Generation T

Chapter 2

"Welcome," Enon shifted to 'park', "to a new beginning."

My heart beat wildly in my chest, and I heard each thump against my rib cage. Adrenaline roared under my skin, just waiting to be used. I hopped out of the voiture tapped my foot while I waited for Enon and Macy to follow. Enon looked like h was about to say something, but closed his mouth and walked towards the colossal building before us. It was longer, rather than taller, and had fields that stretched miles behind it, encased by a wired fence. I stared in awe along with Macy, and we both started running towards the building.

"Wait! There's a-"

Suddenly, my heart stopped, litterily, and my eyes popped from my skull. There was a terrible pain all over my body, and with the strange pain was also burning. Was I on fire? I fell to the ground, hitting hard on my spine and letting out a blood curdling scream. I didn't open my eyes, and I didn't want to either. I could barely hear anything, and soon I was encased in darkness.

-------------------------------

"Wake up, Cadet!" I heard someone yell in my face and I shot up.

"And who, exactly, are you?" I glared at them.

My body ached and burned, so I laid back down with a moan.

"I am Director Lance, you will listen to my orders or you will be put to death." he warned, his wrinkly skin and gray, balding head made him seem harmless, but I could tell he was made of steel.

"It hurts." I groaned.

"Sitting in a tiny space for months with others will hurt worse, physically and mentally, so suck it up, kid." he ordered.

"What happened to me?" I asked, ignoring his last statement.

"You and your friend ran into the electric fence surrounding the building, which was the stupidest move I've ever heard of." he scoffed.

"Well, sorry." I mumbled.

"I need you up and ready in 5 minutes!" he yelled in my face, spit brushing my cheeks. 

I wiped my face with the back of my hand and answered, "fine."

Director Lance stalked out of the room and closed the door behind him. I sat up sowly and looked around, my body screaming at the simple movement. I was on a metal hover-bed, floating about a foot over the floor, and I was surrounded by white walls and silver, tile flooring. My legs hurt the most, so when I swung them over the side of the bed, I bit my tounge and held in a scream. Why couldn't I just rest? I sighed, touching the tile floor with my bare feet and shivering from the icy temperature it held.

My clothes were strewn on a metal chair in the corner and I just noticed the thin, paper gown I was wearing. Suddenly, I felt the need to cover up, as I had on no underwear and no shirt or pants, for that matter. As I neared the clothes on the chair, slowly and painfully, I saw that they weren't my clothes, but 3 different jump suits along with boots made of at least 5 different materials. Each set of clothes had a tag on it, and I read each one. Active, training, sleeping. Oh how wonderful, my whole stay here will only consist of 3 outfits. I sighed, and picked up the training jumpsuit, which was metallic silver with long bottoms and sleeves, plus it covered my neck, as well. A small, glass tablet fell out off the chair when I picked up the clothes. I picked it up and saw words on the screen, scanning it over.

Active, 8:00; Training, 10:00; Dinner, 18:00; Lights out, 22:00

I looked at the time on the clock above the door and it said 7:54. I quickly scrambled for my active jumpsuit, which was a metallic blue, but wasn't long like the training one, this one was a short jumpsuit with short sleeves. I quickly threw it on and put my hair back, then I slid on the white sneakers it came with, no socks. I bolted out of the room, until I found I didn't know where to go.

"This way." I saw Enon standing at one end of the hallway and ran after him, following him to a field outside the building that went on beyond I could see. It was truly beautiful, and the temperatures weren't too bad, considering it's still morning. I saw Director Lance walking over, and he had a sly grin in his face I narrowed my eyes at him, wondering what he was up to. I didn't trust him, nor did I like him.

"Good morning, Zara, Enon. Now, today's challenge is one of the easiest ones you'll ever have, so I expect a score of 7 or higher. I want you to run until you find the end of this field, then go to the woods, and fight the guard there. This is a training/active activity, so it counts for both. Go in 3...2...1, now!" he blew a whistle that hurt my ears, and before I knew what was happening, Enon sprinted ahead of me, I looked around, and saw Macy jogging over to us, and I took off.

My feet moved swiftly over the grass, and I almost slipped from the morning dew. Within a few minutes, my breaths were short and fast and my lungs screamed for air. My legs ached and my feet hurt, but I kept going. Enon was barely ahead of me, so I pressed faster and faster until I was a good and steady ten feet in front of him. My throat burned and my legs cried, but I had to keep going, that is, until the director can't see me with the naked eye. because I'm so far ahead. I gradually slowed my pace and came to a fast walk. Some how, Enon was still going with no hesitation. I squinted my eyes and saw Macy fast walking, well, trying to, anyways. As she got closer, she looked like she was crying, and I heard the director yelling at her. I stopped in my tracks and waited for her to catch up with me. When she was finally next to me, she gave me a grateful smile. The yelling stopped right before she got here, because he couldn't see her anymore.

"I can't do this." she panted, and I saw more tears coming from behind her puffy eyes.

"Me either, but we can't back out, or..." I trailed off.

"Or they'll kill us." Macy finished sternly.

"Do you want to team up?" I offered.

"Yes, yes, thank you. So, how are we going to do this?" she asked.

"I don't think the director was telling us the full truth. We just need to find the forest and beat the guard or whoever he is. He just said run until the end of the field, but that could take days, honestly. Look around for any trees, and we'll go that way." I planned.

"Uhhh.... Oh! Do you see that on the horizon?!" she exclaimed.

"Which horizon?" I rolled my eyes.

"To your right!" she shouted.

I squinted my eyes, then saw a faint line of green.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go." I smiled.

We took off in the direction of the supposed trees, wondering what will be there once we arrive.