Adam twisted the key opening the door of his new apartment. It looked out onto the beach, the water was a beautiful crystal in the moonlight. He gawked out at the view instead of turning on the light. His boxes shadowed the walls none being unpacked. He was unable to bring himself to bother.

Slapping his keys down on the marble bench, he opened the fridge grabbing a fiz juice. While he sipped it—he found the remote for the blinds shrouding the place in darkness. Adam's fingers fumbled to find the light switch. Bringing back the light he changed out of his combat boots, pants and singlet. Leaving his headset and drink on the white stool-like bedside table. He fell into his velvet duvet, noticing the ceiling was painted blue.

Reaching under his pillow he took hold of his tablet—starting it up.

Once it loaded he clicked a blue icon and it brought up the video calling app.

Available video calls: 1

scheduled Time: 8:15PM

Duration: 20 mins

How nice of them! twenty fucken minutes. Such bullshit. He scoffed at the notification and clicked the call button.

The screen dialled and a woman around her early fifties answered. She was thin and pale with hair loss, her body was like a rake. A blank brick wall sat behind her.

"Mum!" Adam said glad to see her face, "How are you?"

"My boy! Aw, I've missed you...I'm okay." His mum replied covering her mouth with her hands. "How are things going for you?"

"I got transferred back to the shoreline to help with dispatch. I'm no longer on the front line."

Her mouth smiled while her eyes were filled with pain, "Oh my dear boy. I'm so glad you're safe."

"Mum, when can I come home?"

"I—" Her eyes wandered from the screen—knowing every single time he asked this question—taking a breath she brought herself back, "Soon I promise. This war is important. You just need to do your part." She said.

"Don't give me that bullshit mum!" He raised his voice, "You—you say that every single time... Just tell me the truth! I'm never getting out of here!! I'm sick of the lies!"

"You will! They will. You just have to serve the required time." She said trying to reassure him.

"And you never tell me. What that is!" He shook his head in disgust at her.

"Please Adam can we talk about something else? How are your friends?" She asked.

Adam stared into his bed covers, refusing to look at her. "I don't know. It's not like I'm going to see them anymore." His own words broke him and it was too late to stop his tears from taking over.

"I'm so sorry Adam. I'm so sorry...Sorry...So Sorry" His mother began crying too. "I'm trying my best. I really am...But I'm just scared it'll never be enough." She hid her face in her hands—balling.

Through the tears, Adam reassured his mum. He knew she was trying, and that he didn't blame her. When the twenty minutes was up the call ended, leaving him no remaining video calls. He hoped she was okay, the call just cut too soon.

"To crawl." He muttered.

Lying back on his bed in his fancy apartment alone. He never understood why he was the only one of his friends with his own accommodations. His heart ached to be with his friends again, all together. They were fun and they brought light into his life. 

He found himself doing the motions of each day, feeling the loss of his agency. He worked at the docks depot as a shipping and receiving clerk. Handling incoming and outgoing packages in the warehouse. Keeping a clipboard of inventory. Inspecting goods for damage and distributing products to other departments.

Isles and isles of shelved crates lined the warehouse with comings and goings every day. He felt his feet through the bottom of his combat boots. Surely the concrete would wear him away.

He carried himself, marking off the crate numbers on his clipboard. Breathing a sigh, he realised this was better at keeping him busy than doing patrols, cleaning and combat training. He missed company. It had been five days in this role and it had grown on him.

Adam thought he'd hate it, but that wasn't the case, he just felt uncomfortable with the sudden change.

"Incoming call." His headset said.

"This is 438," Adam replied—just to hear he was being summoned to the office for a meeting. Am I doing something wrong? Maybe it's something else, he hoped to not have to deal with any trouble.

He left the warehouse via a side door and hung up his clipboard in the staff office. It was a shabby place that needed some loving, stained yellow and peeling old floral wallpaper with wooden floorboards that creaked along the patchy vanish.

He followed a long marble corridor glancing at each door and scanning for number thirty-one which was the big boss's office. He paused at the red door with a window covered up on the other side. Contemplating if he should just walk right in or knock. Instead, the door swung open and a colleague existed.

"Ah, perfect timing Adam. Come on it." The woman greeted him. She seemed to be in her fifties with a curly bob haircut of a mix of grey and brown. The lines on her face told a story of how she was over this job. She didn't bother to leave her seat as she was a dwarf and she couldn't be bothered climbing back up again.

"Take a seat." She said directing him to sit in front of her desk.

It was in no state tidy, the paperwork was sliding off the table in stacks. She was struggling to find a pen beneath it all.

"Do you know why I called you in today?" She asked flipping up the folders as she continued the search for that runaway pen.

"Umm, No." He shrugged wondering when she'd look at him.

The sweat rolled across her brow, "Oh look at me. I forgot to introduce myself."

"Madam Layra," Adam said for her. "Oh... D—did I already induce myself?" She said befuddled.

"No, everyone says you're the big boss." Adam folded his arms and sat back as he noticed how unorganised she was.

"Ah, yes. Oh my goodness this job. It's so overwhelming on days. I'm pretty sure I'm doing five other people's jobs." She swept everything onto the floor in one swoop.

Adam tensed up as it crashed down echoing the room loudly.

"I'm not really the big boss. As they say." She said using quotations. "I'm the person who does all of the Corp's paperwork, as it seems."

"HA! Found it!" She leapt off her stool and swooped the folder off the floor.

Adam pulled a horrified face. Why did she call me here if she was in no way ready to speak to me?

"Why isn't this all digitised?" He asked.

Madam Layra shoved the folder on the tablet and climbed the stool. "Hackers," She raised her arms all spookerly. "That's what Corp says anyway."

"Ok-ay," Adam said puzzled.

She opened up the folder, "All right let's get this sorted. I want to go home I miss my cats." She said sifting through the pages.

"Ah yes." She paused.

Adam took a breath bracing for any unexpected things. The transfer was already so sudden.

"So, your transfer has brought you to the attention of Corp. They...Seemed to have forgotten you. Not to worry. You recently turned twenty-six?" She peered up from the folder.

"Yes?" He wondered if she'd ever get to the point.

"They have put you down for deployment to the mainland." She turned the page. "That means almost effective immediately to will boarding the ship out of here."

Adam's eyes bulged, "I'm finally leaving?" He said standing up.

"Yes, but they need to assemble your paperwork. You seem to be missing some combat assessment forms."

"What does that mean?" He frowned.

"General Agrinya will need to go through the checklist with you. And hunt for the old paperwork and you might need to resit another test on range." She slapped the folder down.

"Sergeant Skylar will be accompanying you on Friday. She'll also help you go through the paperwork. Congratulations Mr Lewis, you're going off to do great things. I just know it."

"Thanks?" He said standing awkwardly. Why am I such an introvert? I don't know what to say to all the things she's sprouting. My mind is blanking.

"You will be meeting Sergeant Skylar here on Friday." She said as an oncoming call came through her headset.

She then waved at Adam to leave. He turned to exit but as he did his eye caught a bit of paper on the floor. He noticed the number 541 and stuck the tip of his boot on it—sliding it towards the door. He turned to look back at Madam Layra who was half turned around on her stool and talking on the headset. He kicked the paper out the door and shut it carefully behind him.

Breathing a sigh he scooped up the paper, flipping it over, "Shit!" He said panicked and stuffed it his pocket before anyone could see.