The Institution // Mac Harmon //

Chapter 2

Hi guys! It's Elyssa <3 I'm writing this chapter so I hope you like it!

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Farah's eyes slid open. It was dark, and cold. She didn't know how she got there. All she could remember was the people breaking into her house. She remembered screaming, and then black. All black.

She was laying down, on her back. Her eyes scanned the area with no luck of seeing anything. The darkness consumed it all. She lifted her hands up to feel around. Her hands glided along a rough material above her. She felt the material at her sides too.

"Is any body there?" She called to the silence.

Nothing.

She yelled again, with no luck in a response.

She heard a slight bang, and sunlight washed through the small box that she could now see was holding her. She quickly turned invisible, not knowing what might be out there.

Soon, she saw a man's face. It was very unfamiliar to her, with a brown beard and cold, hard eyes. His eyebrows bushed, and his hair long and scraggly.

"This one is empty!" He called to someone nearby.

When no one answered, the man left to report to someone. With that, Farah stepped out of the coffin-like box, and looked around at her surroundings.

Trees. Just trees. Everywhere. In every direction. There was something else too. Boxes. Thousands of them, just like hers.

She walked to the nearest box and began prying the lid off, but without a crowbar it was no use. She turned towards the box she had emerged from. Sitting next to it was a giant, steel crowbar.

Huh, yeah they won't think weird of that will they? Just a giant floating crowbar. Perfectly normal.

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Mac yelled and pushed with all his might, but he couldn't get the thing containing him open. Darkness swallowed him whole. He yelled again, but received nothing in return. He groaned, feeling defeated. Just as he gave up, he heard a small creek. Then another, but far louder. In an instant, the box was filled with sunlight. Mac reached up and pulled himself out of the coffin shaped box, and looked around.

Mac couldn't see who had pulled off the lid of the box and saved him.

"Hello?" He said hesitantly.

"Hi." He heard a female voice say. Mac still couldn't see anyone.

"Oh gosh I'm dead. I died and I'm talking to God. Oh gosh I'm dead what do I do? Am I in heaven? I died and now I'm in heaven." Mac said dropping to his knees.

"Um..."

"With all do respect, God, but since when are you female?"

"I'm not God, buddy, you can take it easy."

"Then where are you?"

"Over here." Farah said, to make Mac look in the opposite direction, so she could become visible again without him knowing she was there all along.

She re-appeared

"Oh! There you are!" Mac said cheerfully. The girl was fairly short, but she had dark brown hair and interesting coloured eyes.

"Here I am. I'm Farah by the way." Farah rolled her eyes, getting irritated quickly.

Mac brushed it off. "Mac. What are these peoples problem? Who are they? Why did they take us? Where are we?

"I don't know. Help me open more boxes before the guy comes back. Maybe we can demand a way out."

"What guy?" Mac said.

Farah shivered at the thought. "Just, let's hurry."

Mac and Farah walked to the next nearest box. Together, they began to pry it open.

When the lid popped off, the girl inside hopped out and said her thank you's. She then helped with the next box.

"Oh and, you helping me with these boxes, doesn't make us friends." Farah told Mac.

They got through three boxes before Farah noticed the group of people heading towards them. She nudged Mac's arm.

"They are coming." Farah said.

Mac turned his head to look. "Let's hope they are friendly."

"They aren't. I could tell in his eyes."

"Maybe that's just him."

When the group of adults reached them, they didn't look mad. Instead they looked relieved.

"Come with me." The scary man said to the five kids. "The rest will meet us there."

Mac, Farah, and the three other strangers followed.

Silently, they made their way through a crowd of trees, and into a huge Colosseum. The fenced area stopped just past the Colosseum.

The five of them headed through the grand doors and into a huge white room with random obstacles and weapons.

"Okay, are you going to tell us what we're here for already?" One of the girls said.

"Well, there have been rumours of a war. A war like no other. If the enemy strikes and we fight back, it will only end when everyone in the world is dead. So we need you guys. You will be trained in groups of seven." One of the hard faced adults said.

"Why us though?" Farah said.

"I think you know why we chose you guys." Another adult said. "All of you are between the ages of 13-19, so no excluding when you are assigned a group."

Just when the instructor finished talking, the next group of teens walked through the door. They looked confused as ever. There must have been over a thousand teens there. 

The instructor repeated what he had told the group before.

Then he finished with something new, "Your training will start tomorrow. 6 o'clock in the morning. Sharp. The names of the group that you'll be training with will be in the mail slot of your dorms. Right now, you are getting handed an envelope. In there is the number of your dorm room. Girls on right, Boys on left. If you are to be found in the wrong dorm hall, you are to be punished. Any questions?"

"Yes," A boy from the second group spoke up, "How long will this be going on for? And do our parents know where we are?"

There was a wave of hushed voices.

"Quiet. You will be training for six weeks. Your parents do not know where you are located, no one does, but they do know that you are in great care. Any more questions?"

The room stayed quiet.

"Off to your dorms then."

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Thanks for reading this chapter! The story will get even more amazing than this! Ju and Des will make it the best!

~ Elyssa