Young Writers Society

The man was silent as they walked through the corridors. The only thing Verona could glean from him was that his name was Egrand.

The corridors weren't much more interesting, a dull, uniform gray, with a checkered black-and-white tile patterned floor. From the absence of windows, Verona assumed they were underground. The corridors themselves were ramrod straight, broken only by other corridors or doors every few hundred feet. Although all the corridors looked the same, there were numbers on every door and signs all over, so at least she wouldn’t get lost.

It didn't take long to reach the examination room, and as it turned out, the examination wasn’t all that bad. She was questioned by Egrand and three others, who asked her about her interests and her background. They seemed to genuinely take an interest in her, telling her that these interviews were just a precaution and so they could get to know her. They all acted quite friendly, even Egrand, and over time Verona’s suspicions started to fade. After all, it made sense that they needed strict security. They didn’t exactly see eye-to-eye with the central government.

Verona’s timepiece had stopped working, so she couldn’t tell, but after what seemed like an hour, the questioning stopped. The committee withdrew to a small room to discuss her fate. Verona couldn’t help being forcibly reminded of the long minutes she had waited while the jury was out at her trial. Hopefully the verdict would be favorable this time around.

After a moment, the door opened and the committee exited. Verona waited with baited breath.

“Welcome to the Absolutes,” Egrand said. “You’re officially a Rookie.” He handed Verona a blue shirt and a pair of jeans. “Rookies wear blue. They’re the lowest rank. You’ll rank up over time, but for now all you need to know is that the folks with the green shirts are Coaches. They’ll be in charge of you until you learn the ropes. No matter what, you do what they say. Got it?”

Verona nodded.

“Then go get changed. There’s a bathroom right there, then someone will take you to your dorms,"

“Thank you,” Verona said, still hardly daring to believe she’d passed.

After getting changed, a guide took Verona to her room, which she could only distinguish by the number 412. Otherwise, it looked exactly the same as every other door.

“This will be your room for now.” the guide said. “On all your uniforms, there’s a patch on your sleeve here.” She tapped the light green, slightly stiff square on Verona’s sleeve, just above her wrist. So that’s what that is, Verona thought.

“Just flash it by this scanner, and the door will unlock,” he continued.

Verona did as he asked. The door gave a beep and she could hear the mechanism unlock

“By the way, everyone’s in there right now, since it’s almost curfew,” the guide said. “I’ll just leave you to meet everybody and settle in.”

“Wait, what?” Verona said. She didn’t want to have to meet people already! But it was too late – the door was already swinging open.  Let’s get this over with, Verona thought. She walked into the room, the conversation hushed, and all eyes turned to her.

There were only three people in the room – two girls and one boy - although there were enough bunks for a dozen or so. Verona’s eyes were immediately drawn to one of the girls. Tall and regal, she stretched out on one of the beds, looking bored. Her long blond hair spilled over the edge, and she looked to be about Verona’s age. Verona was instantly wary of her. A second girl sat cross-legged on another bed that was strewn with a few personal items. Small and slight, her presence was hardly noticeable compared to the other girl’s, and she looked to be around fifteen or sixteen. All three of them wore the same outfit.

But the boy, who also seemed to be about Verona’s age, spoke first. “What are you doing here?” he asked. He had been lounging against the wall across from the door, but now he stood up straight, alert and ready. Ready for what?

“I’m new,” Verona stammered. “They told me this was my room.” She wasn’t sure what to make of this blond-haired boy. He carried himself easily, and his tone wasn’t unfriendly, but there was an odd tension about him.

“Oh, finally, someone new!” the blond girl said. “It’s been way too long. Merea will finally have some company.”

“What do you mean?” Verona asked, confused.

“Oh, the other barracks are filled, so Merea here has to stay in this one all alone,” the girl said.

“We usually sleep in here to keep her company,” the boy explained.

“They let you do that?” Verona had expected them to be very strict.

“Technically, no. But we’re pretty sure they know, and they just turn a blind eye.” He relaxed back against the wall.

“Well, now that we’ve got her here to look after Merea, I’m going back to my dorm,” said the girl haughtily. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Kyle.” She grabbed the stuff she had brought with her and left.

“Sorry about her,” Kyle apologized. “She’d rather be with all her friends. But that reminds me, we forgot to introduce ourselves. I’m Kyle, the lady that just left in such a wonderful mood was Ashlynne and of course that’s Merea, my little sister.”

This took Verona by surprise. “I didn’t know they had families here,” she said, curious if there were many of them.

Kyle shook his head. “They don’t. We just came here together.”

The grim look on his face made Verona wonder if there was more to the story, but she decided not to pry. “I’m Verona.”

The dark-haired girl – Merea – spoke for the first time. “Wait, are you the Verona? The one who’s been on Rithanian news?”

Verona’s heart started pounding more rapidly. Did everyone here already know what she had done? How would they react? “Um, yeah. How did you know about me? I didn’t think it made interstellar news.”

“Oh, no, it didn’t. We don’t have access to much news here anyway. But I’m from Rithane too, and one of our guides showed me some of the footage of the trial,” Merea said brightly. “I think it’s amazing, what you did. You didn’t even seem to care about what they would do to you.” She stared across the room and let out a long sigh. “I wish I were that faithful,” she said, so quietly Verona wasn’t sure she had been supposed to hear.

Verona shifted her weight from one foot to another. She wasn’t so sure she was a great example of a follower of Nirvana’s justice. “It’s not like that,” she tried to defend herself, though she wasn’t sure what she was objecting to. “I wasn’t planning ahead, I was just angry. And it’s not like it worked anyway.” All I managed to do was ruin my life.

“So what?” Kyle said, folding his arms. “It was still brave. If more people had the gumption to stand up like that and fix things for themselves and fight for justice, half the problems with the Hundred Worlds would already be solved.” The intensity in his voice took Verona aback.

Mirea intervened quickly. “Well, that’s why we’re all here, isn’t it? We’re helping to fix it, one step at a time.”

"You're right," As quickly as it came, Kyle’s fury melted away. “Anyway,” he said, clapping his hands. “Let’s get you settled in.”

Since there was only Merea in the dorm with her, Verona got her pick of the bunks. She chose the bottom bunk by the door, next to Merea, but she didn't have anything of her own to mark it with. All she had were the clothes she was wearing - they had even taken her timepiece. She mentioned this to Merea, who showed her the storage compartments under the bed above her own. They were filled with clothes and other toiletries. Apparently, someone had delivered them about an hour ago. Now they knew why. Verona happily transferred the stuff to her bed.

At exactly eleven o' clock, the lights went out. Verona wanted to find out more about the base, but Kyle refused to keep talking.

"There'll be plenty of time for that tomorrow, and the Coaches can explain it better than I can anyway. Go to sleep!"

Verona obeyed, and for the first time in a long while, she slept peacefully.