The bunker wasn't anything fancy. It resembled more of an army camp than anything else. It was one big room with a roof that made an upside-down U. The walls were made of tungsten, keeping the place strong as well as being able to handle the high heat.
There were four rows of bunk beds, stretching from one wall to the other, with the box of supplies positioned in front of them. It was enough to fit about eighty people.
Each row had ten bunk beds with a small path in between them, allowing people to walk between them. The officer had his own bed in the front of the room with a storage box of his own.
As he assigned people to their own beds, I was assigned to A-10. It was the back corner bottom bunk of row A.
As I approached the bed, I saw my bunkmate changing clothes. I could see a strand of golden hair coming from the hole in the head of the shirt. Making his way through the shirt, I realized who he was.
"Oh, are you my bunkmate?" He turned around excitedly.
'Shit.'
It was the golden-haired man from outside the bunker.
Startled, I fell back a bit, only a step or two.
This was the worst possible thing that could happen to me right now.
I took a second to calm down. Once I did, I introduced myself. "Y-yeah, looks like it. I'm Eirian, Eirian Heddwyn." I put out my hand—I could feel my hand start to become sweaty. I was practically shitting myself.
He took a moment and looked at my hand. "I don't shake hands, but I'm Ael, Ael Lancaster."
Out of pure panic, I wiped my sweaty hand on my bloodied-up shirt—which just ended up making it worse. "Of course, that's fine."
I paused, confused about what to say. He then broke the silence, "Well, I'm going to take the top bunk." He put his hand on the railing that goes around the bed. "There's no problem, right?"
"Y-Yes, that's fine."
'Just ignore him, just ignore him,' I thought.
As long as I did that, I wouldn't get on his bad side. I could fight, but not on the same level as he could. This man—he was a wolf in sheep's clothing.
He didn't have the same killer look he had outside. Right now, he looked like a normal teenager. Well, as much as an eighteen-year-old should look like.
"Well, I'm going to get comfortable, if that's okay," I told him as I walked past him, trying to get to my bed.
Ael, getting on the top bunk, said, "Yeah, I'm going to get some rest."
"Okay."
As I settled in, I realized I didn't have much of anything on me. I dropped my backpack and umbrella when I got to campus, since it would just slow me down. I arrived when the sirens were already off, meaning everyone else had a head start.
'Great,' I thought.
The only thing I had was what was in the storage bin they gave us. Walking towards the storage bin, I went to check what was in there.
It contained the basic necessities that you would find in most survival kits. Food, water, energy bars, a first aid kit, some clothes, a knife sharp enough to cut and use as a fork, and finally, one amber stone with a lantern to go alongside it.
Inside the first aid kit were some bandages, medical tape, a syringe, stitches, and other materials for dire situations. The one that stood out the most was the moriline. It was an anesthetic made from the roots of morsflos. A plant that grew on dead soil. I would see it all the time back at home.
People back home would use it to all the time to ease their pain from wounds they got. Doctors were expensive so we had to make do with what we could. The only issue was that people got addicted to it, enough so that they wine up dead. Eating enough of it could kill a man in less than a minute.
The officer really wasn't kidding when he told us we only had a week's worth of material.
'Actually, there must be some type of bathroom around here with showers.'
As I looked around, I saw the officer at the front of the room. He was sitting at his desk reading some type of book.
'I might as well ask him.' I thought.
As I walked towards him, I saw others getting settled as well. Looks like some of these people already knew each other. It made sense. Most of their families had ties to each other, and they made connections while attending this academy.
As I arrived at the officer's desk, he didn't seem to realize I was in front of him. His nose was buried in the book with his feet on the table, as he leaned back in his chair.
As I inspected the book he was reading, I saw something.
'You're shitting me.'
The book had big, bold letters on the front of it. It was an instruction manual on what to do for different drills.
'How did this man even get hired?' I thought.
As I ignored the thought, I coughed, trying to get his attention. "Um, excuse me, are there showers here?"
"In the back between rows B and C," he replied in a stale, uninterested voice. He didn't even take his eyes off the book.
I thanked him and just walked away.
Right now, more than anything, I wanted to get rid of the bloodstains on me. It was just a reminder of what happened out there, and I wished to forget it as quickly as possible. Thankfully, I managed to calm down somewhat after the long ride on the platform, but I was still shaken up. I was just hoping a shower would help.
As I walked through the door that was supposed to take me to the showers, it split off into two different paths. Showers were on the left, and on the right were the toilets. As I walked to the left, I was stunned at how nice it was. I got used to the academy, but I didn't expect the bathroom to be this nice, especially down here.
To be fair, back at home, the water that came out of the sink looked like shit. It was one of those settlements in the wastelands, which meant it received little funding. It was one of the many reasons for the high death rate in these settlements. People could only get through it because they prayed to the life god, Vivi. Doing so, it would cure them of small diseases, nothing too critical. A prayer could only go so far.
'I wonder how good the water is here.' I thought.
Each shower was divided by walls, providing some privacy for people taking showers, especially since it was co-ed.
Placing my clothes on the bench outside the shower stall, I took a shower. The water felt nourishing on my bruised-up body that was growing more sore by the minute.
'Adrenaline really was a wonder drug.'
The shower was unlike any shower I had taken, excluding the academy, of course. I really was envious of others having this every day.
I may have been a noble, but low-end nobles didn't have the same luxury as the other nobles here. I was barely a cut above commoners.
I came from a family in the wastelands, a family that would lead soldiers into war and raise them from birth. I mean, that's really all that these settlements were in the wasteland. Just a camp for soldiers.
As I walked outside in my new clothes, it seemed like others had changed into theirs as well. I did hear some others enter and leave the showers while I was there. Now that I thought about it, I was pretty sure Ael had taken a shower when I first arrived at my bed. He must have gotten his bed assigned early.
'Did I really take that long?' Maybe I enjoyed the shower too much. I could already feel the benefits of the shower on my body.
The clothes were just a basic white T-shirt and some loose, straight grey pants. It didn't have any extra pockets besides the two on the side and the two on the back. The front two pockets ran deep, but the back didn't.
Just as I was walking back, I noticed something was different, and it wasn't just the change of clothes.
'What the—'
People were in groups. It seemed like people used their family connections to do so, to the point that alliances were formed. But why?
Looking around more carefully, I noticed rows B and C made an alliance with two different representatives from each row.
Row B's representative was a tall meathead who had broad shoulders and short, wavy black hair. His skin was a darker complexion than what you would normally see on this continent. Most people had a lighter complexion since it was a colder part of the world.
Row C's representative was a ginger, pale-skinned man. He had a well-defined facial structure. He was on top of one of the storage bins while people from his row gathered around him.
The group B leader stood next to him. He wasn't on top of the storage bin like him, but practically stood at the same height as the other.
I think I could hear the row C leader's name being called from the crowd. Marcus.
Row D also looked like they made an alliance, except with just their own row. They weren't gathered around like the other two, but they were all collaborating, trying to get everyone situated in their row. They were all accompanied by one man.
He had light brown hair with some freckles on the nose and eye area.
"What is happening…"