The unit | Teen Ink

The unit

May 26, 2016
By Lamarr SILVER, cannon falls, Minnesota
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Lamarr SILVER, Cannon Falls, Minnesota
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A light blue hologram was projected into the center of  a dark room with dark blue metal walls with lights in the corner. A man in a brown suit began speaking in front of men in black and silver uniform with filtered PMG gas masks made of white steel who looked up at him as he began talking. There once was a man named Edward Richards. He was a simple cafe owner in the city of Berlin in Germany. His world came crumbling down due to the war dubbed the “Seven Hour War”.
First, a little back story on Edward, he was raised in a small home with a loving mom and father but they were always on the poor side of things, finding it hard to keep food on the table. On Edward’s eighteenth birthday he opened the cafe with the little money he had and helped support himself and his parents.
At the age of twenty six his day at the cafe had been like any other. He had a few customers and staff in the cafe at the time the late evening news came on the TV. The story was about odd blue ripples across the sky. Suddenly he heard a large boom outside so he went to go investigate and soon he saw the same blue ripples across the sky. Odd creatures started appearing in odd green mists accompanied by green bolts of electricity. He grabbed as many people off the street and yelled “People get in here quick!” He hid them in the backroom of the cafe.  Everyone in the backroom was talking and one of the women said “What’s going to happen?”
Police sirens were going off in the distance and they sighed with relief but that relief would soon fade. They heard the gunshots and screams of the police officers. One of the men in the room whispered “Oh god what is happening?” When Edward peaked outside the door he saw odd creatures with one large eye and two smaller eyes on their head, hoof like feet, a small arm coming out of their chest and two fingered hands and arms on their sides . They appeared to be shooting off beams of electricity at the officers, knocking them down with ease. One of the officers yelled “Shoot it! Damn it!” They seemed to be killing the officers.
Edward heard more booms, then more odd gunshots he had never heard before. He put his finger over his lips to shush everyone and when he peeked again he saw odd soldiers in white uniforms with one large red eye in the center of their helmet. It was holding a gun which he would later find out was the Ar2. He and the five other people from the cafe huddled in silence for hours upon hours until they heard boots crunching broken glass in his store. Peeking out, he was met by a gun to his face. He had put his hands up and was ushered out along with the others. They were soon packed onto an odd train and taken away from Berlin.
Waking to the train door opening and being taken out, Edward was grabbed in a rough manner and pulled by his arm painfully out of the train car. He yelped in pain. It had been a few days that he had been on the train and when they stepped off they saw they were in a train station. Odd men in black uniforms a odd armband holding an odd batons with what seemed to be electricity on the tip. They also seemed to have a Soviet PMG appearance to the gasmask but it was white and the filters were in a line on the mask and only had two filters instead of three. They were handed clothes, it was a blue jumpsuit with boots and was ordered to change by one of the men. The jumpsuit had a serial number on it. Soon they was ushered into a line, one of the officer often yelled “No talking!” at several people in the line with several of the oddly dressed,
(what he assumed were police officers) by the way they commanded everyone. But soon he was at the head of the line and was told to say the serial number on his jumpsuit. He said it to the officer. He was taken into the back past a door. One of the officers was guarding and seemed to lead to an interrogation room with a odd futuristic console and two odd ceiling camera looking like robots.
The officer began speaking to him in a odd robotic voice. “I will be asking you a few questions.” Edward responded with a nervous “Yes sir” The officer began asking him questions such as “Where did you live before this?” and “What was your job before you came here?”. Afterwards he was handed a card labeled:
Job: Cafe worker
Name: Edward Richard
Citizen ID: 13399
As he walked down a hall he mumbled “What is this for…” as he was walking he heard a voice say “Dear Dr. Breen when will the combine let us breed again?”. He had looked up at a odd large TV but it didn’t look like a TV almost like a hologram it was shaped like a box c. He watched for a while and soon started to agree with what Dr. Breen was saying over his speech he soon learned he was Earth’s Administrator. He was lead to a cafe named the Baltic Cafe he was told he would work here and then the citizen with the armband walked back to the train station the cafe seemed to be in a plaza.
He walked around the inside making sure the tables were clean and started to make some coffee and put out some warmed bagels out in the display case and sighed “Well at least I will be busy” He walked to the entrance and flipped the closed sign to open and soon some citizens came walking in after about two hours. He walked up to a group of black men in the same jumpsuit as him he greeted them and took their order. They looked over the menu and they all ended up ordering creamed coffee and Edward mumbles to himself “So four cream coffee’s…” then he nods and walked to the back and starts brewing some coffee he sighs to himself  “Ah I guess this isn’t so bad...” 
Stopped by an officer and then yelling at the officer, he heard the man shout “Shove off you idiot!” The officer grabbed him by the head turning on his baton and started smacking the man until he was crying and laying on the ground. Edward rushed over to the man and tried to see if he was ok but the man told him “I am fine, leave me alone…” he stumbled away sniffling a little. Edward shrugged a little mumbling “If you say so…” he walked to the apartment building and walked inside. There were several citizens sharing the rooms with him. There was a man comforting a woman she was sniffling and muttered “When is all going to end…” Edward looked at her confused and ended up asking “What’s wrong?” The man comforting her gave him a horribly mean stare before going back to comforting the woman.
The next morning Edward heard banging on the door one apartment over and then heard officers he would then hear someone in the room yell “Civil Protection!” The citizens in the apartment seemed to panic and started running for the door Edward was to afraid to leave the room and watched everyone run he heard a baton activated then heard someone scream “Please no!” Edward covered his head scared to move or run when he looked up a officer was looking down at him the officer said “10-91D submitting orders?” A female voice would respond “Bring for conversion to Civil Protection.” The officer responded with copy before grabbing Edward by the collar shoving him into the hallway and yelled at him in a crackly deep voice almost robotic “Hand on your head and spread your legs!” Edward scared out of his mind spread his legs and put his hand on his head.
The next thing he could remember was getting whacked in the head the head with a baton. He later woke up in a odd room in a pod looking around confused before he could speak he felt a needle poke his arm then he passed out again.
When he woke up next he was laying on a bed in what looked like a medical bay he seemed to be in one of the officer's uniform he had a odd blue tint to his vision and when he spoke he heard his voice sounded crackly and distorted. He sit up and a camera was looking around the room it was the same one in the interrogation room and the memory fuzzy. A officer walked into the room he had a different uniform on then the normal officers he had a odd smooth mask two red filters on the sides two yellow piercing eyes and grey mask. The officer yelled “Get up unit!” Edward almost instinctively stood up saluting the officer. The officer said “Attach me for training” Edward instinctively follows him to a room it had a firing range a citizen dummy and a breaching door there were other new units in the training room.The appearing to be commanding officer yells “Pick up a pistol and go to the firing range!” the new units went to pick up the pistols off the rack and step up to the firing range. The officer yells next “Take aim!” The new units tail aim then the commanding officer yells in his deep crackly distorted voice “Fire!” The units fire eighteen shots each then put their guns on the rack on each spot in the firing range.
The commanding officer looks over the targets that were dumbs dressed as a citizen with a pistol. The officer points at Edward and yells “Unit 13399 you did the best you get to do the breaching test last next!” The other new units grumble in protest before waiting for a order and then the commanding officer yells “Now all of you get in breaching formation!”
The three units stand near the door one on each side and one in front the door the left trainee knocks on the door before yelling “Civil Protection open up!” The left trainee knocks again before yelling “Inject!” The trainee in front the door kicks it in points his SMG at the open door scanning the hallway before rushing in. The commanding officer watched in silence before yelling “Get back in formation but Unit 13399 will kick in the door now!”
Edward nervously steps up to the door after being handed a SMG filled with blanks. The left trainee knocks on the door yelling again “Civil Protection open up!” The trainee knocks again before saying “Inject!” Edward kick in the door with all his might and knocked it off the hinges before scanning the hallway his SMG raised. The other trainee’s follow him in after Edward rushes in. The other trainee’s had there blank filled pistols drawn following him in as he scanned each room instinctively looking around each corner carefully. After the commanding officer's voice range through the all telling them to come out afterwards he yelled in his deep crackly voice filled with interference “Get in a line!”
All the trainee’s quickly stood at attention in a line “Congratulations units your have passed your elite division test you will all be part of GOLD.” He pulled out a box and handed them all armbands labeled GOLD on them before pointing to the armor “Now arm up and get out of my sight!” Edward sighed quietly with relief as he walked with the new GOLD division to the armory. There were racks of what he learned today were Ar2’s by labels on the rack he grabbed his Standard issue SMG, stun baton, and pistol. He followed the other units outside he looked at confused at the odd creature when suddenly is realised the grey legless and handless along with no face just a metal mask was human he was shocked but somehow intrigued he walked up to it and it had odd lights in its chest and didn't seem to breath it seemed to be a husk or empty shell of a human it had pus coming from around the metal cylinders coming from its chest. Edward whispered to himself “Thank god I can't smell that.” He looked over the human like creature it, looked exactly like a human with grey skin but had stilts for feet, one claw like part attached to where it hands should be, a grey metal plate on its face over its eye with metal flaps and stitched up mouth and cut off nose. “I should get going.”
He walked to a odd metal door made out of thick looking blackish blue metal, it appeared to made of sections of metal not a solid door and his suspicions were right. He walked out the door covering his visor of his mask, blinded slightly by the sun. A commanding officer had told him “You will 10-50 Sector S and Sector E” He nodded, heading to the plaza and walking around it. He had been walking for what seemed like hours around the plaza and a nearby street and as he was walking he heard an officer yell “Suspect is running all units 647E running to RESTRICTED sector!” Edward rushed over with his SMG at the ready, making sure it was loaded. He had no idea how he knew what any of these codes meant, it just seemed to come to him. Unbenounced to him they had installed a chip in his brain to make him learn them while he was knocked out. He pointed his gun towards the alley at the citizen with what appeared to be the mathematical lambda sign on his arm. He also appeared to be carrying a Civil Protection standard pistol but had not yet fired it.
He  waited for the GOLD commanding officer to tell him what to do. The officer yelled “Amputate!” Edward began opening fire on the man, his bullets whizzing past the man and he fell. His right leg was bleeding badly from a shot through his kneecap destroying his knee. And he was screaming in pain! Edward and and the commanding officer walked up to the bleeding man. The man appeared to have bullets lodged into his spine and shoulder. He was writhing in pain! The GOLD commanding officer walked up behind Edward and uttered a sentence Edward would not forget; “Make him suffer.” Edward instinctively raised his baton after unclipping it from his belt and started beating the man, hitting the bleeding man's head on the floor before the GOLD commanding officer said “Finish him off and a cremator will burn his body.”
He was standing making sure no citizen got too close. A large man carrying to what appeared to be a flamethrower. He had a green almost a cloak and his grey head smooth and his wheezing was audible by the the creature as it past him. The creature flicked on his flamethrower before starting to burn the body after taking all supplies off of the body. Edward moved the citizens away from the burning body and back to the plaza and he radioed in “647E amputated reporting back to Nexus for resupply.”
Edward did a brisk jog to the barricade stepping through the bio-scan forcefield “I will never get used to that.” Edward grumbled, he pressed his thumb to the bio-scanner and opening the multi-stage door with the sounds of metal scrapping and creaking. He stepped inside the Nexus and looked around at one of the odd mutilated human slaves that worked on the consoles. He walked past them pressing his thumb to the bio-scanner, the door opening into breakroom and elite and standard unit armory. He walked up to the ration dispenser and pressed the button on the machine. A small lavender and blue package was pushed out from the opening in the rounded triangle machine that is a deep blue. He sat down at a table, opening the package taking out a white jar. Opening it taking off his top filter and pouring the powder mix with water into the filter hole, swallowing the semi decent powder food. After finishing it he threw it into the miniature incinerator.
Then he stood up and walked to the elite armory and grabbed more SMG clips. Changing out his filters and grabbing a stun baton battery before radioing in “Orders DvL sir?” The commanding officer radios in “Return to 10-50 of sector S and sector E.” Edward responded with a “10-4.” and moved to the large bomb proof section door, pressing his thumb to the bio-scanner again before stepping outside. He began walking around for about the next three hours and nothing happened besides citizens hurrying to their homes. When he returned to the Nexus he reported to the barracks  and sat in the C shaped seat. A metal screen panel in front of him to put his face on and when he put his face on the screen he about instantly passed out. He had visions of Dr. Breen performing his speech over marching crowds of Civil Protection. Edward jerked awake, he seemed to be forced awake and looked around wide awake before climbing off his station radioing it “Orders DvL?” The commanding officer says “Report to training sector of Nexus.”
Edward quickly hurried down to the training sector using the bio-scanner to open each door, waiting for them to open before hurrying down to the training area. There were three other trainees in the training room with the commanding officer.  Edward stood at attention and spoke semi loud “Sir you requested me?” The officer responded with “Yes I did, you are going to show them how to breach with me” The commanding officer pointed to the door and Edward instinctively stood by the door waiting for the command to move in. The commanding officer kicked in the door knocking it off its hinges and yelled “Inject!” Edward drew his pistol moving in first and scanned the room. The trainee’s watched the cameras, intrigued. Edward peaked around the corner and fired blanks at the wood rebel target and finished the sweep. He stepped out of the breaching room looking at the trainee’s they saluted and then stood at attention Edward gave them an odd stare before turning to the commanding officer and was holding an armband. The lettering OfC was written on the armband “Congratulation you have been promoted.” The commanding officer held out the armband. Edward grabbed the armband putting it on after taking off the SqD armband. He turned to the trainee’s. They saluted and the commanding officer told him “Report to sector S.” Edward saluted and marched off to the plaza and stood looking around he radioed in “Units in GOLD division report.” The units reported in their sectors. He had walked to sector D before spotting a rebel and reporting in “Units report to sector D and assist in capture.” Three units rushed through the forcefield into sector D. Edward pointed to the alley. The rebel ran down and they ran down there and Edward heard several gunshots before hearing three bio-signals lost and hearing “Three units down in sector D all available units interest and converge initiating judgement waiver.” A loud alarm sounded from loud speakers and it sent chills down Edwards spine and it had turned to run through the forcefield but felt a burning pain on his head. Next thing all he saw was black when he woke up he still the heard the alarms of the judgement waiver but he heard loud gunshots in the distance. Then a strider tripod siren off in the distance, then he felt the sound shake and a loud female voice rang out “Attention all unit Autonomous judgement is now in effect. All citizens prepare for immediate amputation.” Edward overwatch off down the hall he heard “MIA OfC bio-signal detected moving to location.” Edward tired to move but his feet and hands were bounded with zip tied. He looked up and saw a man with blue eyes blonde hair in a green military uniform holding a .657 magnum in his hand. He heard the running of overwatch down the hall before hearing a deep static voice saying “Units preparing to inject to OfC’s 10-20.” The blonde man stood up putting a gun to Edwards head before shouting “Stay back you monsters or he dies!” The overwatch went quiet then the door creaked open and a Civil Protection high ranking officer stepped in and began to speak in an extremely deep voice. “Put the gun down if you want to make it out alive.” The blonde man pressed the gun harder against Edwards temple, the high ranking commander said “Suspect is panicking prepare extraction.” A voice behind the blonde man in a deep static voice said “10-4.” The blonde man turned around and saw a large red eye before the elite overwatch stepped into the light, his gun raised. The overwatch by the high ranking officer drew their guns the second elite overwatch stepped into the room and said in an extremely deep voice “Put the gun down or you will be amputated.” The apparent German blonde man yelled “Do it and he dies!” He was obviously panicking, he shot Edward in the knee Edward let out groan of pain before the blonde man put a gun to Edward’s head again. Edward had begin pooling blood below his knee with a low deep drumming drop sound with each blood drop hitting the floor. Edward was rethinking his life when a overwatch stepped forward and raised his gun and said “Amputate.” All seven overwatch raised their guns and fired as they did the blonde man shot Edward through his temple, sending brain matter and blood everywhere. As the overwatch looked over the bodies, a female voice over Edwards radio said “OfC unit 13399 lost in sector RESTRICTED...”



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