Taking Sides

Prologue: Tremors

-Prologue: Tremors-

Bored, bored, bored I was. There was nothing to do, for this week, only a few people were on duty, while the rest of us, although on standby, had been allowed to rest in our bunks for the day. We were told to stay put, for if the training heads so chose to test our readiness and have a mock activation, we would all have to come running. Thus was the life of a CBR combat engineer.

What we did was simple: we were cleanup crew for hazmat incidents, and hence had to be on alert even during peacetime. Most of us men and commanders alike were conscripts, serving our two years of mandatory service as required of Singaporean citizens by the law. Of course, the bulk of us would rather be elsewhere; like in a university for most of our cases, me included.

Being the operational company, we were proficient in more or less all of the drills for both peacetime and hot wars, and if anything should happen, we would be the second line of defence, the first being the supposedly more experienced reservist troops that could be called upon anytime.

Of course, given the present international conditions, most of us dismissed the threat of a hot war easily, saying that it wouldn’t happen. Besides, we were considered army assets. We would only move out if needed…

The latest talk of the camp aside from the daily news was the fact that the toilet lights had finally been fixed, and a debate on who our new commanding officer would be.

I, however, was busy reading the newspaper, which was already quite crumpled, as it had already made its rounds around both the bunk and the company office before ending up with me. What had caught my eye was an article about some tremors in anomalous regions, and I was presently reading through it while listening to some soft music on my bed.

As I stood to put the papers back onto the table, I felt the ground lurch slightly once. I paused for a second and looked around, to find that everyone else was oblivious, so I resumed my pace towards the table in the centre of the bunk, and placed the papers there, while nodding to Gerard, who took the papers, signalling to him that I was done with them.

Then, the ground lurched again, this time, it was violent and sickening. All that were standing lost their footing, as did I, dropping my phone in the process.

The first lurch was accompanied with another… then another… I was sent stumbling around the small bunk with many others, cursing the whole way, my brain trying to make sense of what was happening. I heard the entire building groan and shudder as it swayed with the shaking, sending all manner of things flying, ranging from helmets to clothes, to entire field packs. Basically, anything that had not been secured was sent tumbling around. I found myself slammed into a bedpost and seeing stars, while someone else got bowled over by a rolling helmet.

Then, as soon as it started, the shaking seized. Dazed, I stumbled back to my bed and retrieved the things that had fallen out of my cupboard and put it back in. Other than the nasty bump on my head that I was soon to acquire, the only other person that been injured was Sheng Xiang, who had been lying sprawled on his bed, sleeping. He had been tossed off the bed by the shaking, then promptly hit between the legs with a helmet. He was presently curled up next to his bed making painful noises.

As I was tossing the last of my things into the cupboard and checking my phone for damages, someone tapped my shoulder. “Eh, Tano, you should go see the medic.”

Suffice to say that my parents had a strange taste in names…

I blinked, and turned to see Samuel, my buddy. “For what? It was just a small bump.”

He pointed at the mirror. “Bro, there’s a cut, and it’s bleeding. Seriously.”

I glanced in the mirror to see that at the point of impact, not only was there a bruise already forming, which was the source of a constant throbbing pain, blood was flowing steadily out from a wound smack in the middle of the whole thing.