Vas pulled his hood off as a mid-fifties black-skinned man approached him. The man smiled, revealing pearly white teeth. He was shirtless, extremely well fit, and sweating.

“New recruits!” The man shouted with a thick accent that made his words seem more thoughtful and pronounced.

The building was a massive warehouse, formed into dozens of large rooms that apparently served as training areas.

It made Vas feel like he was in a giant martial arts gym from the old world.

Vas nodded to the man, who nodded back and then waited until the rest of the recruits shuffled into the building.

By the time the fifteen minutes they waited had gone by, a small crowd of shirtless men and women had formed. Women wore wraps around their breasts and underwear, while men only had underwear. “All vanguard, Sun?” Asked a voice.

The black man, Sun, shook his head. “No, they’re sure to have sent some Scouts with this bunch.”

At that, the entire group of spectators raised their fists to their mouths and kissed their pointer knuckle.

Vas gave Sun a curious look, and the man smiled at him again, “We honor those who sacrifice the most for mankind.” “Humankind!” Interjected a female voice, emphasizing the “hu” part.

Sun’s smile faltered and Vas thought he saw a glint of pain in the old man’s eyes. It was gone in a second.

“Living-kind.” Said a quiet female voice from behind Vas.

It WAS quiet, Vas barely heard it. However, it seemed it was louder than he’d thought.

Everyone in the group of spectators stiffened and nodded solemnly, repeating the words to pass what was said around.

Sun’s smile deepened.

“You must be a Scout recruit.”

The girl behind Vas apparently nodded.

“What’s your name?”

“Jade.”

The response was sharp, and made Vas turn around to inspect her.

It was one of the recruits who had stayed close behind him during the trek through the tunnel and snow.

She was tall for a girl, Asian, dark haired, and gorgeous.

He found his eyes wanting to linger on her, and noticed that most everyone agreed with him.

“How about you, quiet one?” Vas turned back to Sun.

“Vas. Sir.”

Sun and the rest of the group chuckled lightly.

“No sirs and ma’ams out here, Vas. This isn’t some army with uniforms. This is what’s left of people trying to defend themselves and their children. Your uniform is your life.”

Vas nodded, “What happens to us next, Sun?” He asked.

Sun laughed, “Straight to the point! Next, Vas, we’re going to train you recruits. You’ll join these lovely senior recruits,” Sun motioned to the group surrounding the newbies, “and will train for a year in this facility. Essentially, you’ve returned to school life. Only, teachers are soldiers and tests are fighting tournaments.”

After the rest of the introductions, Sun led the new recruits to a room with dozens of lockers. “This part always seems strange at first. Take off your clothes and put everything into your locker. You won’t be needing them in here.”

Vas was the first to strip off his multiple layers. He had been nervous all day, and the clarity of the instructions helped him focus.

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He’d already been expecting this after seeing the senior recruits.

The others were slower to react, but they also took off layers upon layers of clothing.

Some of the men stared and the women, and some of the women were blushing.

However, they all complied eventually, which surprised Vas.

All of them in their undergarments, the male and female recruits shifted their weight back and forth uncomfortably and glanced around.

Vas was caught glancing at Jade and he quickly looked away when she gave him a “caught you” wink.

“Now I want you all to look at each other. Take a good moment to look into each person’s eye and then examine their body.”

At first, no one complied. However, after a few minutes, Vas gave in. He looked at each man and woman one by one.

Eventually Sun sighed, “Good. Now the men will take their undergarments off.”

Vas and the others took a few minutes, but eventually conceded.

Every single man looked terribly embarrassed, and Vas couldn’t hold his blush back.

When they had all finished, Sun continued.

“Women, look at the men. There is obviously some sexual tension in the air right now. We could prance around the issue for months and train in close quarters and increase that tension over the year of training, which might eventually result in frustrations followed by accidents. Instead, I’d like all of you to take your undergarments off as well.”

A few of the women complied, and Jade was among them.

Vas blushed even deeper when she glared at him for staring, but didn’t stop.

The rest of the women stripped down, and many of the men stared without hiding which ones they were attracted to. Some of the men and women glanced at others of the same gender.

Sun clapped loudly twice, and they all jerked their collective attention to him. “None of you questioned me, which is surprising. I will still explain to make this clear. Two years ago in our first waves of recruits, there were multiple rapes, two murders, and three suicides. Ever since I started doing things this way, there has been one suicide.”

Sun looked each recruit in the eyes, then scanned their body.

About halfway through his scanning, the majority of recruits stopped blushing and started scanning one another’s bodies in earnest.

The men had all collectively calmed down, and they were beginning to look each other up and down as well as staring at the women.

“There are other reasons as well. For instance, Scouts like Jade here will be required to push south and will travel for months in the snow. There are no fires to keep you warm all night, and body heat is an extremely efficient means of keeping you alive all night. Remember that mutual consent is required for sex, and you can only do so during the daytime hours. You may turn down any person for any reason, but I require you to acknowledge any and all expressions of attraction. You are all equals here, and the person you turn down might be asked to save your life tomorrow. Are there any questions?”

Jade raised her hand and Sun nodded at her. “Are instructors off-limits?”

Sun displayed a wide smile, “No, and thank you. However, no thank you.”

“I didn’t mean—” Jade began, but Sun waved his hand, “Now that we’re through with that, line up, single file. I want each one of you to attack me like you mean to hurt me. The training starts now.”