Depth of Silence (LSoE Series)

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

31 December, Year 658

Agis Coastline, 23:20 - Dakota Carton

We named it the Phantom Regiment, and the fiends we worked against Shadows.  Not very creative, I will admit, but it sufficed granted we did not factually know what the mist beings were.  They looked like shadows, so we named them accordingly.  We left town and hinted to the public that there would be a protection force in the future, and that an attack like what has happened would never again occur in the future.  We were the first division: the bipolar blonde, the puppy-like foreign one and his angry counterpart, the dulled proper kid, the authoritarian medic, the wide-eyed adventurer, the calculated overachiever, and the assertive redhead.  It was the eight of us.

A small building had been built for us to live in during our time in the PR.  It was located in the Agis Forest, slightly closer to Eulir, but we saw it as a decent bisector between the towns.  For the moment, we were still in our training segment, which included taking us to an "ocean."  Obviously this was a very untraditional approach to the everyday soldier, but Captain Wrenne, former secondary SB general and now leader of the PR, found something charming in the weathered boulders and miles of sempiternal water at our feet.  Do not get me wrong, it was very appealing to the eye, even in the dead of night, but I did not see its tactical strengths even as he explained the course.

"The goal of this mission is to be the first to ring the bell at the end of the rocks before midnight," Captain Wrenne loudly announced.  "It's already 23:23 so that leaves you a little less than forty minutes.  It may not look the most difficult at first, but you'll see it has its disadvantages.  Ready?"

The captain blew his whistle before any of us could respond, leaving three-fourths of the team lagging behind right off the bat.  It was mainly Graham and I who switched between the lead, with Lucas occasionally pushing forward.  There was a good chance he was as fast as Graham (who was faster than me but stayed by my side to issue a challenge) but he was very distracted.  Kept on looking up at the dark swirling clouds in the sky, which was not very wise to do when our feet rhythmically leapt over large gaps where water menacingly sloshed around.

After nearly twenty minutes, Graham and I heard no footsteps aside from our own feet, no breath except from our own lungs, and no victorious chuckles omitting the ones from our own throats.  I looked behind myself and I am not exaggerating when I say there was at least a five minute gap between the six other soldiers and I.  Ryder and Lucas were the nearest to us, jogging side by side as if they were going for a casual run.  Riley, Celia, and Thomas were clumped together, Riley appearing to be plagued by a limp.  Rei was nowhere in sight.

"Come on, Carton, what's the hold up?" Graham called to me from up the rocks.  "You aren't going soft on me, are you?"

"Huh?" I turned around, not noticing beforehand that I had halted my lope.  "No, I... hold on, I will be there in a second!"

As stormy air swirled around me and unattractively flipped my hair all around my face--I hated to admit that Celia's clips would have come in handy--I spurted up to fall nearly in step with Graham.  All this time, the trail of boulders we had been running along had been parallel to a beach, but a few feet in front of Graham, the sand ended despite the path continuing in its straight line, stretching out to open waters.

"Hey, Graham, hold up for a second!" I called.

Waves crashed over the rocks and showered them in a frothy mist.  I called out to Graham again, but my voice was drowned out by the sound of water splattering around us.  He took long strides over the cracks, quickly gaining more milage on me.  Every step he took led him closer to the fork, until a wave slammed into the rocky track right beside him.