Chapter 2-1: New Recruits
He blinked over and over. The blurry image of a white ceiling became clearer with each successive flap of the eye. He was lying on a bed, specifically, an infirmary bed. The tubes wired to his body clued him off. And from the slight feeling of motion, he knew he was in an airship.
Fighting against his heavy bones and tired muscles, he sat up. Though he felt a stinging pain on his shoulder, he suppressed it, opting to pull out the tubes from his wrist. The transparent liquid of the IV drip spilt on the floor, slowly forming a puddle.
One glance to the left and another to the right. His belongings had been taken away. Even his dog tags. He sighed. Why was he here? He tried to recall his last memory.
“The gold one! It’s been targeted!”
“Stop, Blaze 3!”
He flinched. The bright light was the last he saw.
“That’s right… I threw myself in the way to protect that unit. That’s why I’m here.”
Coughing hopelessly, he forced himself off the bed, splashing the puddle with a hard stomp to the floor. Trotting toward the door, it slid open as soon as he neared it. He didn’t know where he was or where to go, but he felt like he was accomplishing nothing by staying there.
Slowly, his muscle ache was fading. His hunched stature straightened up, and he was able to walk normally. The hallway was a mess of doors, and there was an elevator at the very end. It was the one thing he wasn’t fond of when it came to airships-- How easy it was to get lost.
He took a gander at the nearest door, with the numbers 4031 imprinted on top with ornate plating. He needed to find someone, anyone. If he wandered on his own, who knows where he’d end up? Believing those numbers to be designation for living quarters, without as much of a thought, he opened the door.
“Huh…?”
Golden locks glimmering beneath the glare of the rising sun. Dazzling cerulean eyes one a foreign face that widened at the sight of him. Her face looked like it belonged to a poster on a wall. If she walked by, a normal person could never resist stealing a look. If that was all he saw, maybe his heart wouldn’t be pounding as hard as it was.
She was down to her underwear. The glistening, unblemished skin as white as fresh snow glowed subtly beneath the black lacings. Her figure was curved in ways a sculptor could only dream of producing. Yet, she didn’t look an age older than him, around sixteen or seventeen. She stood there, with her skirt around her ankles.
He was frozen at the sight. He knew it was bad, but he couldn’t stop looking. She was bent over, her fingers pinching the tips of the skirt. That pose emphasized her curvaceous butt, and when she turned around, her cleavage was for his eyes to see.
However, those cheeks that turned a bright shade of red foretold his impending doom. Those puffy pink lips split open, and a horrified shriek echoed throughout the airship.
“Kyah! Pervert!”
Slam!
Terrified, his hand pulled on the handle and shut it loudly. His heart was pounding. His breaths were becoming wild. But he fought off all temptation to run. No, that’d be far too suspicious. He hadn’t a clue where he was, but he knew that if he were to escape with his life, he’d have to casually walk away.
Back straight, hands striding, each step was robotic but it smoothened out slowly. Calm down, he told himself. Even if that girl were to give chase, she’d have to put on her clothes first. No way in hell would she hunt him down whilst naked. Thirty seconds, at the very least. That’s enough time for him to reach the end of the hallway and take the elevator.
However, the sound of doors unlocking and their creaking open started to echo. Girls started exiting their rooms from in front of him, then from behind. Quickly, he was trapped from all directions. And what was worse was, all of them were still in their underwear.
“What was that loud screaming?”
“Pervert? Was Charlotte at it again?”
“I could’ve sworn that was Anastasia’s voice…”
“Uhm, is that a guy?”
The boy froze. All eyes were directed squarely toward him, a sizeable circular space between him and the girls.
“Well. Shit.”
Loud stomps inched closer and closer. The girls behind him parted, making space for a certain angry blonde to rush in. A simple shirt and skirt on, the rage in her eyes was akin to the ferocious wrath of a wild tigress.
“There you are, degenerate. You better say your prayers.”
And so, for the first time in years, he prayed to God.
----------------------------------------
When she opened her eyes, what lay before her was a loaf of bread infested with ants and cockroaches left to rot on the floor. By sight and odor, she guessed that it had been left there for two or so days, factoring in the cold winter that was freezing her fingers off.
Without moving even an inch, her eyeballs rolled about, carefully scanning the surroundings. Iron bars stood on one end of the room, and the scent of urine seemed to permeate from the white dome-shaped thing that had been stained brown and black at the corner. It was obvious she was imprisoned.
Another mission to break herself out of prison. How wonderful. She had forgotten how long and how many missions she had been undertaking ever since she was thrown into that pod. Not a second to rest, not a moment to think. Each painful death and failure led to retrying the mission, each success was met with the start of another mission. It was an unending cycle that lasted three years with no respite.
This was just another of those. Her body felt weak, but those are probably conditions placed to handicap her. She didn’t seem to have any equipment on her either, meaning the scenario was perhaps to successfully break out with whatever she can find.
In such a situation, there was only one thing to do: Nothing.
She stayed completely still, pretending to be a corpse. If she waited a day or two, someone would open that cell door to throw her away. That would be the perfect time to strike. An iron creak echoed quietly, and footsteps grew closer and closer.
“Hey Five, don’t you feel worried about the girl Two brought in? Soon as she got here, the big guns tossed her into prison, and she hasn’t woken up since. Shouldn’t they at least hook her up to something to keep her condition stable or something? That beeping thing, what’s it called?”
There were two sets of footsteps, but the other party didn’t seem to respond.
“I hope she’s okay too. But I’m scared since she hasn’t budged an inch for the past three days. You don’t think she’s dead, right?”
The man’s response to that to complete silence led the girl to come to the conclusion that he was completely insane.
“I know it’s dangerous to open the cell door, but I think I should check her pulse. This isn’t a place for anyone to die, especially a young girl like her. Watch my back, please.”
The clinking of keys, the undoing of a lock, the rusty creak of the hinges, and the footsteps of the man. She didn’t need to wait as long as she thought she needed to. He stepped closer and closer, and wrapped his hand around her wrist, his thumb pressed closely against her cold skin.
He sighed in relief. “Her pulse is norm— Guf!”
She straightened her free hand and delivered a chop right to his Adam’s apple. The man felt like he drank an entire barrel of beer after scarfing down five burgers, and the pain made him collapse beside her, gasping for air.
The girl rolled on his feet, making a bee line for the door. The silent woman stood on the other side, reaching into her coat, trying to draw her gun out her holster. But just as she pointed it at her, the girl was already in hand-to-hand combat range. All it took was a simple smack to the hand, and the woman’s grip on the gun was released, leaving the firearm to spin away on the ground.
With a simple shove, the woman was pushed away, giving the girl an opening to escape. And as she ran down the hallway, she quickly swiped the handgun to accommodate her getaway.
Five seconds. That was all it took for her to turn the situation around to her favour. She found it odd how the prompt to her next objective wasn’t flashing in front of her, but she understood it as another attempt to ground the mission to realism.
After climbing a small flight of stairs at the end, she hid behind the corner of an open door, peeking out to analyze the situation.
“You know, Boss, I don’t get why we have to visit the prison to leave food for that little girl. Wouldn’t it be more logical to put her in an infirmary till she wakes up?”
“Tell that to the higher ups. I suggested that too, you know. But what did our general have to say to us? Lock her up! What a cad.”
“Ugh, but I don’t like wasting my time coming all the way out here just to leave food in case she wakes up. I mean, I got better things to do, like practicing my guitar.”
“You do that all the time, Nine. I hear strumming all the way past midnight. Take you to the town nearby, you practice in the SUV. Go into battle, you practice in the robot! These fifteen minutes we spend going to the prison is nothing compared to the time you spend strumming away.”
“Music is my oxygen to live, dear Boss.”
Though the man was unarguably irresponsible, he had a large and imposing build, contrast to the woman’s slightly shorter and slender one. The girl didn’t hear running from where she came from, meaning that the other two were perhaps intimidated from giving chase due to her snatching the weapon.
If she wanted to escape, she knew she had to fight her way out. The biggest concern was the big man. Strange as he is, he would probably defeat her in a fistfight, and if not that, stall her long enough for his female companion to pull a gun on her. That is why he should be the one to go first.
Rushing into the room where the exit stood behind the desk the two were sitting at, she raised the gun with both hands and aimed it squarely at the man’s forehead. Just as he felt a glimpse moving past the corner of his eye, he turned to look and—
Bang!
A bullet was lodged into his forehead. The girl eyed the woman whose green eyes were widening, and quickly aimed the gun at her before she could draw hers. Without a hint of hesitation, she pulled the trigger once more.
However, the woman did not fall. Instead, the man she had shot threw himself between them, taking another bullet to the chest.
One shot to the head, another to the chest. It was a miracle that he was still standing. She knew he’d be a pain just from looking at him. Another tug on the trigger, yet he still refused to fall. Instead, he marched on forward, as if the blood leaking out his flesh were like irritating mosquito bites. She shot the fourth time and the fifth, yet he still pressed forward. Inching back, she realized she was trapped against the wall, and the man was glaring into her eyes with an indescribable rage.
Upon the sixth shot, he gripped her wrist as if he were trying to crush her bones, slowly lifting her off the ground. The handgun fell to his feet, to which he stepped on to prevent her from taking it back.
“Give it up, kid.”
She refused to give in. Balling her hand into a fist, she punched at his jugular over and over, to no effect. It almost felt like only she was getting hurt by her efforts.
The woman shouted at them, “Nine! Don’t kill her!”
Veins popping on his forehead, he spun about and slammed the girl against a wall like rug that needed dusting. Cracks emerged on the brick wall, chunks of stone falling on the floor. The sharp pain rose to her brain, and her consciousness quickly faded as she dropped to the floor.
He turned to Two and yelled, “This is what I meant when I said that these things are fucking nuts! If it wasn’t for me, you’d be dead right now!”
She dashed past him and knelt before the girl, one hand on her chest, the other around her wrist. “She’s still breathing… Thank God.” She let out a sigh of relief.
“Hey, don’t thank God, thank me!”
A furrow emerged between her eyes. “I’m infuriated that you’d attack a young girl like that, and I want to scold you for doing such a thing. But, I’m grateful that you saved my life, and I want to thank you as well.” She gazed over her shoulder with a smirk. “So the scolding and the thanks cancel each other out, hence I’ll do nothing.”
“This bitch…”
“The base must’ve heard those gunshots.” She picked up the girl and slung her over her shoulder. “Come on, we’ve got some explaining to do and probably some paperwork to fill in thanks to that.”
“Aww shit!”
----------------------------------------
Groan…
The boy sat on a chair, exactly one meter away from the girl. Neither refused to look at the other. In front of them was a white table, a single chair behind it. The boy’s body was covered in red, hand-shaped marks, and all he had to wear at the moment was a pair of trousers.
The chair spun around, an older woman with mauve hair revealing her face, clad from head to toe in military uniform. On her chest was the seal of a captain, most probably meaning she’s the woman in charge of this airship. At the very least, the woman was definitely an ally, as the uniform was unmistakably Luriesian. That meant he avoided the worst case scenario of being captured by enemy imperials.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Anastasia saluted at the woman. “Captain Lucrescia Noire, here is my recount of the situation. This lecherous young man snuck through the ship and invaded my quarters to see my naked body. And then he called upon every other girl to do the same to them. We merely punished him for his crimes.”
“I said, it was an accident!”
“I don’t care! Because of you, I can’t get married now!”
“In the first place…” he chimes in, “Haven’t you people ever heard of locking the goddamn doorknob?”
“How would I know a pervert would come barging in like that?!”
“I-I’m not a pervert! Besides, you stripped me naked and then slapped my dick! If anything, you’re the pervert!”
“How would I know you would be perverse enough to go around without underwear?! Ahhhh…” She covered her eyes. “I’m tainted now. Forever... It’s all your fault!”
“That’s enough!” The woman yelled, causing the two to turn rigid from fear. Her face was buried in her palms, and she was visibly shaking. “I can’t believe I took the position of captain for this…”
“Captain, for invasion of privacy and stealing the purities of all the girls aboard the Jotunheim… The proper punishment for this pervert is suicide.”
“Hey!”
“Anastasia.” Lucrescia glared into her blue eyes sharply. “Please kindly shut up.”
Her back straightened, pupils shrinking in utter terror. “Yes ma’am.”
“He is correct. Every door on this ship has a lock installed. Even though every staff aboard the ship is female, it is your own responsibility to keep yourself secure by locking your rooms. Especially since we have a certain Charlotte aboard.”
Anastasia gulped.
“And Ichijou, please make sure to knock on every door before you open them. You may end up seeing things you don’t want to see. Consider yourself lucky that it was a girl your age instead of someone’s grandmother.”
“I’ll take that to mind—” He flinched. “Wait, I haven’t introduced myself. How do you know my name?”
Lucrescia slid open a drawer and brought forth a set of dog tags. “Ichijou Shido, call sign Blaze 3. I was keeping your dog tags safe till you woke up. I am, as you heard, Captain Lucrescia Noire. I’m the woman in charge of the Jotunheim.” She slid the dog tags across the table.
Ichijou grabbed the dog tags, pocketing it with his eyes on her. “Jo-Jotunheim… It’s this airship, right?”
“It can’t be an underwear brand, now can it?”
“And all the personnel here are women…?”
“Precisely.” She leaned back on her chair, puffing her ample chest out. “The Jotunheim is a testbed for the Candidate Program, where we take in young women with high potential and run tests of powerful experimental weapons. We’ve received funding from powerful corporations across the globe in hopes of bringing out the maximum potential of their creations.”
“So, you don’t have any men here?”
Anastasia crossed her arms, turning away, “Protecting the candidates is of utmost importance as none of them are over the age of twenty, and many lack proper training in self-defence. If a scoundrel such as yourself, were to come aboard, that would endanger the girls, would it not?”
Ichijou bit his lips. He had only heard about this program from a squad member by the name of Roger. He was a hyperactive youth who caught a rumour that the ship was full of cute girls and would literally kill anyone to be able to spend even a day onboard. Suffice to say, Ichijou understood that he would die the moment he told Roger about today.
“Wait.” He uttered as a thought hit him. “Why am I aboard this ship?”
“You reportedly shielded one of our pilots from an attack. She brought you in here for treatment, against our wishes. However, due to the chaos of the battlefield, we hadn’t a choice but to split up with your company. So, you’ll have to stay onboard for the meantime till we can rendezvous with your squad. Are there any objections, Anastasia?”
“I!” She glared at the captain and then at him. “I have no objections. However, I request permission to use lethal force if such an incident occurs once more.”
“Approved.”
Three knocks on the door. With Lucrescia’s approval, the door swung open. A gentle-faced girl with tangerine hair stepped in with a shirt and coat inhand.
“I was told by the Vice Captain to deliver these to the passenger onboard. So—” She froze the moment she saw Ichijou’s face, eyes wide, mouth hanging.
He stared at her the same way, dumbfounded by the face before him.
“Ichijou…?”
“Karen?”
Anastasia raised an eyebrow. “You two know each other…?”
And like two birds cawing through the night, they screamed in unison,
“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH—”
----------------------------------------
“Eh…?”
The young girl found her hands behind her back, a pair of cuffs holding them together and the back of a chair standing between her arms and her back. She tried to move her legs, but she felt them tied to the legs of said chair. From feeling alone, she could tell she was completely shackled.
“Ah, awake at last, are we? Open your eyes. You can tell that your struggling is futile.”
One eyelid open, her pupils scanned her immediate vicinity. Two soldiers with rifles in hand stood behind an office table. And stationed at said table was a sharp-eyed man with red hair. He was stirring tea as he watched her. The very sight of that made her sick.
With dry lips, she asked the only question on her mind. “Where am I…?”
“Reality, my child.”
“What…?”
Eyes slowly adjusting to the lights, she turned to the left to see a shelf full of accolades. Then to her right, where a familiar scarlet-haired woman sat; several others sitting on the floor behind her… playing with cards. Of note was the big man with the scarf who she recognized at a glance, as his head was bandaged. That was the man she shot. Somehow, he walked out without fatal injuries.
“Poker!” One of them shouted.
“I told you this before, it’s called a Full House, not Poker!”
“Ahem!” The man behind the desk loudly and fakely coughed. “Our guest here is awake. I believe the time for games is over.”
All but the big man stood up and saluted. “Sir, yes sir!” They quickly collected their cards, stashing it into a box.
The man clasped his hands, hiding his lips behind with his eyes staring straight through the little girl. “How long do you believe you have been asleep?”
“I…” The girl tried to recall. “Perhaps an hour? Maybe two?”
“Not unconscious. Asleep. From reality, that is. For the past three years, what do you believe you have been doing?”
The only memories she could recall was the endless training she was put through. Every moment, another mission. Failure led to another mission. Success led to another mission. Without rest. Without sleep. Without a meal. She kept on heading missions over and over, and when she gave up from weariness, she would be punished heavily.
“The Virtual Reality Soldier Simulation Program, proposed by Professor Doctor Steven Fencer. A program to train the minds of the regular individual into a soldier with far more experience than the norm. In a simulation, concepts such as sleep or sustenance are of no importance. As long as the proper nutrients are fed into the body, the mind can be continuously pushed through the simulation without a stop. However, results show that those who are put through even a month of such rigorous training become rather… unhinged. Am I wrong to suspect the same of you?”
The girl’s eyes were starting to close. That man talked too much, and his calm voice was like the narration of a nanny reading a storybook. Before she realized it, her mind was black, and she started to snore.
With a smile, the man grabbed onto the teacup by his side and chucked it straight at the girl’s face. The porcelain cup shattered, hot tea scattered all over her face. She screamed in pain as blood flowed out from a wound on her cheek, the scalding hot fluid intensifying her pain.
“Hey!” The woman beside the girl shouted. “That was uncalled for!”
“Silence, Two. In my office, when I speak, I expect to be heard. Be it a child or an adult, any or everyone here has that responsibility.” He waved his hand, and the two soldiers pointed their rifles at her. “Is that understood?”
“Sir, yes, sir…” She weakly replied, lowering her head.
“Excellent.” He stood up from his chair, walking around it to the front of the girl. Grabbing her by her silver hair, he pulled her face up to meet his. “Now, can you hear me clearly?”
“I can…!”
“Now, answer me, how long were you in that simulation?”
“I don’t know!”
“That is not an answer!” He slapped her across the cheek, the loud smack resounding throughout the wooden room. He walked back to his seat, the girl squirming in pain as he sat down.
Nine suddenly stood up, a large grin on his face. “Oooh, look at me! I’m so cool, beating up little girls~!”
Two was trembling in anger. “Nine, now is not a good time for this…! You’re the one who knocked her unconscious in the first place!”
The man snickered. “Oh, Nine, what a jovial man you are. Truly, you are the empire’s greatest mistake. Oh, how I wish killing you were much easier. But for a man of steel such as you, I would prefer another means which surpasses simple violence.” He clasped his hands together once more. “Zeroes. How long do you believe this girl spent in that virtual simulation?”
Three scratched his head. “She doesn’t seem that crazy… Two weeks maybe?”
“Not even close. All the subjects of the program were put into the pods three years ago, and no one else was added later into the research for the sake of consistency. Any subject that was taken out of their pods was promptly executed due to unhinged behavior. With that in mind, how long do you propose she was in her pod?”
Two replied with a bated breath. “Three years…”
“In seconds, Two.”
Her mouth gaped. There was no way she could convert three years into seconds without a calculator—
“94,608,000 seconds!”
“Who said that…?”
“Precisely. Those seconds are far more war experience than the average soldier. Why, I believe her experience on the battlefield supersedes a fifteen year old veteran such as yourself, Nine.”
“It’s just a computer simulation.” He shrugged. “Can’t compare it to actual warfare.”
“Obviously, a bloke such yourself underestimates the hyperrealism incorporated into those simulations. I’ve seen it for myself, and I find it a suitable replacement for reality. However, arguing about it serves no purpose now, as the Liner Research Facility has already been destroyed. The only remnants we have are the data collected, and this young lady before us.”
“And…?”
“And. We have no need for her. The data is what we wanted, not the subjects. Besides the data, anything related to that research was to be terminated. Including her. And that is why…” He took his gun from his holster and then slid it across the table. “Two, would you kindly do the honours of executing this girl?”
“Hold the fuck up!” Nine yelled, stepping between him and Two. “You made us wait two fucking hours in your office for this little cunt to wake up just to shoot her? If you wanted her dead, couldn’t you tell those losers behind you to gun her while she was asleep?”
“Now, now, Nine, it’s not a simple matter of merely ending the life of a test subject.” He stated, smiling grimly at Two. “Wasn’t it because of a child that you doomed our forces in the Northern Garrison? That is why you became a Zero, is it not? I don’t have much faith in you, and I don’t want to lose the Eastern Stronghold. If you don’t execute her, then I’ll have your entire squad executed in her stead.”
Three gasped. “What?!”
She clicked her tongue, looking away with humiliation and anger looming in her thoughts. “I understand.” She stood up, walking past Nine, and reached for the gun. As her hand touched it, her eyes roamed to the two rifles pointed squarely at her. She then glared the man before her, and said, “General Heinz Lawter, you truly are the most despicable man I’ve had the displeasure of meeting.”
She took the gun and pointed it at the girl. Her vision started to blur. Her breaths became heavier and heavier. Despite the cold climate, she started to sweat. All of her squadmates were watching her with a bated breath.
Heinz stated calmly, “Either the girl or your squad.”
The girl looked up at Two, her golden eyes widening at the barrel of the handgun. She had no words for her situation. After all, she did try to gun that same lady down earlier. Perhaps this was what they called karma.
Eyes squeezing shut, Two’s finger shivered on that trigger. She knew that she couldn’t do it. To end someone’s life was an undeniable aspect of war. To end the life of a child, that was unjust no matter the context. However, was the life of a stranger worth the lives of her comrades? She knew there wasn’t a choice in the situation. She had to pull that trigger. That was, until she felt a warm hand divert the gun away.
“You don’t have to make this choice, Two.” Nine stated. “I mean, think carefully. Isn’t there a certain squad that is considered a death penalty the moment you are drafted into it?”
“A squad that’s…” She flinched as the thought struck. “That’s our squad!”
Heinz chuckled to himself quietly. “This is why I despise you the most among the Zeroes, Nine. You’re hard to kill, and you show brilliance in the most unfortunate of times. Yes, you are precisely correct. The Zeroes are where we throw the empire’s trash to run operations we do not expect to succeed. By our standards, it is the death penalty for our men.”
Two’s grip on the gun loosened, and it fell to her feet. “So what you’re saying is…?”
“Is it any different? You’re merely prolonging her execution. Two, how many people named Two do you believe have walked in and out of my office?”
“A lot. But that doesn’t matter. Between killing this girl and giving her the death penalty of becoming a Zero, one has more merits than the other. So—”
“That is up to me.”
She clicked her tongue. “You know that having her join us would be more beneficial in the longer run. Even if she dies, she’d have helped the empire in some form and some way. Right?”
“That is correct. However, you are merely saying that to dissuade me from your orders. I can’t simply allow her to live that easily, no? I would like something in return, as you see.”
“What, her body?” Nine smirked, rubbing his hand all over her flat chest. “There’s nothing here.”
Two smacked his hand away with a vicious glare. “Name your price.”
“I want the Northern Garrison recaptured within a week. If you fail to do so, then I will have all of you executed.” He beamed at Nine. “Ah, and you will be allowed a front row seat. After all, executing you is far too difficult.”
“One week to take back a fortress…” Two cleared her throat. “Do we get anything to help with that effort? Like an airship or…”
Heinz laughed out loudly, pointing at her. “Oh, you’re serious?” He motioned at his two men, and they promptly laughed with him even louder than before.
“Figures… We’ll have to make do with what we have, I guess.”
He wiped a tear rolling out his eyes, then turned his attention to the girl who was sitting there with her head down. “Young lady, from today onward, you will become a Zero, as per the behest of their leader here. Do you know what a Zero is?”
“No…”
“Precisely, because their job is to die. Zeroes are composed of the military’s criminals. Incompetent soldiers as well, if they prove their worthlessness. We do not allow your kind to address yourselves by name. From the moment you become a Zero to the moment you die, you shall be addressed by your assigned number. If any of you dies, whoever comes in shall take the number you left behind.”
The girl forced herself to stay awake to avoid another teacup to the face.
“And if I’m not mistaken, I believe One has been killed in action? Shall that be what we address this girl as from today onward?”
Two replied, “He’s comatose, but he isn’t dead. I don’t know when he’ll wake up. The numbers we have open are Seven and Eight, because Seven died in the last mission.”
“Seven it is. That is your designation, is that understood?”
She nodded.
“Now then…” He snapped his finger. One of his men walked to Seven with a metallic collar in hand and promptly attached it around her neck. As soon as it closed, the collar locked into place, and Seven was sure she would never pry it open by force.
“That, Seven, is an explosive collar. If you defy my orders, I can easily push a simple button and sever your head. Our darling Two over there has one just like yours.” He motioned at her, eyes tracked on the bomb collar on her neck. “If I’m not mistaken, Nine has one too?”
He pulled on his scarf to reveal a collar on his neck. “Highly doubt this tiny thing can kill me though.”
“These are the biggest criminals we have. Others like the small fry back there have collars on their wrists or ankles. If those explode, I’m sure the results would be fatal, but there exists a chance of survival. The same cannot be said for you.”
The soldier took out a key and uncuffed the girl. Noting how the other had a rifle trained on her, she clasped her hands together and held her head down. At any moment, the man before her could have her gunned down or have her neck blown apart. She was completely at his mercy. There were ways to get out of such a situation, she was calculating it as she stood, but if he were to be believed, she was no longer trapped in a simulation. A single mistake would cost her life. That was no longer a price she could afford to pay. It was the fear of death and the impossibly low odds of success that made her stay her hand.
Heinz motioned his hand, and the soldier took position behind him once more. “From today onwards, you are a Zero. You are nothing but a tool for the empire, a weapon to be used and discarded. The empire cares little for your individuality, if we tell you two plus two equals to five, then you will believe it with your very being. If we tell you to jump off a bridge, then you will do it with a smile. That is your fate the moment that collar was locked around your neck.”
She stared at the man who was clearly taking delight with every word he spoke. Arrogance, cruelty, sadism. She could smell the odor of a scumbag oozing from his very being. It was because people like him existed that there could never be peace. She wanted nothing more than to make him disappear. However, with that collar around her neck, she was at his mercy. She could only clench a trembling fist as she held back her emotions.
Two stepped up and stood between him and Seven. With a warm smile that fought off the cold winter climate and a hand outstretched, she introduced herself, “I’m Two, currently acting as the leader of the Zero Squadron. You’ll be in my care from now on—”
Seven slapped her hand away. She was glaring daggers at Two, eyes writhe with absolute contempt. Two understood why she’d feel that way. After all, she was the one who put her in that situation, not a speck of consent requested. The girl turned her back on the lady, refusing to share eye contact.
Nine just shrugged. “Well. Is that all? Can we go now?”
Heinz flailed his hand in their direction. “Yes, yes, your very existence is polluting my office. Remember, as I said, all of you have a single week to capture the Northern Garriso—”
He dug his ear, stepping toward the door. “Yeah, yeah, or else you’ll kill us blah blahblah. You’re a broken record that loves his own voice way too much.” He opened said door, holding it open for his squadmates to leave. “You better reward us handsomely when we do it.”
“If you can do it.”
Two held Seven by the shoulder, slowly guiding her out the office. Glaring at Heinz over her shoulder, she coldly remarked, “One week from now, you’ll see. Us stray dogs with nothing to lose can make the impossible possible if we put our minds into it.”
As they stepped past Nine, he clutched on the knob and closed the door as he left, his free hand flipping off Heinz as the door creaked back.
To Be Continued