You're All Soldiers Now 1

Suddenly, a loud noise blared in his room. A continuous high-pitched sound made Ace cover his ears for the better part of a minute, after which a voice came through a hidden speaker. 

"It is six AM. All new cadets report to the mess hall. Comply with your superiors or be treated in accordance with martial law." 

A calm but authoritative woman repeated the message five times, after which the door to his room opened automatically, and the lights turned on. 

"You have one minute to comply!" 

Ace noticed two guards in full-body armor that covered them from head to toe, standing outside his room. They were pointing large blocky rifles at him, and he could tell they would fire on him at the smallest sign of resistance. While reluctant, he clicked his tongue but got out of bed nonetheless. 

Outside, he was greeted by a long corridor with dozens of open doors, identical to his, lining both sides. The walls were painted a dull gray, devoid of any decoration. It reminded him of a prison documentary he'd once seen, but the he shook his head thinking that the walls there were painted blue. Much better than this. 

He paused in front of the guards and calmly inspected the other individuals that had exited the rooms tied to the hallway. All of them looked confused and wore the same white jumpsuit while groggily stepping outside. 

He smiled when he saw no one else was escorted by guards, and only then did he give the two armored guards in front of him an indifferent look. One of the guards pointed toward the exit at the end of the hallway, and Ace began to walk. 

After ten steps, he looked back and saw that the guards weren't following him. One of them quickly waved the rifle at him. "Keep moving, cadet!" 

He frowned and continued, disliking being referred to as a cadet. Ace had no plans of enlisting and thought the military was a waste of time—wars fought for no reason, or worse, for the gain of wealthier individuals. He did not mind dying, unless it was for others. 

When he passed through the hallway door, his eyes squinted, adjusting to a bright light assaulting him from high above. At first, he thought it was the sun before his eyes adapted, but when his eyes opened, he was left stunned. He stood on a catwalk hugging a massive wall, overlooking a three hundred-foot-wide chasm. Another gray-painted wall, with dozens of catwalks stacked on top of each other, clung to the opposite wall, and when he leaned over the edge and looked down, it was the same case on his side. 

Both walls had countless holes continuously spewing people dressed in white, intermingled with countless guards in black armor. 

In between the walls was a huge open plaza filled with countless tables and chairs, a couple of sports fields, and even several weight-lifting areas. 

"Everybody, exit your quarters!" 

A wave of people pushed him from behind, and he walked, still marveling at his surroundings. As he exited the hallway, he went left for a hundred feet, encountered many other corridors like the one he came from, and at the end of the catwalk, he took a staircase that led another hundred feet down to the plaza. 

Within minutes, the enormous space filled with what Ace believed to be thousands of people, and he began wondering who could have built such a place. When he looked up, he saw that it wasn't a skylight but actual artificial lights providing illumination. The electricity bill alone, he thought, would go up to the millions. 

He was thinking about finding Norman and Mira when he felt a tug on his shoulder. He turned to see who it was and saw a head full of lush alabaster hair, framing a beautiful face. 

"How did you find me?" he asked. 

Mira smiled. "We were placed on the same floor, but you were ahead of me." 

"Have you seen Norman?" 

Ace hoped that maybe Norman was housed similarly close like Mira was, but his hopes were dashed when she shook her head. 

"We should look around for him," Mira said, and they began to wander through the crowd. 

While scanning the massive gathering of people, Ace couldn't help but ask, "So, did you tell them anything?" 

Mira looked surprised and confused, as if she didn't know what he referred to. "About what?" 

"What do you mean about—" But before he could finish, Mira grabbed his hand and squeezed. 

"What, that you're interested in me?" 

Ace was befuddled and wanted to pull his hand away, but she pointed with her eyes toward a pole with cameras on top, not twenty feet away from them. 

"If you wanted to keep that a secret, you should have kept quiet. Those things can hear a mouse from a hundred feet away. Come on, let's find Norman." 

As they walked, Ace scanned the area and found not one but many such surveillance stations. A shiver ran down his spine. If Mira hadn't stopped him in time, he might have revealed everything. He'd been so preoccupied with whether they had discovered his secret, that he forgot to keep it safe. 

They kept searching and combing the crowd with their eyes, but even after a long time, they couldn't spot Norman in the sea of people. Everybody was dressed the same, and both thought it was luck that allowed them to find each other in the first place. 

They sat on a bench to think about their next step, and Ace couldn't help but say, "They asked me if I brought anything back. From that world, I mean." 

Mira frowned. "And, what did you say?" 

"I told them the truth. I brought nothing. You?" 

She nodded and smiled. She didn't know much about Ace's character besides his ruthlessness, but Mira knew that sometimes, ruthlessness was a front for cowardice. Hearing him deny confessing, made some of her tension dissipate, as she too had become enamored with the meat. After almost twenty four hours of continuous digestion, she could feel her body brimming with power. She had felt so powerful this morning that she thought even punching a hole in the wall wouldn't be a big deal. She didn't tested it because she didn't want to draw any attention, otherwise, she thought her cell would have turned into a beehive.