Children's Draft

Chapter 6 (Part Two)

(Landon's PoV)

    Sgt. Blake came storming into our room, yelling at us to line up in alphabetical order, which led us to scrambling around asking for everyone's last names.

    Sgt. Blake sighed. "Forget it, I'll just split you up into three groups randomly."

    Relief swept over me after realizing that Price would have put me right in between Notham and Rosalez.

    Sgt. Blake assigning us groups wasn't the most ideal thing in the world, but I did get placed in group 2 with Gavin. Of course, we didn't completely luck out because we had Alan too.

    "Where are we going?" Ned asked.

    "To the gas chambers!" Sgt. Blake replied.

    "What?" We all expressed our alarm in unison. I was so taken aback, I didn't even have time to make a distasteful joke.

    "We're not killing you," Sgt. Blake told us, although he probably wanted to. "You're just going to see if your gas masks work."

    "And if they don't?" I questioned. We had spent a little bit of time this week learning how to use our masks, but I wasn't exactly excited to go apply that knowledge.

    "It's just tear gas," he emphasized. "And you'll have to take some of it in anyway. It's part of protocol."

    He and Lt. Jason led us through a trail in a forest near the training center. From the group behind me I could hear Justin spouting off information.

    "Well I did some research-"

    "Of course you did," Clayton huffed.

    Justin ignored him. "And it seems like we'll have to recite something while inside."

    After an almost twenty minute walk, we reached a small brick building. Sgt. Blake ordered the first group to go in after securing their masks.

    I wiped my hands on the edge of my shirt, trying to occupy myself.

    There were no windows on the building, so none of us had any idea exactly what was going on in there. After four minutes of waiting, the first nine guys came stumbling out with red eyes. All of them were practically coughing their lungs out. Andrew Freetley looked like he was about to faint.

    "It's not fun," Logan wailed between gasps. "Oh air, how I've missed you."

    Gavin smirked at me. " So I guess we're next." He gave a small laugh to cover up his nerves.

    We both put on our masks before entering with the other guys in our group. Through his own mask, Sgt. Blake ordered for us to line up against the wall.

    "Recruits! Now-"

    He was interrupted by Lt. Jason's heavy breathing. "Check it out guys. I sound like Darth Vader."

    Though we couldn't actually see Sgt. Blake's expression through his mask, I'm guessing it was unpleasant.

    "Lt. Schultz"

    "Yes?"

    "Shut up."

    Sgt. Blake then told us to unseal our masks. My hand shook as I undid the clasp.

    I started coughing immediately. He wouldn't let us reseal them until he was sure everyone had unsealed them first.

    "All right, now seal them back up," he demanded, which we were much more willing to comply with. Still, we had already taken in some of the gas, so resealing didn't help much. My throat was still burning.