Escape

Chapter 4

Eryn
"ENOUGH OF THAT!" A voice shouted. We turned around and saw a tall man, probably in his mid thirties looming over us. His height was a little intimidating.
"IS THAT HOW YOU TREAT YOUR TRAINER?" The man boomed.
Wait a minute. Trainer? What was he talking about?
Everyone scrambled to their feet and stood at attention. I decided to follow suit. It was a very smart decision.
"This is Missle Training. All of you have been selected, you are the very best. Training starts right now. Please be respectful and follow all orders." He said.
What? Missle Training? What the....
"Now, let's do a test. Give me 50 push ups." He said.
All of us stared at each other, not knowing how to react. What kind of training was this.
"I SAID GIVE ME 50 PUSH UPS. I DON'T REMEMBER MAE SAYING THE BEST WERE DEAF." He shouted in the same authoritative voice.
Right then it hit me. This was a test to see how well we followed orders. I got down immediately and executed 50 push ups, to avoid getting shouted at. I was the first one to do so. The others followed and we chanted together.
"Teamwork looks good...." he muttered under his breath, ticking some things on his clipboard.
While waiting, I was thinking. Thinking about what this was all leading up to. Why we did the stupid training. Why my life changed so suddenly. And how was I even the best of the lot? I was never smart, though I was quite athletic.
While I was thinking all those things, a woman in her twenties strode into the room. I never noticed that there was a door in the room until then.
"Mae here." she said. She was really pretty, though her eyes were covered by a grey mask with intricate patterns but I knew she was harsh, because of all my experiences in this place. Who would take teenagers for training anyways?
"Yes ma'am." I tried to speak confidently, but my voice came out shaky.
"Bedtime at nine thirty. Rise at six. Breakfast at six thirty. Fighting Classes start at 715. Report to training at ten. Lunch at 1230. Report back to training at one thirty. Dinner at 6. Leisure time after that." She then walked briskly out of the room, just like that, leaving us stumped and confused.
"You heard her, kids. Now we would be getting your weapons. It's 4 in the afternoon. You still have two hours of training."

Rinco
When we were all ready, trying out all our weapons, we left the room. Or tried to.
Two soldiers suddenly appeared in front of us and there only seemed to get more and more. They multiplied, until there were about sixty.
"Think you got these weapons so easy? Think again." One of them said. The problem was, all of them looked exactly alike. It was really creepy.
Vanessa decided to act first. She plunged her knife into the closest's soldier's chest, which meant she wanted a fight. So be it.
The soldiers charged at us but we were outnumbered like ten times. How were we going to win this fight against identical soldiers. As our strategist, it was my responsibility to figure that out. I shouted commands to everyone and soon enough, we had something to do. Everyone had. We were winning, taking down soldiers one by one, our reaction times almost impossible. We were so fast, shooting bullets before the soldiers could react and pull the trigger.
We were down to the last ten. Gory as it may seem, I unleashed my sword and began chopping off heads while the rest fired at me. All the bullets missed me by just a few millimetres, I was not even trying! I considered myself Super lucky. Wyatt took down a few too, which meant that there was only one soldier left. One more and it was Kin's fight. So Kin used her dagger to stab the soldier but before she got deep enough to kill, the soldier fired with his pistol. At that time, we heard another gunshot, this time fired at the soldier. Kin crumpled to the ground, her blue eyes as blank as a sheet of paper, her body losing color rapidly. We knew for sure, that a life has been lost. A life, from one of us. A quester.
Kin Yeh was only a kid, a kid of about eight and she already had to take on this task of making it through a house that was somehow turned into an obstacle maze. She had lost her life that day, to kill a soldier, when she could have been at home having fun, doing what average kids did. But Kin was not average. What she did that day showed us that she had more courage than any eight year old might have. To be there to fight was bravery in its purest form. She could have let us do all the hard work and sit there because she was too young. Too young to die.
And yet there she was, still, unmoving. We heard a voice, the same one from when I had started this whole thing.
"Kin Yeh has been eliminated." It said. Just like that. Eliminated. For goodness' sake, a person had just died right here.
Tears pricked my eyes as I sent my condolences to whoever might be out there looking for Kin. I might not have known her for long, but I knew she was one to be remembered.
"I'm sorry." We whispered, and I could hear other people doing the same.

Eryn
I had never held a weapon before, only in the stories Rinco and I wrote together. Never in real life. The feeling when my fingers were placed around the trigger, when I fired my first shot was so surreal. I never knew that at such a young age, I would be using this stuff. I never planned on using it my whole life. We were using lazer guns, they were reserved for the Leaders and those on the Council. But here I was, missing the target.
"I don't think a gun fits you." The man said, whose name I later learnt was Andrew. Though, Andrew's training might be harsh, I think he wants the best for us. For whatever we were doing anyways. Tomorrow, in the morning, we would know.
We were all jumpy and nervous the next day at breakfast. Like dinner last night, it was a too healthy meal, with much nutrition. I was glad that we got a decent meal, because I did not want to fight with an upset stomach or whatsoever.
So yeah, fight classes.
We got this whole assembly thing, all twelve of us, with some other adults we did not even know. The youngest of our lot was an eight year old girl. The rest were about the same age. To be truthful, I felt very honoured to be sitting here like a mature adult in the seats, listening to the talk. I took down some notes on the paper with were provided with and each sentence made be doubt this whole thing.
Because firstly, now we were soldiers. I mean....what? What the heck? Soldier?
And next, we were supposed to save the world. I mean, depending on teenagers and children to save the world? Yeah so apparently we were the best of all kids, which I did not understand. Rinco should have been the best. Personally, I feel that she had everything. She was smart and kind, I was just so average. I was feeling confused sitting there.
The life I was living now did not seem real. We went into simulations, fighting with people who were not real. We did not die, we just went back to the training grounds. It was a whole new type of technology, the simulations were so real. When we were in it, we felt like we were doing the real things. The excruciating pain was real. We won some fights but day by day, as the trainings got harder, we lost more of them.
During one of the simulations, we were fighting against six people. Six in a team, we multiplied, don't ask me how. The weird thing was, we all looked the same. Our enemy was armed and had a silver masks on their faces. They started taking us down one by one and we knew we were going to lose. I could feel all the others were dead at some point. The last ten soldiers left were copies of me. One of the masks fell off someone and I had a brief look at it. Just that what I saw shocked me.
Rinco?
Rinco? How did she even get in here?
Did she want to be my enemy? Before I took a closer look, she hurriedly put on her mask again and killed the rest of me. The real me was the only one left in the game. As I said, in the simulation, it felt real, and I knew my last life was at stake. A very small blonde girl with blue eyes plunged her knife into my chest. Before it got any deeper, I pulled the trigger and killed her. Not even a moment later, I found myself in the training room.
I hardly listened to his reviews. I was deep in thought. Why had I seen Rinco in that simulation? Did it mean something? I wonder why Rinco was my enemy. We were best friends! And the girl that I killed. She looked like the youngest in our team. Small and slim.
Then the thought struck me.
What if this was not a simulation. Not a training.
What if this all was......
Twisted realities?