2634: Dalmore

Chapter 6

“Adria Merrick, you have reached the final stage of the sorting,” A voice rasps out, I'm not sure where it comes from, but it echoes through the room. The black room melts away, the gun in my palm vanishes. The room continues to whirl, making me dizzy by the second. The hue of the wall gradually shifts from black to white. I'm back in the same hallway as before. The doors have vanished, but there are five white basin baths along the right wall. A bronze sign above the basins read: Choose wisely, you only get one chance.
I move closer to the basins. Peering down, I see different materials placed in each one. The first one on my left has metals and alloys in it, the next one has spruce wood inside it, the one next to that has broken shards of glass. Stone pebbles in the next one and the last one have diamonds in them. Five materials for five sections, but I don't know which one is which. The diamonds must be a trap or something because it feels like the most obvious material to choose. The rest seem OK to choose, but I don't know which one out of the four to pick. “Adria Merrick, you only get to choose once,” The same voice rasps out. I do what the voice tells me to, I close my eyes and hover my hand over the basins, I focus on my breathing when I feel a small tug over the glass one. I hesitate for a moment, I can't go back. I take a shard of glass. All the other basins sink into the ground and the shard glows brightly. Bright enough to blind me. I sink onto the ground on my knees.
The light slowly dims away and I open my eyes. I see red, I am in one of those red tubes I saw in the dream of the Bulk. A long tube is connected from my mouth to an oxygen tank on the right of me. I scream, but no one can hear me. I pound the glass of the tubes in vain, no one notices me. Not wanting to waste my energy, I stop and calm down. I look closer through the red gel liquid to look at where I am. It's a lab. I see lab coats, syringes, and glass bottles scattered on a table but what takes my attention is the tubes lined against the wall, all with people my age in. People in caps and lab coats are rushing around and talking to each other in a rushed manner. I can't hear anything they’re saying, it all sounds muffled to me. Is this Veritas? A person walks by me, about to ignore me when I start banging on the glass again. He looks at me, before calling for more people, their attention draws away from what they’re doing and focusing on me. I hear a screech at the top of the tube. I look upwards to see what is happening. The tube is opening and drags me upwards with it, I grip the edges of the top of the tube to pull myself out.
When I pull myself out, I find myself covered in red gooey muck. I try to shake it off with no luck. “You’ll have to wash it off,” A man next to me says. I look at him closely, it is the man from the dream who injected me in the Bulk. Or at least the person I was in the dream. I  want to ask who he is but I had a million questions about what just happened.
“Hello what lab-” I stutter, mixing my sentences together.
“You’ll learn what happened to you later on but for now you should take a shower and get yourself to your rooms,” He says.
“Where am I? Is this Veritas?” I ask. He nods in response. “Was that the sorting?” I continue to ask.
“You’ll learn later,” He replies. “But the sorting is over and you have gotten the Niyth Section. Now off you go, I’ll have Ophelia take you to the Niyth Tower,”
“Tower?” I inquire.
“Yes, Ophelia!” The man calls out loud. The same girl that marked my name off when we left shows up. “Take Adria here to your Tower,”
The girl, Ophelia, stares at me, “Come on,” She says stonily.
“Real chatty you are,” I grumble but Ophelia chooses to ignore it. I follow her out of the lab through the hallways. They were very similar to the ones back in Acres Valley, the only difference was the direction which they traveled to. Almost every meter there is an intersection, which feels like an ant hill. 
Our walk is in silence but the silence isn't awkward, it is scary. She looks like she wants to slit my throat, but I have bigger things to think of. Allison became a ghost and made me kill Ares. Even for a simulation, it seems too vivid to be fake. What if I really did kill Ares. Trying to shake off the penitent feeling, I look up ahead for the so-called tower.
“We’re here,” She says in a more stony voice, stopping suddenly at a door to the left of us. It is hard to tell if there really is a door ther. It is blended in with the walls and there is no handle on it. Ophelia pulls off her pin on her jumpsuit and swipes it on the door, it slides open for us and we enter. The first thing I notice is a black rectangular room with black leather couches and armchairs, but there was no one in sight. “Here we are, Niyth Tower, your home for the next five years, enjoy,” She says sarcastically, before noticing my awestruck. “This is the parlor, where we hang out when we're not battling evil Mutants that want to rip our throats out. Up there,” She points to a staircase, “Is where your dorms are, once you up there you’ll find a bunch of doors that are labeled, find the one that says ‘15’s girls’ that's your dorm. 15’s is your age group until next year when you turn 16,” I wait for Ophelia to add anything else. “What are you waiting for? Go!”
Leaving her, I climb up the stairs which spiral towards the top. When I reach it, the floor splits into two hallways. The left is labelled ‘girls’, the right, labelled ‘boys’. Taking the left, I walk down the hallway. It is carpeted with dark green and black intertwined pictures of vines. The walls and doors keep the same black colour consistent. Finding my door at the very end of the hallway, I swing it open.
Walking inside, I look at twenty beds arranged in a round room. In the center of the room, there is a small pool of water and a statue of a Wadger in the middle. I walk around the room, and I find two doors between four of the beds and I open one of them. It is a bathroom, I should take a shower. The other door leads to another bathroom. After all, there are twenty of us. Walking into one, I run the water, now realizing how icky I feel. Looking in the mirror does not help, the red gel looks like I've been born again as a teenager. I hop in the shower, but I cannot shake off the feeling that I had shot Ares and if Allison will haunt me in real life. I feel like I'm drowning again, not in water but in guilt. Even after ten minutes in the shower, the gel won't get off. It still stains my skin red, no matter how hard I rub it off with soap. Finally giving up I turn off the shower and get changed. One of those jumpsuits Ophelia was wearing was already hung up on the door of the bathroom.
Heading back out my room, I hear loud commotion from the parlour. Climbing down the stairs, I see about forty or so people crowded in the parlour, deep into conversation. “Oi, Adria!” I hear a familiar voice call through the crowd, relief washes over me, I didn't kill him. However, just like me, Ares is covered in red goo. “Oh, oh, when I got injected I saw a giant spider. It was so big, about the size of a wadger and guess what?” Ares blabbers on excitedly.
“What?”
“I was stuck in his web and it was all sticky and then the spider came at me…” Ares’ voice fades in my mind.
“Do you still think about Allison?” I ask him when he finishes. This catches him off guard.
“A little bit,” But I can tell he wants to say more but is scared. “Why?” He asks in a low voice.
“N-nothing, just...curious,” I answer.
“OK, well back to me now. I saw a giant spider thing that tried to eat me alive. I was in this giant spider web. So I managed to get one of my arms free so then I broke one of its legs. Whilst it was crying-”
“Crying?”
“Yeah, crying because I'm so big and macho it couldn't stand up to my awesomeness. Anyways, I took its broken leg and cut myself free. Then there was this grey mist and I was tied to the stake and being burnt alive. So I burned the rope and ran away but my feet were on fire and there was no water so it hurt a lot. But because I am so brave, and did I mention macho. Then I saw these basins and I chose the one with glass in it. Then I found myself in those red tubes,” He says, puffing out his chest, all in one breath. “Also have you seen Soren?”
“No, why?” I ask.
Ares sniggers, “I’m in this section and he’s not,”
Knowing Ares won’t stop talking about Soren, I change the subject, “When's dinner?”
“You're new here aren't you,” A blonde haired boy nearby leans in. He doesn't look very friendly, but no one in this room looks particularly friendly. “They take your watch away when you come here to give to the kids coming into Acres Valley, besides its camp property,”
“So what do we use to tell the time?” I ask.
“You don't,”
“What?” Ares asks.
“You're familiar with those bells in Acres Valley, right?” He asks, we nod, “We have something similar, but not for a new activity. In our timing, each bell marks a new hour,”
“So how do you keep track of which bell is for which hour?” I ask.
“See this pin,” He points to the black pin on his jumpsuit, “Every time you hear the bell your pin flashes a number. The bells won't help you when you're out killing Mutants because you can't hear it, but your pin will flash out a number that is the hour number. When you have to get back here, your pin will flash out a red 1700. That’s 24 hour time, when it does that you have to get back,”
“So what about the minutes?” I ask.
“Minutes don't matter, only the hour,”
“Why?”
“We live according to the hour,” He shrugs.
“When will we get those badge things?” Ares asks.
“You'll get them at dinner,”
“OK, and when is that?”
“It's been five for about an hour now, we have dinner at six,”
“Yeah, we're all hungry dude,” Another guy joins in, he has dark skin and a brooding face. “You're both new, right,”
“Yeah,” We both reply.
He laughs “I can tell, you both look like newborn teenagers,” Much to Ares’ displeasure. “My name’s Levi,” He says, turning to the two of us. “And that guy,” He points to the person with blonde hair, “Is Jaxon,”
I nodd and take a seat on the couch and Ares plumps down right next to me, “I don't like them,”
“Why?” I ask. Just now, people’s watches flash a blue 18. A second of silence evades before the room falls into a frenzy to reach the door. Pushed to the back, Ares and I reach on our tiptoes to get a glimpse of what's ahead. A few other people I recognize from my age group loiter at the back with us. When the crowd finally leaves, we follow them as they leave to get to dinner.
“Hey, look,” Ares says, suddenly stopping and pulling my sleeve. He points to an intersection. I look in the direction that he is pointing at. I see another group of people, Zion amongst them, they wear the same jumpsuits but with white pins instead of the black ones Niyth wears. “Should we ditch them and talk to Zion?”
I shake my head, “Soren and Alec might have a problem with that”
Niyth is already meters ahead of us, we have to run even faster. Stopping in the middle of nowhere, we push past them to take a look at what is happening. Some people are scanning their pins on the door but it won't budge.
“What's the hold-up?” A person from the white pin-wearing group yells out behind us.
“It won’t open,” Not long after the whole of Niyth and some of the white badge-wearing group are banging on the door, their impatience waning, even I am starting to get a little hungry. 30 minutes later, the doors slide open, these doors are even wider than the ones in Niyth Tower. A wooden sign hung above the doors read ‘Dining Hall’ .
The room is rather capacious, about the size of the hangar. Housing five long tables lined horizontally, each with different coloured table cloths. White, green, red, black and blue. Finding the table with the black table cloth, I assume it's for us. Finding Ares, I sit down next to him. Looking at the front, there are five indoor flags each with a different color and symbol. I find the black one with two white ovals intertwined. The one next to it was a white one with a black leaf, the Section Zion is in. The green one has a four-pointed star, the blue one has a circle with a diamond and leaf inside it and the red one has the infinity sign. Bowls of slop from camp sit at the desk. I sigh. There’ll be no escaping this goop. Ares slurps it up and burps. 
“You're disgusting,” I comment, my appetite magically disappearing,
“Are you eating yours?” Ares asks. I hand mine over to him. “Besides, everyones doing the same,” I look around, slop spills on the table cloth. Some people are even using their hands to scoop out the rest of the slop stuck to the bottom of the bowl. I gag at the sight, this table has to be the messiest one out of the five. “When are we going to bed?” Ares huffs, looking down at his inflated stomach.
“Are you sure you want to go to bed?” Ophelia whispers in a low voice. “There's all sorts of things crawling around here,”
Ares stares at her for a moment before answering, “Yeah, I’m tired,”
“You’ve got to wait for Feyrer to finish his speech first,” Jaxon says, leaning in.
“What speech?” I ask.
“Every year, when a new batch of you guys come, Feyrer always gives a speech. Every year it is the same thing, I’m starting to think this whole thing’s a cult,” Levi adds on.
“Whilst the remainder of you all finish your dinner, I would like to welcome our newcomers. I will try to keep this as short as possible so you can have a good night’s rest for tomorrow,”
“Pfft,” I hear Levi whisper to Jaxon.
“Over the next few days, you will need to know your roles and jobs here with the help of your mentors. A person from your Section has been chosen to show you the ropes here, they will guide you for the next two weeks. Now all of you have been sorted into one of the five Sections and you might have seen people in your Section wearing different kinds of pins. These pins you will receive today from your Section Captain. These pins have multiple uses, whickh you will find out in the next few days. I will call out your Section name, your Section Captain, and your name. You will come up to the front to get your pin and move back to your seat. First Section, Fabrate, your Captain, Bryson Blake,” A tall lanky boy stands up and holds up a bag full of red pins, “Aeston, Andrew. Aden, Bryce. Ahen, Eugene…” I zone off until he calls out, “Blaine, Alec,” My head snaps up, I see Alec getting one and leave.
“No surprise,” Ares mutters.
“Heptation, Regina Estel is your Captain,” She holds a bag of blue pins. None of the names I recognize until Feyrer reachers, “Brookes, Cleo,” and “Undergrove, Allison,”
“Calux, your Captain is Anthony Wesly,” Wesly holds a bag of green pins. Taking a short ‘nap’, I almost miss “Proulx, Soren,” When Ares shakes me awake, sniggering at Soren who walks to the front shooting daggers at Ares.
“Alcous, your Captain, Sophie Ventail,” I knew that ‘Ghetty Zion’ would be called from the minute I saw the white pins.
“And lastly, Niyth. Your Captain is Ophelia-” Ophelia? I turn my head towards Levi and Jaxon who grin at me. I look at Ares, who sneers at her.
“Get on with it, I want to go back to bed,” Someone from Heptation yells, cutting off Feyrer whilst also gaining support from Niyth.
“Affify, Lenni. Adams, Tina...” I feel slightly nervous as my name nears closer. I need to talk to Soren and Alec, “Hutton, Ares,” Ares steps onto the platform, grinning with pride. From here I can see Ares looking at Soren. “Merrick, Adria,” Standing up, I move to the stage. Ophelia looks down upon me with a smirk, the closest thing to a smile from the lady. She takes a black pin and slaps it on my chest.
“Watch it miss sunshine,” She hisses. I ignore her and walk back. Ares is already sitting down with his chest puffed out and grinning like a fool.
“Do you like my badge?” He asks.
“It's called a pin and we both have the same one,”
“It is called a badge,” He scowls.
“Now you sound like grumpy Badge Lady,” I snigger.
“I do understand you have quite a few questions now that you have your pins. What happened was that you went into a simulation and some of you have seen dreadful things. This simulation may show a strategy situation, you can change the outcome. The second one you may have gotten is a physical situation, something like falling in a pit. It may even be the death of someone you know. Something you can't control but face it instead. These scenarios have been taken from something you love and turned into fear. This has two purposes; the first is to sort you, of course, the second is to teach you. To tell you that fears are what keep us human in this inhuman world. But if we overcome these, the world would be better if-”
“The world would be better if you get on with it,” Someone shouts out. The crowd grows more restless and agitated.
“As I was saying, we are the future. Now on that note, I think we should be heading off, if you have any questions go talk to your Section Captain,” Feyrer says hurriedly.
No one has a problem with that, I feel tired already as I stand up. The rest of Niyth is far ahead of me and I try to catch up but I'm too tired. Not so long after, I am wandering around in an empty hallway, with no doors, nothing to indicate that a room is nearby. I pull off my pin, (which looks to be somehow ‘magnetically stuck’ to my jumpsuit) and run it along the walls hoping that one door will slide open. Beep, the side of the wall flashes red. What's behind that? I scan the pin along with it again and again but the wall still flashes red.
“Come on we'll talk about it in here,” I hear footsteps coming from behind, I find a corner in the hallway and peek out to see who it is. Feyrer walks in with Dawson, what’s he doing here? Feyrer takes out a key card and scans it on the same part of the wall I scanned my pin on. This time instead of flashing red, it opens. When they enter the room, I creep closer to listen to what they are saying, but the door closes. I shove my pin under the door to stop it from closing, hoping that it wouldn't break nor would Feyrer notice that I was here. It leaves a small crack where I can look through.
“So what business do you have here?” Feyrer asks.
“The Rebels, they are getting stronger every day,”
“We’ll get rid of them just like we did with that Rebellion 15 years ago,”
“But aren't you worried, they almost destroyed everything we spend decades building,”
“We killed them, we have the child,”
“But-”
“They can't do anything without the child,”
“Please, I advise you to do something about this. I can help you,”
“They are all weak, all they have is hope. Hope does nothing. They need a hero, a savior, which they don't have,”
“They’re rising. They’re gaining power. We have to do something. Last time they almost eradicated us!”
“No, Gerald, your post is back at Acres Valley. I suggest you catch the 7:30 Bulk that's leaving in 20 minutes,”
“I have ideas, ideas to help take those Rebels down. I can show you now,” Dawson says. Feyrer takes a minute to process.
“Very well, if your ideas have some worth,”
“Thank you, now I-”
“Oi, what are you doing here?” I look behind me, Ophelia is crouching behind me looking feral.
“N-nothing,” I stutter, looking dumbfounded. I pull the pin from underneath the door, slipping it in a pocket.
“Get out of here,” She hisses.
“I got lost,”
“Lost? You don't look lost,” She says, grabbing my arm and pulling me away. Far away from Feyrer and Dawson, she yells at me, “What were you thinking, if you got caught, do you know what he’d do to you?” I shake my head, “He’d leave you to Mutants, and fake your death as an accident. That man is capable of far more than murder. If you want to survive this hell hole, stop snooping where you're not wanted. Understand?”
“Why do you care about my survival? I thought you hate me,”
“I do, but as Niyth’s leader I have to look after everyone the Section, no matter how much I hate you,”
“Really? With the amount of death here I'm not entirely sure you're supposed to care about who dies,”
“Yeah, you think you can get smart with me?” She opens the door and I walk past her before she grabs my arm. “Know your place,” 
I glare at her and look around the room for Ares. This is almost impossible to do because there is some sort of party. Everyone is yelling louder than ever, if that is even possible, people are singing and doing flips on the table. After bumping into a few people, being yelled at a couple of times, I finally stumble upon Ares talking to Jaxon and Levi. “Hey,”
“Hey,” He replies. I can't talk to him here with Jaxon and Levi and I had an odd feeling that Ophelia is watching.
“I thought everyone was tired?” I ask, recalling the agitation from the crowd.
Levi shrugs, “All the staff here, they're the worst. We try playing with them to get them angry,”
“Well am I allowed to go to bed now?” I ask.
“If you want. Although I doubt you’ll get enough sleep with this noise,” Turning my back on the party, I retire for the night.