The Young Man

In the rubble of Preasadium, a young man cried as he crawled away from a crumbling building. The bodies of young men and women with similar uniforms lay dead behind him crushed in rubble while others lay bloodied from bullet wounds and others from burns. Stumbling away from the building he gripped his bleeding arm and grit his teeth while tears welled up in his eyes that did not fall. In his hand, he held a bloodied knife that was bent sideways.

Preasadium had stood as a city of magnificence that was unmatched by nearly any city within the Empire of Rome. Its buildings scraped the sky high into the air as its people went about their lives. They had known no war, but with the array of Roman warships lining the sky, it was clear that was no longer true.

The highrise buildings, once standing so tall, were smoked in ruins and crumbling to the ground, with the shrieking sound of bending metal constant in the distance. The entire city was silent in the aftermath of the battle. Their population was decimated, a fourth killed, a fourth enslaved, a fourth diseased, leaving only a quarter of the population to rebuild.

The young man walked through the ruins, stepping over the scattered rubble and stumbling over heaps of destroyed buildings as he walked towards the camps of Roman soldiers. Conjoined to the camp of soldiers was a large tent open with two lines leading into it. What he presumed was the tent for recruiting.

The young man approached the right line leading into the tent and saw legionaries standing before a table scattered with papers and pens. Adorning the wall were posters encouraging them to join the Roman legions and go to war. In one of the two lines, the young man quivered, grasping his right arm that wouldn’t stop shaking. “Claudia...Ioannis...Domitian."

A taller and more well-built young man stood to his right in the other line and timidly asked. “Hey, are you ok?”

“I…nothing, it's just—”

“You lost somebody, didn’t you?” The taller young man cut him off. The boy standing across from him was a bit taller with curly hair, brown eyes, and with olive colored skin. He didn’t hold himself with much confidence, leaning forward with a bit of a slouch.

“Yeah…everything.” The young man said before moving his hand away from his bleeding arm to grab his shaking hand.

“What's your name?” He asked.

“It's none of your business.” The young man muttered out.

“The name’s Ajax.” The taller boy said while responding with a friendly smile, hoping to try and break through to what he thought was his fellow city dweller.

“Nice to meet you.” The young said responded out of obligation.

“You don’t have anything, do you?” Ajax asked, “I don’t either…didn’t have anything before, but now we have a chance for something at least.” Ajax said, putting on a brighter smile than he should have been able to muster, one of false confidence.

“We?” The young man retorted.

“Yeah, we're both joining up after all,” Ajax said while putting on his facade of a smile.

“Yeah…I guess we are.” The young man said.

“We might even be in the same training…don’t be scared. There’s probably a lot worse things than getting turned into a soldier…all you give up is—”

“Your freedom.” The young man cut Ajax off.

“You're cutting me off now?” Ajax laughed nervously.

“You give up your freedom and a bit of yourself to join.” he shrugged while his fist clenched.

“What? Does that not sit right with you?” Ajax asked.

“No.” The young man said firmly.

“Then why are you joining?” The two were quickly moving up the line, nearly to the front.

“Because…if I have to sacrifice a bit of my freedom to get something back…it’s worth it in my mind.” He muttered as he took another step forward.

“Well then…maybe I can help you get it back…whatever it is.”

“Maybe.” They both finally approached the table as the legionnaire slammed two papers down on the table but barely glanced at them. The date read: 2025 A.D

The disinterested but commanding legionnaire said, “Sign first and last names. After that you will be an official servant of the Roman army, you will give both body and soul to the emperor and be at our disposal. Kill, fight, survive. Hurry up.” The legionnaire said, uninterested, as he stared off into the distance.

“Well, then, it sounds like we have a plan. Join, fight, survive, and take back whatever you're talking about!” Ajax said with false confidence as he strangely wrote an almost unintelligible scribble for a name onto the paper.

“Why do you want to help me?” The young man asked as he pushed the pen to the paper before stopping. The ink of the pen bled into the paper creating a black circle of ink as his hand quivered.

“I don’t want you going alone… you okay?” Ajax said as he discarded his pen.

“No…no, I'm not.” The young man said as he squeezed the pen.

“Kid, sign the paper and stop wasting our time.” The legionnaire said as he pushed the paper closer to him while shaking his head slowly, “The legion will take anybody these days, don’t they? I guess they have to since the Germanic Tribes have been invading the inner territories."

Ajax looked the young man up and down before speaking, “If you don’t want to, then you don’t have to just—” 

“No, it's ok…I just…I needed a second to…think.” The young man stuttered out.

“Sign the paper, kid.” The legionary cut in, waving his hand around. Coming up from behind him, a larger man put his arm over the legionarie's shoulder.

“Hey, leave the kid alone, Nestor! Look at him he's just a baby boy!” The man chuckled as he raised a small flask to his lips.

“Been drinking too much, Roark? I thought Annabelle was keeping you off of that stuff.” Nestor responded.

“Well...she was.” The two men continued to talk in the background, their voices fading away as the young man stared at the paper. A long moment passed before the young man gripped the pen tightly and signed a name. Eversor Amelianus Caelius.

“Eversor?” Ajax asked.

“Yes,” Eversor said, calmer than before.

“Ok, Eversor, we're soldiers now, legionaries, and soon enough… heroes,” Ajax said, putting his arm over Eversor’s shoulder.

“Whatever you say….but… never mind,” Eversor said softly.

“What is it?” Ajax asked.

“Promise you got my back?”

“We just met, and you want a promise?” Ajax asked with a raised eyebrow before seeing Eversor’s gaze turn down in a mix of embarrassment.

“Hey, don’t worry, I got your back…that's a promise. We have a whole galaxy to conquer, after all.”

“Yeah...we do…thanks Ajax,” Eversor said with a timid laugh. The two young men carried on heading towards the camp and onwards onto their future as legionaries.