing for the toon leaders to come over.

"No battle room practice today." He says. We smile and nod. I shoot Ender one last look and head into the bunkroom.

"No Battle room practice today!" Tom says. Everyone cheers. I lay down on my bed and slowly drift off to sleep.

★★★

When I wake up, I head to breakfast with Petra, Dink, Fly, Tom and Allie. We chat and laugh and get many angry glares because of our cheerfulness. Petra has to get back to her own army though, so she leaves afterwards.

I log on to my desk and find orders.

"Amy Thompson, assigned command of Centipede army, effective immediately. Follow color code blue, blue, white. Take nothing with you. Go now." I look up. Tom walks over. He has similar orders. So do Dink, Fly, Bean and Wolf. Actually, 36 people were given command, 4 were just transferred. I think back. No new launch groups since Dragon formed. Two shuttles left yesterday and I noticed many people were missing. Mostly commanders.

I walk down to my new quarters. I have a window. I look out at planet Earth. It's so much bigger from up here.

"You will address your army in forty-five minutes," chimes the same mechanized voice that announces the arrival of a commander. Me. I'm a commander. I realize I probably smell, so I head down to the showers. I hear a commotion and several medics run past me with a folding gurney. I run after them to see what's happening.

Ender limps around the corner, wet and only wearing a towel, supported by Dink and Tom. I run up.

"What happened?" I ask. Ender looks up.

"A....my?" He manages to get out, then loses consciousness.

"Bonzo attacked him," Dink explains.

"In the shower?"

"Yep. Ender fought back, and Bonzo's skull got cracked wide open," says Tom. Don't fight Ender unless you have to. Bonzo should know that, since Ender beat...oh. Bonzo is very proud, and is ashamed of being tricked by Ender this morning. It was a matter of pride. We get to the commander's quarters for Dragon. I press Ender's thumb to the scanner and the door pops open. Tom and Dink lay Ender down on his bed then come back into the hallway. The door shuts behind them.

★★★

After a shower, I walk into my army's bunkroom at precisely 1030 hours.

"Ten-hut! Officer on deck." The rest of the room snaps to attention. I have to fight every reflex I have to not snap to attention. I'm the officer now. It would be weird to salute myself.

"At ease." I say. I recall the schedule that was given to me. Battle room practice isn't until after lunch. Bunking. I was told to give them a new bunking assignment.

"Bunking will be arranged by toons. Toon A at the back and E at the front. Toon leaders are..." I list off the names and toon letters. I then list soldiers and which toon they're in. I based this off of soldier rankings and scores in class. I tried to keep an even mix of people's skill sets, which was hard because there was a very large variety.

"See you after lunch."

"Yes sir!" They all chorus as I walk out.