Thank you everyone for following and favoriting the story! It really mean a lot.

Enjoy

Previous:

A monstrous sound came from the room we were in. I looked down at my stomach feeling the tightening get worst. "Goodness, it's almost 2 p.m. We should get you some lunch you must be starving." She quickly took her eyes off her watch and rushed to grab my hand. I cringed in pain feeling the sharp sting travel up my arm. She leg go quickly seeing to pain in my eyes. "Sorry! Forgot about that, wait... Shouldn't you be wearing a bandage? Oh nevermind let's get you something to eat and patch you up." We left the room walking over to the kitchen to get me some lunch, and hopefully find a bandage to the wound. I believed that Miss Pauling was a good person. She cared for the mercenaries, all the things she's learned from them, including their personalities. I found it honorable. She truly is amazing, though I've seen her before; even though I didn't know it. Already knowing more and more about her personality, I honestly wanted to know more about the mercenaries, I needed to know more about them. I still had so many more questions like; what were their names? Did they always call them by their titles? What's the point of this war? Will there every be a conclusion?

UHHH! If only I wasn't so stubborn to talk things would be so much easier. I just... I just can't. My mind wants too but my brain refuses to comply. WHY MUST THIS BE SO FRUSTRATING! Maybe my emotions are getting the best of me, I'm in pain and my stomach is begging for food. I just need time to think clearly and rationally, before I cave into darkness.

Continuation:

~{:Chapter 5-Healing Shot Stabs:}~

That annoying sound came again, the same beeping, same pitch, same time, same reaction. I opened my eyes feeling more tired than normal, my body ached and my body was shivering. For some odd reason I wasn't feeling myself that day; speaking of day, what day was it again? I had lost track. My mind was distracted, I grabbed the covers positioning myself in the fetal position, preserving as much body heat as possible. The window in my room didn't have any curtains or frame, so I couldn't close if I wanted too. The cool breeze sneaked into the room misting a slight chill over me. The trees from the outside shuttered under the wind, it's leaves cheering for more. Some of them were rebellious leaving their stable home to only die once they touched the ground. Their color changed as they suffocated from the lack of oxygen, purples, oranges, yellows, and reds; who knew death could be so pretty. Just like the past two days I've been here, my regular routine stuck: Get up, brush teeth, put up hair, put on uniform, skip breakfast, and wait for Miss Pauling to direct me to the training area. The room resembled the same one from the second trials. I looked around seeing the same three karts to the side of the room, all in a straight line. As for targets, they were different-well some of them-one of them looked like one for target shooting. Seeing it made a chuckle a little, it reminded me of the time my father wanted me to go and practice some gun training for protection, only to have my mother disagree on the idea. I don't blame her though, I wouldn't want a 10 year old wielding a gun either. She was never to fond with guns anyway, never liked the sight of them.

"Hey! You okay?"

I looked around coming out my thoughts, I saw her eyes searching for an answer. Her hand rested on my shoulder, I nodded focusing on the subject at hand. She slowly took her hand off me, gripping her clipboard closer to herself once again.

"If you say so, are you ready to start with the last of the trials?"

I gave her a fake smile and a confident nod. She gave a little smile in return. "Good to hear. Just like the second part of the trials I'm going to be standing behind a control center and monitor you. The test you'll be taking today is the Support classes: Medic, Sniper, and Spy."

Automatically I was thinking about the man who I'd help. I knew there was something strange about him, but I wasn't expecting anything like this. I came back into reality listening on to what she had to say. "Do you remember what we did last time?... Good because that's exactly how we're going to do everything today. Just wait till you hear my voice on the intercom and then we can begin."

She stepped out of the room leaving me to be surrounded in my thoughts. I looked at all the equipment that was left on the karts. One of the devices looked like something that would be off of ghost busters, it looked awkward but manageable; the second looked like a classic sniper rifle with the accessory of bullets to compliment it with; the last had a whole collection of devices. I assume this is for the Spy, seems complicated.

The ear piercing screech from the intercom made me jump, I turned around looking up at the intercom with amusement. "Sorry about that." said the woman on the other side. I gave her a thumbs up and selected the first weapon. I felt a little ridiculous wearing something that was a little bigger than my size, but as usual I managed.

"You have selected the Medi-gun. As you probably guessed Medic uses this devices to heal his teammates, they usually help the heavies more. Anyways, this devices helps heal teammates that are at low health, once charged to 100% you can do an uber-charge. That will give your teammate a limited amount of time to be practically invincible. To use it you need to pull that lever right there by your hand and it will emit a red looking mist, aim it at your co-worker and he or she will be healed."

Seems easy enough.

"I'm going to bring out some dummies, just like the second trials we will start out easy and increase the difficulty from there."

I looked up at the intercom giving another thumbs up. I lifted up the Medi-gun a little higher ready for anything to come. A noise came from my right, the simulation was beginning. A strange noise could be heard from my right, a dummy came out from the extra supply room in the far right corner of the room, the testing subject looked different from all the other. It's texture looked like plastic, and looked like that of a manikin. It's color appeared red and marched in front of me, pulling the lever a red mist emitted from the devices attaching itself to the subject. On the back of the dummy was what looked like a battery, every time I would emit the red flow the battery would remain fully charged. The same sound occurred, but this time on the far left side of the room. It looked like the same dummy except it had the color blue. It looked like it was holding some kind of gun, one that did damage, but not to me. The dummy shot at my teammate, but did no damage as I was 'healing' it. the dummy on my side shot it's gun-looking weapon and shot at the enemy; it's health meter level went down until it fell to the ground. Two more of the Red dummies came out, along with three more Blue ones.

They all started to move, in a running pace, I went along to their sides healing from right and left. Turning around every few second regenerating their health meters as fast as I could. I didn't want any of them to die on my watch, if this war is real I wouldn't want anyone to die on my watch. I quickly healed as many as I could, the number of Blue dummies started to increase. The humming of the Medi-gun continued for a few minutes before I heard a crashing sound behind me. My body instantly turned around to see one of my teammates on the ground dead, it's health meter hit zero. Had I forgot to heal that one? I need to focus more!

I turned back around to see another one of the dummies fall to the ground, my heart started to race. There were more blue dummies than red, it was just me and one more red dummy. I had to make this one count; I ran over to the dummy forcing my hand back a powerful red mist attaching itself to my teammate. The humming began to hum louder and louder until a pulse of red electricity ran through the medical device. It lite up in a bright red, a button on the gun started blinking red. I looked down seeing it's color flash. Is this is Uber-charge?

Before I could give a thought a group of the Blue dummies charged for us, instantly I pressed the button. A rush of power blanketed over me submerging me in a hue of red; with my teammate we were both glowing red. My teammate started to dominate all the blue dummies killing them instantly. The power began to die down leaving me to feel a little drained. I panted looking around to see all the blue opponents were gone. The last standing red dummy went back to its chamber until another recruit like me came by. I roughly placed the gun and pack back to it's original spot.

"Great job. You completed the task, although some of your teammates died, you still managed to use the uber-charge to kill all the opposing dummies."

I sat down for a moment trying to return rest from all the adrenaline. A small giggle came from the intercom, I looked up still panting.

"I guess I underestimated how much power you could handle, if you want we can take a small 5 minute break for you to catch up on some energy. I'll get you a glass of water, hang on a second."

With that the intercom bleeped off, leaving me time for some thoughts. I put my back against the middle kart and rested my head back, I closed my eyes thinking about too many things. I was thinking about the great memories I'd had with my parents, with my little sister. She would have been 12 years old if she were still alive. A small tear escaped from my eye, I took my sleeve rubbing it away. My eyes reopened, I remember thinking if I'd made the right choice. I didn't have much to lose, lost my parents, friends, home, everything. It's time I'd move on, right? At that moment a small twist in my stomach could be felt, wonder if they hated me? Wonder if they didn't accept me, for me. Wonder if they think I'm a freak for not talking... Would they force me to talk?

Maybe I'm just overthinking things. I've been alone for a while, so I could survive not being accepted... I bit my lip thinking about all the possibilities.

"Here you go."

I jumped to the sound of Miss Pauling's voice. "Whoa there it's just me, I brought you some water." She handed me the glass of clear liquid. "That should help get you back on your feet, sorry about that by the way. I forgot how powerful the Medi-gun can be." he laughed out a small giggle. There was an awkward silence among us, I felt slightly uncomfortable.

"Well... um... I guess just give me the thumbs up when you're ready." She hesitated when you stood back up and walked out the room. I felt like she knew something about myself that I didn't. She was holding something back, I could sense it. I watched her leave wondering how she got into the job in the first place. I looked down at the glass of water seeing a glimpse of my own reflection, but the thing is it wasn't me-the real me at least. The reflection looked sad, depressed, alone. I placed the cup down and picked up the sniper rifle loading a bullet in the gun. I turned around giving a thumbs up. Here we go...

"Next up you have the Sniper Rifle, this test is going to be simple all you have to do is shoot the targets presented, but for a warning they will start to be at different locations and some will be moving. I guess it won't be that easy, but it will give you time to recover from the last test. Alright the test will begin in 5...4...3...2...1." The intercom bleeped off and the simulation began.

In my mind I was thinking about how I was going to do this during the real battle, I'm going to be killing actual people. They'll be dead-permanently-I'll be fighting for my life, and for what. The thought needed to be subsided; I had work to do. I looked through the scope holding the gun steadily, controlling my rate of breathing. The moment reminded of the times I would scroll through YouTube searching up some skills that could be important to me one day. For instance, one day I looked up how to shoot a gun just for the sake of boredom; how to snipe, controlling your breathing is the most important-same with staying calm. Also out of curiosity I searched up how to throw knives... I was a weird child back then, heck still am.

A pop came from in front of me pulling me out of my memories. I focused on the target that popped up and looked at the solid red circle in the middle of the target. I narrowed my right eye, placed my finger on the trigger, slowed by breathing, felt the pulse of my heart, timed the beat of my heart with the moments of stillness. My mind closed out all the other sounds in the room, it seemed as if the room got darker and the target was glowing. It was just me and my prey. My finger put pressure against the trigger of the gun feeling a bit of resistance, then BAM! A crackling noise came from the rifle, the sound was very satisfying. I had almost hit the bulls-eye - just a few centimeters off.

I reloaded the bullets into the chamber, snapping back the hammer. Lined eye sight toward the next to targets and shot; more satisfying sounds. The targets started to move, and surprisingly easy to hit; luckily prediction skills were on top. My feelings started to feel a little more comfortable and confident, I felt at peace for some reason. Before I knew it the test was over. On to the next I suppose.

"Positive results! Good job, now time for the last test. This test is the Spy's test, but you probably already guessed that as well. Now don't be overwhelmed by the amount of technology seen before you. On the very left, you'll see something that looks like a watch. That's called the invisi-watch, it keeps you invisible for a limited amount of time hidden from enemies. That large looking radio device is going to be your Sapper; its job is to damage sentries, destroy teleporters and health dispensers."

I observed the radio-looking device seeing how it looked and worked. Looking at all the other items, I wondered how the he did all this. How did he manage to carry all these things with just a few pockets on his pants. I moved on to the next device, it looked like a silver wallet. Although, bigger than the normal size it seemed to fit in a back pocket or so.

"That's the Disguise Kit, it has the ability to have you shape-shift into any teammate on the opposite side; in other words you can disguise yourself as any teammate on the enemy side. Be careful, there is a catch once you've successfully killed an opposing teammate the disguise will be lifted and your materialize back to your normal looking self."

I looked at the last items on the kart feeling a little relived, finally something I was familiar with.

"The last two objects, a knife and gun. Specifically a revolver and balisong, illegal I hear in some states. In the battlefield you'll mostly see spies using then to backstab their enemies-stab in the right spot you can get an insta-kill, couldn't say the same for the revolver though. Now that you know a little bit more about the weapons and devices in front of you, shall we begin?"

Not going to lie, I was a little overwhelmed at all the things in front of me, all the rules that came with them and instructions, but I couldn't give up now. I took all of the objects stashing them on my body and leaving two in my hands for precaution. As I looked at the intercom and gave a thumbs up, the speaker squealed hurting my ears again, I cringed at the screaming.

"Sorry..." Miss Pauling's voice sounded urgent, a little rushed. "Change of plans Kayla, I just got some news I have to make a decision by morning, so lucky for you we're going to have to cut this class short... no pun intended. All you're going to need is the gun and knife. The test will begin shortly, good luck. Make this last one count."

With that, the sound of the speaker cut off, I was left in the silence. I walked over to the middle of the room waiting for something to happen, it was a little while before I started to feel something. Maybe it was an act of paranoia, I wasn't sure, but someone or something was watching me. A chill ran up my spine leaving behind some goosebumps on my arms. How could I even be cold? I quickly turned around, but nothing was there. I narrowed my eyes trying to concentrate on something, but I didn't know what yet. A weird sensation tingled my back as I turned around again and shifted the knife forward. Out of adrenaline I couldn't remember what I did, but I sure could feel it. A sharp blade piercing the body of a dummy. Down it fell, never to be seen again. That is, until some more can out of nowhere. It felt like I was dancing, moving my feet gracefully, calmly. My body rocking from one side to another, it felt relaxing almost. I felt different, the knife would be my partner. We both danced, winning at everything, but we were both interrupted. My partner had stabbed the wrong way into the dummy and left me for the plastic fake itself. I was left with the my desperate second option. I whipped out the gun placing my finger on the trigger. Through my peripheral vision I could see a mass coming toward me, in instinct I turned to it. Aiming my gun I pulled the trigger the loud pop sounded deeper, as it drilled through the life of my lifeless enemy.

It was quiet once again, I went over to the dummy who stole my partner and claimed it mine again. Fitting comfortably in my hands. Yes, it was different from the switch blade I had, but it could work. I held both the knife and gun, was everything over. It was quiet, nothing seemed to move, not even the announcements came on, so perhaps it wasn't all over? Is this some kind of trick, maybe she's waiting or me to get caught of guard and once I am she'll...

As I seemed to distract myself in my mind one of the dummies came running toward me, fast and seeming furious. In a reaction I flipped the knife open and threw it... That's right threw it... Too my own surprise it struck it, right smack-dab in the middle of its forehead. Just inches away from me, it fell before me. I looked down staring at the trick I just did, I didn't even know what to say.. no, think. Did... Did I just do that... I've done a lot on the streets, but this stoops to another level. Another familiar sound came from above me.

"I have the results, well the ones for the test at least. Alright, that's it all your test are done. Congratulations you finished all the trails you can head back to your room and get cleaned up, I'll leave you a pair of fresh clean clothes on your bed. Afterwards we can go get you some lunch and then I have a little treat for you."

To be honest the only thing that intrigued me were the parts 'Finished all the trails' and 'I have a little treat for you'. I walked out of the training room not knowing what to expect. I guessed I'd be chosen for the Demoman, Medic or Sniper. I feel like I did a better job in those than the others, maybe the Spy one, but I feel like I didn't contribute enough to earn the title as a Spy. I pondered that, as well as what Miss Pauling had in store or me, walking back to the my room.

12:00 p.m.

I'd finished the meal Miss Pauling had made. Did I mention how much of a great cook she is, I didn't expect it since she always seems so busy. Surprisingly it was really good. She made me some soup, rice and beef with a glass of water.

"Like the food."

I looked at her with wide eyes nodding frantically up and down, some food dropping from my mouth. She chuckled in content revealing a warm side. I saw something in her that I didn't since the day I met her. She seemed relaxed, happy, very warming. The others times she seemed stressed, busy, always in a hurry. this side of her made me feel relaxed as well.

I finished up all the food she had to offer and placed the dirty dishes in the sink. "Don't worry, I'll clean them later." She waved her hand, signaling to leave them alone. She walked over to me and grabbed my shoulder. "Are you ready for the surprise."

I looked at her with glee, giving her a hint of my excitement. "Great, I think you'll like this. Some of them may be overwhelming to you, but don't let that scare you." She pulled handkerchief from her pocket and tied it around my eyes. My ears were on high alert when my eye sight was taken away from me. I followed the sound of her flowing voice and used my other resources to guess where we were going. She said 'them' I'm guessing she's referring to a person, or a group of people. She's blind folded me, she doesn't want me to see it immediately.

She guided me to the outside, I could tell from the smell, the sounds and feelings of the atmosphere I was being led outside. We walked for a tad, her guiding me with her words and hands. We came to a quick stop before I heard another door open. It sounded short, and thick, deep. It was a car door. Why would she need a car to show me a surprise.

"Watch your step... AAAnnnnndd there you go, can you feel the seatbelt and buckle yourself in?"

My hand felt for a piece of leather beside me, she guided my hand towards it. My head nodded. A little burst of air hit me when she closed the door. My free hand felt for the buckle, I guessed where the seatbelt was suppose to go until I heard a satisfying click. On the opposite side the other car door opened. The car slightly rocked as she made her way in and closed the door. A clang of the keys fitting into the ignition, she had awoken the beast. A roar of the engine and we started to move.

We both rode in silence until we reached a final stop, she shook me gently partially waking me up in the process. It seemed we'd been riding in the car for a good 10 minutes, I'd drifted asleep from both strange comfort and fatigue.

"We're here. Let me help you out."

I waited to hear the door open as she helped me out. She lead me to another location before we stopped. I felt the heat of her hands behind my head, the cloth of the handkerchief fell from my eyes revealing another building. In the front it said RED painted on it. "Welcome to your new home. You'll be staying here now. Since we had to speed up the process I thought it would be a good time to take you over to the RED base and get comfortable."

I stared at the building in amazement. I could see some lights shine through the building, the base looked alive and well.

"I didn't tell the team that you'd be here, since you're a day early. That's alright though, tomorrow morning I should have your class and uniform ready for you. Until I have that given to you, you'll be able to have a general idea of the base and mercenaries that live inside. Just a fore warning, some of the mercenaries, specifically the Scouts, have a thing for flirting-as I've already told you-so be prepared for whatever they have to say." She took a deep breath. "I guess I should tell them you're here. I'll be right back."

She turned around and pushed open the door to the base, a beam of light shot into my eyes and then vanished as the door closed behind her. I sat down in the dirt think about everything. About the past, present, and my future. Wonder if they hate me... Make hateful glances... I suppose those are the things people have to deal with. It's been around for ages, trying to impress others just to it in. I find it ridiculous, time consuming; too much hassle for the human mind. I also didn't exactly know why I was stressing about it so much, why can't I just accept the fact I am who I am. Apart of me was mostly scared about them wondering why I didn't speak. Another part of me was curious on how they would react, along with how I would handle it. This could be the light I was seeking for, maybe this was the shelter I was looking for. This could be where I find my voice.

The beam of light appeared again temporarily blinding me. I saw the silhouette of Miss Pauling, hearing her soft voice. "There ready for you..." She waved her hand indicating for me to come in. I stood up feeling a little knot in my stomach. This is it... My future begins here. I took a deep breath and continued to walk toward the building.

To be continued...

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Looks like she finally finished the all the trials, now for a bigger test; being introduced to the team. See you guys in the next chapter! Also thank you or all the people who've followed and favorited the story. :)