Without even looking, she pockets the papers and continues, her tone clipped and with a hint of what I hope is grudging admiration.
"Meet here tomorrow. Oh-six-hundred sharp. You are dismissed."
As Hayomo faces the back of the room, the groups shuffle to leave. My vision blurs as the room tilts to the side. The blood from my hands drips through my fingers, splattering around my boots as my arms tremble violently.
Dean leaves the room like he has a million better places to be. The blurry shape of Kai slowly jogs to me.
"Let's go over here. You don't want to let them see you black out."
He pulls me by the elbow and leads me to a corner of the room which is covered in twisted shadows.
Kai hands me a canteen of warm water. I press it against my lips and take greedy gulps, letting the rest dribble into my lap.
"Took you long enough," he says behind a smirk. I take another gulp to calm the dry burn in my throat.
"I owe you so much," I say lamely.
"Don't mention it. I would've done the same . . . well, I probably would have boned the the hot guy with the ukulele way before anyone could've dragged me away, but that's my two creds." He displays his beautiful teeth again.
I sway like trash in a clogged sewer, but I'm grateful his arms stretch out like support beams for me to lean against. "What happened? What was the meeting about?" I find enough strength in my neck to stop my head from rocking side to side like a lunatic's as I slump into a nearby seat. The room is nowhere near empty. People mill about, shaking hands, making small talk, and congratulating one another on saving the world.
"Well," he says while holding me up, "we met the alien races that'll be helping out. Me and Cambell are assigned to ARC4 with the Meltronians. Bluish small guys, pretty mellow from what I can tell. They're not a fighting group, so they're hoping to evade conflict, which is fine by me. I'm not sure if you've heard, but I've been unbeatable in Covert Training four years in a row. It's apparently what got me in this thing—"
I listen to him enunciate each detail about the Meltronian race and his fabulous partner, Major Cambell, a woman only two years my senior who was lucky enough to have twins on her first try at twenty-two and another kid at twenty-four. She's been a free agent ever since.
His excitement energizes me—pumps me with hope. The jolt of adrenaline starts flexing my fingers again, moving my wrist in circles and checking for scratches on my PAHLM, which is caked in dried blood. When I wipe the mess away, little shards of glass cut through the pad of my finger gather on the surface. The screen is scratched to hell.
". . . yeah, you're going to be paired with Hayomo. That's going to be a rough few years for you," he laughs. "We didn't get to meet the representative from your ARC's race though. Not sure why."
Kai rambles until he notices I am barely holding my head up. With thick hands wrapping under my arms, he assists me to my feet and escorts me through the combat room to the entrance and out into the hallway. Right before we exit, I hear a clank and hiss. I roll my head over his shoulder to discover the source of the haunting noise.
I remember hearing it the first time and being terrified of the mangled figure that clinked like a busted machine. Once again, I find the confusing, upside-down, and backward form of repugnancy lurching from the doorway. Its mouth gapes open, and its eyeless, orange sockets stare at me while its mechanical crab legs dance into the light before retreating into darkness again.
Kai appears oblivious to its sickening backward crawl. We leave while I observe in silent horror as it eerily shuffles over its spindle-thin legs in the shadows.