King of Lies

On the first day, we were rushed....well, force marched, into the barracks furthest from the walls.

They were empty. No sign of previous occupation either.

The barracks looked like it was carved from a single monolithic rock. Everything just looked too connected to be anything else but that.

It stood 7 stories tall, and was much wider than a school building. It had slits instead of windows and the door was just a slab of incredibly heavy stone.

The outer walls were as thick as I was tall. This was not built to house people. It was just another fortification amongst the multitude that populated this side of the fense.

There was an open field infront with various obstacles and some wood shaped like men with a sack cloth over their heads. That was our training ground and those were the dummies.

I did not know what to expect, but everything inside was the same stone grey as the outside.

The bottom floor was empty, its only decorations were load bearing pillars that helped bear the load of the insanely large building.

The pillars shot up from the floor and rejoined the ceiling flawlessly. That fortified my initial guess that all of this was carved out from a single piece of rock. Damn. The architect and the builder must have been on something.

"Attention!" A masculine voice bellowed.

Unlike the previous commands, we weren't forced to comply, and so what played out was an increase in murmurs and grumbling.

"You maggots still have the nerve to be rowdy?" The voice was low, soft and incredibly chilling.

I felt goosebumps all over my skin.

"Kneel"

An enormous pressure pressed down on my shoulder. My knees slammed onto the floor with a crack.

I heard a yelp and a sickening crunch. I was confused at first, because it didn't hurt that much. Then I remembered, we still had a few who had no powers......

The trek here was already a big enough punishment for them. Their feet bled and their legs were sore. Too sore to bend them and sit.

There was no way something didn't break.

The pressure let up and we could finally breathe again.

"Ah shit, I already broke one of them..I keep forgetting how weak you humans are. The commander is going to kill me...fuck"

Finally, we saw who had been speaking, and It was no man...

He was a wolf walking on two legs. His fur was a deep mesmerizing blue, his teeth were sharp and white as snow. His eyes were yellow and mean, and his upper body rippled with muscles.

He was a freaking werewolf.

He wore shiny silver armor. A breastplate addorned with gems with green glowing runic lines. The vanbraces and grieves were made in the same style, and a fauld protected his waist and hips.

"Alright maggots, up the stairs are rooms. You are to fill up the first floor. four to a room." He paused "Any questions?"

"What will happen to those we left behind at the tents?" A portly man with glasses spoke up first.

"Hmm. Good question. I like you. You're scared but you care more about those left behind. Good. Good." His face eased from a growl to something more passive. "They will join you once they are treated. After that, you will be reorganized and assigned to squads." He paused and actually smiled this time. It was fucking creepy...."Training begins after the selections. I look forward to it. Unfortunately you get today to rest. Use it wisely"

I, Milo, Ulrik and Mark quickly found a room for ourselves. I was skeptical because the women were not given a separate space and there were no rules in regards to everything else.

I ensured the twins were situated in the room next door with Zara and an older woman name Lumila. She was fiercly protective of the two kids and made sure they were well cared for.

To me it seemed excessive, especially considering they helped take down the tigers during the last attack. They had proven themselves capable.

The rooms were nothing much. Just a square space with beds at each corner. It didn't have a window, but it had a slit in the wall that functioned more as a peep hole.

It kind of made sense since the baracks was supposed to be some sort of fortress.

Why give your enemy accecible venues of attack on the lower floors? It made more sense to put those higher up on the upper floors like he had seen on his involuntary march down.

I decided to look for a place we could freshen up. Laying out in an open field was much different than sleeping in an enclosed space, with a tiny slit for a window, when everyone was ripe and unwashed.

I hesitated at the door, which was made of wood this time, and did a little dice roll in my head. When in doubt, turn right, and so I did.

The walk was largely uneventful, but it brought the entire scale of the place into perspective. I had walked for 10min and hadn't seen an end in sight.

I almost gave up till I heard running water.

I was so glad... I seriously considered telling the others and moving to a room closer to it, but first I had to find out if it really was a bath.

I was correct. It was a bath.....a large, communal, open bath.

Water poured out from barely perceptable openings in the walls. It never seemed to stop flowing and the entire place smelled like flowers.

There were no demarcations or much of anything to stop or direct the flow of water. It just poured and pooled on the floor, never seeming to flow over the door stop.

Yes, the entire floor was flooded with water that never rose or fell.

I was curious to find out how exactly that worked, but I was more concerned with getting the rest of us situated nearby.

I ran all the way back, which shortened the time down to about 5minutes. I urged everyone in our group to follow me and move closer to the showers in a hushed tone. The last thing I needed was more people following us around.

We packed up quickly and headed down the hall. Unfortunately my earlier rush down and the fact we were moving as a group, caused a group of curious teenagers to follow. I was sure it was more because we were practically babying the twins than anything else.

I didn't mind as long as we got there first.

We settled down and decided to let the ladies in the bath first.

We ensured none of our curious onlookers, got up to something silly. We obviously allowed the girls in their group to go in as well. It seemed too harsh to just chase them away.

I sat down with one of the boys named Luke. He told me how he and his friends were getting ready for prom when the earthquake happened. They all found themselves together in a forest. They were 50 in total.

They were the only ones in school at the time along with a few teachers as chaperones......unfortunately the teachers were the first to die.

I didn't want to interupt him, but I sensed something was very wrong with my own translocation. Nobody I knew was there with me. No neighbors and none of my parents...on the other hand it seemed everyone else in my group knew each other a little. What on earth was going on?

He described his trial....It was brutal. The more they were, the more monsters were sent to test them. Of the 50 that came, only 25 of them made it out.

Half. Half of them died. Kids that never even got to experience what it was like to make decisions for themselves. All their hopes, all their dreams laid to wate in a world whose name they still did not know.

Because of the number of monsters present, all of them had gotten at least one ability. It was the only thing I could see as a silver lining. Sigh.

I could see the weight lift off his shoulders as he recounted everything to the last detail.

At the end of it, a small crowd had formed. The teens, still in their prom suites, just stood there in silence. Tears threatened to fall but they held it in.

If they were boys before, this world had made them into men.