Vestige Chapter 10 - New Life

We had been granted our a second chance and so we started our new life.

“Wow! Look at this place! The trees are so big, Lulu!” Aurelia’s head gawked upwards at the behemoth pines around her.

“Yeah.” I muttered under my breath.

“Look at the cabins, too!” Aurelia pointed to the nearest log cabin. “That one says its the girl’s cabin, it’s way bigger than the house at the orphanage!”

“This whole place is huge, man.” Gray added.

“Yeah.”

They’re acting like little kids right now. Every little new sight is amazing to them. I guess that makes sense. They must have forgotten everything that's happened in the last two days, everything we’ve gone through, but they’ve got to remember something right? I still remember everyone back at the orphanage and all the happy days we shared together even though I too lost some of my memories. They’ve got to still have those memories somewhere too , right?

“Aurelia, you said something about the orphana-”

“Hmph!” From out of the blue a loud groan cut off my sentence. A stern large muscular man stood in its point of origin. “Now if you toddlers are done, then haul your asses over to the mess hall! I have no tolerance for lowlifes who are late for their first day!” The man yelled at the top of his lungs. I could even feel the spit coming from his mouth.

“I’m sorry.” Aurelia held her head to the ground. “I didn’t know we were late.”

Without a word of apology I began walking to the largest of the buildings which was labeled ‘Mess Hall’. I wanted to just get this over with already.

“Hold on, Lulu, don’t-” Aurelia tried to catch up to me.

“Yo, wait up!” Gray slugged behind me

I walked up the ramp of the building and pushed open the large double doors. Inside was a lively room of bubbling kids my age. They sat around on the several wooden tables around the room and talked so loud my eardrums began to hurt. Even though the room was large, many seats were already taken. I managed to find a seat in the corner at a lonely table with only one other person there.

I sat down across from a boy. He had short brown hair and wore a standard military jacket.

We stared at each other for several moments.

“Hey.” He smiled at me.

“Hi.” I responded.

We gazed at each other for a couple more moments before he took his hand out his jacket pocket and held it out.

“The name’s Jean. I look forward to working with you.”

“Yeah.” I slowly shook his hand.

“You know when we getting star-” Jean was quickly cut off.

“Lulu!” Aurelia shouted across the room and soon popped a sit next to me. “Don’t run off without me like that!”

“Ok.” I muttered.

“Huff, huff..” Gray slid beside me. “I really can’t do running like that ca-”

“Alright, alright! Can you filthy rats shut your damn mouths already!” The rough man from before entered the room. Quickly every one stopped talking and gave him their attention. He walked up to the front of the room.

“Welcome to the first day of military boot camp, bugs!” His voice boomed. “My name’s Han! Officially I am now your instructor, but in reality, I’m your god from now on and you shall treat me as such! Do well and I shall treat you nicely. That being said, if you ever dare to break any of the rules outlined in the manual I’ll whoop your ass so hard you’ll bleed!”

“You’ll be spending three painful months at this damn place, so get used to my voice! Nevertheless, I don’t want to waste any more of my god damn time yelling here! We got a lot of training to get done! Though, it’s y’all’s first day so we’ll keep it simple. I want all of you, fatasses, to go back to your cabin and get changed into the standard outfit regulated to all of you. Girls on the left, boys on the right. I want everyone to meet up here in a half an hour for some preliminary ability tests..”

Han looked sternly into the crowd before storming off into another room. Promptly conversations flared up again and people began to laxly file out of the buildings.

“Come on Lulu, let’s get going!” Aurelia tugged on my arm as she rushed me out of the building. “I wanna check out the cabin!”

“Yeah, yeah.” I whispered.

She’s extremely energetic in this situation. I wish that energy was intoxicating enough to reach me. I just can’t shake this feeling of guilt and exhaustion. I just want to lie down and forget everything that I’ve done. Those same images won’t leave my mind though, mother’s lifeless body and the screaming torture I put Aurelia and Gray through. I relive it over and over.

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“Wow, it’s huge!” Aurelia and I stood in the entrance of the girl's cabin.

“You mind getting out of the way?” A girl holding a large cardboard box retorted behind us. She had long platinum blonde hair, blue eyes, and a snarky attitude.

“Oh, sorry, sorry.” Aurelia jumped out of the way.

“Ugh.” The girl entered the building and went into the third room of the hallway.

The entire cabin is made up of a main hallway and seven rooms. Five of these rooms are bedrooms, one is a bathroom and the other is for recreation. From what I can gather in total there were about sixty people in the mess hall. Split evenly by gender that means there are thirty girls with six to each room.

“Come on! Let’s get a nice room in the back.” Aurelia and I bobbed and weaved through the other girls in the hallway. We arrived at the last room. With a large motion, Aurelia swang the door open and entered the room.

“Sorry! All of the beds in here have been taken!” A girl from inside responded.

“Oh…” Aurelia shut the door. “Let’s try the next one.”

We went to the next room over and were met with the same delima. Soon many of the girls in the hallway disappeared into their rooms. It’s seemed like many of the spaces had already been taken in mere moments.

“I don’t think we’ve tried this one.” Aurelia opened the door to the third room. “There any space in here.” She peered her head in and asked.

“Ugh. Nope. All taken.” The girl we had met in the hallway slouched on a top-bunk bed and sighed at us.

“What are you talking about, Ophelia?” A small and short girl with long black hair greeted us. “We have a couple of beds left. You two can take the bottom left one and the middle one.”

The room was small with very little space besides bedding. Two three-layered bunk beds lined both sides of the room. A small window hung at the edge of the room. It gave us a good view of the rest of the camp.

“Ugh, whatever.” Ophelia sighed, jumped off her top bunk and left the room, shutting the door behind her.

“I’m sorry for her.” The short girl said. Looking at her now, I was near twice her height. “She means well, she's just not good with people, so she shuts herself off.”

“It’s just fine. We’ll get along soon, I know it!” Aurelia climbed up onto the middle bunk. “I’ll be taking this one if that’s okay Lulu?”

“Sure.” I sat onto the bottom bunk. Its green mattress was cheap, but it beat the prison cell I slept in last night. Lying on top, was a set of clothes and a booklet.

The small girl stood up. “My name’s Fay, by the way.”

“I’m Aurelia, nice to meet you!”

“Lulu.”

“Hope we’ll be great friends!” Fay’s smile shined back at us. “I’ve got to go get dressed and find Ophelia. See you.” Fay left the room, leaving Aurelia and I by ourselves.

I sank into the bed. It felt more comfortable than even the ones back in the orphanage. I think that’s just because I’m more tired than I ever was then. I feel like so much has happened. It’s all so exhausting and has me really missing those days when I used to play in the fields in the orphanage.

“You okay Lulu?” Aurelia calmly asked from the bunk above me.

“Yeah, why?”

“You haven’t been yourself today. You’ve been really cold and distant, like somethings wrong.”

“No I-”

“It’s like you’re not the same person I knew back in the orphanage.”

I paused for a moment to take in what I heard. How could she say that?

“What do you even know of the orphanage?!”

“I-”

“Don’t speak like you know who I am! You don’t even remember everything we’ve been through! You’ve forgotten the truth about the orphanage! You’ve even forgotten the promise we made.” I yelled at her.

I stood still for a saddening moment. “Don’t you remember what we decided on? We were going to find somewhere safe where all of us could be happy! That means everyone in the orphanage! You don’t even remember all of our family back in the orphanage!” I rampaged.

The room fell silent after my burst of anger.

“Are you kidding?” Aurelia began to raise her voice. “Are you claiming I forgot all that? How could you? I would never forget all the times, you, Gray and I spent in the orphanage. I remember everything we did to get here! Every day we spent training out in the field in still fresh in my mind.”

“I could never forget all that.” Aurelia’s voice crawled to a sad tone. “I remember everyone in the family. You, Gray, Mother and I.”

I was hit with a sudden saddening bolt of realization. She really had forgotten everything. She must really believe that it was just the three of us and mother back then.

“I’m going to get dressed and go find Gray.” Aurelia jumped off her bed and opened the door. “I didn’t realize what I said would offend you. Nonetheless, Lulu, you will always be my family. I just want to let you know, no matter what, I’ll be here for you.” She slammed the door shut.

I laid in bed and stared at the wooden frame above me. That anger was uncalled for, but I couldn’t help it. I just feel so alone here. This whole place is just like the orphanage. A huge lie.

Reluctantly I got out of bed and took a look at the outfit. It was composed of a military green shirt and pants. Elaborately designed, it was nicer than anything we got back at the orphanage.

I put it on and left the building. Outside, the afternoon rays irradiated the forest flora. Many of the kids were running around the camp and generally slacking off. It had only been fifteen minutes, but with nothing better to do, I entered the mess hall.

The place was extremely quiet. Many of the tables were empty. I sat down in the same spot I had earlier. The same boy I met earlier, Jean, sat in the same place across from me.

“Oh hey, you’re the girl from before, right?” He asked.

“Yeah.”

“I didn’t catch your name earlier.” He smugly smiled at me.

“Lulu.”

“Nice name.”

“Ok.”

We sat there awkwardly silent for several moments.

“So.” Jean attempted to start a conversation. “Why did you decide to join the military?” He asked.

I didn’t have much of a choice. Regrettably, it was the safest option for my family, but I couldn’t tell him all that.

“Forced to.” I answered.

“What?” Jean looked shocked yet relieved at my answer. “Oh, I didn’t know that-”

“You?” I wondered if the others here believe they had a choice. It’s likely a memory that they all had added to them.

“Well I, uh-” Jean wiped his forehead. “Same.”

That doesn’t make much sense. He was forced to as well? Why would they implant a memory like that?

“So, uh, anyway. Any like hobbies?” He quickly switched the conversation.

“Shallow question.” I sarcastically joked.

“Well, I’m just trying to start some conversation..”

I quietly chuckled.

“What?”

“Nothing. I used to really enjoy taking care of the younger children, back at the orphanage.”

“Yeah?”

“It was strangely fulfilling to me. How about you?”

“I always liked the daily training, you know. It ended up being really useful for me.”

“How so?”

“Well, in the military, you know?”

“Yeah-”

“There you are, Lulu.” Aurelia ran into the room and sat next to me. Gray followed behind her.

“It’s almost time.” She said. Many started to file into the room. Soon, it became a loud mess like earlier. Gray sat next to Jean and began to talk to him. It looked like they were getting along.

“We’ll be fine.” Aurelia put her hand on my shoulder. “Trust me.”

“Damn!” Han burst into the room. “It sounds like I have a bunch of loudmouth animals in this damn place.” Han looked down at his watch. “About time. Let’s go over the preliminary testing! On the battlefield, your skills with guns are just one of the many important asset!” Han angerly gestured to a deviant boy and quickly stopped his tomfoolery.

“Your rifles will be effective against many of the smaller units you’ll encounter, but for the larger ones, you’ll need something a little more powerful! Let’s head over to the main training field. I’ll show you our solution to that.” Han led us as a group out of the building and over to a large dirt field filled with stone walls, to use as cover. Beside it, a large metal storage house

“These bad boys are what I’m talking about.” Han lifted up the storage house door. Inside were roughly sixty tank-like vehicles. Each was equipped with two large front-facing guns and a couple tracks. They were highly armored, but light to move fast.

“Let’s get this show on the road!” Han yelled.