Ascension

Elijah

I ran out of Alaina's office. I couldn't get to the sign up soon enough! I needed to be out of here or else I might go as insane as Alivia. I signed my name on the sheet of paper that was buried beneath hundreds of other sheets of paper.

"Wow. You really want to, go to the Darkness." The person next to me said.

"I need to get out of here." I tell him.

"I get it. The bunker can seem claustrophobic."

"Tell me about it." I groan.

"Actually, I think I'm going to go as well." He tells me.

He signs his name on the paper.

"See you later." He smiled.

I don't know what happened but okay. I walked back to the room with everyone. I go join Willow and Grayson. Oh right we found everyone missing. Willow is grateful.

"Hey Elijah come sit with us." She says when she sees me.

"Hey Willow. Hey Grayson." I greet them.

"Anything interesting happening in your army life?" Willow asks me.

"Not in my army life but I signed up to go recover information from the Darkness." I tell them.

"Oh wow. That sounds fun." Grayson tells me.

"Yeah. I decided I needed to get out of here."

"I can understand that." Willow tells me.

"Do you want to come with?" I ask them.

"We are allowed to come?" She asks.

"Yeah. There is a sign up sheet outside the main hall." I tell them.

"Okay we will be sure to check that out." they smile.

"So what's happening in your lives?" I ask.

"Not much. You are definitely more interesting than us. Mr Army." Willow pokes.

"I can understand that. Just happy to be with each other I suppose." I try.

"Oh for sure." Grayson tells me.

"I'm glad we found you guys. I feel like that whole rescue would have been pointless if we left without you." I tell them.

"I'm glad you didn't forget us. It was horrible there." Grayson shudders.

"I agree. I was only there in the labs for a few minutes but that was a horrible experience I never want to go through ever again." I tell him.

"It still gives me PTSD." He tells me.

"Alright. I am going to go check in with my supervisor and make sure it's okay for me to go and recover the information from the Darkness. Oh and if you want to go I recommend going and signing up now because we are leaving later today." I tell them.

I get up and leave the table. Willow and Grayson are very nice. They are actually one of the only people I know who still use common courtesy.

I run to my supervisor. I knock gently on his door before opening it.

"Oh hello Elijah. Do you need something?" He asks.

"Hello sir. I would like to request some downtime this afternoon."

"For what reason would you like to request the down time?"

"I signed up to go recover information from the Darkness." I explain.

My supervisor thinks for a moment.

"I would be willing to grant this if you get your training down for the day before you go."

"Really?" I ask.

My supervisor nods his head. I grin at him and take off running. I go to my quarters and grab my com since I had realized that I hadn't remember to grab it before I left this morning.

"Soldiers I know this is very last minute but training has been moved up to 1100." I tell my soldiers.

I hang up my com and search my closet for my uniform.

I didn't realize that the colony had uniforms for the soldiers until I got back from Headquarters. I do enjoy the uniforms though. They are a deep navy color that blends perfectly with the night sky. We also have a built in flashlight in our hats but that is only because it is kind of hard to see without it.

I run to the training area outside and enjoy the fresh air. One by one my recruits file into the area. I do think it is kind of strange being younger than them. I do understand that some of them don't respect me as they would someone older. I am only 16 and some people don't like that. I am fine with them not liking it.

"Roll call!" I shout.

"Soldier James."

"Yes sir."

"Soldier Mathias."

"Yes sir."

It goes on like this for a while until I reach the last name on my list.

"Soldier Tomas."

There is no answer.

"Soldier Tomas?"

Again, nothing.

"Has anyone seen Soldier Tomas?"

There are murmurs among my soldiers. Some shrug and others stay quiet.

"Has no one seen Tomas?"

I pick up my com and com Tomas.

"Soldier. You were supposed to be at Training!" I yell into the com.

There is only static on the other end.

"Soldier James."

"Yes sir." He replies.

"Go check to see if Tomas is in bed. If he isn't go check with everyone you see to see if they have seen him. The rest of you, laps until James gets back."

I decide to run the laps with them because sometimes running clears my head. I am ahead of them but that doesn't bother anyone like it used to. They all know that I am half Bright. It bothers some of my soldiers. In fact when I first started as a Trainer I had a squad of 20 people. Over the course of a few weeks seven of my members dropped the Training course or just dropped the Army all together.

When James finally gets back my squad is tired. I think we had run 20 laps at full speed.

"Had anyone seen Tomas?" I ask.

"No sir." James replies to me.

I worry about this. Tomas was one of the best people I had on my squad. He was always there for training. In fact most days he was there before even I was there. I decided to take this up with my supervisor.