Children's Draft

Chapter 8 (Part One)

(Will's PoV)

I tripped and fell backwards. The opposing side was approaching. My vision was being enclosed by guns pointed at me. I'm not ready for war, I pleaded. "I don't know what I'm doing."

"I don't know what you're doing either," I heard.

My neck jerked. I opened my eyes to see Logan. "Hi, uh, sorry," he said. "I just thought I should wake you up. Sgt. Blake said we'd be there in about twenty minutes."

I rubbed my eyes. "Already?"

"Yeah," he replied through a yawn. "I just woke up too. I think pretty much everybody slept the entire time we were in the air."

Daniel, who was sitting next to him, opened one eye. "I guess that's what happens when you've been sleep deprived for six weeks."

"Here, here," Trevor agreed from the pair of seats behind them. Clayton moaned something to show that even he thought Daniel was right.

"Should we wake up Matteo?" Logan asked.

I looked over to see my best friend sound asleep with his head resting on the window.

"No, not yet," I told him. "I think he deserves a little more," I added, reflecting on the events surrounding the thunderstorm.

"I feel bad about what happened Sunday," Logan apologized. "I wasn't trying to draw attention to him. I just wanted to know what was wrong." I couldn't be mad at Logan. This was all Connor's fault.

"It was nice of you to stand up for him," Daniel told me.

Nice. That word seemed to haunt me.

Daniel went on. "And you made a good point, about everyone being afraid of something."

"Yeah," Logan said. "I'm afraid of snakes, blood, and ledger lines above the staff. That's where basses go to die." After looking around for a moment, he realized something else. "I'm hungry."

Daniel laughed a little.

"But I am though," Logan continued. "I haven't eaten all day." He dug around through the seat pockets. "When Sgt. Blake said we were gonna fly commercial to draw less suspicion. I was so happy because I flew commercial when my family went to Disneyland when I was ten and there were these nice ladies who gave us snacks. There's no snack giving ladies here. There isn't even any peanuts in the seat pockets. Just a blank to do list and a barely sharpened pencil."

One man's trash is another man's treasure, I thought to myself. "Can I see those?" I asked, suppressing a smile.

Logan shrugged and handed them to me.

"I thought the flight would be nicer too," Daniel said. "Or at least cleaner." He grimaced as he tried to dust off his seat. After a few seconds he froze and his eyes seemed to bulge out.

"Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew," he repeated. "There is gum...on my chair...I don't know how long it's been there...that is so disgusting...I need to wash my hands." He bolted upright.

"Daniel, sit down! The plane is landing," Sgt. Blake yelled.

Daniel tried to protest but it was no use. While he continued to freak out about germs, I examined my paper and pencil. I never brought anything like that to Basic Training, so I hadn't gotten to draw in a while. I wasn't super great at it, but I liked it. It would at least give me something to do while the other guys wrote and received letters.

Was I allowed to take stuff from here? I wondered. No one else was gonna use it, but still...

I hid it under my shirt just to be safe.