Back in the Past

"Are you sure you're fine?" Mike asked, already sitting back at his bed.

"Yeah, man, don't worry about it. I don't know what got into me. It must have been something I ate. Sorry for waking you up. Go back to sleep, man, we have school tomorrow," I responded while putting on a gray tank top.

"Aight, dude. Tell me about your dream tomorrow, okay? Night," Mike barely managed to speak in between yawns. Mike stretched in his neon green pajamas, wrapped himself burrito-style, and knocked out.

'Kid has always liked to stick out even when he sleeps, huh? I had forgotten about those neon pajamas of his. They sure hurt the eyes.'

I put on my slippers and opened the door out of the bedroom. It had been decades since I had seen this room, the last time I saw it was when I was 15 and joined the army. The room was simple in design; there were two rooms with two beds each, a central study room holding four okay-size desks, and a bathroom and toilet in the upper right corner of the room. Since the room was at the corner of the building, we had our own bathroom and could boast of having the largest room in the whole orphanage.

I couldn't help but walk to the massive window at the end of the study room and looked out at the night sky, the tall buildings, and the glittering lights of the nightlife still going strong. After a few minutes of absent-minded adoration at the relative peace, I had not felt in ages, a door clicked behind me, startling me out of my trance.

As I turned around, I saw a girl standing under the door frame, staring directly at me. She had just gotten out of the bathroom, and her hands were still slightly wet, but even then, her eyes did not move.

"I guess you heard me?" I asked in a hushed voice.

"Yeah, are... are you okay?" The young girl asked in a sweet and charming voice filled with concern.

"I'm fine, Rose, don't worry. It was only a simple nightmare," I responded as calmly as I could. After all, I could still feel the heat in my throat.

Rosalin Evergreen was a beautiful young girl who would only grow to be more stunning. She was around 5-foot-3. She wore simple navy blue pajama shorts, a matching pajama shirt, and hair in a messy medium-length bob. She had brown hair that paired beautifully with her emerald-green eyes.

"That didn't sound like a 'simple' nightmare," Rose responded while taking a few steps forward.

"Well, simple? Yes. But it was still a nightmare. But I'm fine now," I answered. Trying to change the subject, I continued, "But never mind that, what are you doing awake so late?"

"Ah, I have a presentation tomorrow, you know I get a little stage fright, so I'm trying to memorize every last detail," Rose said, moving to her desk, just left of me, making me only now noticing that the desk lamp was on. She picked up a few notecards and showed them to me, " Moxby is helping me practice."

On her desk, I saw a small holographic screen around 6" with a smiley face at the center. The screen was emanating from a circular 2" diameter AI-powered smartwatch, the Moxby.

"Hello, Mr. Martinez. Would you like to practice your presentation with Ms. Evergreen?" a semi-robotic voice asked.

"No, thanks, Moxby. I don't have a presentation to prepare for," I responded casually. The smiley face only nodded in response and turned its attention back towards Rose. "I'll let you get back to it. Apologize to Angie on my behalf if I woke her up."

"Please, Angie could sleep through a gate break," Rose said with a wide smile. "And don't forget, If you need me, I'll be here, okay? We are all here for you," she added while playing with a blue string bracelet on her wrist.

I could only smile and nod in affirmation before I walked to the bathroom and locked the door.

I understood she was trying to comfort me, but she only made it worse. In the end, I saw each of them die; I alone survived, I alone.

Suddenly a freezing pain seared my left chest, and from underneath the tank top, a cold blue light radiated, bathing the white room in a blue hue.

In a hurry, I took the top off and threw it at the ground as I clenched my chest in pain.

I fought through the pain, and looked at the mirror, and saw the source of my torture. In the reflection, I stared at an odd marking tattooed across my left chest. The marking was only a few inches wide, consisting of two concentric pentagons and 10 hollow 4-point stars. The inner pentagon's outline was black and thin; while, the outer pentagon was thicker, but its outline was glowing an arctic blue. The border grew and shrunk as it pulsated, and with every pulse, the once-solid color became a window into the arctic.

A few seconds of pain later, the pentagon calmed down, but the border was now forever changed; although the line thickness was no more than a few millimeters, within it held a moving scene of snow and ice.

'How? Why did this happen now? Last time it took me almost five years after I joined the military to get to this point. Why did it give me an affinity?'

I stared at the new border and gently passed my fingers over it; as I did, I could feel cold air emitting from the pentagon. I calmed my mind and breathed in and exhaled out as the trail of steam left with it.

'I don't know what happened, but now it's not the time to worry about it. Hopefully by this time next year I'll have a brand new one.'

I splashed some warm water on my face and looked at myself in the mirror to see myself for the first time. A 13-year-old boy looked back at me in pity. I stood at around 5 foot 3, 115 lbs, with black hair and dark brown eyes. I could say that for my age, I was relatively fit, but that was it. I was neither ugly nor good-looking, I was neither fat nor skinny, and I was neither muscular nor puny. I was average. The biggest eye-catcher was a massive scar that traveled across my chest, covering my entire sternum, from my collar bone to the center of my chest.

"It's okay, buddy, you'll grow," I whispered while looking down inside my pants.

I stood there in my purple satin sleeping pants and just shook my head and sighed. I put back on my tank top and washed my hands.

"Show me the time and the forecast," I quietly said as I dried my hands.

In the mirror, a few tabs started appearing showing the predicted forecast for the day. On the corner of the 20" by 30" mirror, the time popped up, revealing that it was only a quarter to 2.

With that, I went back to bed, told Rose goodnight, and laid on my bed the rest of the night.

----

I don't have a lot of time. The first wave will happen in 2098, meaning only 7years before the war begins. That doesn't leave a lot of time, maybe for personal growth, but one person alone cannot win a war. I'll need a way to make the rest of humanity strong enough to survive at least the first wave with minimal damage. But I'll leave that for long-term goals.

For now, my main priority is closer, April 20, 2093. The day of the Autumn Massacre, the day my world ended. I have exactly two years to prepare, to get stronger, to make sure it never happens.

But even before that, I need to confirm that the future I saw is the real one. If what I know is nothing more than an incredibly vivid dream, I'd waste time and effort preparing for something that may never come. Some say better safe than sorry, but when you waste time focusing on one thing, you lose sight of the hundred other things happening around you. I can't afford to make that mistake, not when everything is on the line.

In the next week, three things will occur that can prove whether what I saw was real or not. First, on April 22, Helen Knight will debut in the Arena. Second The Hell's Mouth will stir on April 25, releasing a medium size monster wave. Lastly, the Joint Chiefs of URNA (United Republic of North America) will announce four new Class 1 Mark Soldiers to the military roster on April 26.

If any of them happen, my evolution must happen as soon as possible. Unfortunately, I'll have to wait till school ends to begin my actual preparation; I'll train my body to military standards until then.

-----

Due to the years of repetition, I woke up at 0500 hours. I got dressed, prepared my station, and walked out of my room. The orphanage was once the dorm room for a college, built around 2028. It wasn't long before it was repurposed as an orphanage when the 2nd class gates appeared for the first time. For almost 40 years, orphanages were a booming business. It was only around twenty years ago that fewer kids became orphans due to more control over the gates.

Because of that, while the orphanage has only around four dozen kids currently, it's in relatively good shape and well maintained. While there aren't as many orphans anymore, adoption is still as popular as ever. Kids come and go around here; it wouldn't be unfair to say I'm the oldest child right now.

It didn't take long to climb the three flights of stairs down to the entrance.

In front of the entrance stood a man I came to know very well, the building's security guard, Paul. Paul, like many security guards, was found either snaking on some pastries or sleeping. But even then, he always treated the kids here with love and care, never was he ever rude or inappropriate, which caused a lot of the kids to follow him around.

"Hey, P, ya sleeping on the job again?" I asked a little loudly, startling the snoring guard.

"Ah... wha... I wasn't sleeping. I was, uh, meditating, yeah, meditating. It's good for the soul, you know," Paul stated in a panic, causing him to stumble on his words, sitting up as straight as he physically could. But once his vision focused and realized who I was, he leaned back into his chair and took a sip of his coffee. "Fuh, Jason, you almost gave me a heart attack. I thought it was that old grouch, I mean Mrs. Aikawa, who was gonna give me another reprimand."

"Ha ha ha, you should have seen your face, P." I laughed back.

"Man, damn," Paul said before he started to laugh as well. "By the way, where are you planning to sneak off to, so damn early in the morning?"

"I'm just gonna take a morning jog, I wouldn't have woken you up if I could help it, but I need you to open the doors to let me out and then back in. Either way, ya shouldn't be sleeping on the job again," I responded.

"Don't you already have a copy of the keys?" Paul asked, slightly tilting his head.

"What keys?" as soon as I responded, the ducts cleared in my dusty head, and I remembered. 'That's right! When I first got here, I made a copy of all keys, security cards and memorized all codes. That way, I could come and go as I pleased.'

"Mmh? Whatever, just make sure you get back before Mrs. Aikawa makes her rounds," Paul quietly said as he stood up and walked over to the large metal entrance doors and unlocked them.

I nodded in agreement and took off to my morning run. Although I didn't exercise back when I was 13, I was able to run 5 miles relatively effortlessly. Since I finished early, I did some basic exercises to begin preparing my body for future training. I returned ten past 6 to my room and took a shower, then took a 30-minute nap. Around 7, the room started to get noisy as the rest of my roommates woke up and competed for the shared bathroom.

Since the rest of the room was up, I decided to get dressed and prepared for the day. Our school was a charter school that forced its students to wear a school uniform. For many teens, this decision might of well just be torture, but for those of the orphanage, it was a blessing in disguise. Since the clothes were predetermined, all kids were equal, including those that did not have the means to pay for new clothes every month.

As for me, I had spent the last 50 years wearing the same uniform; at this point, I genuinely had no sense of style, so I welcomed my old school uniform.

The uniform was simple, black dress pants, a red-orange dress shirt with the school logo, and a simple black school blazer with red-orange trim and the school logo. Whether it looked good or not, I didn't care. The only thing not enforced by the school were the shoes; that being said, there were only three options by popular opinion: The Dress Shoes, The Sneaker, or the good ol' southern Boots.

Since the footwear is the only customizable item, Mike and the girls were responsible for my choice; thus, I ended wearing boots.

"Hey, look, who's finally up. You should really get in the habit of waking up early," a feminine but slightly raspy voice resounded from the door.

"Well, not all of us are a natural morning person," I said as I button up my blazer. As I turn, I see that a tall girl leaning on the door frame is not wearing the school uniform, "Ah, are you leaving for morning practice already?"

"Yeah, I'm just waiting for Josh to beep me, so we can go," the girl said as she walked into the bedroom. "But I need something, shh, don't tell Shard," she continued as she bent down in front of Mike's bed and removed a small box from under it. She then proceeded to take a few snack bars that Mike keeps hidden and placed them inside her duffle bag.

"Angie, he's gonna get a heart attack when he finds out, you know that right," I said mid-chuckle.

Angela Lee was a tall girl with black raven hair and black monolid eyes. Out of all of us, she was the tallest at 5-foot-5. While she was pretty, her most defining characteristic was her tone and athletic body from years of basketball.

"That's the point, haha," Angela said, but just then, her watch vibrated and beeped, "Ah, Josh's here. I gotta go. Oh, hey! You're coming to the game Friday?" seeing me nod, she continued, "Great I really wanna introduce you to Katri, you two, would for sure hit it off. See ya!"

Angela ran out of the room quickly, saying her goodbyes to Rose and Mike. With Angela gone, the three of us walked downstairs and headed towards the cafetería for breakfast.

"By the way, Jay, have you thought about what I said?" Mike asked as soon as we sat down with our food.

"Think about what? Joining the Duel Club?" I asked as I cut up a banana to add to my cereal.

"The Dual Club? Are you serious? Oh my, that would be fantastic?" Rose added with surprising enthusiasm.

"I don't know. It's not really my style." I responded deadpan. I remember this conversation last time I agreed to try out, and to my surprise, I got in, but I ended leaving only quite quickly.

"Oh, come on. I'm sure you'd make MVP immediately. The school team would be lucky to have you," Rose added with cheer.

"I know, right? That's what I told him. With you on the team, I'm sure we can beat those Tiger bastards. They are getting cocky cuz they beat us twice in a row. Just they wait for next year, with you there, there's no way the Autumn team can lose." Mike declared as he hit the thick plastic table.

"Yeah, Autumn will take the championship back," echoed Rose.