The world shattered into a million fragments of light.
I woke up gasping for air, ripping the helmet off my head. My stomach churned violently. I leaned over the side of my desk and vomited.
Half-eaten ration bits pooled on the concrete floor as I gripped my desk.
"Easy there tiger, it's over."
Apollo placed a hand on my head.
It was cool to the touch.
I stayed doubled over, my lungs burning as I sucked in stale hangar air.
"You've done well Marcus, you and the cultist were the only ones who passed their first exam. Everyone else was either ejected, or… died."
I looked up to see Apollo holding the lifeless body of a female inmate. He held her close, a tear running down his cheek as he forced a smile.
I shrank back.
"I could've died? I could've…"
Apollo supported the prisoner with both hands.
"No, you wouldn't have died. Unlike her, you knew how to adjust to the stress. She couldn't." His voice trembled as he looked over the class.
Almost everyone was either unconscious or missing from their desk entirely.
Looking towards the entrance, I could see Monica standing over two body bags. One large, and another about the same size as the woman.
The only other person who was up, was the cultist. She sat with a bored smile, twirling a pen.
I sighed, shaking my head as I watched Apollo approach the second body bag.
He gently laid her down, closing her eyes before zipping it up.
Ziiiiiip.
"Requiescat in pace."
Three dead since this program started.
And it hasn't even been a week.
"3 liberated souls, if only I could be taken by Mother too."
I glanced over the cultist.
Part of me wanted to call her sick, but she'd probably just agree.
Apollo cleared his throat, sitting on his desk and holding his head low. He sat like that for an hour, until everyone finally came to their senses.
There were a few gasps and breakdowns, but most of everyone looked like they had lost their souls.
Apollo looked up, holding tight fists.
"I haven't been honest with all, at least, I haven't told you everything."
He took a long breath, "The reality of your situation is grim. Out of the 17 of you remaining, four of you will become second years. Out of those four only two will go on to become pilots."
"Two." I echoed softly, "out of twenty."
One of the inmates, a guy in the back, stood up. "That's bullshit! Why are you bringing this up now?! I wouldn't have agreed to this shit if I knew!"
Apollo sighed.
"I had to wait for the results of your first test. Statistically, only those who instinctively pick up the concept of cosmic dust have the necessary skills to survive the dip. I hoped that all of you would've passed. Avoiding this conversation."
The room was so quiet you could hear a pen drop.
The angry prisoner from before stood up, a man with a skull tattoo over his face. "If we're going to die regardless I'm going back to prison." His chest heaved as he waited for an answer.
"Go back," Apollo shook his head. "That's impossible, your records were scrubbed the moment you left. There's nothing to go back to."
Skullface narrowed his eyes as he turned his attention to the woman in front of him. She looked back with wide eyes.
She scrambled to run.
He snatched her up by the neck.
"Help!"
Skullface held her close, an arm around her neck. "You people are insane if you think I'm dying here, like some kinda fodder. Either I'm leaving or we're dying! No in between."
Apollo sighed.
Monica pulled two small vials from a pouch on her thigh.
She opened both of them, sticking her thumbs in their tops.
"This is your only warning. Release the prisoner and return to your seat."
Skullface grinned. "I'm dead anyway, so fuck you!"
Monica narrowed her eyes. Seconds later, a small explosion went off near the right side of the man's head.
CRACK–BOOM!
The sound was sharp, like the air had been ripped apart.
A violent burst of reddish–orange gas expanded instantly around Skullface's head.
He didn't even have time to scream.
His head snapped back, engulfed in a toxic cloud. The force blew his body back, slamming him into the concrete. He convulsed a few times until eventually there was nothing but stillness.
The woman he was holding was thrown to the side. Coughing and retching. She was covered in a mixture of soot and human.
The smell hit us a second later.
Rotten fish and bleach.
I covered my nose with my shirt, stepping away.
"Target down, hostage secured." Monica sealed her vials, putting them back in her pouch.
Apollo dropped his head in his hands. "What the hell, Monica? You couldn't just knock him out?"
"Negative."
Apollo gripped the sides of his head.
"Everyone, get out."
He didn't have to tell me twice…
The cool evening air did little to remove the smell and taste of copper from my mouth.
All of us gathered a few paces away from the entrance.
Coughing and catching our breath as Monica cleaned the hostage girl.
Everything was quiet for a few minutes, until suddenly–
CRASH, CRASH, CRASH, BANG!
Something was tearing up the hangar from the inside. And since Apollo sealed the door, we couldn't see in.
FUOOM!
A massive explosion blew out the back side of the hangar, before an invisible force crumbled the blown-out metal together.
The class and I watched as the hangar was reshaped for hours.
No one moved.
Not even Monica, in fact I saw her hands trembling as she stared back at the academy.
It was well into the afternoon when silence returned to the hangar. After hearing hours of noise, the silence hit hard. Monica lowered her fingers from her ear.
She turned to us.
"Back inside."
No one argued. Not with Apollo like he was. We shuffled towards the door as Monica opened it.
Inside it was completely reshaped, and near the entrance, the desks remained. But the space behind them had been transformed into ten cells and a bathroom area. There was a fusion generator to the left and a water pump to the right.
Apollo stood in the center of it all, blood running from his eyes and nose as he trembled.
He looked like a drained battery.
His skin was pale, and the veins in his neck were bulging. He went from a god, to a patient on the verge of a stroke.
He wiped the blood from his face on the sleeve of his undershirt.
"I need to vent…"
He stumbled forward, each step looked to take a toll on him.
"I need to… vent…"
His voice was hoarse and quiet.
I knew he wasn't going to make it on his own. I wasn't ready to find out what happened if he didn't. I rushed to his side, supporting him.
His body was hot, almost absurdly so.
He looked over at me, gripping my shoulder as I supported him.
Behind us the prisoners stood in silence, all except the void cultist, who rushed forward and supported his other side.
Apollo gripped onto her.
The closer we got towards the exit, the hotter Apollo got. The heat radiated off his skin, sweat soaking his gi.
"Move faster!" I barked at the cultist.
She chuckled.
"If he expels his light here, we'd all burn like stars." Her wide eyes stared up at Apollo's bloodied face. "Like super novas."
"Less talking, more walking!"
We dragged him outside. He was dead weight, nothing but dense muscles and heat.
We stumbled into an open patch of grass. Apollo gasped, his head lolling. "H-here, right here."
"APOLLO!" I looked over at the hill to see Erika and a medical team rushing forward.
"Stay back," he whispered, dropping to a knee. "Please."
I grabbed the cultist and ran, as far and fast as I could.
Apollo looked up towards the night sky, pressing his wrists together and opening his hands.
THRUM.
The sound reverberated through my teeth as I ran.
A pillar of pure light erupted from his hands. It was so bright that for 12 seconds it appeared to be noon.
I crashed into the grass, covering my eyes and ears.
When the pillar of light finally snapped shut, I looked up.
The clouds that had dotted the sky were gone, completely evaporated. Leaving a perfect hole in the sky.