The Proteus Trilogy: Book One: Warrior

Chapter 10

“This is where you’ll be living for the next year,” Garith says. “Think of it as a sort or…internship.” He climbs out of the vehicle and I follow suit.

As we walk toward the largest of the buildings, I see several people milling about. One of them approaches us. I draw in a sharp breath. It looks just like me, only much older, but about fifteen years.

“Garith,” He says as he extends his hand to him. His voice even sounds a little bit like mine.

“Edward,” Garith replies as he takes the hand. “This is Proteus.” I shake Edward’s hand, still staring at him. “Hello there, Proteus.” He says. I nod at him, unsure of how to respond. Edward is looking at me a little weird too. “Is he…”

Garith nods. “Yes. He’s from the same sample as you.”

Edward nods back, “Ah. Well, it’s good to have you here, Proteus.” He glances at Garith. “I’ll just escort him to his room, then,”

Garith turns to go, and says over his shoulder, “I’ll make sure to send you his file.”

“Thanks.” Edward replies. He smiles at me. “I think you’ll do quite well here, Proteus. I’ll take you to meet your roommates.”

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Over the next hour, I’m overloaded with information. The ground is exactly like the ground in that other courtyard, and I’m told that it’s called grass. The air is much more humid. There are grey clouds covering the sun, and it looks like it’s about to rain, or so I’m told. The walls around the courtyard are twenty feet tall, topped with razor sharp barbed wire. Not that I’d want to leave.

I’m given a tour of the courtyard. The mess hall, the three barracks’s, the stable, where they keep horses, for some reason, and finally, the Plateau. I’m not taken up to it, but there’s a white thirty foot wall around the entire thing, and it has four gates, north, east, south, and west.

I’m put in Barracks 3, the least desirable of the three. Not that it’s bad, but it’s the farthest from the Mess Hal. The Plateau is used for the daily program, whatever it happens to be, and obviously the Mess Hall is for eating.

In each Barracks are groups of five groups of five, each with their own Group Leader, for a total of thirty in each Barracks. The groups here are unlike those from Phase 2, at least at this point. They don’t really fight or anything like that. It’s more of a sort of friendly rivalry.

Everyone who’s here has passed the Final Test, which I guess wasn’t really the Final Test. It just means you get out of the Research Center. Edward finishes showing me the sights, then checks his schedule.

“It’s time for lunch.” He says. “I’ll introduce you to your group there.”

We get back to the Mess Hall, and inside is chaos. Everyone is coming in from whatever they were doing, and finding their Group. Eventually, everything settles down, and Edward escorts me to my Group’s table.

The other five people greet me silently as I sit down. I nod back. The tables are set up in the same formation as the buildings are, with Barracks 1 to the east, Barracks 2 to the west, and Barracks 3 to the north, with the food line in the middle.

Edward makes a couple announcements, introducing me and a couple other graduates to the other students, and we get polite applause.

Later, as we’re eating lunch, I hear a loud rumble that seems to come from all around the building. Surprised, I look around, but don’t see the source. No one else seems to have really noticed it. I tap the person next to me on the shoulder.

“What was that noise?” I ask, trying to keep the surprised tone out of my voice.

“What?” He says, his mouth half-full of food.

I repeat my question. He swallows.

“That was thunder. You know, from the storm?”

I nod, as if I do. In reality, I’ve read about how storms work, even watched a video or two, but obviously, since I’ve been in the Research Center my whole life, I haven’t ever heard or seen a real one.

After lunch, each group goes back to their Barracks. I step outside the door, and just stand there for a while, watching the rain and lightning and wind.

Finally, I force my feet to move. As I move past the awning over the door, I feel the rain on my face, and everyone starts to run to their Barracks’s.

As we run, the trail turns muddy, and people start to slip and fall. Some of the more upbeat people start mudfights, and I try to stay out of it, but the rest of my group joins in, so I take a hand. I scoop some mud and throw it at one of the people who started it, and hit him in the face.

He wipes the mud off, and tackles me. We rub mud in each other’s faces, then stand up and find someone else to attack. Eventually, once everyone’s energy is gone, people head for the Barracks, this time for real.

When we arrive, each person gets a five minute shower, and then returns to their room. In my room is the other five members of my group. The Group Leader is dark-skinned giant of a guy, aptly named Thor. There are three girls and three boys, so our room is split in half, with a wall separating the girl sleeping quarters from the boy’s. The girls are Alesha, Billy, and Drew. The other boy in my group, besides Thor, is Vernon.

Today is the one day per week that we get off, so I spend most of my time asking Vernon about what we do, since Thor is rather intimidating.

He tells me that for the first six months here, you’re in the groups of Barracks 3 and 2, but then after that, you move to Barracks 1, which is the biggest, where you spend your last six months. After that, people leave, simple as that.

During the day, we first take care of chores, such as cleaning the stables, washing the dishes and so forth, and then, after those, everyone goes to the Plateau for whatever the activity of the day is.

We spend the afternoon playing different kinds of games, and have dinner in our rooms. That night, as I’m laying down to sleep I think that I might have finally found a place where I’ll be safe.

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