Previous:

"It's going to be okay, you can't run away forever. Your parents would want this for you, to start a new beginning and stop being stuck in the past. It's time to meet your new family." Her smile seemed really convincing with the words she spoke.

I guess it's time to begin another chapter in my world of a life. I picked up the slick black pen and started writing my name in cursive. The ink sunk into the paper like oil on cotton. The letters to my name was now their property. Miss Pauling gave out a happy smile as she collected the signed paper.

"Congratulations, welcome Mann Co."

I smiled from both excitement and nervousness.

"Not much of a talker are you?"

I shrugged again, as usual, for a common reply.

"It's okay you don't have to answer." she paused to write on the file whispering to herself 'traumatized to speak, from past.'

"Now for the next step, class trials."

Continuation:

~{:Chapter 3- Running, Rocket, Fires:}~

She didn't seem very excited to start the process, from what it sounded like, it's the same routine every single time. She gave me a gesture to follow her. We both walked out of the the cleansed room and into a gray looking hallway, no color whatsoever. The halls were only lite by the hanging ceiling fixture that seemed to sway whenever we passed by. Talk about a creepy horror movie; the place was screaming it. She led me down the small hallway that divided into four sections; we went right. When we got to the end there was a faded brownish-blue door that read 'Supplies'. The purple lady took out a ring of keys out from her pocket, ran through the assorted keys and grabbed the right one. Unlocking the door, the knob make a clicking sound letting us pass through. The supply closet was a decent size, bigger than the normal I think. Inside another light fixture hung from the ceiling. Three wooded shelves filled up most of the closet, they had all kinds of things; from what I could see clothes. Miss Pauling walked over to the first shelf gathering the uniform for me. Her hands scavenged the shelf for the right size, she looked back looking me up and down then continued searching. I saw her self perk up having an 'Ah ha, I found it' moment. The second shelf didn't seem to provide a lot, just some socks; the third carried my new shoes. With everything gathered in her hands she jerked her head for me to following again. We reached the second part of the hallway back to the four sectioned off hallways; we walked toward the second one to the right. Another door appeared, except this one was appeared different. This door was Red instead of a brownish-blue, the knob looked gold instead of a rusted copper, and instead of having the label written 'Supplies' it read 'New Recruit.

"This is going to be your new room, until we figure out what class best suits you." She fumbled with the ring of keys. "In the meantime get your new uniform on, and meet me outside your door in... let's say... 15 minutes?"

I nodded cheerfully. She smiled back in pleasure, unlocked the door opening it. I walked in through instinct looking at my new room to get a gist of the surroundings. She walked in handing me my new clothes, looked around the room and sighed before leaving. Once the door was closed I turned around toward the bed. It sat in the corner of the room with a Red bed-sheet, it matched with the two pillows and solid wall paint. From all the information that I gathered I assumed that I was going to be on team RED. Despite the obvious characteristics of the room, I was definitely going to be on the RED team. I laid the pile of clothes on the bed, while I took off my clothes. It felt great to get a fresh new pair of clothes, I felt clean and freshened up, even though I haven't took a shower yet.

The uniform was the color black, all of it. I wore the black long sleeve shirt that seem to fit my body perfectly(looked like the skin tight suit ones), the black leggings that had white stripes only on the sides of my legs, and these black shoes that looked like socks. They gripped to the figure of my feet, feeling rather comfortable. Inside the room I spotted a bathroom, inside was all the necessities of a regular bathroom. Oh I am soo taking a shower after this. A pit of excitement hit my stomach, I was beginning to feel nervous. Although, I don't know why, maybe it's just because everything was changing too fast for me.

I looked into the bathroom mirror fixing up my hair a bit, brushing all the tangles out. I put my hair up in a ponytail and walked out ready to begin my exciting day. I opened the door to be startled at the sight of Miss Pauling, I wasn't expecting her to be standing so close to the door. "Wow that fits you great. Alright follow me." I did what I was told, we reached another room but this time it was bigger. The room looked like the size of a huge high school gymnasium.

"Welcome to the training room. As you can see there are three sections of the room. The room that you see in front of you is the first section of the trial we are going to be beginning with." I walked over to the first part test. There wasn't really much, just a machine, towels and water fountain. She waved for me to get onto the machine, she hooked up two sticky patches on my forehead, each one of them above my eyebrow. An oxygen mask was then placed over my head onto my mouth and nose, wires collided together making it hard to move. She then guided me up onto the machine.

"Okay, I'm going to start the treadmill on a slow pace, the oxygen mask I put on you will measure the amount of oxygen that you taking in and then the amount of carbon dioxide you're breathing out. Every few minutes I'm going to bunk up the pace on the treadmill to see how much you can withstand."

I nodded acknowledging the comment. I stepped up, she began pressing the buttons on the dashboard. The platform beneath me started to move, it was slow at first but increased in pace, soon I was jogging. Everything seemed good for 5 minutes but then I started to get tired. My legs started to get a burning sensation, my carbon dioxide levels started to rise; she looked at the monitor writing down new changes. Even my heart, it started to increase. Soon, but not soon enough, she turned down the pace until it made a complete stop. As a usual side-effect my legs felt like jello. I hunched over breathing in and out rapidly trying to catch my breath.

"I'll let you take a 5 minute break before we begin the next trial." She held her clipboard close to her side before exiting the room. I went over to the water fountain in the side of the room. My throat had never felt so relieved, the cold water felt the cool touch from my terrifying nightmare. When the five minutes had passed up I walked over to the next room. The walls looked wounded with scorch marks, it left me uneasy. Miss Pauling shuffled over to the center of the room.

"Alright, are you ready to begin your next section of the test? Good, this is just going to be a simple weight test to see how much you can carry with your muscles."

She held a remote that looked like it controlled the room light, but they ended up doing something different. I saw her click the first button on the remote, a crane from above dangled from the ceiling closing in on the ground. It let go of the weight it carried placing it on the ground; at the same time put 2 more weights down. Each weight had it's own amount of pounds dedicated to itself; along with the size, each presenting at a larger portion then the other.

"Okay, Just lift up the first weight in front of you."

I looked over to her and then back at the object. Walking over to the weight, I lifted up my sleeves up to prepare myself. I wiped off my hands on my new leggings taking care of the sweat. I slipped my hand under the grip clenching both of my hands together. I breathed in lifting it up with slight ease, but with hesitation. I looked over at the lady who has been guiding me, she nodded her head writing results I assume. Now the for the next one, actually wasn't as bad as I thought, but then my hands almost gave out. On the last weight I had this feeling something was going to go wrong, either I drop it on my foot or I fail picking it up at all. As my if I could tell the future, I was unable to pick it up. No matter how much I tried.

"Interesting, good I would have been surprised if you really could pick that up, it weighs 200 pounds."

I gave her a shocked face looking back at the others. "Oh, the first one was 50 pounds and the second one weighed 100 pounds." She continued writing with the pen of hers. "In addition to the weight test, you are going to shoot one of these." She walked to the back of the room opening the rusted closet in the back. Out she carried a rocket launcher over to me. What kind of business am I getting myself into? I thought to myself.

On the remote she pressed the very last button, out from the wall was a target. The material looked like that of wood, although it was shaped like a human. A mercenary? The cardboard looking test dummy held a target on it's head. "I need you to shoot the target in front of you, you'll get three tries."

I picked up the rocket launcher, it was awkward at first. I had no idea how to properly hold it, but somehow managed to have a descent grip on it. I closed my left eye focusing on my right on the eye scope. I looked at the target and fired, I didn't realize how powerful the rocket was. I nearly ended up with my butt on the ground. I looked to find the rocket missile no where near the target, it curved to the left when I stumbled back. Okay second time's a go. I made sure that I held myself to the ground to stabilize my position. I looked into the scope holding my index finger on the trigger. I pulled the trigger hearing the missile coming out the rocket, watching it pass by the target once again, but this time missing by a hair. I pouted before trying the last one. I closed my eyes thinking about the target, my surroundings, the air. I reopened my eyes viewing the still target that stood a good few feet away from me. I held up the rocket scope up to my eyes once more, looking through the glass I payed attention to my target. I slowly breathed in keeping my breath in... three... two... BOOM! The blast was louder this time, followed by the fractions of wood exploding. Nothing else was left besides the remains of wood chips.I put the rocket down turning my head to see a reaction, all seemed the same. Taking the black shiny pen and jotting down results.

"Alright on to the next, this last section of your first trial will be tough, but I have some confidence in you. So good luck."

Miss Pauling opened up the door to the next room, the walls all seemed black. There were lots of florescent lights surrounding the top of the ceiling. There were no shelves, no closets, but it did have water emergency water sprinklers in each side of the walls. My head turned to see what I was getting myself into this time. I couldn't really tell from the room. Looks like I'm going in blind I thought to myself. The lady in purple walked up to me holding what appeared to be a candle.

"Here hold this."

I grabbed the object she gave to me holding it with both hands. "Now I need you to stand as still has possible while I pour some liquid on the floor." I cocked an eyebrow curious about what she meant. Why would she need to pour water on the floor? "I'm going to light this candle aflame, I'm going to need you to stand as still as possible, no matter what happens." She tilted her head down focusing her eye on mine, she seemed very serious. It's just a candle what harm could come from.. She took out a match and scrapped it across the clipboard. Her hand closed in on the candle wick, I could feel my hands starting to sweat. The flame mixed with the wick creating another use of light. I couldn't stop starring at the flame it's was hypnotizing, but not in a good way. All my thoughts were coming back to reality when I heard a liquid substance hit the ground. I looked up from the candle to find the lady pouring some weird smelling substance around me, creating a circle. The smell started to get stronger, it was giving me a headache. Is that... Gasoline. Oh my god... It was gasoline. I remember my hands starting to shake. I tried pulling myself together, not trying to give out a weakness. I tried my my best to encourage myself to calm down and stop shaking so badly, if I were to accidentally drop the candle I could potentially be set on fire. I looked back up at Miss Pauling trying to get out the last remaining gas from the container she must have found.

"Let's see how well you can tolerate fire." She breathed, shoving her glasses up her nose a little more. At this point, I was beginning to rethink my decision. I didn't want to go through all these bad memories again, although there was no hiding, I knew how to avoid it. Now? I'm being forced to hold a lit flame near my body with highly flammable liquid around me. The first few minutes were nerve wrecking but it got a little better, or so I thought. The wick started to get closer and closer to the skin of my fingers. I could feel the drips of sweat rolling down the side of my face. My teeth started clenching together, my eyes glued to the flame. It's getting closer... It's going to burn me, I'm going to die. The flame is going to kill me. STOP IT! DO SOMETHING!

In panic I dropped the candle, it dropped to the ground rolling its way over to the circle of gasoline. My heart pounded, I saw the flame grow stronger like a monster. The monster fed off of my fears; breathed in my worries; it saw my nightmares. I couldn't escape, literally. The orange-yellow glow circled around me like a swarm of bee's. I tried to run but was stopped by the stinging sensation in my hand. I winced from the pain, holding my right hand closer to my body. I lowered to the ground, nearly curling up in a ball. I could tell from my screams from Miss Pauling's hollering. I forgot what she said. Everything's okay? I'm going to get you out? I think that was it. As soon as I realized what she was actually saying something, water rushed out of the water sprinklers extinguishing all my fears. She rushed over to me wrapping a towel around my body.

"Are you okay?" She waited as if she was expecting an answer. "Oh right forgot. Here let's hurry you to your room."

We soon made it over to my room. She closed the door behind her sitting me on my bed, I was still wet from earlier. "I'm sorry, I didn't really think that you would drop it. I think it's safe to call it a day yeah?" Her eyes connected with mine, from the shine of her eyes I looked depressed. Her smile disappeared. "Hey are you okay?" I didn't want to do it, I tried my best but I couldn't help but shed a few tears. I held out my hand showing her the burn. She gasped before heading over to the bathroom gather some medical supplies. "I didn't know you got burned, here come here." She went over to the sink turning on the cold water, I followed behind. She took my wrist shoving the wound under the cold soothing water. I closed my eyes from the sudden jolt of pain in my hand. After 15 minutes of holding my hand under the sink, we both made our way over to my bed. She put some antiseptic and a bandage over it. "I hope this works, I learned a thing or two from Medic." I looked up at her in confusion. "Oh right, you haven't met him yet, don't worry you will." She finished wrapping up the white cotton bandage around the palm of my hand. "There we go, I'll go get you something to eat and then you can rest before tomorrow morning." She got up from the bed and walked out of the room locking the door behind her. Oddly enough I didn't feel like I was in a prison, I felt pretty safe, despite the part where I nearly burned my hand off.

My eyes gazed upon the room, a nice bed in the corner, a old wooden nightstand with some names carved into it-some male and female names-I wonder how many new recruits have gone into this 'war'. An old lamp stood on the center of the nightstand, beside the bed. I kicked off my shoes and headed toward the bathroom, I needed a serious shower. I flipped on the lights to the room brightening up the place, I turned the knob half way to the HOT lettering; Water poured from the shower head. The hard pattering noise filled the room, it was peaceful. I closed the door to the bathroom immersing myself in the steam that clung onto to the mirror and lingered in the air. My clothes dropped to the floor before I stepped into the shower, pulling the shower curtain back I stepped inside. The semi-hot water drizzled down my body acting as a relaxant. All the muscles in my body relaxed; stopped tensing. I reached down to the shampoo washing all the dirt, oil, and whatever else was in my hair. I repeated the same for the conditioner, strangely enough it repaired the years of damaged up hair, making it seem silky smooth flawlessness. Looking around the tub I saw a razor blade suited for shaving, now it's been a while, correction LONG while, since I've shaved my leg so they're pretty hairy. I reached over for the razor and started to cut the follicles of hair from my legs, they made the disgusting crunching sound as the blade trimmed the hairs. Ew.

After the refreshing shower, I did what any other person would do after they got out, dried off. Wrapping the towel around myself I then went over to the sink to check myself out. Wow I look way better after taking that shower. The brush in the corner of the sink made it's way down my hair, untangling the mangled mess. Out of all the times I've taken a shower putting on pajamas were my favorite part. I placed the brush down and picked up my uniform, but then I realized.. I didn't have any pj's.

Well shit...

I shrugged walking out of the bathroom feeling the cool breeze go right through me. Instantaneously I saw and smelled something different, the smell was overpowering more though. It smelled amazing, I walked over to the bed dropping my uniform on the head of the bed. On the center of it is what looked like a small present and a brown paper bag with some kind of food in it. Of course, I went to the food first. As if a Christmas present I greedily opened the back seeing a white paper note at the top, it read.

Hope you like Chinese food

-Miss Pauling

My hunger started to get the best of me causing me to nearly how pathetic. I reached into the bag grabbing out utensils, a plate, napkins, and a bottle of water. Man was I in heaven. Excitingly I got to use the sense of taste, oh my god this food was phenomenal; totally better than eating scrapes of food of the streets or in trash bins. Blah. Engaged in the processes of eating I almost forgot that I was still wrapped up in a towel, I peaked over to the present that I seemed to have left my mind; curiously ready to open it. I put some more food in my mouth before grabbing the neatly packaged present. I untied the lovely crimson red bow, tore the wrapping paper revealing the surprise, you guess it Pj's. How convenient. Swapping myself from the warmth of the towel to the new comfort of fuzzy sleeping clothing, I plopped on the bed eating the rest of my amazing Chinese food. I threw away the empty plate and bottle of water in the small trash bin over by the nightstand. I turned off the lights to the room and hopped over to the bed snuggling myself under the covers, it's been too long since I've been in a bed, and let me tell you IT'S SO COMFORTABLE!

A window shed light into the room casting a mist of light. With my head flat on the pillow my eyes were forced to look up at the ceiling. The night was very calming, still, contained. Everything seemed so rushed, on high alert all the time from trying to stay out of danger in the streets. I thought about the day and the purpose of doing so. I felt pretty anxious and thrilled to see the ending results. I was pretty curious on what class I was going to be in, although I suppose it's was pretty obvious. Tomorrow would be the next day of my second trials. I hope it will be a little more productive than today's trials. My thoughts wondered in and out of consciousness, my eyes felt droopy for once; this time I wasn't scared to sleep, so I did.

To be continued...

YAY another chapter down and done with. On to the next. Thank you for the reviews, favorites, and follows. I'm glad you are interested with the story so far, hopefully you're spark will continue from here on out.

THOUGHTS: Looks like Kayla has complete the first trial of her training. Have any idea of which mercenary class fits her?