Chapter 12 - Moving Out

"All those arrows you made are finally gonna get some actual use today." Said Lj.

"I finally could redeem myself from that first archery lesson." I replied. "We need to hurry and leave so we wont miss our transit."

I don't know if I should be looking forward to our training today. I stayed up late last night just staring at the ceiling, reflecting on everything Rodney said to me yesterday. Then when I did eventually fell asleep, I experienced some abnormal dreams. I dreamt about Keily and the fact that he has been missing for over two weeks now and nobody has really done anything. At least nothing that I've seen. He came to me in my dream and told me to have faith in myself, which isn't like him at all. I don't usually believe in dreams guiding you in the future or premonitions or anything like that. However, this felt strange to me. You can't put a price on faith but if I could it would probably be overpriced because everybody nowadays lack it.

"Later mums." Said Lj as him and I left our apartment.

"You think we should wait on Khiara this morning?" I asked.

"Depends on how long she takes we might miss our transport to the gate, and I definitely don't wanna walk that." Lj responded. "One morning without us won't kill her."

"Yeah your right, let's head out."

Today is the first day in a while where there isn't any clouds in the sky. Temperatures are beginning to drop a bit but days like this remind everyone of how intense the sun can be. We definitely felt it on our walk over to the bus stop. The city doesn't have much auto vehicles driving around because of the ever growing shortage of supplies such as gasoline or oil. The vehicles that are roaming around operate on a fixed schedule and most of them have a max capacity of up to fifty people.

As we approached the stop we recognized two people out of the group of about thirty that were also waiting for the bus. Angie and Mali were standing by the no longer working street light.

"What are you two doing walking this way?" Angie asked as we approached. "You've been in the city to long now to still be getting lost."

"We're not lost actually, we're having class today out by the north entrance." I replied. "Why are you two over here?"

"Our class was divided across the four entrances and we were placed up north." Angie responded.

"How are you two doing this morning?" Mali says greeting us with a big smile.

"Could be better but I can't complain." I reply while Lj stays quiet.

"It's ok to talk to me you know, I won't bite." Mali says as she leans over to Lj.

"Girl control yourself." Angie exclaimed to her as the bus pulls up.

The bus had two levels the regular inside and then an exposed outside section on the roof, which is where the four of us moved to. We sat at the very back to be exact. As everybody takes there seat only three others are on the second level with us.

"So what's happening by the northern gate for you guys?" Angie asked.

"Teacher hasn't said but most likely we're gonna be heading outside the city." I reply.

"He's gonna take over twenty under experienced teenagers outside of the city by himself?" Angie questioned looking at me. "Yall betters not go far."

"I think the people left in our class are capable of handling themselves." I responded.

"I think only six people are capable of handling themselves." Lj replied. "Even that six has issues. Desmond's injured, I feel Cory is just talk, and you've fumbled under pressure several times."

I look at him and he's looking the opposite way outside of the bus. Then I look back at Angie and she looks up to me with a grin. I lock my hands behind my head and begin to relax and enjoy the ride. We stop several times to pick up and drop off other people and we even picked up several other people from our class, including Dameer and Liam. After about twenty minutes Angie falls asleep against my shoulder.

"She usually sleeps during this ride but all of the time she lays on me." Mali stated looking at her.

Dameer and Liam looks back and smiles at us while I just continue to relax. Another twenty minutes pass before we reach our stop. The bus is mostly empty besides from the six of us and a few strangers.

"Damn we back here again." Liam says as looks around.

"Last time we were on this road Liam almost lost a leg." Dameer said with a grin.

"You think you funny right?" Liam replied.

"The entrance is a mile and a half out, it doesn't take us that long to walk there." Mali stated as we all began to walk forward.

"Enjoyed your sleep kiddo?" Dameer asked looking back at Angie.

"You see that cinder block over there? Keep walking before I burst you with it."

"I don't appreciate all this hostility." Dameer said as the rest of us chuckled at them.

We walked the road to the entrance, laughing and having funny interactions with one another. The energy around this group was so vibrant and cheerful that I didn't even realize how far we had walked in such a short time. Upon arrival at the entrance we found that majority of the class were already here waiting. Angie, Mali and the other rookie guards that walked with us separated from us almost as soon as we reached. As for the searchers, we launched arrows at a decaying tree and waited around for the last of the class to arrive.

"Alright rookies gather around." Says Rodney grabbing the attention of everyone in the class. "First of all I'm going to introduce these three other young men that will be joining us today. From left to right we have Private Ryan Davis, Zhaire Neely, and Carlton Morris. These three are members of my searcher unit and we usually go on expeditions and missions together. Most searcher units function with at least five man teams and sadly for us we actually lost a member of our team last month. We've been stationary until we get a replacement which will be one of you from this class. But that will be discussed more later, for now let's focus on today. The class will be dividing into two groups of six people and two groups of seven people and each group will have one of the four of us leading you. I would assign you guys myself but it would be better if your grouped with people your comfortable with. So the four of us will line off over by the entrance, and when you have you team, together you guys can choose your team leader."

It was only natural that me, Lj, Dameer, Lici, Alyssa and Liam grouped up.

"You guys want to have the Sergeant lead us since he's who we're the most comfortable with?" I asked to the rest of them.

"I don't know, how about Private Neely he's kinda nice if you ask me." Lici responded.

"Girl he too old for you calm down." Lyssa responded to her.

"I really don't mind whoever you guys choose to go with." Said Liam.

"Same here, we don't know the other three personalities so it doesn't make a difference who we choose." Lj added.

"Let's go with Neely then if there isn't any objections." I replied.

"Oh Lord, Lici gonna be drooling all day now." Lyssa says as we begin to walk over to him.

"I'm guessing you all have a full squad already."

We turn around to find Cory walking towards us.

"We could be one of the teams with seven people if you want to join us." Lyssa says to him.

I look over at Lj and he initially didn't give any reaction.

"You act like you wasn't our friend before all of this started." Lyssa added.

"I have my reasons why I'm distant." Cory replied.

"I could understand that but it doesn't mean you should act like a stranger. I'm cool with letting you join us if everyone is."

All of us looked at each other and didn't really give a response before all of our attention turned to Lj. He took a second before turning and walking off.

"I hope you could actually pull your own weight." Lj says as walks away.

"I guess that means your with us." Liam says.

Lj doesn't hold grudges but I won't assume that he's completely over there altercation and what Cory said to him.

We walked to over to Private Neely and went over formal introductions. He's about the same height as me, 6'1 with a muscular build. Black hair with a deep but laid back voice that had Lici infatuated.

"So by now you should have all guessed that we're going to be heading outside the city." Neely explained. "Before we head out I want to explain some things. Firstly everyone, take a knife and holder and equip it around their waste. Every squad member should have one. Every squad should also have someone carrying a rope, first aid kit, flashlight and duct tape."

"Why duct tape?" Asked Dameer.

"Trust me, it fixes everything. I'll be carrying all of those things in this bag should we need them. I will also be carrying a handgun. Usually you would find at least two of these in every squad, but since you guys haven't been trained with them yet you'll be using bow and arrows as a substitute."

"What if after we become searchers we still prefer a bow to a gun." I asked.

"If that's your preference, cool, but every squad needs two of these." He says while flashing the gun. "Any questions?"

"This might sound dumb but what do searchers really do out there?" Asked Lyssa.

"We search... Nah I'm playing." He responds while laughing. "There are several different task we could be carrying out whether it be mapping an area, collecting certain resources, hunting animals or even infected. It's up to the people down by the office to decide what we're doing. Today all we're doing is exploring out to the north east that have already been mapped. Just a dry run of how you would operate on the outside."

"Alright you have clearance to exit when you feel ready." Rodney says to all groups. "Stay safe and move carefully."

Time to head out. Time to prove myself.