Chapter 3
—The last peaceful morning–
After an uneventful night's rest I was awoken to the steady ringing of the alarm clock. Rolling over I took a glance at the time, 4:00 AM was flashing softly on the nightstand. While trying to shake off the drowsiness from having been awoken I started feeling a pit in my stomach during my walk towards the bathroom. As I stumbled into the bathroom to clean myself up and get ready to meet everyone in the lobby, I glanced into the mirror and noticed I had bags under my eyes.
Guess I slept as good as I feel, Well nothing a shower can't help with I guess… I thought to myself. As the warm water of the shower rained down on me I could feel the pit in my stomach start to disappear with whatever nerves were left. Stepping out of the shower I realized I still had my necklace on and never took it off since I put it on yesterday. A knock on the door drew my attention as Ade’s muffled voice followed, “Hey Marcus, are you awake yet?”
Quickly throwing on my pants I grabbed a t-shirt on my way to the door. Opening it I found Ade standing in front of me and behind him leaning against the wall was Rebecca.
“Yoo morn- Geez I know you helped on the farm but are you sure you didn’t do any weight lifting in high school?” He questioned, punching me in the chest. Behind him I saw Rebecca's cheeks flush as she quickly turned away.
“I'll meet you guys in the lobby” She stammered, her voice sounding flustered. As she grabbed her bag from the floor and started walking away I glanced at her and then back to Ade
“What's up with her ?”
“Uhh dude you do realize that Rebecca isn’t a guy right, for her it's not everyday some jacked farm boy opens a door shirtless” Ade looked with an evil smirk on his face as he put extra emphasis on the word shirtless.
“Oh right yeah I'm tracking now, let me throw my shirt on and then grab my stuff.” Quickly putting my shirt on I walked back into my room and grabbed my bags. We walked headed to the lobby and we saw Rebecca sitting at a table with the two siblings we saw from yesterday, drinking what looked like a cup of coffee.
“Hey Rebecca did ya save a seat for us!” Ade started to shout when I turned to him.
“Hey man, keep it down it's not even 5 in the morning how can you be so loud.”
“Sorry I'm used to being up when normal people are up” he said with a hushed tone. Starting over, I noticed the complimentary coffee bar.
“Hey man I'm gonna grab some coffee mind pulling up a chair for me”
“Yeah if they have hot chocolate can you get me some?”
“Sugar is the last thing you need I think” I noted as I walked past the table. At the bar the bitter, strong smell of coffee started to envelop my nose. Getting my cup, I started my way back to the table when I locked eyes with Rebecca and as soon as our eyes met, her face started to turn bright red again and she looked down at her coffee cup. “Hey, are you feeling okay?”
“Huh? Oh yeah- I'm just still tired I think ” she stammered out as I took a seat at the table.
“Another friend of yours I'm guessing ” The muscular guy from last night said to Rebecca. Up close I could definitely tell he put plenty of effort into his physique.
“I guess, we did just meet yesterday but we get along well enough I think” Rebecca replied, still avoiding eye contact with me.
“I don't know if these two already told you but I’m Marcus”
“Names Evaldo, this girl over here is my sister. Sorry she's not really a morning person” he pointed to the girl next to him “Don't be rude, introduce yourself Lil”
“Hmm…? Sorry I'm lily nice to meet you” she mumbled in between yawns.
“So safe to assume you're heading to the Academy as well since we're getting introductions out of the way” I decide to finally ask.
“Yeah, I kinda assumed we all realized that since we were all out here at 4:30 in the morning. Anyways since we're talking about the Academy, what are you going for?”
“Ooo let me go first!” Lily perked up, snapping out of her drowsiness “I'm studying medicine but haven't decided on a specialization yet.”
“Well I guess ladies first then” Ade said, looking in Rebecca’s direction.
“Fine. Well I'm studying aeronautics and joining the pilots program.”
“I'm pretty much doing the same thing ” I spoke up when Rebecca finished.
“I’m studying engineering but I'm leaning towards specializing in construction engineering” Evaldo answered next.
“Well that leaves me then, I'm studying mechanics and maintenance though I haven't decided yet which field I'm aiming for. I'm up in the air between air or land based maintenance.” Ade said, wrapping up the topic at hand. As our conversation started to die down I noticed quite a few other people had started to arrive in the hotel lobby. While we kept making small talk at our little table more small groups started forming throughout the lobby. I counted maybe 50 to 60 people other than us chatting and getting to know each other. Finally as the clock hit 5:00 AM two buses started to pull up to the hotel, parking by the front door when a man, looking maybe a little older than my father, walked off the first bus and into the l0bby. Just by entering the lobby the feeling in the room shifted rapidly from a warm, relaxed feeling to one of icy nerves. Clearing his throat to grab everyone's attention he began to speak.
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“Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is Captain Wallace. I am an instructor at the Academy. I thank you all for being down here at the specified time. Next up we're going to have all of you fill out tags for your bags to prevent confusion and accidental swapping of personal items.” His voice booming with authority but not quite yelling, the mood in the lobby began to shift again as people's nerves began to settle. The air was starting to become more relaxed but for some reason I just couldn't shake a cold feeling nagging at the back of my head. A line started to form in front of the captain to collect tags for everyone's personal belongings.
“Well I guess we'll see you guys on the other side.” Evaldo said as Lily and him grabbed their stuff and headed towards the line.
“See you all real soon” Lily smiled, now fully awake with all the commotion going on around her.
“Well doesn't she have a cute smile” Ade spoke without realizing what he just said.
“Huh. I know we’re technically going to a college but don't go falling for the every girl you meet” I teased
“Yeah yeah anyways hurry up and finish your two drinks so we can hop in line” He quickly shot back.
Quickly finishing our drinks we grabbed our belongings and headed to the line. Finally joining the line of people, that cold feeling nagging at me kept growing as we started getting to the captain. Without realizing it I grabbed my necklace and started squeezing and letting it go over and over till I was standing in front of the Captain. He held some kind of large electronic device that was printing the information of that person in front of me. Standing here, I realized he was maybe half a foot taller than me and that he wasn't actually wearing a military uniform, just dress pants and a polo embroidered with his rank and name on it.
“Alright son, when I tell you to, speak your first and last name, age, and hometown loud and clear. Understand?” Captain Wallace spoke to me, his voice still exuding a commanding presence
“Understood sir” I said as I let go of my necklace one last time
“Good, now go ahead”
“Marcus Royland, 18, Historia” as soon as the words finished leaving my mouth he pressed a button on his devices and it started printing out what looked like a piece of paper.
“Take this tag and attach it to your personal belongings and step outside with everyone else, you'll get your next instructions then.” After handing the tag to me he waved the next person forward. While walking outside I put the tag on my duffle bag and when I looked up after attaching it I saw that two lines were forming. I joined the shortest line and waited for everyone else to show up.
“Man, that guy sure was intimidating. How do you look so calm and collected?” Ade whispered behind me.
“Yeah tell me about it, the mood got so cold standing in front of him.” As we continued to whisper Rebecca joined us not long after and slowly, the last of the people filed out of the lobby. Once the last person left, Captain Wallace did a quick look around and then stepped outside.
“Ladies and Gentlemen now that everyone is here and accounted for, go ahead and start boarding the buses. Line one will board the first bus Line two will board the second bus. Everyone hears me and understands?” A collection of sounds of agreement and affirmation rang out as we started to board the buses. As I climbed onto the bus I saw Evaldo and Lily sitting towards the front. When I passed by them they gave me a courteous nod in my direction, almost saying good to see you again. Halfway through the bus I decided to grab a window seat after setting my bag on the floor in front of my seat. Staring out the window I felt someone sitting next to me assuming it was Ade, surprise overcoming me when I looked and saw it was Rebecca.
“Surprise, Ade said he figured you would assume he was gonna sit next to you.” she said with a quiet giggle. I couldn't help but chuckle as I was looking at her. Even in the dark bus I noticed her cheeks were still a little rose colored.
“Hey, are you sure you're feeling well? Your face is still red.” I asked, concerned.
“Yeah I'm fine. Like I said earlier, just nerves” Rebecca spoke, quickly covering her face.
“But that's not what you said earl-” before I could finish what I was saying the bus roared to life and started moving. Forgetting what I was about to say, I decided to just watch the world go by outside the window. The ride was eerily quiet but surprisingly long. We were on the bus for maybe an hour and a half when we passed a military gate checkpoint. In front of the gate a sign read Esmerelda Military Academy. I was about to point out to Rebecca that we were finally here when I noticed she had dozed off and was sleeping peacefully slumped on my shoulder.
“Rebecca we’re here, you need to wake up” I quickly nudged her awake with my shoulder.
“Huhhhh” she groaned as she started to stir awake before quickly shooting up, realizing what she had done. “Sorry I didn't realize I had dozed off again, guess that coffee really wasn't much help.”
“It's all good. Looks like we're here now though I guess the next step is beginning soon.”
As the buses came to a stop in front of a courtyard the sun was just starting to crest the sky illuminating the campus. A large forest surrounded the campus, keeping it hidden from the rest of the world almost like a secret military base. Besides the massive courtyard around us, within eye shot, were larger brick and stone buildings centered right behind the courtyard was another large building, this one with marble pillars and a flag pole flying Esmeraldas national flag. As I was scanning my new surroundings Captain Wallace boarded the bus, the aura he gave off had completely shifted again and this time his presence was filled with a fiery resolve.
“Ladies and gentlemen when I give the word you will all disembark the bus and from two lines again like when you all boarded. Understood?”
“Yes sir” we all replied, shaking off the drowsiness of the bus ride over.
“NOW GET THE HELL OFF MY BUS!” Captain Wallace shouted. Everyone quickly jumped up and tried leaving the bus all at once, causing a traffic jam in the aisle.
“Well here we go,” I mumbled, sparing a glance at Rebecca and Ade. As we finally made it off the bus we quickly formed two lines as more Academy personnel swarmed around us yelling at different people. I took a quick glance around and noticed there were two more buses than the two we took. Well guess that answers our question of multiple hotels then I thought to myself. With that immediate jump into the chaos my time at the academy finally started.