Make sure you are all caught up! Check out John’s previous diary entry.
Day 3
Well I slept like crap last night – kept on tossing and turning. At least I managed to not burn my toast this morning!
All the way to work, the holos felt brighter than normal, especially with their new ad: “Your Planet Needs You — Sign Up Today! Freedom Won’t Defend Itself.” The guys also noticed the new decorations in their neighborhoods too. New banners and new holo displays. “It makes the path brighter at night, so it’s not that bad,” was something Paul commented on. He’s not wrong though.
At work, we’d been tinkering on some motors when the radio broadcast was interrupted by a rather disturbing announcement: a helldiver squad was lost in the defence of a planet against the automatons…fucking tin cans. We all froze when we heard Unity Springs, which meant the squad was from a town right next to ours, Fort Virtus…
I felt a pit in my stomach and it got only worse when David said: “one of those guys went to the same mechanic school as us.” Then Chris added to that saying that that squad was from the same year that his cousin had joined. Fuuuck. The gloom and pressure in that shop could definitely be felt…
Leave it to David though, to just not know when to shut up…He just had to go on and say: “Guess we’re lucky we’re still just mechanics, huh?”. Shit, if looks could kill, he would have died, come back to life and died like three times.
He just had to push our buttons, because I just then shouted, “Shit, man! We always say ‘next year’. Next year isn’t guaranteed anymore. If I die as a mechanic who only talked about helping, I’ll never forgive myself.” They were all quiet until Paul just said: “So… we sign up today?”. He sounded so calm, that we all looked at each other and then back at him and nodded.
The rest of the day’s work was normal, awkward – but we finished our tasks. We then grabbed our things, bags, and all headed out together. We didn’t talk on the way to the registration center. I guess we were trying to muster up all the courage we needed to fill in those papers…I think if any of us had said anything, we might have ended up brushing off this idea like a joke and continued our lives as mechanics…until next year.
At the registration stand, the lights were humming, the radio was playing in the background and the clerk looked bored as hell. With a monotonous “next”, we all went up and they handed us 4 papers. We all grabbed a pen, and began to fill in our forms. Every now and then one of us would let out a shaky breath. Once we were all done, we went up – together cuz we’re a bunch of scared kids – and handed them in.
Chris was the first one to break the silence with a “we finally did it,” which was something we were all still processing. Then David said with a light chuckle, “Too late to back out now, man. You’d have to fight the clerk to get your paper back!”. Then Paul replied, “I don’t know if it’s bravery or stupidity. But it’s done.” We all agreed and then said our goodbyes.
All the way back home I kept cycling through emotions — nervous, happy, anxious, shocked, then nervous again.
Shiiiiit.
Now we only just have to wait…can’t be too hard, right? I just hope to get a good night’s rest, but I doubt it.
-John
