Boot camp was a lot different from how he envisioned it from the stories he had heard. Hearing the commands from the speaker phones around the room he followed the voice that directed him to the registry. The registry wasn't how he imagined it to be either, no big long queues with the military formal behaviour of stand up straight and keep quiet unless spoken to. Then again this kind of military was very different from the navy, air force or the national ground military. This was space military. This military was a whole new story. New recruits would come here to specialise in either Medical, Artificial Intelligence or train as a soldier and become one of the team spending their life reaching to the top promotion of Captain with their own ship. Squads would be sent out into space to research on other solar systems, seeing what is really out there. Walking up to the white desk he stood placing his identity papers onto the desk waiting for the busy long white haired female to register him. She rushed over instantly picking up his papers flicking through it all checking his appearance photo's staring obliviously at the trainee in front of her.
He had dark thick hair that would flow down just a little passed his shoulder with a lock that fell just over his right eye. He graciously moved it to the side revealing his bold brown eye with a scar that travelled from the top of his eye down to the top of his cheek bone. Turning her gaze back down to the papers. Moving quickly over to the file cabinet marked 'D' she flicked through all the other registry papers coming up to the name of Darryl pulling it out moving quickly over to the desk once again where the recruit was waiting patiently. "Right, here's your registered name tag of 'Ghoul'. Is that correct?" she voice was rushed pulling the bright name tag with the letter 'G' on one side and the name 'Ghoul' underneath out from it's plastic wallet. "Yes that's correct" he answered calmly. His voice wasn't deep nor high, it was naturally steady toned voice which had seemed to calm the registry female down from the pressure of sorting through the new recruits as quickly as she could so she could go back to her own training. "Okay here's your tag and if you like to follow me I'll take you round the quarters collecting your training uniform" she passed the recruit his tag which he pulled over his head tucking it inside of his thin midnight black vest.
Moving over to the inventory sector the two recruits remained silent. The girl led Ghoul to the desk picking up his uniform before showing him round the training quarters where he would work, eat and sleep. The white haired girl showed him quietly to his quarters opening the steel door for him, "alright here's your quarters, here's your time schedule and good luck with your training" she passed him the papers blushing a little once again as he simply smiled at her entering his quarters. He sat gently on his bed scanning his time schedule into his memory. Hearing the other recruits pass his quarters Ghoul changed into his grey combat training gear placing his hair back into a low small ponytail. Jogging towards the body building quarters he looked briefly towards the side at the open door seeing the girl from before sat at a flat screen computer monitor tapping the keys faster then anyone he had seen before.
Once he had jogged over to the body building quarters he stood catching his breath before sitting down on the apparatus lifting his arms up grabbing onto the hand metal bar which had rubber grippers at the each end of the bar. As he pulled the bar down he lifted up the weights building up his muscles ready for the shooting practice he had later. Ghoul carried on building his body muscle through out the morning then when it came up to lunch hour he jogged it back to his quarters taking a shower placing on the spare fresh uniform as he had the sweaty uniform soaking in the sink. Squeezing the soaking wet uniform he placed them over the single towel rack he had letting them drip dry.
Entering the cafeteria quarters Ghoul was served with bread and soup. He sat down devouring his meal feeding his starving stomach. After all the muscle building he did he was hungry enough to eat ten of what he was served and still be hungry for more. As he finished he stood walking over to the side placing his tray onto the pile. Leaving the cafeteria he looked round wondering if the girl he saw before would show up some time soon. When he made his way down to the weaponry quarters being led outside the main building to the single building ready for his first day of weapon training. As luck would have it his thoughts had come true. Handing out the safety goggles and ear muffs was the white haired girl with a smile on her light tanned face. He walked up to her taking the goggles and ear muffs from her noticing something he hadn't before. The bright colour of her ruby eyes shining through her long fringe that she would automatically flick to the right side leaving some of the fringe to lie in between her eyes down the right side of her nose. When he looked back down he also noticed that her tag was attached to what appeared to be a luck charm reading the letter 'Z' carved in. He had hoped that the tag was on the other side so he could at least know her name, but for now a letter was good enough for him.
Shooting the target dummy Ghoul managed to hit top score in the training class. Pleased with himself he took the safety equipment back to the entrance. Entering his quarters he was confused to why there was one guy on laying on his bed, another using his shower and two others sat on his floor. They all stood looking down to the dark skin toned recruit. "Think your best around huh?" the guy that was laying on the bed spoke deeply and steady. "What you doing in my quarter?" there was a hint of threat in Ghoul's voice. "Seeing as though you're a strong guy we thought you could survive without your bed"
"Unless you wanna fight for it" one of the men from Ghoul's left stepped towards him. Ghoul looked at them all loosing his will to fight them. Why should he give into these men who think they can rule other peoples lives? He knew they were just looking for a fight so he turned his back on them leaving back down towards the body building quarter again.
After he spent the evening working his muscles he built up his appetite once again. As he headed towards the cafeteria he wished he could have a shower and get out of his damp clothing from the sweat that had fell from his exposed muscles. Pushing his thoughts aside he turned bumping into a small figured girl surprising him a little. "Excuse me" the cheery quiet voice he had heard many times today apologise. The recruit looked down towards the female placing his hands on her shoulders to help her balance herself once again. "Thanks" she looked up to him flicking her fringe aside letting her ruby eyes connect with Ghoul's strong brown eyes. She smiled looking down hoping that her cheeks weren't turning a shade of a reddish pink. "Welcome" he stated as they both stood unknowing of what to do next. "So, hows your first day going?" she asked him politely.
"Fine, just about to get something to eat" as he answered he made the girl in front of him jump as if she had realised or forgotten something. "Oh, right, yeah sorry I should let you get back to that" her voice had quietened with a shaky tone to it. "Alright, see you again soon" he smiled as she nervously giggled a little rushing quickly out the cafeteria leaving him to get his second meal of the day.
Letting the warm food settle in his stomach Ghoul placed his arms on the table resting his head on them. All he wanted to do was rest a little before finding somewhere suitable to sleep. Time went on and Ghoul still couldn't manage to shut his mind off making him feel a little groggy. He stood deciding that a walk would certainly calm his mind down. As he let his feet guide him wondrously around the base he noticed that the door from before was still open. He glanced in seeing the girl from before sat in front of the same computer monitor typing at the keys with the same speed as before. Ghoul smirked sneaking into the monitoring quarters silently. Hearing her fingers tap the different keys as if she was writing in a code using all the letters, number and symbols. He lifted his hands up above her shoulders pressing them down on them fast while calling in her ear "Got cha". The girl jumped up from her seat spinning round to look up at the recruit calming her nerves and sat back down in her seat as Ghoul took the seat next to her.
The girl got back to tapping away at the keys keeping her focus on the monitor in front of her. "Sorry did I scare you?" Ghoul teased her. She smiled a little flicking her fringe
"Just a little" she replied. Ghoul looked up to the monitor
"What are you working on?"
"My personal coded AI"
"You're training as an AI?" Ghoul never really thought about what the girl beside him would be doing in a place like this. "Aye" she turned to glance at him for a second smiling before returning to focus on the monitor that let a blue light fall on her face as some of the main lights had been turned off. "Name's Zo by the way"
"Nice to meet you" Ghoul stated. Zo looked over to her watch seeing the numbers were light up in red. "How come you're not in bed yet?"
"I could ask you the same thing" Ghoul returned the question.
"AI's can't sleep for long, they always need to be at their station monitoring the status of their ship. Anyway I told you, I'm creating my own personal coded AI. Take a look" she clicked the mouse smiling as the holo pad lit a light blue circle revealing a virtual person with her appearance. Only the virtual person's body appeared in coded numbers with hair, eyes and a mouth. "Hey that's pretty cool" Ghoul moved towards the holo pad amazed by her accomplishment.
After dragging Zo away from the monitoring room the two recruits walked round the main building. "So how long have you been here?" Ghoul asked,
"Twenty-six months" she quietly replied.
"Twenty-six months?" Ghoul repeated curiously to how long she had been here.
"Aye, I've never really been assigned to a ship yet. Anyway I like helping out round here and see new recruits get higher and higher in their chosen career" Zo explained.
"But I saw you in there how could you not be assigned yet? You're a fast worker" Ghoul said making Zo smile a little. "Well to tell you the truth I have had offers from captains but I'm waiting for the right team"
"Leave it up to some sort of faith?" Zo nodded as they headed down the second floor corridor. Then they stopped coming up to a steel door "I think I'll go get some sleep".
"If I had a bed I would go to it" Ghoul replied mumbling a little.
"Why? What's happened?" they stood out the steel door as Ghoul explained the situation to Zo.
"Oh, which is why you were in damp clothing earlier when I bumped into you"
"Yeah" Ghoul replied smiling a little. Zo looked down blushing a little then met Ghoul's gaze before quietly asking "you want to come into my quarters and rest? Wash you uniform and be somewhere for you to sleep" she tried to cover the fact that she offered to share her quarters with him because she wanted to not because it would be practical for him. "Sure, thank you" he answered watching her turn round opening the door.
He followed her in but stopped looking at her when she turned round. "You can have the bed, you need more sleep then I do" she offered.
"It's okay you have the bed, it's your quarter. Feel bad enough taking up some of your space already"
"Don't be silly you can't sleep on the floor you wont get a good night rest" she protested.
"Well what you oppose we do?" Ghoul asked Zo as she paused blushing once again.
"We'll share the bed, I'll get changed first then you can get in and wash your uniform" Zed quietly answered rushing into her wash room changing out of her black shorts and black crop top into her small white night dress. She came out letting Ghoul in as she climbed under the thin bed covers lying on her side on the edge of the bed. When Ghoul came out still in his training pants he looked over to the sleeping girl cuddling the covers. He pushed the cover more over to her side lying down on the bed without the covers. The cold had never bothered him, he was one of those people who preferred the cold to the warmth. He turned on his side facing Zo's back to fit fully on the bed. He wasn't sure why but he felt like moving up to Zo and place his arm over her holding her while they slept. He gave into the temptation placing his arm over her snuggling up closer to her holding her small hand in his as he closed his eyes slowly drifting off to sleep.