The Story of Lemmeania

Chapter 2: Assignment

I felt my body once again float down a body of water. It was very warm this time. I opened my eyes, but I was still in darkness. It felt as though my body was aching and growing. The pain began to grow more and more, forcing me to cry out in agony. The river echoed and I heard someone say "You should've asked to be put to sleep..." Then, the water dragged me below and immediately rushed itself into my lungs. It burned my nostrils while my body was still painfully growing! 

Just as it felt I couldn't take any more, I was awoken by a loud siren alarm. "You four get up now!" some lady yelled at us. I was in what looked like a jail cell with my brothers and sister. We were lying on a cold hard floor and were huddled with each other keeping warm. I immediately stood up and was frightened by the new surroundings. 

"Where am I?" I asked. 

"Newbies I see... well, I'll get someone to show you guys around," she said. She was a lioness humanimal dressed up in a weird grey suit that looked all mechanical. The floor grew colder, almost as if it were on purpose. It was freezing our pads on our feet, forcing us to walk to the entrance of the cell.

"Epiphid, show them around! Don't start their 'growth test' until tomorrow," she commanded. She seemed annoyed when someone quickly came from around the corner and saluted her. 

"All right, ma'am." The soldier said. I assumed this was Ephippid. He was a dragon-looking creature that looked more intimidating than the lionesshumanimal. He wore a suit similar to her. 

"Wait, we still don't know what's going on!" my oldest brother said. 

"You will know soon enough," Epiphid snickered. 

"Uhh... what does that mean?" my youngest brother was confused. 

"Just stop talking and get in a line." Epiphid pointed to the floor in front of him.My siblings and I looked at each other nervously. 

"Why should we trust you?" my sister asked. 

"HAHA, because I'M the guy with the gun, and you know what happens if you get me mad?" Epiphid quickly drew his gun from the belt on his suit and shot it near my sister's foot. 

"That's what happens, now get in a line!" Terrified, we rushed into a line. I looked around to see plenty of other jail cells that were replicas of the one we were in. These long orange buildings were one story high and full of weird wires and technology on their roofs. Everything seemed pretty advanced, yet we were standing on dirt. The trees were very close together and some even had outpost on them. Were we in some kind of forest terrain base? I looked back at the two adults that stood before us. It was scary seeing such strong humanimals acting so mean to us. What were they planning? Why were we here?The Lioness Humanimal whispered a few things in Epiphid's ears, and he turned to us. All four of us faced forward immediately. Epiphid let out a small chuckle,then ordered me to lead when we began marching. We were about to go on a scarring adventure. 

We marched about the base. There were so many buildings and so much land to cover. Our little legs were killing us! Along the trail he led us on, there was a large blue Dome with a glass roof where we could hear gun fire happening. Then we made it a little further down the road were a small brown building with some Humanimals were boxing each other. Lastly, there was a very long building where more cell blocks were. These ones, however, were occupied and had actual beds in them. The cell gates were also left wide open. There was a lot more on this trip, but I couldn't remember all of it. To top it all off, it was mirrored across a long line and Epiphid did not let us sit down or take a break. In addition to this cruel behavior, as he showed us around, he would make some smart remark, like, "Man, I can't wait to see you get slaughtered in training," or "Oh, I bet you'll all die in that obstacle course." And, if we tried saying something bad about him, he would take out his gun and point it at us!