Awakening

Chapter 5 - Eric (1/3)

Endless clutter of crates, heavy satchels and men were all painted green and scattered around the concrete landing-pad. The sky was black, revealing space in its most magnificence, only the sun interfering with the view, obscuring the stars beyond with immense shine. It was a military space-port hangar on the moon--the most feared place of all young-men who came here as recruits.

Eric lay on one of the satchels which carried most of his life in one human-sized bag. His hands were on the back of his neck and his face was tilted upwards slightly. He was no longer the urchin from Undertown with spooked face and pitiful demeanor. Eric was a young-adult and about to become a recruit. A soldier. A man.

The surrounding people, young-men like him, spread around--some talking to each other, laughing loudly in an attempt to fight-off the terror of new beginnings in this Corp-Sec boot-camp. Eric didn't understand people who acted like that. He preferred the quiet approach. He preferred the honesty in silence.

Let it sink in, he remembered what his brother always told him while terrorizing Eric. Let the fear in.

Fear. Fear which reminded him of that night in Undertown. That night when he was sure he was about to die by the hands of either the peacekeepers or the thugs who chased him. It was the first time someone was actually able to grab a hold of him, not leaving him room for escape. It was the first time anyone managed to sneak behind him. Luckily, that man who did caught him was senator Umusa--the same one who sent him here to become a man.

The past few years Eric became more familiar with life above the cloud. Being able to breathe easily, eat healthy and go around without fear was very disorienting at first, but eventually he got used to it. Of course, his instincts, his constant peering and scanning around never left him. He always peeked behind his back and won a new nickname 'freak'. For a long time now, Eric had been wondering how did the senator chose to be at the correct time in the correct place that night.

"Hey. You." A girl said standing in front of Eric. "Why so quiet?"

Eric straightened himself on his bag, planting his feet on the concrete one on each side of the bag. He looked up at the one speaking to him and shrugged. "Nothing smart to say?" He said.

She chuckled and then relaxed into a grin. "I like you. You're not like the other guys--searching for ways to push back the fear."

Eric nodded. "There's no point in that. We are all new here."

"We are all stiffs ready to be served." She said and sat next to him, leaning her body against another green bag.

She had short yellow spikes for a hair, and if it wasn't for her minutely softer facial features he would have mistaken her for a man--the uniforms they had to wear were damn unisex.

Eric was quiet. He never felt the will to talk or hear himself speak. Even though he wanted to get to know this girl--maybe even getting her name--he didn't speak. Something that was wrongly interpreted as a lack of initiative by the majority.

"So..." she said braking the awkward silence between them. "Where are you from?"

Eric slumped back again, placing his head on his hands and onto the bag. "There." He pointed with his finger at Origin.

"Such a talkative person you are." She said. "Trying to kill the entire conversation here with your charm now?"

He shrugged, casually staring at her sunny hair. "Colored or natural?"

"Huh?" she said, looking puzzled at the question. "What a strange question to be asking a young lady such as myself."

"Well. You expected me to talk, so I did. So?"