“With this mission you need to be on top of your game! No time to lose and mess up!” I was still confused as to what was going on. Everything was fine yesterday and last night… so what changed? A girl raises her hand, “What’s happening??” a boy follows suit, “Yeah what’s this about??” Our superior got quiet. A little too quiet. Which means what we were dreading all this time is about to happen. Everyone got really quiet themselves. You could hear the rustle of each leaf, every creak each branch made while the wind whistled around. We knew this day would come, we’d been preparing for it, we just simply hoped it wouldn’t. I think some people hoped too hard because they genuinely had no idea what was going on, minus the handful of us that did. “Why doesn’t anybody pay attention anymore? Why doesn’t anybody stay prepared? Those that had forgotten knew better but I guess I’m not one to judge. I used to get my hopes all the time until I-“ “HEY!” I stepped back a little, startled, lost in my thoughts. “Everyone needs to be in groups of 4. Once that has been established each group will be assigned to a different superior officer. Until then go grab your gear, put it on and be prepared.” My hands clenched hard like a rock, “Deep breathes… deep breathes… It’s going to be okay.” I unclenched my hands, put my pointer finger and thumb together, “Sa…” then middle finger and thumb, “Ta…” ring and thumb, “Na…” lastly my pinky and thumb, “Ma…” take one more deep breath. Eyes open. “Let’s go.”