Chapter 1

John woke with a start. He did not know where he was. He lay in a room empty of everything except the bed he lay on. He looked up and saw the ceiling was very low. The room was all white and only had a door in the corner with no apparent way of opening it. The ceiling was only 6 inches above his head. He began to feel enclosed so he ran quickly to the door to try and get out.

As he approached he saw that the door didn’t seem to have any way of opening it. He was relieved when the door opened automatically by sliding into the wall. He walked quickly through the opening into a large, circular room. Many others were doing the same from similar openings. They all wore strange white jumpsuits. To his surprise he realized that he too was wearing one. They all looked terrified. Obviously they knew about as much as he did of their whereabouts. The room was, again, all white. It had tons of small openings like the one he had just come out of around the wall. This room was exceedingly tall so he felt better almost right away.

The room also had eight larger openings, all with different color borders. People were filing into most them slowly, unsure of why they were here.

There was a speaker on a large pillar in the center of the room about 100 feet up, telling them to choose a large opening, red, green, blue, yellow, orange, purple, white, or black. There would be enough room for everybody but no extra space. One hundred people would fit into each opening.

John’s mind started calculating. Whoever had brought them here must have a reason for doing so, but not only that, they knew there were exactly eight-hundred people. His mind raced as he thought about why they could be here. Could this be a dream? No not a dream. It was probably some prank. That would be one hell of a prank. Could this be some strange terrorist massacre waiting to happen?

He laughed. It always amazed him how the human mind always came to the worse conceivable scenario to describe something it didn’t understand. He suddenly realized some of the people around him looked at him as if he were a complete lunatic. They wondered how anybody could laugh at a time like this. He forced himself to take on an unabashed look. Then he joined the crowd in finding where they were supposed to go.

He chose the nearest opening, which happened to be blue, and went through. There was a man in strange gold armor standing up on a platform to his left, holding what looked like a flashy stick. He told everybody to stand on one of the blue squares on the ground to be counted. He looked down to realize the ground, now black, had blue squares on the ground about a foot in size. John Stepped on the nearest square and inspected his surroundings. There was a group of people crying in the corner, hysterically asking each other questions. There were some who had done like him and had decided to obey before something bad happened. Dispite this they still looked horrified. There was only one person who seemed at ease other than the armored man. A tall man in the front row stood there, perfectly content with waiting and listening to what the armored man told them. His dark brown hair was short and neatly cut. He looked strong enough to tear someone’s head off. He stored this information and continued to look around.

He looked beside him and realized the girl next to him, who stood on a square, had tears running down her face. He had no idea why she caught his eye but there was just something about how awkward she looked. Her shoulder length, brown hair was messy and looked horrible despite her blonde highlights. She looked shocked. Her high cheekbones seemed accented by her smeared mascara. John decided she would have been beautiful under different circumstances. Her crying was something that just seemed… wrong.

She saw him looking at her and turned away to wipe her face, before turning to speak. “Do you know where we are?” she mumbled, choking back tears.

“No sorry.” And then as an afterthought; “I’m John.”

“I’m Beck,” She said in a firm, strong voice. She was done crying now. She was obviously not used to it. She was probably prideful and would be offended if he mentioned it so he focused his attention on the man in the armor, now dragging the crying people to their squares.

“Get up! You’re a soldier! Soldiers don’t cry!”

John felt almost as confused as the terrified people looked. Soldier? Were they going to be forced to help fight opposing countries? He realized that he didn’t even know what country they were in. The armored man looked Hispanic, but didn’t have any accent. He was probably American.

“What do you mean soldier?” one woman asked.

“You are to fight in the blue army, so suck it up.”

Everybody was completely lost at this and some started crying again, now with a renewed vigor. The man dragged the last of the people to their squares and began counting. He seemed satisfied when he finished and turned to the group.

“I am your superviser. You will address me as such. Tonight I will take you to our barracks to sleep. Tomorrow morning is the first task so rest well and be ready. The 100 of you will be watched. I suggest you watch each other as well. You will have to elect a commander tomorrow.”

The opening they had come in from had closed and another one opened up on the opposite wall on John’s right. The group headed down the narrow opening and found themselves in a long, narrow hallway.

“Men on the left, women on the right. I’m on the end there,” the commander walked through the crowd. He pointed to his room witch he had spoken of. “Never disturb me without permission. If you need to relieve yourself each room has its own bathroom. Pick your rooms and sleep. There should be fresh clothes in each closet. The lights will go out to indicate taps. Anyone up after taps will be severely punished. There are desks in each room as well. You may use the computer but you will be monitored. Any outgoing messages, telling where you are will be censored. Dismissed!” With that the commander walked off.

John looked around and saw nobody was moving. He also noticed something he hadn’t before. Everyone here was about his age. They were all probably in college.

He decided to go ahead and get a room while everybody was standing there. He stepped out of the group and started inspecting the rooms. Some were bigger than others but they were basically the same. They all had the same sized bed with a closet with extra clothes. They had desks with high-tech looking computers, and bathrooms that seemed fairly clean.

He picked one with a medium sized bathroom that was small itself, but had a high ceiling. He had always felt uncomfortable with anything close to his head but he had always liked small rooms. It was easier to be aware of everything going on in a small area.

He peaked outside and saw that only two other people had even moved. Beck had gotten a room across the hall from him and the tall man he had seen earlier had gotten a room a few doors down from him. The man walked over to the group of terrified people. John heard him address them in a kind voice.

“You should probably all pick rooms. If the lights go off you won’t be able to find your way.” With that he headed back to his room. He and John met eyes for a moment and they nodded. John realized this was the kind of person everybody wants to follow. He was a leader. John knew who would be made commander the next day. The group would remember his kind words.

John saw beck looking at him and met her gaze. She walked over to him as casually as she could.

“I wanted to be near someone who won’t be crying themselves to sleep every night. I hate noise.”

“So where are you from?” I replied with a yawn.

“I grew up in New Jersey, but I was at L.S.U. right before…” she trailed off not knowing how to describe it.

“Before we got here,” he volunteered with a sneer. “Not that we know where here is.”

“Where are you from?”

“I grew up in Georgia and was at U.G.A.”

They paused, neither of them knowing what to say. Beck broke the silence.

“I wonder what the task will be tomorrow,” she ventured skeptically.

“I don’t know but I plan to be ready and rested.” With that he turned and went back into his room and slept.