I blinked at her; it took me a minute to finally recognize her as Carrie, the girl from my town who I’d seen volunteer in a vision. She’d cut her hair into a bob below her chin. Her brown clothes hung off her slender frame, a frame made thinner by the endless miles we’d run, walls we’d had to climb, and hand-to-hand combat we’d been going through daily. Most of them had been battling against other humans during these drills, whereas I’d been taking on a mountain who went by the name of Kobal.
“Thank you,” I murmured as I fought against the tears of gratitude burning my eyes. I hadn’t encountered much kindness since arriving here.
Her cat-green colored eyes twinkled when she stepped aside. “No problem.”
As I settled carefully onto the soft rubber cushion, my shoulders sagged and my eyes closed. My feet and legs screamed their thanks as my bruised ass finally found some comfort.
“Better?” Carrie asked when she settled in across from me.
“So much,” I said eagerly.
I’d never noticed her at the table before, but I’d been so exhausted every day, I probably wouldn’t have noticed an angel floating before me and knocking me on the head. I lifted another chicken wing and was about to bite into it when I noticed everyone staring at me. Sitting on a rubber ring probably wasn’t the most normal thing, but it didn’t warrant all the strange looks. Even if it did, I was contemplating strapping the thing to my ass from now on; I didn’t care if they all stared at me and my new padding.
I turned away from them to find Carrie focused on me too. “What is it?” I inquired.
Carrie glanced down the table as their attention shifted to her. I could feel their minds urging her to go on, but I didn’t need any extra abilities for that; it showed on their faces. The one good thing about being so exhausted was I’d had absolutely no visions, or knowledge ofanything, since arriving here.
Carrie glanced around before leaning forward on the table. “We’re all curious as to why they brought you here? You’re older than us and it was obvious they made you come.”
I shrugged and pulled up the sleeve of my shirt when the motion caused it to slip off my shoulder. Carrie wasn’t the only one who had lost weight since coming here. We had more food available to us here than any of us had at home, but it still wasn’t enough to keep weight on. Given our training regimen, we were burning calories faster than we could put them back in.
“I am older and they did.”
They all exchanged a look before focusing on me again. “So why did they take you? Did it have something to do with the fliers?” Carrie pressed.
I sighed and placed the chicken wing on my plate. “Yes, my mother believed I could be one of the people they were looking for.” I saw no reason to deny it; some of them had been there when I’d been escorted from my house.
“Wow,” the girl next to me breathed.
I didn’t know how to respond, so I returned to eating my chicken.
“Are you able to do anything special?” Carrie asked.
The half-chewed chicken wing dangled from my fingertips as I stared at her. “I’m just me.”
More volunteers from other groups edged closer to us. “Then why has Kobal spent so much time with you during training?” a woman with blonde hair and brown eyes demanded of me.
Judging by the forest green uniform she wore, she had completed volunteer training to become a soldier. She looked older than me but not by much. Though the room was filled with volunteers mostly, there were some soldiers mingling throughout the crowd, grabbing their lunch before heading back to whatever job they had or the training fields.
The volunteers saluted the soldiers moving through the room but no one saluted the woman; they were all too focused on me right now, and I refused to salute anyone here. Even if I managed to complete training, I would never be the soldier they were trying to turn me into.
“All of the demons train with us,” I said to the blonde woman.
“But he pays far more attention toyou.He’s never done that when he’s been in this encampment before; he usually ignores the recruits still in the training stage. So why you?”
“I don’t know,” I lied.
She scoffed before tossing her shining hair over her shoulder. A hostile gleam radiated in her eyes when they raked me from head to toe. I had no idea why, but dislike was the biggest understatement for what this woman felt for me. More than loathing radiated from her but also some jealousy. How well did she know Kobal?
I hated the guy, he’d made me far more familiar with dirt than I’d ever wanted to be in my life, but my stomach threatened to heave its contents up at the idea of him with another woman. I watched her as she turned and walked over to sit at a table with some other soldiers.
“I’m glad you came with us,” Carrie said, drawing my attention back to her.
“Why?” I asked.
Carrie bit into her chicken before answering. “You’re another familiar face in a crowd of so many unfamiliar ones. We may not be friends, but it’s nice to know I can talk about home with someone and have them understand.”
“Me too,” I said before finishing off my lunch. “It is good to know someone else who can recall the scent of the ocean.”
