War of Praisers

Chapter 5:

We all stand in a line. Only the orange group. 22 of the age 16 and above. There are more orange younglings than older ones. The reason I believe that to be is because we are bought more and faster than the rest of the colours. Still even though I know this is a fact I still doubt is, I am still here after all. All together we are 48 in the orange, including the younglings.

22 of between age 16 and 24 stand in a neat line with a few meters between each other. We stand straight, unmoving and concentrated for our training. I do however take a peek to the boy next to me to my left, Jonah they call him. 17 and been here since he was 8.

I then take a quick glance to my right and recognize the tall and slender shape of Carina.

The hallway we are standing in is wide enough for us and its length is endless before us. I wiggle my feet beneath me and they don't move an inch. The dark grey ground hinders us slipping. The light grey walls remain smooth and reach 5 meters above us.

A deep and not robotic voice sounds around the hall. "Make it to the end of the hallway."

Everyone takes a starting position. I step my foot back and turn it's sideways for a good grip and ready my arms beside me. I don't bother fighting the smirk that itches its way to my face. I do quite enjoy this specific training.

This time it's a robotic voice that speaks. "Stabilize, attention," and instead of it saying 'Go' a beep goes off and we all sprint forwards.

I will my legs to keep up with the leaders and leave the slower group behind. After I know that I have established a good speed I slow down only a little and keep my pace. At first nothing happens for almost a minute of running and then I hear the familiar quiet buzzing sound over my heavy breathing. I don't bother to look back when I hear horrible smacks. The sound of people running full force into the force field that appears from the beams on the walls. The point for these are that you have to keep your speed otherwise you get cut off by the force field and then it's game over. Thankfully judging by the sound of the thumps behind me I am a good distance from getting cut off. The hallway starts to narrow until it isn't as wide as it was for all 22 of us. I see that there's a wall in front of us but once I get closer I see that it isn't a wall, but a sharp corner. I slow down only a little so I don't run into a wall. That's when the scenery changes. The ground is gone and there are climbing handles along the walls on either side. I see figures starting to climb the walls and attempting to push some of the others off. I take the wall where there aren't any people at the beginning. This one isn't complicated. The only problem I have is being stuck behind a girl who is much too slow for my liking. So I did the first thing I did that came to mind. I kicked her leg from beneath her and the looses her grip and falls into the black hole where the floor is supposed to be. It is a long fall until you hit a net in a room below and that is a way out from the arena. Once you're down there its game over. I quickly continue and make it well before the force field turns on. I don't think I would have made it if I would have stayed behind the girl.

A few 100 meters before us is another obstacle. There are rectangular plates on the ground and they can fall through the ground and into another black hole at any moment. Once again there is a net after the long fall ready to catch. The rectangular plates have the length of 1 meter on every side. You'd think after a while of people running across and most plates falling along with some unfortunate runners you would know where to step. Though that is not the case. The rectangular tiles can work in two different ways, either the Keepers that are monitoring us plant new ones that somehow come up from nowhere and the tiles that fall change pattern. The other option would be that the Keepers don't replant any new tiles and towards the end make them fall faster until there aren't any left.