Adelina

The room was too clean.

The climate control held the temperature low enough that I was cold, almost shivering. The metal and composite walls of the hastily installed pre-fabricated building did well at locking out the heat and humidity, as well as the sun. “Thanks for coming in again, I know we talked a few weeks ago, but I wanted to tell you this in person.” The URE federal representative I’d spoken with a few times over the past month sat down across the small table from me. It was just us in the small office, but he didn’t make me uncomfortable. The camera in the corner above the closed door did.

“You’ve told me enough about the attack two months ago, what you heard, how you dealt with it,” he was flipping through files on his tablet. I saw pictures of my family scroll by. “Impressive really, there are some very strong people down here.” He looked up to gauge my response. I didn’t say anything, and he kept talking, while I remembered.

I had finished dinner the night he was talking about, then walked back to the garage to clean up a few things. But I found it unlocked. The lights were off and I had the only key. My first thought was burglars, but there wasn’t a truck outside, nothing to help carry away the tools and heavy machines worth anything in the shop. But I picked up a tire iron anyway once I was inside. Then swept my flashlight across the space.

There was cursing as the beam of light found the trespassers, my oldest brother and two of his friends were huddled next to a work bench in the back. They cursed collectively as I approached and it was easy to see why. My brother’s arm was hurt badly, clearly from a proton blast. I could smell burned meat and ozone. They were trying to find something to bandage it, while the third hid their rifles inside an empty hazmat locker.

I had yelled at them, while getting the first aid kit I always kept handy in the garage, before treating my brother. Antiseptic spray, gauze, bandage, and a bandana with grease to cover it all up. They’d helped hit a small INSC listening post, but had not got away clean. My stomache had dropped when they’d told me the whole story. Then they had to stop me from beating my injured brother senseless.

The counter-attack came shortly after we made it back home. Dozens and dozens of miniature INSC drones arrived before dawn from all sides of town. Laden with explosives, incendiary fluids, and shrapnel, they targeted buildings and groups of people. There was no real defense, only survival, followed by fire-fighting and triage.

Within the next few days URE federal aid arrived, along with more troops, and they’d begun screening everyone in town. During the interviews they gave a lot of kids my age aptitude exams. The tests covered a lot of subjects, and this was my first visit back after I’d taken mine. So far, the rep hadn’t said much of substance.

He locked the tablet computer before setting it aside, “What I’m trying to say is, that based on several factors: your presence within the community, the results of the exams we gave you, and your conduct throughout this entire screening process. You have been selected to be part of local URE restoration efforts in this prefecture. If you so choose, you may attend any one of a number of the Ministry of Education’s Academies, each with their own specialty.”

I scrambled to collect my thoughts as fast they manifested. “Any of them?” I managed to get out in a whisper.

“Whichever you like,” he said matter-of-factly, “Please take your time and look them over. I’ll be outside.” He unlocked the tablet and slid it toward me, the list of institutions and their disciplines stared up at me.

My name is Adelina Vasquez, and that was the day I was handed my way out.