Salvation

Black Dawn Academy IC

This is a spectacle. Nadia watches as Josephine boards, looking past her at how different her circumstances appear to be. Hers is a silent greeting and one without any of the traditional greeting methods; she bears no smiles, nor nods, merely speculative contemplation that sinks well into her hazel-eyed face. The million-yard stare persists until the helicopter lifts, and this time when the order to brace comes, Nadia's ready: she clutches her restraints in both hands, knuckles going white.

She jostles much less when then aftershock of the explosion rocks the aircraft, nostrils flaring briefly.

Once everyone's settled, as the previously queried question is once more tossed out, Nadia's reticent - but speaks first: "We already risked death to pick up one, we may as well pick up the last. Seems a waste otherwise."

Black Dawn Academy IC

There's lacking comprehension in Nadia's face at the first warning; when the backlash of energy buffets the helicopter, she jerks like a rag doll against the secured straps of her seat, leaving her airless. In her struggle to compose herself, she's left unguarded for the second wave, again thrown about in her seat by the force of impact to face the open side of the aircraft.

Her bottom lip quivers. She's not unfamiliar with the emotional numbness that comes after loss, eyes glazing over to see past the wreckage of what she considered "home" in her tidy, hygienic quotation marks. The silence she's persisted through since boarding doesn't change now; she prefers to listen, instead. It's attentive, at the very least.

Dylan's voice is answered in a slow blink and more silence. Weighty, pensive silence. It ends with the lingering ambivalence of American teenagers in the shrug of her narrow shoulders, head turning to face away from the direction of what was once "home".

"High-powered explosives and improving aim lowers the odds of any fighting our way back at any number," she answers her older peer - and the uniformed peoples who collected them. The vagueness is alleviated when she tacks on a more succinct, "Sure. Let's chance fate."

Black Dawn Academy IC

Her routine is repetitive. Her eyes open blearily to the dim light of candles to watch her sister rise from their shared bed in their small corner of space tucked below the old general store; it's a punctual thing, five every morning, ready to do her share of communal work. Every morning, Nadia rises shortly after and throws on Alexa's hand-me-downs. She grabs her bag. She inches around dozing children, the young ones who get to have their recommended eight hours. Out of the stifling subterranean "homestead" she flees, her boots grasping the concrete steps to freedom.

She isn't any sort of woodsy aficionado. While her sister disappears into the trees that border the building, she diverts from the path, rounding away in the direction of the garden, such as it is. Very few things are sustainable in the climate they inhabit, particularly during the colder months, but Nadia is determined. She spends hours there. The hours pass like sand trying to move through a hole too small.

It's exhausting, but it's better than daycare duty.

This is where she is when her routine changes. They get so few visitors that even some of the hunters emerge from their cover in the forest, pairs of suspicious eyes watching the helicopter set down on asphalt. The guns are startling to everyone. Some of the children flee. When one of the uniformed men demands to see one Nadia Burns, the suspicion turns to accusation, and the eyes go to her; it's an unnerving thing, all that consciousness.

She clutches her bag with dirt-smudged fingers. She steps forward. At seventeen, she's old enough to hold the expectation that she won't scurry off like a horrified munchkin seeking refuge from a wicked witch. As the man speaks, she struggles to pay attention to it, searching the faces for her sister while her stomach flip-flops awkwardly in her abdomen. The words process slowly, bringing to light new horizons and an escape from the repetition, at the cost of familiarity: Alexa stays behind.

It's a joint decision between the two, pressured through by the older of the girls. That garden's going to die, she reflects, sinking into a seat in the noisy aircraft, looking out into the faces of people she knows as they disperse, back to their orderly day-to-day lives.

Black Dawn Academy IC

Nadia Burns, age 17.

Portland, Maine, United States of America

The Questions

3) Strength of will. Leadership is not a rewarding undertaking; all blame is laid solely at your feet, and regardless of what you do, you alienate someone. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions and someone in charge who wants to appeal to the masses and save their popularity does their people no good. Thus, strength of will, coupled with logic and informed reasoning, is a desperately valuable trait, and one found in a small number of individuals throughout the world.

4) It's likely ridiculous to peek back into my childhood for moments of poor leadership - children are inherently poor leaders to begin with - but it's in my childhood I have to delve because it's there I find the most obvious examples, if not the most philosophical. Leading games and childhood adventures often offers those pivotal minutes where you should have been a better leader and failed. You go out with your friends into the forest to find a place for a clubhouse and find a shack instead. Your friends want to enter the shack. You don't. You suggest not to. They tease you. You give in, because pleasing the masses outweighs will. You spend the next thirty minutes running away screaming because the shack isn't empty, it houses a wild animal, and when your parents ask you about the neighbor girl who hasn't been found yet at dinner that night, you think back and consider what you should have done differently. I wasn't a very headstrong child, and I was easily upset, and if I'd just been a little stronger in spirit, perhaps these things could have been avoided.

5) Step one, re-evaluation. Sit down and comb over what assets remain under my control, collect them and keep them nearby to check again when needed. Step two, planning. Take that previously garnered information and sit down with my team to work out a reasonable method of utilizing them to deal with the most imminent threat to myself and my nearest ally. Step three, utilization. Enact the previously concocted plan to the best of the abilities of my militia and/or ambassadorial team.

6) Morale. The masses are a great asset, and also large, and potentially dangerous to anyone who tries to enforce protocol beyond their emotional breaking point. Internal riots are just as dangerous as war.

7) Genghis Khan. Throughout his lifetime, he exhibited sound judgement and an intense drive, even when it came time to divide his kingdom between his sons, making choices based on logical reasoning for the betterment of his dynasty even at the risk of alienating some of his peoples.

8) Martial prowess, wilderness survival, espionage training, getting a good night's rest, agricultural skill, the art of persuasion.

9) The illness. The war will rage until it dies, which might be sooner if more people die. There's nothing to rebuild if there's no people left in the wake of disease.

10) I consider myself intelligent, quiet and a bit scattered. I'm much less likely to brazenly throw caution to the wind or approach things head-on, as I prefer a cautious and subtle approach to all issues presented to me. Social connections come with some difficulty, but I endure them; I suspect I'm still standoffish with individuals I consider friends.

Black Dawn Academy

Nadia Burns, age 17.

1)
2) Portland, Maine, United States of America
3) Strength of will. Leadership is not a rewarding undertaking; all blame is laid solely at your feet, and regardless of what you do, you alienate someone. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions and someone in charge who wants to appeal to the masses and save their popularity does their people no good. Thus, strength of will, coupled with logic and informed reasoning, is a desperately valuable trait, and one found in a small number of individuals throughout the world.
4) It's likely ridiculous to peek back into my childhood for moments of poor leadership - children are inherently poor leaders to begin with - but it's in my childhood I have to delve because it's there I find the most obvious examples, if not the most philosophical. Leading games and childhood adventures often offers those pivotal minutes where you should have been a better leader and failed. You go out with your friends into the forest to find a place for a clubhouse and find a shack instead. Your friends want to enter the shack. You don't. You suggest not to. They tease you. You give in, because pleasing the masses outweighs will. You spend the next thirty minutes running away screaming because the shack isn't empty, it houses a wild animal, and when your parents ask you about the neighbor girl who hasn't been found yet at dinner that night, you think back and consider what you should have done differently. I wasn't a very headstrong child, and I was easily upset, and if I'd just been a little stronger in spirit, perhaps these things could have been avoided.
5) Step one, re-evaluation. Sit down and comb over what assets remain under my control, collect them and keep them nearby to check again when needed. Step two, planning. Take that previously garnered information and sit down with my team to work out a reasonable method of utilizing them to deal with the most imminent threat to myself and my nearest ally. Step three, utilization. Enact the previously concocted plan to the best of the abilities of my militia and/or ambassadorial team.
6) Morale. The masses are a great asset, and also large, and potentially dangerous to anyone who tries to enforce protocol beyond their emotional breaking point. Internal riots are just as dangerous as war.
7) Genghis Khan. Throughout his lifetime, he exhibited sound judgement and an intense drive, even when it came time to divide his kingdom between his sons, making choices based on logical reasoning for the betterment of his dynasty even at the risk of alienating some of his peoples.
8) Martial prowess, wilderness survival, espionage training, getting a good night's rest, agricultural skill, the art of persuasion.
9) The illness. The war will rage until it dies, which might be sooner if more people die. There's nothing to rebuild if there's no people left in the wake of disease.
10) I consider myself intelligent, quiet and a bit scattered. I'm much less likely to brazenly throw caution to the wind or approach things head-on, as I prefer a cautious and subtle approach to all issues presented to me. Social connections come with some difficulty, but I endure them; I suspect I'm still standoffish with individuals I consider friends.