TS C3: Tensions

Taking Sides

-Chapter 3: Tensions-



The rest of the day went mostly uneventfully, with the only other highlight being a heated argument between Captain Wee and Draco about the merits of using a proper toilet above digging a hole in the field behind the camp. On top of that, the rumour that floated around during dinner was that pretty much all the meat in the camp had gone down Draco’s throat in a bid to sate his ridiculous appetite. As a result, our dinner ended up being vegetables, rice and tofu. Not very filling to say the least, especially since the vegetables were spicy, and I didn’t take spicy food. I ended up having five pieces of tofu and some rice, much to the amusement of the canteen lady.

The night was whiled away watching movies and sleeping…

The next day, once we handed over the standby duties to the next team, then returned to our bunks to wash up, I ended up lying on the bed again. During the course of the previous day, a handful of other smaller dragons had also come through the portal in the parade square, and promptly emptied the newly refilled meat stores, much to the annoyance of the population of the camp at large.

I checked around the news sites again, and found that there were rising tensions in even the nations at peace, with friction between humans in general and the dragons, who would generally walk around as if they owned the place, and helped themselves to everything without remorse.

Even locally, several businesses had already filed complaints, while online, the number of hate posts were climbing. It had only been one day and people were already unhappy with the newcomers. The government was trying to avoid a disaster, and was presently holding things together barely… The army had been told to stay on high alert, and to help the police keep the peace, for riots had already broken out overseas.

Regardless of the efforts of the government, the complaints and hate posts kept coming in, and the atmosphere went from the normal boring to tension again. People were expecting war, in fact, some actually wanted it… I wasn’t surprised, though, because there would always be a handful who wanted war with anything and everything, but the only difference this time was that more and more people wanted it… There were even a few who posted saying that they would gladly go back to the army to fight these dragons…

On top of that, the reservist troops had been recalled, and they were presently in one of the other blocks in the camp compound, being issued their equipment.

This was all done under the pretence of being routine trainings, and such. However, judging from the fact that some of the reservists turned up in their work clothes or uniform, along with the fact that most of them sped in just on time, I reckoned that there was something more going on.

The country wasn’t doing random routine drills and training. Singapore was preparing to mobilise the army. ie, The nation was preparing for war.

It wasn’t hard to see, really. There was a palpable tension in the air, while the reservist troops, who would usually be a jolly bunch were quiet and whispering amongst themselves, while casting sideways glances at the portal. The dragons had eventually gone off, probably having better things to do than to stick around in the camp. Yet, suspicious glances were frequently directed towards the portal, along with the rifles of two recently assigned permanent sentries…

The news from around the world wasn’t very promising either. Another country would go to war every hour or so, and the nations at peace were dwindling fast… In fact, at least two nations declared war while the platoon went to lunch.

By evening, the only nation at peace was Singapore…

However, when we were called down to the auditorium for some sort of briefing by Captain Wee, something told me that it was about to change. The various local news agencies had already been nationalised and taken over by the government. They wasted no time in broadcasting the locations of known portals, and telling all civilians to evacuate to a few designated areas…

When we had all been seated in the small air-conditioned room, Captain Wee opened the door and poked his head out, making sure that no one was left outside. Then, he locked it, and motioned for the other doors to be locked too. His expression was serious, and something told me that this was going to be bad news...

He then proceeded to clear his throat and speak, his tone dark. “Gentlemen, as of five minutes ago, I received an email from the Ministry of Defence telling me two things. Firstly, we have to evacuate the camp. They’ve already arranged for us to move to Nee Soon camp for now because of the portal, that all of you have seen. Secondly, as of ten minutes ago, we are at war. Pack your things. The trucks will move out in an hour. Time is of the essence, gentlemen. Move!”

He then left the room, leaving us to stare at each other, stunned. It was only when one of the sergeants stood up and shouted, “OI! Don’t just sit there! Those were his orders! MOVE!”

That was when everyone sprang into action, and ran to the door, causing a ridiculous squeeze at the exit, slowing everyone down. I ended up waiting at the back, letting everyone else get out first… I didn’t have many things to pack anyway. There were already shouts coming from downstairs as some of the support personnel began loading up the detectors and decontaminants, among other things onto a truck that had just rolled in. Already, I could hear the sound of the engines of the huge five tonne trucks rumbling to life and revving as they moved from the parking area to the camp.

A sort of quiet calm had settled over me, as I made my way back to the bunk, and began to pack…

We were hurried out from the bunk, all of us toting our duffel bags and field packs, and up into the waiting trucks. Two trucks had been catered for each platoon, and as we piled onto the vehicle, the drivers scrambled into the cabs of the trucks parked in front of the main administrative building, and started the engines. They must have finished loading up already…

As those trucks rumbled past, immediately speeding up once they left the camp gate, our own vehicles roared to life, and with a slight jerk, the brakes were disengaged, and the vehicle lurched forward as the driver put his foot down… At the camp gates, there were none of the normal lengthy checks. Instead, the driver flashed a piece of paper, and was waved through by the guards. Those poor sods would be the last to leave…

Throughout the entire time, everyone was silent, forlorn some may say. Even the chatty people clammed up, and the quieter ones became even quieter. The only sound present was the roar of the truck’s engine, as the driver pushed the vehicle to a higher speed.

It soon became evident that the normal limit of 50 km/h on army vehicles had been lifted, as the truck sped out the camp gates. Being seated at the back, I managed to catch a last look at the camp. It looked cold, lonely and above all, dark… The only light visible was from the camp gate, the streetlamps, and the headlamps of the trucks following behind. That left the camp as a dark blot, whose entrance was marked by a pool, or rather, oasis of bright white light at the camp gate, flanked by parallel rows of orange light from the street lamps, like a runway…

As the camp disappeared into the distance, and the trucks entered the highway, a sense of uncertainty began to sink in. Besides that, what the captain had said earlier had just begun to sink in… The country was now at war… That left….. Nobody at peace. The entire world was at war… This was going to be world war three…

Yet, my mind refused to accept that. I just ended up staring blankly out the back of the truck, watching the sunset and listening to the roar of the engine as the truck rumbled down the road with the rest of the convoy, my mind blank.

Eventually, I managed to peace my thoughts back together, although I still couldn’t quite accept that we were at war… For one thing, there was seemingly no change. No shooting, no sorties, and no artillery. Granted, there was practically no traffic around, and no people on the streets, but yet, in the homes we passed, I could see that life continued as per normal, with people cooking, or having dinner. However, in several areas, entire blocks of flats lay dark, their occupants evacuated.

Instead of police cars, army rovers patrolled the streets, their mounted machine guns manned and ready… Normal life resumed, but with way higher security, and many, many more fences and checkpoints.

That sort of begged the question: where had the dragons gone?

Of course, to that question, I had no answer, and on top of that, my thoughts were cut short when the truck trundled into Nee Soon Camp, and we were brought to a rather new building and told to disembark.

The building looked to be newly built, with the whitewashed walls actually white in colour, while the doors were obviously new, without the boot prints that marked most doors in army camps…The building itself, however, was rather plain. It was literally a long white rectangle, with windows and doors put in at regular intervals. The doors were painted a dull grey, and I reckoned that the floor was probably bare concrete or covered in cheap tiles. The top of the building was crowned by four large floodlights which were already switched on… They had obviously been expecting us.

We all clambered out of the truck, and the silence was finally broken when someone shouted for us to form a human chain, while all the bags were passed down, and left as close to the staircase as possible so that we could quickly bring it up later.

We were given back the same floor, which was the fourth floor, which was the top floor of the long rectangular building. However, we had to wait a good half hour for someone to come over with the keys, that hadn’t been handed over to our command team yet.

Once the bunk was opened, we entered. The place was indeed new, and still had a lingering smell of paint in the air. The cupboards here were new, and far larger than those we had used in the old camp. Even the beds were new, and only lacking bedsheets, which were promptly sent up by the quartermaster, along with pillows and of course, pillowcases. In the meantime, we began to unpack. I tossed my clothes into the new cupboard, and generally began to settle in. War or no, this place was going to be my de-facto home, especially since I had my doubts about whether we would be allowed to go home during the weekends as per normal, due to the change in circumstances… It didn’t matter much, though, for my only family here was a lone uncle, for the bulk of my folks had moved to Australia quite some time back, leaving me here alone to finish up my education and military service before going over to join them…

Those thoughts, however, prompted me to think about them as well. I wondered if they were safe, and whether they knew that I was still serving…

However, because of the time difference, it was already too late to give them a call. I would have to do it the next day.

A while later, one of the sergeants poked his head in and told us to get some sleep, for we would have a long day tomorrow, and we would need the rest…