The next morning, Tumunomi Escaver was up and doing his routine exercises before the door opened.
During his workouts Jacob joined him, but he had a feeling of being watched by the other kid, before he had even gotten up from his own sleep.
The lights came on full swing at some point and the 5 others grumbled as they had to wake up.
Tumunomi Escaver was wondering how to greet his visitors when Jacob rested a hand on his shoulder.
“Let us see how things turn out, first.”
Tumunomi Escaver – in his bad mood – saw the hand reaching his shoulder, the hand resting there and how he could twist it before elbowing the boy’s jaw.
And although he knew he had the strength to, his instincts told him that he might win but also have his own injuries.
So, he only slapped the hand off and turned his face back towards the newcomers into the space.
“Morning, young ones.”
Mrs.
Rose Marilyn’s smile never needed such a punch it took Jacob’s presence to remind him that he might actually be curious to also see where this could lead.
“How was your night?
Sorry for the lack of beds and whatnot.
You guys would have to earn those.”
“Can we use our contribution points?”
Mrs.
Rose Marilyn chuckled and John who had asked he question had been smacked to the ground, blood and spittle beside him.
“Signify your curiosity before speaking.”
Jacob frowned at her and Tumunomi Escaver suddenly found her more disgusting.
“Let me introduce you to some friends.”
Following the adults, the group walked outside of the room to see more of their peers as Ivan supported John back up to his feet.
Also among them he also noticed a good number of their teachers.
And there were different machines.
Maybe that was why his last class’s tutor had been smiling when he had his final class and was smiling now.
Maybe this was where he would get revenge.
Immediately after, she threw a polythene bag that seemed to appear out of nowhere.
It snapped out of nothing but loudly slammed to the ground because it had countless clothing resembling jumpers after it had visually expanded like an explosion until most of the floor was covered.
The jumpers looked like uniforms for warehouse associates.
“Wear that for identification,” was what she said before leaving.
On the chests were their names written in what seems to be paint or ink.
By the time Tumunomi Escaver was wearing his, he saw Jacob patting John and encouraging him to stay strong.
None of them spoke after Mrs.
Rose Marilyn’s actions and quickly got dressed up.
Unconsciously, walking out the door, the six of them stuck together and moved in a group.
They saw the similar looks of confusion on their faces.
“Here, there will be a rearrangement.”
After a row of people in lab coats were the teachers who arranges themselves in rows, and after them were the machines.
Then, following behind those was a great deal of space that was lastly after the students.
“Assignments will be given out and those who pass will be given good scores.”
John, surprisingly, raised his hands to speak again even though his stomach hurt like hell.
Mrs.
Rose Marilyn did not expect him to have recovered so soon.
“Our contribution points, can they be used here?”
“If you can get through this, then let us see what will happen.”
The boy had not been answered to his satisfaction through her reply but he said nothing.
He then glanced and saw that there were a few of his peers with stains of bright red on their body.
So, he could tell that the more he avoided the instructors, the more he would avoid danger.
But that was only if he had to, honestly he was quite curious about what the sound of a broken bo-
“We have been brought here after we all signed and agreed to what will happen.”
None of them denied it, the others could only look in horror and realize that they had actually signed up for this.
“Now, lets begin.”
Mrs.
Rose Marilyn clapped her hands and one of the subordinate teachers stepped forward.
“My name is Finim Barboach and I will guide you through your tests.” The man was their teacher in languages and he had a fierce beard.
The teacher was well built to and wore clothing that did not hide his rippling muscular form.
“These Potent Artefacts are set here to test our potential.
So, we will have the various batches go through each of them.”
He then pointed to the ones which were at the extreme end.
The first machine looked like a large cuboid.
On it were different levels and they all ranged in scale.
Starting from 5kg they went up in multiples of 5, up to 500kg.
“You will start at the physical tests.
Step up to the DumbbellLever.”
The first kid had a name tag of Joseph on his jumper.
He approached the DumbbellLever and he began from 25kg but he could barely lift it.
So he went for 10 kg instead.
Despite his struggles, the wimpy kid managed to push it up and he then looked at the instructor who now had a stop watch on his hand.
The personnel behind Finim Barboach began taking record on what looked to be note books.
“Proceed to the MindSewer,” the hairy man gestured with an open palm to the next machine.
This one was looked like a sewing machine, complete with a peddling step and a table which had the part with the needle and thread.
Except that there was no need and thread but instead a screen.
And its upper part was 8 feet tall.
Joseph gingerly climbed unto the chair and placed his feet on the peddling step.
Then, he looked to Finim Barboach who nodded.
When he began swinging his ankles he did not notice anything.
But as time when on, he started to see… Was that smoke?
Was that mist?
Did he hear voices?…
He then suddenly saw a sword stabbing out to him and he instantly jumped off the chair.
“5 seconds.” Finim Barboach gestured again.
And Joseph walked forward until he banged his face unto something invisible.
Picking himself up, he finally noticed the glass after a full minute of confusion.
In fact, most of them – about 90% – had not seen it.
“This is the ReflectionLawn.” There was a shadow of a smile on the teacher’s face.
He then noticed there was a gap in it for him to enter and after he did, it closed as if the glass was also somehow mercury. Get faster updates on g.com.
He looked up to see pipes hanging into the glass box from different directions and suddenly, he heard a sound like –
-POP-
– letting him witness a tennis ball that shot into the glass ball from one of the pipes.
Whenever it struck the glass, the cube quivered although it held.
Thus, he was not too expectant of it touching him.
And so he ducked for the first minute.
The 2nd ball popped In after the 2nd minute and so and so forth.
By the 5th minute, Joseph was panting like he could take no more as one of the balls smacked him to the ground.
At that instant, the ejected spheres all froze mid air before being sucked back into their pipes.
The glass box dematerialized as if it were never there, leaving the pipes behind and the other instructors began taking notes again as Finim Barboach once more motioned for him to move forward.
“The PressureMill, next.”
The next machine lay before Joseph almost cursed as he was feeling quite tired already.
Breathing hard, he walked to what looked like a Treadmill except that there was a box above the part he had to run on and there were bars that supported that steel box to the ground.
So that the Treadmill was surrounded by cages.
Taking his steps forward he stood on the machine and until he began running, Finim Barboach did not start his stopwatch.
Joseph was only able to hold out for 5 minutes and that was because he felt a formless pressure climb up his back for every 30 seconds.
At first it felt like a soft breeze but now it fell like a full backpack and he could hold out no longer.
He collapsed and the pressure disappeared.
Many of the kids looked horrified, and their bodies fear in different ways such rattling like the snares of a drum.
But Uji spoke out, she was not ready for this.
“Can I give up?
I don’t want to do this anymore please.
I would rather just live a comfortable life.”
One of the teachers, one that none of them seemed to recall, slipped out from where he was standing.
His height was impressive but otherwise he was lanky.
So lanky, that it almost seemed to be a disorder.
This man quietly walked over to the girl like a wild predatory cat before suddenly grabbing her soldiers and tossing her into the air.
The slap he threw at her cheeks sent her to the ground and she bounced back up.
“The unit of Money, Destiny, Faith, Hope and even fear is time.” He slapped the kid once more.
“You will not waste anybody’s time.
Next time you are asked if you wished to join the program or not, I need tour subconscious to be sure of the decisions that your conscious mind wants to make.”
When he was done with her, her bloodied face, broken teeth and swollen cheeks made the other kids not even dare to make a sound.
Without her breathing, it was hard to tell if she was alive or not.
She was then carried to the last machine that had not yet been used.
It looked like chairs melted into each other which were arranged in a circle and wires extending from their focal point that all reached into the ceiling.
He watched her, now unconscious, being placed into a chair.
She was strapped there and the head rest on one of the chairs was removed.
Still connected to the chair by a wire, it was put over her head and after a while of wheat seemed to be electrocution, the head rest was removed from her head and returned to the chair.
After everything, she was carried away, a morbidly unnatural silence heavy in the ear.
“Joseph!” The call of his name brought him back from his attention of horror at the girl, “you fail.
Next!”