~
Sue found a vacant seat by the window and sat down. After a minute or so, Laurie came and sat down next to her.
“So, you know how far north we’re going?” he asked. Sue shook her head.
“No idea. Never been north of Stonehaven,” she said. Stonehaven lay inland, northwest of Charlestown, and was the town everyone went to for trade goods that were hard to come by at home. She had gone there with her father once, while her mother and little Jason stayed at home. Thinking of her little brother almost choked her up, and she turned and stared out the window. They were going faster than she’d expected. The train hovered inches above the tracks, and the smoothness of the ride was amazing. Not like riding the steam cars back home. She’d done that once, too.
“It’s magnetic. Maglev, I think it’s called,” Laurie said. She turned back and looked at him. Curly, dark hair, wide lips and nose, and originally the prankster among them, he’d changed after his sister was chosen. More serious, Sue thought.
“We have no idea what to expect, do we?” she said. He half-smiled back.
“Guess we don’t.” He leaned forward to see better. “We haven’t heard from Lisa since last Initiation Day. Not one word.”
They both stared out for what seemed forever, and Sue felt herself doze off as daylight receded. The train suddenly slowed, and they emerged from a tunnel. In the distance, they could see the capital, Legacy, in its entire splendor. Lights everywhere; no shortage of electricity there. And soon, the train stopped on the platform. This was clearly separate from the civilian platforms, as there were officers everywhere, herding groups of Initiates around. Black, white, and green armbands still separated the Initiates, while the officers wore the grey uniforms she was familiar with from back home.
Their train car was Janissaries only, but she knew Dave, Chas, Felicia, and the others from Charlestown were on the same train. Now though, their ways parted. She saw a group with green armbands boarding another train; no familiar faces, though.
“There go the Wardens,” Laurie said quietly. The Wardens were something of a secret society, especially since there were so few from Charlestown. The rumors said the Wardens mostly stayed in the West, even further than the miner towns and wildlife preserves. But no one knew for sure. Initiates from Charlestown generally went to the Janissaries or the Corpus, with a few now and then to the Students. Student Initiates rarely returned to their hometowns. After having served their seven years and earning their citizenship, many chose to stay on in the Service to become Scholars.
While the Students were treated well enough to not only survive their seven years, but thrive, the Corpus spent their Initiates and spewed out what was left. Usually that wasn’t much; if they even made it through, they returned home with disabled bodies and broken minds, though their citizen pensions could easily feed a family for the rest of their lives. The Janissaries had a high casualty rate, but those who survived were awarded citizenship and if they chose to return to their hometowns, they did so with fanfare—the pride of the town. Every time one did, it was cause for celebration.
So, since the Corpus was an absolute horror, the Wardens were a mystery, and the few that were chosen for the Students were always from the advanced class, whenever Sue and her friends had discussed the prospect of Service, they had implicitly discussed service with the Janissaries.
Sue saw Chas and Felicia pass right outside their window and waved at them. Felicia noticed and waved back, while Chas seemed to be lost in thought. They would be taken to the Legacy Academy or the Covenant University, which both produced scholars. Sue didn’t really know the difference between the two, and right now, she didn’t care. She just hoped her friends would fare well.
“I was worried for Vince there for a second,” Laurie said. Sue smiled.
“We all were. I was so certain he’d be chosen. He’ll be fine back home.” she said.
“Yeah, better than the Corpus,” Laurie said, as he sat back, ignoring the window and staring up at the ceiling. The train started moving again. Slowly at first, but soon it was moving at top speed again.
“Still going north,” Sue murmured, as sleep seemed to pull at her again.
She was almost out when the doors to their train car slid open and a man clad in Janissary black entered.
“Listen up,” he said, loud enough to wake those who’d dozed off. Laurie sat up straighter, and Sue craned to see better. The man was lean and tall, and when Sue looked closer, she saw he couldn’t be more than twenty-five or so; it was the trimmed beard that made him look older.
“In an hour, you will enter Camp Sharpe, where you will begin your training. In the meantime, you are to read this information sheet.” He produced a stack of papers, and started passing them out.
“You can all read—the Janissaries have no need for illiterates—so I suggest you pay attention to everything this sheet tells you. On arrival, we expect you to know this by heart.” He let the Initiates pass the sheets along, and turned back. Just before the sliding door, he turned again.
“Initiates, in one hour, the toughest part of your lives will begin. For some, it will be the final part. No matter how well prepared you think you are, make no mistake; the coming days and weeks will test you. Everyone has a limit, and we intend to find yours. One day, you might find these trials will save the lives of yourself and those around you.” Sue found herself absorbing the advice, and although his words were disturbing, they also made her eager. She had felt that way ever since hearing her name being called by First Janissary Ivanov, and as the train took them north, the feeling had grown stronger. The Janissary hadn’t finished though.
“One more piece of advice for you. I know many of you are friends. You’ve gone to school together, grown up together, played together, in Holstonhead, Morrow, Fort Winter, Stonehaven, Charlestown, or wherever.
I want you to forget all that. Forget your hometown and everyone there. Forget your best friend from kindergarten. Forget your boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever. It’s all history, and you are about to be reborn as Janissaries. And let me tell you, a Janissary is sworn to Service. To the State. Not to your pals or your birth family or your town. The State.
“You may at some point find yourselves torn between loyalties, in training or in actual combat. It may be hard to abandon someone you played with as a child, or the person you first kissed, leaving him or her to die in some godforsaken ditch up north. Or to carry out punishment on someone you knew back when you were kids for having disobeyed the tranquility laws. But that’s what it takes to fulfill your obligations—to serve. And I want you to remember this: Many of you will die in the Service. Almost everyone you knew in that place you’ve always called home will die within just a few decades. In fifty years, even that cute little baby next door or little cousin Vinny will be dead. But, if you survive your three years of Service, you may live on for a century, if not more. Should you earn your citizenship, any children you have will automatically be citizens. In addition, you may choose one family member to be given the status of probationary citizen. One. The rest of your family will be well off, but they will still only be able to live until the age of fifty.
“But fifty years from now, when your hometown doesn’t feel like home anymore, you will have new friends. You will have a new family—people who are not subject to the euthanasia laws, who understand what you’ve been through. You will be part of the Covenant, having earned your privileges and your status.” He stood quiet for a moment before leaving through the sliding doors, letting the Initiates absorb what he had told them. Sue and Laurie looked at each other, and Sue felt an urge to protest. But she didn’t.
Instead, she looked at the sheet of paper and started to read. It was all basic instructions: how to salute a superior, a chart for arranging her clothes and personal items in her locker, fire instructions, the different alerts that might occur, and some basic information on what to expect in their first few days at Camp Sharpe.
She didn’t
speak to Laurie for the rest of the ride, and she wondered if it was because they were both busy studying the information sheet, or if it was because of what the Janissary had said. She knew Laurie would always be her friend, and wanted to dismiss what the man had said, but somewhere in the back of her mind, she wondered if there wasn’t a lot of truth to it, as well. After all, many of the Initiates right here in this train car would die, and soon. And there was no doubt that the euthanasia laws were merciless. On your fiftieth birthday, you were given the choice of how to go. Most took the pill, and that was that. In a few years, her neighbor, who had shown up for Initiation Day in the town square, would be gone. The baker across the street had taken the pill last year, and next year, it was his wife’s turn.
Sue felt the train decelerate, and as it slowed to a crawl, they entered a tunnel. Seconds turned to minutes, and after what felt like an eternity, the train exited the tunnel and stopped on a platform bathed in light. It was late evening outside, and darkness had descended. Behind the platform stood two black towers with moving flood lights, and as the lights moved around, she saw parts of Camp Sharpe, where she would spend the next several weeks in training. On the platform stood Janissaries, a row of them a few paces apart. From what she had read on the info sheet, these were senior Janissaries, who would each take a small group to their quarters and get them all settled in, let them know how things worked and how to behave, so when basic training began, they would be as ready as they could be. After sticking her head out for Dave, she thought it would be best to be as anonymous as possible and not draw attention to her. She looked up at the Covenant flag flapping in the wind on top of the main house in front of the platform. The white circle with another white round dot just above and to the right, on a black background speckled with small, paler dots. The Earth, the Moon, and the stars. The Moon people had saved them all, and the flag signified how Earth had been reborn in the image of their saviors. Now, it was her turn to serve, to carry on the responsibilities of protecting the Covenant.
DAVE
The train moved quietly through the rolling hills, and the only sound was the low chatter among initiates. The further west they went, the more sparse the habitation. Finally, there was nothing but untouched nature as far as the eye could see. Dave knew he should get some sleep, but he was far too nervous to even try. There weren’t many Warden initiates, and most were from places he’d barely heard of. He didn’t know the others from Charlestown well, and even they mostly kept to themselves. He had no idea what to expect.
One thing he knew was that the Wardens were a mystery in themselves. Another was that no one told him anything, even though he noticed some of the initiates talked to each other as if they knew more than he did. He just sat there by himself, staring out the window as the train sped west through the rolling hills and the valley beyond, which he’d only read about in school textbooks. Soon, he was farther west than he’d ever been, further than anyone was allowed. Obviously, the Wardens were allowed out here, though.
So when the train slowed down and finally came to a stop, he was dead tired and excited all at once. A man in olive fatigues and a shaggy beard ushered them out of the train car and onto a platform where several others were waiting. Most wore the same fatigues, but he noticed that, although they had some resemblance to the militaristic Janissaries, with uniforms and certainly a chain of command of sorts, these looked like they all had adapted their individual styles. There were those with bandanas and hats, but also uncovered heads, shades, electronic tattoos—but very different from the Corpus tattoos, and even a few short sleeves. Off in a corner of the platform, a couple of young men and a woman were smoking, a sickly sweet scent that told him this was definitely an illegal substance. He’d never actually smelled it, let alone smoked it, but he remembered learning about it once, in class. They said it was dangerous and would kill you. When they noticed him staring, they grinned at him and laughed, and he quickly averted his eyes.
“Hey! Watch where you’re going,” one of the other initiates, a girl, said. She smiled as he fumbled and almost lost his footing. She was lean and looked fit, with full lips and auburn, close-cropped hair. He’d noticed her boarding the train at one of the last stops, and she was one of those initiates who already seemed to know her way around. She offered her hand.
“Liz.” He took her hand and shook it.
“Dave.”
“I guess you haven’t tried kissweed before, have you?” she said. He shook his head. She chuckled, but didn’t say anything. A grey-bearded fellow who stood out, not just because of his multi-colored shirt, but also because he was obviously an authority here, walked across the platform and stood in front of them.
“All right, Initiates, listen up,” he said loud enough for everyone to hear.
“I’ll make no speeches, I promise. I just want you to know that you are welcome, and that I hope you will settle in here. In the next few weeks, you will learn more of the Wardens, and our role in the Covenant.” He paused, a knowing smile breaking through the thick beard.
“Trust me; you don’t know half of it.” And with that, he turned and left, leaving the initiates standing idly.
“Well, that was brief,” Liz said. Dave wondered what would happen next, and he didn’t have to wait for long. A lanky fellow, around twenty-five, with sand-colored hair and sunburned skin, with those strange-looking tattoos snaking up his neck, came up to them, carrying an infopad. He wore a nametag that said “Searles.”
“Names,” he said, sounding almost bored. They gave him their names, and he found them on his list.
“Wagner, you’re in B-house. It’s the first one on the left. Sidnell, follow that chubby fellow, and he’ll take you to your house. You’re in A,” he said. They both nodded, and Searles walked over to another group of initiates.
“I guess we’ll see each other around then,” Liz said.
“Sure. Nice to meet you.”
Dave watched her walk away, and turned to see who else was there. One of the initiates from Charlestown, Brian something, was lingering, and Dave walked over to him. They nodded at each other, and Dave thought he remembered where he’d seen him before.
“Did you compete in the math fair last year?” he asked. Brian nodded and grinned.
“Yeah. No idea why I even made it to the finals; never been any good at it before or since, but my teacher thought I had a head for it. No match for you though.” Dave remembered. He’d ended up second, beaten only by Chas. Brian, from a different school, had been pretty good, but nothing like Chas or himself. Smart, but poorly educated.
“So, what do you think all this is? I mean, no one ever told us what the Wardens actually do,” Brian said. Dave just shrugged.
“No idea. But it must have something to do with our location. We are pretty far west, probably deep into forbidden territory. And from what I can tell, most initiates seem smart. Not Student smart, perhaps, but intelligence seems to be a criteria. And independence perhaps? They don’t look very disciplined,” he said, gesturing at the kissweed smokers. Brian nodded.
“I guess we’ll know soon enough. It’s just that I hate being kept in the dark.” Dave smiled.
“Maybe that’s another criterion? Curiosity?”
It turned out Brian was also to be living in B-house, so they walked together. It was nice to have a familiar face around, with everything else new and unknown. Dave realized he’d made two new friends in just a short while. Usually, he wasn’t the type to make friends easily, so this was something new for him. He figured he might fit in just fine here.