Together

Chapter 23 ★ Amy

I woke up to an alarm blaring. I attempt to see the sun's position, but it's not there. As I turn my head towards the wall, I catch a glimpse of the time. 0330 hours. I groan and flop back down. Mental note: go to bed earlier tomorrow night.

"Are you lot reeaallly so dumb as ta not get up when the alarm starts ablarin atcha?" an overly familiar voice slurs. I look up again and see Petra framed in the doorway. "Morn Ammy," she slurs. She must be just as tired as we are.

"Ggiittchur sorry sseeelllvves up!" She yells, still sluring, and passes out onto the floor. I look over at Louise, nicknamed Lou.

"We should put her in the extra bunk," Louise, nicknamed Lou, says, flinging herself out of bed with her twin sister Samantha, nicknamed Sam, close behind. Allie nods and gets out of bed as well. My four roommates and I look down at Petra. Allie walks to the other bunk and pulls back the covers. Wolf, Sam, Lou, and I each grab one of Petra's limbs and lift her onto the bed. I tuck the covers around her and walk over to get dressed for breakfast.

★★★

The five of us walk into the dining hall, which is surprisingly busy at four in the morning. We all grab food and sit down at a table. I notice a large screen with news and announcements on the north wall. While I watch it, a line of text runs across.

New transfers meet in Simulator 2 for orientation at 0700. "Toon" leaders will be in Sim 3 and all others will be in Sim 1.

I point out the announcement to the others, who immediately turn to watch. The announcement runs across about three more times before they resume eating. The time on the clock says 0452. Plenty of time.

○●○●○●○●

I wake up with warm sheets tucked around me. I sit up and look around. The bunkroom. No one's here. Good. The last thing I remember is yelling at the others to get up. Probably not my best first impression. I hear some voices coming down the hall. They edge closer, until Amy and the others walk in.

★★★

Since we had some spare time, we went down to the gym for a bit. Lou knows some amazing regimen for all body strengthening. As we walk down the hall to our bunkroom we talk and laugh, getting some nasty looks from other people.

When we reach the bunkroom, we find that Petra just woke up.

"Good morning Petra. How are you?" Wolf asks.

"I feel like I got hit by a bus." She replies, getting slowly out of bed. "Sorry 'bout this morning. I was trying to scare you out of your wits. Guess that didn't go exactly as planned," Petra groans. Sam chuckles.

"How late did they keep you up?" I ask.

"From the second I got here to when I came in and yelled at you." I do some quick math. Petra had been up for 22 hours straight.

"Then face planted," Allie reminds her.

"I was out before that. I remember yelling at you to get your sorry selves up, then I woke up in bed three seconds later and it's after six in the morning." I check the time. It 0635. Twenty-five minutes to get to the simulators.

"You better go get breakfast. Toon leaders are meeting in Sim 3 at 0700 hours," I say. Petra inhales, blinks, then nods.

"Right then. See ya later, baby faces," she sighs, then trots off to breakfast.

"I don't see why we had to get up at 0330 if we didn't have to be anywhere until 0700." Lou sighs.

"Training. In battle with the Formics, we might have to wake up at any point in time to fight, even if it's a false alarm." Wolf explains. Lou nods in understanding.

"Map route to Simulator Two," I order my desk. The route pops up. "Ready to go?" I ask the others.

"Why now? It's not till 0700, and it's only 0640 now,"Allie complains.

"According to the route my desk mapped, it takes five minutes walking to get there. And it's better to be early. Early is on time, on time is late, and late is death." They all look taken aback and I realize that that phrase has an overly literal meaning now. However, they all nod, and follow me off to orientation.