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.

Survival Strategy: 2

2

“Rune, I'm sorry." A deep voice echoed in the darkness. It seemed so familiar, but I just couldn't remember who it belonged too; just that the feeling was nostalgic. "Rune, forgive me." The voice came again, but still, no matter how hard I tried to, I could not put a face or name to that voice.

"Rune! Rune! RUNE!!" I heard my sister yell. "It's time to get up! You're going to miss it!"

"Huh?" It took me a second to remember what was happening, but the moment I did I immediately got out of bed and began frantically walking in circles around the cabin.

Most of the people in our village didn’t have houses, because only the wealthier people could afford them. Instead, the villagers live in cabins which they built themselves and would be shared up to around ten people. My father had helped Kevyn’s father in building our cabin so both our families had lived in one cabin and we had known each other ever since way back. There were five sections in our cabin – our parent’s bedroom as well as Kevyn’s father’s bedroom, our bedrooms – Kevyn, Ryn, Krystal and I used to share a bedroom, a bathroom and the living area. Usually, the living area was for all purposes, dining, relaxing, and more. Food was always cooked outside and the villagers would usually share their meals in the village square – none of us would starve.

Kevyn and Krystal both got their own rooms now that our parents were gone, Ryn refused to sleep alone since she was scared of someone attacking her during the night. I couldn’t blame her though, in this place, anything could happen.

“Hello?” Kevyn peered into the room.

“Oh, Kevyn! She’s almost done; you guys should take some food too.” Ryn replied as I continued to look around for stuff.

“Yeah, we’ll stop by the village square. Are you and Krystal alright here?” Kevyn asked.

“We’ll be fine, you should worry about Rune! Not me!” Ryn assured him.

“Oh, Rune, you don’t need to bring anything much, they’ll provide it there and we can probably get stuff there. I’ve pretty much saved up quite a lot for something like this.” Kevyn added.

“Okay.” Finally, I grabbed my pistol and effortlessly slung my backpack, containing water and spare bullets, onto my back. “I’m all set.”

Kevyn and I first headed to the village square to see if we could find something to take with us on the way so we wouldn’t be hungry. Luckily, the baker’s wife, Mrs. Aldegale, had a loaf of bread that she wanted to give away since it had gone stale.

“Well, we’ve gotten a lot of things worse than this; we wouldn’t die from eating stale bread.” Kevyn joked.

In the end, we took the whole loaf and the lady wished us good luck when we told her where we were going.

“I hope you stay safe. My daughter lost her husband because of the Sacrifice, and if you were to find the missing-” The lady cut off with a look on her face that showed that she was remembering the events that occurred in the past. Not wanting to force her to think about it anymore, we bid her farewell and went on our way.

At the village gate, you could see crowds of people marveling at a transportation vehicle that clearly came from the city. It was a vehicle, painted a tinted black color, and was about five to seven meters long, something you saw on the TV in the village square – a car. We never had those here; we travelled on foot or by wagon pulled by horses. Rarely there would be a carriage for the wealthy people of the village but this was one of the rare occasions that you’d see a car like this in the village.

“I guess we didn’t have to do that far.” Kevyn said the moment we saw a uniformed man stepping out of the car. As he walked forward, the villagers cleared out a path and he walked straight up to us.

The man announced himself as a General from the military and asked for all recruits to step forward while the rest of the crowd were to move back. Kevyn held my hand and pulled me forward and I stood there in awe. The man seemed so high-classed; there was a completely different aura about him, almost to the point I felt uncomfortable just being in his presence.

As the villagers stepped back, not wanting to go against the man’s words, Kevyn and I as well as another boy, with extremely broad shoulders and a tall build stepped forward. I recognized that the boy was the butcher’s son, he had taken over his father’s business at a young age since his father was probably also forced to join the army, he seemed at least two years older than me.

When the Military General directed us into the car, we found that there was one other girl there, dressed in a white, short-sleeved dress shirt, navy blue colored shorts, and matching combat boots we were supposed to have been the only ones but apparently that wasn’t true.

“How old are you guys?” The girl suddenly asked us. She seemed like the calm and reserved type, in her hand, I could see a book which I could make out to be a light romance novel.

“I’m seventeen.” Kevyn replied and then pointed at me “And she’s sixteen.”

“Eighteen.” The buff guy replied.

The girl didn’t reply after that and it went silent, Kevyn and I exchanged a few words about whether we were hungry or if we needed the toilet but that was it. We rode in silence and stationary for a while before I dozed off, I wasn’t sure if Kevyn did too but I was woken up by the sound of the car door slamming shut. The Military General opened the door on our side and said “Rein, we’re here. Let’s hope that they don’t figure it out, tell the recruits to move fast.”

“Yes, sir!” the girl that sat across from us replied before turning to us.

“So, what happens now?” Kevyn asked.

“Follow, but be discreet, we must not let anyone discover that we’re here.” The girl replied, she slipped on her tie that was a stripped navy blue and yellow color and attached a name badge onto the socket above her right shirt pocket. The name tag read “Rein” and on her sleeves would could see several badges were sewn on.  Immediately, I knew what she was and so did Kevyn.

“Is she-?” Kevyn started, but I stopped him before he could finished and nodded.

“She’s a special squad agent.” I said.

Survival Strategy: 1

1

I spun my head around, checking to see if I had left any tracks. I couldn’t see them, but I could sense them. The smell of rain and wood hid their scent well, but I could still trace the saltiness of human sweat and the strong smell of blood that wasn’t my own. I thought of running faster but I knew it wouldn’t help as it was impossible to outrun them in this terrain, I’d just end up injuring myself and slowing down. The hard part was never completing the mission; it was always the running away after doing so, simply because the loyal guards and spies will actually go after you for killing their master and mistresses.

There wasn’t anywhere I could hide, only trees around and ahead of me. My only chance of escape was to take cover high up. I flung my gun onto my back as I started to climb the most stable looking tree. Higher and higher, my heart racing, my palms sweating but I had to keep going no matter what. Faint sounds, the tingling sensation of the air on my skin, I couldn’t see what was coming but I could hear the rustling of leaves, footsteps getting closer and closer. I licked my lips tasting the saltiness of my own sweat and the metallic taste of my own blood. I heard gunshot in the distance and held my breath, aiming my own gun further outwards, ready to fire. I knew that if I made a sound, it was all over, this mission would be for nothing but my own life. The clicking sound of a gun, I knew it almost too well. Before the enemy could shoot, I pulled the trigger. Gun shot. Then silence.

As I approached the clearing, I knew I was close to safety. Once I escaped the forest terrain, I would be close enough to the village to escape without having anyone else chase me further.

"Rune! There you are! Ryn is looking for you, she said there was something you might want to see." Kevyn ran up to me as he saw me wandering around the village gate.

"Ryn? Where is she?" I asked.

"She's in the village square, I think there's some notice put up there." Kevyn explained as we headed in that direction.

The village square was a gathering spot for the villagers, there was a gigantic LED screen attached to a pole there, since we were all so very poor, many off us gathered there to watch TV. Usually it was news updates from the city about the military and their missions against our enemy country.

"Rune! Look at this, look at this!" Ryn called out the moment she spotted me.

"What is it?" I asked her. Kevyn and I both looked on the notice board that was visible next to the screen.

Ryn and I lost both our parents during the Sacrifice, we had to do all sorts of unimaginable jobs that were all for the sake of feeding us all. Even if we were left as orphans, we were able to manage pretty well with me doing the dirty work and Kevyn watching over Ryn. Kevyn was a year older and had gone to school for longer so he did more common jobs like tutoring and teaching the younger ones in the village, although we weren't blood related, he was like family to both me and Ryn. After we lost our parents, all we had was each other, Kevyn just made it easier for me, I guess. 

"Rune, they're hiring people to train in the army! You could go! Go to the city, then maybe, you could find mother!" Ryn said, eagerly.

Sure enough, there it was. A recruitment notice from the military wanting new recruits to join them. Three years ago, when I was thirteen, our father, along with many others from the military were sent on a highly confidential mission and never returned. After that, the Crown Prince also went missing and the King, who was the one who sent out the order, informed the country that the people sent on the mission wouldn't return. My mother, who assumed that father was still alive decided to leave Ryn, who was eight at the time, in my care in order to search for father. She headed off to the city, but three years have passed and neither of them had returned. Kevyn's father was also involved in the mission, his mother had passed away when he was younger and his father assumed that at fifteen he was able to care for himself, so he too embarked on that mission. When we heard that they wouldn't return, I had hope when mother said she'd find my father but when she didn't return. Kevyn presumed they were both dead but nobody knew what really happened.

"Rune, we could go. You and I." Kevyn added.

He was right, ever since I was little, Kevyn and I had received training from our fathers, not knowing why and only to understand now, that it was dangerous for us to be here alone. They had prepared us to survive on our own, we were able to. 

"We could, but what about Ryn? You know she can't- she's not like us." I said.

Ryn wasn't fortunate enough to receive training. She couldn't survive out there, but here alone, she wouldn't either. 

"I'll stay here. I'll stay with Ryn, you can go and train. Once you're there, I'll depend on you to make sure you find the truth about our parents." Kevyn said, determined to allow me to go to the city.

"Are you sure?" I asked him.

"Rune, I'll be fine, even if you and Kevyn go. I'm old enough now, and I won't be alone, I have Krystal." Ryn replied, smiling at me.

Krystal was Kevyn's younger sister, she was my age but I never really talked to her, she was more of the reserved kind. She was the one who dreamed of going to the city and was likely of starting a business or become a famous superstar. I wouldn't know, but Ryn seemed to get along well with her, although she was rarely home. 

"I'm find with that, but you?" Kevyn turned to me.

"I'm not sure, if we leave...then...what about home?" I asked.

"It'll be fine, if it was to find out the truth, it may be worth it. Possibly." Kevyn replied.

"Okay! You two go already, I'll go find Krystal and tell her! Make sure you leave by tomorrow!" Ryn yelled as she ran off.

"So? Is it decided? They'll come and get all the recruits tomorrow first thing." Kevyn asked, smirking as if he knew it was decided that I wouldn't back out.

"Fine." I replied, as we headed back to our cabin.