Shannon watched as Winnie disappeared down the hall. Roll call wasn't for at least another hand-and-a-half and students were required to "stand and attend" adjacent to their doors like every morning, this one no exception.
'Must be getting me breakfast in the common room,' she thought to herself. Winnie was so nice to her and others, which for a poet, seemed unusual. Most other poets in the House were so self-absorbed.
Shannon watched as 15 year olds, of which their were an unusual amount on her floor, rushed into the shower room. She was happy she herself had taken one the previous night, but also smirked at the anxious flock. 'What could they be thinking?' she wondered. This certainly wasn't going to be a pleasant field trip.
Soon, two to three hundred of the older students would be herded against their will into cramped heat boxes pulled by teams of underfed, over-worked horses. They would all then be taken on a joint-numbing bumpy ride to the western expanse that would take the better part of the day...perhaps with one pee break if they were lucky.
Then the lackies of the newest brigade, last years freshly brain-washed seniors, would spend hours briefing them on their ridonculous fake mission for the following morning. All the while the kidnapped combatants would be fighting over the biggest bag of meager dry-rations.
After sleeping on some frozen ground in a two-man tent, probably with some drooling sex-starved boy, she would be made to stand guard while waiting for the idiots of the military to rush the students from opposite some stupid hill.
An entire day of being pummelled with blood powder packs would then presume, followed by another night that would start the entire ridiculous process again.
Fending off some pervert in a cold tent while on a stomach shriveling up around bird feed only to get up the next morning on no rest so she could throw more matin powder at more matin idiots!
Shannon caught herself standing alone in the corridor, shaking with rage. She took a slow breath and told herself to relax.
Her thoughts went back to when she was told of the entire ordeal by a fellow Housemate, Aimily Parks. Aimily had more than a few girls sitting in the Common Room for the story, for it was a day after she had been discharged from the infirmary following the Fall wargame. As a scupltor, she had been none too please at coming back with a broken arm and three broken fingers. She wasn't too vocal about it at the time though.
After all, Aimily had watched Jennifer Connells get crushed to death by a falling siege tower.
