Children of the Ark ✔️

Chapter Four

+-+ Day Two of Preparation +-+

I wake up feeling quite groggy from reading through the book about the edible roots and berries. I didn't get much sleep last night because I stayed up so late reading through it. It was a bad decision because we had to wake up earlier because the Commander needs to speak with us about something.

I look around the boys dorm and see that there are some empty beds where there were originally people sleeping there. 'That's weird.' I think. I see Jett jump down from his top bunk and searches through his locker to find some clothes to change into.

"Do you know why there are some empty beds?" I ask him.

"Because there aren't enough people to fill them all in?" He suggests.

"No. That's not what I mean. There are beds that are empty when someone was sleeping in them last night."

"Maybe they just moved to a different bed." He sighs while getting changed.

"Yeah. Maybe." I still don't have a good feeling about this. I would say that around 15-20 people from the boys dorm were missing.

I get changed and Jett and I walk out towards the classroom that we were in yesterday for our class. That's where the Commander told us all to meet. When we get there, we try to scope out and see if we can see the others. We manage to spot the others sitting around the middle so we go to them.

"Hey." Jess says as I sit next to her.

"I think that there were around fifteen to twenty people missing from our dorm. Their beds were empty and their stuff was gone. Jett thinks it's nothing but I think that something is bad is going to happen." I whisper to her.

"There were about ten people missing from our dorm, all of their stuff was gone too." She whispers back.

"Let's just see what the Commander has to say about it."

All of the chatter in the room stops as the Commander and the General walk onstage.

"Welcome Chosen and volunteers. I'm sorry to wake you up earlier than when we should have woken you up but there is a serious matter that I need to talk to you about. Around thirty of the Chosen tried to escape last night." Whispers erupted around the room. I look at Jess because I know that there is going to be some kind of punishment and she has a scared look on her face. "The thirty that tried to escape are being sent down today as punishment. They are being sent down with no training and with little knowledge of the ground." That's when a lot of people got angry. You aren't allowed to send people to the ground early, or at least with little knowledge of the ground. It's basically murder. Everyone started yelling profanities at her while I just sat there with disbelief. She has just murdered thirty of the Chosen.

"SILENCE." The General yells and everyone goes quiet.

"Since the group was so large, we have decided to punish you all as well. We are reducing the time of preparation by three days, so you will only have four days to prepare for the ground and on the fifth day, you will be sent down. This is the first time we have had this many people trying to escape so to make sure it doesn't happen again, we are punishing this group so that in three years, the next group will know to not try to escape or you will be sent down earlier."

Everyone is stunned into silence. We only have a total of four days to prepare now, and we have already had one day.

"We have decided to move you straight to the combat training stage and that is where you will all stay. But since I have just given you this bad news, your training starts after lunch so you have time to process it all. Thank you." And with that, the Commander and the General walk offstage.