The Wrong Side

Chapter 9

The first thing I do the next morning is call Venning. I forget about my 7k and call him even though it's 6:30 in the morning. I honestly don't care how pissed off he his or how my life may be entirely screwed over after the call. I forego our usual procedure of me calling his office, and I call his personal phone which he's instructed me never to call. I don't care and I just want answers at this point. When he doesn't answer the first time, I call again and again until he finally picks up.

"What the hell do you want?" he growls.

"When are you coming?" I ask.

"Later today. One of the training squads went missing yesterday and they were dangerously close to you so I'll stop by when the search party is out. Why?"

"The reason that I called you the other day was because I think I found a member of that squad on one of my runs yesterday."

"What?" Venning rubs his eyes. "Why the hell didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't know what to say, sir."

"Shit," Venning mutters. "Who was the soldier? Did you see anyone else?"

"She says her name is Dawn Hill," I say, "and I didn't see anyone else out there. Sir."

"Is the soldier alright?"

"Not when I found her. I brought her to the house and Ada took out the bullet. She's alright now."

"Shot? She was shot? By whom?"

"She says that her squad ran into a group of Freeborn. She doesn't know where her squad went."

Venning's face disappears from the screen and I can hear noises in the background. I can see a bed and I assume that I called him while he was sleeping.

"I'm coming now. I'll be there in two hours," Venning says off-screen.

"Okay," I say, "and sir, there's a few things that I want to talk to you about afterwards."

"Fine."

------

"Hey."

I look to my left and I see Dawn standing in the kitchen beside me. I'm not used to having anyone else in the house with me, and I jump, almost dropping the bowl of cereal in my hands.

"Hi," I reply. "You're up early. It's only seven."

"It's seven? I slept in today. I guess it helps when music's not blaring in your ears at five in the morning," Dawn says through a yawn.

She makes herself a bowl of cereal and starts eating beside me. She eats fast and loudly. She's still wearing her hospital gown and I can see the lower half of her bare legs. Standing beside me, she comes up to my eyes.

"I'm going running after breakfast," I say.

"Okay. Can I join you?"

"Can you keep up with me?" I ask.

"Of course I can! What did you think-"

"I mean, do you think that your wound has healed enough?"

Dawn grimaces and puts a hand to her abdomen. I know for a fact that she's in no condition to go for a seven kilometre run and I'm surprised that she even asked in the first place.

"It's alright," I say. "I'll only be gone for around forty minutes. I'm not sure where Ada is, but she should be in the house somewhere. Please stay here," I add and Dawn nods.

I'm already in my running clothes, so I just leave Dawn in the house. The door locks automatically and it only responds to my or Venning's thumb print. I started my run later today since I wanted to wait for Dawn to wake up first. I like having her in the house; she has a presence that comforts me for some reason. I know that she only came yesterday and that she's going to leave today, but I like having another real person with me. Don't get me wrong, Ada's fantastic and all, but she's not human. Neither is Venning for that matter. I'm joking; Venning is just hardly ever around. He comes by once every few weeks and it's just usually to ensure that I'm still alive and whatnot or to give a lesson that Ada can't teach.