What's Out There?

Chapter 23

I could hear Clay calling out my name into the night. His voice becoming quieter the more he yells.
I start to cry.
Why would Luke do this to me? This and many other questions cross my mind.
{~}
We had been walking for what felt like hours, until finally we arrived into another clearing. There was a car, which I had learned from school this past week, parked right in the middle of it.
We were walking towards the car when Luke said with a dead voice, "Get in." His gun pressed into the small of my back.
I open the door with a shaking hand and climb in to the passenger door seat. He slams the door as soon as my body touches the seat.
I see Luke walk to the drivers seat and gets in. But the thing is: this person is not the Luke I knew.
He starts the car and speeds off. I try to stay awake, but after everything my body has gone through I drift off into sleep.

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I'm back in the woods with Clay at our picnic.
"Is this a dream?" I ask Clay.
"No. I think I would know if I was in a dream. You're awake with me on our date," Clay says.
"Okay, but we need to leave here now before it's too late," I say quickly getting up.
"Why?" He asks resistant to leaving this amazing date.
"Just trust me," I respond.
"Okay," he says as he quickly grabs everything. We walk back to my house through the woods, but something tells me this isn't right.
"Come on," I say, "Hurry." I start jogging and so does Clay. That jog turns into a run towards my house.
When we reach the door way, Clay asks, "What was that about?"
"I guess I was just nervous," I answer.
Suddenly the front door of my house opens, but it's not my dad.
It's Luke.

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"Sarah, wake up," Luke said waking me up from my nightmare.
"Where are we?" I ask looking out of the window to see a large building surrounded by a field.
"You'll see," he responds.
I look at the clock on the control center of the car, and the time is 5:43 am.
"How long did we drive?" I ask Luke as I'm getting out of the car. He had already got out of the car.
"About 5 hours," he replies. "Follow me."
And I do so.
We walk into the building. The room was completely empty.
"Where are we?" I ask.
Luke answers loudly, "Welcome to-"
"Luke, welcome back," I hear a girl's voice reply.
"Hey, Grace," Luke yelled back.
Grace walked towards us wearing a pair of gray pants with a gray, long-sleeved shirt on. Her blonde hair up in a messy bun.
Luke and Grace hug for a while whispering. Probably about me.
I cleared my throat, and they stopped. They just stood there looking at me.
Until Grace asked, "Who are you exactly?"
"I'm S-" I started to say.
"Her name is Sasha," Luke lied. He looked at me fiercely, as if telling me to not say anything about it.
"Okay, well I'm Grace," she said.
Luke says, "Grace is going to show you your room."
"I am?" Grace asked.
"Yeah. You know I've got things to do," Luke whispered to her.
At that Luke walked off down the hall to the left.
"Follow me," Grace said. She started off down the right hall and I followed.
"So where are we?" I ask.
"He didn't tell you?" She asked.
"No," I replied.
"This is pretty much a training camp. You will probably start today. Your roommate will explain more," Grace stopped at a door, "This is your room." Then she walked away.
I knocked on the door and it opened very quickly.
"You're my new roommate?" the girl asked. She had brown hair that reached just below her shoulders.
"Yeah I guess so," I reply, "I'm Sasha," I say still playing along with Luke's lie.
"I'm Taylor," she said.
"So what's the training like?" I ask.
"Intense. Right now we are doing hand to hand combat, and today commander is supposed to be there helping out with new recruits," Taylor explains.
"So basically me?" I ask.
"Yeah," she replies.
"Who is the commander?" I ask.
"His real name is Luke, but we're supposed to call him commander," Taylor answers.
"Oh my god," I say.
"What's wrong?" She asks sympathicly.
"Nothing," I reply. Nothing at all. I think.
"Maybe I should get some rest before I train," I say.
"That or eat something," Taylor says.
"I am kinda tired and I want to be wide awake for training, so I'll take a nap," I say.
"Okay goodnight," she says.
I see a set of bunk beds. The bottom has been used, so I climb up to the top bunk and quickly fall asleep, still wearing my shoes.
{~}
I wake up because Taylor is shaking me awake.
"What?" I groan.
"I would start getting ready for training," Taylor says.
"Okay," I reply. I climb down the ladder to get to the change of clothes that was laid out on the desk with a sticky note that had my name on it. The outfit was identical to Grace's and as I just noticed, Taylor's.
I go into the bathroom and quickly change.
I walk back into the bedroom with my dress and combat boots in my hands.
"What do I do with this?" I ask.
"You can put your dress in this drawer and just wear those shoes for training," Taylor responded.
"Okay," I said back, "Let's go."

We leave the room, and I follow her down the hall and into a room with a big, black, circular mat on the floor.
"What's that for?" I ask.
"The hand to hand combat," she replied.
"But why is there only one," I ask.
"Everyone watches you and your partner fight," Taylor explains, "And everyone is all partnered up, so commander will probably be your's."
I sigh, "You've got to be kidding me."
We walk towards the mat and wait for someone to say something.
"Everyone as you should know I'm commander, and I will be helping out today with our new recruit," Luke speaks loudly so everyone can hear, "Now everyone, get partnered up with the same people from yesterday. Oh and Sasha can you come up here."
Everyone's head turns towards me as I walk up right across from Luke.
"Now what?" I ask quietly so only Luke could hear.
"Now we start training," Luke said with a smirk.

And I knew this wasn't going to end good.