(Prominis 20, 56 / 11:43PM)

(Jack) Just curious … Where are you all guys from?

Near a campfire, the 14 candidates celebrated their rising tensions with a party. With nothing but soda, donuts, barbeque, and other small snacks, the kids and teens had a little fun on their second night.

(Jack) I know Sean told me that he was from Aizzonia, but what about you guys? I mean, some of you guys look like you’re from Ticia.

Jack looked towards Stan and his friends, his eyes focusing primarily on Luke. Luke, remaining mostly quiet, looked at Jack’s direction, his eyes trying to avoid eye contact with Jack. Clearing his throat, he didn’t look at Jack as he looked to the ground.

(Luke) Yeah … I’m from Ticia … Stan, Fred, Gary, and Diego were from there too…

(Stan) We all sort of knew each other, before the invasion. Not to be rude, but I hope you’re not interested in our story, let’s just say it was a package of awful memories.

Jack rubbed his chin, as he still remained focused on Luke and his friends. Letting go of his chin, he straightened his back.

(Jack) Yeah no worries bro. You don’t have to give us your guys' backstory.

Focusing his attention to the two beast humans, Jack’s eyes started to shimmer a bit as he pointed at them with his finger.

(Jack) Care to explain your homeland Cameron and Ryan?

(Ryan) We’re both from Ticia, specifically Visily Harbor.

(Jack) Visily Harbor? The city of fish?

(Ryan) Yeah … you know a lot of cities.

(Jack) I was always good at geography. You don’t have to tell me your story if you don’t want to.

(Ryan) Actually, it probably isn’t as bad as the others, but me and Cameron were always good friends before the attack.

Jack laid back as he perked up, putting his right leg on top of his left knee, having both of his hands on the wooden bench that he was sitting on.

(Ryan) On that Saturday, me and Cameron were just looking through the city, until we were stopped by a gang of dog-humans. Despite me, Cameron, and them being beast humans, they started belittling us. They tugged on Cameron’s ears, his nose, they started throwing carrots at me, trying to touch my tail.

Ryan looked up at his furry white hand, his hand vastly similar to Jack and the rest of the humans, yet the way he was treated…

(Ryan) From a certain angle, I could see why some humans would see us as different, but why dog-humans?

(Jack) So …

(Ryan) We were about to fight them head on, until a bunch of explosions rocked the city. I don’t know what they were to this day, but it just all happened so quickly.

Ryan rolled down a tear, until he swiped it away with his right hand.

(Jack) It’s ok … I’ll leave you alone with the details … How about you Luna?

He turned his head towards Luna, who was gobbling on a donut.

(Luna) What?

(Jack) When you spoke with Luke, you said your father and brothers were killed during the attack, so … what region were you originally from?

(Luna) Why should you care?

(Jack) I'm just curious.

Luna’s eyes rolled as she continued to eat her donut. Noticing that Jack’s eyes remained on her, she swallowed and cleared her throat.

(Luna) sighs … Angharad Valley, Yamu.

(Jack) Yamu? Is it a small town?

(Luna) It’s a small city in between Tringho and Armadillo Wells, barely a population of 100,000. Happy?

Jack gave a thumbs up for Luna, who in return, looked away with a vein popping out of her forehead. Jack glanced at Luna as she turned away and giggled a bit as he put a hand to his mouth.

(Luna’s thoughts) Dork!

(Jack) All that’s left is Hope, Loraine, Gemma, and Miles. So who wants to go first?

Jack looked through the last four candidates, eyeing every single one of them. Miles stood up with a soda in hand, drinking the soda in one gulp, and crushing the can with two of his hands, before placing it in his pocket. Funny enough, Jack’s eyes remained focused on the soda can that Miles crunched up.

(Miles) I’m from here, Kepputha is my home.

(Jack) Wait really? Where in Kepputha?

Jack’s jaw dropped, followed by everyone else gasping and gossiping amongst themselves. Miles started to look down as he put his hands in his pockets.

(Miles) I’m from City King, a rural town near the city Fort Stonerock.

(Jack) You lived near the penitentiary city?! Why is a Kepputhan country boy here as a candidate for an elite program?

(Miles) It’s … complicated.

Looking towards the door to the lunch room, he thought he saw a…

(Miles’s thoughts) A tunnel?

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A tunnel appeared, replacing the door that led to the lunchroom, but in an instant, the tunnel vanished and was then replaced back to being a door.

(Mile’s thoughts) Why am I reminding myself of that…

Jack noticed that Miles was lost in thought looking at the random door, so he took his attention to the three girls.

(Jack) Hope. Wanna tell us your home country?

(Hope) Sorry, but I don’t remember what my home country is…

(Jack) Really?

(Hope) All I remember is an older girl that I was maybe close to. I forgot her face and I also forgot her name…

Hope silently watched the firepit as she took small bites of her s'more.

(Jack) Welp … Gemma?

(Gemma) Nothing too complex, was raised in an orphanage in Ticia, and I managed to be the last survivor out of all the orphans. I walked to the Kepputhan border for about a month until I ran into Gwen.

(Jack) Woah what? That’s not simple, that’s pretty dark!

(Gemma) I guess I always had a hard life…

Everyone’s eyes averted away from Gemma.

(Jack’s thoughts) Welp. The harder the life, the peaceful the fall…

(Jack) … how about you Loraine—

Loraine was fast asleep, her eight-year-old body couldn’t muster the strength to stay up. Having a little vein on his forehead, he folded his arms as he looked at the firepit.

(Jack) I guess I’ll pry into Loraine’s story later…

______________________________________________________________________________

(Prominis 21, 58 / 4:59PM)

(Stan) We have only an hour before The Array ends… let’s hole up here for now so that we can say that we failed our final test.

(Gary) Why not just go backward?

(Stan) Come to think of it … what I said was pretty dumb …

(Diego) How so?

As the boys huddled in a group, Stan, the ring leader, looked at his friends and even Jack, Sean, and Miles. Unclogging his throat, Stan folded his arms as he leaned on the stone wall.

(Stan) If we did leave the city, then how would we make it out of Ticia alive?

(Jack) Yeah, thankfully we didn’t do that…

(Sean) But hey! We just gotta do nothing for an hour, I mean … it’s better this way—

(Luke) Who says we're staying here?

Luke carried with him dual-wielding uzis, with a belt that contained many ammo and magazines as well as a holster. On his way to the group, he was looked upon with awe and admiration, with many of the candidate's eyes sparkling with coolness as Luke was stacked.

(Stan) What do you mean? You can’t be thinking of going out there…

(Luke) Stan, think about this … you always told yourselves to never give up right? We’re fully loaded with our preferred weapons and you want to tuck tail and run?

(Stan) I just…

Stan looked away, his eyes avoiding eye contact with Luke’s. He then looked towards Sean, who envied his style since Hope and Luna started flustering hard as they saw Luke’s attire.

(Sean) Dual-wielding uzis?

(Luke) Better than some run-down submachine gun…

(Sean) Hey! This gun is a classic!

(Luna) Shut up, Sean.

(Fred) Come on guys, break it up…

Fred carried on his right hand a long wired yo-yo, with barbed wire and razor blades attached to the metallic string. On his left hand, he wielded a simple handgun, the one that almost took his own life…

(Fred) I can’t believe I’m using Gemma’s razor blade wires for my man-made weapon…

(Hope) Gemma would’ve loved that idea.

Hope carried with her a Beretta Storm combat pistol, followed by a huge backpack carrying medical supplies.

(Luke) Hope’s right. Are you sure you’re ready Fred?

(Fred) Suffering builds character I guess.

(Stan) … guess we have no other choice huh …

Stan and everyone decided to follow Luke, with all 11 candidates behind Luke. As Luke turned around, he saw all of them using their right fist to thump the left side of their chest two times, and gliding it to the right side, a salute for the upcoming elite force…

Luke also did the elite force salute.

(Stan) So … what’s the plan?

Luke put his right uzi on his holster, taking out a piece of a white crystal from his pocket. As he held it up high, everyone tilted their heads, except for Fred, Stan, Gary, and Diego.

(Fred) Is that fulminated mercury?

(Luke) Yeah …

(Fred) What’s it for?

(Luke) … Everyone, stand behind me to form a line!

As the 11 candidates stood behind Luke, setting up his stance to focus on the metal door that would lead them into the third stage…

(Stan) No but seriously, what’s the plan?

(Luke) There is no plan.

(Gary) So we’re just going to go guns blazing then.

(Luke) Loraine, explain to them.

Lorraine, who was in the middle of the line, spoke up as everyone focused their eyes on her.

(Loraine) The goal is to get to the center of the complex. To get there safely, we have to form a big group and stick together!

Finishing his stance, Luke rubbed the fulminated mercury a bit in his right hand as he adjusted himself into a throwing position.

(Fred) Wait, hold on! The blast would put a bunch of metal shrapnel at us!

All the candidates started to shake, their gossiping and murmurs causing Luke to look back at them.

(Luke) Don’t worry … that’s why I have everyone in back of me… like you said, Fred.

Luke then threw the fulminated mercury at the door, the world in slow motion as everyone eyed the white crystal barreling towards the stone wall.

(Luke’s thoughts) I’m too lucky…

As the explosion unfolded, the shockwaves caused ripples through most of the candidate's bodies, their limbs feeling the vibrations and pounds of adrenaline. With the metal shrapnel hurling towards them, Luke’s gamble was right on the money, as the candidates saw the debris fly over them, some passing inches from them.

With the explosion and dust clearing off, they all thrust themselves into…

(Luke) Charge!

The last stage.