Chained

Secrets

"Good morning!" Jadius calls.

The lights hiss above me as the generators turn back on. 6:00 on the dot.

"Today is traaaining!" He clasps his hands together joyfully like a father offering to buy sweets.

I groan and turn over and the scratchy grey blanket rests on my bare back. The bunk next to me is empty. I didn't know someone could get up before the lights. 

"Come on, Jax," Jadius firmly holds the blanket in both hands and yanks. 

Strangely, the room is warm. In the town we didn't have heat, flames kept us from freezing in the night during the winter when the temperature would drop below 0. The blanket sat on the floor in a bundled mess. I turned to the bunk next to me and sighed. Of course I got roomed with someone who was up before the lights. 

"Come on,"Jadius smiled in my direction.

The lights shut off for a brief second and came back on. Jaduis'eyes rolled to the back of his head and he rubbed his temple methodically. His smile turned downward and when he opened them I could see fury.

"Get dressed."

"Yeah, okay," he stood there staring at me. Did I not get privacy?

"Don't talk! Dress!"His anger grew and it was directed towards me. 

I walked quickly over to the shelf that housed my grey uniform and black grungy shoes with the plastic on the laces worn down. I hopped into the pants and sucked into the shirt that was a couple sizes too small. I felt self-conscious in the sleeves that didn't reach their normal length and the shoes with the lone hole.

"Come on," his attitude changed again and now he wore a painted smile.

I struggled to keep up and match his heavy stride. The halls looked sad and lonely as I walked through them with Jadius. No windows, no color, no happy faces or laughter. Just a dark, grey, empty, lonely hall that seemed to stretch on for miles.

"He will met you at the end of the hall; from there you will go onto basic training." No recognition was needed.

"Who is he, by the way? What is his name?" I basically jogged beside him to see his face.

He laughed like I had made a crude joke about his mother.

"No, I'm serious,"but this response only induced more laughter.

Jadius stopped in the dingy hallway abruptly causing me to almost collide with him. He slowly turned his head towards me. His gaze only held mine for a moment or two before he waved away my question and preceded on his way but it felt like longer.

The Muscle Man stood with his hands behind his back facing the other side of the hall with a creepy perfection. 

"Sir,"his voice seemed to hold authority. 'Jax."

"Right,"he broke his mold and opened the door.

I peered inside and the room went quiet. Men and women sat in desk and reviewed me with awe. "I thought I was training alone?"

"Yeah, well... change of plans," his voice broke and his eyes looked away from me. "I'll pick you up when you're done and take you to lunch."

I wanted to reach to him and ask him to stay for my first day like a homesick toddler. The students continued to stare at me and only a few went about with their conversations. I wasn't good at making friends. I never have been. I wanted to call to The Mystery Man and ask him to come back but I kept my mouth shut and went to an open seat in the back of the room. 

They continued to look at me until I averted my attention to the pencil marks on the desk; I heard conversation slowly resume and the room grew less tense.

"Hey I'm Atlas,"a small blonde man turned backwards in his chair and gripped the sides of my desk as if to keep him from not flying off into in invisible tornado. His knuckles were held fast and seemed to bleed white. "You're Jax, right?"

"Uhh, yeah. Yeah, I am."

He laughed loudly and let go off the desk, he placed his now free hands on his side. "You don't sound too sure,"he managed to say in between laughs.

I joined him  and when our laughter expired I quietly mumbled, "I'm not."

His head slumped and he turned back around but I thought I heard him say, "No one is."

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The teacher stumbled into the room. Her holopad was falling from her arms and her skirt was messily tucked into the waist of her skirt. Unlike everyone else here she didn't look like she belonged, she looked beautiful and proper and although grey was the main color scheme in her outfit she wore it well. Her brown hair was disheveled and ran in very direction no matter how often she cried to comb through it with her hands.

She pressed a button and a hologram appeared in front of her. An ambiguous figure appeared in war struck environment: fallen trees, burned cars, and firey buildings everywhere. 

"Today, you are going to use a Re-locator. This device will connect your brain with a figure of your choosing. After that you will be placed into an environment just like this one and you will learn to wield a weapon and kill."

The class was in an uproar. Pure excitement and eagerness was plastered to the face of the other students. I imagined my face was mirrored by Atlas, contained something of shock and fear. How did you teach someone to kill? How did you teach someone to ignore to all that their body was telling them and slit the throat anyway? I didn't understand and a gnawing feeling in my stomach told me I didn't want to.

The teacher went over basic rules and called attendance. 

"Come on, we are going to the Re-locator room," Every student jumped out of their seat and walked to the door.

The Re-locator room was an off white with paint that seemed to be crying but it was better than the usual industrial grey. No windows told me whether the sun was alive outside this hollow fortress or if this was all in a dream and I would wake up the next morning with hunger biting at my insides but in a bed with my father next door. 

The room was large and engulfed our class effortlessly. I stuck close to Atlas and he seemed thankful. The teacher called us to come closer and when we all moved half an inch and then stopped she gave up.

"Can you please tell us how these lovely machines work?"  The teacher looked enchanted while the scientist talked to her about brain signals and chemical balances. 

A group of girls kept looking back towards me as slyly as possible but with no luck. I waved to them and their faces turned red.

"So why exactly am I the center of attention?"

"I couldn't tell you if I knew the truth." His eyes turned downward and he started to shuffle his feet.

'Come on, Atlas, you know."

He was a bad liar, "I really don't man." 

I kept my voice to a whisper despite my anger, "What are you keeping? If someone said something about me I wont tell them you told me. What's going on? Does everybody hate me?" The desperation wasn't hidden and I didn't care.

"No, they all just kind of... admire you, I guess. Maybe that's not the right word. It's somewhere between fear and admiration." His eyes widen and I can tell he feels he had said too much. I let it go but his words linger in my head while the scientist continues to talk.

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I dedicated this chapter to my first wattpad friend, thank you for inspiring me to write again and being there for me