Verdant

What "we" deserve (Ryans POV)

Ryan's POV continued

With Harper and Madi gone, the room was filled with a dreadful silence. Even the orchestrated sounds of nature in the slices of biomes felt drowned out. My breath felt... heavy. My muscles felt stiff, I didn't have any fight left in me. My eyes fixated back on Skyler. I was trying to ignore her for now. Despite the annoyance clinging to my arm. Well annoyance that made itself clear it was ready to kill at a moments notice. Any hesitation from me. Steinfeild made it clear he got what he wanted, so why am I still alive? Does he want the whole chess board filled again? Experiments ended a long time ago, and those of us left were still indebted to the governments around the world. Most of the facilities were shut down and abandoned. Those who still held authority ran what was left of the world. Power was power.

Who would have thought I'd be calling my sort of girlfriend... wait or ex. Okay that's too complicated, but calling her annoying. It's almost funny. How... did we end up here? I should... I should have just left her be. Why... couldn't I just run away like I always do. Seeing her like this again... hurts.

Steinfeild clapped his hands together, dusting them off, "Alright kids, let's get to work." He clapped and Daniel walked up next to him. Somehow Skyler and I shared our dumbfounded look at the obedience of that man. The perfect soldier after all.

We started walking on the cusp of the tundra biome slice of the room as I tried shaking Skyler off my arm. Why is her grip so tight, and WHY did it have to be so cold here! Without my ability working because I'm EXHAUSTED and trying to conserve energy, I can't warm myself up. This... is the worst it's like -20 in this biome, what the hell Steinfeild. I'm wearing a long sleeve and sweats at least.

I looked down at Skyler's content face. No way she's gotten this strong over five years, I should be able to break free of her grasp easily if she wasn't being too serious. She can barely pick up a barbell. Not that 70ish pounds is nothing either. I was pretty banged up though, so maybe it was my arm being too lazy to do anything about it. I can probably only use my speed to dodge right now. I'll leave the heavy stuff to the others. Depending what we're training for. Unless he's about to lock us up and hook us to machines like in the old days. Shit I just want to SLEEP. Come on Ryan, keep it together.

Just walking was starting to hurt at this point, trudging through the stupid snow. THERE ARE 3 OTHER DOORS IN HERE WE COULD HAVE WALKED TO! I looked over at the others. Particularly at Daniel. He seemed... bothered. His head hung, he looked really tense. I thought he was supposed to be the perfect soldier who wasn't ACTUALLY that emotional. My eyes drew forward, oh that explains it. Towering nearly to the ceiling. The Tundras one and only cliff. Probably fifty feet in the air with a straight drop off. One of the reasons this room was so tall, actually the room rested underneath the massive facility but was still wider than most of it. The room was about 3 miles in diameter, I would know I've run every inch of this room.

This room was built from an underground military base. Access to a large lake and sandwiched between two large territories. Most of the building was underground to begin with, roughly 15 floors with 4 above ground. I looked back at Daniel's distrait expression. It was odd to see him wearing it. I... guess he does remember how he died though. WHERE he died. PTSD carries heavy for him in here.

I looked forward again. Skyler pushed him off that cliff when she'd finally beaten him. She didn't come to her senses until she saw the blood stained snow below. In her nightmares she'd always tell me about how her hands were trembling. Not from the snow, but of fear of what she could do. What she had done. Somehow killing him haunted her more than any of our missions. I'm surprised there was even anything to salvage after a battle like that but here he stands, still half the man he used to be I guess. Still just as much of an asshole. I can't believe I ever befriended that guy.