I Am A Flyer

II: Class Reunion

This is completely useless, Jett thought grumpily. All it does is make my arms go numb. He was currently upside down, standing on his hands. Aday had told him to hold the position until he collapsed. And when he could maintain it for thirty minutes, he was start do push ups in that position. It was a quick way to build upper body strength, Aday had said. Fairly easy, too.

If it weren't for the man's kind nature, Jett would have grouped him in with the evil monsters known as Grey and Raven. He bit his lip. His head felt horrible, since all of the blood in his body seemed to reside there. At least he couldn't feel his arms anymore. Even his left one, which was still healing, didn't seem to hurt, either.

It had been four days. For four days, he had lain in bed, hooked up to an IV, where he did nothing but think. He went back to the beginning, where it all had started, and recalled every last thing that had happened. It seemed almost impossible for such things to have had happened to him. But it had.

Jett wasn't sure when it had happened, but the thought of such nightmares didn't seem to scare him so much. Of course, he was still frightened whenever he thought about it, but at least he wasn't heart-stopping terrified. Why? Had he really changed that much?

His arms suddenly seemed to fold in themselves, and he found his face buried in dirt. "Gehh." He slowly pushed himself up with trembling arms. For a while, he just sat there, letting the feeling return to his limbs. It wasn't very pleasant.

Clenching his teeth, he rose to his feet. It was time to get some breakfast. And while he was there, he needed to see if he could find some people willing to help him. He'd figured it out while he was lying in bed for four days. While stepping around the posts in the training area did help increase his speed, the posts were stationery. They would be a far cry from an actual, moving enemy. What he needed was people to try and chase him down in a small, confined area. That would be perfect.

But who to ask? He only knew a few of the soldiers, and only one of the flyers. He sighed. Well, I'll just start with them, I guess. He walked towards breakfast.

The tent today seemed to be quite full, with a lot of soldiers raising a ruckus as they chattered or ate their breakfast. Jett noticed a few flyers as well; they tended to keep together at one table, separating themselves from the others.

His stomach gave off an angry growl, and he grimaced. Thankfully, no one seemed to notice, and no one turned to look at him. Relaxing a little, he went over to Lydia and her huge pot filled with steaming food.

As he neared, the stout woman lifted her head, and noticing him, smiled. "Jett, my dear! How are you today? Is Raven working you too hard?"

"Eh," Jett watched as she began scooping a gray gruel into a bowl for him. It was oatmeal. "He's. . . gone on a mission."

Lydia beamed. "Good for you! That man never did you any good. Here you go," she passed him the bowl, along with a large red apple.

Jet smiled weakly, and turned to try and find a table. He stood awkwardly, scanning for an empty table. There was no such thing. Each one was nearly full. Now what was he going to -

"Hey!" A voice suddenly boomed, nearly knocking Jett into cardiac arrest. "Jett! C'mere! Come sit with us!"

Every voice died down, and the tent became silent as everyone turned to look at Jett. He froze, first becoming pale under all the attention, then red from embarrassment. He swallowed, then headed toward the table where Boomer sat. The large man waved him on over.

It seemed like forever, but everyone finally resumed their chatter and meal. Jett sat down in an empty chair between Boomer and another large man. He squirmed, feeling so small between them. Glancing meekly around the table, he only recognized two other faces. One was Mei, and the second was a young soldier with a blond buzz-cut. The guy who thought Grey was cool, as Jett remembered from before.