Homesick: The Growing War

Chapter 8

After the attack of the Scavengers, the wedding ended early and the Scavengers, including James, were all assigned rooms in the desolate hallways. They all had rooms to themselves, but we had to isolate from them and not keep too long in their company, but they were all in the empty solitary confinement rooms which no one dared to stepped foot into, with white walls and sealed doors. This was partially because the squad needed to develop an anti-serum to help cure and reverse Ice's tortures, and help them recover from their world of insanity. This was very important, especially since James and another Scavenger had a violent outburst twice today, teeth gritted, knuckles swollen and shattered pieces of antiques everywhere. Because of this, we realised that they were too dangerous and we were forced to strap them to their beds. Sometimes they thrashed and screamed, however sometimes they were silent and calm. They had two faces and we needed to remove one quickly. We let Watchee and the medicals develop the serum because the rest of the squad had more important things to worry about: the mission took place tomorrow.

Before I knew it, morning came and today we had to carry out the plan. My insides were writhing madly like I had just eaten live snakes. I was still in my night clothes when Ashlee rapped on my door and came in, hauling a small, folded piles of black clothes. She seemed to have slept well, with no sunken eye bags and waxy skin, but she still hadn't dressed yet. I immediately realised that this was my squad's outfit.

"Well, this is the outfit we've all chosen," announced Ashlee as she dumped the clothes on my bed. She tried to sound her usual cheerful self, but I could tell she was trying to keep her voice steady. I guessed she was nervous too. I probed through the clothes carefully. "It's good, isn't it?"

"It's great," I said, working hard to look pleased. There was a plain black bulletproof vest with buckles and clips with little pockets (which I guessed was to store small weapons) a long-sleeved, sweat-absorbent undershirt which was entirely black, a black jacket with a thin hood, black pants with lots of baggy clamp pockets and of course, a pair of sturdy black, lace-up hunting books that reached to my shins. It was the classical army-wear clothes, but I knew the ones that Ice's military wore was all white. "But why is it all black?"

"We want to be represented as rebels," explained Ashlee with a light laugh. "You know how Ice always wears white clothes? Well, Pollax wanted us to wear the opposite, which is black. It's a rebel sign, and a sign of rebellion and opposition against Ice and his government."

"But won't that make Ice more angry? I mean, we've already done enough to make him bomb our town to pieces," I said. The idea of opposing Ice that greatly was ludicrous, but I knew that Pollax wanted us to start being braver, so I didn't object further. He was a daredevil, Pollax was, but we all respected him all the same.

"Oh, wait, Kara, I nearly forgot to give you this..." said Ashlee, rummaging through her pockets. She then pulled out some sort of pin. It had the words 'KA' emblazoned on the pin in black, which I knew stood for: 'Kara's Army'. On the back of the shining letters was two swords crossing each other to form a neat X. I chuckled. I guessed that Pollax finally knew that a sword was my weapon. "It's supposed to represent our squad we put together for you. Get changed, Kara, and I'll put the badge on you where I want it."

I didn't object. I hauled the uniform into my arms and entered the bathroom, shutting the folding doors tightly behind me. I stripped off my night robes quickly and put my full-black uniform on, making sure I tucked the bagginess of my pants inside my boots tightly. I attached the clips on the vest and knotted my boot-laces firmly. I stared into my reflection in the mirror, looking at the uniform. It didn't feel right. It felt like I was in the military and getting shipped off to war. It was only when I reminded myself that I technically was, then I calmed down.

I picked up my piled robes off the floor and entered my room, only to find Ashlee gushing over the sight of me dressed like that. I felt like a robot as I walked, it was stiff and uncomfortable, but soon I adjusted at it became much easier. I folded my robes up neatly and placed them in the closet.