The Contractors

Chapter 6 Training & Fights(Pt 1)

Kelsie's POV

Beeep! Beeep! Beeep! Beeep! Beeep!

I reached out to hit the snooze on the alarm clock and felt nothing but air. Confused I sat up squinting in the dark trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. My roommates both groaned as the lights turned on, momentarily blinding us. A minute later silence fell over the room before the intercom system crackled.

"Gooood morning everyone!" the voice said happily. "That was your wake up call. You will always be woken up fifteen minutes before you have to head to the dining hall for breakfast. Please try to stay aware of how much time you have and remember you need to be outside the gym by seven fifteen. That's all. Enjoy your day."

The door to the bathroom slammed shut behind Violet. Jenna rolled her eyes, "The guy making that announcement sounded way too happy. He must be a morning person. I, however, am not."

I nodded, "Same here." Violet took so long in the bathroom we both started to unpack and organize our stuff since we'd been too lazy to unpack yesterday. When I finished I checked the clock on the wall.

"You think we should break down the door?" I asked flicking a thumb at the bathroom door. "She's been in there twenty minutes. For all we know she had an accident and is unconscious."

Jenna laughed. "Maybe we should. We'll be lucky if she comes out in less than an hour." She paused for a moment. "Actually, I just thought of something. That girl from yesterday, Carol, she's our next door neighbor isn't she?"

"Yeah the apartment right across from us. Why?"

"We could just go over there and use their bathroom real quick. It'll be faster than waiting for Violet to get out."

"Makes sense. Let's go"

We knocked on the door of Carol's room. One of her roommates opened it. When we explained our situation to her she let us in. Ten minutes later we were in the dining hall getting breakfast. And Violet was still in the bathroom. In fact, we didn't see her again until seven ten, just five minutes before we were supposed to meet in front of the gym. We could all tell she didn't eat because she was coming from the direction of building C, though not eating didn't seem to bother her.

The doors to the gym opened and a man with a buzz cut lifted a bullhorn.

"Heeeey!" Everyone quieted down turning towards the gym. He continued, "My colleagues forget to tell you all something rather important yesterday, and I'm about to tell you so pay attention. And don't interrupt. Those of you who already have fae partners will be leaving at the end of the month. You will be assigned squads and sent to a sector for three months at a time. When you're not at a sector on patrol you'll be here, so consider this your home base. Your duties will include daily patrols and accompanying hunters outside the walls for their protection. As you all know, none of the sectors have space for animals which means that people from the sector have to go beyond the walls to hunt. But lately, and understandably, they have been uneasy about venturing outside the walls. For those who haven't heard, the malum have begun attacking during the day. This creates a problem since the sectors need access to meat in order to feed everyone, but they can't afford to lose all the people capable of hunting. Hence the need for you accompany hunters to make sure they get back alive. You will find packets that tell you everything you need to know outside your doors when you get back to your living quarters. Moving on now, if you are assigned to buildings A or B, go around back to the busses. You get an easy morning. But," he smiled evilly, "You'll get your turn to be tortu-" Another voice cut in "Ahem!"

He hurriedly changed what he was going to say. "Uh I mean workout. If you're in building A you'll have a hellish afternoon as you're the last group in the gym. I'd be careful how much you eat for lunch. I don't want you throwing up on the gym floor. Working out, especially after eating always sucks. You ALL should keep that in mind. That's all. Goodbye buildings A, B. I'll see you later. Building C, come on in." He stepped to the side. As Jenna and I walked past him I could swear I heard him mutter under his breath that he was going to enjoy this. Uh oh.

One hour later and we were all dying. Buzz cut man(let's call him bc man for short) made us run two laps around the gym, which doesn't sound too bad, right? Think again. The gym is so huge that just one lap around the gym is basically a mile. Not only did we have to run two laps but we had to finish in thirty minutes. Only around fifteen members of our group could run nearly two miles in so little time. When the thirty minutes passed bc man shouted "HALT" to all of us. He then told all of us who were still running the laps that we were going to hate Saturday. The ones who finished the laps would be given a different assignment than the rest of us. In short, we're being punished for not being faster runners.

However, the laps were nowhere near as bad as what came after. We did a rotation of burpees, squats, and planks. But hold on, it gets worse. Much worse. What we were currently doing is why we're all dying. We're doing suicides. For those who, like me had never heard of a suicide drill before, let me explain. Bc man had set up three sets of five cones. You start at one cone, we'll call it cone zero. Run from cone zero to the next closest cone, cone one and back to cone zero. Now run past cone one straight to cone two and back. Then cone three and back, and then cone four. It's exhausting. And get this, we have to do this THREE times. THREE!!! Most of us have just barely started round two of the suicides we're all tired. My legs feel like jelly and my lungs are burning like they're on fire. I know that they want us to build up our strength and endurance, but this guy is crazy for giving us so much on the first day. We'll be lucky to make it to the end of this month.

It took almost another hour for everyone to finish the suicides. I could barely breathe when I finished mine. At least ten of our group nearly passed out and two actually did. This really was torture. And bc man had a smile on his face the whole time! After we had all done our stretches to cool down bc man spoke up.

"You all still have ten minutes before you move on to the next part of your schedule. Enjoy your couple minutes of relaxation. It's all you'll get until lunch."

Jenna plopped down next to me. "I can't feel my legs anymore. They're numb."

"Mine too." I replied. A boy with black hair and dark brown eyes walked over to us panting. Looking between him and Jenna I decided they must be related. They looked very similar, same eye shape, same hair, even their general face shape was nearly identical. Sitting next to Jenna he said, "I'm so glad I played football in highschool. Football practice made this easy, or rather easier. I never thought I'd be grateful our football coach was so strict. So, who's your friend?"

"Kelsie, meet my pain in the you know what twin brother Heath. Heath, this is one of my roommates Kelsie."

"Nice to meet you," he said.

"Likewise," I replied.

"You won't believe who our other roommate is." Heath stared at Jenna, a questioning look written on his face.

"It's," she paused dramatically, "Violet."

Heath gasped. "Oh my poor poor sister. I feel so sorry for you. And you Kelsie. I'd rather do today's gym routine than spend any time around Violet." He looked around before leaning in and whispering, "She asked me out once and I turned her down. I mean, come on, I already had a girlfriend at that time so the question shouldn't have been asked in the first place. Although even if I didn't have a girlfriend I still would've turned her down. I'm not gonna date a crazy person who always goes after my sister and tries to make her life hell. Oops. I'm getting off track. Anyways. So I turned her down, right? It was a Friday when it happened. The following Monday when I opened my locker several fish fell out. My locker smelled terrible the rest of the year. And I know it was Violet's doing. When I saw her later that same day she asked if I like my 'present'."

"Wow. So she hates both of you." I stated.

"Yup, pretty much," Jenna nodded.

BOOM! Bc man clapped his hands together, the sound echoing off the walls.

"Listen up. It's time for you all to switch with the next group. Head out to the back where the busses were earlier. Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"Great. Now he's threatening us." Heath muttered. Jenna and I laughed as we left the gym. A couple minutes later the busses pulled up with building B's occupants. Luckily, while we waited for the busses to unload a breeze kept us all cool. After exercising for two hours in a hot stuffy gym, the gentle breeze felt heavenly. I suddenly spotted Mia, the girl I met from my sector, and waved to her. She quickly came over.

"Hey, how was the gym portion of training?" she asked, a slight smile on her lips. The smile dropped at my reply.

"It was pure torture. Training sucks."