The Hero

18: training

  It's been a week since I found out what was going on. I've already gone all over Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia getting one or two families from each country. I sent each family to temporarily live on mine and Natrista's island. But when I came back, I didn't come alone.

  I came back with some of our citizens who had volunteered to help fight. I had some American and Canadian people fighting with me as well. Since they hadn't been taken over yet, they're countries were still able to fight. But our army was a bit small, it only consisted of around one hundred people.

  One hundred people may seem like a lot, but compared to all the people the others would have, we were a small number. We were currently training in England. Switzerland had supplied us with guns but refused to fight himself. He figured he could excape the whole 'Super continent' thing if he stayed out of the fight.

  Right now I was training my army. They were all really good and seemed to have quite a bit of practice. But I wasn't excited to see what they could do, because that meant that most, if not all, were to die. And that didn't sit the best with me.

  "Hey Riley, aren't you going to train?" I heard a little voice ask. I looked down and saw Zoey looking up at me. She was here because both her parents had chosen to fight and I could tell that the little four year old wanted to help as well. Her little brother was back on my island with his aunt.

  "I will Zoey, don't worry." I said and bent down to her level. I really didn't want Zoey to fight but she gave me no choice. She wanted to fight and there was no way to stop the brave blond haired girl.

  "You want to train with me?" She asked and I smiled slightly.

  "Sure. Now go stand a hundred yards away, okay?" I asked and she nodded. Once she was exactly one hundred yards away, she turned to me and pulled out her gun from her pocket. I nodded at her and pulled out my sword.

  She fired at me once and I deflected the bullet with ease. Taking a step forward each, we started to close the distance. We did this because this was what was going to happen, close and far combat. And we needed to be prepared for both.

  It was going well and I was surprised at how well Zoey could shoot. There wasn't a time that she shot at me that was going to hit target. But as we got closer she ran out of bullets. But just before she did she reached into her other pocket and brought out another fully loaded gun. As well got closer I had to move  faster and faster to deflect her bullets.

  But as soon as I got close I was able to defeat the skilled four year old. Holding my sword an inch away from her neck. I lowered my sword and smiled down at Zoey. I have to admit she's really good for her age.

  "Zoey, when we go into the battle try to make sure they don't get too close to you, and if they do get close, use your height to an advantage." I told her and she nodded.

  "Daniel, can you teach Zoey a bit of close combat. Since you seem to be the best at it." I told him and his eyes widened.

  "What do you mean I'm the best at close combat?" He asked shocked.

  "Well not to sound full of myself, but besides me, your the best at close combat here. We do have people better on our island but they all refused to come. You know that I won't make you guys do stuff you don't want to. None of you do, but then again that's probably why we have such few numbers.
  "But when you guys became seven years of age I gave you each a bit of training. Once you turned eight it was your choice to continue in your training or not. I split you guys into different classes based off of you strengths, for those of you who chose to continue your training. And you see, you were very close to the top of your close combat class. The two people that were above you refused to come."

  "I- I didn't know you sorted us like that Riley. I thought you just put a bunch of us in classes with people we didn't like so we could learn to work together." He said. I smiled and shook my head.

  "You should know me better then to think that was my only reasoning. If you didn't notice you had a lot of shooting classes that worked on your aim. That was simply because that was your weakness."

  "I never realized that." Daniel said and I ruffled his hair.

  "Daniel, I've watched each of my citizens go through there training. I may be busy sometimes but I always make time for you guys. You guys are so important to me and I'm not just saying that because I need you guys."

  Daniel smiled. "I know. You're always there at each of your citizen's births. You actually take the time to get to know every single one of us. You know all of us by name and I can tell you that must not be easy since there is currently eight hundred seventy-two of us. You even know all of Natrista's nine hundred citizen's names. That's incredible considering all of the people you must have met in your life time."

  "I have met a lot of people, I can tell you that." I said honestly. Out of the one thousand  one hundred fifteen years of life, I have met a lot of people. And come to think of it, Zoey was probably the most selfless person I knew. She was only four and was willing to fight to save the life of people she didn't know.

  "She gets that from you, you know." Sharia, Zoey's mom said coming up to Daniel and I. She always seemed to be able to read my thoughts, that was probably because she could. "Riley, you took care of Natrista when you were only seven, and you were willing to save anyone since you could talk."

  "H- How did you know that?" I asked. Was it possible that she could actually read that far into my memory?

  "No, Riley. But I can't tell you now. But I promise to tell you after this whole mess is over."

  "That is unless we all die." Daniel said with a grim expression.

  "That's not going to happen. You may die for a day or two but you won't stay dead. I promise you all that, and that goes for the American and Canadian soldiers as well." I said and they both nodded. They knew my secret and they knew I would keep my promise.