Trained To Kill

one: an introduction

I try to find my voice but it seems to be lost somewhere deep in my throat. Or maybe I can’t focus on anything but the way this afro dude is gripping my arm so tightly that I think it’s cutting off my circulation. I’ve never been talkative or sassy, so as much as I want to tell him to lay off I don’t have the guts.

We follow the big black man down an intricate set of hallways until there’s this large steel door that has a keypad. “Cover her eyes.” He says and the afro kid clasps his sweaty palm over my eyes, blocking my vision. The steel door opens.

He pushes me into this industrialized looking room with multiple doors around it and a gigantic screen that takes up the whole wall, where I see at least 20 other kids that look around my age. Some of them are pacing back and forth, some are crying, some are balled up on the floor rocking back and forth. “What is this?”  I turn to him and ask. He scowls at me.

“Shut up.” He says and pushes me forward. Jeez. Then he follows the bigger man to the front of the room.

“Okay! Listen up!” He claps his hands together loudly, catching everyone in the room’s attention. “I’m sure you’re wondering why you’re here. Well, I have some good news and some bad news.” His booming voice echoes throughout the whole room. “Good news is, you’ve been hand- picked by some powerful people to serve your country in the best way possible. Bad news is, you won’t be going back to your normal life again.”

There are gasps around the entire room and even some crying. All I can think is that this is one big joke and that I’ll wake up any second. I look at him at he is giving me this malicious glare. What is his problem with me??? I haven’t seen him look at anyone else like that.

“QUIET!” The man says, his sudden yelling interrupting my train of thought. “Everything will be explained to you soon enough. Until then-“

“What if we don’t want to be a part of this, whatever this is?” A boy shouts from the back. He is tall and skinny. He has light brown skin and short, curly hair. I can see from here that he has green eyes. He looks around my age.

“You don’t have a choice.” The man replies.

“Oh yea, and who’s going to stop me from leaving then?” The area around him clears.

The man reaches into his jacket and pulls out a gun, raises it up and shoots the boy, right in the chest. There’s screaming and people running and more crying and I gasp and back up against the wall. The boy is dead.

“Anyone else want to challenge me?” The man says. The room goes silent. He chuckles to himself. “That’s what I thought. Now, you will be assigned rooms and a roommate, and then you are to wait in your room until receiving further instructions. My name is Marcus. This boy right here,” He motions towards him. “This is Jacob. He will be your instructor. Yes, he is your age, but he does have authority over you and he does have permission to shoot you. So don’t get any ideas unless you want to end up like Mr. Smart mouth over there.” He nods toward the boy he just killed’s body, which is now surrounded in blood. He gives Jacob a pat on the shoulder and then leaves the room.

Jacob stands up a little taller and then he talks. “When I call your name, you will take this card key and go through that door,” He points to the left where there’s a glass door. “And find the room marked with the same number on your key. Don’t try anything funny, or you will be punished. As you can see, we aren’t playing around here.” His voice is bold and confident, but I can sort of tell he’s not as harsh as that Marcus guy. “Like Marcus said, you will stay in your rooms until you receive more instructions. There is a P.A system that runs through the dorms. Listen for that, because whatever comes out of that is important. I’ll start calling names now. Imani Lovelace.” He says and holds up a little card key. I didn’t get a chance to get a good look at the girl seeing how I’m standing in the back.

 He calls name after name, until I’m the last one standing in the room. He looks up briefly at me and rolls his eyes in disgust. “Karma Coleman.” He says my name as if it is beneath him. If its one thing I’ve gotten better at since I’ve been hanging out with the “bad” kids, its to stick up for myself. However, in this case, that could get me shot just like that other boy. I do it anyway.

I walk up to him and snatch the key out of his hand. He looks surprised by my action, but he quickly gets rid of it and replaces it with annoyance. “What is your problem??” I say firmly.

“Excuse me?” He takes a step forward, now in my personal space. “You don’t speak to me like that.” He growls at me. I back up and eye the gun sticking out of his pocket.

“You have been looking at me like I’m a piece of trash ever since I got here.” I glare at him.

He walks towards me again. “My fucking problem.” Even his voice sounds deadly. Everything about this boy screams dangerous. “Is you.” After staring me down he walks past me and out of the room.