‘You’ve gotta be kidding me…Well, after that information dump, I think I’ll have to talk it through with the others.’

  With that thought, Leo made his way to the group, who were still in a depressed state. Anthony remained lifeless, Amanda was nervously thinking, while Diego fared better, comforting the other two.

  ‘This is gonna be rough…’

  With a deep breath, Leo moved to the group.

  “So, what’re we thinking here?” he asked.

  “That this is bullshit” Diego replied immediately with a disgusted tone. “Why the hell does this trial even exist, we should be able to go in ourselves.”

  With a concerned expression, Leo firmly said, “Diego, you better not be thinking about challenging one of them. You might be strong but we don’t even know what these guys can do. You saw what happened to the first dude, how’ll you be any different?”

  Hearing that, Diego bit down his words and stayed silent. Gritting his teeth, he got up to walk a bit to cool off.

  ‘Now, for these two.’

  Looking at Amanda and Anthony, he could see they couldn’t exactly think straight.

  ‘How am I gonna get these two back up and running’, Leo thought standing in front of the two.

  In reality, he wanted to be the same as them and just sit there for a bit to process what happened today, having lost Sophia and Chris. But reality wasn’t so kind as to give them that time.

  “Leo…”

  Suddenly, Anthony looked up at Leo, his eyes bloodshot and a newfound hollowness behind them.

  With a sigh, he staggered to his feet, as if he were a puppet on strings. Weakly, he mumbled, “I-I’m fine, Leo…I’m fine…”

  The words sounded forced, as if he were held at gunpoint to say those words.

  “So, what’re we choosing, Leo…?”

  “Anthony…” Leo started but stopped himself. There was a time and place for this. “Ah, we’ll talk later. Let’s just finish this.”

  ‘I’ll keep an eye on him for now.’

  “Help me up Leo”, Amanda softly requested.

  Her voice seemed steady, but when he saw her face, her eyes were red from crying, her face outlined with dirt and tears streaking down her face. But her face held a newfound determination masking the pain.

  Leo knelt beside her, offering his shoulder to help her up. On the way up, he felt the weight she really carried as she struggled getting up.

  She looked at him, piercing through his facade and asked, “Are you alright?”

  Pausing, Leo gave her a gentle smile and said, “We’ll talk about that later, yeah?”

  ‘Even now she’s worried about others…’

  With a slight smile, Leo came to one conclusion.

  “I think Internal Security is our best chance here.”

  Curious, Diego asked, “Why’s that? Wouldn’t production be better for us?”

  “Diego, look at us… We don’t know shit about making anything. And from what I can tell, they don’t look keen on actually teaching us those skills. And you saw how we did against those demons, we can’t deal with that! Our best bet at surviving is internal security from what I hear so far. What do you guys think?”

  “That’s true…but what about Amanda? She knows a bit about gardening.” suggested Diego.

  “Yes, gardening, not farming. Two very different things. And I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I don’t think they’ll need a gardner to make flowers for them.” Amanda said.

  “Oh, right…”

  Amanda turned to Leo, “I was thinking of choosing Administration. I feel we won’t do bad handling paperwork stuff like she said.”

  Turning to Diego, Leo whispered, “Amanda… Diego’s not the best in that department…”

  Widening her eyes, she sadly nodded. “I apologize Diego, I didn’t take the entire group into account.” She then proceeded to bow a little to Diego.

  “Huh? Why are you apologizing to me? Leo, why are you looking at me that way?” Confused, Diego looked back and forth between Amanda and Leo, seeing the pitiful look they gave him.

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  “Alright, let’s head over to the line then.”

  They moved through the crowd toward the front. Glancing around, they could see people of all ages, young and old, even toddlers.

  ‘What’ll happen to the babies?’

  As far as they’ve shown so far, this city isn’t a paradise without demands. This trial alone proved that. God knows what happens behind the scenes in this city.

  ‘I think the best course of action is to stay in the crowd and avoid standing out, that’ll keep us from getting on the bad side of anybody in this city.’

  Walking toward the lines, they saw the four different lines slowly being filled up behind the Major. Looking at her, Leo noticed her take a quick glimpse directly at him with a sort of sad look in her eyes, but quickly looked away, replacing the sadness with her usual jovial smile again.

  He wasn’t sure what to make of it, but decided to ignore it and press forward, joining the line.

  “What do you think they’ll make us do?" Diego asked.

  “How should I know?” Leo replied to Diego standing in front of him.

  Noticing Anthony awfully quiet, Leo took a peak behind him and saw Anthony with a serious expression replacing his usually relaxed face. He could see he was breathing heavily through his nose as he could slightly hear it as well as his chest rise and fall.

  Leo couldn’t help but feel pity for his friend.

  Looking back, he and Sophia had been together for seven years. There’s no possible way he’d be fine.

  ‘We’ll need to talk to him about it later.’

  Leo knew he had to do something for him but the situation didn’t allow for it. Amanda was also in a daze waiting behind Anthony as her eyes remained vacant, but rather than serious like Anthony it seemed she was reminiscing.

  Seeing this Leo looked slightly toward the ground and vowed ‘Chris, Sophia, I’ll make sure these two will get a good life. I promise you’

  ‘Oh, and Diego of course.’

  “Achoo.”

  Diego had a small sneeze.

  The Major made an announcement. “Before we get going, I’m obligated to ask. Are there any individuals here with Earth-based Refractions? If so, please step forward.”

  Leo looked around to see not one person step forward.

  “Okay, looks like everybody’s gotten settled then! Great! Let’s get a move on now!”

  Saying that, the Major brought a whistle from her pocket to her mouth and blew it. Signalling the lines to move with their respective overseer.

  Marching forward, the Major yelled, “Good luck everybody, may the Stars favor you!”

  ‘This is it, Chris. We’re getting in.’

  The group marched on, their choice made.

  Inside the walls

  Sina had left the immigration chamber after the groups had departed, and was now going to report to the commanding officer supervising the trials.

  Walking down, she followed pulsating light bulbs that stretched across the hall, acting like arrows to her destination at the end. The walls creaked as if they were alive, with soldiers guarding the hall holding either a bolt-action rifle or a short-sword.

  Following the light, she stopped in front of a wooden door where two heavily armored soldiers stood guard, holding machine guns with a sheathed saber hanging on the left side of their waists. Standing there, she prepared to deal with the person behind.

  ‘I hate this…’

  Knocking 3 times, she waited.

  “Come in.”

  Opening the door, Sina saw Chairwoman Troyer rocking back and forth in her chair, laying her legs on her desk, with a massive stack of paperwork to her right. Her blonde hair draped the backrest of the chair, oddly wearing sunglasses and a cap in this dark room with her greatsword resting in the corner of the room, shining from the fireplace.

  Taking a deep breath, Sina approached the Chairwoman and stopped in front of her desk. “Ma’am, the trials have begun.”

  “And?”

  Hesitantly, Sina briefly looked around, ensuring the door was completely shut, and continued, “The vision was right, he showed up. He…even chose the right path, Chairwoman.”

  Stopping, the Chairwoman smiled, her golden hair fluttering like a lion’s mane. “Finally, your vision is coming to pass.” Her hands flew up. “ Where is he right now?”

  “He’s going to the first stage now, Chairwoman. But please refrain from going right now, it’ll be at least a week until he finishes and I won’t have you disrupting the trials. You know they’re watching.”

  Calming down, Chairwoman Troyer sighed. “Yeah, I know. Why’d they attend this trial of all times? He can’t know, can he? Also, it’s just Laura.”

  “There’s no way he’d know unless you told him,” Sina said with a raised eyebrow.

  “And that creepy bitch too, why’s that ticking timebomb here? Couldn’t they have brought one of the more normal ones?”

  “At least she won’t harm anyone. You know how germophobic she is…If anything, she’s the best suited for a mission here,” Sina remarked.

  Waving her away, Laura stated, “Well, go on then if that’s all. Report back once he reaches the next stage yeah?”

  Sina turned with a salute and briefly said before leaving, “Outside of work, you really shouldn’t have sunglasses on, Laura, it makes you look silly.” Not allowing a retort, Sina left the room, carefully shutting the door behind her.

  ”...”

  Laura sat in the dimly lit room, frozen. She couldn’t believe Sina would say such cruel things to her. But she pushed it behind her, as she was better than this.

  She shook her head and muttered to herself in self-consolation. “Fashion is based on personal preference, she just doesn’t get it.”

  Nodding, Laura consoled herself.

  With a sadistic smile, the captain joyously danced around the room in celebration, but not before pushing the shades up to rest on her cap. All while the greatsword sat before the fire, its edges gleaming, prepared for its master’s plans.