The Next Warrior

Proving Grounds - Part 12

Nathaniel was then was jarred from his virtual dream when a text message came in through the glasses, overlaying the simulation and pausing the game.

"Joshua Kruger: Hey, is this Romero?"

Nathaniel was surprised by the sudden message. At first he didn't recognize the name, and wondered how whoever this was knew his. Then he remembered ... Kruger. He clicked the texted message, and clicked another button for dictation.

"Yeah. Who is this?"

Nathaniel watched his words scroll in text across the window as he waited for a reply.

"Joshua Kruger: Hey dude, this is Kruger, from 2094!"

Nathaniel had suspected it, but he wasn't sure. Kruger was his rack mate for the whole three months, but in that entire time, none of them learned each other's first names. As close as many of them were, the exchange of first names was remarkably superfluous, and never something that anyone actually even needed. Such pleasantries weren't ever shared until after graduation when they traded social account information, making this very call possible. For some reason, he had never expected to hear from another one of the recruits so soon after they had left boot camp. It didn't matter, though. He had also expected to be spending this time with people he grew up with, so who cared what he expected? When he realized who it was, it felt good to have someone to talk to. He felt like he had more in common now with Kruger than anyone else in the world.

"Hey man! How you doin'?"

"It sucks. My girlfriend's dating some other dude and everybody's done moved off to the city. I've just been playin' Madden '25 for like, a day now."

Nathaniel felt disturbingly sympathetic.

"I know the feeling, bro. What's going on right now?"

"A whole lot of nothing. Won the season already, Minnesota Vikings baby, Oorah! Anyway, got bored and jumped on the holonet. Said you just got on."

"Yeah, I'm not really having the best night either. Remember that girl I talked about? I went to see her... didn't go that well. Know what I mean?"

"Ha! I know what you mean dude. So you playin' somethin'?"

Talking with his boot camp comrade made him forget his game was still paused.

"Oh yeah, Knightwing Chronicles."

"That the one where you fly around and slash demons and stuff?"

"Yeah, pretty much. I'm was just sort of flying around before you buzzed in."

"Cool. Hey, you played that new one they put out before we went to boot, Skyfury Squadron? You get to play a UAV pilot. You can either fight from the drone's view or control everything from the remote pilot's chair. It seems that seein' as how you like flyin' and all, and since I heard you were into military stuff, you might like it."

Romero chuckled. Of course Kruger knew he was into military stuff. They had lived together at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot for three months. The two talked for another hour about video games. All the ones they played growing up, the ones they missed out on over the summer, as well as exchanging news and rumors they had heard of upcoming titles. Romero had completely lost track of the time when he heard a knock on his door. He jumped in sudden shock after forgetting that he was alone in the middle of a parking lot in the desert. He minimized the screens and set the glasses to clear mode as he sat the seat up. Outside he could see a police officer, large built and burly, holding his lights to Romero.