1 Chapter 1 Fight

January

In the crowd of school children walking to school a small boy stops on the low bridge to scan the stream below. The other children pass by blowing on their mittens to warm their hands. Two boys began a snowball fight lobbing them at the girls. An older girl stops to reprimand them before she turns her attention to the small boy.

"Mike don't lean over you might fall in." She said. His mother had paid her to watch over him during their daily commute from the apartment complex and the school. The boy had a habit of wandering away at whatever looked interesting. "I'm okay Mary the stream is all ice. Besides tomorrow I won't be four anymore." Mike said proudly.

After arriving at school the general confusion was evident as students exchanged coats for books. Mary has to help Mike here as well escorting him to his class. She winked at the teacher as she said "He's all yours."

Lined up for breakfast each student grabs a mini cereal bow and a small carton of milk. Mike grabs his cereal and s carton of orange juice as his mother told him milk makes him sick. The other students make fun of him. His only freind a little girl surnamed Konigsdottir sits beside him. She hadn't poured her milk onto her cereal as did the other children. She daintily nibbles on her cereal between sips of her milk. She like Mike is the smallest student in class. The other children from ethnic Northern stock tower over her.

A older boy walked over to them at recess. "You killed my brother!!!" He shouted before punching Mike in the face. Mike was surprisingly sturdy as he received the boys blows. He did not fight back. His mother told him not to fight anyone as his father would spank him if he did. Konigsdottir interfered by calling for the teacher.

The teacher intervened and after finding out what happened she told the boy that Mike did not in fact kill his brother as he was only four. Besides the teacher said it was only a coincidence that Mike resembles the enemy with his brown hair and tanned skin. Mike's blue eyes were his only redeeming feature. So much like the other children with blue cornflower eyes and blond hair.

***

Mike woke from his dream. It had been a memory from his childhood. A place that smelled good and had four seasons. That was ten years ago. Since then the war ended and his father came home. He had several field promotions from captain to colonel.

His father's reward was a home in the new border wall complex. The country's leader had decided to expand on the existing southern border wall turning it into the longest apartment complex in the world. Considering several hundred trillions of gold pieces that went into that titanic program it was remarkable that it would be given away to veterans as a thank you for their services.

However, having thousands of experienced war veterans defending their homes proved effective at curbing the stream of illegal border crossings. Over five thousand troops with their families moved into the complex of apartments, stores, restaurants, services and three line electric monorails fed by the outside solar films attached to the enormous wind blades. With numerous indoor vertical gardens along the way the BW Complex was nearly self sufficient.

***

Mike had been assigned to a new cohort of students. Like him they were physically tough and enjoyed the mandatory hand to hand combat classes. He was paired up for training with a girl that vaguely reminded him of Konigsdottir. Though he hadn't seen her in a couple of years they kept in touch weekly using the old cyber cloud network.

She came at him hard and fast lunging with her Bowie knife. Mike's reaction was simply to side step her to avoid her attack. "Hey the instructor didn't say to begin yet" Mike complained. She ignored him as she slashed out. Mike gave her a quick ax kick to her wrist disarming her before following with a palm strike to her chest. He didn't like fighting girls they were too vicious and vindictive. Better to just take her out before she gets the idea that she can win. Mike quickly followed with a double step of the wind and gave her an overnight punch. He called it overnight since his opponent would be unconscious until tomorrow. After several matches he sent seven others to the infirmary.

Checking the time he realized he was late in picking up his siblings. They were preschoolers and probably crying their eyes out.

One of the first things his father did after getting out of the army was increase the family from three to eight with adopting his deceased major's two kids, Scott and Mary.

Mary used to watch him when he was a boy and Scott just turned eight. Mike hopped on and off the hover lifts until he reached the preschool. Sure enough the twins were crying and blaming him for being late. Again.

"Sorry guys. Let's go home mom is making your favorite and Mary is bringing her new boyfriend."

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