Chapter 22: Training
That morning, Jim woke up early. It was at least half past five in the morning – if you asked Jim, too early to even think about getting up. At least three hours too early. But, unlike others, he had no other choice but to get up – there were few people waiting for him in the main hall at quarter to six. Well, now he was awake, he'd better get up and get there. He wouldn't mind it much, since it was for a greater good – as the refugee leader, he did what people expected him to do, even if one of those tasks was to get up at half past five.
Jim didn't mind the people choosing when they wanted their lessons to start, but the earliest they could come was quarter to six. It was only a pity of the rest they could use before fighting the AI eventually. You see, Jim didn't really know how to break the news to Jeremy. He already was mad when he heard the refugees wanted defense course, so Jim awaited the right moment to tell the blonde genius – not too early or late. Certainly not late, because then, the boy might already have been killed.
The three Krabs could be counted as scouts in the attack of XANA. During the nine days Jeremy had been unconscious in his small room, Jim had seen how the small army in front of the bridge grew inside, how few monsters always kept an eye on the factory as silent as statues. What once was a safe heaven for those who sought one, now had turned into just a factory on an island with refugees who were stuck there because the monsters would let nobody in or out. They only could wait for XANA to order William to come and clear the area by killing them all.
Once he had reached the hall, he saw the five students who had wanted defense courses at quarter to six in the morning. Two of the five were grown ups: an elderly woman who could have been the twin sister of the late Susan Hertz, and a younger man, previous pupil at Kadic, who could have called himself a military three months ago if the invasion hadn't happened. The others were simply students he knew from Kadic: Damian Blunt, a scrawny second year boy (once a classmate of Milly's) and Nessa Ovid, the sixth year with her dad being the bibliographer. The third one was Emily Leduc, who hadn't missed a class since he started the idea. They all were carrying something they deemed a good weapon in their training. The almost-military, the recruit, was the only one holding a real weapon and having experience using it, and he held the small gun in his left hand. The twin sister had brought something – an old pipe. It wouldn't do much good, but she could choose what she brought. Emily had a branch strong enough to hold her leaning against it, waiting for Jim to start. Damian preferred a hand-made catapult with small stones as munition. Nessa wasn't shy, but now she was because she couldn't find anything useful for this lessons.
"Ovid, come over here," Nessa stepped up to Jim, and just caught the steel pipe Jim threw at her, "Here you go! Now you too are armed, congratulations!" if the tension with the students wasn't sky-high due to the troops close to the factory, someone might have laughed, or even just grinned. Nessa walked back to her place, and Jim looked at everybody; this was their first defense course, and were quite nervous. Except for Emily, who has been present at all classes for an unknown reason. Jim sighed.
"Alright! So… you're the only people who want to learn how to defend yourself at this hour. That's good, because it means you'll have more practice time. The next group arrives at half past eight, so we've got a lot more time than those others who'd prefer some rest. Just begin with what you think will be helpful, or good." And so the course started. For a moment he felt like he was in Kadic again, teaching the youth they could put away their electronic thingamajigs for fifty minutes and enjoy sports and how it was just as important as French or math. Only, now he was in the factory teaching how to defend yourself with weapons (later without them) and not gym. At seven o'clock, he gave them a small break of fifteen minutes.
At this point, they all had some weaknesses and strengths. The recruit – Wald Moriarty – naturally was good with the small gun, but could have some help with his hand-to-hand combat practice. The twin sister, who had the name Sylvia Lebeau, wasn't very handy in any kind of combat, but her determination to learn these useful techniques was really weighing up against her incapability. It was clear Damian used his catapult only for fun, but he apparently took judo course and thus showed off with this, being the youngest. Nessa had a good fighting rhythm, but she didn't possess some knowledge or experience yet. For now, the best was Emily. He wasn't surprised, since she spent all her time in these kind of classes; he started to get used to her presence ever since he made her help him. It wasn't Jeremy and Jim keeping the refugees safe anymore, but Jim and Emily.
The fifteen minutes came to a quick end. Leduc and Moriarty could get along quite well, and Ovid and Blunt chatted as if they were siblings. Lebeau was sitting aside reading a good book about some apocalypse. When Jim looked at his watch, he noticed he should have started five minutes ago. Ah well, that didn't matter. He called them back in line, and within twenty seconds they were all ready to begin again, waiting for Jim to tell them what to do.
But before he really could say anything, Nessa screamed and pointed to something behind Jim. The others also reacted shocked, but Jim was rather annoyed. He stepped to the left, not looking behind him, so the laser missed Jim at a foot and just didn't hit Damian. Jim and the others started to run away, until they found a door and hid in the hallway behind that door. After a while, they heard how the door was being attacked. When Jim turned back to his students, he could see on their faces they were afraid, except for Walt – as a recruit he'd learned to go straight in danger without thinking.
And Jim started to think. Shit, another monster in the factory! I can't take it down now saying it got in here, not with them around. What do I do now? He couldn't just go out saying something managed to get in, the safe feeling they've trying to build up past days would be gone. So that's why the teacher had a solution ready for this kind of situation.
"Listen up," he started, "I'm sorry if we've scared you, but this is part of the defense course. The guards had managed to capture a smaller monster, and I ordered to let it go during one of my lessons. I did not know when they would let it go, or even what it was. I will only help when you fail to destroy it, but I'll doubt that; and I wish you guys the best of luck!" Soon after this announcement, they started planning how to defeat it, and it was soon sure Walt would be taking the lead. Their plan was formed, Walt opened the door and there plan could be performed, Jim wishing he wasn't making a mistake.
Sylvia stayed with Jim while the others would do their best to take that training monster (it was a Kankrelat) down. Nessa had agreed to be the distraction, and with her actions made sure the back of the monster was with his back turned to the door. Then Emily, Damian and Walt came into action, carefully aiming at the monster, who then got a lot of holes in its body, but none of them seemed to hit the thing that kept the Kankrelat running. They didn't hit the Eye, which could be a factor for them to have failed so far.
And then, the Kankrelat was destroyed. The four students cheered and walked towards Walt, believing one of his shots eventually killed the Kankrelat. Sylvia too was congratulating him with performing this exercise well. Jim clapped, and then went to the destroyed body to see for himself the result from close. It was completed nicely, with a direct hit in the Eye. Jim almost walked back to his trainees, until he saw something on the ground that couldn't have been part of the Kankrelat. He couldn't believe his eyes when he picked up the familiar weapon.
"Jim! Quick, come over here!" one of the two guards called out, and he ran up to the entrance. When he reached it, the one who had called him was awaiting him and the other one was busy trying to save a young girl's life. The one who called him sounded a bit nervous and quickly the young woman (it shouldn't always have to be men, right?) explained the situation.
"Well, we found this girl – no, she found us, she stormed right through the barricade of monsters. They didn't follow her, but they did chase her more than any of the others who dared to leave this place. She killed a lot of them, and she collapsed once she got inside." Jim passed the woman and went straight to the girl, who had collapsed according to the guarding woman. The other guard tried to reanimate the young girl, and Jim watched the other guard try his best to save her.
Jim just hoped Yumi would be okay and he wished she would be waking up soon, thanks to the other guard.
I'm feeling terrible for leaving you with such big cliffhanger. But hey, that's just the way it is. So, you happy about Jim joining the POV crew? This also means that, since Yumi now is at the factory (it still counts), only Nicholas' POV is the one outside the factory. So, now rests the question: will Yumi make it? Will Jeremy ever remember? Will Nicholas and friends ever get into the factory with almost no weapons and no direct entry? Well, you'll find out the 5th of June, when I am going to make some announcement which none of you will like. And now, let's reply the review:
Bluedog197 (Ah... your reviews always make me smile! Again, some theories that could be possible in the (near) future, and with 'bigger Hornet' Nicholas meant a Manta; He might have seen one every day, but he isn't very bright to know it's different than a Hornet - just to clear that)
See ya next time!
-Dutchwriters2