August 23rd, 2030, 9:42 am

I have been in the infirmary for over half a day now, and I don't know when I'm going to get the hell out of here. As soon as the capture-the-flag game was over last night, I was rushed here so I could get immediate medical help. I was in so much pain that I couldn't comprehend all that happened after that. I just wanted something done about my wrist, and for some reason, I'm still here.

I got an x-ray done and the nurse said it was probably just a sprain, which doesn't explain the loss of sensation in my hand. He explained that it was probably the heat of the moment and I couldn't feel anything. I tried to argue with him, saying that I really couldn't sense the air on my fingertips, but he said it was probably all in my head because my wrist would be broken if that was the case.

Let's just say that now I'm holding a glass of water in my left hand, and I can tell you that it is bitter cold. Moral of the story, don't argue with a nurse, no matter how smart you may think you are.

CJ decided to stop by after Hal this morning. He got here about an hour ago and hasn't left my side, but I'm unbothered. I'm glad to finally make his acquaintance again after a hiatus. He's very soothing to talk to; mellow, not disruptive, and quiet. I missed his peaceful demeanor and the smile he always decorates his face with.

He is mentally doing a lot better since the attack on him from Luke and the twins. The cuts on his arms have been covered by bumpy skin, but the bright side is that it doesn't bleed anymore. The memory of him being assaulted still sticks to his mind, but he doesn't like to dwell on it all that much. He knows for a fact that he is better off than those three in this ranking, so it doesn't worry him as much as it would me.

I told him about my encounter with Luke last night and what he did to me. He relayed the story to one of the girls in the same supplemental resting room, and it spread like wildfire. She told one of her friends, and that friend told the next kid that came in, and the chain lengthened. Soon, I was made to believe that everyone in the infirmary had heard the story by then, even the nurses that scurried from patient to patient.

Today is the layover day between the tests and the official ranking. This is the time when the officers are going around from recruit to recruit in order to determine rank if there is a snag in the works or a tie. The idea of it is that you won't know if you are scheduled to meet with the rankers until they approach you with their clipboards. Apparently, it's a super secretive process, and CJ would have to leave me. He and I are the only ones left in the recovery wing except for the occasional nurse here and there.

I don't know if they would want to speak with me. That would mean I'm in line to be ranked, which would be a good sign. A tie in the list could mean anything, though. That could put me at one hundred or one hundred one. Either way, I need to make sure I'm ready for whatever they throw at me during the interview.

Oh, and there's always the Creed of Honor, too, which I haven't recited in a couple days. I've been practicing with Hal at meals and before tests while we wait, but some of the words escape me at the moment. Hopefully, it will all come to me when it comes time to show off to the rankers.

I take a sip of my water, straining my wrist a little. I wince, turning to CJ. "Did you finish the book you were reading last week?"

He kicks up his feet to form a cross over my legs. "Oh, yeah, I did. The ending sucked, but it's a series, so it kinda left on a cliffhanger. I just started the next one on Monday, and I'm almost halfway through. I'll let you borrow you the first one if you want."

"Maybe. What's it about?" I set my glass on the aluminum table beside my cot. I attempt to grip the air to stretch out my fingers.

"It's about a girl who is chosen by this other guy to join their secret society in the clouds or whatever. I don't really want to spoil the end but the guy isn't the good guy that he says he is. It's pretty interesting, but you really have to like science fiction because it's kind of all futuristic."

The bandages enclosing my hand and wrist are slowly peeling off from each other, so I press them back down into place. "Huh, that actually sounds pretty cool. I'll check it out if I get the chance."

He beams, facing toward the window on the other side of the room, looking down to the courtyard. "Yeah, you should. I'll give it to you if you want. The second book is already super fast-paced and exciting. There's a lot of action because the girl has to deal with the people from the evil society, not the one she's in, with the people she met. The first one kinda has a lot of drama because the girl is trying to fit in with the other people that were chosen but they don't like her for whatever reason." CJ sighs. "I could talk about this book for days. Seriously."

I'm glad CJ has found something that he likes doing to keep himself occupied throughout all this. It's fascinating to me how someone could be both athletic and interested in books like he is. I mean, I played baseball and got good grades but I think he's on a different level. How does someone have time for football and literature? I could never talk about a book like he did. It all boggles my mind. He's just multi-talented, that's all. And I'm not.

The space is disturbed by four officers, clad in black uniforms who enter in a single-file. Two I have seen before, two I haven't. Sergeants Rory and Frost advance toward me and around my bed, while the two other unknown officers squeeze in on my right.

CJ scans the group who has invaded the privacy and then stands up. "Good luck, dude. Talk to you later." He maneuvers around the officers and out the door where they came from. I'm alone with strangers.

"Good morning Slater. You know me, Sergeant Talia Rory, I was the one conducting your ranking. Beside me is Sergeant Frost, and opposite us is Corporal Terry and Corporal Vega. The four of us were all collecting information this week and we would like to ask you a few questions to clear up some uncertainty about your positioning. Are you in condition to do so?"

I sit up and fold my legs. "Yeah, I'm good."

"Wonderful," Corporal Terry pipes up from the right. His black hair is shaved short along his scalp as if it was never there in the first place. "First, we're going to ask you to recite the Creed of Honor. Typically, we would place you in a sort of chamber and turn the heat down or all the way up or something like that. But since you're already under the care of the infirmary we aren't exactly cleared to do something like that." He views his colleagues and clicks his pen. "Whenever you're ready, Slater."

Oh, God, I don't know if I can do this. Like I said before, I only really reviewed the Creed when it was convenient. I know bits and pieces, but my memory escapes me for the most part. This is not what I wanted to have happen. I can't just say that I'm under a lot of stress, that wouldn't be telling the truth. I am stressed that I don't know the Creed. I just have to pull out what I know from deep inside my mind. I have to at least try.

I know the beginning, I can start there. "I am an Imperial Guard. I have been blessed at birth with a purpose to serve my Empire and her people. My life belongs to the Emperor. His word is that of an Almighty power, one that I cannot defy for as long as I live. My body comes before his." I inhale and do some more thinking. There's more to that statement, I know the sentence doesn't end there. "And if I perish before he, then I succeeded.

"May any foreign horror that plagues Oltima be neutralized from this world at my hand. The citizens of the Empire are his people, and thus must be protected all the same. They forward society, and I must watch over them with this God-given ability which I have inherited from heroes before me. I must continue their legacy with all I have. If I fail in my quest, may my life be cut short, for I have not succeeded in his name. I am strong, stronger than any evil power I encounter because I am an Imperial Guard." Those last few words felt good; meaningful, even. It's time to finish this.

"Hail the cosmic servants of Beauregard, hail the Emperor and his kin, and hail Oltima."

Sergeant Rory glances up at the other guards and smirks. "Perfect. Well done, Slater. Now we just have some general questions to ask. So, what did you do to your arm?"

I pause, staring at the tiles underneath us. No cursing. No matter how much you hate them. "Some kids ran into me last night during the game. Two of them held me back while the other snapped my wrist. He told me that if I was injured, the rankers would set me aside. Is that true?"

Frost weighs it out. "Yes and no. If it comes down to someone injured and someone healthy, we're picking the healthy one. But we are taking into consideration the fact that this was inflicted by another recruit and not some kind of accident. So, you have nothing to worry about." He reads down his list of recruits on his clipboard. "That's Luke Bradley, right?"

"Yeah, that was him. He's been picking on me since the beginning of all this, him and the Weller twins. He would make annoying comments that tried to instigate me, but I did the best I could to ignore him. Last Wednesday, him and I got into a fight in one of the shower rooms and I got moved to a different group. While I was gone, he assaulted my friend by carving an M on his arm just like mine. I haven't heard from him until last night when he tried to break my wrist." I breathe in, rubbing my face with my free hand. "If you can't tell, I had some issues with him."

Rory taps the paper with her pen and forms a slight grin. "Well, I should inform you that early this morning, we removed Luke and the twins from the ranking. We had to call their parents and tell them exactly what you told us, but from the wind of a story circulating around the facility instead. They weren't happy. You won't have to worry about those three anymore."

My mind soothes and I lean back in my bed. It's all over. The struggle that I have dealt with since the beginning of this damn ranking is no longer. I hope they face charges or something, not just a scolding from their parents. They can't get away with assaulting two kids like they did. Now, no one else will have to put up with their violent shenanigans.

And I should really thank CJ for being the great friend he has always been. He didn't blame me for their attack on him, for one thing. But I told him my story earlier, expecting him to just hold a grudge and keep it to himself. If he never repeated the tale to the next girl that walked in, the rankers would have never heard of what happened, and those boys would still be roaming around these halls. He is really the one who did all this, and I am glad to call him my friend.

"How are you feeling this morning, confidence-wise?" Corporal Vega chews on her pen. "And if you could rank yourself right now, where would you place yourself?"

"Uh, confidence-wise, I'm feeling pretty great. Despite getting hurt last night I think I had a good game. On Wednesday I beat Craig Larsson, which," I laugh, "I wasn't expecting at all. That was a tough fight. That entire tournament was grueling, to say the least." I bring my eyes to the ceiling, where the tube-lights shimmer down on us. "If I could rank myself, I think I would go anywhere between seventy-five and one hundred. I've had pretty good tests."

The four of them exchange glances and smile at each other. I can't tell if they're making fun of me or not. Either way, I want to know what is so funny to them.

Their faces revert back to normal and Frost looks at me. "Say we're only allowed to rank you based on one test. Which one would you want us to base your rank on?"

That's a hard one. It has to be either the combat tournament or last night's capture-the-flag game. In the tournament, I defeated both Hal van Lester and Craig Larsson, plus two other top recruits in Leo Fedman and Alan O'Shea. But then, in the game, I had my wrist snapped and I still had the capability to capture the flag for my team. I'd say they're both equally revealing about who I am. But I have to pick one.

"Probably the capture-the-flag game."

"Make a case," the Sergeant adds. "The things we look for in that test is how well you can follow orders, your ability to adapt to poor conditions, and your willingness to participate in the ultimate goal of the game, just to give you a basis."

Easy. "I was told by my leader to flank the other team so I could miss all the fighting in the middle and I could go after any runners. That's when I got attacked and hurt my wrist. Even though I considered quitting, I kept playing and ended up being the one to retrieve the flag. I know that wasn't my role but I saw the chance and took it."

Corporal Terry nods. "An opportunist." He jots something down on his record.

Rory crosses her legs and stares at me, waiting a few seconds. "One last thing I want to get your word on. In case you weren't aware, Slater, you are in a tie with about two hundred kids. So you could be anywhere from third to two hundred. Tell us why you should make it into the immediate duty without giving us a reason why another recruit shouldn't."

I have to tell her everything I have been through without any holding back. If someone lived the nightmare I did, they would want the world to know, too. This is my moment to lay it all on the line. If I'm currently tied with two hundred other recruits, this is the difference between life and death. They are basing our ranks based on these interviews alone. I need to show them what I have been through.

"I should be ranked because my life depends on it. I'm not telling you to base it solely on that, but because of the extreme pressure placed on my shoulders. This whole experience has been me walking on a tightrope over a sea of sharks with the wind blowing. If I were to trip or lose my balance, it would be the end of me. All the people who have caused me grief have tried to knock me down but I didn't let them.

"I never wanted to cause problems for anyone else, but I have had people who entered my life and have been hurt because of me. I have tried my hardest to make sure that all my friends are safe from that ever happening again. I've seen it all, at this point, and if I'm a member of the Imperial Guard, I can continue to protect others that I care about. The last thing I want is for someone to be alone like I was. Nobody deserves to be one their own in this world.

"This past week, I have had certain people tell me that I would never make it into the immediate duty and that I would fail all my tests. I clearly haven't, if you're all saying that my rank could fall in the top two hundred. I came in second in the toughest heat of the island run on Tuesday, losing only to Craig Larsson. Then I beat him in the combat tournament, along with three other top recruits. Then, last night, I hurt my wrist and still captured the flag for my team." I grit my teeth and sneer. "If that isn't enough to make it into the immediate duty, I don't know what is."

A silence falls between the four of them. Vega and Frost hold their mouths slightly ajar, while Terry and Rory lock eyes with each other. All at once, they return to their clipboards and make one similar motion with their pens before rising to their feet.

Sergeant Rory holds her clipboard at her hip as the other three make their way to the door. "Well, Slater, this interview was very insightful. We will take your final statement into consideration in the ranking process. Remember that the ranking ceremony begins tomorrow morning at ten in the gathering room, where you all met on the first day. I hope we see you there, and when it's all said and done, we'll see each other again. If this is goodbye, then it was nice to meet you." She follows the other officers out the door as Frost holds it open for her. He closes it, leaving me alone once again.

So now we wait. In twenty-four hours, my fate will be determined. And I don't know if I'm ready.