Chapter 3 – The Door
Sorry this chapter took so long, I had to write it twice because the first one really sucked.
Clyde brought his hand up to stop a flow of blood which was now gushing from his cheek. The green soldier holding the whip raised it threateningly "Get out of bed and get back to the stairwell NOW!" yelled the green soldier. "Okay I'm going" replied Clyde, he walked away from the soldier as quickly as he could towards a doorway that was blocked by a heap of soldiers dressed in their brown uniforms that were trying to get away from the whip, which some of them were already bleeding from. Clyde changed as quickly as he could into the uniform that he both admired and hated in the same day. He observed the green soldier and noticed that seemed devoid of emotion and wasn't showing neither anger nor hate nor sympathy when he whipped people and when he raised his voice, even though it was loud it wasn't actually emotive. This was one of the strangest things Clyde ever noticed about another human being and began to wonder if he was a human being after all.
Clyde assembled with the rest of the soldiers on the large area where Emperor Gestahl spoke to them earlier. The brown soldiers were divided into groups of 20 and each was assigned with one of the green soldiers. Clyde was lucky enough to get the soldier he was already acquainted with. The day consisted of almost never ending training and exercise for 14 hours straight, after 7 hours however the soldiers were actually given a half hour break which they were all surprised by. During the break Clyde noticed the receptionist he met earlier sitting on one of the steps. Near him was a trail of dried blood running down the stairs remaining from yesterday. The bodies were nowhere to be seen at least. Clyde walked up to the receptionist who was also in a brown uniform. "Did you know this would happen!" Clyde asked the man. "What! No of course not, I'm just as surprised as you". Clyde grabbed his collar and pulled him up. "You have been in this army a while haven't you!" He Demanded. "Ye- Yes but not much longer then you, I, I was in one of the first towns they visited and they assigned me to a recruitment team, I swear I didn't know the true intention of the empire until yesterday". "Fine" said Clyde "I believe you". Clyde released his hold and sat next to the receptionist on the steps. "I'm Clyde" He said. "Nice to meet you" "I'm Baram" The receptionist replied. "I'm from South Figaro". South Figaro, Clyde had never heard of the place and wished he was there or anywhere instead of here. "Nice place?" asked Clyde. "Yeah not bad" replied Baram. "You know we have to escape right" questioned Clyde. "How the hell are we going to do that?" replied Baram. "I know we will thing of something" said Clyde confidently. Suddenly a whip lashed the two of them in the back. "Time to get back to training" said an expressionless grainy voice.
The next 7 hours were torture and the cut on his cheek and now on his back stung the whole time. Blood was spilled all over the training ground from the numerous other soldiers who were bleeding from whip wounds. Each day became a struggle to survive, the only reason the soldiers were able to stay sane was by going to the pub for a few hours after each day, they at least got the money they were promised. Clyde went there with Baram and also met up with Ren again and the 3 of them began plotting a way to escape. Clyde and many of the other soldiers also bought some bedding to add to their planks of wood. The entire city was walled and a huge amount of barbed wire had recently been added the top of the grimy city wall Clyde noticed earlier. The 3 of them had thought of a few plans to escape but realised they didn't consider a variable that made it impossible. On day 10 of training his commander which was the green soldier assigned to his group had them train by running through a long hallway. There was a heavy steel door in this hallway with a sign reading 'DANGER KEEP OUT'. This made Clyde curious. The running in the hallway became a regular part of his training regime, and he noticed the sound of a dog yelping from pain or fear coming from behind the door. The next day it was louder. A few days later it was barking fiercely as if it wanted to kill something. That night in the Pub he explained this to Baram and Ren. "So instead of finding a way to escape you've been listing to a door" accused Baram. "Yeah we don't have time for stupid things like that" agreed Ren. "I just thought it was strange, that's all, thought it was worth mentioning" said Clyde. "Any more ideas for escaping" asked Clyde, they had already gone through about 3 full scale plans and a couple they had discarded more quickly. "Have you heard of sewers?" asked Baram "no" replied Clyde. Living in such a small secluded place Clyde had never heard of a sewer. "It's a complex of drains and pipes which move waste out of the city" explained Baram "waste, what kind of waste" asked Clyde. "Yeah, that's the catch of this plan we will need to swim through people's shit and piss. Ren already being quite drunk dropped his head and came close to vomiting. "So will it work" Clyde asked immediately. "It has a good chance, once we are outside the city walls we will have to sneak past the watch towers and hide in the wood to the west". "That's the best plan yet, how do we get into the sewers?" said an excited Clyde "I don't know yet, I'm sure there must be an entrance in the fortress somewhere, we need to all explore as much as possible in our breaks" Clyde and Ren nodded approval and headed to the barracks to get some sleep.
Next morning Clyde's regiment were made to run in the hall again and this time full on snarling and scratching on walls could be heard in the room. "What's in here?" Clyde asked the Commander. "None of your business private" "so you know then" said Clyde "actually I don't have a clue" replied the commander. A whip followed and Clyde continued running hearing the dog or whatever it was each time he passed the door. That night he didn't go to the pub. Instead he told the guard he was turning in early and went to the barracks. He then sneaked around the complex narrowly avoiding guards until he reached the door. There was a padlock on the handle and the fierce growling was continuing. His friends had no luck finding the sewers and he believed this was the only place they hadn't searched. He ran around for a while and found a hatchet, he hit the padlock several times and it eventually fell off. He then pulled the handle and opened the door slightly so he could peek in.