James had spent two hours in the gym before finally being tired, the classes had been cancelled, his arm's burned and his head was matted in wet hair. With much effort he made his way out of the gym, it took all his strength not to cry out at how much pain he was in. Kim had fallen asleep on the bike, slumped over the handle bars. Making his way to the rooms, he found the runners on the main hall, must slumped over panting, a few lucky ones asleep and panting.
"Mr Sandman being a bitch today or what?"
One of the runners still conscious made an effort to look at him "fuck off" he said between wheezes of desperate breaths. The conversations took it out of him, he slumped his head back against the metal wall. James found the dorm; it was quite as a graveyard in off season. His odyssey ended with his room. He slid into bed and waited for darkness to come, it did, and it came with a vengeance. Inside his mind the dreams were more intense than ever, he could feel bullets ripping into his flesh, he could see Brandon dying. And worst of all, he could see himself dying. The feeling was devastating. Slowly though, sleep came over of him.
He opened his eyes; he then immediately shut them again. His arm's felt like two lead weights hooked up to a power line. It was five to six, James decided to beat the alarm, getting dressed as quickly as his burning arms would allow. Daniel, the ever vigilante hunter that he was and never one to miss on a chance to attack such feeble prey. As James bent over to put on his pants Daniel swooped down from the top bunk like a hawk swooping down on un-expecting prey, he landed on James without a sound. James however, made quite a lot of noise. And he was adamant to be heard.
"Daniel!" he screamed "what the fuck is your problem!" it had been the third day in row of random attacks. Daniel for one was not impressed,
"You would not last one day in the wild" he said with a sly smile.
"I don't need to pay attention because I'm not in the fucking wild you psychotic bastard" James kept at screaming until he was done. Daniel stood up, releasing James. Though James was still sore.
He pointed at Daniel, who was now brushing his teeth.
"You have a serious problem" he stormed out of the room.
The daily routine of breakfast went as usual. Eat at the back table, ask Kim to set him up with a better breakfast. And then it was math. They had been doing graphs, something James was not fond of, mostly because he was absolute rubbish at it. The teacher had been asking students to answer questions on the touch board. With five minutes left on the clock James was hopeful he'd not have to do a question. But fate being the bitch she was, was having a bad day and took it out on James.
"James, if y= - (x-4) + 4 what way does the parabola open up?" said the teacher, cursing under his breath James looked at Brandon.
"help me out here man" he whispered. Brandon rolled his eyes
"down" he said.
"Uh, yea the parathing opens down" James held his breath
"Excellent answer Brandon, now James. Where is the vertex on a graph with the equation y= (x+5) - 4" the teacher had called his bluff. James was sweating now, trying to grasp at nonexistent straws for what he had of an education. Biting his lip he looked around for some form of an answer. Everyone was staring at him now.
Luck came to the rescue. The intercom came to life. "James Tartoni to the main office James Tartoni" James couldn't believe his luck, almost dancing to the door with the biggest grin. Making sure the teacher could see him leaving.
While being called to the main office couldn't be good, anything would be better than staying in math. The main office was in the atrium, along the north side. A chain laced window let the occupants view what was happening outside the office. In case someone in the atrium acted up. Inside there was a reception desk. A guard sat behind it, looking out of place with all his equipment on.
"I was sent here..." said James. The guard looked up from a data pad
"Yes, Dr. Henderson and Major Nectal sent for you, it's the second door on the left" the guard quickly got back to work. Inside the director's office was like being in a robotic factory. Functional and without soul nor imperfection. Clocks from different time zones lined the back wall. There were no family pictures or anything. Not even a potted plant. The two men were seated behind a smooth polished desk, rose wood if James were to guess. The doctor began.
"James, perfect, I trust you know why you are here"
James, who was now mentally going through all the things he'd done that could warrant a visit to the office shrugged "no sirs, nothing off the top of my head" Nectal was getting impatient
"Tartoni, you know damn well why you're here." He said accusingly
At this point James was at a loss for words "sir I really have no idea why I'm here!"
Henderson cut in "the simulation, we're talking about the simulation. You know that the mission was a disaster" memories flooded in again, James gripped the table to keep calm.
"Oh...that" he was dead. He knew it; they would toss him back in prison to die. It was a sure thing.
Nectal breathed a heavy sigh before speaking, the room became completely silent. "James, I'll be frank. If a squad performed like that on my command I'd have them court marshalled if they lived. However, you and the group being given militia training, IE what you learned in movies, I can understand failing the mission. Besides, even a trained squad of four couldn't have completed that mission. It was designed to be a suicide mission." Nectal lay back in his chair and waited for Henderson to take over.
"We have discussed this in detail and have chosen you and several others to be team leaders. All the teams will be disbanded and you will recruit for your team."
James was completely dumbfounded "Doctor Henderson, you've got the wrong person. I'm a coward, what about Alex, hell even Brandon would be a better choice" it had to be a mistake; no one in their right mind would make him a leader. This time Nectal spoke up.
"Alex is a team leader now. As for Brandon, well, all I can say is that in simulations Brandon got kicked out of his own team 95% of the time. He's not exactly the easiest person to work for"
James rolled his eyes "you can say that again"
Nectal continued "And Tartoni, I don't care if you don't want to lead. For some reason the computer picked you. It may be the first time in your life but for once. You're taking the lead. You're a leader now, so for god's sake act like it!" something changed at that moment, everything James had lived by had been changed. He was in charge, he felt different somehow, as if his feeling of detachment had been lifted. It was as if a veil had been lifted. He felt strong, he felt in control. For once in his life he was in control