Welcome to Our Life -- Chapter 9: Tinga (X5-656)
Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Jondy, etc.), and everything else that has to do with the show belong to their respective owners, not to me. No money is being made off of this fic. I only own the original characters (Elle/X5-164, etc.).
I stood in front of the mirror and brushed my hair and smiled. After roughly three years of being allowed to grow it out, my hair was getting kind of long and I absolutely loved it. I put my brush down and reached for the rubber band that I'd left on the sink and pulled my hair up and into a ponytail and checked it to make sure that no strands of hair had gotten loose. Perfect.
"Tinga, hurry up," Max said from where she was waiting by the door. "If we're not out of this bathroom in the next few minutes, Zack will come in here even if this is a girl's room."
"Don't bother hurrying up," Rena said. She snickered. "I'd love to see the look on Zack's face if he does that."
"Relax, Rena," I said. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm ready." I grabbed my things and I followed my sisters out of our bathroom. I went to put my things back in their drawer and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Zane shaking his head.
"Why do you always take a long time in the bathroom?" he asked.
"They're girls. Don't bother trying to figure it out or you'll get a migraine," Reese said. "Just be happy that they put in that second bathroom last year and gave it to them and leave it at that."
"I know that you guys are nervous about them putting up the squad rankings today, but you don't have to take it out on us," Rena said.
"Stop it, you guys," Zack said.
"Said the squad commander who has nothing to gain or lose from them posting the entire squad rankings today," Kenny said sarcastically, but I could easily hear the nervousness in his voice and I think everybody else did, too.
"Relax, Kenny," Max said. "I'm sure that you made it into the top sixteen and got officer status. Now please stop being an asshole?"
That got a few snickers from us and even Kenny grinned. "Anything for you, Maxie."
"Come on," Zack said. He looked at the clock on our wall. "The results were going to be posted at dawn and we've still got plenty of time before we have to be outside for lineup and roll call. If you guys are all ready right now, we can leave and pass by the board on our way out."
I don't think I've ever seen us tie our boot laces and rush to the door of the barracks any faster than we did just then. Once we'd lined up, Zack led us out of the barracks. As we approached the bulletin board where they had posted the rankings, I didn't hear any other X5s nearby and I grinned. We walked up to the board and took a look and I held my breath as I looked up at the squad rankings list. 599 C.O...452 2IC...241 third...656 fourth! I put my hands over my mouth to keep from squealing out loud. I was ranked fourth in the entire squad of X5s here! I couldn't believe it.
"Holy shit, I'm fifth!" Zane said. He turned around exchanged high fives with Krit and Wayne.
Max leaned forward to look at the rankings and grinned. "Guys, we've got six of the top ten and eight of the top sixteen. Zack's first, I'm second, Tinga's fourth, Zane's fifth, Ben's seventh, Kenny's eighth, Rena's tenth, Brin's twelfth, and Wayne's fifteenth. Not bad."
"Not bad? That's fucking awesome!" Kenny said.
"I'll say. I still outrank you," Ben said.
Jack leaned forward to take a look and he smiled. "Eighty-ninth. I'm happy with that."
"Come on," Zack said, though he looked as happy as he ever gets. "Let's get out to the yard for lineup and roll call."
We marched out to the yard and waited through lineup and roll call, finally allowing ourselves to smile once we got to the cafeteria and sat down at our table. "This is amazing. I can't believe that we all did as well as we did," I said. "I'm so proud of everybody."
"Thanks," Jack said. "I'm happy that I made my goal of not having my squad rank in the triple digits."
"And it can only go up," Elle said. "You're improving every day."
Jace looked up at that moment and saw Unit 7 enter the cafeteria. "Did any of you see how Unit 7 did in the rankings?"
"Not very well," Max said. "333 only ranked fifty-seventh, the worst out of any of the commanding officers. I think a few of them were even in the bottom quarter and that's not including 311 who's Blue Lady-knows-where right now."
"It's been almost two years since we brought back 836 and it's been a few months since those X3s came across 429. Do you guys think that they'll find 311 soon?" Parker asked.
"I don't know," I said. "It depends on how careful that 311 is. If 311 is as careless as 429 had been when he had been caught and brought back here, then it won't be too long before all of the surviving members of Unit 7 are back. If not, it could be a long time if ever."
"That could--" Eva stopped in mid-sentence when everybody in the cafeteria was distracted by the thump of a body hitting the floor. We turned and saw that Unit 1's commanding officer, 355, had collapsed. We all looked at each other worriedly as a crowd began to form around 355.
"Everybody back up right now!" a guard yelled. He picked up his radio and called for assistance.
"Is she seizing?" Gale asked. "Our seizures were fixed!"
"From what I can see, she doesn't look like she's having a seizure," Krit said. He was standing on his chair and peeking over everybody's shoulders.
"What can you see, Krit?" Syl asked.
"I don't know," Krit said. "I think she's sick for sure, though. 637 just checked her for a fever and I think that she does have one." He turned to the door and pointed. "I think the cavalry's here." Sure enough, a team from the infirmary rushed into the cafeteria and put 355 on the stretcher that they'd brought with them and took her away and after a few moments, things returned to close to normal, though everybody was quieter.
"I wonder why she was sick," Brin said.
"I don't know," Zack said.
"I hope it's something isolated that can't happen to any of us," Max said.
"I hope so, too," I agreed.
TBC