"Sarah? Sarah!" A voice yelled at her. She turned and blinked her eyes.
"Sir?" She stared at Sargent Fordham, one of the drill instructors working with the NX-GEN conscripts.
"You haven't taken a shot at the targets, yet. You've stood there for over ten minutes. What's wrong? Are you feeling okay? Dummy problems?" He grinned and gestured at the dummies.
"Sir, no. I was just carried away, sir," She answered.
"Happy thoughts, I suppose." He winked at her and left to inspect a group of youngsters. She smiled awkwardly. Yes, happy thoughts.
Concentrating on the targets, ten metres away, she parted her legs slightly for balance and pressed the trigger. Gunfire erupted and her bullets struck true, hitting one of the wooden dummies. In another twenty seconds, the other dummies bore similar bullet marks.
"Nice shooting, Artemis!" Someone called out in her direction. She whirled round to see Kelvin Naismith prancing up to her, carrying a sub- machine gun. He wore a military camouflage vest with black tracksuit and combat boots. A black bandana with human skull motifs covered his dark spiky hair and a locket jangled from his neck. Like her, his father was a top military officer in the settlement, being on the governing council.
"How's it going, Arty?" He raised the sub-machine gun and leaned the heavy bulk against his right shoulder.
Sarah was teased as 'Artemis' by the teens in the Nest, because of the similarities she bore with the Greek goddess. At first, she detested the name but after reading the Illiad and getting familiar with Greek myths from the Dawsons' mini-library, she warmed up to the name. After all, she was the only chaste girl with unequalled marksmanship and beauty in the Nest.
"Great, Kelvin. Where have you been?"
"I was at tower 23, for my D-task. Are you the only green conscript here?" He asked, looking around.
"As you can see," she gestured. The training ground was barely crowded, with a dozen younger conscripts, with white badges, handling small calibre weapons under supervision of one of the instructors. A lot of the fifteen-year olds were excited and showed enthusiasm for the exercise, while others looked bored and uninterested.
The conscripts under the NX-GEN policy were usually categorised into levels to show their progress and experience in the program. The beginners were collectively referred to as the level-one conscripts or 'white conscripts'. After a year, they got promoted to the next tiers of levels which were distinguished with the colors of red, yellow and green badges. At this latter stage, they were ready to be full-fledged fighters of the cause.
"Oh, here comes Adrian and the Sullivans," Kelvin announced to her. She followed his stare and found the trio entering the training yard. Michael Young led the procession, wearing his trademark Hawaiian shirt, brown pants, and white faded Jordans. He was a few months shy of being eighteen of age but was already on a yellow badge. Quiet, placid and observant, Mike had a flair for explosives, grenades, and projectiles and was every instructor's favorite.
His elder sister, Jennifer Young, was quite the opposite. A wild card, always outspoken and mosttimes irrational, Jenny was both humorous and annoying. Her attitude and traits endeared her to her friends, who also knew how toxic she was. Her brown hair was tied back in a ponytail and strangely, she wore matching black leather jackets and trainers with their companion and her boyfriend, Adrian.
Adrian had always been a queer fellow since the first day Sarah set her eyes on him. He had been unconscious, rescued by scouting Rangers from one of the collapsed buildings in Fresno, seven years ago. The Rangers were led there by a dog found to be poking around the rubble in search of something. It turned out to be the mangled body of the twelve year old. The meds in the Nest had done their best to treat and revive him, but when he came to, he lost all the memories of who he was, where he came from or his parents. All the traumatized boy could remember was a name, his first name it seems, Adrian. With therapy sessions, he began having nightmares on how he came to be stuck under the rubble, but with varying details at each time. His therapist and the doctors agreed that his occipital lobe was damaged somehow during whatever happened in Fresno. He was told that he might not be able to triggered into total recall, ever.
He was adopted and taken in by one of the Nest's refugees who had grown fond of the young blond boy with blue gleaming eyes, and his dog. The refugee, Spencer Webbs had lost his family too, during the TakeOver and felt the pair could fill the void in his life. He loved and cherished the boy and his dog, but the same could not be said for others. Like her peers, Sarah did not want to associate with him, afraid of his vicious dog and his weird habit of wild outbursts and frequent soloquising when alone. Everyone thought he was insane and demented, well, except for Jenny. She approached and acquainted herself with him, despite countless rebukes and rejections. He finally gave in and they became friends and she initiated him into the social life amongst teens in the Nest. Withdrawn from his shell, Adrian became popular as teens began to warm up to his jests and lifestyle. His character and attitude changed instantly and his nickname of the 'blond zombie' quickly dissipated and evolved into the 'charming clown'. He won himself many female admirers and Sarah couldn't help but wonder in amazement how someone so detested could quickly be on everyone's lips. Some boys were jealous of his charm and looks while girls were dazzled by them. However, Adrian ignored them and stuck to Jennifer and they were together for as long as she could remember. The duo did not hide the fact that they were dating and Sarah found it both irritating and fascinating.
Jennifer had her fingers interlaced with Adrian's as they approached, but she let go of him and shoved past Kelvin to hug her. Sarah knew that Jennifer was head over heels in love, but that single action made her know that Jenny still valued her as her best friend.