AWAKEN

{3}

The ride in the helicopter was terrifying, for a girl who's never even been in a car imagine being in something that casually leaves the ground and emits its body to the air. Everybody else seemed okay, as if they've done this before. They probably have. I remember how Grayson has been in the governments care for ten years and looked over to find him bored and playing with a guard's mask. He continually opens and closes it, then pauses taking a marker out of the guard's pocket and uncaps it, reaching over to the guard's mask again.

"Don't think about it." General sir says. His eyes doesn't leave the seat in front of him though. This must be normal behavior. As we rise I find myself grasping for something, anything to anchor me down. I grab James's hand, he gives me an annoyed look and jerks his hand back and I suddenly feel embarrassed, my face heating. Then my stomach reminds me that I'm in the air and I begin to panic. Summer, thankfully, notices and grabs my hand comfortingly. I offer her a nervous smile and she gives a heart warming one in return.

~~~~~~~~×××××~~~~~~~~~

As we land in a grassy field I look around and down. The field on one side looks completely occupied by everything from tents to tanks. In the back, maybe two miles away, I see what looks like a runway and a hangar. On the opposite side, where the rows after rows of tents end, sits a calm river that separated us from the mountains. Knowing what's on the other side of the mountains the river looks out of place, too peaceful.

I'm snapped back to reality as the helicopter lands and the engine begins to sleep. As the propellers calm everybody but the pilots begin to unbuckle, so I do too. Stepping out into the spring weather is refreshing after almost throwing up several times during the flight. I will never again get in one of those. Never.

"Omegas!" Sir barks. We all gather around him as his large mouth opens again. He began to ramble off where everything was, and that we weren't to go to those "everything's". He led us to three tents that were set at the end of the rows, a little more space between them and the other tents. I already knew they were ours, they way that the people set them up. Somehow they still manage to set us apart, to show we were different, even if we still had the exact same dark grey tents as everyone else. Sir explained where the bathrooms were, for both genders thank goodness. We were to be up and ready by five tomorrow morning for training; combat, defensive, then our talents. Lunch was at one, and dinner was at six. Apparently we had dishes duty tomorrow night....and all of the nights after that. The army was already expressing its disgust of have child recruits and we haven't met anybody yet.

I looked over to one of the fires that was burning in the row of tents we were beside. A man, no older than his early twenties, looked at me, he had blue eyes and light brown hair, he wasn't surprised to see a group of teens in camp though. He even waved before he went back to whatever conversation he was having with another man who had grey hair.

"Be ready tomorrow for a very rude awakening. Follow the rules and stay in line." Sir addressed us, he then turned on his heels and walk past the multiple rows of tents, towards who knows what.

"Well, I don't know about you recruits, but that man is just a ray of sun shine." Grayson muttered. He headed to a tent and left the flap open as he lounged in a cot. "I call rooming with Blondie." He called, seeming to have gotten over his fear of Anya. She only scoffed and entered a tent with her sister. Grayson turned his head in my direction.

"I don't think so." I smirked, then looked at Evelyn, who still had yet to speak. She nodded and walked into the tent beside Summer ands Anya's.

"Well Gus, looks like its you and me." Grayson teased, James's usual expression didn't change, only from one annoyed face to another. He walked over to the river, then sat a little ways away on the bank. I thought about following James, but decided better of it after grabbing his hand in the helicopter, I felt my face burning again and turned to Evelyn and my tent. She had closed the flap and when I opened it I saw she was already fast asleep. The sun was beginning to set behind the mountains, casting long shadows. Only a few streams of orange light touched the grass around us and I suddenly realized how exhausted I was, I closed the flap and it was darker than I thought would be. As soon as I laid down I barely had time to close my eyes before I was transferred into sleep.