(so, this was originally intended to be included in chapter 4, but i got too tired last night to continue and wanted to post what i had. so here is chapter 5, enjoy)
Chapter 5
I went home and told my parents about my decision to join the armed forces. When I told them, they burst into tears. I spent the next week at home with my family before I left for the army. Tyler’s father hadn’t left the house since Tyler’s ‘disappearance’ and I didn’t think I could tell anybody what I saw. Who would believe me? And anyway, the whole thing looked like a giant conspiracy, who knew who was in on it, so I hadn’t told a soul. Once the week was over I was called to the military and left my family. I arrived at the base and was assigned a bunk. I dropped all of my stuff off at the bunk and threw on my military uniform. A whistle blew from outside, and I knew that I needed to get out onto the field to meet my sergeant. I jogged out onto the field, my scabbard bouncing against my back with each step I took, and arrived with the rest of my unit.
“Alright soldiers!” the drill sergeant began, “You are all here for the same reason! To protect our country!” The sergeant was a large muscular man who looked like he could have been a body builder if he wasn’t in the army. He passed back and forth and spoke to each one of us.
“You soldier, what is your name?”
“Sir, Steven Rogers Sir!”
“You soldier, what is your name?”
“Sir, Lindsay Wier, Sir!”
“You soldier, what is your name?”
“Daniel Nabet”
“Excuse me soldier? When you speak to me, you will address me as Sir, do I make myself clear?”
“Sir, yes Sir!”
“Now soldier, what is that thing on your back?”
“Sir, it is a long sword Sir!”
“A long sword? Well welcome to the 21st century Soldier! We’re not going to be fighting are enemies with swords, and bows and arrows!”
“Sir, I am actually quite skilled with the sword Sir!”
Everyone in the platoon laughed when I said that. “Skilled with a sword Soldier? I bet that I can fire this air rifle,” he picked up a rifle from a stack behind him, “before you even have a chance to swing.” I smiled. It was a challenge. The sergeant turned and continued to walk down the line.
“Is that a challenge Sir?” I asked smugly. The sergeant turned around and faced me.
“A challenge soldier? I’ll give you a challenge. If you can hit me with that itty bitty sword of yours before I hit you with the compressed air rifle, I’ll give you a perfect score on today’s evaluation. But if I hit you before you hit me, not only do you get a big fat ZERO but every member of this platoon needs to 50 push ups right here right now, and is put on washroom detail for the week,” the sergeant yelled. The rest of the unit were shaking their heads, begging me not to do it, but it was too late. I’d been challenged, and I never back down from a challenge.
“Sir, I accept Sir,” I said quietly.
“Then draw your weapon soldier,” he pulled up his rifle and I drew my sword. “Wier!” the sergeant called and Lindsay stood at attention, “count us off if you would be so kind,” he said.
“3, 2, 1, GO!” she shouted and backed away. The sergeant fired his rifle at me, but I had already moved out of the way. I swung my sword at his leg, and right before I cut into it, I stopped and lightly tapped him with the flat end.
“Sir, I guess this means I win Sir,” I said smugly with my blade still pressed against his leg. The sergeant muttered, gave me a perfect evaluation, and then made us all run laps.
Every day for the entire week, the sergeant challenged me to the same battle, and every day I won, so every day I received a perfect score on my evaluation. After the week was over a general I had seen around the base walked up to me. I saluted.
“At ease. Are you Daniel Nabet?” he asked sternly.
“Sir, yes Sir. How may I be of assistance,” I asked. Luckily I had learned to be respectful of people I actually respected.
“We would like to talk to you over in our office,” he pointed over to one of the off limit buildings. “If you could follow me please.” He walked over to the building and I followed behind him. I entered a room with a large wooden table and several generals sitting around it. There were two empty seats. “Have a seat soldier,” the general said and motioned towards one of the empty chairs. I was nervous, but couldn’t think of anything I’d done wrong. So I didn’t know what could have happened.
“Nabet, it has come to our attention that for every day this week you have received perfect marks on your evaluation. We would like to offer you the chance to join our special operations team,” one of the generals said. He saw my confused expression and continued, “Our special ops team deals with strange and sometimes unnatural occurrences. Do you recall the Zone Ninety-One incident?” I did, Zone Ninety-One was a hidden military base, kind of like California’s own personal Area 51. There had been a terrorist attack on the zone a few years back and they had closed it down. I nodded and the general continued once again, “Well, at Zone Ninety-One, we had what we believed to be a piece of extra terrestrial technology.” My heart skipped a beat. “Now the terrorists, they had destroyed that piece of technology that we had found. Now, we seem to have another issue on our hands. One of our aircraft carriers had some very strange things go on. People on that boat claim to have seen aliens.”
I gulped and said “Sir, what did they say these aliens looked like?”
Confused the general said, “We received reports of several tall things, reptilian in nature, with blades covering their bodies. And they claim to have seen one large blue dear-like monster with a human torso and a long tail.”
They were the monsters that I had seen just two weeks before. The ones that killed Tyler. I looked up at the general. “Sir, what do you want me to do?”
“I have a feeling that these aliens, if they do exist, are not here for fun. They want a war, so we are going to give them one. I want our best soldiers to be on our special ops team and I think it would be good to have a young genius like you. If you choose to accept this promotion, you begin training at 0600 tomorrow.”
“Sir, who will be my sergeant?”
A familiar voice from behind me spoke up, “I will Nabet.”
I turned around and saw Carl Stern, the sergeant who had found me and brought me to the army.
I looked back to the general, “I’m in.”
“Good, you begin at 0600 tomorrow, at L block. This is all top secret information. Do not share it with anybody,” the general said.
I stood up and walked out of the building with a large smile on my face.
