Annihilation Prequel - Psychic Beginnings by Saxon Andrew Page A

colleges now. His performance in the State Championship had not gone unnoticed and even his father had come around. Robert Sr. had tried to get AG’s forced induction into the service overturned but had failed. He met the bus with Robert in tow and he apologized for his stupidity. AG told him that sometimes things just happen.
    He saw Cynthia’s face again and closed his eyes. Fort Benning was still a day away and the task of basic training awaited him. It was time to learn the disciplines of combat. It was time to grow. First he would learn their weapons and then he would master his. He smiled and fell asleep.
    • • •
    The next morning he awoke as the bus pulled in to the Greyhound Station in Hickory, North Carolina. AG went inside and washed his face and took a short break while the bus was being refueled. He bought a breakfast sandwich and saw a young man being lectured by his mother just outside the front door.
    “You shouldn’t have joined, Charlie. I can’t bear the thought of losing you.”
    “Mom, I’ll be ok.”
    “Your father said the same thing and look what happened.”
    “I know, I know, but some things are worth fighting for and our family has always answered the call. I will not dishonor their memory. This is what I have to do to honor his death.”
    AG watched the woman wrap her arms around the young man and cry. He walked back to his seat and watched her hold her son tight until he had to board the bus. The young man walked down the aisle and AG nodded toward the empty seat beside him, “No one’s sitting here.”
    “Thanks, my name is Charles Weston.”
    “I’m Anthony Gardner but you can call me AG.”
    “I use Charlie. Where are you headed?”
    “Fort Benning.”
    Charlie’s eyes grew wide and he smiled, “So am I. Basic training?”
    “Yes.”
    “Great, maybe we’ll end up in the same platoon. Did you volunteer?”
    “No, I was drafted.”
    “That’s ok; it’s not how you fly; it’s how you land.”
    AG smiled and listened to Charlie talk all the way to their destination. Charlie’s family was military as far back as ten generations. AG thought that some of their enemies were talked to death. Still, it was interesting and it helped keep his mind off missing Cyn.
    They arrived at Ft. Benning and the wild ride of army induction started and didn’t let up for forty eight hours. AG followed instructions without questions and kept a low profile. Charlie had already done a hundred pushups and AG smiled at the garrulous young man’s struggles. He just couldn’t help himself; he had to talk. AG stood in the back ranks and managed to go unnoticed.
    • • •
    Sargent Frank Weber sat in his office looking over his platoon’s personnel documents. He saw more than thirty percent of the new draftees were sent by various courts. He started looking to see their crimes and found one with a note from a Captain Green attached with a telephone number. He shrugged and dialed the number.
    “Captain Green.”
    “Sir, I’m Sargent Weber and I’ve just found your note on…” He looked over and picked up the file, “Anthony Gardner’s file.”
    “Is he assigned to you?”
    “Yes Sir, he is.”
    “Sargent, I am being shipped out to Vietnam in three weeks because of that young man.”
    Frank grew nervous, “What did he do to you?”
    “It’s what I did to him that’s getting me shipped out. He was accused of a crime he didn’t commit. The ones accusing him lied about what happened and the judge forced him to join the Army. I discovered when the mistake was uncovered that he made a perfect score on the SAT and was a 4.0 student. The principal of his school insisted he was the school’s smartest student.”
    Frank hesitated and said, “You didn’t release him?”
    “No, I did not. After the fact, I would have if I had known the brouhaha I started.”
    “Why didn’t you do it?”
    “I’ve asked myself that question every day since. I guess I was tired of taking the trash out