The Surprise at Midnight - Welcome to the Academy.

After helping Jack finding his insignia, we return to our respective rooms. He's at room beside me, which makes him 193. It's been an interesting day, with the introduction of Lt. Frost, and being able to see her again. I never thought that her friend would interfere like that, unintentionally, but still, that was a chance. Well, we still have a long road ahead of us as cadets of the Academy.

Looking at my watch, it shows 7:00pm.

"A little too early for bed, but a bit of rest wouldn't hurt the body, like what father always says."

"Remember, a man's body is to his life and soul, without it, you're not capable of anything, always take care of yourself. Under no circumstances should you sacrifices your health for no gain, and when I mean gain, I mean life-altering choices."

Those words stuck to me when he said it, I still remember the day, it was when mother died, and my father didn't show the slightest of weakness, instead he turned that sad experience into something I could learn from. Even now, I still don't know what he meant by that, but I follow him since he's my father.

I lie on the bed, spreading my arms and legs wide. Up the ceiling, you could see the ceiling fan slowly rotating giving me the slightest hint of air it could possibly give. I blink slowly and everytime I open my eyes the light would shine bigger and brighter, almost blinding me. Finally closing my eyes shut, I hear the clatter from the other rooms and some footsteps here and there outside the door. As I slowly think about the whole day and what is to come, my body gets more comfortable and I start to loose my senses. The last thing I remember before going into slumber was how hard this foam that I'm lying into is.

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Sirens... I hear sirens.

Wait? This isn't the sound of a siren, it's more like the sound of the alarm when the bombs were dropped in Manhattan. I remember this vividly because my father showed me the video of it happening, even though it was an event that happened thousands of years ago.

"Hmm...."

He referred to them as Nuclear sirens, it's what the people at the time heard to warn them and prepare them of oncoming disasters. People were screaming and panicking, a lot of the children cried, and the chaos that would ensued made it seemed like it was the end of the world, and then flash, the video ends. I'm not sure what happens next, but my father told me that a lot of people died because of the bombs. Most of the land became inhabited and that this was birth of the Coalition.

He explained that all the world leaders of the planet met up and swore to never ever caused another world conflict for the sake of humanity, thus forming the group. It started a new generation of thinking and the people at that time were hard men. When I asked him where are they now, he simply shook his head and said, "Get up!".

"Get up, cadet! It's time for bootcamp!"

I open my eyes when suddenly someone tugged on my sleeves and pulled me out of my bed.

"Ughh!", I drop to the floor not registering what has just happened. My eyes feel heavy and it takes a bit of willpower to open them.

"Pahh!", I feel the spash of water on my face, some even going into my eyes as I slowly gain conciousness.

"It's time to wake up, come on. Wear your uniform and step outside the door, you have 5 minutes to get your bearings up." The man says and walks out of the room. I wasn't sure what was happening but I could guess why. It didn't take me long enough to wear my uniform as I wanted to undress from my wet pajamas. After tuckling my belt and wearing my insignia, I walk out the door.

"Ugh." I cover my eyes using my forearms for the light was too bright for me to bear. All the lights in the hallway were turned on and I could see that I'm not the only person that is in the same situation.

"What the hell is going on here." I look to my left and see Jack from yesterday, eyes closed and slowly spinning as he tries to maintain his balance. Looking to my right, I see more cadets grumbling and complaining at the things they were subjected to. I see the man from earlier, walking through the hallway, checking to see if every cadet has obeyed his orders, and he's not the only one. They're were a bunch of adults in uniform walking in and out of the rooms to presumably wake the other kids.

"Looks like the introductions yesterday wasn't just a fluke, it was also to keep our guards down by ending classes early and giving us free time." I mutter.

"H-Hey, you, from yesterday." I hear Jack call to my right.

"Hey Jack, you slept well?" I say as I smile.

"Man, I haven't had enough sleep, what's more, the bed was very hard, my back hurts." Jack grunts as he pushes both his arms up and stretches. Following his reaction, I check my shoulders to see if they're stiff or not. Man, I feel groggy.

A few minutes later, I see the same man earlier walking towards me. He stood in front of me and checked my whole body, I freeze in position and look straight ahead. He nods his head and goes to Jack next. The man looks at him while Jack straightens up with his eyes wide open, for some reason, seeing him like this with his glasses on is funny, but you could tell that he's an obedient kid. The man nods his head again and moves to the next kid. Jack looks at me and breathes a sigh of relief, I smile at him, somehow feeling a sense of accomplishment and bond.

The others weren't as fortunate, when one of the men in uniforms finds a kid that doesn't meet his standards, he takes the kid and brings him someplace else, I can only assume that the worst will come to him. After a few more rounds of monitoring, we were told to stand in two columns and proceed to the Grounds. This is where most of the physical training takes place and you can tell that morning hasn't arrived yet by how dark the place is.

Holding on to the person in front of me, which is Jack, we stood in line one by one in the huge courtyard. The breeze of air relaxes me a bit as my eyes get used to the darkness, that's when I look up and see the full moon shining above us. Since the boys stayed in the eastern quarters, we were ordered to make columns of ten starting from left and all the way to the middle where a gap is formed, which then continues to the girls side.

"Looks like they're here too." I mutter.

"Who's here?" Jack looks back at me and says.

"Shhhh! Be quiet, don't bring attention to us." I held his shoulders and straighten him forward. That's when the lights were turned on, you then notice the amount of spotlights positioned in the corners up the courtyard. I look to one of them and could barely make out a person standing behind it before I close my eyes and look away.

*Thud* Thud* *Thud* *Screech*

We all cover our eyes at the same time as we look to the source of the unsettling effect. A woman is standing by a podium at the front of the group.

"Is that Lieutenant Frost?" I hear Jack say in front of me. Looking back at the woman, I do make out the silhoutte of the Lieutenant but the shining light behind her prevents me from distinguishing her fully. I'm pretty sure that's her, because she ain't that tall, and they aren't a lot of female instructors in the Academy. But I guess I didn't have to wait that long.

"Uh-hmm, Cadets!" her already powerful voice is expounded by the microphone.

"Looks like not all of you made it here today." As she said that, I look around me and I see the other cadets doing the same.

"This is part of a test, and everyone here succeeded. I didn't expect that a lot of kids in this generation would have the willpower to get out of their beds and stand outside that door, it seems that I misjudged you guys. We do this in order to test those of you that would have the slightest bit of willpower. We're not asking much, all you needed was to wake up in the middle of the night and follow the instructions given to you."

"Because in war, they're will be no comfortable beds and warm blankets. In war, there are no rules and the moment you let your guard down, you will die. As a serviceman, our number one motto, is to be ready at all times, there is no waiting in the real world. Our job here is to train you to be physically and mentally ready to tackle those challenges. We will constantly test your willpower, your intelligence, your grit..."

"You will go under training here and if you do succeed in finishing, you are then worthy to serve the Grand City. You will become the pride and strength of our city, and whenever it's citizens ever face trouble, we are there to fix it. As you know probably know from home school, humanity has been reduced to a few nember of pocket states all around the world. We are the last standing remnants of our once great civilizations."

"And in order to function fully as a society, we must our resources to best use, including the most important one, people. We are only here to choose the best, those who are capable enough on their own to take on anything that life will throw at them. For others, you need to find the things that would suit you the best, this is the decree of the Grand City, not just the Academy."

"We can't make any more mistakes like our ancestors did, this is our last chance as a species, so we must make most use of it. So, if you are ready to serve not only the Academy but also the citizens of the Polis as a whole, then raise your right hand. If not, go to the back and gather there."

The first thing I did after hearing that was to raise my hand slowly and look at the reaction of the other kids around me. I also see Jack raise his hand with much enthusiam, that's when I noticed that some of the cadets starting walking to the back slowly. I can understand their choice, it's a hard life that they'll be tackling on and the mistakes you might make only leads to death.

"But this is the only choice I got...", I murmur as I look to my right and look for Kaori. Looks like only a few girls raised their hands while the majority gathered right at the back.

"There's Kaori", I kinda knew in my heart that she wouldn't give up so easily, and that made me even like her more. I also noticed his friend Julia smiling right behind her, what a jolly girl

Looking back to the Lieutenant, she didn't show much of a reaction and simply looked around to see who's left behind. By my approximation, about fifty percent of the boys stayed while a staggering twenty percent are left from the girls. I then notice Lieutenant Frost's shoulders slump a bit but she didn't show much reaction after that. She then raises her right hand just like us and places his arm right above her eye.

"Salute!", Lieutenant Frost shouts in a clear voice and we all follow suit.

"Cadets, once again. Welcome to the Academy." It was only yesterday when I stepped foot into these grounds but I already get the sense that I've been through a lot. One can only imagine the hardship and suffering that we have to get through in order to pass as a serviceman. I peek to the left and check what Kaori's doing.

"She's looking at me?", I murmered as I look at smile the smile on her face with my eyes wide open. I feel my heart tightened and a rush of adrenaline coursing through my veins, which only improves my resolve to take on whatever challenges lay ahead of me.