Survival Strategy: 3

3

“Wait, that means that we’re being recruited for the military’s special squad?” Kevyn asked me, trying hard to whisper.

“I don’t know, what was on the notice you saw?” I asked.

“It just said that the military were looking for recruits and that they’d provide transport to the city.” Kevyn whispered.

“We’re not at the city.” I said. “Are we?”

“No, you’re not.” Rein replied, startling both Kevyn and I. “We’re at the secret squad training center.

“The secret squad? But we saw on TV that your uniform is definitely the military’s special squad’s uniform.” Kevyn said.

“That’s what the military believes.” Rein replied and moved even faster, that it was hard for us to catch up. “Hurry up!” She called to us in a hushed, whispered voice.

I could see that the sun was setting, we would have around two hours of sunlight left and we were clearly nowhere near the city. I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on and if by habit, I turned to Kevyn but seeing that he had the same confused expression I had, I knew I wouldn’t be getting any answers at the moment.

After walking on a red dirt path for about twenty minutes or so, the path led to a dense forest of green. I thought we would stop there, but before I could blink, Rein had effortlessly dashed onto the trees. She stood up there gazing far out as we waited below, finally understanding that she was watching for something as if to see which direction we had to go and after a few more minutes, she was back down. She started striding through the thick and endless sequence of trees while the rest of us were instructed to follow her.

“Excuse me, but where are we headed?” Kevyn boldly asked when we seemed to be led deeper and deeper to the forest without a clear sight of where we were actually headed.

“Rein, brief to them what this is really about. That will save the Commander the trouble.” The Military General ordered.

“Yes, sir!” Rein replied before beginning to explain that the Secret Squad had nothing to do with the military even though they were known publicly as the military’s Special Squad and were the most talented youngsters in the entire country. What was common knowledge to the villagers about the military’s was that all the squad member’s ages ranged from fourteen to eighteen and the members who grew older would always end up becoming higher ranking officials. The member’s faces were barely shown and anything to do with them was highly confidential. All the information we received were from rumors the house wives told or if it was broadcasted on TV. 


Even so, nothing was revealed. The only reason we knew what their uniform looked like was that there was a festival to actually celebrate the honors of ex-members and the people in the city would often try their best to dress like the squad members. The fact that their uniform looked like normal school uniforms was common knowledge, until you saw that striped yellow-navy blue tie that indicated that they were a squad member. Honestly, if you think carefully, the festival could just be a chance to allow the members to hide during missions but I doubt they always wore their uniforms, they probably had different uniforms for different purposes.

I do wonder how people knew about the striped tie though, could it also be rumors?

“Rune, look ahead!” Kevyn called out to me.

I looked up to see what he was going on about, but just the sight of it was enough to put anyone in awe. This was something you could never see on TV and what only very few people would rarely see in real life - we were standing, head to head with the official Secret Squad training center.

“Unbelievable.” Kevyn uttered.

We all stood there gasping in awe at the sight of the magnificent building. The architecture and design of the whole place was so modernized to us that we just couldn’t believe that it was real. We were used to cabins built from teak and pine but never this metallic material. It was just too extravagant for us villagers.

“We must hurry in before the sun sets.” Rein declared.

XX

Kanon looked at the clock against the wall; it was almost sun down, meaning that most people would have left by now. He sighed in relief knowing that this meant he could actually get some practice done, without anyone interfering or bothering him. Picking up the silenced pistol that he treasured and refused to let anyone use, he aimed and shot the targets one by one. After a few repetitive rounds, he decided to work on swordplay.

He headed over to the counters, located just outside the training area and propped his ID onto the metallic surface and a case containing a selection of blades folded upwards. He slipped his pistol back into its socket and picked up a blade, then headed back to the training room.

XX

As the Military General led us in, he took out a card of some sort from his pocket and swiped it on the device by the gate. It made a flickering, beeping sound before the gate rose, revealing a palace like structure including the surroundings - it seemed as if royalty lived here. The steps were made of cobblestone and the buildings seemed like those futuristic ones that you’d see in movies about the near future. We huddled close together, afraid of getting lost in this place.

“Come, we must hurry.” The Military General warned. “Rein, you are excused.”

After saluting, Rein headed off to the opposite direction heading to a different section of the area. The Military General led us all into a building located in the front of the palace-like structure and we came to a long corridor.

“The Commander is waiting, hurry, and go introduce yourselves.” The Military Commander said before sending us into a room located at the very end of the corridor.


Instantaneously, as soon as we got close enough, the glass doors automatically slid open for us to enter. Inside, we could see the back figure of a broad middle-aged man, standing there waiting with his hands behind his back as if he was deep in thought. As soon as we got close enough, he seemed to sense that we were there and immediately turned around, facing us. His face was quite handsome, and his eyes seemed to have seen through many battles. He seemed experienced and composed, to the point that even though the tension in the room was quite relaxed but we couldn’t help but remain tensed.

“Ah, so you’ve arrived.” He spoke.

We all stood in line, a little stiff and afraid to make any unnecessary movements.

“Oh please, by all means, relax. I didn’t mean to scare you all but I seem to have that effect on people.” He said.

Upon that being said, Kevyn abruptly spoke. “Yes sir. We’re the new recruits from the Airene village. I’m Kevyn, sir.”

Unexpectedly, the Commander had a smile on his face. “Well, it’s good that someone gained some confidence. And you two?”

“Oh, yes sir. I’m Rune, sir.” I reply almost immediately, a little startled.

“And you?” The Commander pointed to the buff guy.

“Buck, sir.” He replied.

“Alright, you must be all acquainted, coming from the same village and all.” The Commander said after a pause, and then looked up towards the clock. “Well, it’s getting late; I can assign you to your squad and do the briefing tomorrow since you all must be exhausted from the journey.”

With that said, he dismissed us and as we exited, we saw two other squad members waiting for us outside – we had recognized them from their uniforms. Both of them were guys, however, their uniforms were a little different from Rein’s. The guys wore trousers rather than shorts, but even so, the colors and the rest of the uniform were the same.

“So, I suspect you are Rein, Kevyn and Buck, right?” one guy said to us.

He had short and spiked up light colored, blonde hair and the typical sparkly brown eyes that showed an extremely friendly personality. He reached out his hand and pat Kevyn on the back. “I’m your squad leader, Dome.”

“Nice to meet you, sir!” Kevyn said with a smile.

“Oh, please. No need for the ‘sir’, I feel old enough. Anyways, it’s nice to meet you too, Kevyn. You’re now part of Special Squad 5, specialty Swordplay. I’m sure we’ll get along fine.” Dome said, chuckling, while still patting Kevyn on the back, then turning to face the other guy, who had quite long, light brown hair that seemed to almost cover his eyes.

“Ah, yes. I’m Xander. Squad 3’s leader; we’re the Mechanics specialist. Buck will be joining us.” He said, shortly.

Buck nodded and moved to stand by Xander’s side. There was a moment’s silence before they realized I was still there.

“Oh! Rune, right? Okay, um, Ace is your leader of Squad 6 with Ranged Weapons? Ace couldn’t make It so were told to drop you off on the way.” said Dome.

Xander and Dome walked ahead while Buck trailed along. Kevyn and I were behind trying to take in the whole place with difficulty since it was already dark. We seemed to be headed back out the way we came, but when we reach the center point, where we stood right in front of the palace-like structure, the Squad Leaders lead us in the opposite direction as to where we had come from.

The cobblestone path seemed to be leading to a dead end, but when we reach the forest, we could clearly see that the trees were less dense than the other parts, almost as if constructing a pathway. We were lead through the forest path and we could clearly see that a pattern of trees had been cut down to create this path, making the forest in this part less dense but still looked as if there was no way in. The path was dark and there were no lights but the leaders seemed to know the way like the back of their hand.

At the end of the path, we came to a clearing where the cobblestone returned but this time, it was flooring rather than path. At the furthest end, we could see several settlements situated amongst a few trees, hidden. They were numbered one to seven and looked like the modernized versions of the cabins we had in our village. All the buildings gleamed silver, a metallic color, and seemed almost impenetrable. That was all we could see since there was a fluorescent red light attached to a pole situated next to each numbered cabin.

“So, Rune, you just go to the Dorm that says ‘six’, alright? Those are the squad numbers. Kevyn and I will be in five, while Buck and Xander are in three. Get some rest, alright?” Dome said and he pushed me forward to the Dorm labeled with the number six.

I stood in from of the door, not knowing what to do. I saw Kevyn and Buck entering their own dorms while the doors closed automatically. I decided to knock but for a few seconds there was no reply. Knocking again, I stepped back and turned to see if there was anyone I could possibly ask but it was already dark and there was definitely nobody out at this moment.

“Rune?” A soft, female voice from behind me called. I jumped, surprised.