Camp IX | ✓

3

Despite the possibility of finally discovering where on Earth we'd be spending the next half a year, we lacked the enthusiasm of earlier. Even the loudest of the fifteen stared at her hands like they might hold all the answers to her questions. The inside of my mouth tasted faintly like iron from where I'd been chewing it throughout Berkely's little speech.

Take our memories? On the one hand, I could understand the logic behind the idea. Eliminate the possibility of a screw up before it even happened. In that light, the idea made complete sense to me. On the other hand, of course, my memories were at stake. My memories. The things that made me who I was. If they took them I wouldn't remember Griffin, the Gemini, even my purpose of being on the planet below. The longer I thought about it, the more uncomfortable it made me.

The seat I sat in no longer feels comfortable and I shakily drew a breath. The room was dead silent, not even a cough or shift to break up the neverending, unbearable silence. It pressed, pressed on me until I could feel it in my stomach sitting like a heavy rock. My breathing became more hitched and I wanted to scream. Not to let out my frustration or fear, but just to break up the silence.

Thankfully before I could do this and make a fool of myself, Berkely cleared his throat.

"I knew all of you wouldn't like the news but I didn't expect that response." His demeanor had changed.

When he first entered the room he was a drill sergeant, a capable leader, one that could inspire others. Now he seemed more fatherly, more concerned for us as people than as soldiers getting ready to carry out a mission.

"Can I give you all some advice? Don't worry too much about the memories. Once they're gone you won't even miss them and in six months you'll have them back again. So," he spread his hands. "No harm done."

"Can you promise that?" Lena asked, her soft voice came out barely above a whisper.

"I can't promise anything, but I can say that while you're gone, our teams will continue improving on the procedure so, by the time you get back, your memories will be returned smoothly."

I could tell Berkely was truly sorry that we had to learn about this development this late in the game and that he was doing all that he could to make us feel less anxious about it.

"Why don't you guys look at your assignment files, the locations have been filled in," Berkley motioned to our tables.

Slowly the room came to life again as people started shifting and brought up their assignment files. I couldn't help but feel butterflies kick in my stomach as I pressed my fingers to the table. Immediately it lit up with blue and green text, neatly organized into paragraphs. My assignment file. I pushed aside the top two pages that contained a brief overview of the mission and pulled up the details card. I took a deep breath and ran my finger to a bullet that said LOCATION. Up until this point, the space next to it had been blank but now words appeared there.

My heart thudded against my chest with the nervous energy of a trapped animal and threatened to escape through my mouth. I felt a poke on my leg and glanced to Griffin. He was trying so hard not to break into a face-splitting grin and his hand was covering the location on his file.

Around us broke into whoops and cheers as the fifteen other cadets discovered their new homes. I hear Paris, Dubi, even Geneva thrown around the room and I wanted to look at mine even more.

Griffin held my eyes with his own icy lavender ones. "Together."

We both turned to look and almost immediately Griffin joined the ruckus.

"South America here I come!"

I stared at the name on my file. Springport, Wisconsin. I let out a long slow breath and let the butterflies calm down a bit before my face broke into a smile similar to Griffin's. They'd thankfully taken my request and placed me in a less heavily populated area then my peers. It had been my only request.

"So," Griffin turned to me. "Where are you going?"

I let my fingers play around the name beaming up at me from the screen.

"I'm going somewhere nice and cold."