0111

"Cecily told us we have to go ahead and report straight to the center room as soon as possible," I told Ronnie as I began brushing my hair in the mirror. "I don't want to be late."

"You're not afraid of Cecily Algernon, are you?" Ronnie replied with a snicker. "She hasn't punished a single person yet. Just think about that much!"

Of course, Ronnie was right. Nevertheless, I continued making sure she picked up the pace so that we wouldn't be late. Luckily, we made it right before Cecily walked in on the group and began speaking to all of us.

"Members of the Intel Initiative, please take a seat," Cecily said. "We have plenty of things to go ahead and speak about. However, there is not much time."

Now this was enough to make everyone hooked on everything that she had to say. If we were on a time limit, then that meant that something had to happen at the end of that limit. The anticipation in the room only heightened, making it seem almost like the air around us was buzzing all by itself. We had heard about this and that, but this promised to be far more interesting.

It didn't matter if we had all become silent in order to hear what Cecily was going to be said - we all knew we were thinking the exact same things. There was a connection between the eight members of the Intel Initiative which no one acknowledged. It was just there. We all just knew, somehow.

She cleared her throat before she continued, gently letting her eyelids fall shut. "The undisclosed country where the Intel Initiative will be put into play is rather far away, and we plan to arrive there soon. This means that at the end of this session, we will be preparing to leave," Cecily said. "There are several bases not unlike this one within the country that we will be heading for. Just bring what you have - anything else you may need will be provided if necessary."

This didn't connect in my mind for several seconds. When my brain finally understood what she meant, I nearly ended up gawking. I would've looked around to check if anyone else was as surprised as I was, but by that point everyone else already seemed to be over their shock.

"I apologize for having this be put out on such short notice, but President Bhanap has asked that we speed up this process. The messages that I am relaying to you are almost directly from her."

The president! Although the president had been mentioned before, this was particularly interesting to me. Cecily probably spoke directly to the president of our country and then told us approximately she might have heard. It almost felt like I was about to meet the president myself, even!

"You are doing a great service to your country by taking part in the Intel Initiative. Whether or not this has sunk into your minds fully yet does not matter - just make sure to do your best in everything that you can!"

The uncanny ability to talk to a group of people and make it seem as if it were one-on-one practically belonged to Cecily. In that moment, I nearly forgot that there were other people she was speaking to, same as me. It didn't really matter to me, after all.

"We still have plenty more to explain. You now know that we are going to be taking part in trying to revive data that other data eaters have done their best to completely get rid of."

Everyone was very fascinated to find out precisely what Cecily was going to say next. She finally was giving us all sorts of information at once, which I couldn't help but mark out as strange, if not very interesting. This whole time we had been almost oblivious to what the Intel Initiative was about was torture, and now we were get pieces of information one right after the other.

"You will be split up into two groups - central and field. Although I am sure you are all capable of figuring out precisely what this means, being a very bright group of youth, I will go ahead and explain it to you. Half of you will stay at our main base, working on the computerized aspects of this operation. The other half will be working with people and will be in charge of actually venturing out."

We all nodded - this was far more specific than most of the other information we had received before, but it was still rather vague. However, it seemed clear that Cecily was about to say more. Nevertheless, Britta pushed her hand straight up into the air and waited for her name to be called.

"What are the groups, then? I mean, who is in what group?" Britta asked, sounding somewhat anxious.

"I was just getting to that," Cecily said, smiling softly. "The central group will be composed of Everett Wayne, Nell Arken, Ianto Parr, and you, Britta Kelvin. That means that the field group will be composed of Ronnie Truitt, Deric Miller, Alia Parr, and Zeke Rees."

It took all of our will power not to burst out in talking at that particular moment. At least, I certainly wasn't going to allow myself to just burst out. After everything, I was still sticking together with Ronnie.

But Ianto was to be taken away from me. Something about that just made me highly uncomfortable. I considered raising my hand in order to ask for any more information, but I knew that I would sound both rather stupid and would just be wasting more time. My fingers remained glued to my side, the same as just about everyone else's

"You are dismissed," Cecily said. "I advise you go get your backing done - we will be leaving within the next several hours. We are trying to run on a tight schedule here."

I glanced over towards Ianto to find that he was already halfway out of the room. Ronnie was pushing her blonde bangs out of her eyes momentarily so that she could see somewhat better. She looked somewhat tired, but I wasn't sure why - that very morning she had been just fine.

I ended up staring at her for a few moments, trying to avoid letting my concern enter my face prematurely. She'd end up just getting upset with me if I didn't time it correctly. She'd likely get upset with me even if I did time it correctly.

"Truitt, is there something wrong?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing really," she replied. "You know, just the fact that in a few moments we're going to be heading straight off to some other country."

"We have a few hours," I replied, rolling my eyes.

"But just think about it for a moment! We're heading there, right now. You know what I mean," Ronnie said. "Of course. Of course we're going right now."

"What, Truitt? Is there something wrong with leaving right now?" I asked, legitimately wondering what was going through her head at the minute. She almost looked as if she were about to be ill or something, which made me feel uncomfortable.

"We haven't had time to pack. Honestly, I just was getting used to this place. I don't want to have to be forced to pick up my roots and haul myself halfway across the world to some new place."

"Didn't Cecily say that the base at our 'undisclosed destination' was going to be almost exactly the same as this one?"

"Whatever, Parr," Ronnie replied, shaking her head. "Honestly, I don't care. It's not the furniture or the walls I'm worried about. It's getting used a different sort of air, another kind of aura hanging around in the air. No matter where you go, it will always be unique. It will always be different. And then you always have to get used to it."

"Oh," I replied. "I see. Well, maybe we should go ahead and pack now so that we at least have something to bring along."

"Yeah," Ronnie agreed. "It'd be a whole lot better than just standing around here and talking about things when we could actually be getting something of worth done. Then we can talk about things while getting them done."

Several hours later, the eight of us plus Cecily had assembled on what I assumed was a rooftop that also doubled as an airstrip of sorts. We were getting our very own plane to fly along - paid for by the government, of course. There was also the whole matter of this being a top secret mission as well.

The next thing I knew, I sat down on a seat and prepared for take out. I silently wished that I brought along something to chew in order to stop my ears from popping, but unfortunately I had to go along with it. It wasn't long before we were cruising along, everything going well.

"Honestly, I don't get why they just don't come out and tell us exactly where we're going. Or at least the country," Deric said, letting out a slight sigh. "We all know it already - come on, say it with me."

"China!" we all called out in response.

"Exactly," he said, starting to smile again. Perhaps he hadn't been expecting us to respond or something, but at least it was nice to see someone being positive at the moment. "But seriously - they might as well just tell us."

"It was probably to make us less nervous," said Britta. "It's obvious we all already know how bad the situation with China is, and this could've ended up being the last straw, you know? I mean, maybe it is the last straw...a last ditch effort to get something done before it all falls apart."

"I just don't understand why they figured the best data eaters would be good for data revival," Nell said, resting her head on top of her folded arms. "There's plenty of other jobs out there that would probably be far better for something related to getting data back from the dead. The people who create most data files, for instance. Or people who work on the technology that computers use."

"But instead they chose a whole bunch of kids," Zeke said.

"A bunch of the best kids in the data eating circle," Deric retorted. "Think about it. We all know lots about computers and the data eating process. That'll turn out well for us in order to reverse the process of data eating."

"I'm just worried that they're expecting too much out of us," said Britta with a sigh. "We're all great, that much is for sure."

"Great isn't going to stop World War III," said Ronnie, her eyes closed as she spoke. "I don't know what else to say about it."

I found that I had nothing to say, of course. For the first time, it felt like everyone else was having just as much worries about it as I was. Before that point, I had been terrified of not being good enough to be in the group - but they were all worried about not being good enough as well. The difference there was the fact that they were worried they couldn't pull off the whole revival part.

I decided to keep this particular thought to myself - I wouldn't want anyone thinking I was any more inadequate than they already did. Then again, I didn't know exactly what anyone thought of me aside from the two people I already knew.

"Do you really think we'll end up in World War III if this doesn't turn out correctly?" Ianto asked, his soft voice just barely loud enough to carry over the room.

"If I were you, I wouldn't risk it, just in case," Everett said. "That's what I'll be keeping in my head as I go along with all of this."

"This seems to be well thought out," Britta said. "I mean, there's always an opportunity that we'll fail in getting the data back, but surely that can't be only thing keeping the world somewhat peaceful. I mean, unless it is the only thing. That is always a possibility, after all."

"How do you think they split us up into field and central groups?" I asked, scooting in towards Ronnie. She glanced over towards me and gave me somewhat of a smile. "I mean, they must've made the decision with something."

"Grades," Ronnie decided, her single word answer hanging in the air.

"Just grades," I said, heaving a sigh. "So because I didn't do as well in code writing, I didn't end up in the central group. But since I'm better in speed."

"There you go, Parr!" Ronnie said with a laugh. "Either that, or it must have something to do with a hidden message in the Reforms. It's probably got something to do with that, now that we know it's related to the president."

"Oh, shut up, Truitt," I said, shaking my head. She just raised her eyebrows towards me for the moment.

"Fine," she finally let out. "Maybe I will."

I stared over at her as I thought. She was probably going to end up being my roommate again, and our strange relationship was going to end up developing even more. But for some reason, I felt that there was more animosity between the two of us than normal. Something similar was going on between Ianto and I as well. I didn't like it at all.

I didn't think that being stuck in a new group was going to end up making me drift away from those I had known previously. After all, it seemed like we were all going to be fairly close anyways. But instead of finding anyone new, I just found myself escaping the grasps of those I had known.

Or, perhaps, I was just being over dramatic and scaring myself for no reason. There was a lot of new stress being pushed on my shoulders because of the revival mission we were going to be heading off to any time soon. Whatever the reason was, I just hoped there was some way that we could make it stop and just go back to getting along.

I avoided looking over at Ronnie, who had become quiet. If I turned my gaze over towards her, I was sure that she would find some way to get irritated by this and wave me aside.

I could try to talk to some of the others in the Intel Initiative - there was always Ianto, even though our relationship had been rather strange lately. Nell was a nice girl, Britta seemed to be easy to speak to...or maybe Everett would be willing to speak to me. All that I was sure of was that Zeke was speaking to Ronnie, and Deric was getting involved with that conversation as well.

There was the entire field group, minus me, all becoming friends. If I looked just a little farther over, I could see the central group bonding together as well. Ianto seemed to be caught in the center of a riveting conversation with Britta while Everett and Nell chatted off to the side.

Everything was working out perfectly for all of them, of course. But there was something horribly off with everything I was trying to do for some reason. Every time I had protested that I didn't belong and people had shrugged it aside was coming back to me - here was my proof right here. No one was accepting me into the group the way I would've wanted.

Looking back on the moment would allow me to see every last thing I'd done wrong, but when I was stuck there, many miles above the ground, there really wasn't much that I allowed myself to think about. I could stare at clouds, try to see through to the ground...but I didn't do the one thing that was necessary. I just ignored the people around me for the moment, and that was my greatest error.

Instead of trying to make any more conversation, I decided I'd be better off taking a nap of sorts - except this nap would be lasting the same length as a normal sleep and when I woke up, I'd be in the so-called "undisclosed country."

I laid down on the seat, simply staring up at the ceiling. Surely the actual data revival part of this whole Intel Initiative was going to begin soon. So far the only difficulty had been focused around people. Or maybe that had been the plan to begin with - we were a bunch of children, we had to get to know one another before working together.

If this had been the goal of Cecily and all the other people who were in charge of the Intel Initiative, I was sorry to say that they had only succeeded in getting that to backfire for me. Instead of getting to know people, I was just falling apart from those I had known.

Soon enough, we would arrive in this "undisclosed country" that seemed to be the center of everything. At that point, I expected things to change. But that would also mean things would have to change more than usual.

We had been informed this was going to be an overnight plane ride. We were urged to get some sleep in order to be able to function when we woke up again. It looked like everyone was gradually beginning to calm down and allow themselves to start drifting off. After all, I was already laying down.

I was just fearful that my spinning thoughts would end up causing me to be unable to drift off. I'd be in a different part of my mind, perhaps, but I wouldn't be in a place where sleep would be easy to drift into.

For once, everything was as close to being silent as it could be. All I could hear were my own thoughts.

A/N This story is gradually starting to pick up speed, and I freaking love that. Keep it coming, my readers! I've been lacking on inspiration to write, well, anything as of late and a comment telling me I'm doing well means more to me than you'd expect...anyways.