Chapter 2: Induction.

Me and Eva got out of the car together, waving goodbyes to uncle Uter as he drove off.

I turned to look at the school. Taking in the sheer size of it.

Every student in town supposedly went there. Regardless of age. So one half would hold classrooms for first graders all the way up to eight graders, while the other would hold classes for everyone else.

Several other kids were standing around the front of the building when we arrived and all but a handful stopped dead in their tracks to stare at us. Some were as old as me or slightly older looking while others were even younger than Eva.

None of them were wearing any kind of uniform, though most had shown up in some combination of jeans and loose shirts.

There was a whole lot of whispering going around. As if we were a circus act making it into the town for the first time ever.

I wanted to ask some of them what they found so interesting, but decided against it for the moment.

I didn’t want my new classmate’s first impression of me and Eva to be that of standoffish city kids looking down on them.

Especially not when there were so few of them to talk to in the first place.

Being singled out at this point would probably mean social suicide going forward.

Worse, Eva could wind up being bullied.

No.

Better to suck it up for now and find a few agreeable peers later.

I took Eva’s hand in mine and made for the large double doors.

I gave them a tug and faltered. Letting out a confused oomph as I lost my grip.

“Is the door closed?” Eva asked innocently.

“I, I think so. It has to be. Let’s wait until a teacher comes to open it.”

A wave of snickering surrounded us.

I turned around to see the Elsie, the girl from yesterday, stifling a laugh next to some other girls.

“Its not closed.” She said. “You’re just too weak to open it.”

“Sure I am.” I retorted. Struggling to keep a straight face.

“You’re not even gonna deny it?”

“Why bother? After all, you’re here. I know that someone as strong as you could open the door without a problem.”

She smirked. Looking me up and down as if I were a prize hog at a farmer’s market.

“Sure thing new kid. Sit back and watch.”

I stepped over to the side, fully expecting her to pull out a key or something.

Instead, she merely placed her hand on the doorhandle and pulled.

My jaw hit the floor.

“Wow! You’re really strong!” Eva cheered.

Meanwhile, my brain was going into overdrive. Trying to find some way to explain what I’d just seen. I hadn’t been able to see how thick the metal behemoth had been from the outside, but it was all out in the open now. The slab was easily two times thicker than the already monstrous doors of our new house. In fact, looking closer, it might even be two and a half times as thick.

Forget stopping intruders, this thing looked like it could stop bazookas with casual ease. And she was holding it open. Not only that, she was making it look easy.

‘Is this the famous farmer kid strength? Holy cow! What does she eat?’

“Well? Are you going in new kid?”

“I…uh…I…”

“Come on Cecil! She’s holding the door for us.”

Eva dragged me through the opening. Stopping only to smile up at Elsie.

“Thank you for opening it for us!”

“No problem sweetie pie! I love helping people out! Especially cute little things like you!”

Eva giggled and went on her merry way. Running off to a beckoning teacher waiting by a nearby office.

I paused to look at Elsie. My gaze moving down to her arm.

Her thin arm.

It was slenderer than mine.

“How?”

All the other kids outside burst out laughing.

“Family secret. New kid. Don’t worry. We’ll let you in on the secret soon enough.”

“Can you sound any more menacing?” I blurted out in spite of myself.

“Of course I can. This is me being nice. Come one, lets get to class. I have a feeling today will be a date to remember.”

‘This is you being nice!? Lady! What do you look like when you’re trying to be intimidating!?’

“Come on Elsie. Stop harassing the new kid.” A bigger boy called out.

Elsie rolled her eyes.

“I’m only having a little fun. Marco. Its fine. Not like this’ll matter in a couple of hours.”

“What’s happening in a couple of hours?” I asked, trying and failing to keep shivers from running down my spine.

“We’ll be having PE class early.”

“That’s it?”

“Our PE class can get a little intense.”

I looked back at Elsie. She winked but said nothing more.

The rest of the locals started to come in one by one after that. Not quite filling the wide hallway due to how few of them there were.

It didn’t take long for me to notice the weird discrepancy between them and me.

“Hey, why are none of the older guys coming in?”

“I told you, new kid. We’re having PE today.”

“Stop calling me new kid. My name is Cecil.”

“Right. Sorry man. I’m a little out of it today. We don’t usually get new blood around here I’m Marco. You’ll probably be on my team since we’ve been short one person for a while. That right there is Ramji and that’s Drew next to him.”

Ramji was a shorter guy. Lean, yet muscular. With dark skin, dark hair and brown eyes. He looked nervous for some reason. Pacing back and forth on the pavement.

Drew was the complete opposite. She was pale, with bright green hair cresting atop her head. Her body was leaning against one of the light posts outside, her face scrunched up as she fiddled with some device on her arm.

It looked like a tablet that had been stretched to from a thin bracelet. Worn in such a way that it covered over half the forearm without reaching the elbow.

Looking around, everyone else had that exact same device too.

I was about to ask about it when a large balding man with overflowing muscles stepped around the corner. His widow’s peak accentuating the few remaining tufts of auburn hair atop his head. A think tank top covered his torso. So stretched that I feared the straps around his shoulders might rip at any moment.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

It was dirty too. Stained with sweat and other things I couldn’t place.

“All right. Everything’s set up at the entrance. Rudy and Phoebe, you’re with me. Extra laps for the incident last week. Mark and Tracy, you’ll be doing stretches while your teammates finish their laps. Elsie, you’ll be running with them today. That stunt with Mr. Fowler wasn’t well received. I’ll show you the new course once we get there.”

He paused to make sure all those he’d mentioned knew their assignment.

After that, he nodded once and raised his head to yell.

“Everybody on the bus! Now!”

His regular students moved along with gusto while I remained behind.

“Come on man. We have to get on the bus.”

“For PE class?”

“Yes, for PE class.”

“Where are we going?”

Marco didn’t answer. Silently moving with the flow.

I followed him and Elsie, climbing aboard a nearby bus with the rest of the students.

We travelled half an hour on the paced road. Moving through streets so empty that they wouldn’t have looked out of place in a disaster movie. Traffic was nonexistent too. I couldn’t see any cars on the road aside from the bus we were taking. A detail that made me singularly uncomfortable for reasons I couldn’t place.

“Where is everyone?” I asked Ramji.

“At work. Duh. Where else are they gonna be?”

“Nobody works downtown?”

“Not right now. It’ll be peak raiding season for another couple of weeks.”

I looked up at the sky.

“Its not raining. Its not even cloudy.”

“I said raiding season, not…you know what. Forget it. You’ll see when we get there.”

“Raiding? What are we Vikings? Are we going to build a wooden boat and go out to sack Lindisfarne or something?”

Ramji sighed. Looking more and more exasperated with every passing second.

“Just…be patient, ok?”

I looked at him. Considering his casual demeaner. None of the others seemed the least bit bothered about the trip or the lack of people either.

So, I kept my silence. Looking out the window until the bus screeched to a halt.

I followed the other students as they filed outside.

In front of us was a truly gargantuan edifice. Easily three times bigger than the already massive school building.

The tank top wearing teacher moved in front of us, taking a deep breath before speaking.

“Right then. We’re here. Now, most you will have heard of our new student. Mr. Cecil Fowler, please come forward.”

I did as I was bid. Going over to where the teacher was and standing in front of the others.

“Okay. Mr. Fowler. Cecil. Can I call you Cecil?”

“Yes?”

“Right. Cecil. How much do you know about the building behind me?”

“Nothing? I only came here two days ago and this is my first time out on the town.”

“Fair enough. How much do you know of these?”

He pulled one of the black tablet-like bracelets from his bag. Handing it over to me so I could take a closer look.

“Nothing at all. Is it some kind of monitoring device? I know some watches track your heartrate and stuff. Is it like that?”

“Sort of like that. Here, allow me.”

The teacher fiddled with the device and it turned as flat as regular tablet.

“You right-handed or left?”

“I’m ambidextrous.”

He grunted and placed the thing on my left forearm. Touching a button before letting go.

The machine, which had been solid mere moments before, turned into a gooey liquid. The new substance wrapped itself around me, completely engulfing half my forearm in such a way that it clung on tightly without feeling restrictive.

“Neat.” I said. Sincerely impressed at the technology.

“Wait for it. Its not done.”

The screen blinked to life. Showing the time as well as the temperature like a regular phone would.

It also showed my current heart rate, blood pressure, and a step counter, along with an estimate of stress levels and a calorie counter.

“Good. That’s working. Touch the button over there on the right.”

My finger found the right button. Pressing it made the current information recede and allowed new numbers to take their place.

Name:

Cecil Fowler

Core:

None

Level:

0

Vitality:

1

Endurance:

1

Potency:

1

Precision:

1

Fortitude:

1

Skills:

None

“Uh, what is this supposed to be?”

My question brought about a fresh round of snickering from behind me and I turned to see Elsie pointing my way. She had one arm wrapped around another girl’s shoulder, covering her mouth with her other hand as if it would hide the source of the mockery.

The teacher didn’t look like he was going to do anything, so I did instead.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing! Nothing! Its just…we’re all very excited to see how you react.”

“React to what?”

The musclebound man put a hand on each of my shoulders and turned me so that we were facing each other.

“Right. Listen to me Cecil. I’m going to tell you a few things. All of it is true, but I understand if takes a while to set in.”

"Okay?"

"Magic is real. Its like background radiation that makes weird stuff happen when it gets too concentrated. Monsters are real too and they’ll be coming out of dungeons like that one.”

He pointed to the structure and its overbearing metal doors.

My eyes went over to the aperture. Then back to him.

"Coach, I don't think pulling a prank like this is appropriate for someone in your position. I mean, the others behind me, I get. They're all trying to haze the new city kid. Really, I do get it. I was expecting something like this. But not from a figure of authority.

“This is not a prank Cecil. The CEO, Mr. Robertson is a Regressor. He built his company and towns like this one to train up a few generations of superhumans in a safe environment. Once the first mass outbreaks happen, it’ll be up to us to keep the wider world from collapsing.”

"Okay, this isn't working for me coach. You need to dial it back a little and start class already."

"I'm telling you. This isn't a prank and this isn't a joke. You're going to have to fight now. We'll take you down into the dungeon so that you can start raising your stats and getting familiar with monsters."

"Uh, no? I am definitely not going anywhere with you. Stranger danger and all that. No offense. I doubt you're a predator and I doubt you'd be doing your stuff in front of an audience if you were. But I do not feel comfortable going to a second location with you."

Coach Homer looked down on me. He sighed and brought his hands up. Grabbing me and lifting me up with casual ease.

That was when my rising unease turned into full-blow panic. My heart hammering inside my chest like a thunderstorm across a roiling sea.

This man, had picked me up. Had restrained me. In broad daylight. None of the others had done anything about it.

In fact, some of them were snickering.

“HELP!” I yelled out. “HELP! SOMEBODY!”

The man continued talking over me, saying words that didn’t reach my ears.

This was too much. I had to leave. I had to run. I had to tell uncle Uter and Eva. I had to get them back to the car.

“…and that’s why you have to train hard and build a decent core. Once you have it you’ll…You’re no listening are you?”

He sighed, grabbing both my arms and lifting me up like a ragdoll.

“Rodney! Gerald! Open the gates! Tracy! Get him his armor and weapons from the pile!”

The others followed his instructions without complaint. Helping the brute in whatever it was that he had planned for me.

He walked inside the darkened hall without missing a beat. Taking me along for the ride.

“Marco! Ramji! Drew! You’ll be his new team so it’ll be up to you to train with him during his first few fights. I’ll only step in if it looks like somebody’s about to get hurt.”

“Yes sir.” Marco said. Accentuating his words with the enthusiasm of a depressed fast-food worker.

The four of them walked down a set of spiral stairs, not caring about my thrashing.

I kicked the man. Striking him as hard as I could. He didn’t show any discomfort whatsoever. In fact, my feet hurt more and more after every blow I landed.

“You might want to stop before you break your foot Cecil. Tracy’s a healer but you shouldn’t rely too much on her until after you’ve formed a core.”

“SHUT UP! LET ME GO! HELP!”

“Man, he’s got a pair of lungs on him.”

“Be quiet Marco. You’re not making things better.”

“I mean, it’s a good thing. Shows that he’s got guts you know? Oh, speaking of guts, there’s a Ripper around the corner.”

“Great.”

The madman released me in such a way that I landed on my feet.

I took the chance to kick him between the legs, hoping that would stun him until I managed to escape.

For his part, he didn’t even flinch.

Instead, I fell down on my side, clutching my leg as tears welled up at the corner of my eyes.

“Man, we really need to figure out a better way to do this.”

“Not now Drew.”

“I mean, look at this guy. Couldn’t we have sat him down at the café and walked him through the process?”

“Nah, remember that one guy with the mohawk? He was saying yes, he was nodding, acting all cool. Next thing you know he’s jumping out the bathroom window.” Ramji retorted. His voice flat and devoid of concern.

“Oh yeah. You’re right. What happened to that guy?”

“Eaten by bears.”

“Damn. We really need to get better fences man. That’s wild.”

“Okay, first of all, the fences are just fine. They’ve got barbed wire. You seen what barbed wire does? Its not an issue. The problem is that the guy made it over the barbed wire. Somehow. He was on his own after that.”

“You won’t get away with this!” I bellowed. “You’re all going to jail! You’re all going to…”

My next words died in my mouth.

I was looking at…

I don’t know.

It was big. Bigger than the musclebound kidnapper behind me. With four eyes that shone with blue fire from within the shadows.

Four legs sprouted from its torso, with another two connected to its hindquarters.

Shaggy black fur covered its whole being, with faint rust-coloured spots near its jaws and front claws. Two serpentine tongues left its maw as it stepped closer and closer. Licking around its exposed fangs and around its triangular snout.

Most alarming of all was the sound it made as it moved. Or rather, the absence of it.

It had no smell either, despite the trail of intestines hanging of one of its rear claws.

“Marco. Ramji. Break its legs.”

The two students moved, quick as lightning. So fast that their outlines were naught but blurs to my eyes.

Two snapping sounds echoed across the chamber, followed by two more.

The thing in shadow bit at the air. Its maw jaws snapping at the spots where the blurs had been.

It cried out in pain and rage. Making such a high-pitched noise that I feared my eardrums would burst.

The man in the tank top didn’t seem to care. Instead, he shoved a spear into my hand and pushed me towards the beast.

I retreated, moving on instinct. Trying to get as far away from the monster as possible.

The man shoved me forward once more, saying words that didn’t penetrate the racket the wolf-thing was making.

I turned to look at him, ready to beg for m y life, when he calmly pointed at the monster and made a gesture around his neck.

His meaning was clear.

I wouldn’t be leaving so long as it continued to live.

My feet were trembling, as were my hands. My teeth were clattering inside my mouth. Rattling like freaking maracas.

“Please. I can’t…”

Marco grabbed my hand, keeping it steady. Without another word, he brought me closer and closer to the snarling abomination. He thrusts his hand and brought mine along for the ride.

The sharp steel tip embedded itself into the thing’s throat.

It gurgled, choking.

And then it fell limp.