Melanie's Adventures

Pete was cut short by the noisy siren that made Melanie faint the first time she got into the barracks. Yes, she fainted. That was how feeble Melanie was and she still hadn't got used to it.

The siren was sounded during crucial times like wars and others and so everyone was to assemble at the meeting place and await further instructions.

Pete felt relieved for a moment because the siren saved him the stress of telling Melanie what he had wanted to say. The couple sped towards the designated area with the speed they could muster.

It was chaotic that evening, soldiers from every direction, both young and old, were heading towards the meeting place. What a spectacle that was, to see soldiers willing to put their lives on the line, no, who are willing to give it away in a flask for the integrity of their country. Integrity that doesn't benefit every citizen as equally as the higher-ups.

At the meeting grounds, the atmosphere was unimaginably tense, anything said at the wrong time, in the wrong fashion would have empty eyes tearing at you from the inside out. Melanie felt the effects more. She was literally panting and choking at the same time. The few higher-up soldiers who knew about it wore grim visages

"Attention!", the Commander yelled and feet gave a befitting response.

"At ease!" And the shuffling of feet followed.

"Soldiers!, Our intelligence informs us that our neighboring country, the country of Raine, whom we thought that our allegiance was in good shape with us planning to attack our home. We don't know when, we don't know how, we don't know what their motive is but a threat to our mother is a threat to us all. We will not sit back and wait, no, we will not be known in history as the country that sat and waited"

A deafening chorus collided with the Commander's message. "We have been mandated by the President whom we elected through democratic means to take necessary measures and we swore by oath that we will obey and prevail, won't we?!"

"We will!"

"Shan't we?!"

"We shall!"

"From now onwards, with the power vested in me, I charge you all to train hard and improve upon yourselves because I know you know the logistics of Raine, if not then you wouldn't have passed the written test. You might still be rookies but this is your time to mature. You'll never know what kind of pieces on the chessboard that pawns can take. Go on, train, train hard, train smart, leave the plan making to us and await further instructions."

"Yes sir!"

An officer stepped up from the back and cried, "You heard him, get a good rest tonight for tomorrow's wind blows hard, now move!"

With that, the same chaos from the beginning resumed but in opposite directions. Melanie had lost Pete to the crowd so she thought it best to jog home. She jogged not ran, God knows how she managed to keep her stance throughout the whole announcement. As she jogged back to her quarters, she started to recall the whole announcement. The thought of a possible war of which she might not survive petrified her to the core but surprisingly, which is very 'unMelanie' of her, she started to think clearly.

"What at all would make Raine want to start a war with us?, Was our intelligence wrong?, well that's unlikely butvwe just ended our annual peace treaty not more than seven montgs ago".

The thought of dying gave her goosebumps. As she approached her dormitory, she started to walk slowly because her limit was catching up to her. She reached for her door and opened it. She entered and saw two of her roommates fast asleep but Lucy was sitting very calmly staring intently at herself in the mirror.