The Dragon's Son

*Chapter 7*

After the introductions were finished and Flare took his leave with Onslaught and the other higher officials aside from Alexis, I was given a quick rundown of the events following Mott 'tazing' me as Marc had put it. Teams had been formed and barracks had been assigned. Dagger and the others had also announced our rules for our stay. They had explained our more permanent uniforms, books, and monthly allowances would be awaiting us in our bunks. Two Teams would be housed in each bunkhouse. We would be sharing it with a team labeled Delta. 

A healer came by as they explained it to me, and the kindly older woman checked the red welts on my chest and my heart rate. She did a full check of me to make sure the electrical shock hadn't damaged anything internally before she cleared me from the infirmary. As soon as I was cleared and redressed in the uniform I had been given on the shuttle, Alexis led us to our bunkhouse. 

Once we slipped from the Infirmary, we passed several plain grey metal doors with seemingly no handles except for odd little pads where the handles would be. Otherwise the hall we walked with bare and quiet. We reached one doorway, but instead of a door, it opened into a stairwell leading both upward and down. On the wall across from the doorway, a single human letter and human number painted white stood out. S1. Jack, who saw my observation told me it's importance. "That's the floor we're on," he said, as we started up the stairs, "The S stands for Sublevel. Meaning we're underground." 

My eyes widened, "Underground? You build tunnels like moles and rodents?" I pondered, surprised. Madison snorted at my words while Marc shook his head above us. 

"Only when we need to, otherwise we stay about the ground," Sydney explained as she stepped just ahead of me and Jack, "We usually only build underground when we make underground transportation, storage, parking space, or shelters from weather. The military is a special exception to that."

I tilted my head, curiosity bubbling up. They were similar to dragons if those were the cases for building into the earth. Except for the military part at least. "What does the military burrow for, then?" I questioned gruffly. 

Alexis answered as we wound up to where she was waiting on the landing above. A large painted G stood out on the wall here. Though the lobby beyond us was familiar. It was the same lobby Onslaught and I traveled through to get to the auditorium. "Mostly for safety and security. By building into the earth, we make ourselves less visible to aerial views and it protects us more readily from attack," she explained, making me nod slowly. To a degree it made sense, but this compound was already so well hidden. Not to mention, most of the buildings on the surface were glaringly obvious to anyone who happened to fly over. Their towers had the Blood Dragon logo proudly shown across their facades. 

I left the matter alone as we strode across the lobby, exiting the opposite doors that Onslaught and I had entered. As we slipped outside, I found myself at the back of the towers, where the smaller uniform grey buildings stood. Alexis escorted us across the gravel paths two one of the two longest buildings closer to the towers. The building stood two stories in height with windows intermediately throughout each level. I could make out movement from some of the upper windows on the left side before we passed through two glass doors into a small lobby. 

A few recruits were shuffling around the two halls on either side of a set of stairs, some I could recognize from the auditorium, but others I couldn't. "You'll be in the barrack 2L," Alexis said as she directed us to the stairs that divided the left and right barrack of the first floor. Once on the second floor, we were greeted but a small central area, similar to the lobby below with a door on the left and a door on the right. The left door had a red 2L on it while the right door had an R2. Simplistic enough. She opened the door for us before motioning us in. I let the others slip in ahead of me and I could hear the conversations that started almost immediately. I let my gaze travel this level, but there were no other exits to the 2L barracks. Just the one door. 

"Is this the only way in and out beside the windows?" I questioned, unsure of this. I had always slept in a den that contained many exits, at least for me. Then again, I had been the smallest thing in that world. Here I was almost bigger than most of my companions. Alexis gave a sheepish smile in response. 

"Yes, unfortunately. Unless you go through the windows, but trust me, this is probably the safest place when it comes to this compound other than the Infirmary. You have nothing to fear while you stay here, Jacob," she reassured me, but it didn't feel reassuring. I offered a nod in response before ducking through the doorway. 

The barrack wasn't something I expected. There were no furs or what I knew as beds. Following the lengthier walls of the building's interior metal contraptions that held a desk beneath each raised platform of sorts. A top each platform sat a ten-inch thick white covered rectangle and a smaller one across the part that touched the wall. A grey length of fabric sat folded at the other end. Each desk had books stacked on top of them along with a square box. No names, but considering some were opened and others were already lounging on their 'beds', it was a claiming situation. 

I moved silently over to the bunk directly across from the door, unclaimed with its box still sealed and the bunk untouched. I picked up one of the books of the stack, flipping the thin oddly made pages. Scanning the unrecognizable words. I watched Alexis step in the doorway as I did. She smiled at the room's occupants before nodded to herself. "Well, those in the room will be your brothers and sisters for the duration of this first phase," she said, catching all of our attention, "The rest of the day, you are free to do as you please to settle in. I suggest you all get to know one another today because tomorrow morning you will be assigned your commanding officer and begin your training. Welcome to the Blood Dragon army." 

With that, she slipped away, shutting the door behind her as she left. I set the book back down as I listened to her steps fade away. I unclipped the belt holding my sword and looped the leather around one of the bars, strapping it there as my own way of claiming the bunk. My eyes peering distastefully at the 'bed'. Welcome to the army indeed.