Caine woke with a start, her face wet with tears. She shook herself violently, desperately trying to rid any memories of her nightmare. She had seen him. Glimpsed him, gotten that little bit closer to seeing his face.
Cain pulled back the covers to reveal ugly purple bruises staining her body like spilt ink. She stumbled to the bathroom and turned on the faucet, the ice cold water sending cold sweats down her body. She changed into her leggings and biker jacket and tugged on her boots. Grabbing her training bag from the rack behind the door she walked to the bus stop just a few metres up the road. Caine paid her fair and sat on one of the dusty ripped seats at the very back. She stared out the window and contemplated what new fresh hell she would have to endure at training today.
The bus speaker crackled to life as the driver announced the stop at Peel and Caine got off, the cold 6 AM air greeting her with a slap in the face.
She ran to the vacant lot opposite the bus stop and punched in the code on the pad and the door buzzed open as Caine stepped inside. The lot smelt of wood and plaster dust that clogged her nose. The far wall jutted forward and slid over the wall beside it, revealing a small elevator. Caine stepped inside and pressed the button labelled UG. The elevator shook and jarred as it made its way underground. Eventually the doors pinged open and Caine stepped into her second home. The Base.
Mr Bleak was sat in an armchair by a small plant pot in the corner of the room. He got up when he saw Caine and began to lead her through the dark hallways. Caine could hear snarling and metal upon metal. Sword training, she thought, and cursed. She hated sword training. It made her palms blister and she always came away with nicks and cuts everywhere that stand like hell.
"You'll be fine. We're only working on blocking for a few hours and then we'll be starting to introduce some new... things...", Mr Bleak said reassuringly. But it wasn't helping Caine's nerves. She knew what he meant by 'things' and it wasn't pleasant. Caine had met some pretty grotesque 'things' over the past few months of her training.
They turned into a small room full of equipment and Caine kitted up whilst Mr Bleak assessed the first group of trainees. Caine blocked and thrusted and mostly dropped her sword for hours before Mr Bleak announced the break and Caine and everyone else headed back to the kit room to change for the next session. Caine didn't have many close friends from The Base, but neither did anybody else really. People kept themselves to themselves, it was better that way.
Caine waited anxiously in the kit room, waiting to be called up for her turn with the 'things'. She got up and headed for the water fountain but a blood curdling scream stopped her dead. Caine and the other trainees ran into the training hall to see Katyia, a newbie to The Base, lying mangled in a heap of blood and broken flesh. Her bones were broken and you could see the jagged edges trying to pierce the skin. Whatever had done this had clearly been locked away and the assistants and trainers were pushing hard against the doors at the back of the hall to keep it contained.
One of the trainees shook his head and muttered," Dangerous game, this".
