The Precursors 1: The Darwinists chap 4

Chapter Four: The Field Trip

Before that day, David had never been to the Dorrington Hospital Wing, but now it was all he’d seen for three days.
He liked the brake from farming and shooting and running, but the Wing sucked. Apparently he had severe plasma burns on his back, but it hadn’t gone through to the other side of his body like charged plasma does. Second-degree burns, though, which were extremely painful. Worst of all, Jason, David’s only friend at Dorrington, was at the other end of the Wing and David wasn’t allowed to go see him.
David put down an old copy, from 2053, of Sports in America down, bored with the old roball stats and stupid “roball drama.” He stared around at the pure white room and all the beds and his eyes came to Captain Dylan talking to Head Captain Marcus.
“Yes,” said Marcus. “I know it would be educational for the boys, but what about parent permission?” Dylan laughed.
“Any parent who sent their kid to Dorrington doesn’t care about that kind of thing.”
“Where would the kids be going?” Marcus asked.
“It’s called Alison Complex.”
“Yes, I know, but where?”
“Utah.” David had no idea what the captains were talking about, but he knew one thing: Captain Dylan had convinced Head Captain Marcus to bring the boys on some kind of field trip, to a certain Alison Complex in Utah. It would be nice to get away from Dorry for a little while.
David continued to think about Alison Complex and read about robotic sports drama in Sports in America for a few days, completely bored out of his mind. He kept asking Madam Ronila if he was free to go, but she kept saying the plasma burns hadn’t healed.
And finally, after nearly two weeks, she said, “Alright, David. Fine. But don’t overwork your back, and make sure not to get hit by plasma, overcharged, undercharged or just charged in that same place: because it isn’t completely healed, it could cause severe damage.”
David regretted coming back to farming and boot camp that day. He hadn’t remembered it being so hard. After having a few shooting rounds against the battle-robos with blistered hands from earlier that could barely hold a rifle, Marcus came out for another announcement.
“Oh, great,” Jason whispered to David. David smirked.
“Boys, we’ve got an important announcement to make,” Marcus said, his goatee twitching. “ All of us Dorries are going to go to Alison Military Complex in Utah to learn all about the United States military. You do not need parent permission.” David and Jason glanced at each other. David had told Jason all about the stuff he had discovered in the Hospital Wing, and now it was official.
After a week and a half of normal Dorrington days it started to seem like Alison Complex was just a wish. But on Saturday, the boys were woken up at night and David thought it was just time for boot camp. But he and Jason followed Captain Joey, like always, and he seemed to be marching in a different direction today. The came out a door, and found themselves in a parking lot, and there was the same bus David had taken to Dorrington.
David walked on, and most of the seats were already filled up.
“Hey, Hergie,” he said as he passed by the aged to bus-driver who had driven him into a hell called Dorrington.
He and Jason sat in a back seat, piled in with three other boys in a seat meant for two. The ride was even worse than the one to Dorrington: it seemed way longer. Or maybe it was just really cramped sitting with five in a two-person.
The grasslands David knew so well began to shift into rocky wastelands. To the north was Salt Lake City, and to the west was a mountain range. Captain Dylan looked back at all of the boys on the bus.
“The Alison Military Complex is just a few miles from Salt Lake,” he explained. “We should be there in just about an hour or so.” The bus drove on, until it came into Salt Lake City, which, had gotten bigger and bigger since the 2030s, and now was a relatively urban city. It seemed a little cleaner to David than New York, and everyone looked a little nicer. Crash!
What the hell? David looked behind him. Where did that sound come from?
“Everyone stay calm!” Captain Dylan yelled. The captains began distributing handguns amongst each other. Captain Sean even handed Hergie a gun.
“What’s going on?” Tyler Crane yelled. Just on cue, the door to the bus blew open and four armored men ran in. David joined the chorus of screaming and covered his hands over his head, cowering in fear.

Where was he? Blake looked all around the bus, but none of the kids looked right. None of them looked like the kid in the memo.
“Wait!” Gina yelled, now that their pledge of “For Humanity, For Freedom, For Darwin” was finished. “There he is!” What was his name? Yeah, Jason Quimby. “Quimby! He’s getting away!”
No! Blake pulled out his tranquilizer and shot at Jason. He missed every time: the kid was just too quick. He had jumped out the bus’ window!
“Nahuel, get the other kid! The other choice!” Blake remembered the memo saying that it was either Quimby or Roller. But there was only a 12% chance it was Roller. But 12 is better than nothing, right?

“Holy crap!” David yelled as Jason jumped out of window. “Jason you’re ins…” Something huge grabbed him from behind. The attacker, a big man, slammed a big X-46 Energy Magnum against his forehead. “What the hell is going on?”
“Worry not, boy,” said the attacker. “Blake! Got ‘im!” The leader ran over to David, tranquilizer gun in hand.
“Kid, this might hurt a little,” he said, and stuck a tranquilizer into David’s neck. Everything went all blurry, and David last saw Blake shooting Captain Dylan into pieces. Then everything went all purple…