BLEED/HAVEN

[VIII] ISAIAH

The sound of Isaiah's alarm tore his mind from slumber and back to the land of the living. He began to wipe his eyes as the stiffness in his bones began to wear away with each waking moment. The room was dark and the only light was emitting from the curtain that hid the artificial landscape behind it. Isaiah threw his covers off and placed his bare feet on the carpeted floors. He rose up and headed to the bathroom to begin his morning regime.

Today was going to be Viktoriya's administrative speech and celebration of the new Pack leaders and full-on members of Jet/Wolves, naturally, Isaiah promised that he would attend. He threw on a blue hoodie and some jeans with black low tops. He left his room with sleep still hanging under his eyes despite the shower and freshening up he had done. His arm felt better and was healed as far as he was concerned, but he grabbed his sling to deter the rage of Bruna and exited his room. The halls were empty, which was never normal in their facilities, meaning the event was likely already underway. Isaiah pulled out his phone and checked the time and of course, the event was starting in ten minutes, late. He sighed and started jogging down the halls and towards the recreational floor where the celebration was being held.

He arrived to open doors and an enormous audience of the Wolves seated on either side of the gymnasium-like room. He saw Viktoriya and a few others fixing the microphone and speaker system on a stage with a large blue banner behind it with white letters saying, 'Congratulations! Welcome to the Wolves!'. All of the laughter, chatter and the like made Isaiah smile past his sleepiness. Seeing so many bright faces full of excitement when normally the fun and games had to be put aside to keep themselves alive was a sight for sore eyes. The annual celebration was almost like a college pep rally in terms of the energy that would be brought by the crowd.

He scanned the audience for an open seat and caught a hand waving him over. The hand belonged to a woman who was standing up, her round, three month along baby bump prevalent in her white sundress. It was Kenny's girlfriend, Jasmine. She was shorter than Kenny and himself by a few inches, with shoulder-length dark brown hair and almond shaped brown eyes. He smiled and made his way up the metal bleacher steps and over to where she had saved a seat for him. Kenny was next to her and gave Isaiah a quick shake up before he sat down next to the two and listened as Viktoriya took to the podium and began her announcements in a bright, cheery voice,

"Good morning everyone! Thank you for attending our ceremony. Although it's almost considered mandatory at this point, I'm glad you all chose to come."

The crowd gave a small wave of laughter and some people actually started a brief wave of applause. Isaiah joined in with a chuckle, something else about giving the organization a break, they always exaggerated everything and made it whimsical. It was deserved really when taking into the amount of work everyone put in all the time, and all out of love of course. Viktoriya felt the same too because she joined in the laughter. Soon the noise died down and she started the next sentence with a hoarse cough,

"So! Before we begin, while I have your utmost attention and before people like Tyler Davis and almost the entire Hollow Pack fall asleep like in their last briefing-"

A smaller voice called out,

"Hey, that's not fair! We did two missions in a row and you were trying to have us go do humanitarian work without even a coffee break!"

More laughter from the audience, even Kenny cracked a smile at the antics, Tyler looked around and growled before a few of his friends pulled him back into his seat and teased him before Viktoriya finally finished,

"Let's start out with everyone's favorite topics, a briefing, and a few announcements."

Then came the collective groan before Viktoriya cleared her throat and began giving safety information and the like. They listened for a few minutes, Kenny fiddling with his phone, with Jasmine leaned against his shoulder, just watching. Isaiah propped his elbow on his knee and rested his head in his hand. Viktoriya brought Mari to the stage who started giving announcements about new specs and new Jets that she was placing under development. That caught Isaiah's attention for but a moment before she began getting into the specifics and lost him. His mind eventually began wandering and before he knew it, Viktoriya took the mic again and cleared her throat before she spoke,