Eldoran

Chapter 9: Acceptance

I am in a dark empty space. How did I end up here? Wait, that's right. Nereus! I just saw him, I swear. I turn to the opposite direction and there's a silhouette of a person. I tried to reach out to them but they just keep getting farther and farther away from my reach. I called out to them but there was no voice that came out and before I knew it I got up and started breathing heavily. It was still dark and I realised that the helmet was still on my head so I removed it immediately. I look outside and people are already up and waiting. What just happened? Wait a minute...

The pain in my body. It's there but it's faint, it didn't hurt as much as it did a few minutes ago. The door to my pod opened up and I exited slowly feeling refreshed as ever. I waved at the two who were standing outside their pods. Lucas and Hilda and other people who seem to be workers for this place were going around, in fact, just now one of them approached me.

"How are you feeling?"

"I feel better than I did a few minutes ago.."

He types something up on his device for a few seconds then afterwards leaves it hanging since he had a strap on it. He then proceeded to wear latex gloves and got a hold of my face which led to him examining my eye, mouth, ears and nose. I don't know for what purpose but he did it anyway. He instructed me to stretch my arms out which I did and he examined as well. It was starting to feel uncomfortable but luckily it finished when he told me to return to my normal posture. He types up on his device again then moves on towards Athena and Camden.

After a long wait the instructors were back, walking up the stairs towards a platform where they could see all of us. They were talking about something, but they were too far to hear what they were talking about. Few minutes later instructor Lucas then does something with the machine in front of him.

"Attention all subjects." Lucas said, coming from a speaker.

Everyone's looking towards him now. I really cannot be bothered to listen to this meathead's blabbering. Everything that comes out of his mouth is a lot more torturing than the training we did.

"Exit the building and return to your quarters. You will notice that there is a tablet that will be left by your tables and carefully read the information provided."

Instructor Hilda takes over.

"Our boss instructed us to implement a new system to our programme and that is if anyone manages to meet the conditions set within the tasks given from the tablet, they are to be given any reward they ask for."

Okay, that's interesting to say the least. I wonder what I should ask for if I ever manage to meet those conditions.

"However there are boundaries within the rewards you ask for. They will undergo through authorisation and see whether it will be approved or not. If not, you will either be asked to change your request or it will simply lose your right to request."

I knew there was some sort of limit to these requests. Although I do wonder how far I could go through, nothing comes to mind yet however. Oh, what about visiting the orphanage? Naah, that's very unlikely.

"You will soon be instructed to leave the premises. Except for the following subjects.."

That doesn't sound good.

"Correy five two five, Ikeda five two three, Garrell five one one, Nathaniel five one two, Josiah five four six and Mattias five four five."

"Next, batch. Markus six two three, Veronica six five five, Maria six five six, Melvin six three four, Marco six two one and Horst six two three."