"Yo John, hurry up man, the sergeant is going to kill you!"
Just as John walked out of his room, he found someone running fast past him, while speaking in a way as if the two were close friends.
"C… Coming!" John didn't know how to respond. He froze in his place, looking in daze and amazement to the world around.
He thought he'd come out from his room into a corridor, leading to a training room or something. Yet he found himself standing in front of a large hole, where he stood on the edge of a large circular rim.
When he looked closer, he found that his room, and many other rooms, were packed together to build a gigantic metallic circle. And when he walked to the small fence of this circle, he could see clouds down below, with long distanced small buildings that were part of a city.
"We are… in the middle of the sky?!!" This revelation was quite shocking for him. And yet he heard his name being shouted out again, jerking him awake.
"Coming!" It was the same man who just passed past him. John looked at the direction this dude went and found an entrance towards a place he couldn't see from his spot.
When he walked closer, he found a large plaza, linked to the area of rooms with a short bridge.
"Are they out of their minds? Do they have a death wish or something?" John could see the bridge hanging in the middle of the sky with only metallic ropes linking it with two big stands at each end. It looked safe, but he always hated and feared high places.
As he stood at one end, he could see perfectly what was happening at that plaza. The plaza was big, way bigger than what he imagined at first. It didn't only have soldiers standing there, in front of the same man who woke him up, but there were also many mechanical machines that John didn't recognise.
The machines were like super gigantic robots to him, with two legs, two arms, and a big head that had a transparent hatch. He couldn't see well through the hatch, but he could tell there was a seat, like a pilot seat or something.
"John, don't waste our goddamn time!" Just as he stood in his place, looking in confusion towards all this, a loud and angry shout came in a voice he recognised.
"Y… Yes sergeant!" John didn't know how to call the man except like this. He didn't know if this was a military base or some sort of private force headquarters. Yet he was sure of something; he was a soldier here!
"At least this is a start," he took a deep breath, realising that what the sergeant called him when he walked up was true. Controlling his fear and anxiety, he crossed the bridge, one step at a time, while trying to resist the urge to look downwards.
"I never took you to be this lazy," when he finally crossed over, John could feel his back soaked in cold sweat. Yet what welcomed him was the stern look on the sergeant's face, "Listen up, we'll start the day with a free fall done by our hero here, John!"
"What?!" John was still catching his breaths when he heard the sergeant words. He didn't know what the sergeant meant, but a free fall was bad news considering where they were!
"You always love doing free falls, like everyone else here," the sergeant crossed his arms, showing an evil expression on his face that told John a lot, "don't be a coward! Here, this is the ID for your toy, get on it and start your fresh morning free fall."
John caught a metallic card that the sergeant threw at him. When he looked at it, it was like credit cards, with metallic lustre and red colour, with his name on it and a number; Thirteen!
"Thirteen? That lucky number? Wow! Just wow!" John couldn't help but mumble to himself, not knowing what to do.
"What? Did you say something?" When John thought the sergeant was putting on his fiercest look, the sergeant surprised him and showed a far scarier expression, "go to your device and make the free fall!"
This time the sergeant pointed in a clear way towards one of the giant machines. John didn't need to ask to know this one was his, especially when he saw the number "thirteen" engraved in red big numbers on the side of this machine.
As he had no choice, he walked towards the machine waiting for a miracle to happen. He never saw such a thing ever in his life, and didn't know how to even get onboard it, not to mention driving this thing.
When he walked closer, he could tell this machine was far bigger than what he imagined! He was standing next to one of its legs, while looking like a dwarf compared to this gigantic piece of metal!
"Will he kill me if I asked how to…" just as he stood there, John couldn't help but murmur to himself. In the middle of his words, a muffled noise came, with the hatch propelled slowly to open. John swallowed the rest of his words while watching a metallic ladder lowered from the hatch, as if someone was helping him to get onboard.
"Welcome John," just as he touched the ladder, he heard this soft female voice calling out his name, coming from the hatch. With it, a soft and beautiful melody played out.
"This… I recognise this music… Somehow…" Just before he could move a muscle, John's body suddenly froze in place, while his eyes started to move in a weird way, before he fell on the ground.
"John!" Once his body acted weird, everyone saw something off was going on with John. Before his body would hit the ground, everyone was running fast in his direction, soon gathered around and looked worried at their comrade and friend.
"He is unconscious," the sergeant used a device attached to his wrist like a watch to assess John's condition, "hurry up, let's move him to the infirmary… Alfred, did you sneak out with him last night?"
The sergeant turned to look at the man who previously shouted at John, and Alfred had his face muscles twitch, "No serg, nothing of this ever happened!"
"As if I don't know about you two and your dirty long nights in town," the sergeant harrumphed, "this time I won't let it slip by. A big punishment awaits the two of you if this was the reason."
"Serg, come on!" Alfred carried John with the help of others, while running after their sergeant. Even if the sergeant acted as a tough man, he still cared about everyone in his base.
And yet no one would ever guess why John acted in such a way!