I was unimpressed.

As far as military bases went, this wasn’t what I was expecting. Granted, other than some action movies, I’d never seen a military base, so maybe they were all sparse and under-populated.

August left me in the car, saying he needed to arrange things for me. That was fine with me. I cycled through the radio listening to the occasional snatch of music in-between the doom and gloom reports on the news. There weren’t that many stations playing anything but news, or people yelling their opinions about who was at fault for the “entities”. I eventually drifted off only to be woken by a rap on my window. I jerked awake, startled.

August was standing there, with a burly, hairless soldier behind him. “Miss Delaney,” August said, “This is Private Michael Stone. He’s going to show you around and get you settled in your barracks. I’m told most of the other women are currently out, but there is an induction this evening. Sound good? I’ve got some paperwork to deal with and then I need to have some discussions with the base captain.”

“Yeah, whatever,” I said, getting out of the car.

I looked this Stone up and down. He was a big guy, but he looked all muscle. His shaved head and sharp features gave him an intimidating air. He couldn’t have been more than a year or two older than me. All that menace drained away when he smiled and said in a deep, Southern drawl, “Excuse me, ma’am, if you’ve got anything I’ll be happy to get it for you.”

“Um, thanks,” I said, getting out of the car. “This is pretty much me.”

“Well, follow me, ma’am. I’ll give you the penny tour.”

“You know, you don’t have to call me ma’am. I’m not that old, I’m younger than you.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said.

The tour didn’t last long. Most of the base looked like what I’d already seen. Other than some facilities that he explained, and a helicopter landing pad outback in a place cleared of trees, there was not much to this place.

“How many people are on the base?” I asked as we walked.

“Oh? I’d guess less than a hundred. Mostly us. Um, soldiers I mean. There’s not that many of you guys yet. Maybe twenty or so? Plus we are supposed to get a new handful today.”

“How long has the base been here?”

“Well, Camp Matthews is fairly old. I think it was a training camp back in the 1800s. But it was mothballed a few decades ago. It only got reopened in March I think.”

“For us?” I asked, surprised that it went back that far.

Stone looked uncomfortable. “I don’t know if I should say, ma’am.”

“Right,” I said, “Of course not. So, what are they going to do with us?”

His face flushed a little, “I don’t think I can really talk about that either. Besides, they’ll tell you later tonight.”

“Ah, you’re no fun.”

Smirking, he said, “I don’t think that’s true.”

“Oh? And just what is there around here to do for fun?” I asked.

“Not much, honestly, but we make the best of it. You play poker?”

“Not really.”

“Blackjack?”

I shrugged, “Not so much.”

“I’m guessing you don’t role-play?”

“I’ve not had the chance to play video games since sophomore year.”

“No, that’s not…,” he stopped, sighing. “Ah, Ok. Yeah, I guess I’m not much fun then.”

I laughed, but it did not last long. “Private Stone, can I ask you a question?”

“Of course, ma’am.”

“Do you know what’s going on? Here, with us?”

He looked at me for a moment. “Things are pretty rough out there. . We’ve… I mean, the army, has been feeling pretty useless. How do you fight an angel?” His gaze had drifted far from me but quickly returned. "They say that if this project works, we’ll be back in the game. If it works, maybe we can get off our ass and start kicking some.” His eyes shone with a feeling I understood. Then he reddened slightly, “Excuse my language, ma’am.”

I ran over what he said, trying to figure out what he had said that made him concerned. Then, when I realized what it was, I started laughing. “You’re fucking kidding, right?”

His face got redder and he looked away.

“Oh, sorry,” I said, trying not to laugh. “I’m just not used to people watching what they say around me. It’s a bit,” I waved my hand in the air, trying to think of how to put it politely, “old fashioned.”

He shrugged. “Just how my grandmother raised me. But if you don’t have a problem with it, that’s fine.” We walked a few more minutes before stopping. “This is your place,” he said, ending the tour in front of one of the squat barracks. “Plenty of free bunks in there so I think you should just pick the one you like. This is the end of the tour, so I guess I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” I said, grinning before going into the barrack. Looking around, I was struck by the similarity between this room and my hospital room. Granted, it was bigger and had windows, but it also lacked any sense of comfort or hominess. It was bare and sterile, empty, except for a few bunks that had some clothes hanging in the lockers next to them. Looking around to make sure I was alone, I looked through the other girls’ things. I was curious about what they might be like. Unfortunately, my snooping revealed little. One of the bunk lockers had several pieces of pink and light-colored clothing, while another looked like it belonged to someone into earth tones and tie-dye, but the others just had a mixture of normal stuff, clothing, and toiletries. Very few personal objects materialized to help me get a sense of who they were.

I picked a bunk near the populated ones but gave myself a few beds of space between me and them. I had no idea what they would be like and, other than my hospital stay, it had been a while since I’d had any privacy.

Sitting on the cot I found it as scratchy and uncomfortable as I’d imagined it would be. The place smelled of dust and old wood and mold, with a whiff of industrial cleanser. Yeah, this place was going to be a great place to stay.

Surrounded by the emptiness, I felt very small. Since the attack, I’d been cut off from the world and I was not sure I would ever get a chance to reconnect. If I did, what would there be left to connect to? I wondered about some of the people I knew at school. I had a few acquaintances and I wondered what, if anything, had happened to them. I wondered if we would have anything to talk about if we met again, or if I was too different now to fit into their world. I mean, was I even human anymore?

Since I was staying at a shelter now instead of with a family, I doubted that anyone really missed me. Maybe Debra’s mom and dad, but probably not. They had a much larger grief to deal with than concern themselves with me. Did they hate me because she was out with me when it happened?

I didn’t have much of a world before this happened. What I did have, the angels took away. I might as well have died on the rink for all the life I had left.

I hated them so much.

It didn’t matter what these people wanted me to do, didn’t matter what they were going to do to me.

I decided right then I was going to do whatever it took if it meant I would get a chance, no matter how small, to hurt them.

I was going to tear the wings off an angel.

A knock pulled me out of my despair. Stone was standing at the doorway. “Are you okay ma’am?”

I rubbed my eyes, angry to find them wet. “Yeah, I’m just fine. What can I do for you?”

“I’ve been sent to get you. There’s just enough time to grab some food in the mess and I think they are starting the induction in half an hour. They want all of you to report to the demonstration room over there,” he said, indicating one of the larger buildings on the base.

Well, well, now we were getting somewhere. Finally, they were going to start telling me something useful.

“Ok, Private Stone, lead the way.”

We walked across the ground, heading towards one of the larger buildings. Though he was far taller than me, I had no trouble keeping up with Stone.

“Aren’t you cold?” he asked.

I shrugged. “No, not really.”

“Is it because…,” he started to ask, but stopped. “Never mind.”

“No, it’s ok,” I said, figuring I knew what he didn’t want to ask me. “I don’t know. I’ve never been bothered by the cold. So I don’t think it’s because of the… incident.”

“Ah,” he said, nodding. “Sorry, that was impolite of me.”

“What?” I said. “You show some interest in a girl and that’s ‘impolite’? Must be really hard for you to get a date.”

Stone flushed red. I couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m just messing with you, don’t be so serious.”

I think he was too embarrassed to say anything else for the rest of the walk.

The mess hall, from outside, didn’t look much different than the barracks. Maybe a bit bigger, but not much. It had that same ‘brown paint’ chic. Stone pushed open one of the double doors and stood aside, letting me through first.

Rows of tables ran the length of the building, looking for all the world like a high school cafeteria, only with shabbier furniture. People were dotted about the room, mostly other soldiers in green. Sprinkled among the crowd were a handful of men and women wearing normal clothes. They were isolated from the rest of the eaters, not sitting near anyone or each other.

And as one, they all looked up at me as I walked into the room.

A wave hit me, overwhelming electricity in the air. Heat pulsed through me, spreading over my body. My nipples pulsed, erect, with each beat of my heart. I grabbed the nearest wall as my knees turned to water.

“Whoa there, are you okay?” Stone asked.

“Yeah, fine, I just ah, felt woozy.” Their eyes were on me, watching me, penetrating me. I stared back and saw that same reaction reflected back at me in twenty eyes.

What…the…fuck?

“Um, I think I need to sit down,” I said. “Would you get me something to eat and, ah, sit with me?” I felt weird asking. Hell, I felt weird all over. I didn’t know what was going on, but I didn’t want to get any closer to any of those others.

I didn’t know what we might do if we did.

I fell onto a nearby bench and waited for Stone to come back. I tried not to look at the others, and I noticed them doing the same. Most went back to eating or eyeing the other civilians. They all had that haunted, hungry look. It was weird, they ranged in age from teenagers younger than me up to maybe people just hitting their thirties. Were they other recruits?

Stone returned with two trays of joy. One had a burger, hotdog, and some kind of pasta dish on it, as well as fries, mashed potatoes, and vegetables. He set that in front of me. “I didn’t know what you liked so I got you some of everything, just in case.”

I looked at the mountain of food and though it looked like the standard cafeteria fare, it smelled delicious to me. My stomach growled and I grabbed the burger. I thought I’d drool if I didn’t shove it in my mouth pronto.

It was heavenly. The taste was far better than the quality had any right too. Hunger does amazing things.

Between mouthfuls of food, I asked in a hushed voice, “Who are those other people over there?”

Stone glanced around and then shrugged. “I think they’re Changed like you.”

“Wait, what?” I asked, nearly spitting out another bite of food.

“Um, yeah, I’m pretty sure they’re Changed. Why?”

“Because they’re making me feel pretty damn weird, that’s why.”

“Ah, that,” he said.

“Ah, that, what?” I asked, dropping the burger. “Do you know anything?”

He shrugged, fidgeting. “Well, it’s just rumors.”

I stared at him. What was I going to have to do to make this boy spit it out? “Look, I’m pretty freaked out right now so if you know something that might put me at ease, I’d really appreciate it if you’d share.”

“Ah, well, it’s just…there have been a few… incidents since we started bringing Changed here, especially the newer ones. Hard to say why, or if it even has anything to do with them being, well, you know, like you are. I mean, I’m sure they’ll tell you all this later, about the precautions and all…”

“Would you spit it out?” I hissed.

He flinched and I kind of regretted talking to him like that. Staring me in the eyes he said, “They are saying you guys...have an effect on each other.” He couldn’t hold my gaze and looked back at his food as he mumbled, “At least some of you.”

“Why are they saying that?” I asked. I tried to make my voice softer and less demanding but I don’t know if he bought it.

Stone paused and really looked at me. I don’t know what he was looking for or why all the pauses. I guess he found it because he finally started talking. “There’s been a few...incidents. At first, they chalked it up to stress. But the Changed were reporting it as well. Something about being around each other, it brings out...strong emotions. Drives some of them crazy around each other. Others it doesn’t seem to affect. They’ve complained of feeling anxious or angry or…” he blushed again.

“Or what?”

He coughed. “Some of you seem to have an increased...sex drive...around each other. They tried to isolate the genders but, that doesn’t really stop it with some of them. Kind of an outdated assumption, honestly. Anyway, it’s caused fights and, um, other incidents between the Changed.”

Now it was my turn to just stare, mouth agape. And not just because mister awkward was surprisingly progressive. When I regained control, I asked, “Have you seen this? I mean, does it really happen?”

He shook his head. “Naw, I’m new here, like you. I was with the second wave of soldiers assigned to the base. I’ve only been here for a few days. But you know, stuff like this travels fast.”

Even now, some of their eyes were on me. Was it simply because I was new and they were curious or were they feeling this uncomfortable yearning that I felt? How the hell were we supposed to operate feeling like this?

Then a cold chill crawled up my spine. I’d already experienced this. Had experienced it several times. I can’t believe he didn’t fucking tell me.

August was one of us. August was Changed.