I coughed and hacked, clutching my chest. My day eyes were wide as I looked at Orochi's casual expression.
"Ha…ha, sorry, could you repeat that?"
"No." Orochi pointed to his right, making me lock eyes with a few other awakened passengers in the other seats looking at me with a weird expression.
I turned away quickly with my jaw clenched and leaned over the table to hastily wipe away the soda I spat out.
Orochi's devilish smirk greeted me when I came close to him, I spoke in a hushed tone. "What do you mean we'll be saving a third of the government forces deaths?"
Orochi regarded me with a contemplation, scraping his nails methodically across the table's surface. "Well, it's more like you'll be the one doing the saving—I'll be in the backseat applauding your heroic efforts. Kehehehehehehe…" He raised his hands and clapped slowly.
"I'm honestly surprised that this situation got worse but what exactly will we be doing?" I gripped the edge of my seat, my fingers digging deep and scabbing the cushioned seats. Here was the excitement I was used to for the past few hours.
"Lucius didn't tell me much…he simply said a disaster would happen."
While my mind started placing pins and looped strings to different thoughts in my imaginary bulletin board, Orochi started gathering his papers.
"Don't think too much. Anyway, we've prepared the necessary paperwork for your assignment to the government facility, Nexus. It does puzzle me, the government begs and begs for awakened recruits yet they push people away with so much paperwork. I'll never understand bureaucracy, the legacy clans are much more straightforward—though they're irritating in their own way."
I glared at Orochi with my dark eyes, "When you're underage like me, you need parental consent."
"That's not an issue." Chills crawled down my neck, what did he mean by that?
He opened a zip on his breast pocket and pulled out an envelope. "This should give you straight permission to become an awakened government recruit, regardless of whether you pass or fail any tests they potentially give you."
I took the envelope with a shaking hand, a wax stamp in the middle. The stamp had the insignia of a raven encircling a heart tattooed with scars.
Ravenheart.
…
I smiled slightly, "So many things… and no communicator?"
The communicator was a simple black wristband that had infinite access to the internet as well as other features that were common to the cellular phone devices centuries ago. It was a large necessity in the extreme technological state the world was in now.
After the loss of satellites and extreme weather in the death zones of the world that prevented most electromagnetic waves that allowed for communication previously–being able to use a compact device that allowed its signals to bypass all those issues was nothing short of a miracle for technology. All of those functions in one device small enough to fit on a wrist in a sleek design.
And I haven't gotten mine ever since I've left the dream realm.
My disappointment was expected when Orochi waved a hand without using words to reject the notion, so my face didn't change much. These were my abductors, there was no reason for them to give me an opportunity to ask for help.
While they were allowing me to go to a government facility, I was almost sure they had countermeasures in case I ratted them out. My father was one, Orcochi had my personal information so he must be aware of my father.
He must be wondering where I was…
I looked outside again, and a white flash appeared in the tumultuous clouds before a deep rumble shook the air.
"Thunderstorm…" I whispered, looking at the almost ethereal atmosphere of flying ash and lighting tracing arcs through the sky.
Then it was overtaken by dark walls as the train descended into tunnels for the rest of the journey.
The lights in the cabin became a little brighter to accommodate for the darkness.
I looked back at Orochi who was now putting the papers into a file, clipping it shut with a megantic clamp.
That same thing sealed my fate.
Guess I was now fighting for the government.