There's a loud knock on my door. It wakes me up. I'm in a state of confusion as my brain tries to remember why I'm in this dimly lit room laying on what seems to be a whole bag worth of crumbs. Someone knocks again. I step out of bed lazily and dust myself off to look presentable. I open the door. Standing there was the beige haired girl from yesterday.
"um Susanne is giving orders right now and she asked me to come get you", she said looking at her feet.
"uh okay, I'll be there", I said. The girl pivoted around on one foot and walked down the hallway. I walked down the stairs and saw 7 people gathered around the kitchen table.
"Hey it's Loe", she said gleefully," How was last night".
"um it was nice i guess", I said.
"good so anyways the higher ups gave us two tasks to do for the week and now since we got an even number of people we can all be split into even groups and we'll all be happy now right, Steve?" she glared grimly at a skinny and tall guy with glasses. "Steve" laughed and Susanne carried on. "alright so I'm going to hand you your task and be there at the designated time". Susanne handed every one their own post card when she got to me she said,"Your task is pretty self explanatory so just don't cause any trouble okay?", I nodded," also keep better care of your card, it doesn't have much on it but it's basically an ID". Susanne handed me back my card. I thanked her and head back up to my room. My task card read:
Patrol Duty, Report to the gates by 7:00, Come with Equipment.
I realized I hadn't kept track of time ever since I got here. I quickly walked down to the kitchen. there was only the beige haired girl eating cereal all by herself on the counter. She was wearing a faded indigo jacket and khakis under red football shoulder pads. My stomach growled, apparently loud enough so that she can hear, cause she looks up from her cereal and grabbed the cereal that was on the counter next to her and gestured for me to come get it. I grab the cereal and walk past her to open the refrigerator, I grab the milk and put it on the counter next to her.
"where the bowls and spoons", I ask. She looks at me and gestures with her eyes. I open the counter and grab the bowl and spoon. I pour the milk in first then the cereal, she looked at me confused with a mouthful of cereal. I take a bite and make a face. She laughed quietly and pointed to the milk carton. I turn it around and it read "Soy milk". I sighed and kept eating the cereal.
With one more bite to go the girl gasps and asks me," Are you patrolling too?". I nodded. "we have to go get your equipment."
"oh", I said," and where's that".
"At the uh town center, it's like 3 minutes from here", she replied quietly.
"well what time is it right now?"
"it's like 6:50 right now"
"oh we better go right now then"
"I'll go with you". She went to the door to put on her shoes. I put everything away and went to the door. While putting on my shoes she tapped my shoulder and pointed to the clipboard,"Don't forget to sign out". I gave her a thumbs up and my signed out. She walked out the door first and I followed after. I looked throughout the "town" there weren't that many people walking around. It looked like we were in a small suburb.
"How come there are at least 33 houses but there are no people walking around?", I asked.
"oh um, the mayor, or boss or something, has like, a thing with 11, so we're actually house 3" She said.
"oh"
When we got the the town center a group of guards asked us for our ID's. The town center was just a very big suburban house with the most different types of windows I have ever seen. The Guards let us inside and another pair of guards took us up the stairs into a room. There a little kid was sitting at a big table playing with his toys. When he sees us he quickly adjusts his posture and keeps eye contact with us.
"so what have you come for, subordinates", the little kid said emphasizing subordinates.
"um we've come to register an armor for um", she looks back at me like she was thinking hard.
"Loe", I spoke up," I'm new here".
"That's gweat, I mean great", the little boy said,"My friend over there will give you your stuff, Work hard young man", The little boy winked. I looked at the "friend" and he gestured me out of the room to another room. He put his hand out telling me to stop out in the hallway. he came back with red football shoulder pads. I took them and thanked him while putting on the equipment. He took a watch out of his pocket and handed it to me. It was a cheap digital watch.
"The boss always wants you to be on time to anything, you got that?" He said.
"yeah I got it", I replied. The beige haired girl walked out of the building and I followed. We walked down the street that we came from.
"uh sorry I didn't know your name back there", she said looking down.
"It's okay we don't know each other that well", I said," So what's your name then". She looked up at me and just stared.
"oh it's okay if you don't want to tell me", I said nervously.
She snapped out of it and answered," oh sorry sorry, it's...um... Claire".
"Claire huh? I like that", I blurted out. Claire looked surprised, she put her hoodie over her head and walked faster. I realized what I said and infinitely cringed in my mind. It started to rain, so I put my own hoodie on. I checked the watch and it read 6:57.
"Claire! we only have 3 minutes", I said shocked.
Claire sighed," uh I don't think we're gonna make it"
"We'll make it if we run!" I said zealously. I passed Claire in a full sprint. I looked back while running and gestured her to come. She inhaled deeply then ran after me. I laughed, the rain and wind blew back my hoodie. She was fast, but I, slightly faster, but I didn't know where I was going. I stopped at a crossroads and she sped past me. I spent the whole entire time running after her. Her hair was shoulder length and the tips were lighter. When we got to the gate she rested her hands on her legs and tried to catch her breath. I checked the watch and it was 7:01.
"I guess *huff* we didn't *huff* make it" I said in between breaths.
"*cough* I can't believe we ran and didn't make it?" she mustered out while hyperventilating.
"Hey you two!", said someone with a group of people,"If you're patrolling get over here!".
Claire and I looked at each other and laughed. We walked over and joined the group.
A Man yelled into the crowd," We start at 7:05 people! 7:05!".
"oh I forgot we patrol with our housemates, so we have to find them", she said on her tippy toes, looking for them. I looked around for them until I realized I no idea what they looked like.
Claire eventually found them and gestured me toward them. Claire waved. One was a tall skinny guy that had only a T-shirt and jeans under his equipment and the other was a girl about my height that was wearing a sweater and jeans.
"We are starting now! everyone get with your housemates!", The man from before said. I stood quietly listening to the man give instructions about what we are doing. The man said we would pick up the weapons by the gate if we needed it. After the directions me and my group went to get weapons. The weapon options included bats, hockey sticks and small knives. I saw a pair of sparring gloves alone on a small table. I picked them up and they weighed more than I thought. The gloves had rocks put in them and sown back up.
"you can box?", My girl housemate said.
"um no, but i know some things", I replied.
"coolio, let's get going then"
I followed her out.
The tall guy was talking to us,"we're stationed on the back of the town opposite from the gate. Let's get going".
We walked.
