I grabbed another three knives, and they hit their mark as well. All on the first try. 50m was still nothing to me. I hunted in the forest with wooden knives as long as I could remember. Soon, it went back to 75m. I was in the lead.
“I think we found something you're actually good at,” said Cassiella.
I turned to her and smiled. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were jealous.”
She took that as a challenge and quickly caught up with me at 75m. A few others caught up as well. The task became exponentially harder as more knives stuck into the target and the distance moved away each time. Cassiella was using a bow and arrow, but it moved every five near the center instead of my three.
“Why do you need five?” I asked.
“Arrows have longer distance and take up less space on the target board.”
I noticed the blue Hymer kept his eyes on me. I could tell we both wanted nothing more than to beat each other up.
“Relax Salan, don’t let him get to you,” said Cassiella, keeping her eyes on the target.
“Yea Salan, do what your girlfriend tells you to,” mocked the blue Hymer.
“We’re not together,” Cassiella and I both said in sync.
He kept making jokes, but I ignored it. In response, I hit all three targets to get to 100m. I turned back to him to see that he was still at 50m.
“I’m sorry, what was that, you blue bitch? Are you still at 50m? I was too busy getting 100m!” I shouted.
He gritted his teeth, and green aura shot out of him. He angrily threw a ninja star at the target and missed completely.
“Good shot, buddy!” I shouted, clapping my hands sarcastically.
The others started to laugh and take my side. I focused on my target from that point on. It took a good five minutes of missing until I hit one at 100m. I had never thrown that far before. I just needed two more the target was filled with ten daggers. After one minute, I needed one more dagger. I turned to Cassiella.
“Have you ever gotten out early?” I asked.
“Of course, I have.”
“Not this fast on target practice though, Cassiella,” mocked the Tranvesus.
“Beginner’s luck” replied Cassiella.
I sharpened my eyes to the target, focusing all my energy on it. I threw the dagger, the throw felt powerful, and a distant sound confirmed the hit. A green light lit up overhead, followed by a buzzer, and a voice came over the speaker.
“Abundan Salan you may leave if you wish,” said the Leader.
Some people clapped. The blue Hymer got so mad that he ran around the line of people, threw a ninja star at me. I caught it with my robotic arm and crunched it. I started walking towards him to hit him back, but his collar was already activated. He was on the floor, sprawling in pain. The speaker started up again.
“Shack, you will be escorted to the room for three days for causing a disturbance during practice,” said the Leader.
A part of the wall slid open, and two men in suits came in to carry him away. Everyone looked at what was happening, instead of throwing. After he left, I put the rest of my knives away on the table. They all had barcodes. Guess they don’t want you to steal these too. Before I left, I passed by Cassiella. I couldn’t help myself.
“Was that beginner’s luck too?” I whispered.
As I walked away from the training facility, she got one arrow at 100m. When I got back to my room, I realized how hungry I was. My curiosity for food took over, and I pushed the button on the wall. The doctor answered.
“Yes?” he asked.
“Uh, this is Salan. Where do I get food?”
“This line is for emergencies, Salan. Can’t Cassiella show you the way?”
“I finished target practice, and she’s still going.”
“I’m surprised you beat her. I thought you were bad at first. Guess I should have watched the target practice this morning. Go to B section; the hallways will lead you to the cafeteria.”
I followed the signs and eventually got myself to the B hallway. One room had ‘Cafeteria’ marked above it. I walked in.
There was an empty room with white tables and a big glass desk. There seemed to be no one around. The cameras tracked my movements as I walked up to the front. Upon closer inspection, there was food behind the counter. The food seemed processed and not very appetizing. There was a red scanner like the one for my room. I guessed it could only be accessed through the barcode. I held up my left wrist, it scanned my barcode, and a computerized voice startled me. It sounded like a monotone female.
“Subject Salan, rank lowest, D level. Time spent in the facility, one day. Finished practice first out of all Abundan’s. Calculating meal options. You have a choice of any meal.”
I moved my hand back to my side. The white door behind the counter opened, and a Cyclops’ chef walked through to greet me. I was baffled.
“So, what do you want?” the chef asked.
“Ummm…”
“I heard you’re new. Well, let me tell you about the cafeteria. You get a meal based off rank. The machine accounts for time only for newcomers, and the fact you're here first despite being D rank means you get a chef to make a meal for you. Anyone who finishes first for practice, or has a rank A, gets a chef. Anything lower and you get the premade meals from the computer. The less you do, the worst the meal. After all, to work is to triumph, so what can I get for you?”
“How long have you been doing this?” I asked.
“Since this facility started.”
“Which was?”
“About three years.”
I thought about what to have. The idea of meat made my mouth water.
“I’ll have a steak, fish, and chicken please.”
“Slow down. It comes in meals. You need to get a balanced nutritional value. Some vegetables couldn’t hurt.”
“Then just add whatever sides.”
“Seems easy enough. What do you want to drink?”
“A bunch of milk.”.
“So, some stereotypes are true,” said the Cyclops smiling.
I sat down, and within 20 minutes all the meals came. Each serving was massive, and I had never seen such a variety of food. I started inhaling the food and ate the entire two meals along with the milk. Cassiella entered the cafeteria and crossed her arms ate sight of me. I wasn’t exactly a tidy eater.
“What?” I said, spewing out little drops of food.
“You should learn proper table manners,” said Cassiella.
I swallowed the food, “I’d like to see you eat properly after eating out of a tube for four weeks.”
She walked up and got some sort of salad even though machine said she was rank A. It had a very bland and simple appearance; it just looked depressing. She sat down across from me but I wanted nothing to do with her. I took my plate of fish with me. When I went back to my room, I put the plate on my dresser. Then I collapsed on the bed. My thoughts drifted to an important question. Why would he mention those insects?
Close-quarter weapon skills were on Wednesdays so I practiced with a wooden sword. Others used their own set of weapons, all wooden. I lost over and over to Cassiella. She chose a wooden rapier. I tried dual wielding knives but her reach made it impossible to land a strike. I switched my style with a samurai sword. This was the best to defend myself from aerial attacks. We put special pads on our clothes, a red light would go green when they were struck. They reused the same overhead light as the target practice for this practise. My light kept going off against her. Every movement she made was two steps ahead of me. It was like racing someone who was faster than you and every time you caught up, they went a little quicker to tease you. Cassiella was physically stronger than any woman I had ever seen. It made me feel less masculine.
“Seems you’re not so good at sword fighting as you are at target practice. Target practice is my worst skill, but it will take ages before you can beat me at this.”
She swished her sword at her side triumphantly.
When we resumed fighting, she had hit me 15 times in a row, and I hit her once. She talked big, but she had the skill to back it up. I tried the clothing trick again, but she just poked me so hard in the stomach that I dropped my sword.
Cassiella could extend her wings with blue aura tips to fly around me. I’d never fought an enemy with such speed. Cassiella left while I had to stay to practice more. The day went by fast, and I was soon back in my bed resting up.
I fell asleep and was waken up early for Thursday’s practice. I heard the door open and Cassiella walked in. I leered out of the corner of my eye. What did she want now?
“Hey,” said Cassiella.
“What do you want? You aren’t going to sucker punch me again are you?”
“I need you to start training; you’re part of my squad, and as squad leader, your faults are my faults. You need to work on aura control.”
“No.”
“What do you mean no? Don’t you want more privileges and to get your rank up?”
“Why should it matter?”
Cassiella seemed to search for another reason. “You have to strengthen your body for P.S.O. treatments on Saturdays.”
“What’s the big deal anyway? Why do you care?”
“Do you want to die? If your aura and body aren’t strong enough to keep up with the weekend P.S.O. operations, your heart gives out. Cardio is important here. I’ve had one of my squad members die, and I’m not gonna let that happen to you.”
What she said made me shiver.
“Shouldn’t they stop the procedure if an Abundan dies? Why would they continue with such a method?”
“The Leader doesn’t want any weaklings; he needs strong soldiers, and the earlier the training, the better. The Leader used to do it every month but realized he could use the P.S.O. treatments more often. At one point, it was every three days, but too many kids died off. One of them was in my squad.”
I waited to see if she was joking, but her expression stayed the same. I stood up, feeling nervous from what she had told me.
“Guess I should start training. But I’m going to do it alone.”
“I’m your leader and I need to know you can be a strong fighter.”
I took that as an opportunity to mess with her attitude.
With a smile, I said, “Ask me nicely.”
“What?” asked Cassiella, confused.
“I want to see if you can do it. Try being nice to another person. Ask me nicely to train with you, or I’m not doing it.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really.”
“OK…Can you please come train with me?” she asked.
I crossed my arms and said, “I’ll think about it.”
She seemed furious, and her blue aura started coming out. I stood back. I didn’t want to get knocked out again, so I put my hands up.
“Whoa, relax. I’m joking. Let’s start training together.”
“That’s better,” said Cassiella, stalking out of the room.
The Leader gave same speech. I obeyed everything he said. Today was aura control day.
“Now, since I noticed you closed your arm wound with aura, I must ask you: you do know how to manipulate it, right?” Cassiella asked.
“Actually, I don’t know how I did that. I just thought to close the wound, and my aura did it.”
“It works like this,” began Cassiella. “Class 1 and 2 can manipulate their aura. Today is more for Abundans like you and me; the rest just spar against each other. Aura must have some attachment to your body to work, so you can’t shoot out aura like a projectile. Therefore, we have Tuesday’s practice. Each aura is different depending on the color. Mine is blue; all cool colored auras are denser, so they are smaller morphs but pack more of a punch. Warm colored auras have a wider radius but aren’t as strong, so they tend to be distance fighters. You see–
“I’ve heard this before, why is my aura black,” I interrupted.
“The Leader instructed me to tell you this,” she said, and paused.” The main reason we hunted you down, is because of your aura. Auras that come in shades get the best of both. They are dense, and they have a good reach. You are a very lucky. Don’t let it get to you though; you still can’t beat me,” she said, putting her hands on her hips.
A person’s power doesn’t amount to a person's worth; my mother taught me that. I would give anything to hear that flute again from my mother. I realized that I was looking down at the ground. When I swiveled around, I saw that Cassiella was staring at me. I shouldn’t have thought about my mother.
“Are you OK?” she asked.
“Yeah; I’m fine. Let’s get back to training.”
I tried my hardest to manipulate the aura, but it would only last for a few seconds. I tried multiple morphs, but they quickly vanished. I kept getting frustrated. After three hours of training, I was exhausted, but I kept going until the 3 pm stop time. I didn’t even break for lunch.
Cassiella came back with her squad for Friday’s match. She had wanted me to introduce myself earlier, but I hadn’t cared enough. Now that it was Thursday, they had to visit.
“Salan, you need to take a break. We have to go over our strategy for tomorrow's match,” said Cassiella.
There were two others behind Cassiella. It was the two guys who held her back at Monday’s sparring. One of them was a Tranvesus. He had the usual gills and webbed hands, as well as dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. The other was a Cyclops with red hair and a red eye. I’ve never seen such a Cyclops before.
“Go away,” I said.
“I’m trying to help you. You need to trust me.”
I ignored her and imagined there was a shield in my left hand – a simple circular shield. I held it for four seconds until my fatigue took control and the aura faded. The Tranvesus walked out of the group.
“My name is Tras. I know you don’t trust people, but this lone wolf thing isn’t going to work. This is Craw,” said the Tranvesus, pointing to the Cyclops.
“First, relax; let the energy build up slowly,” said Tras.
Then, morphing his webbed hands into massive, deadly looking claws, he added,” When you’re ready, you need to morph your aura like this.”
The claws he held out were pure white and extended far from his body.
“Are you a shade Abundan?” I asked.
“Yes, I am. I was the only shade Abundan here until you came. Our squad is going to be tough with you. I’ve got more wins than losses against Cassiella here,” said Tras.
“By only one!” shouted Cassiella.
I tried to take his advice for the shield. It held for 5 seconds before it disappeared. I became frustrated.
“Of course, you can’t form anything sharp against a fellow Abundan during training. If you do, it’s a long time in the room. Make sure to remember that for tomorrow,” said Tras.
“We’re supposed to show him the battle strategy today,” said Cassiella.
“He needs to trust us first. Also, you’re not the only Abomination here, Salan,” said Tras.
He changed his appearance to red, gold, and green, and then back to his original white skin color.
“You’re also an Abomination?” I asked.
“Yes, I am. I know what it feels like to be different.”
I trusted this man’s advice more than Cassiella. He seemed to read me well.
“Let me try one more time,” I stated.
I held the shield for eight seconds until my mind went back to my mother. Flashes of what happened came back into my head, and my aura grew more sporadic. The black smoke wrapped around me. I thought of my mother touching the top of my head like she always. I closed my eyes to get it out of my head. When I opened them, a black shadow figure of my mother was there. She holding my hand and patting my head. My sadness was followed by anger. I ran out of the training room. Why was she haunting me?
“Salan? Where are you going,” said Cassiella moving to follow me.
Tras stuck his hand out and shook
his head at Cassiella. I went back to my room, scanned to open my door, and jumped into my bed. I wanted to be alone. My aura training exhausted me, and my anger let the exhaustion take over. My pillow became soaked with tears as I slept.
When I woke up, my hands were in cuffed around a metal pole. The black silhouettes encircled me whispering. I hated the whispers.
“Shut up!” I yelled into the abyss of black figures.
My mother’s body hung, rocking back and forth. She was suspended in silence, her still neck snapped. But then she removed the rope and dropped down, her body walking towards me at the pole. She stared at me with a bag over her head, weeping beneath it. My mother took the bag off with her hands bound, and her neck flopped sideways. With blood pouring out of her mouth, she stared at me and said, “Why didn’t you save me? Why did you let me die?”
“I’m sorry; I’m so sorry mom!” I screamed.
My mother’s dead body transformed into crows and flew off in multiple directions. Echoing in the air as the birds vanished, words in my mother’s voice called out, “Goodbye, Salan.”
The black silhouettes around me laughed mockingly.
“Mooooooom!” I screamed into the abyss.
I woke up in my bed, full of sweat, my blankets shredded into pieces. Some of the mattress was torn. It took me awhile to calm down. When I looked up, I saw my squad. Cassiella had a tray of food in her hand. They seemed like they came from a funeral.
“Hey, Salan. I brought food for you,” said Cassiella, extending the tray.
They had heard everything. I took the tray and threw it against the wall, splattering the food everywhere.
“Don’t play dumb!” I shouted.
“What do you mean, Sa–,” started Cassiella.
“We heard everything,” Tras cut her off.
Cassiella started cleaning up the tray. I walked over from my bed and helped her pick up the pieces.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
She patted my back, “It’s OK; I understand.”
“Like I said, we’re a team. We understand how you feel,” said Tras.
“I doubt it,” I said bitterly.
“Cassiella here lost her family fighting in the war. Even though she’s purebred, she has suffered. I grew up an orphan; I don’t know my parents. I was always alone until I was picked up by the Leader and put here. On the streets, I had nothing, and neither did Cassiella. But the Leader came by and saved us. Just like he saved you,” said Tras.
Untold Deception Page 12
