The Contractors

Chapter 2- Early Mornings

Kelsie's POV

I didn't sleep well that night, by the time I fell asleep it was after midnight. Pounding on the front door woke me up just a few short hours later. Lucky me. In case you haven't noticed, I'm a sarcastic person. Stumbling to the door, I opened it yawning sleepily. Two guards, who patrol the inner sector every morning, stood there.

"Kelsie Morris?" the shorter guard asked impatiently. Someone clearly woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Actually, I think I've seen him before. I squinted at him.

"Yeah," I replied. "That's me." Yup I've definitely seen him before. Back when I first arrived at the sector some kids decided to use him as target practice- with eggs. He always has a bad attitude and tendency to be rude, especially to kids. So no one could blame them for what they did, he deserved it. The look on his face that day was priceless. I almost laughed until I remembered he was standing right in front of me.

The other guard cleared his throat. "We were ordered to go to all the houses with magic users and inform them they have one hour to pack and get down to the southern gate. One suitcase and a backpack is all you can bring. Combined, they need to weigh 50 pounds or less. If they weigh more your stuff may be thrown out."

"What if I don't make it in an hour?"

"Then guards will look for you and escort you to where you need to be. After they tranquilize you of course. Can't have you making things difficult for us," he amusedly answered as I frowned.

"Well, consider me informed. You can go now," I snapped. They turned away, heading down the street. Quietly closing the door I went back to my room and sighed when I saw the time. For god's sake, it's only six thirty in the morning! Why do we even need to be at the south gate so frickin early? Well, today is gonna be a looong day.

Ten minutes later I had everything I owned packed into a duffel bag. All I had were clothes and a couple books Danny gave me. Walking over to my desk I picked up my last possession, a locket my mother gave me with a picture of our whole family, and put it on. I really missed them. Since I didn't have time to eat breakfast, I grabbed a pack of poptarts and put them in my bag. I decided against waking Mrs. Liane and Danny to say goodbye. Instead I wrote them a note thanking them for all they'd done for me, before leaving. Shouldering my bag, I headed for the south gate, about a twenty minute walk from my home.

The cool air helped me wake up, a good thing for the people I'm about to meet. I'm NOT a morning person at all. And when my sleep has been interrupted or I'm tired, I tend to be snappy. The only nice thing about the morning is how quiet it is.

As I rounded the last corner to get to the south gate a rock went flying past, just inches from my face. Two boys who appeared to be around the age of ten, looked at each other then me with wide eyes. When a girl my age slapped them both in the back of the head, I laughed and walked over.

"I'm so sorry. My younger brothers aren't the best behaved." Sticking out her hand continued, "The names Mia. He's Dillon," she pointed to one of the boys, "and the other one is Jackson."

"It's fine. My name is Kelsie, nice to meet cha." I replied. "Are they twins?"

"Yup. But if you spend just a couple days around them you can easily tell them apart." She glanced down at her phone. "I'll be back, I need to take this call."

I nodded turning away. There were five other people hanging around. Huh. I thought there were only two magic users in this sector, not including me. Guess I was wrong. Fifteen minutes later, at exactly seven thirty, four cars pulled up to us. A big man dressed in a military uniform stepped out of the first car. He's the picture of intimidation, not someone you could ignore.

"Good. Your all here," he spoke gruffly. "Three to each of the cars. Move it!"

We grabbed our bags and climbed into the cars. For the next hour and a half I sat in silence. The other two in the car fell asleep no more than five minutes after getting in. I envied them. Unfortunately for me, the side of the car I was sitting on was graced by the sun's presence. Which meant no rest for me. Oh well. Maybe I could sleep on the plane instead. There are only two places to go to from the southern gate, the sea port or the airport. The sea port is directly south and if we were headed there we would have stayed on the main road. But we took a left onto a side road that leads to an old highway. Which means the airport is our destination. Anyways, in the event of an attack or wall breach by the malum we would head straight to the sea port. There are two cruise liners there for us to escape on, along with a battleship to fire at the malum. Interestingly, the only places that have yet to see a malum in person are the islands. Guess the malum can't swim or something. Actually, now that I think about it, every sector has a sea port and airport near them. If either one was inaccessible for any reason or damaged, the sector that uses them would be in major trouble.

As I stared out the window watching the ground fly by, a flash of white caught my attention. It was hard to see with the sun in my face but I'm pretty sure it was the tiger from the forest. It was running in the direction the car was headed. If I didn't know better I'd say it's following me. But that's impossible. I must be seeing things because I'm tired, it's the only explanation that makes sense.

Immediately after arriving at the airport we were ushered onto the waiting plane. We still had no idea why we were being sent to sector 1 much less where sector 1 was. Every other sector we could locate on a map. Sectors 2 ,3 and 4 were in Europe, 5 and 6 in North America, 7 and 8 in South America, 9, 10, and 11 in Africa, 12 in Australia, and 13 & 14 in Asia. But sector 1's location, that was a mystery. Well, at least the plane seats were comfy. I think this used to be someone's private jet.

The pilot spoke over the intercom, "We'll be in flight for at least five hours. Relax, get some sleep. I'm sure you guys are tired. Plus the flight will go faster that way. There are pillows and blankets in the very back of the plane if you want them. Look in the overhead bins. That's all. I'll let you know when we're close to landing."

Mia tossed me a pillow before I could make it to the back of the plane. Nodding my thanks I headed back to my seat and tried to get comfortable. Once satisfied that I wouldn't wake up with a sore neck I closed my eyes. I barely felt the plane take off before I fell asleep.