Adaptation and Evolution (Book Two of the EDSOR Military Academy Trilogy)

Chapter 16- Ambushed

This is not happening. This is definitely NOT HAPPENING. I was frozen like a caveman stuck inside an ice cube. My brain started to freeze. My heart was numb with so many emotions. I was experiencing confusion, fear, panic, terror, anger, frustration and relief all at the same time. I tried to stand up, to go against what my body wanted. In my mind, I knew this was better than being camp-less. Yet there are so many questions boggling me.

I almost fell from my monobloc chair as my legs felt like jelly. My knees wobbled as I had a temporary epileptic spasm. Ughhhh.

 What the HELL? I am now doomed to be in an all boys’ camp. I won’t have any friends. Certainly they will outcast me or might look at me as merely a woman! All these horrors are coming to reality. I decided not stand up, thinking I heard wrong.

“Miss Stark to the stage please”, he impatiently pursued as his voice grew louder. Murmurs and whispers wafted through the air. I am roast meat. I stood up and hung my head in shame. I tried my best not to fall down so as not to embarrass myself any further.

I looked at the La Salle block. Every man was staring at me as if I’ve been involved in a scandal. The whole room is silent as I walk to the stage and glumly receive my medallion. The metal felt cold on the palm of my shivering hand. Goosebumps invaded my body as I walked to the La Salle block. No one welcomed me warmly there. I could feel everyone’s stares piercing through my body as if it were thin vellum. My parents would’ve been humiliated.

I bit my lower lip and tasted the bittersweet essence of my blood seeping over my tongue. I wanted to die. Kill me now please.

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The entire ceremony occurred so fast. They say that time flies when you’re having fun but honestly, I wasn’t having fun. There was a program featuring combat and war techniques from the different Camps. It was so colorful and flowery, the performers were full of life and energy. I was filled with sordid emotions as my new campmates cheered for their Camp. I sulked in my own monobloc chair. No one dared to sit beside me, as if I were a cursed plague of the Red Death. I wish I were Edgar Allan Poe so I could write countless stories about emo and gothic events in my life. Well, too bad I am not. I might as well have lived in his miserable era. Its actually better than living in a world where you don’t belong.

When the entire program ended, the new La Salle campers were led by Jonathan (nickname Jonthy, sounds like Dorothy) to our dormitories. I started to panic and twitch. I will be having two or three roommates and I am a girl! I must have some private bedroom of my own! I can waltz in a room full of men with a towel wrapped around me after I take a bath!

As we crossed the Poveda Campers, I saw Tara from the corner of my eyes give me a thumbs up sign. “Its gonna be alright”, she mouthed as she smiled at me. Her eyes twinkled as her cheeks became light pink from the heat. I grinned. It really helps having true friends like her. But I wasn’t going to let this matter stay as an awkward situation.

Eager new recruits brushed by me; they were running and chasing each other. I lost my balance as I was almost knocked down by their muscular masses. Suddenly, I felt someone come up to my side and carry my weight. As I looked up, I gazed into the eyes of a dark-haired third year student who had a dirty white collared shirt and cargo pants. Both of his hands gripped my arms as I tried to stand up.

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean that”, I quickly apologized, looking away.

“There’s no need to apologize”, a boy chuckled as I stood up. I looked everywhere and realized that everyone had retreated to their dormitories.

“You’re that Stark girl, right?”, he questioned me. I nodded.

“I am Clay, a third year round’ these parts. This is our first time having a girl in our camp. I guess it’ll be refreshing to have a woman around these parts”, he grinned. I was very disturbed by his sudden jolliness and indifference to my emotions.

I just continued walking along the rocky path to the Poveda dormitories. He kept talking to me as I strode. I was getting annoyed.

I looked around as he incessantly chatted to me about school life in EMA. “Its not so bad if you think about it. You’ll just study in this academy like a normal student enlisted in the army. You’ll need to prioritize combat over studies though. But it’ll all be worth it in the end. You’ll be protecting your nation after all”.

It can get scary in this school, especially when its dark already. I checked my digital watch and pressed a button so the numbers would light up. The iridescent blue color gave a ghastly glow on my bare arm. It was 7:03 pm. Where were the other recruits? I swear I saw them right in front of me five minutes ago.

I started to become suspicious of the boy beside me. He was leading me away from the old Willow tree, where I usually passed when I walked from the Poveda dormitories to the DTASC building. I started to move in my own direction and get my bearings.

I felt a pillar beside me as I groped. I must be in the West Wing Pilotis, where new recruits in an intercamp class are briefed before a mission. The Poveda camp was beyond the High School Covered court with an interconnected overpass that glows in the dark. So I’d have to go left (or until I bump something) then make my way to the dormitories.

“Hey Stark! Where do you think you’re going?”, another voice growled from behind me. I whipped my head to see five other people in a circle around me, holding flashlights with blinding white light.

“Back to the dormitories, where else? Can you put those down?”. It was only that time when I saw that they were holding knives. My hand protectively went to the hilt of my beloved dagger. I was starting to panic.

“Who are you, guys? I don’t wanna harm anyone”, I warned them as their burly leader, with a scar on his left cheek, stepped towards me.

“Since she’s one of us,” He put emphasis in the “one of us” part. “She needs to know what its like to be initiated”

I gritted my teeth as I backed away from him. “You can’t do that to a new recruit! I didn’t go through Hell just to get inside this Academy and you know that!”, I shouted. My voice quivered. Damn it. Now I sound like a coward.

The group was surrounding me from all sides. I was cornered.

“Could you at least give me some space to breathe? I am a bit claustrophobic”, I confessed as they huddled together. Damn it! Black spaces getting smaller….circles were forming on my eyelids…I was hallucinating and choking…I hate cramped spaces. I felt my system going down as a cold blade slid across my arm.