“No really the Major is a healer,” Douglas said as Emily and her squad of five people wandered through the woods on another endless hike to nowhere. They had a destination but more than likely it was just another random spot in the woods where a monitor waited on them with a stopwatch. If they were late they would all get shot. If they failed to find the monitor they would get shot. If they sneezed wrong they would get shot. The good thing about the stupid hikes to nowhere was that away from the monitors they could talk.

“You still haven’t explained why you think the Major is a healer.” OCD boy said. It turns out his real name was Lt. Trusman and he was a marine. He was standing on a hill checking the map with a compass. He was the best in the platoon when it came to navigation and Emily was really glad he was in her squad. So far, while he was in charge of navigation, they had so far never failed to find their end of hike location.

“It makes sense okay. There should be a bunch injuries with what we do in this program. Broken bones and the stuff. Hell, you fell off that twenty-foot tall repelling tower and all they did was tell you to shake it off.” Douglas said. He was an enlisted guy from the navy and had no navigation skill at all. Technicality, it was his turn to navigate but no one was dumb enough to let him lead.

Emily kept her eyes on the woods and her M-4 Rifle ready. They were using the miles system that used blanks as ammo to stimulate the module at the end of her rifle to shoot infrared lasers. They were all wearing TAG vests that if hit by the lasers would turn off their rifles and flash a red your dead light.

She kept her eyes scanning the surrounding woods looking for any signs of the monitors. They already had been ambushed several times by the monitors today and she was really tired of getting shot with the full dose from a dart gun. The monitors increase the dosages again two days ago. It was the tenth time they increase the dosage since she had started the program. Each time they increase the dosage by twenty-five percent. They were up to eight seconds of paralysis and a minute and half of pain.

The monitors also wore vests with targets on them and the infrared laser hit one of the targets it turned off their dart gun and their vest flash red dead. A fun fact Emily learned about the miles system is that if you put two guns close together and only fire one gun it will set off both guns saving ammunition. The problem is that the monitors know that trick and will shoot you for cheating so you had to be smart in how you did it.

“I didn’t fall twenty feet I only fell like halfway.” OCD Boy said walking down from the hill. “We're going in the right direction should be only a couple of miles that way.”

“So that’s like ten feet. People get hurt all the time at ten feet.” Douglas said not giving up.

“So let me get this straight. Just because the Major puts her hands on everybody’s shoulders during the inspection and the Lt. here fell ten feet you think that the Major is a healer.” Elmer said taking up the rear of the squad as they moved out. Elmer was Army like Emily. “That doesn’t make any sense. How did the Major heal the Lt?”

“She’s like a class three Healer. You know the ones who boost your body’s healing. I‘ m telling you she heals us every day at inspection.” Douglas said falling in behind Emily.

“You know what you are Douglas, you're a conspiracy nut job,” Elmer said laughing.

Emily turned the rest of the squad out. She was done with the program. She just wanted it to be over. The last person to awaken was a couple of weeks ago to make the total four to awaken in their class. Everyone knew that there would be no more awakened even though their instructors were pushing for one more. All the stunts used by the program to awaken them only annoyed them now. Even the pain and paralysis of the darts were more of an annoyance than anything else.

There was only a week or two left until the end of the program and Emily couldn't wait. She was tired of getting shot. She was tired of the stupid neverending marches to nowhere. She was tired of all the mind games and she was even tired of running now. She used loved running but now after the program she was over it in a big way. She knew that most of the others in the program were going to go into some kind of special forces since you had to pass Super School before you could apply. It was a prerequisite nowadays. She wasn't going to go to any special forces when she got done with this school. She was going to find herself a desk job somewhere and only run when she had to.

“Maybe a secretary somewhere. I would be great at answering phones. Hello, you reach the office of Blah blah blah how may I direct your call. Oh, maybe the game division. The Army has a games division right. I could play Mastery Soul. Congratulations Private you have reached the level cap. There is a medal in it for you if you get a complete set of max tier armor in under thirty days. Yuck Yuck Yuck.” Emily chuckled to herself then accidentally snorted.

She got a few looks from her other squad mates when she snorted but she just shrugged. She couldn't care less what they think now. Not that she didn't like them she did, well most of them anyway, but she was just so over everything. She would really miss a few of them when the program was over. OCD Boy was cool even though he was an officer and a marine. She would miss him.

Elmer on the hand was a lazy dick. He would get told to do twenty-five push up and the moment the instructors back were turned he would stand up saying that he was done. If he could get away with something then he would try. No one like him because he got caught a lot which meant the platoon got shot a lot more than they should have.

Douglas is cool but dumb. He comes up with the craziest things that are just wrong but he completely believes in them. Like the Major being a healer. The good thing about Douglas was that he was always up for laugh. He wasn't a joker by any means but when he did something stupid, which he did almost daily, he was cool enough to laugh at himself. She would miss him. He was all about getting in on one of the Navy Seals teams. He was good enough that he most likely would.

Then there was Donavan a crazy funny guy. He was always first to volunteer and he would do crazy stuff that a normal person never think about doing. He enjoyed it way too much. He was the crazy adrenaline junky of the platoon. He had a strong southern accent and when he talked he sounded kind of slow. He was anything but slow though and it would be a huge mistake to underestimate that guy because he was crazy smart. He was currently on point which according to him was the only place to be.

Emily was still looking at him when he raised his fist. Immediately the squad dropped to a crouch. Emily looked away from him and turned towards the forest to her right in case he spotted another ambush. She held her breath to listen to the forest listening for any sounds or lack of sounds. Her eyes and gun scanning back and forth. A soft whistle brought her attention away from the forest and to OCD Boy who was crouched next to Donavan.

OCD Boy gestured with his hands to group up and gather around him. Emily moved as quietly as possible over to stand slightly to Donavan's left and behind him. OCD Boy leaned in and whispered, “We actually have a destination this time.” Emily looked over Donavan's shoulder and saw a sandbag bunker guarding what looked like a long narrow cinder block building.

“Donavan, Em Y'all circle around the build to the left. Hold the position about midway of the big building on the left side. Keep to the forest and stay hidden. Elmer you and Douglas head to the right side and do the same thing. I'll stay here and draw their fire. Wait for a count of ten after I start to fire before you charge the building. Assume that they know you're here. Be fast and plan your routes before you go and stick to it. I'll give you to a count of one hundred to get set up. Questions?” OCD Boy asked.

No one had any and Emily and Donavan left heading deeper into the forest doing as OCD boy asked. It wasn't long before they were in position. “No side door but there is an entry to the bunker. I say we make for the bunker kill everyone there and then figure out how to kill the people in the building.” Donavan whispered.

Emily opened her mouth to say she was ok with the plan but was interrupted by gunfire from OCD Boy's position. Donavan gave Emily a smile then counted to five with one hand. He broke to cover first sprinting towards the bunker his Rifle at the ready. Emily followed him but pointed her rifle towards the back of the cinder block building. They stopped by the entrance to the bunker. Emily kept the back of the building in her sites. Donavan tapped her on the shoulder and she spun around. He charged in the sandbag bunker. Emily quickly followed. The sandbag bunker was empty. Emily saw the other two charge into the bunker from the corner of her eye. The door to the cinder block building was closed and sitting in a lawn chair by the closed door was the Marine First Sergeant.

“Well, at least you learned something while you were here.” The Marine First Sergeant said standing up. “Call in the rest of your squad.”

Donavan called to OCD Boy and after a few minutes, OCD Boy came around the side of the bunker. “Yea not impressed with the bunker.” Emily thought to herself. Someone had piled sandbags around the opening of the building creating three walls leaving the back open.

“Behind me is a gas chamber.” The Marine First Sergeant said pointing over his shoulder. “For this exercise, you will be gassed for sixty seconds with crowd control gas. After sixty seconds the door will open and you will repel a frontal attack from five monitors. Squad leader get your people to the other side of the building.” The First Sergeant said pointing behind him.

The squad walked to the back of the building. On the other side of the building, a huge metal door was open and three monitors all with gas masks on were waiting for them. The door had black plastic or maybe rubber strips hanging down as they have in commercial walk-in refrigerators. One of the monitors was talking on a radio while the other two lined up the squad. They lined the squad up with OCD Boy in the middle and Emily and Donavan to one side and Douglas and Elmer to the other.

“In. In. In.” Screamed the monitor with the radio. His voice was muffled by his gas mask. The other monitors started pushing the squad forward.

Inside the cinder block building was smokey, dark with dim red lights shining to illuminate the interior. Almost Immediately Emily felt her eyes start to burn. “This isn't like Basic.” Emily thought to herself as she fought not to rub her eyes. “No gas masks and they already gassed the room.”

Time seemed to stand still as Emily stood in the smokey room. She started to cough and her chest started to burn. “The gas is stronger than in Basic.” Emily though. “Open the friggin doors already.”

Emily's took a deep breath in from her nose and instantly regretted it. The inside of her nose felt like it had caught on fire. Coughing and hacking Emily bent at the waist. Her eyes were burning so bad that she couldn't keep them open anymore. “Open the door now!” Emily screamed inside her head.

To Emily's relief, the door opened and the squad stumbled out. The cold air outside was almost worse than the gas inside the building. Emily's eyes threaten to swelled shut and the cold air made her coughing worse. She was unable to do anything but try to breathe in between coughing. She was just starting to get her breathing under control when she felt the tell tail bee sting of a dart hitting in the upper back. She dropped to her knees and brought her arms up as the pain exploded throughout her body. She dropped to the ground for eight long seconds as the paralysis kick in.

“Up! GET UP!” Someone shouted in her ear. She still struggling to stand when she felt people on either side of her grab her arms and stand her on her feet. She was practically dragged to the back entrance of the cinder block building.

“IN. IN. IN.” Someone else shouted and Emily was pushed into the gas chamber again.

The pain of the dart was still coursing through her system and the gas made it so much worse. Someone, a male voice, shouted in wordless pain beside Emily. She couldn't tell who it was. Her chest felt like someone had wrapped steel bands around it and she couldn't expand her chest fully to take a deep breath.

“Elmer… Douglas… Go Left…” OCD Boy gasped. “Em...Dona van... go right. Keep… going to you… reach the… sandbags… kill them.”

Emily nodded unable to speak. An eternity later the doors opened the light flooded in and the squad stumbled out. The cold air hit Emily like a fist and she stumbled to the ground. “Up get up!” She shouted to herself. She gasped for air and felt dizzy. She got to her feet and blindly stumbled a few steps to the right before falling again. Gunfire sounded from behind her. She stumbled until she felt the rough texture of the sandbags. She stood up and rested her rifle on the top of the sandbag wall and blindly opened fire. She only got two shots off before she felt the bee sting of the dart hit her in the left arm.

“NO!” she screamed in her mind. She stumbled backward and landed on her rear. She gasped as the pain from the dart exploded. By the time the paralysis wore off the monitors were dragging her up and pushing her towards the back of the building.

“IN. IN. IN.” Someone shouted pushing Emily inside the gas chamber again.

“No more I can't do it. No more please.” Emily screamed at herself rocking back and forth. Her chest seized up and she felt like she was breathing in and out from a very thin straw.

“Again… We do… it again.” Gasped OCD Boy.

The doors opened once again and the squad stumbled out. Emily turned right again and took two steps before she fell to her knees and vomited. To Emily, it felt like she was vomiting razorblades. Worse the vomit came out of her nose. She vomited several times before she felt the bee sting of a dart on her back. The dart dropped her into her own vomit where she lay for eight seconds as the paralysis ran its course.

They dragged her up and pushed her all the to the back of the building when someone pushed her into the gas chamber. “Link… arms… back… to back… fire...kill….” OCD Boy gasped. His voice hoarse.

“No more I can't. I can't. Please God no more.” Emily though as someone linked with her left arm. The door slammed open and the person who had her left arm dragged her out the door. The person who had her dragged her down to her knees. She felt someone lean up against her back then the gunfire sounded. Emily raised her own rifle and pulled the trigger blindly.

For a few hysterical seconds Emily thought it worked then she felt the bee sting of the dart. “NO!” Emily shouted out loud. She tore her eyes open in blind panic and saw two monitors standing about ten feet away. She shot them and stood up. Their vest started to blink red on and off. She turned to her left and saw one of the monitors standing inside the sandbag bunker. He shot her in the chest.

Emily screamed in rage and fired her rifle at him. His vest lit up as her infrared shots hit him. She turned around to the left again and she saw her squadmates laying paralyzed on the ground. Behind them, she saw three more monitors. Screaming in a wordless rage she shot at them. Two of the vests lit up red but the last one didn't. Her gun had fallen silent. She looked down at her gun. Out of ammo. She looked up to see the monitor smile at her and shoot her in the chest.

She tore off her rifle strap and grabbed the barrel of her rifle raising it like a club over her head. She stepped over her fallen squad mates and charged the last monitor. He backed away and raised his hands in the air dropping his dart gun to the ground. She swung at him with all of her might and murder in her eyes.

At the last second, she bumped into someone. She blinked in shock as someone ripped the rifle out of her hands and threw it away. “Emerson. Private Emerson its ok. Em, it's over you’ve done it. You're an awakened now.” The voice was soft and gentle. The voice dragged Emily out of her killer rage. She looked at the Marine First Sergeant standing less than a foot away from her.

“You did it Em. You really did it.” He said pulling on the back of her head so that her forehead touched his chest. He smelled like sweat and Old Spice. “Your done Em. It's over. You're awakened. Welcome my newest sister.”