Experiment X

10 | The Training Begins

PhAsE ThReE | tRaInInG

10 | The Training Begins 

    Swirling darkness. Fire in the night. There’s voices. Screaming. The dog’s barking, again. Crying. The sound of a woman: what is she saying? It’s almost as if she can barely make it out—but then it is gone! Suddenly, she has the sensation of someone grabbing her, and the feeling of falling, hearing her own scream— 

    “Hey—hey, wake up—”

   Emberly shudders; her eyes flinging open: she blinks, gasping for air. When she comes to, she sees the person who had shaken her awake had been him. The Number 2 kid. His hands are still clasping her tenderly around her arms, concern in his eyes—and then he realizes he’s been holding on for too long.

   “Oh, I’m sorry,” he mutters, letting his slender arms drop, and he inches away. Emberly rubs her forehead, shaking her head.

   “No, it’s okay,” she whispers. “Don’t worry about it.”

   “Yeah, it’s just you were screaming…I mean you just woke me up, and I became worried…so…”

   Her mouth involuntarily opens, and she stares at him absently. “Screamed…?”

   He nods slowly. “Yeah…You were calling out for someone.”

   “I was?” she says, oblivious. Why do I know nothing of this? “What did I say, do you remember? Anything?”

   “Well…It was just…Please help me, please…Please don’t…And that’s all I heard, before I woke you up.” Kel is sitting across from her, his legs crossed, his brow furrowed.

   “Oh,” she says dumbly. Suddenly, Emberly feels her heart begin to race, pulse into her brain. Why had she been screaming? What would she have said if he had not awakened her…

   A strange silence settles between them, and Emberly swallows, attempting to control her breathing. Her hands are already sweaty. They are supposed to be resting…So much for that. But she does feel spent, after over twelve hours of shooting fire from her hands, and Kel deflecting the blasts with his invisible force fields. It had become really old, thus the reason in stopping for their rest. They only get one resting period through the entire training process the Voice had told them, before they were assigned their partner for the Tournament that looms before them all, like an inescapable ominous, black cloud. To soon ensnare them all.

   And luckily enough she got paired with the number two kid. Three would be with four. Four with five, and so on—except for the thirteenth, whoever that is, for some reason. The training period lasts for only three days, and then they would be evaluated by the Whitecoats before being thrown into the arena.

   One day has already passed, she guesses because the digital clock that had appeared once the training began and Kel had been issued into her Whitecell, is already down to fourty-eight hours. There’s no other way to tell time here. No sun. No day. No night.    

   Kel doesn’t look to Emberly, when he speaks, “Are you tired anymore?”

   She shakes her head in her in disapproval. “No…I don’t feel anything…” she mutters. “And that’s what scares me.”

   Kel is silent for a long time, and then he says quietly, “Me    

   “What else are we supposed to do? What can we do?” Emberly questions, more to herself than anyone.

   “I don’t know,” he replies shrugging, and his deep eyes flicker over her. “I’m just…Well, glad I’m not alone anymore.”

   Something then blossoms inside Emberly, a fiery awakening; and, her cheeks warm, blush with rosy color. “Yeah me too.” She grins. It’s a true smile. Not forced.