I don’t think a medic should be that huge but who cares. I certainly didn’t. Certainly.

Barley had turned out to be a man of great size. Imagine if you were in a thick pine forest surrounded by darkness. Then suddenly you hear the sound of chopping.

Chop!

Chop!

Chop!

And before you know it you’ve arrived at a clearing in the forest dotted with stumps and one in making. There next to a thick tree was the silhouette of a ginormous man, like the idiot you are, you walk closer to the man and when they turn around you would see Barley.

Yep, he looks like a woodsman that would live alone and eats tree barks for breakfast. Especially since his hairy arms were covered in scratch marks and cut marks. There was even a patch of fresh burnt skin on his face to add to his intenseness. Very cool.

Living up to his name Barley had barley coloured hair and with a scraggly light brown beard that was so messy it could’ve rivaled the mess we made back in the labyrinth. He was the type of person you would think would always go to the woods and do unknown things especially with that huge body and his bulky muscles. The only thing that I found weird about him was how pale his skin was compared to everyone. Unlike everyone else’s tanned skin his skin seemed so pale that it looked as if it was translucent, I could even see all of his blue veins.

There was, however, one thing that threw me off when I first saw him. That one thing was what he had in his hand… A bouquet of flowers. Specifically roses and hibiscuses of all different colours, the colours made it seem as if someone had splashed the flowers with different types of colours and the bouquet was the result of it.

He wore blue surgeon’s gloves that covered his massive hands. The surgeon’s glove matched his pale green nurse uniform that was slightly too small for him. And because of this it allowed me to see his massive stomach bulging out, although this wasn’t the type of stomach that was soft and smushy like, no this was the type of stomach that looks soft but was actually hard and showed that the person had been training.

“He’s got broken bone on left leg, diaphragm also damaged. Leg will probably need two stitches while diaphragm just needs cream and some rest. So no training the stomach muscles for the least five weeks. Mostly six weeks to be safe.” Thick russian accent coated over his words like ketchup coating over french fries (Deliciously good). Before Liam could even complain Barley snatched him up from the bed with one hand while the other plopped the flowers down on the bedside table carelessly, not even caring when one rose fell off the table.

“Barley sure knows how to handle his patients.” (Note the sarcasm) I followed their figure until Barley and Liam left through a fire exit door behind the mini reception desk that was facing the entrance to the medical room.

“Welp, Barley sure is a nice guy!” The girl that had been mad before lightly chuckled. Hand on hip she pivoted to face me, “By the way I know you’re gonna ask so I’m just gonna answer this quickly. Dei is just fine the scratch was quite deep but Barley already bandaged it so right now she’s just resting on the bed. Sleeping.” She smiled as if to ask if I was satisfied with the answer (which I was). Simply nodding to the information I pondered to myself,

“How come he’s the nurse?”

“Oh! That’s because he asked to be! Really brave to have wanted to be the head of the medical department. Barley sure is brave.”

I don’t get this girl.

“Yep. He sure is brave. Especially because of being a doctor.” Little did I know I had begun to tilt my head slightly to the left, “But why does he want to be a doctor? I mean isn’t it waaay cooler to be like… A.. I don’t know an assassin?”

“Aah, that’s where you’re wrong dear child.” Kristen imitated an old man’s voice, “Being a nurse requires great skill, skills that you will never achieve by being so ignorant. That’s an insult.” And she took off sprinting away from me the instant she finished her statement. I followed.

While we were running away Liam was having the time of his life.

“You just need to lay down on bed, I fix you up properly this time. We have to open up your leg as there is something stuck inside from the swelling.” The russian’s voice echoed in the surgical room. A giant of a shadow loomed over Liam, “You strong, I don’t give you anesthetic for leg.” Now sweat poured down Liam’s face,

“Um.. Actually I never said that so maybe you can give me the anesthetics.” Liam snickered nervously, panicking crossed his mind but he quickly rejected that idea as he was too afraid of ruining his dignity.

He gritted his teeth, eyebrows furrowed with a single trickle of sweat going down his back he felt as if his life was on the line.(Which it wasn’t)

“ALRIGHT FINE BRING ON THE STITCHES!”

The russian’s stoic face broke into a humongous chaotic grin. He swiped at his tools and tied down the narcissist with a flexible silk belt. The operation had begun.

Classes…

Because of Kristen running into, coincidentally, our class that we were supposed to go to we were now in class. Currently standing in a room full of people I clung onto the only sanity that was still inside of me. I could feel my sanity withering.

“Remind me again on why we have to go to class.” Scanning my surroundings I saw that the classroom was not like any classroom I had ever been in. For one thing we had to stand which was extremely annoying. And for the second thing, we weren’t even in a room, I mean literally we were in a patch of forest. I don’t even know if the agency even owns the forest!

“Don’t worry, we only have to go one class a day and anyways, most people like the lesson.” Kristen beamed at me.

“I guess the ‘most people’ is you.” A snort sounded behind me followed by a muffling sound. Whipping my head around I saw, standing behind me, was a boy that looked to be twelve or thirteen.

Being shorter than me by a head, gold locks fell down his face covering his bright green eyes. He had neon glowing headphones on his broad shoulders hiding part of his peachy coloured neck. I seemed to have caught him laughing because his eyes were widened with his mouth twisted in an unusual line. He wore a normal looking grey jacket with his hood up and a pair of loose cargo pants accompanied with some expensive looking adidas.

This look makes him look like he spent most of his money on his shoes and headphones. Geez.

“Um I was just coughing.” And he started fake coughing up a fit which resulted in him making a scene. And we were in the spotlight. And I was so very kindly reminded again of how much I hate the spotlight.

Yup, it’s confirmed. This place is cursed for me.

“Benjamin if you need to go to the medical room just please, go.” A look that practically screamed ‘why?’ adorned the face of the woman that was supposed to be teaching us.

Ah yes, the teacher that’s done with their life.

“No I’m fine I just choked on air.” Finally finishing his ‘coughing fit’ Benjamin gestured at the teacher to continue the lesson with a little wave.

“Okay. Today, as you can see, we are in the eastern side of the forest….. Wait you guys don’t know that god dang it!” Frustration radiated off of the teacher. She even kicked a rock! I felt that, I really did.

“Okay….” Recovering herself the teacher breathed deeply before starting over again, “Hi, for the new recruits today my name is Haley Laurens but you can just call me Ms. Laurens. Each lesson I will be your teacher and today we are going to practise some killing. This is so when you meet one of the KFCs you can kill them.”

She said it so casually I’m surprised none of us got surprised. And wait…. We were supposed to kill the KFCs (Lol)? And what’s up with this agency and the KFCs (Again lol)?

Ms. Laurens continued,

“Separate into your teams and here.”

And she threw a shield at me, sadly it hit my face. A loud clang resonated across the forest scaring a few birds away. However I was not the only one that got hit in the face. The person that stood to my left also got hit in the face just like me, sadly I was the only one that had an injured look.

Suddenly Ms. Laurens screamed,

“GO TO YOUR TEAMS!” Before I could even register what was happening nearly everyone huddled into different groups with each of their teammates leaving only me and Kristen in the middle.

Since Ms. Laurens seemed to be talking to each group individually I took the time to inspect the shield she had hit me with. It had a crest on the middle that looked like a red anemone. Neatly, the flower had been carved into the middle steel shield. It’s petal was mostly dyed in red except for the inside rims. They were white and purple. On the rim of the shield there was a fancy looking pattern that had sharp curves. The outside of the shield felt frigid under my touch whilst the inside was warm.

Without me noticing, Ms. Laurens had walked up to me and Kristen. I didn’t notice until she shook my shoulders violently. Very violently. Once the shaking finished she began talking to us just like how she had been talking to the other groups.

“Since you guys don’t have the amount of people the other groups have I’m gonna have to combine you with Clair’s group okay? Good, they’re over there,” She pointed towards two people under the shade of a giant oak tree, “Go to them now.” After that she went to the next group.

“Come on! Clair’s really nice.” Kristen sprinted at them.

“That’s what you say about everyone,” I muttered, it seemed that Kristen was too far away to hear me though.

I guess I should probably go and socialize.