The Fight for Freedom (Book One in the EDSOR Military Academy Trilogy)

Chapter 14- Confessions From Marco

This paper work was so stressful! I bet everyone’s thinking of me as a person who slacks on her chair while they all do the grunt work. I’ve seen from the Council Room window that the engineers have begun piling cement on top of each other and yelling orders to their workers. Their workers were all muscular but I could see a few lanky students. They were starting with the fortress around the entire school. It will definitely take them three weeks even with the help of the teachers and personnel. I doubt we’ll have enough time for the garrisons and barracks. Wait, who needs barracks anyway? This Spartan Academy is already one, placed in the capital of Manila. I decide to scrap the idea of barracks out.

This is a very useful reinforcement yet I don’t think this is enough. Sorry to the readers but I am being practical…as a leader I have to be. We won’t win. We just have to hold out as long as we can to enjoy our last moments of freedom together.

I sign it anyway. The contract said the government will be providing more workers for engineers, more scientists, more dressmakers and soldiers. Warriors…I just realized now that we need warriors…more…as much as possible. But how many were forced by the War Council? About fourteen thousand so far..the other two thousand are not even willing to. I commend the volunteers to be placed in the front line, above the fortress walls to wait for the incoming attacks and check the area but only a few hundred willingly donated themselves. I wonder how I can give their insurances since they have no families.

Before I picked up my black ballpen and EDSOR stamp used to imprint its insignia on important documents handed to me by Trevor, someone was pounding on the Council Door.

“Jesse! President!”, a familiar voice shouted.

I opened the door and was surprised to find Thomas with his white linen t-shirt filled with grime and oil. He had more pimples than I could remember last night. His eyes were bloodshot red.

“Thomas, what the heck…”

“J-Jesse, you have to come with me…”, he shook his head as he dragged me. He was still warm.

“Are you sick?”, I asked. His hand was burning my fingertips.

He did not reply. Seems like he was too excited. Fortunately I locked the Council Door. We don’t use keys here anymore. We use codes and automatic doors to get through rooms and gates.

I was quite shocked that the entrance to the computer room was not a door anymore but a paneled glass door. “What did you just do to the poor old door?”, I couldn’t breathe.

Thomas grinned. Why do I feel so awkward when he does that? “Michael helped me install it”

“Where the hell did you get the equipment?”, I asked, boiling mad. Students are not keeping me informed.

Thomas laughed at me. “I’ve never seen you so angry”

I wanted to join him in his laughter but I kept a straight face. “Answer me”

He stopped shaking with excitement. He became serious. I’ve never seen this side of him. “Why do you always want to know everything? You’re not the Jesse I know. To me, you sound like a bossy child”, he asked, placing his hand beside my shoulder which was leaning to the wall.

“Because”, I said. My voice got stuck inside my throat. “Jesse Hope does not exist anymore. She isn’t that frail person who you think she is”

He looked hurt. “President Jesse, whatever road you choose, you will still forever be Jesse Hope, my childhood friend”, he then looked at me with his gleaming eyes which were still bloodshot. Heart was beating faster and faster to a point where I couldn’t breathe anymore.