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Taking Sides Prologue: Tremors

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Taking Sides
 
-Prologue: Tremors-

Bored, bored, bored I was. There was nothing to do, for this week, only a few people were on duty, while the rest of us, although on standby, had been allowed to rest in our bunks for the day. We were told to stay put, for if the training heads so chose to test our readiness and have a mock activation, we would all have to come running. Thus was the life of a CBR combat engineer.

What we did was simple: we were cleanup crew for hazmat incidents, and hence had to be on alert even during peacetime. Most of us men and commanders alike were conscripts, serving our two years of mandatory service as required of Singaporean citizens by the law. Of course, the bulk of us would rather be elsewhere; like in a university for most of our cases, me included.

Being the operational company, we were proficient in more or less all of the drills for both peacetime and hot wars, and if anything should happen, we would be the second line of defence, the first being the supposedly more experienced reservist troops that could be called upon anytime.

Of course, given the present international conditions, most of us dismissed the threat of a hot war easily, saying that it wouldn’t happen. Besides, we were considered army assets. We would only move out if needed…

The latest talk of the camp aside from the daily news was the fact that the toilet lights had finally been fixed, and a debate on who our new commanding officer would be.

I, however, was busy reading the newspaper, which was already quite crumpled, as it had already made its rounds around both the bunk and the company office before ending up with me. What had caught my eye was an article about some tremors in anomalous regions, and I was presently reading through it while listening to some soft music on my bed.

As I stood to put the papers back onto the table, I felt the ground lurch slightly once. I paused for a second and looked around, to find that everyone else was oblivious, so I resumed my pace towards the table in the centre of the bunk, and placed the papers there, while nodding to Gerard, who took the papers, signalling to him that I was done with them.

Then, the ground lurched again, this time, it was violent and sickening. All that were standing lost their footing, as did I, dropping my phone in the process.

The first lurch was accompanied with another… then another… I was sent stumbling around the small bunk with many others, cursing the whole way, my brain trying to make sense of what was happening. I heard the entire building groan and shudder as it swayed with the shaking, sending all manner of things flying, ranging from helmets to clothes, to entire field packs. Basically, anything that had not been secured was sent tumbling around. I found myself slammed into a bedpost and seeing stars, while someone else got bowled over by a rolling helmet.

Then, as soon as it started, the shaking seized. Dazed, I stumbled back to my bed and retrieved the things that had fallen out of my cupboard and put it back in. Other than the nasty bump on my head that I was soon to acquire, the only other person that been injured was Sheng Xiang, who had been lying sprawled on his bed, sleeping. He had been tossed off the bed by the shaking, then promptly hit between the legs with a helmet. He was presently curled up next to his bed making painful noises.

As I was tossing the last of my things into the cupboard and checking my phone for damages, someone tapped my shoulder. “Eh, Tano, you should go see the medic.”

Suffice to say that my parents had a strange taste in names…

I blinked, and turned to see Samuel, my buddy. “For what? It was just a small bump.”

He pointed at the mirror. “Bro, there’s a cut, and it’s bleeding. Seriously.”

I glanced in the mirror to see that at the point of impact, not only was there a bruise already forming, which was the source of a constant throbbing pain, blood was flowing steadily out from a wound smack in the middle of the whole thing.

As if on cue, a drop of blood trickled into my eye, causing a stinging sensation, and a whole lot of cursing.

I managed a “Point taken” before grabbing a tissue and making my way down to the office, where the duty medic would be, wiping the blood off my face on the way.

As I left, I saw the sergeants running from their bunk on the other side of the parade square, and making their way to the company building, some of them already holding their phones to their ears, no doubt calling the men. I caught sight of one of the commanders for my platoon and waved at him, pointing at my head. He nodded and continued on his way, reaching the stairs as I exited, making my way to the office.

After keying in the password, I entered the office to find the place in chaos.

Chairs had been toppled, and some drawers had fallen out. The printer was on the floor, with its chassis cracked, and paperwork littered the floor. The various commanders were busy running around trying to pick everything up and sort it out, while I heard the officer commanding’s muffled voice coming out from his office. I could tell from what I could decipher that he was in a call with someone.

The medic had taken over one corner of the office, which was being used as a makeshift triage point. Most of the injuries were just minor cuts, and most were sent on their way with a band-aid after their wounds were cleaned.

Noticing that I was holding a piece of tissue to my head, a piece which was gradually turning red, the medic quickly made his way over, carefully avoiding the bulk of the documents that littered the floor in his path.

He also brought with him his first aid kit. The first thing he asked was, “Eh, what happened to you?”

I shrugged. “My head hit the bed frame leg thing. Didn’t realise it was bleeding. Is it bad?”

He looked pointedly at the tissue. “You’ll have to take away the tissue first.”

I paused for a moment, then realised that I had forgotten to take the tissue away. I gingerly took it off, wincing as the tissue slowly came off, exposing the wound. The medic peered at it, and shrugged, saying, “No, I don’t think it’s bad. Do you have any pain, headaches?”

“No. Only a throbbing pain from the blow.” I replied, shrugging.

“That’s good. Don’t think you have a concussion, but if anything happens, come and look for me. Now, I’ll just clean and dress the wound, then you can go.” He replied, already tearing open an alcohol swab, then he reached over and dragged a chair. “Have a seat.”

I nodded and complied, while he cleaned the wound, which, of course, stung because of the alcohol. The medic was fast, however, and had me out of the office in a matter of minutes with the wound dressed with a large bit of gauze and some surgical tape.

When I made my way up to the bunk, one of the sergeants was inside, talking to the others. He was just asking about what had happened and such, as well as whether anyone else needed the medic. Sheng Xiang had recovered enough to quietly shake his head, while he sat quietly off to one side, pale.

I made my way to my cupboard to retrieve my phone, saying, “Eh, sergeant, I’m back. Medic said nothing serious.”

The sergeant nodded, and paused to type something into his phone, probably using whatsapp to report the platoon strength to the higher ups. He then looked up and added, “Alright. If anymore shaking happens, stay low, preferably under the table in case anything drops. The bunk is old… so yeah, you guys know the rest.”

We all nodded, while he made his way out. I unlocked my phone and started poking around the internet, checking the various news websites and such for any word about the tremors.

The tremors were strange, for Singapore sat outside of any areas prone to earthquakes and such. However, we would occasionally feel some tremors when a quake would hit Indonesia, our close neighbour. However, the camp compound was far from any of the areas that would be affected. On top of that, I was sure enough that the tremors that his those areas were not of such a large magnitude either… Something was not right.

Of course, given the strangeness of the whole business, the story had already been picked up by the media. Not only that, but a few more links told me that it was a global phenomenon rather than just something isolated to this little tropical island.

Quakes and tremors alike had been reported all over the globe, and strange readings were appearing on airports’ radar systems, prompting the diversion of flights, while particle detectors at universities going mad with abnormally high readings. Alleged gravitational fluctuations had been detected too. Scientists were supposedly on their way to the points of the highest readings to puzzle out what exactly was causing this whole thing.

It was interesting, and the local news had even been good enough to upload a preliminary list of places that had been provided by the National University of Singapore (NUS). The list was relatively short, for their initial data was described as ‘all over the place’ by one of the professors. The University itself, however, had also been identified as a hotspot…

By then, the bunk was already buzzing with conversation. Everyone was comparing articles and speculating on what was happening, as well as whether we would be allowed to go home because of all this. What caught my attention, however, was the fact that the professors had given one definite statement, which was that there would be more tremors to come. That would definitely lead to a stoppage of training for safety’s sake, which would make the platoon happier at least…

As if on cue, a message filtered down from the sergeants for all of us to fall in downstairs in the middle of the parade square, for the officer commanding, a captain Wee, wanted to brief us about what was going to happen.

Of course, we quickly complied, and soon, all three platoons from Bravo company was there. Captain Wee was already waiting, and once the strength was reported, he began to address us…

First, he touched on the tremors, asking whether there were any serious injuries. (There were none, thankfully.) He then told us to secure our things, including our helmets, as well as to keep our lockers locked to ensure that our things wouldn’t come tumbling out if another tremor struck.

He also added that our camp compound was suspected to be a hotspot by the army, and that a research team from both the army and civilian sides would be coming down to take a look sooner or later. We were also told that our level of alertness had been raised a notch, as there was a danger of containment failures in the industrial facilities around the island.

We were then told to return to our bunks, and to take cover in the event of another tremor…

Of course, we complied and headed back to our bunks…
This is my NaNo novel for 2013.. Yes, I know, November isn't over yet, but I already broke 50k words, so I'm going to start posting. Though, note that I'm not even near to finishing tho. Plus I have other stuff to finish up too :P (Don't think that I forgot haha. I'm a 95 year old Drakonian, yes, but I'm not that forgetful...yet.) Will start work again on those shelved projects when I can. For one thing, I have a long overdue collab to settle, plus Seeting Thingss Differently. Plus I've gotten into a habit of writing regularly-ish, so hopefully, I'll be posting more often~

Anyways, enjoy. This piece is set in the universe of Unbiased Estimate. The prologue is below for those who want to have a look. 

And as always, enjoy and drop me a comment to let me know what I did wrong or right!

Next chapter: fav.me/d6vpe89

UE Prologue: fav.me/d52kv7j

Note: will abbreviate the title to 'TS' in future.
© 2013 - 2024 Tanorath-drgn
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RedLightningNOD608's avatar

I'm going to take a guess and say that the tremors have a bigger part in the story which causes a series of advents to happen.

Am I close?