Refinement: A War of Europe

Chapter Fifteen: East: Walking Blind

 Anya~ East (Russia)                        

"Mmmm," I yawned.

 I blinked away the colored spots in my eyes. As he held a roll in front of my face Jace said, "Eat it." I took a bite of the stale bread and then washed it down with somebody's water.

 "What am I doing in the cafeteria?" I asked as I looked at around the room.

 "We stayed out here late with Lauren, Eryn, Mathen, and Sam. You fell asleep early morning hours. So we didn't move you. Didn't want to risk you waking up," Jace replied.

 "You sat here all morning?"

 "No," he stated. "Just a couple extra hours. It's only four in the morning."

 "Oh," I yawned. My heart jumped as a loud thud came from Mathen dropping a book in front of me on the table. I had to use both my hands to pick it up because of its weight. The title said: "The Basic Teachings of Form and Power". I looked up at Mathen waiting for an explanation.

 "For you. From Steph. She wants you to start practicing this stuff more," Mathen drawled.

 "So it seems," I sighed. For a rough guess I'd say it was four-hundred pages. Not interesting things or fantasies though. Just fighting techniques.

 "Where are we training today?" asked Lauren. Sam pointed behind herself with her index finger. "Down the hall a ways. We're going down to the base level for today's thing. It's going to be some sort of an obstacle course. Steph gave me a peek yesterday after she was done working. It seemed as if everyone was working on putting it together. All the shops were closed."

"What sort of shops are there?" my eyes got large with interest.

"All sorts," Sam said. "More specifically there are a few eating places. Some clothing stores that actually have normal clothes. All sorts of colors. Unfortunately us trainees can't shop there because we have to wear the military colors. If I make it to the next stage I think I'm going to fail so I don't have to live forever in this green mess."

"Let's just focus on making it through today's challenge. Alright? We'd better head on down. If we are the first there then maybe we can have more time to process how to make it to the end," Mathen said.

"Okay," Jace agreed.

Sam stacked up all our plates and cups and carried them off. Jace reached for my hands and pulled me up.

"Thanks," I muttered as chills went up my arms.

As we all walked outside the noisy room Eryn walked up to us. "Mind if I come? I'm sick of Lynda's chattering mouth," he laughed.

"That's fine," said Lauren.

Once in the hallway our feet were the only thing that made any noise. The silence was calming and made it easier to process all that was going on.

As we walked down a flight of stairs we were met by everything on the first floor. There were lots of people. All different ages. There were children running swiftly in between the buildings. It was more amazing then I had thought it would be. I took a deep breath and smelled sweet smells of chocolate coming from a nearby coffee store.

I felt strange as we passed through, because as we walked everyone's eyes turned to us. Soon their faces were too. I tried to casually look around, but I kept accidentally making eye contact with somebody.

I saw the door ahead for our training and we all sped up. None of us liked the eerie feeling that their gazes gave us. We all just wanted to get out of their sight.