The World Never Ends

Chapter 7

    We walked out of our room, to the area we normally entered to do the trials and such, however there was somebody already there waiting for us to show up, to guide us to the room we were to be working in. They fed us, and told us everything we needed to know about the task the kids had to complete. It wasn’t an easy one, either; they had to infiltrate an enemy base, with a random partner, and towards the end, if they made it that far, they’d be ordered to turn on their ally. If they continued with instructions, good. If not, they got pulled and then they risked getting kicked from the program. It was serious mental mind games. One honestly I’d probably not go through with.

    Once they gave us our briefing, they assigned to us the groups we’d be working with. Apparently, there were more kids than just Nikol and I that got pulled, so they did roommates as tag teams, basically, to educate the kids. It was a halfway broken system, given some of these groups were better, and some of these kids were better at teaching, but I guess it works well enough.

    They told us where to head for the training to begin, and how to get there, and we head out.

    Let the games commence.

-    -    -

    Our group was rather small; maybe 16 total kids. Nikol and I learned their names, and a bit about each of them. One of Nikol’s fellow district kids were in our group, Dylen, and he looked like he was from Apenture. He had stark white hair, like that of the capital buildings, and he was very toned. He stood at my height, and he had deep blue eyes. He was fairly attractive, for a guy. He stood towards the back, looking down his nose at everyone else, which was a surefire sign he is from Apenture. He made it painfully obvious.

    Nikol and I gave them the mission briefing: to head in, infiltrate the building, eliminate all opposition. They seemed pretty happy, given they are allowed a partner, and they immediately starting choosing, before we cut them off short, saying their partners had already been chosen. At that, their faces slightly fell, all except for Dylen, who had been glaring at Nikol and I this entire time. He was starting to get on my nerves. I hate stuck up kids.

    When we started to walk them to the assignment room, I noticed Dylen pull aside Nikol to talk to her, and I shook my head and continued walking. It’s probably just him curious about the mission, I kept telling myself, though I knew that wasn’t it. He was probably questioning her about me. Whatever. 

    We got to the assignment room, and I noticed Nikol and Dylen got there way behind the rest of us, and he seemed even more pissy than before. I began walking towards Nikol, and as I passed Dylen, he purposely rammed my shoulder as he passed. I ignored it, and continued walking to Nikol.

    “What’s his problem?” I asked Nikol, who shook her head when he shouldered past me. 

    “He used to have a big crush on me before the proving. His betrothed passed as well, and we were good friends back then. I honestly thought I’d be with him, until I met you, so he’s a bit pissy about you and I,” she stated, casually, as if she didn’t care.

    “Well, I guess that’s a good reason to be a little bit pissy, but damn…”

    “Yeah,” she stared off behind me, not exactly here, but physically here. She obviously used to have feelings for this guy, so why did she take me instead?

    I heard the announcer saying the pairs, and in what order they’ll go in the simulator in in the background, and I heard the names Dylen and Rey. Rey was not somebody to play around with. I’ve seen the kid almost fight another kid because he thought the kid had his spoon. Not only was he psychotic, but he was built to hell and back. That was one scary team, and one to look forward to watching. 

    Nikol and I took our position in the spectating room as the first group entered the simulation. The rest of the kids were in the room with us, standing behind us. All of the simulations were randomized, but with the same outcome. It was brilliant. Additionally, if one person “dies” in the simulation, the whole team fails, unless its the final showdown. There was no pattern to what was going to happen, it was all adapt and survive. This is the hardest test they put us through yet, and I honestly started to believe I wouldn’t be able to make it all of the way through if Nikol and I were put in there.

    The first team, Hank and Yu, were about five minutes in, and they looked to be doing well, however, they seemed to be running low on ammo, which was a horrible sign. Not only was this a no hostage situation, but it is easiest done with stealth, so the grenades they have were a last resort. They were fully equipt for pretty much anything, and silencers were equipped, but from the looks of it now, there is no way they’ll make it to the end unless they suddenly become the luckiest people alive.

    As I thought that, they went wrong, and Yu was suddenly hit. He fell to the ground, paralyzed due to the hit being a headshot, and the simulation ended. Hank turned around and screamed a word I’d rather not repeat. It sucks to suck, I guess.

    The next two teams had similar results, then one made it. Next up is Dylen and Rey. They got suited up, Rey with AR, sidearm, and knife, Dylen with a sniper rifle, full- auto pistol, and a knife that looked like it could’ve been a dagger. Not a bad combination. Some of the other recruits began laughing at Dylen’s choice, until he popped over a blockade and practically quickscoped a hostile. After Dylen hit that shot, the room went quiet and everybody watched intently, all except for Nikol, who began to look for excuses to not look at the screen. 

    Rey used the technique run and gun, while dylen provided extremely precise coverfire. It was almost like watching trained professionals, because Rey would eliminate those in his line of sight, and if it looked like one was about to hit Rey from a flank or something of the sort, Dylen took him out immediately. It was ludicrous. As they neared the building, Dylen abandoned the rifle for his machine pistol. It was a total wipe on the inside of the building, and they made quick work, as well as a record time in the simulation. However, the showdown ended with Dylen on top, despite everybody saying Rey would be. To be honest, it even surprised me that Dylen came on top, given his weapons.

    When they exited the simulation and entered the spectator room, the only person to say anything was Nikol, and she said, “Nice job, Dylen.” He simply grunted in her direction, and I saw her bite her tongue from saying anything else.

    We had two more groups make it, and one fail, and then it was time to head in to our rooms. I didn’t even have to do anything and I was exhausted. Nikol and I walked to our room, and I decided to ask her what was bothering her while we were in the simulation room.

    “Hey, Nikol? May I ask you something?” I asked.

    “Yeah, what’s up?” was her reply.

    “What was up in the simulation room? You were really off focus, I was concerned.”

    She gave me a piss poor excuse of a smile and told me, “Nothing, love, don’t you worry about me, I’ll be fine, I promise.”

    I looked at her, concerned, then decided to drop it before I made her mad by continuing to press, and I laid down next to her. She folded into my body and tucked her head below my chin, and I wrapped her in a hug, and just held her until I fell asleep.