Sovereign (Sovereign Series) by E.R. Arroyo Page B

have to be escorted
to restricted areas.  As to when the rest takes place, that’s up to your
superiors.  We just install them,” she says.  She’s detached again.  It’s all
just business for her.  Are we even human anymore?
    “Okay,”
I mumble.
    “Take
your time getting up.  I’ll be back to get you in a few minutes.”  I nod, and
she’s out the door.  I don’t move for what seems like an hour.  When I do move,
it’s slow, mechanical.  Lifeless. 
    I
step into the hall to wait for 335.  There’s a group at the end of the hall
that I don’t bother to look at until I hear footsteps approaching.  When my
eyes finally make the lazy trip up at the person walking toward me, my heart
leaps inside my chest.  Dylan .  All at once, I’m relieved, and thrilled,
and scared.
    “Are
you okay?” he asks me.
    “Not
really.”  He just looks at me, but I don’t know what else to say.  I shrug.
    He
keeps his hands planted behind his back, and I’m careful with my body language,
too.  I don’t even turn to face him.  We shouldn’t be talking right out in the
open like this, but I can’t just walk away. 
    “Listen,”
he says, his voice grave, despite the pleasant look on his face.  How does he
do that?  “I think your chip has a tracker, so you can’t go sneaking around.”
    Of course they can track me now. 
    I’m
lost for words.  Nothing is coming.  I want to tell him everything I’ve just
learned, and how I feel.  But I tell him nothing.
    “I’m
sorry you’re hurt.”  He looks my bruised face over.  “Don’t do anything
stupid.  Just stay the course.”
    I
look up the hall one direction, and then the other.  I touch the bandage on my
neck with no real intent.
    “I
have to go.”  Then he walks away.  It was dangerous for him to approach me like
that.  Kind of reckless, actually.  He’s never reckless.
    I
can’t believe I didn’t say anything.  I feel like I haven’t seen him in ages,
and I had nothing to say.  I hate that he had to see me beat up, exhausted, and
fresh out of surgery.  And completely confused.  He always seems to find me
when I’m at my weakest, and I hate it.  I hate that when I feel at the point of
breaking, he has to be the one to reel me in, and calm me down.  Keep me from
doing something rash.
    I’m
being tracked now, so I can’t mess up.  No exploring.  No more midnight trips
to occupy my sleepless mind.  And no more books to keep me company.  I’m
trapped in the routine of a drone soldier of Antius.
    The
captain waits for me by the elevators. 
    “Where’s
everybody else?” I ask.
    “We’re
headed to catch up with them now.”  She extends a piece of bread and a bottle
of water, and I eat in the elevator.
    On
the sixth floor, everyone else is already waiting in the biggest room I’ve seen
in the building.  The entire floor is open space with only a few closed off
areas on the far side.
    There’s
padding on the floor, bright lights everywhere.  Tables are lined up along one
wall, and along the opposite wall are things I don’t really recognize.  Marsi
guides us to the tables and we all take seats on the side of the tables by the
wall so we’re all facing her.  Nathan has joined us, too.  He stands erect with
his hands behind his back.
    “Weapons,”
he begins.  “Are our life force.  On duty, you will always have one, and it is
important that you know everything about it.”  Guns.  I’m probably the only one
of the pledges who has held one.
    Titus
emerges from the far end of the space.  He holds a large crate, that he carries
as though it weighs nothing.  But when he puts it on the table it makes a loud
thud, and I feel the table shake.  Without instruction from anyone, he pulls
guns from the crate and sets one before each of us. 
    “Thank
you, Titus.”  Nathan nods. 
    Titus
tells us all about guns over the next couple of hours.  We’re taught to take
them apart, and put them together.  How to clean