Amber let out a cry of primal terror as she ran through the brush. Above her, a bright moon shone through the treetops. Branches and thorns swatted at her face as her body ached, and she pumped her legs as quickly as humanly possible. She had been running for what seemed like an eternity, footsteps and shouting behind her let her know that her pursuers were moving in closer. What would prove to be stronger? Amber’s will to live, or their desire to see her fail. Bullets cracked above her head as tree trunks splintered in front of her, just a few inches away from death as taunts and jeers pierced the night sky.
One step at a time, keep moving forward. She told herself. She felt that if she could just run a bit longer–
The ground seemed to fall out from under Amber. She screamed once again as she plummeted downwards, the wind knocked out of her. She rolled over, looking up at the sky. The moon and stars had vanished, and Amber wasn’t sure if they had just been hidden behind the trees, or if they had left her abandoned.
Amber scrambled to her feet, looking around her. The taunts of the others had stopped, the shooting had stopped, and it was all silent. She started to whimper, every fiber of her being telling her to run, but where? The forest had vanished around her, there was nothing. Nothing but an dark and cold void.
“Hello?” She cried out. Her blood ran cold as her voice echoed back to her. No, not her voice. Valerie’s.
Amber fell to her knees, breaking down and bawling into her hands as her sanity began to fade. In between sobs, she heard a gut wrenching sound behind her: something dragging along dirt, and heavy breathing.
Amber, or was it Valerie, whipped around to see who had joined her. Amber was standing in front of her, or was it another version of herself, shambling forward and dragging a plank of wood along the ground. No, it wasn’t Amber. It was some twisted, horrific version of her with sunken eyes and pale skin, like she had been living in a cave all her life.
“Amber?” Valerie asked, stepping backwards and wondering what was real, who she even was, wondering if she had died in the trial and was sent to some personal Hell, or maybe this was all just a dream? Maybe she was in bed and suffering from some coma induced nightmare?
Was she Valerie? Was she Amber?
It didn’t matter in the end, as the abomination soon caught up with it’s prey. And a sickening crack filled the empty void.
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Being the only woman in her squad meant one good thing: she got the locker room all to herself the next morning, and Amber desperately needed the alone time after the nightmare she had just the night before. After another breakfast of a bland feeding block, the four were informed that they were going to be boarding a direct shuttle to the proving grounds.
Amber let the warm water run over her, not at all bothered by the fact that she was driving up the Peacekeeper’s water bill. If this was going to be the last shower she ever took, she was going to make sure that she enjoyed it. After enough time had passed, she stepped out and went back to the locker where she had kept the clean change of clothes she had given. The plain shirt and dark pants sat on a bench in front of a row of lockers, along with the letter that Amber had smuggled into the base. After she had gotten changed and slipped her tags over her neck, she sat down on the bench and took the letter in hand. It was something she brought for when she might find herself at a low point, when she was questioning her own will to go on with this challenge she had thrown herself into. She brought her shaking fingers to the edge of the envelope, only deciding at the last moment to not open it. Not yet, not when she hadn’t even left.
“Val.” She said to herself, head hung low as she hoped that somehow her wife would hear her. “I’m going to get you the help you need. I know that when you wake up you’re going to be angrier than you’ve ever been, but I couldn’t sit by and do nothing after I saw you in that clinic. Things are going to be ok after this is all over, I promise.”
Before she could open the door to the locker room, she heard two voices coming from the other side. Curious, she took a moment to listen.
“What’s so special about it? Just looks like a telescope or something.”
“Might not look like much, but this bad boy can level entire buildings in a few bursts of fire. Not only that, it’s some kind of new tech, apparently you hardly have to reload it.”
“Seriously? Think we’ll get to test it out?”
“Ask the quartermaster. If it were up to me, we’d be shooting one right now instead of looking at pictures.”
Amber quickly opened the door, and saw two soldiers hunched over a tablet that so many of the Peacekeeper’s had been using around the base. They looked over to her, and quickly shut it off before gesturing towards her.
“Took long enough. You know, we don’t have time to wait around for you to do your makeup.”
“Leave her alone, probably doesn’t even know what makeup is.”
Amber balled her fists. She had dealt with countless men like this; the ones who seemed to think that being a Lancer was some kind of old boys club, and felt intimidated by a woman stepping into their space. Except now, putting these two in their place was going to be more trouble than it was worth.
“Well, shouldn’t we get going then?” She snapped, getting away with whatever form of retaliation she could without risking herself getting tossed into a cell.
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The two men grunted, gesturing down the hall. They escorted her out of the building, and into the crisp morning air. The sun was barely rising, and Amber heard the steady hum of a Peacekeeper shuttle as it idled on the ground. The gray craft was smaller than the ones she had seen, and this one was unpainted. Where the others were painted a sleek navy blue with a gold trim, this one only bore the digits 07 on the tail fin as any form of identification. Clay, Dane, and James were huddled near a group of Peacekeepers, who seemed busy talking to themselves. She looked around the base, and noticed a few more of the typical painted shuttles with armed PK’s waiting to board. Amber assumed that they were likely going out for their daily patrol soon.
Dane noticed Amber approaching with her escort, and waved her over.
“Took your time getting ready, huh?” He asked. “Don’t blame you. I’m not exactly a fan of this communal shower thing the PKs got going on.”
Amber smiled, not at all envious of Dane having to strip down next to the other two men.
“Oh yeah. They had a jacuzzi, drinks, even gave me a massage before I came out.” She teased.
Just as soon as Amber arrived, another soldier stepped up. She looked ready for action, half of her face obscured behind dark goggles and kitted out in her body armor and other pieces of gear that Amber couldn’t recognize.
“Ok, who here was flown before?” She asked, hardly leaving a window for response before she continued with what Amber assumed was a rehearsed speech. “When you sit down in the shuttle, bring the strap over your head, and down to the buckle between your legs. When you take off, you might feel some uneasiness. If you have to vomit, I beg of you, hold it in and suck it up. You’re going to need the protein, anyway.”
Amber felt her stomach start to grumble at just the thought of such a disgusting act…
Without another word, the woman began furiously, gesturing for them all to climb into the shuttle as the men who escorted Amber started shouting.
“Move! Move! Go, go, go!”
The tone on the tarmac went from a tense stillness to a well practiced rush in the blink of an eye, as if the four of them had missed some obvious cue from the countless soldiers around them. In an instant, Amber found herself in an uncomfortable seat and buckled herself in as the heavy door to the shuttle closed and it sealed with a hiss. To her left, she could see a pilot sitting in the cockpit.
“This is Sparrow zero seven, package loaded and secure and en route.” He said into his headset, as Amber could just barely make out the static of another voice replying. With no warning, her sense of gravity shifted as the shuttle lifted off the ground, and started to lurch in the air as it slowly rose up. She looked to Dane next to her, who had taken her hand and had it in a death grip. He shut his eyes, breathing heavily just before the main engine kicked in and sent the shuttle forward.
Flying was an experience Amber had never had before, but thankfully their path seemed to be a straight shot once they had risen far enough in the air. After things had calmed down, she looked around to make note of her surroundings. The shuttle was more spacious than she had expected. With enough room to stand and move comfortably, if she were at liberty to do so. James and Clay sat on seats opposite her and Dane. Two armed Peacekeepers, one on either end, held onto railings that hung from the ceiling. To her right, the sealed doors on either side had elongated windows that she could look out and see the landscape rushing by below. She decided not to look out of the windows, lest she have to try and swallow her own vomit. The other three looked just as uncomfortable as her. Well, Dane looked to be doing the worst out of all of them.
“Hey, you ok?” She asked, starting to worry that she would lose blood flow in her hand if Dane didn’t loosen his grip. He slowly opened his eyes and looked at her, letting go of her as if he hadn’t been aware of his actions.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.” He said, clearly lying. Amber heard a snickering coming from across the aisle, and looked over to see James hugging his harness and cackling to himself at the sight of Dane.
“Never seen a big guy shaking so bad.” He taunted, giving a toothy grin. “What’s the matter? Scared of the engines going out and falling to the ground like a sack of bricks?”
“Shut it, runt.” Dane grunted.
“Or maybe that we’re some kind of crash test dummies, and the PK’s wanna see how mangled our bodies are gonna be after an accident?”
“I said shut it!” Dane shouted, lunging against his harness as James began to cackle again.
“Dane, just don’t listen to him.” She hissed. The Peacekeeper’s looked on, but didn’t seem ready to intervene. Though, they did have eyes on the two arguing.
“Yeah big guy, listen to your girlfriend.” James replied.
“I swear, I will break rule one so fast if you don’t knock it off, Tweak.” Amber snapped, having lost her own cool.
“Oh you all need to calm down and shut up!” Clay finally bellowed in his raspy voice. “You think the other teams are at each other's necks like this? If we don’t learn to play nice, we’re all royally screwed. I don’t care if you like each other, just work together so I don’t wind up on the meat wagon with all of you!”
Amber glared over at James, who offered her a rude gesture. She only rolled her eyes in response, realizing that Clay was right. Any infighting was going to make them weaker as a team, especially if she would end up having to carry the other two along with her.
The rest of the shuttle ride was uneventful. The four sat in silence, Dane dozed off for a little while, and Amber thought of Valerie, and thought of what they might do in Aurum once she recovered.
First thing I want is a nice, fat, steak. Amber thought to herself, her mouth watering at the idea of a finer cut of meat. Some whiskey on the rocks, maybe get Valerie a nice dress to wear to dinner. Something red… As she lost herself in her fantasies of luxury and wealth, of life in Aurum, she felt the shuttle start to slow. Her stomach felt like it was dropping as they descended, and the machines started to whir outside of the hull. The Peacekeeper next to Amber spoke up.
“Alright ladies, we’re dropping you down into the proving grounds. At the LZ, you’re going to see a few crates with ballistic vests and weapons inside. Remember the three rules: Don’t fuck your team, don’t fuck the shuttles, and fuck anyone who you don’t recognize.”
Amber tried to hype herself up. Taking quick and sharp breaths, tensing her muscles and stomping her feet as the shuttle slowly descended and shook as the landing gear touched the ground. The doors opened and the group unfastened themselves, stepping down onto the ground. All around them were towering trees, pines swaying in the breeze as the engines of the shuttle roared behind them. Almost as quickly as they landed, the shuttle doors closed. It was up in the air in a split second and soon vanished behind the trees, leaving the four with only the echo of the engines as their trial began.