Tales of Testonia

The city of Tested

Chapter 1 - The Veteran

It was a day like any other in testonia. The weather was a sunny 32 degrees, with the sun high in the sky, despite it only being 10am. The town square jumbo screen was met with the face of their 23 year running president, tested dsf, spreading patriotic views as they did every day. And in Daylight house, on the 3rd floor, in apartment 28, a man by the name of Alex B. Waterman received a knock on the door,

"This is an inspection from the guards of testonia, you would be wise to open," a voice called from outside, Alex slowly made his way to the door, trying not to look like he had just woken up as he opened the door,

"I'm sorry for the wait officer, I was busy at work in my home office," He lied, as he took a look at the officer at his door, A seemingly young man, one who couldn't be any further than in his late teens,

"It's okay Sergeant, it's just a formality, I doubt you'll be hiding anything," the private eagerly responded, seemingly not catching onto Alex's clear lie, which both puzzled him and gave him a renewed sense of confidence as he posed the question

"I'm not a sergeant anymore, and I thought I was exempt from these checks,"

"It's a new policy, to keep up national security, It was announced this morning in tested's speech," the young private explained, emphasising the fact it was announced this morning,

"Oh right, that policy," Alex replied, pretending to have seen the mandatory morning speech

"And, I'm sorry for calling you sergeant, my father fought alongside you in the Theory war of '01," the child sheepishly went on "Corporal Venti, I'm his son,"

This news had taken The sergeant aback, he remembered Venti quite fondly, as a close friend of his on the front line of the Theory war, he was a brave soldier, one willing to take any mission in order to get home sooner, he was always talking about his family, each time finding a way to more poetically describe his beautiful wife, and his adorable son, and as he was reminiscing on them, Alex began to realise that he was completely unresponsive to that child in front of him, but he didn't even care anymore, all he cared about in this moment was reliving every memory with him, up until his tragic sacrifice, running out into the battlefield against the relentless onslaught of the Theory army, single handedly diverting the gunfire of the whole army while the rest came from behind, almost shedding a tear at the thought, before finally coming to his senses, and responding to the officer.

"Venti? I remember him, he was a great man, saved many lives, I hope you follow in his footsteps," He finally responded, trying not to get choked up.

"Yeah, I still have his letters, he had a lot to say about you," The corporals son continued, almost about to begin a story, before remembering the time and hastily adding "but I should really get to work, you need to be out of the apartment for 30 minutes so we can conduct a proper investigation while you're not here, I'll give you a few minutes to prepare"

A few minutes later and Alex was out the door of his apartment with a government issued gas mask, and a coat. His apartment building, daylight house, was initially built as an attractive skyline property at the heart of testonia, but as the nation slipped more and more into chaos, it's reputation and standards had since sunk, and it became a source of council housing for former members of the military, and as he was walking down the stairs, he really wished they hadn't added a massive glass window to the side of the building, the glass elevator was taken out of commission months ago for complaints about the heat, and the heat was almost as unbearable here.

Reaching the outside, Alex looked carefully each way down the street, this was not a new habit, as for the past few years now there has been a political skirmish between the government and a force of rebels, that wasn't even on his mind as he cautiously made his way down the street, the thing he was far more concerned about was that he had run out of milk, and he needed to get some more from the store,