My head was throbbing. I could hear groans of pain all around me. I scanned the room; it was a classroom, filled with confused students, each of us sitting in a wooden desk, it felt as if a power drill bore into my skull. I was drenched in sweat. Someone called my name, it was Zack.
"Cloud!" He rushed over to me with a flustered look on his face. His raven black hair was the same as mine, disheveled. His azure eyes housed the same confusion as mine. He looked at me like he was expecting me to disappear in a cloud of smoke, expecting for this all to be some horrible nightmare. And believe me I wanted it to be a nightmare as well. I felt like I was going to hyperventilate, my throat my dry and my lips were chapped. Queries sped through my mind, most of them being 'where are we?' And 'what are we doing here?'
I was brought out of my reverie by the gloved hand that was waved in front of me. "Where do you think we are?" He questioned. I couldn't answer, or maybe because I didn't want to answer. 'No it can't be..' I thought to myself I dreaded the possibility that we could actually be apart of that. I looked back at Zack he looked at me horrified, I could tell he came up with the same conclusion as I did. The whole class froze when we heard the door creak open, followed by the sound of footsteps thudding against the mahogany floorboards. There, before us we saw a pudgy man in a beige business suit in the middle of two bodyguards clad in bulletproof vests that spelt the acronym "S.W.A.T" and were armed with sub-machine guns.
"Sit down!" The man in the business suit shouted as we all scurried to the nearest desk. Zack had snagged a seat next to mine. We both sat there scared out of our wits as we waited for everyone else to find a seat. I snuck a quick side glance at Zack, he sat there stiffly with his elbow on the desk and his fingers interlocked, I can tell he was frightened because his hands had trouble keeping still. I had that kind of trouble too, except my legs were shaking uncontrollably. There was only one obvious answer why we were here, I tried not to think about it but it kept invading my mind. I looked up as the middle man spoke with brusqueness in his voice. The words he spoke stabbed deeper into my chest than any other blade.
"Welcome 9th graders of Edge high schools class B. You have been chosen to participate in this year's Program."
Those dreadful words…