Last One Standing ➣ Bellamy Blake [Book 1]

7.0 Glory and Gore

~Flashback~

            Andromeda had gone to school like any other normal day. Her routine was quite normal. She attended to her studies, gotten great grades, and even caused a little mischief here and there. After school, she walked with Alden back to his cadet training session before going back home to Section 17. There was nothing out of the ordinary that would indicate that today would be any different than any other day.

            "Alden, did you get the assignment you wanted yet?" Andromeda asked her best friend.

            Alden was a tall boy almost two years older than Andromeda. He had golden blonde hair and bright sea green eyes so unlike hers that they looked like total opposites. They had known each other since before she could talk. He had always been in her life. Their fathers were members of the guard together, and as such, they spent most of their evenings as children together while their fathers were on patrol. They were the only comfort they had from their neglecting fathers, their only real family. Seeing as how no one could have a brother or a sister, they were as close to each other as they got.

            "Dammit woman, leave me be. No I haven't. You'd think with your father out of command that the training would easier than before but not with Shumway in charge. It's absolutely fucking brutal," he complained back.

            "Well you should've finished training by now," she laughed at him.

            "Is there no pleasing you?"

            "No, not ever."

"You just wait until you join the guard,"  he shoved her shoulder.

"Then I'll be the best there's ever been, you wait!"

            They were walking through one of the many dark, cold halls of the Ark. Alden was on well on his way of becoming a member of the guard which is what Andromeda hoped to do one day. Once she finished school, she was going to enroll on cadet training school. Though, she doubted that Shumway would let her complete it seeing as how much she hated her.

            "Alright, I've really got to go now," Alden said as he turned to corner to go to the range. "Behave now. I'll see you after dinner for the game."

            She smiled back at him, "I'll see you then. I won't be late, this time. Promise!"

            With that, she turned and walked the opposite way to the other end of the ship. Where she lived, was in one of the poorest sections of the Ark. Most people here were barely living well, if you could even call it that. After her father retired, this is where they were forced to be. It only got worse when her mother died. Being head of communication, she brought in the money but now that she was gone, Andromeda and her father were barely getting by.

            As she passed Section 6, anti-lock and redistribution center, she noticed a squadron of new cadets training to be inducted into the ranks of the guard. She knew they were trainees by their four squad commanders. What struck her as odd however was a little blonde girl crying on the floor, holding a bundle of what looked like clothes? The girl couldn't have been more than ten years old. Her being by the anti-lock chamber only meant one thing: her parents were just floated. Shumway sure was sick making cadets witness a floating.

            Andromeda attempted to walk past the section without stopping until the girl's sobbing turned to screams.

            "Nooooo...," she cried.