2634: Dalmore

Chapter 8

"Mutants occur in a variety of sizes and shapes. Some are hairy, some are slimy, and some are nearly human in appearance, but they are all ranked on the same scale. This scale is known as the Mutant Classification, and it has ten phases. Stage 1 Mutants aren't so horrible; it could kill you, but it's unlikely. A stage ten Mutant, on the other hand will guarantee death in an instant or a protracted, agonising one," Jaxon explains. We are now gathered around him in the Training Room. The room’s wall is draped in black wallpaper decorated with small rhombus patterns. Light pours in from two large windows positioned at the two widths of the room. The light falls upon the bronze weapons shining with malice lined along the walls. In the centre of the room there is a large platform, just like the one back from camp. “Before you attack a Mutant, you need to identify the stage of the Mutant. You can do this by using your long range weapons. For example, this crossbow,” Jaxon paces over to one of the weapon racks, pulling up a crossbow, “When you see a Mutant, you look into the scope of the weapon. Above the target aim, a small number should be shown. This number is the stage of the Mutant,”
Jaxon walks past us and steps onto the platform. Pressing a button on his keychain, the clear walls rise up around him, just like back at camp. We see a Mutant taking shape at the opposite end of where Jaxon stands. Instantly, it charges at Jaxon, this Mutant looks different to the ones that Acres Valley generates. This one looks real. Jaxon shoots the crossbow, it does nothing but the Mutant takes time to pick out the arrow off its chest. Whilst it does so, Jaxon moves behind the creature and kicks it down. The Mutant tries to pull itself up but Jaxon is already straddling the thing which is now roaring in rage. Jaxon gets his crossbow up to its head and fires with accuracy. The monster disintegrates into pixel blocks, leaving Jaxon alone on the platform. “This simulation will result in real injuries, thats a little different this time. So be careful and aim for precision,” Jaxon heeds an admonition, “The arrows on this crossbow are specially designed to kill Mutants rated 1 to 7. However, the higher the stage is, the more accurate you have to shoot towards an organ. Any questions or shall we start?” Everyone shakes their head with awe. “I will sort you into groups of 5 and I don't want any complaining,” A few names later and very much to my dismay, Jaxon speaks up, “Ares, Adria, Cormac, Reyna, Ephiel, you're group 3,” I’m with Ares, who will most definitely be doing something that will annoy me to no end.
Ares and I gather near one of the windows, three other people who I assume are Cormac, Reyna and Ephiel soon join.
“This has to be the coolest thing we’ve ever done…ever,” One of the girls squeaks.
“It isn't a real Mutant,” Cormac replies in a snarky tone and receiving a glare.
“Ephiel means in general,” The other girl, Reyna, fires back.
“Make sure you work together as a group. When you get your actual groups you're going to have to work together. Group 1, it's your turn,” Five people lurking in a corner hesitantly step onto the platform.
They hold their crossbows next to their necks, their stances are positioned perfectly as if they are an army about to wade through a barrier.
“Make sure you're ready, I don’t want any cuts and bruises,”Jaxon yells.
His hand twists on a lever and the platform raises the walls. Mutants slowly start to form as I listen to the growls of the Mutants, they make soft noises. Almost like a weird melody. I noticed one of the girls' crossbow serving is entwined with the cables. It is not going to be a good day for her.
These mutants are slimy creatures, covered in a species of moss about six feet tall. They claw at one of the girls, who dives to the side. Rolling upwards when one of the mutants scratches her in her face sending her whimpering backwards in agony. The boy shoots the crossbow and it severs right through the Mutants head sending a screech throughout the room. I place my hands on top of my ears.
“Bloody hell…it's strong for a stage 2,” I hear one of the boys say.
The girl with the serving entwined with the cable is suddenly shot out of the air sending her toppling back on the platform. The Mutant races towards her, still growling. An arrow slices through it’s rib cage, leaving the Mutant dropping into pixelation. I walk over to the lever to see what Jaxon is controlling, he steps in front of me. I raise my eyebrow.
I ask Jaxon, “If it’s this hard to kill a stage two, what’s it like to kill a stage ten?”
He replies, “No one has killed a ten and lived, the closest they come to is a nine and most of them ended up with disabilities,”
“Why can’t we kill all of them in one shot like an explosion?”
“We have limited land, we can't blow them up without damaging the land. Also they reproduce, which is why, all we can do is push them back,” He answers.
“If they reproduce, won’t they invade the whole world?”
“They’ve already started reproducing along the edges of Dalmore,”
“Then why aren’t we dead?”
“We’re not dead because we’ve had to evolve and so have they. When this started there were probably only level five mutants,” Sounding a bit more irritated.
“Why-”
Jaxon cuts in, “Group two, you’re turn up,”
Group one steps off the platform. Some of them have minor bruises and cuts. One of the girls shoots me a vulgar look. Ignoring it, I look back at Jaxon.
“Why couldn’t they have one mutant fight one person so we could have killed them all?”
“Even stage one mutants have twice the human strength as dumb as they are, they could rip us to shreds without proper training.”
“But-”
“Enough questions, I don’t have all the answers, Adria-”
I quickly add, “So why can’t we find a nest or something-”
“We’ve studied these Mutants and they show no patterns or anything. Now go and get ready with your group”.
I head back to our group. What the hell does it mean the Mutants show no patterns? My eyes scan the room, looking for a crossbow.
“Here,” A voice says. I turn around, Ares is standing behind me with two crossbows. I take one of them and ask,“Why are you trying to be nice? I thought the whole point of your existence was to aggravate people,”.
“Well someone has to be team leader while you flirt with Jaxon over there,” He sniggers.
I shot him a stare, “For your information, I was trying to get answers”
“So how did it go?” Ares whispers.
“Terrible,” I mutter still thinking of a way to destroy most of the Mutants.
“Group three, you're next!” I hear Jaxon call out.
I storm off, not looking back at Ares and make my way to the platform. Ares stands next to Cormac as Reyna and Ephiel stand next to each other, both with crossbows, slightly elevated above their chest. Great, they're holding it wrong.
“You guys stand as a distraction, I’ll shoot them,” Cormac orders. I roll my eyes.
“Who made you boss,” Ares argues.
“I should be the leader!” Reyna argues. Her voice sounds like plastic.
“Hell no!” Ares says.
“Better than you being the leader,” Ephiel mutters.
“We can all agree, I'm the leader,” Cormac says.
“No!” They all say.
“I wanna be the leader,” Ephiel argues.
“Shut up all of you, we’re going to kill the Mutants, not fight about who’s going to be the leader,” The four of them glare at me, although knowing what I said is true. Jaxon pulls the lever and the Mutants’ holographic bodies start to form. I hear a growl. These Mutants look scaly and about the size of half a human. There are six figures in total all looking directly at us with bloodthirsty eyes. I hold up the crossbow, looking through the scope. A red 3 appears on each scaly Mutant. If the last group had problems with the stage 2 ones, I wonder how we’ll fare with the ones rated stage 3. Not to mention how dysfunctional our group is. Reyna fires her crossbow, which only angers the Mutants. Before the Mutants charge towards us, Cormac races towards them, kicking one in the head and straddling it. Another Mutant grabs his head and shakes it violently, I come in closer, firing every few seconds. I grab the arm of the Mutant which was shaking Cormac’s arm and twist it. Ares, Reyna and Ephiel start attacking. I fire at one Mutant’s head which was pinned down by Ares and it falls away in pixels, my first kill. Just as I am about to turn around, a force pushes me onto the ground. A Mutant is about ten centimeters from my face. That is when someone jumps on top of the Mutant. I feel it’s slimy face come in contact with mine. Whoever jumped on top of the Mutant, shoots it and I am left lying on the ground with a slobbery kiss. Getting up, I bump into Reyna who pins me against the wall of the platform.
“Oi, teamwork. Reyna lets go!” Jaxon yells, Reyna’s grip on me intenses, “Now!” Reyna lets go and I sprint away from her. I continue to fire four more arrows, managing to shoot one in the heart. Three more left. Ares and Ephiel are having a hard time fighting one, which is attempting to rip out Cormac’s throat. I come in and help, punching it in the stomach. My fist throbs in pain, the creature’s body is harder than Ares’ stomach. Cormac steadies his crossbow and fires it at the Mutant’s chest. As the pixel cubes drift away, Reyna is left fighting the two remaining monsters. I tackle one to the ground and attempt to choke it. I am almost about to succeed when I feel a tugging on my neck. It’s tail is choking me, I can feel the blood circulation being cut off. I try loosening its grasp in vain. Cormac shoots the Mutant in the head and the pain is relieved as the particles fall away. We all turn to face the last Mutant, although knowing that it is outnumbered, it does not give in. It makes an ear-piercing roar and just as it is about to pounce up onto one of us, we all jump on top of it. As it is pinned down on the ground, Ares gets up and shoots it in the face. The particles sift away. It's over, I relax a little knowing that we did well.
I stand up and make my way back down, as group four makes their way up the platform pushing past my shoulder.
“See and that’s why I should be team leader,” I hear Ares yelling at Reyna, who rolls her eyes. “Yes, from now on, I will be team leader” He puffs out his chest proudly. Cormac and Ephiel, who are most likely listening to the conversation, start to argue with Ares.
“Why do you get to be anything, you're so pathetic?” Corman sneers.
“Wow, here I thought, I wouldn’t be stuck with pathetic idiots,” Ephiel mutters irritably.
“Oh would you all shut up?” I ask butting in. The four stare at me and I continue, “The fact is, we’re not meant to be team leaders so we call a damn truce and try to survive!”
Reyna flicks her hair back, “Oh stop being so dramatic”. I storm off, making my way to Jaxon, who’d already been speaking to the rest of group 5. 
“Group six, you're up,” Jaxon calls out.
“So you put me in a group full of control freaks, thanks,” I mutter.
“Don't act like you're not one. I put you with them because you're all control freaks,” He answers.
“No I'm not, you should have put me with group...four,” I take closer looks at the groups to find the one that has the least injuries. Jaxon replies with a look which reads ‘you are’. “No, I'm not!” I snap. Jaxon sighs at my response, “Anyways, if I were controlling, which I'm not, just for the record. Why would you put us all together?”
“Similarities are good, but some aren't. A group of control freaks would be a suicide but you need to get over that. This grouping is a ‘bonding activity’ if you will,”
“So you put not compatible together so they bond instead of a total suicide?”
“Yeah,” He answers. I have no idea what to say to that.
“Hey Jaxon,” Reyna slides over, twirling her hair on her fingers, sending me a dirty look. I respond with a disgusted look, leaving the two.
“I think we did good,” Ares says when I approach him.
“If there wasn't that argument,” I respond. 
“It's not a problem,” Cormac says, joining in.
“Then what is it?”
“Its...its a minor issue,”
I fake cough, “Problem,”
“Group seven, you're up,” Jaxon yells. I look over and Reyna is still trying to flirt, now trying to hold hands with him. Jaxon attempts to walk away but Reyna follows him like the common cold.
“Reyna’s having a fun time,” Ares muses.
“Yeah, she’s literally throwing herself at him,”
“Talking about throwing things, I still haven't gotten to throw hell at Zion yet,”
“Will you stop? Zion is innocent. Innocent till proven guilty,” I quote.
“For now…” Ares trails off.
“What are you talking about,” I completely forgot Cormac is here.
“Nothing,” I say.
“You sure? It sure seems like this Zion person was doing something bad,”
“No, no she wasn't,”
“You want to know what I think?”
“No, Cormac, no, I don't want to know what you think,”
“Well I’m going to say it anyway. I think you're lying,”
“No surprise,” I mutter.
“Oh, so you agree?”
“Yeah, Cormac, I am lying, what are you going to do about it,”
“I'm going to tell,”
“Tell who?”
“Feyrer,”
“He won't help you,” I laugh.
“Why not?” Cormac pries even further.
“Group eight!” Jaxon yells.
“I still think I should be team leader,” Ephiel joins in, which now sends a chain reaction of protests from Reyna who apparently hears it from across the room.
“It's not permanent. Anyways it won't matter tomorrow when we get our actual groups that actually matter,” I try calm down the situation.
“Everything matters,” Reyna says.
“Especially Jaxon apparently,” I mutter.
“Of course,” She pipes up. Not even a bit ashamed, is she?
Giving up, I look over at group eight. The group looks to be having a hard time killing off the Mutants. One boy is being choked whilst another three kids are being chased by a Mutant. On the plus side only two of those monsters remained.
“Oof, they’re so dead,” Ares comments.
“Dead? More like ripped,” Cormac sniggers. 
“OK, OK, stop,” Jaxon says, panicking and switches the simulator off. “Well we’re going to go take a break and do some jet riding next. Each group will be riding a jet. I’ll be riding with group eight because of some of their injuries-”
“Why wont you go with us, Jaxy? I'm hurt,” Reyna whimpers.
“But each group will have their own team leader,” Jaxon says, ignoring Reyna and looking directly at the rest of our group. Oh great, picking the team captain. “You’ll be in the same groups as you were before,” He continues.
I make my way to the team who are keeping far away from each other.
A while later, we’re standing outside, listening to our next instructions.
“OK, I’m going to start calling out groups and names. The name of this person will be the leader for your group today,” Jaxon begins to call out names, “Group three, Ares,” My heart stops, no. I feel my face draining colour. Not him, he’ll kill us all.
“Okay so now we’ll make our way to the jets. Follow group eight and I,” Jaxon calls, getting into a jet with group eight.
I follow the rest of my group who are already meters ahead of me. So I start speeding up to the jet.
When I get in, everyone is already seated. That left me next to Ares, in the front. I hop in and turn to see a gleaming Ares who is smirking with pride. Jaxon and the others are already strapped in.
“Just follow me, it’s about a 10km flight so not that far out,” I hear Jaxon’s voice. I thought he was with group eight?
“It's through the P.A system, idiot,” Cormac says, I flush red at my stupidity.
Jaxon’s jet begins to move and Ares presses a button, my grip on the edge of the seat tightens.
“Oh god we’re gonna die,” Cormac says.
“Oh shut up!” Reyna and Ephiel both yell.
I can see Reyna, Ephiel and Cormac are both in the same tense position as I am.
The jet stays near the ground but it’s fast, Jaxon is in front of us turning all over the place. I look out to the left, scanning the area, I can see broken buildings and nuclear damaged grass, the sky is gray with pollution. What shocks me the most is the dead bodies laid across the ground. The jet moves faster and suddenly, Ares slams the breaks. My head flings forward but my seat belt stops me. Well the end could have been smoother but it was better than my first.
“Thank you for taking the Ares express,”Ares smiles.
“Yeah- 5 star rating,” Ephiel says with a hint of sarcasm.
After coming to the realization that I survived, I jump out of the jet heading towards Jaxon. He has already gotten out of his jet and is standing by a toppled pizza shop. The rest of Niyth gather around Jaxon and as we near him, “This is the deserted New Orleans,” The gestures, “All around us, you can see the barren wasteland filled with Mutants,”
“What happened here?” One of the boys asks, gesturing at the damage.
“The War of course, New Orleans was in a continent called South America but we all know it as Dalmore,”
“If there was a city called New Orleans wouldn’t there have been other cities? And you said that New Orleans was in a continent called South America, are there more?” Someone asks.
“Yes, of course. I can list them all if you want, let's see... there was America, Australia, Europe, Africa and even Antarctica but that area melted years and years ago,”Jaxon says. “I think some parts are still there otherwise we would have drowned years ago,”
“Melted?”I say.
“Antarti-what now?”Ares says.
“Point is, New Orleans was one of the last cities to be wiped out. No survivors anywhere else. The water level rose up when Antarctica melted. That practically wiped out many countries and continents. The bushfires that came were worse but that’s what a corrupt government can get you,” Jaxon answers.
“Well, what are we even doing here?” Reyna butts in.
“I’m going to show you guys a stage 1 Mutant,” Jaxon answers.
“Oh, a stage 1 Mutant. Not stage 10?” One of the kids in group eight says with obvious hints of disappointment.
“Yeah Jaxon probably lowered us down to your level, for now,” Cormac sniggers.
“No. Most of you had problems with your team. Some fighting. Some team coordination,” Jaxon eyes me and continues. “So I thought that we could learn how to kill an actual mutant and whilst we do it. Might boost your stamina. Follow me,” He turns his back around and walks past the jets.
Following Jaxon through the city, I am careful not to step on any muck. Jaxon holds his gun in position, ready to shoot any surprise Mutants.
“We have to be ready, Mutants here range from 1-5,” Jaxon says.
“Not that dangerous,”Ares sniggers.
“All Mutants are dangerous as long as you can get a cut, it’s a risk,”
We keep moving along, the ground is dry with the occasional puddles of mud. The clouds are in dark huddles together, it was about to rain.
“Wait here,”Jaxon says out of the blue.
He holds his gun near him, walking steadily forward. I listen carefully and I hear a soft growl. I inch closer to where Jaxon had been. I hear a gun firing. A Mutant has been toppled over Jaxon’s feet, it isn’t even fighting. The bullets tore through it’s hairy ribs producing a yellow gore, then through it’s liver which slams out of its body. Jaxon then reaches for something.
“Adria-use a knife, slit its throat,” He chokes.
I reach for a knife in my pocket. Grabbing it, I run forwards and press the blade against it’s skin making a squishy sound. An oozing gloop drips from it’s body and Jaxon kicks the body off him.
“Sorry, I forgot my knife,” He says.
I turn around to see Ares smiling, a few people disgusted.
Jaxon, who’s mood has changed from joy to somber, “Come on, we’ve got to go or we’ll all be fighting our own Mutants” He eyes the sky.
We all go to our jets. Once again, I take my seat next to Ares who’d been still smirking. “Argh,” Ares cries out, hitting his head onto the dashboard, tripping on a little mud stuck onto the side of the jet’s floor.
“Um, Ares hurt himself,” I speak into the P.A system.
“Are you okay,”Jaxon says over the P.A. Ares who’d been coughing doesn’t respond, “Let Adria drive,”
I turn my head around to see Cormac, Ephiel and Reyna looking at me with jealousy.
“OK, we’re going to make our way back to Veritas,” Jaxon says over the P.A system. I press the green button and the jet starts hovering. I turn the circle that Jaxon showed earlier. ‘Auto-piotlot cannot connect, please try again’ I start to panic.
“Ria, looks like you're going to have to fly manually, you think you can do that?” Jaxon says.
“Yeah,” I say, pressing on a button that says P.A to speak.
“You have to turn the circle anti-clockwise to engage manual control and use the wheel to move the jet, OK,”
“Mhm,” I reply, twisting the circle. Jaxon has already started his jet. I do as he says and engage manual control. ‘Manual control engaged’ I grip the wheel as hard as I can and try to keep the jet stable and fly at a steady pace-
“Oi, fly steadier,” Ares screams, along with the other three. I realize my hands are twitching on the jet. I loosen my grip and find it a lot easier.
“You're going to kill us all,” Ephiel screams. Letting out a deep breath, I realize I could get used to this...until I almost crash into the Veritas wall. I dive up until the wall is far under us.
“Dude, what the heck are you doing?” Cormac yells.
“Are you OK, group three?” Jaxon says.
“Yeah,” I reply.
“No,” the rest reply.
“I'm not going to survive my first day here!” Ephiel yells as I level the jet and land ‘safely’ on the landing pad, if you don't count the giant thud when we land.
“Great flying Adria,” Ephiel sneers.
“Aw, thanks Ephiel. I really couldn't have done it without your constant undermining,” I sneer back. We hop out of the plane and join back with the rest of the group.
“Almost finished your first day here,” Jaxon says. “We’re going to have dinner and we can go to bed,” Jaxon says.
By the time we arrive at the Dining Hall, Ophelia greets us with an uplifting note, “So I see you've survived your first day here, bimbo” She purses her lips.
“I know right, what a disappointment,” I say, rolling my eyes.
“You know at least ten people die on their first day,” She continues.
“Oh shut up, Ophelia. No one dies on their first day, stop scaring the little babies,” Levi takes a seat.
Reyna and her band of girls come near and gossip now and again, pointing at Jaxon and giggling.
“That's quite a fan base you've already gotten,” Levi says motioning towards Reyna and the girls.
“Eh, that's what you get when you're as hot as me. Why? Jealousy much?” Jaxon laughs.
“Nah, they're looking at me,” Levi begins.
“Sure they are,”
After much bantering and arguing, I finally retire and head off to bed using my newly profound tracking skill. When I arrive, I notice a small box in the middle of my bed.
“What's that?” I ask out loud, hoping I don't sound crazy.
I open the box full of suspense. A note is attached, it reads, -Jean Angrove. I place the note to the side, revealing the item at the button of the box. A watch. Not just any watch, a camp watch. I press a button on the side, ‘Hello Adria Merrick’,
It is my watch.