The Founders Code

~{3}~

We moved from station to station starting with weightlifting to treadmills to weaponry etc. We only had one station left, and that was the simulation room. The simulation makes the room appear to be a wasteland, battleground, or anywhere that was once destroyed in battles against the monsters that plague our world. We entered the room, and everything was white, the tiles on the floor, the walls and ceiling, even where the large viewing window was supposed to be gone. The sim we entered was where the first battle took place, the land we used to know as Colorado. Today, the land is nothing, but ruins and miles of land inhabited by the Hounds. The buildings, or what was left of them, were covered in vines. The sun was glaring down on us, and it had to at least be 90 degrees. I looked over at Drystyn who seemed unfazed by the new world around us. It's like he's already been in here before. Maybe he did this simulation during his first time around. I'll ask him about it later. 

"What do we do" I questioned. He shushed me and motioned for me to follow him to the small building that looked the best maintained out of all of them. The windows were still intact and large parts of it weren't missing. Drystyn knocked on the door 3 times before creaking open the door and with silent steps, entered the building. I followed closely and sat next to him as he kneeled in front of the window. He pointed out the window at something, but I didn't see anything, so I looked back at him, asking so many things with my gaze. He grabbed my face and turned it in the right direction, and I stifled my gasp. There was a huge lizard like animal in the middle of the circle of buildings. "What is that?", I whispered so quietly I was surprised he heard me. 

"It's a Hound, I'll answer the rest of your questions later. Get your gun ready" he ordered. " When and if it sees you, you shoot it, no matter what. If It has a chance to get a lock on you, you're dead". I nodded and pulled up my gun, clicking the safety off. He slowly backed away from the window, blaster at the ready, towards the back door. I shuffled after him, my weapon still raised. He looked through small window of the door and moved his hand to the lock. He turned it with a click that sounded way louder than it should have been and pushed the door open slightly before looking again. He took quick silent steps outside of the building and stood flat against the brick wall of the small building. He looked over at me and glared at me. I hadn't followed him out. I tiptoed out the door and stopped when I was beside him. Drystyn looked past the corner of the wall and pointed his blaster towards something, most probably the Hound, as he had called it. By the way, it doesn't look like a hound, it looks like a giant freaking lizard. I would expect a hound to look like one of those wolves that went extinct, or their domesticated descendants, dogs. 

Drystyn pulled the trigger and released, sending a ball of electricity at the creature. After that I lost all sense of what was happening. Hounds came from every direction and Drystyn was pulling me along as he ran. The I felt a sharp pain in my back that quickly spread to my legs. I tried to pull away from Drystyn, but he tightened his grip and continued, practically dragging me with him. We stopped briefly outside a large, very much destructed, building. He threw the door open and pulled me inside. The pain that was burning me alive was now traveling up, through my arms and chest and my breathing quickened. Drystyn looked at me and let out a string of curses. He took out the white emergency flag he grabbed when we entered and dropped it. The room immediately faded to the original blinding white it was before the simulation started. The burning started to ease when it was finally gone, Drystyn put out his hand for me to take. I grabbed onto it, and he pulled me up. He must've forgotten his own strength because I went flying into him. Inconsiderate bastard. He held onto me and helped me out of the room where we placed the weapons on the stand.

"You okay" he asked as we walked out of the training room. He didn't sound concerned. 

"Yep, never better" I responded sarcastically, and I saw him smirk out of the corner of my eye.

We walked through the maze of hallways, and I was mostly just following Drystyn who seemed to know where we were going. 

"You said you were going to explain, y'know, about the hounds" I inquired. He squeezed his eyes shut and ran his hand down his face before proceeding. 

"Hounds are animal experiments that went wrong. There are hounds that originate from dogs, cats, birds, reptiles, you name it. They were looking into genetically modifying the animals in such a way that they gained abilities. Now, they miscalculated something because the modifications made the animals extremely aggressive. They eventually broke out of the lab and wrought havoc wherever they went. the first year alone, 2 million were killed." that's insane. we knew about the hounds. that to some extent they were dangerous, but they were manmade. We were not disclosed that information. "Eventually the founders came together and created a warrior program which taught kids 13-19 how to fight and protect people from the hounds." is that good enough for you?" I stared at him. How much of our history do they change or not tell us. 

"How do you know all this?" I asked him. He shrugged. 

"I was raised with it. My parents think it's best for us to know about the past, but most of the council doesn't agree."

"Why?" 

"Beats me". 

"It's important for us to know our history. I mean, they stress the importance in school, saying how we need to know so we don't make the same mistakes. So what could be so bad that they don't want us to find out?"

"we'll know someday, depending on our position and if we get into the council" he responded flatly. 

" I guess". we turned a corner and Drystyn lead us to the plain door on the left that read : room A01. 

"This is the commons" he spoke before opening the door revealing the many people lounging around on the elegant couches. They were talking incessantly. I moved my gaze from the people to the room itself. The wood floor was covered with a large black rug that lay underneath the furniture. The walls were a subtle gray and there were some paintings and portraits evenly spaced along the walls. 

"How long would this have taken to find if I didn't have you as my partner?" I asked aloud, not expecting an answer. 

"Maybe about thirty minutes, considering how many rooms are on each floor and it took us about ten minutes to get here, and we knew where we were going. Or at least I did".  

Aloud beeping noise started, gaining the attention of every person in the room and someone began to speak" settle down and listen for further instructions." Here we go, I thought.