Before Kai could continue his motherly smothering, scolding the child for not eating enough, the soldiers unlock the doors and reenter the dripping room, completely dry.
Some soldiers tried to regroup the children while others carry medical supplies to fix up some of the children that got injured during the chaos.
One soldier in particular stood out among the rest.
With a cold demeanor, he commanded the soldiers and quickly took control of the situation.
The children were all rounded up, although they were still shaken from the experience.
The chilly soldier suddenly claps twice.
The crisp clap caught everyone’s attention and froze time.
The children’s muscles were tense as they creak their heads to face the man in the black military outfit.
“Congratulations, you passed your first trial.
You will be organized into groups, categorized on how well you adapted to the sudden situation, and orderly proceed to board the train when it arrives in five minutes.
You will be given an ID, if you happen to lose your ID, you will be deemed unfit and terminated from future trials permanently.” After announcing the necessary information, he ignores the frightened children filled to the brim with unresolved questions and continues to hand out commands.
The other soldiers start grouping off the children and giving them ID.
At the backside of the crowd of messy and confused children stood the composed Kai.
Next to Kai was the child, who’s entire being was focus in a specific direction, on a specific someone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *Babum Babum* …
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It was strange…
the child had felt this way before, with the old man, but it wasn’t to this extent.
He doesn’t know how to describe it, doesn’t know how to understand or accept it.
It makes him want to do things he wouldn’t normally do, things he’s not sure he actually wants to do, but has the desire to do.
The child tends to rely on his instincts and in this scenario, even though his brain thought against it, his body moves to jump the man.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I look across a sea of haphazardly lined children.
Some have puffy eyes from crying or sore voices from screaming, only a small handful seem calm and collected.
Hmm, it seems this batch isn’t very good.
There has been a decline in ability from the children every year, but I didn’t think it would be this bad.
During the simulation, when we watched through hidden cameras, we could tell that over half of the group were panicking.
A few were able to compose themselves but didn’t use that to their advantage.
Those people’s standards are become more and more lax, tch.
If this continues, the quality of production will decrease and the size will shrink.
I can already tell, most of these children won’t be able to handle it.
They’re only slightly above-average compared to their peers.
What are those damn recruiters thinking, leaving me with their unqualified mess of choices.
However, there was one boy that was up to standard.
Kai, age thirteen, observed his surrounding, didn’t panic and calmly rationalized the situation, acted upon his advantage and pressed the drainage button.
His information states that he has a photographic memory, but it seems he has other strengths as well.
There was one other boy that piqued my interest.
The one without any noticeable fluctuating emotions during the entire simulation.
His face remained frozen just like his calm blue eyes.
When the other instructors focused their attention on the underwater child looking for the button, my eyes lingered on the figure of the other boy, who at that exact moment, grabbed a pipe to keep himself afloat.
A child who can’t swim was able to maintain a straight face and relaxed muscles.
I looked for the subject in question in the sea of wet children.
I spotted him by the memory boy with his head lowered.
All of a sudden, he turned his head up and locked eyes with me.
The child’s unperturbed blue eyes would cause one to feel incredibly uncomfortable from a certain feeling resembling terror, but not exactly that.
It couldn’t be described, only those who had encountered those eyes would be able to understand.
The unnatural feeling stuck me in place long enough for the boy to pounce towards me at an insane speed.
Before I knew it, he was right in front of me.
I had no time to dodge, so I got into a defensive position, preparing to take on any incoming attacks.
The boy seemed to instinctively sense my movement as his body warped underneath my raised arms used to defend.
There was no time to do anything else, I tensed my body, waiting for his attack.
The child swiftly pounced on me, his limbs wrapped around my body in a death grip, hands clutched the back of my military suit.
A strong squeezing sensation encased my torso as the boy clung to me.
Although it restricted some of my movements, my limbs were free to retaliate.
As I was about to attack with sixty percent of my strength, I paused to replay the situation in my head.
Although the child gave off an uncomfortable feeling, there was no killing intent and even when he pounced on me, he didn’t restrict my limbs or do any real damage.
It was at this moment I realized…I was being hugged.
Understanding the child meant no real harm, I let him off easy.
I gripped the back of his neck and pulled him off of me.
I was surprised to find I needed to use ninety percent of the power in my right arm to detach him from me.
I tossed his body in front of me and the child fell to the ground with a thump.
He doesn’t seem to feel the pain of the concrete as he stares into my eyes with a seriousness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This whole scene lasted no more than a minute, most of the surrounding people were still too shaken to notice the quick series of events, including the other soldier who were trying to calm the children and organize them back into groups.
The child’s eyes roamed over the man before him.
His blue eyes trace a well-proportioned body lined by a fitted black military uniform.
Smooth skin without the symptoms of wrinkles, lead people to believe him to be in his late twenties to early thirties.
Four patches in the shape of white stars are plastered onto his breast pocket.
Moving upwards, the child sees a chiseled face.
A black military cap covers most of the man’s short black hair.
The child one again meets eyes with pure black orbs, light reflecting off of them gives the man’s eyes a certain luster, but his eyes are filled to the brim with chilliness.
Icy black eyes stare at the child as unsympathetic words pour out of the man’s mouth,”What do you think you’re doing.” The black haired man stares coldly into the child’s eyes only to see innocent eyes staring back.
Unruffled by the burning stare, it still takes him a second to continue.
“What is your name.” Although they have documents on all of the children, this child’s papers were missing quite a lot of information, including his name.
The man is prepared for a reply only to receive silence and continued staring.
The area around the man becomes chiller,” Are you disrespecting a commanding officer?” At this tense moment, Kai quickly intercepts the situation knowing full well that he’ll probably get punished for interrupting the man,”Please forgive him sir, I don’t think he talks.
I’ve been with him for most of the bus ride over here and he hasn’t spoken a single word.
Actually, I’m not even sure if he’s able to talk-” When it seemed like the cheery child would continue, the man cut off his train of words,” Fall back.” The cold voice sent shivers up Kai’s spine, freezing the words that were about to come out of his mouth.
He quickly backs away, silently looking at the child with apologetic eyes.
The man stares at the child in silence for a minute, the boy’s eyes still glued to the man.
“Tih.
That will be your name in the future.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tih…
Tih..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “You.” The blacked haired man looks in the direction of another soldier.
The soldier matches his way over and salutes the cold-looking man.
“Instructor!” “Take over.” After saying two words, the black-eyed instructor leaves through one of the exits.
But before he leaves, he turns around to look at the boy one more time.
Meeting eyes with him once again, he coldly states,” Punishment for insubordination, 100 push-ups.” Then he walks away.
“You heard him, 100 push-ups.” The soldier turns to the child and repeats the command, then focuses his attention elsewhere.
The child stands still, continuing to look in the direction the man left.
Kai sees the child in a daze and pats him on the shoulder,”That was quite a risky move you took just now.
Very bold of you, I’m impressed!
Plus, you got away with only a hundred push-up…though with that twig-like body of yours, it might be a challenge.
Ah, how about I do the push-ups with you?
As motivation!” The child forces himself to look away from the empty exit to look at the talkative child.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Push…up…?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “I’ll take that as a yes!” Kai smirks before positioning himself in the push-up position.
He looks at the boy to see that he hasn’t moved.
“Come on, hurry up or I’ll start without you.” The child gets to the floor and tries to mirror Kai’s posture to the best of his ability.
One he sees the child is ready, Kai starts doing push-ups,”One, Two, Three…” He tried to move at a slower pace than he usually would as consideration towards the child’s thin body.
Watching Kai, the child started to copy his movements, pushing up and down against the ground.
As this pace was relatively easy for Kai, he continued to talk while doing push-ups,”So that guy, instructor is what the other soldiers called him, he must be pretty important to have command over all these soldiers.
Oh, and did you see those white stars he was wearing?
What do you think those indicate?
Ah, haha, didn’t he give you a name too?
Tih, was it?
*pant* I feel like I’ve heard that word before…ah, that’s right!
It means “silent” in Croatian.
I think it fits really well haha!
*pant pant*.” At this point, the boys have gotten to push-up number fifty-three.
Kai is showing signs of fatigue, panting and sweat start increasing.
The child, on the other hand, has shown no signs of exhaustion.
Not a drop of perspiration has appeared on his face.
The boy is not even breathing out of his mouth, let alone breathing heavily, his rate of breaths have not increased at all.
Realizing he’s starting to tire out, Kai slows his pace.
The child follows along and also slows his pace.
Kai notices his movements and says,” Hey *pant*, you can go faster if you want.
*pant* You don’t have to go at my pace.” Hearing that he should go faster, the boy starts speeding up at a rate that only bodybuilders could handle.
Kai, too tired to feel surprised, pushes himself to continue, so as to not look as lame in comparison.
Kai eventually collapses to the ground, panting heavily, staring at the child who still going strong.
He only managed to make it to eighty and the child…well, he stopped counting after one-hundred and seventy out of pure shame.
“You…can stop now.” A weak voice is said in-between heavy pants.
Hearing this, the child sits down next to the collapsed Kai, without any signs of tiredness.
Kai looks at the child in front of him and thinks to himself, “Hahaha, this kid is crazy!
A freakin monster!
Where’s he hiding all that power…he should lend me some.” The cylindrical train pulls into the the room.
With a glossy sheen, the white material resembles and elongated pill.
Curved windows sit beside leather seats.
The pill-like trains are separated into five cars, each one is able to hold around sixty to seventy people.
The already formed groups of children were lead to to specific train cars.
Kai and the child, Tih, board the first pill, the one at the very front of all the the other cars, along with a crowd of other children.
Most of these other children, the child observed during the flood, were ones that kept relatively calm during the situation.
Now holding their own IDs, the children orderly board the train, their clothes still soaked.
The softly panting Kai, who’s still recuperating from his exercise earlier, days after they enter the train,”Hey Tih, isn’t it really warm in here?
I think it’s to dry our clothes and warm us up.
I saw a couple other children that started shivering earlier, but I didn’t think it was actually that cold.
How about you?
Are you cold?
Do you think the children in the other tubes behind us got this treatment, or just us?” The two quickly found a seat and sat side-by-side with the child taking the window seat.
“Hey, why do you always take the window seat?
What if I wanted that seats huh?
Well it’s fine, I’ll let you have that seat because I’m a nice guy.” Kai pouts before starting to compliment himself.
What the cheery child doesn’t know it that Tih has never been outside the range of the orphanage.
He’s always liked to observe everything, more so on things he’s never encountered before.
Once all the children boarded the train the doors sealed shut, and a feeling of whiplash could be felt as all the children were forced back into their seats by the insane speed of the turret like train.
The cylindrical pill shot through the dark tunnel at a crazy speed, encasing then in complete darkness.
This lasted for a couple of moments before a faint light shone through the windows.
The children forcefully turned their necks to look out the window.
What they saw was an entirely blue world.
Colorful coral reefs lined the bottom of the floor as different shapes and sized fish swam through the water.
An occasional shark or dolphin blurred by as the bullet train traveled through the open sea.
The scenery and pressure the children were feeling lasted around an hour before they encountered a wall which holes.
Entering though one of the holes, the train was once again enveloped in darkness.
When light resurfaced from outside the train, they had already stopped.
Released from the pressure, the children slumped weakly into their chair.
They were given five minutes before the door whooshed open and the soldiers ordered them to step out of the train in a single file line.
That the soldiers outside will give them their next instructions.
Tih, who somehow fell asleep halfway to the destination, woke up at this moment to follow the rest of the crowd.
Kai looked at the child, not knowing whether to cry or laugh.
In the end, he could only sigh before stretching and following along.