I Am Starting To Regret My Decision.
The next day, my alarm clock went off at 4:30 AM. I didn't bother showering because I would just get dirty anyway. I didn't sleep well at all. There were dark circles under my eyes, and I could barely stop myself from dozing off while I stood. I slapped both of my cheeks and washed my face. My room was nice. It had a nice island kitchen with a sink, a fridge, and a closet on the opposite side, very similar to a hotel.
The room was dimly lit, which was great since I hadn't completely woken up yet. The lights turned on by themselves in the morning, but you could turn them on and off as you pleased once you returned for the day, according to the manual that was on the bed when I got there. It was meant to help you wake up nicely, but that also meant that if you were lazy, you'd be late.
Of course, this was something you could keep only if you did well. There would be no point in your getting these luxuries if you were useless. I didn't know what to bring, so I took basically nothing. Just water, and some running shoes. There were rooms across from mine, but they were from different generations.
I quickly sped down the stairs and got to the field where the Sergeant was waiting. There was an evil grin on his face. I looked at myself and looked back at him, but he wasn't looking at me.
I turned around. I saw some of the others trying to take more than one water bottle and one fat person even had a bag of fish flopped crackers on his person. Seems they must've gotten the wrong impression since we only did 20 push-ups yesterday.
When my watch read 5:00, he clapped his hands and said, "Alright, everyone! This is your first task. Privates 9, 72, 18, and 64, throw your food in that ditch over there. Private 40, due to your excess idiocy, you'll be shoveling manure from the barn. From now on, you'll go by bucket!"
"Yes"
"Yes, what?"
"YES, SERGEANT!"
"Good!"
I looked at my number. I was 15. Lucky me. Here in his army, we didn't have names. We were just numbers. They were really telling us that we were replaceable. After this, we lined up the numbers in order. To everyone who packed too much, they had to do 50 push-ups.
"Next command. Run 16 laps around the track. When you're finished, wait in line at your spot."
One by one, we started to run on the track. Some of us slipped and fell, and some of us were too tired to continue.
All the while, my legs felt wobbly, like they could fall at any moment. My throat was dry and was closing on itself every time I tried swallowing.
All the blood rushed to my face as I struggled to keep up with the pace. I felt dizzy, but truly awake. I had to endure this for now, or a half-hearted attempt would be all my revenge ever amounted to. I had many bad qualities, which I acknowledged, but being a quitter was not one of them. The next activities were pretty similar to this. We did 10 sets of 15 pushups, 15 squats, 15 burpees, 15 lunges, and 15 pistol squats. Every time we did a motion half heartedly, he would make us do an extra set.
By the time we were done, I couldn't even feel my arms. The Sergeant smirked when we were done. I could feel the hate just emanating from his very being. Even though his glasses covered his eyes, I could just imagine that they were covered with insanity. The same kind that the Leader had.
The final lesson for today in the military class was sparring. We hadn't even touched weapons yet because we couldn't handle the recoil from the weapons until we got stronger. We headed back inside the buildings to go into this small room, about the size of a classroom. There was a thick layer of mat, and intricately patterned murals lined the walls of the room.
He told us to get into groups of 2, and before I knew it, I was the only one left in this room who didn't have anyone. I realized then that this was on purpose. The way everyone found each other quickly meant that they all knew each other to begin with. The number of students was also odd. Guess this meant that I got to go with the instructor. The Sergeant started to smile, but then bit his lip.
"Alright, time for a demonstration," he said, "Private 15, since you don't have a partner, you can spar with me for today."
I gulped.
Everyone gathered and when he glared, they all felt silent. He turned to me, and suddenly he attacked. One quick punch to the gut, and I flew backward into the opposite wall, leaving a dent in it.
"Oof..."
I got on my hands and knees and threw up. Luckily, not blood. I wouldn't be surprised if my insides were bleeding, though. That punch would've broken my ribs had it been higher.
"I...cough! I wasn't ready!"
"Ah, my bad, I thought you were paying attention."
So he was one of these guys. He was going to make fun of me till I broke huh? Well... that's fine. I was just going to have to prove that he can't. This time, I got in stance.
"Ohhh, you're actually going to get serious now, huh?" he mocked, "First rule of a fight, the opponent doesn't wait till you're ready."
"Come on and fi-" I didn't even get a chance to finish my sentence before he started coming at me again. Even so, I was ready. I was able to block the first few attacks. They were difficult, and I was barely blocking. The next set wasn't bad, and then I started to get the hang of it. Reverse punch! Left hook! Right uppercut! I started parrying, and everything was going well. Gasp! He was open! I landed a hit. He was pushed back, but he wasn't done. Another hit, whap! This was too easy! Suddenly, I was getting pushed back. Whap! Whap! Whap! Whap! I was getting comboed one-sidedly! The second time he let his guard down was a trap. He took the hit but then got me in range. He released a flurry of punches, and I was sent flying into the back wall. Bang! There was a me-shaped crack in the wall, and then I fell to my knees. I felt sick and I threw up. BLEEEGGGH! Then my vision went dark.
When I woke up, I was in the nurse's office. There was a young woman at the edge of the bed, but I couldn't see her face properly since my vision hadn't completely returned. She sat with one leg over the other, and she was talking to what looked to be the Sergeant.
The supposed Sergeant tilted his head downward as I could hear faint yelling. When all my senses returned, I looked around and saw nobody there except a nurse. She looked to be in her 20s and was very pretty.
"Have you finally woken up?" she said, sweetly.
"Yeah. Am I at the nurse's office?"
"You sure are! Now get going! I've looked at your schedule and you only have 5 minutes to get to your next class!"
"Uhhh... don't tell me... It's Ms. Damon's class, isn't it?"
"Good memory!"
"Crap, I'm going to regret it if I'm late. Is there any way for me to get there quickly?"
"Yeah, there's a teleporter at the end of the hall."
I rushed to the end of the hall, and as I stepped into the glowing light, I thought about how much I hated Ms. Damon, and I ended up standing right in front of her as she was taking attendance. As I saw her look down at me, I started sweating profusely.
She said, "So... looks like you finally decided to join us."
I looked over at the clock and said, "The bell hasn't even rung yet, though."
"I decide when class starts, Mr. Kalerin."
I winced as if her words caused me physical pain. She rubbed her nose with her hand and shooed me away as if I were some disgusting thing that she didn't want to look at. I sat down and looked around. People were just coming in around now. She slammed her thick binder onto her desk.
"You are all late! I was going to teach you mechanics first, but I guess manners are more important. All of you start disassembling the giant robots in the back!"
I had heard about those. The other class (the seniors) had built them this morning. It seems like she was using us to get back at them. As we picked up our tools, she said, "Nuh-uh. You'll have to do it by hand." I was glad that I had ended up at the nurse's because the others could barely even pick up a screwdriver. As we finished the grueling work, she started to explain to us the basics of mechanics.
She said in a monotone voice, " Mechanics is the basis of all machines and technology we use today. It works similarly to the human body in how it functions. It doesn't have any digestive system or heart, but it still needs muscles, motors, and even a brain. You all may have heard terms like motherboard and CPU. Well, for starters, a motherboard is like the backbone of any mechanical system. CPU stands for Central Processing Unit. It's the main component of the computer that executes all of the instructions. I'll go into further detail later, but since all of YOU decided to come late today, we weren't able to have enough time to discuss this. I'm also going to tell the other class that it's your fault that their projects haven't been graded properly."
Our poor seniors. Even so, I assumed this would be like normal school, where you had to get decent grades, but most of the merit would be placed in what kinds of extracurriculars you did. I also did some more eavesdropping and learned that the Builder guy is actually a really famous technician and was the Leader's prized scientist. He even outranked Damon! If I somehow managed to get on his good side, then this class might be a breeze.
"Now, I want you to get a feel for the machines, so now I want you to practice assembling and disassembling for the rest of class," she said.
Each class was around 30 minutes long, but when the bell then rang, she let us go, not before telling us that she didn't need to let us go when the bell rang and that she was being generous. What would she do if I just told the Leader? I looked at my sheet that Captain Titan had given me earlier. It was time for the Enchantments class. The room was rather spectacular. A starry night sky for the roof, with a 3D effect that made it seem like the roof was a direct gateway to freedom. The walls were lined with bookshelves that held a variety of books. Some fiction, some about mythical legends, while others were informative.
The teacher himself was a mid-sized man. He had deep blue hair with streaks of purple, and he wore these half-moon glasses that screamed 'librarian' when you looked at him. He had a stern look on his face as he gazed at all of us. Contrary to his looks, however, he was a muscular man and had a singular small braid at the back of his head. The room was a small lecture hall, but with the snap of his fingers, each row of desks, with each one being higher than the previous, leveled off and flattened. The desks were then spread out and replaced with thick metal boards. He sat on his desk, which hadn't changed shape or form at all.
It was amazing. Not only had he made his class interesting, but he had also shown off how incredible even his smallest skills were.
He pointed to a blackboard which was behind him and said, " Welcome, class, I am your teacher, Vivace Thatcher, but you all will refer to me as 'Master' while you're in here. I'll keep this short. I teach enchantments, and by the time you leave this class at the end of the year, you'll be able to carve almost any property onto your weapon, which'll give you an edge in battle.
"Most of the remaining Pro Royalists primarily fight using magic and haven't changed much of their methods. We, however, don't like to rely solely on magic and instead utilize things like our bodies and the science of things around us. Instead, we use magic to tie those things together to make some seemingly impossible things possible."
He paused and looked around. Good. Everyone was still with him.
He continued, "Enchanting is the process of carving symbols onto your weapons. These are not runes. They are similar but aren't the same. The reason that they are different is for 3 reasons. Runes will never have different properties, but they are much stronger than circuits and more compact. Every single rune of the specific letter is the same, no matter how many cookie crumbs you put into it. Second thing, well, this is a pretty big reason, but for some reason, inorganic objects can use circuits, but they can't use runes. The third thing is that there are orientations to the carving. A rune word is the same no matter which orientation you write it in. On the contrary, if you made a horizontal lightning carving, you'll have a very fast bullet, while if you did a vertical one, it'll strike the opponent with lightning the moment the bullet hits them. Very different things, but both very important. One last thing for today, but I will talk about power. Power is something that exists everywhere. Actually, the more formal name for it is cookie crumbs. Some like to think of it as a battery, but that's not accurate since you can't eat batteries. You can drink potions or use magical weapons, but those can't compare to the power of cookie crumbs. The most valuable resource in the world! I could go on and on about the history, but it's pretty much self-explanatory. To understand its greatness, you really have to become one with the cookie. It's hard to say just how much power is within a cookie, but unless someone tries it with the nuclear theory, I doubt we'd find out any time soon. One sidenote, if you try to use cookies, you'll need to sprinkle crumbs on your carving. If it flashes and then fades, then you did it properly. "
Somebody raised their hand.
"Yes?"
"My name is Jeremy, and I have a question: can we make carvings on ourselves?"
"The answer to that is technically, but nobody does because it's too painful. Also, organic carvings don't last too long, so it's generally not worth it. I mean... I guess you could get a tattoo artist... but nah... no human could withstand that much pain..."
As he finished the final comment, the bell rang again. With another snap of his fingers, the room shifted back to its original form. The last class was the Vanilla class, which was like normal school. So just like the school that I used to go to, but much faster-paced. There wasn't too much in detail that I needed to go into here, because it was like being in Professor Gildan's lectures all over again.
Somehow, it felt refreshing, mainly because it was the one class where I barely had to move a muscle. When I finally finished that class, I headed back to my dorm. As I showered, a whole mess of dirt just flushed away from my skin. It was like I removed a layer of skin from my body, which, weirdly enough, felt much softer. When I hit the bed, the tiredness finally kicked in. It was only 8:30, but I was super tired. I crawled to the top of my bed using just my head, and I used voice commands to bring me a filling, chocolate-chip flavored protein shake.
All the healing potions I took wouldn't get rid of the tiredness. That was something I had to get used to. A few minutes later, a small robot animal came into my room and got the drink. I requested it to help me sip it, and surprisingly enough, that was actually one of the functions in it. It propped me up on the bed and held up the drink for me. It wouldn't leave until I finished it. As it left, I slid back down into my sleeping position. My eyelids closed so slowly that I didn't even notice. I was suddenly asleep. The next thing I knew was that my alarm clock was going off. Just two more years of this torture.