Children of the Plague [NOW AVAILABLE ON KINDLE]

Once we were all lined back up at the door, we started on a whirlwind tour, I was thoroughly confused and had no idea where I was. Eventually, he turned down a hallway that I had no idea if we had been to or not. At the end of the hallway was a set of double doors and as we passed through them, I was struck with a familiar feeling. I almost felt as if I was back in school because we were standing in a cafeteria. It was indistinguishable from any other cafeteria I had seen in my life. From the food serving area to the bland off-white walls the color of dirty white clothes, and even the large yellowing tiles on the ground, it all reeked of cafeteria vibes. I was right, but also so very wrong. When someone mentioned that it was a cafeteria, we were promptly informed that it was a dining facility or DFAC for short.

“All right, listen up, this dining facility isn’t run like the cafeterias that you are used to back home.” As Sergeant Michel mentioned home, a heavy weight fell into my stomach. I could remember going to school and eating in the cafeteria. Although, I couldn’t remember when the last time that happened? As the sergeant took us through all the DFAC procedures I let my mind drift to what I could remember, and then I realized I didn’t even know what day it was, or day of the week, or month. I didn’t understand how that could happen?

My heart began beating faster, and my breath came in short gasps. I wasn’t sure of I knew what year it was? Sergeant Michel’s voice started to sound like it was under water. I could have been a different age; I hadn’t even looked in the mirror. Shadows started to creep at the edge of my vision. Why hadn’t they told me about my parents? I could feel the sweat drip off my nose. Were they dead? No one had told me anything? My legs went limp, and I fell to one knee.

Suddenly there was a face right in front of mine. The girl who was sitting across from me in the White room. I felt pressure on my shoulder, and as I looked over, I could see her arms resting on them. As I looked back and I could see her lips moving and I could slowly make out her words. “It’s okay, just breathe. It’s a lot, but if you breathe, then you’ll be fine.” I could only do as she suggested, but her determined eyes and steadying hand calmed me. As my vision continued to lighten, I could see everyone clustered around me looking worried, except for Sergeant Michel, he hadn’t moved and looked slightly irritated.

I got back to my feet, took my place back in line and decided to focus on what Sergeant Michel was showing us. The sergeant showed us how to get food. He was right that it wasn’t like a school cafeteria. There were a lot of rules to getting food and breaking any of them would either get you sent to the back of the line, or your eating privileges taken away completely.

Rule number one was no talking in line. Rule one was probably the hardest rule for some people to follow, even I had trouble and I usually like to stay as quite as possible. Rule two was no looking around. I might be mistaken about rule one being the hardest, if I am, this is the hardest rule. The last rule was multi-faceted and involved how we moved about while in line. We were informed to stand straight ahead at the position of attention. When we asked what that was, we were told it be taught a little later, but it is basically just standing still and not talking. We were also told at that time we asked the question to “shut up” and “pay attention,” but that wasn’t part of the instruction. Next, we had to be at an arm’s length from the person in front of us, and we couldn’t move forward until they did.

Once we were in the portion where food was served, we had to face the server and shuffle left or right while we were served our food. After we received our food, we were to move to a table and fill up every available seat. Once we were sitting, we had to wait until the whole table was full to be allowed to eat. At the time, no one asked what would happen if one of us decided to eat before we were allowed. We discovered that information on another day and that was a hungry day.

One of the good things about the whole process is that Sergeant Michel told us we would have our own place to eat. While he was telling us the rules, he was walking our group through the line, and he showed us where to sit and lectured us some more while we ate.

“This is your area and your area only. I expect you to take care of it, keep it clean, and follow all the rules while in this common area. You are not to sit anywhere else or intermix with the other groups. As I just said, this is a common area, and you will see other groups, perhaps later in your training and education, you might receive more privileges, but for now, the rules are ironclad, and there will always be someone here to enforce them.” He looked around at everyone for a moment. “Alright, times up.” We barely had any time to eat, only a couple minutes at most. I was barely halfway done with my food when he told us to get up and throw it all away.

“Now!” He yelled.

“But sir-” it was the small girl who had been in the bed next to mine, I still didn’t know her name, but she was abruptly cut off. Her plate didn’t look as if she had eaten anything yet.

“My name is Sergeant Michel, and you will address me as such, or did I not make myself clear?” The girl was stunned, and she just stared at Sergeant Michel, unsure of what to do next. “Well, yes or no? Did I make myself clear?” He said a little louder.

“Yes, sir.” Was the girl’s meek response.

“SERGEANT!” He yelled. “Obviously, I did NOT make myself clear. Now say ‘yes, sergeant’“.

“Yes, sergeant.”

“Louder.”

“Yes, sergeant.” The girls squeaked, albeit a little louder.

Sergeant Michel slammed his hand down on the table and yelled, “LOUDER!”

“YES, SERGEANT!” She half yelled, and half sobbed.

“Everyone, SAY IT!” He looked at the entire table.

“YES, SERGEANT!” We all yelled in unison.

“Good.” He said, his demeanor flipping like a coin. I would have thought I just hallucinated everything that just happened if I hadn’t still felt an ache in my jaw from a few hours earlier. Sergeant Michel was hard to understand. He was calm and seemed even-tempered. However, he had just shown how quickly he could get angry. I knew, personally, that I felt like I was starving, but after his outburst, I wasn’t going to say anything. “Now, everyone pick up your trays and let’s go. It’s not my fault you eat slowly. But, just how you learned to address me properly, soon you’ll learn to eat quicker.”

We all got up and deposited our tray into a conveyer belt that took them back into the kitchen to presumably be cleaned and reused. “Don’t worry,” he said after a few of us were caught trying to take a peek into the kitchen, “you’ll all get a chance to see what is back there once it is your turn for K.P., which is kitchen patrol.”

He took us out of the mess hall through a different doorway than the one we came through and continued to give us a tour. After we turned a couple corners, Sergeant Michel abruptly stopped us and ushered us to a smaller hallway that quickly dead-ended at a door with the word janitor stenciled on it. He was calm and talking in a smooth monotone like he did when he first entered the white room and looked even more tired than he did before.

“Look, kids, I’m sorry for what I did back there in the mess hall. You all just need to know that there’s a time and place for everything. There are certain expectations that have to be adhered to for not only you, but for me too.” He paused quickly, looked down the hallway quickly, and ran his hand through his hair. “So, the gist of the matter is, if you don’t want to be yelled at and punished constantly, you have to learn the rules quickly and follow them without question.” He waited until a few of us were nodding in agreement before adding, “and if that happens, then we can really reap the benefits of it.”

After he was sure we all understood, he continued the tour. While we were walking around, he told us that we will have classes, but that it won’t be like when we were in school. “This is not a school,” he said, “but I don’t want you to think of this place as a prison. We, the cadre, are treating this as a military school and we want you kids to do the same. In military schools, there are all diverse types of kids, some are here because of family tradition, and others are here as a last solution for troubled youth.” He mentioned that while some of us did hurt other people, it was an accident and that we just needed discipline to learn control over our abilities. Also, since all the cadre were military, and this was a military base, that from now on, we would either be treated like soldiers or be treated as prisoners.

“You kids are going to have the best instructors and will learn everything we know about being soldiers. Everyone here is a soldier, it is our profession and passion, and there are no better people to teach you the art of discipline.” Sergeant Michel said and then added “every soldier here volunteered for the assignment because they want to help you be able to make smart decisions in the world, and they want you to be intelligent when you get released. You kids might not know this, but you’ll find out, the world is already very different then it was just a short time ago, and it is still changing.

“When is that?” I ask before I think better of it.

“When is what?” Sergeant Michel replied.

“When will we be released?”

“That depends when you and the world are ready.” He said vaguely.