Rake was tired, the excitement and walking had been hard on him. He followed the line of people in front of him until he reached a room and was directed into it by a change of the rope that helped him stand upright.

There were beds on both sides and more dressed humans talking to each other and typing into notepads, One of them took his arm and guided him to one of the beds at the far end of the room. As soon as she pressed him onto it he felt his tiredness take over and drift to sleep, at least until a sharp pain had him wince. The woman in the white coat withdrew the needle from his arm and Rake could feel a fire burning through his veins as whatever he had been injected with took effect.

The burning sensation grew, his muscles flexed on their own accord. He shook in pain as the woman pressed him back against the bed and restraints kept him from moving. As soon as he was without the ability to move more needles were dug into his skin, a machine descended from above and began to stab a needle into every muscle he had. The agony was too much to take and Take screamed, as soon as his voice exploded into the room the burning stopped.

A haze roze from within, his eyes seemed to dullen, every breath sent him further back into his own self. Darkness crept into his eyes from every side until nothing but the faint glow of a lamp on the ceiling remained.

His dreams were filled with everything that had happened till now, strange voices and shadows chasing him had him run for his life. He was chased along an endless belt filled with lifeless figures being dropped from above, Rake struggled to get away but found his feet sinking into the steel of the belt.

Slowly he vanished between the cold metal until there was nothing but darkness. In his dreams he heard a voice, a quiet call for him to wake up but the some deep rumbling kept his attention away from it and after a time the voice faded.

When Rake woke up again he was still on the bed, restraints in place and his muscles burned with an intensity that drove tears to his eyes.

He croaked and the woman that had been there when he arrived turned around, her hands were covered in blood and the bit of skin he could see under the mask over her mouth was pale as the robe she had been wearing at the beginning.

“Stay calm, we had to increase your muscle growth for the next stage of the training. You will feel sore for the next hours until the next wave of painkillers set in. Once you stop being in pain we will release you to continue your way, be patient until then and try not to move too much.” She walked past his bed and began to type into a robot that was hung from the ceiling, shortly after the pain in his muscles began to ebb away. The dullness this time however was restricted to his limbs and left him capable of grunting in appraisal.

The woman turned back and the restraints on Rake’s bed retreated and left him in a position he could sit up.

He looked around and saw most of the beds occupied with other men and women like him, most of them were sweating and thrashing in their sleep. Two were so still that Rake couldn’t even see them breathe, he wondered how they did that.

Standing was easy now, his legs handling the weight with ease. Surprised he took a step, the impact was barely noticeable and with a smile he began walking up and down from where his bed was.

The woman signed behind him and told him to carry on, with new confidence Rake walked past the line he had relied on before and through a double door at the end of the long room. Once he approached the doors parted and let him through, he was alone now, no one else was walking the way indicated by large red arrows.

Wondering where all the others were rake began to walk slightly faster, he continued his way past more doors just like the one he had come from until he finally found an open one.

Bright blue light was shining and within the rectangular building were multiple circles, in the middle of the circles were chairs, this time however they were without restraints.

As soon as he entered a man in a white coat approached him.

“So you are done already? Man, what have they been feeding you to get your muscles fixed in a couple of days instead of the usual week… Looking at the stretchmarks on your arms and legs I probably should be happy about having to work my way into shape, this could not have been feeling good.” Rake knew what the other was saying just as much as he knew he would not be able to form an understandable answer so he nodded with a grim look.

“Hey, not even gonna try to talk to me? It’s okay, we are gonna get that fixed in a bit. Now look at the circles, once I am done explaining this you will be going down there and follow the instruction of the computer okay? Don’t worry about not getting things right, the program is made for maximum efficiency so as long as you do whatever it tells you to you will be able to talk just like me within a week.” He held out his arm and handed rake a small box with white pills.

“Since we will be feeding you with a needle so you don't have to go and eat every couple of hours you need to take these pills whenever you feel getting dizzy, have a headache or just can’t concentrate.” Rake nodded, take the pills when he felt unwell.

The man guided him the the circle at the far end of the room.

“Now you will be alone for the first two days after that you get to sleep and mix with the others, I will get you some clothes so go ahead and start with the program.”

The circle began to grow slightly as rake stepped into it and he could hear a voice inside his head.

“Hello Rake, I am Hue. I will be teaching you on how to speak properly and everything else you are required to know about our current situation. Please take a seat, this might take a while.”