August 13th, 2030, 4:09 pm

My head jerks up as soon as it dips down to my collar. A couple blinks accompany a deep breath.

At four, the preparatory class began in the lecture hall. Somehow, they were able to pack nearly four hundred kids into a set of escalating rows stretching end to end of the enormous room. The two girls seated to my right and left are just about shoulder to shoulder with me, and those in the row in front are an arm's length from where I am. I could touch the girl's blonde head ahead of me.

I don't understand the purpose of these sessions. I've heard that you learn nothing new unless you're stupid. Later in the week is stuff about the Imperial Guard, which might be a struggle for some people. I don't think I'm an exception to that. The kids that remarked about the early classes have parents that were guards, so to them, this material is "easy." I can't say the same, unfortunately. Ten years is way too long.

The microphone attached to a headpiece on the instructor has to be broken or something because I can't hear shit. I'm even in the middle of the room and not a single word from this guy is audible. He's a bit shaky, from what I can see, as he adjusts the plastic near his mouth every few seconds. It doesn't help the fact that I can't comprehend you, pal.

Finally, he mingles with his headset. "Test. Test. Ah, there we go!"

A boy two seats to my right pulls his head off the sleek, synthetic wood desk upon the sudden outburst of sound. He places his head back down on the surface and groans. That's ten minutes of our lives we'll never get back.

"Today, we will review the five regions of Oltima to be sure that we've all been learning the same thing. Someday, you may be deployed to another region and must be able to adapt instantly. This is a very important lesson, so it will do you well to listen to everything I say."

A giant map unravels from halfway up the wall behind the lecturer. Once fully exposed, he turns around and takes out a laser pointer. A red dot circles around the white portion on the northern coast.

"We will begin with Sever, in the high north. Sever is home to nearly a million and a half people, and about eighty-five percent of those people reside in the capital city, Hopewell. Like Queen's City, it is divided into four districts; Sten, Hego, Krist, and Usto. Sten is the easternmost district, containing the capital. Hego is the frozen north and is so dangerous to travel due to extreme temperatures. Krist is the far west, and if you have heard of the crystal caves, that's where they are. Usto is the district in the center of those three. It's a vast snowfield with no civilization for miles."

I want to know who the Imperial Guard think I am, not knowing about the regions of the Empire. I learned this stuff when I was in fifth grade. We aren't even going into specifics here, so what is the point of all this? Are they trying to bore us to death? I wonder if he'd notice that I fell asleep on my desk here. I'm about to if we don't talk about something interesting.

"Before two hundred years ago, Sever was Oltima's enemy. In the North War, which I'm sure all of you have heard about, the Imperial Guard and the Volki, what the Severian army called themselves, fought in the district of Usto, away from anybody. The Volki were well suited to the cold temperatures, but the Imperial Guard defeated them in 1867. General Thomas Beauregard delivered his famous victory speech in the settlement of Hopewell, which then became the capital. After that, Sever joined our Empire. And the rest is history."

The girl to my left slides a folded piece of paper in front of me. Did she just hand me her number? I wasn't paying attention at all, so I can't tell if it was her who wrote it or not. If it's not for me, I don't want to get into someone else's business. I think I need to just pass it on to the next person. I press my fingers down on it and move it to the girl to my right.

She unfolds it fully and scans it. Since we're so close to one another, I look over her shoulder to read it as well. It just says "Hey." in rugged handwriting. Who's passing notes just to say hi? And who are they saying hi to?

"South of Sever and north of Queen's City is the Meadowlands. There are no definite district lines, however, it is divided into the meadows and the mountains. Glanz is the capital, located in the meadows. The mountains connect into Sever's Krist district. In the North War, the Meadowlands acted as a buffer between Oltima and Sever. So, when the two empires merged, the Meadowlands became an official member of Oltima."

I lean forward and examine the progression of kids in my row. There is only one person, quite a distance away, who has a pen and paper. I watch as his hands jot something onto the scrap. If I move any farther ahead, I'll hit the girl in front of me, so I can't see who is writing these notes. He takes the paper and neatly creases the ends together. The assembly line begins my way again once more. I sit back in my chair.

"Of course, I forgot to mention that knowing the names of each regional Colonel is required for your tests. The Meadowlands is run by Colonel Arthur Jameson, and Sever has Colonel Emerson Fitz."

A hand shoots toward the front of the room. "I thought Fitz resigned!"

"Uh, well," The instructor stutters, "I mean, you are right. Last night, actually. The new Colonel is named, uh, Kirill Orlov. Wow, I don't know how you heard of that..."

A scrap of paper lands in front of me. I pass it onto the girl beside me, who opens it again. "Are you Slater?" it says. The girl hands it to me, and I lean forward again.

The kid is doing the same. When our eyes meet each other, he waves slightly. I nod to respond to his note, and he grins. Do I have a fan? I've never seen this kid before in my life. I think he might be in the same bunk room as me, yet I have no clue. Why would he wait until now to talk to me? I need friends.

"Next is our home, Queen's City. This is the capital of our empire and holds over twenty million people within its borders. As you all should know, Bluefield is in the west, where we are. Frayton is on the east coast, located between Woodrow, the upper-end financial district, and Stanville, the suburbs. The symbol of the Queen's City Imperial Guard is the eagle, representing power and divine leadership. It is no secret that the largest and strongest faction is that of the city, so we lead the rest."

The instructor relieves a triumphant breath after the last statement. He is quite proud of our Imperial Guard here. "You will need to know the top five officers from your home region. It goes Lieutenant Hill, Captain Manchester, Major Talbot, Colonel MacTavish, and General Hamilton, from lowest to highest. Typically, the General doesn't count unless he is from your home, but in our case, he is."

Instead of passing the next note to the girl next to me, I open it myself. "I'm CJ and I just want to let you know that Luke Bradley is a lil bitch boy" is all the paper says. I internally laugh at the truth and bend over the desk edge again. The kid is smiling once more, and this time, I smile back. He's totally right. Does he know Luke outside of the Imperial Guard, I wonder? I don't even know where Luke and his two dogs are sitting, nor do I care. I'm doing totally fine without them breathing down my neck.

I want to write back to my new pen pal, but I don't have something to print with on hand. He seems like a cool guy, considering he knows how much of a jackass Luke is. How did he even find the pen and paper or get it into the lecture hall? He came prepared, is what I say. This session is boring as shit, and we need something to pass the time.

"South of Queen's City is the region of Ciella, maintained by Colonel Rosa Giguere. Ciella, like the Meadowlands, does not have districts, but is split into its multiple cities. The capital, Etolunia, is located on the east coast. Prinn is a smaller city in the hills south of the West Forest."

"Sit with me at dinner," CJ's next note reads. I could do that. I sat alone at breakfast and lunch, so it'll be refreshing to be accompanied by someone this time. Someone nice, too. CJ seems like a cool kid.

The instructor continues rambling on about the regions of Oltima, or the Colonels, or something like that. I don't even care, at this point. I just want something to eat.

I take my place across the long table from CJ. His face glows when he sees me arrive.

He doesn't appear to be one of the jacked-up athletes that tower through the halls or one of the puny twigs that sit in their shadows. He fits right in around here, it seems. His complexion like that of cinnamon, with protruding eyes only a few shades darker. His hair, short and wiry, has an obsidian hue to it. When he smiles, as he's doing now, he has a full set of white teeth. In fact, I don't know if he can stop smiling.

"Hey there. I'm CJ." He reaches his hand over our trays, and I link with him. "Sorry if the note thing was a little girly or creepy. I just wanted to be sure that I was able to get to you before I forgot."

I meddle with my macaroni and cheese. "Thanks for letting me sit with you. Seriously, it means a lot."

"Don't mention it. I don't like seeing people sit alone."

Finally, an ally; someone who isn't going to tell me to fuck off or want to kill me. At least, I hope not. He hates Luke, which is a good sign. We can agree on something, it appears. The shame of it is that I've experienced this kind of positive relationship before. They seem nice at first, but they end up being like the rest of them. I hope that CJ is the exception to that trend.

Five in the evening in the dining hall is a completely different world from seven in the morning or noon. The first day of the ranking appears to have drained the life out of everyone here. This morning, at breakfast, kids were laughing and chatting like it was any other time of the day, despite the early hour. At noon, they had plenty to say about their first trials of the day, so the mess hall was just as lively. Now, it's dinnertime, and there is a lull looming in the air. Half of the noise is echoing throughout the room, and even that is lifeless. I could only imagine how things are going to be by Friday night.

I have to admit, I expected the food here to be absolute shit. Kind of like prison food, with that inedible, colorless glop you see in movies. In reality, it's not half bad. This macaroni that I picked up is a flawless, dandelion yellow, with cheese that strings when you raise it off the bunch. I had a pretty full lunch, with a turkey sandwich, an apple, and crackers. It all tasted real to me, which I have to give the Imperial Guard credit for.

"What school do you go to, CJ?" I inquire, unscrewing my water bottle.

He stabs the leaves of his salad, doused in ranch dressing. "I go to Stanville. You go to, or I guess, went, to Bluefield, right?"

Another person from Stanville. I assume he knows the twins, Dalia and Drake, then. I wonder if he knows Celestine, though, since, apparently, she's popular. "Yeah, I went to Bluefield. Would you happen to know Celestine Manchester? Her dad was my mentor, so she and I are pretty close."

His smile stretches from ear to ear upon hearing her name. "No way, really? I'm good friends with Celeste. I tried to hang out with her in these past few weeks before the ranking, but we could never find the time. She did come over for a party at my place recently, though. That was the last time I saw her."

Come to think of it, Celestine did go to a party the second night I was at the Manchester's. She didn't go anywhere else overnight since then. "How recent was the party?"

"Oh, how should I know? A couple Fridays ago, I think?"

The kid beside CJ nudges him, glancing at me. "No, no, it was on a Thursday because your parents were coming home that Friday."

"Oh, yeah, right. It was a Thursday. Why did you ask?"

"It's just that I know exactly what party you're talking about. I had no idea it was at your place. What a coincidence," I say, curling the strings of cheese to detach them from the heap of macaroni.

Right as CJ adds something to my comment, he falls silent. His eyes sway above my head darkly. I don't turn around until his gaze returns to the table. By the time I have the chance to see who he stared at, they were gone in the maze of kids. Who was it?

"You hate Luke Bradley, too, right?" He wants to know. That must've been who caught his eye just now.

I lean over my food, making sure my white t-shirt doesn't get slopped with yellow sauce. "He's a piece of shit. He won't leave me alone," I whisper. "He keeps trying to stir me up by mentioning what I did before all this. It doesn't do him any good that I don't remember doing anything wrong. The memories are entirely lost to me."

CJ's stare drops to his salad, twirling his fork around the bowl. "You know, you did do something wrong."

Great, now my new friend is going to do this to me. How many times do I have to tell the world that I don't remember anything from my time on the run? I can only recollect the before and after, along with bits of the beginning of it all. Sometimes, I'll get a flash of something, but then never see it again. I'll see a living face, a painted baseball bat, or a bloody body, and then nothing else. Since I've been here, Roarke hasn't bugged me about these kinds of things. If only I knew the truth.

"I know. If I knew what happened, things would be different. I could tell you about every murder, but I can't. I don't know any of the names, the faces, or the places. The Imperial Guard knows more about my own life than I do," I shake my head, "and that scares me."

"I'm sorry, Slater. I couldn't imagine how you've been able to deal with all this. I wouldn't want the Imperial Guard breathing down my neck all the time." He takes a sip of his water and freezes. His eyes are above me again.

"CJ," Someone dramatically gasps behind me. "You aren't hanging out with Trossy now, are you?" I can smell the sweaty stench of Luke from a mile away. It doesn't help that he's right up against my back, too.

If he doesn't go back to wherever the hell he was just sitting, I'll make him. I've only known him for a day and I already want to send him home for good. Beating him up would only make matters worse for me, though, so my fists stay to my sides. The edges of my teeth grind against each other as his odor ruminates in my vicinity.

CJ seals the lid of his water bottle and places it gently on the table. "Actually, yeah, I am, Luke. He's my friend now. What are you gonna do about it?"

"Your friend?" Luke and Don snicker. I don't see Richard anywhere around us. Good move by him, if you ask me. "You're friends with a murderer? Not shocking."

"Yeah," My friend nods at the duo. I'm amazed by how calm he is through all this. My hands would've been flying by now. "So if you wanna get him, you're gonna have to get through me."

I only hear two words from Luke as him and his pet stomp away. "Fair enough."

I watch as CJ circle back to his salad with ease. He doesn't even glance up at me after all that. I tap his bowl with my fork. "Dude, that was sick. I wish he would listen to threats from me like that."

He grins. "It's an acquired respect. We know each other, and he knows not to screw with me. He thinks you're easy prey because of all the things that happened to you. You also have to be mellow the whole time. If you get riled up, they feed off that, and it turns into this huge scene. I'd rather not start a fight right here in the middle of the mess hall, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I gotcha. Thanks for sticking up for me, too. You didn't have to do that."

He scrapes the rest of the leaves of the salad into his mouth. "Don't worry about it. I don't want him to expose you like that. It's not cool, and not fair to you. Besides, I can take him, no problem. He's not as tough as he looks."

I set my fork next to my plate of what used to be macaroni. For the first time since I was awarded the OLC, I might have actually enjoyed a meal. I had someone to talk to about things I wanted to talk about. Except, of course, the murders, but that's beside the point. The food was fantastic, too, which was a plus. Things might be looking up.

Because now, I finally have someone to call a friend.