The First Day
Vincent
A shrill alarm went off early next morning. I cannot say what time it was, only, that nobody seemed to want to get out of bed. ‘Punzel jumped out of bed first and disappeared into the bathroom. I got up next and did the same. Sandy stretched lazily and Fizz mumbled something about ‘two more minutes’. A voice was heard on the system.
“Those who are not out of bed are advised to do so within the next ten seconds.”
Sandy jumped out of bed as if he had been scalded by a hot iron.
Cho
I brushed calmly and washed my face. Then I turned to have a bath. I felt my eyes nearly pop out of my head. There was a shower stall in front of the sink! This in itself was not remarkable. But I was fairly certain there had been a bathtub in the very same place not seven hours ago.
I showered anyway, but resolved to ask Snowy about it afterwards. I found a shelf labelled ‘School Uniform’ and took out the contents. Inside was a black jumpsuit, similar to the one we had worn on the train. The edges were white and there was a white belt along the waist.
Zacharias
I had gotten out of bed frantically when I heard the warning over the P.A. system. Fizz didn’t move an inch. She just rolled over in bed. I counted ten seconds. Her bed simply flipped over once and righted itself. Fizz was so surprised that she lay in a heap on the floor for a few seconds, blinking stupidly.
I turned to Snowy, “How do you think they knew she hadn’t gotten out of bed? CCTV cameras?”
“I don’t think so,” murmured Snowy thoughtfully, “I checked the room thoroughly and didn’t actually find any recording devices. I think the bed is weight sensitive.”
Angelina
At this moment, ‘Punzel entered the room again, bathed and fully dressed. She began braiding her hair and addressed us. “Did any of you have a bath yesterday?”
“Well, yes,” Sandy conceded. “We all did.”
“Wasn’t there a bathtub in the bathroom?” questioned ‘Punzel.
“Well of course!” I interjected. “‘Punzel, what’s wrong, why are you suddenly cross questioning us like this?”
Vincent
‘Punzel answered, eyes wide, “Because there’s only a shower stall there now!”
Everybody rushed to the bathroom that ‘Punzel had exited. There, clear as day, was a shower stall.
“This is getting creepy,” I shivered.
“You’re telling me? I’m pretty sure that paper wasn’t on the table two seconds ago,” Sandy gasped.
We rushed to the table next. On it was a schedule (Yup, definitely wasn’t there before). It stated all our classes for today. The first one, Defence, was going to start at 8. Breakfast had to be done by that time.
Cho
“Guys, it’s very late. Why don’t you go on and get ready, while I get breakfast?” I suggested.
They rushed off. I had gotten up early because my body was used to it. I usually woke up before the sun came up. I couldn’t, of course, tell if I had. There were no windows in the room, something I had noticed very early on and wondered about. I speculated that the school probably didn’t want us to be able to tell which part of the world we were in.
Zacharias
I entered the room feeling rather dishevelled. I pushed my glasses above my nose and peered through them. Everyone else was sitting at the table. I stumbled down onto a cushion. ‘Punzel exited the room holding some strange dumpling type things that seemed to have been wrapped in Pita bread. When I mentioned this to her, she seemed offended and said, “These are baos.”
Fizz picked one off the late and bit into it. They were delicious. This must have been the food ‘Punzel ate at home. Comfort food. Like fresh pizza was for me.
Angelina
We thoroughly finished every last morsel of those delicious tidbits (‘Punzel says to call them baos, well, baos then). I had a look at the instructions on the schedule again. We had to go to room number 8C for weapons in fifteen minutes. We hurried out together, ‘Punzel locking the door behind her.
Sandy reasoned that the numbering of the rooms was probably such that the numeral stated the floor and the letter its distance from the elevators. Ours was marked similarly. We decided to visit the 8th floor first.
Vincent
Sandy was right, surprising as it may seem, (Ow! Don’t hit, Sandy!). But when we entered the room, I don’t think anyone expected what we saw. There was a large hall inside with mats on the floor, padded walls, ropes and suchlike. In the middle was a long table, covered with weapons.
The room was empty, but it started filling with children. All the people we had seen in the Choosing were here again today. There still was no teacher. After a minute of silent waiting, somebody entered the door.
Cho
The teacher was tall fair. Her eyes were small and watchful. She was korean, I guessed. She wore a netted gown, inside of which she wore long black pants and a black tank top. The pants were rimmed with white and the tank top was flecked with it, as if she had put drops of white paint on it. The effect was stunning.
She walked over to the table. There was a chair right next to it. She gently removed her net gown and placed it on the chair. “All right!” she called out. “To business!”
Zacharias
The teacher came closer to where we were clustered. “I am Ms. K. Waan. I will teach you about weapons and self defence. You will not need to meet anyone in combat for quite a while now, but it is better to always keep a weapon handy. No two weapons on this table are the same just as no two students are the same. The number of weapons exactly matches the number of children.”
“Take your time to walk around the table. When you feel like one of these weapons is right for you, please take it from the table and bring it to me. In case of disagreement, do note that duels to the death are always encouraged. You can start now.” SHe gestured to the table.
Angelina
I walked around the table. All of the weapons were very attractive but none were for me. Finally I saw two steel rods connected by a chain. There were a pair of these. A word flashed through my mind. Nunchucks. These were mine for sure.
Vincent
I was watching the table closely. Really, none of these seemed enticing. Right in the corner was a pair of wristbands. They were like gloves, only, the fingers were cut off. I put them on.
Cho
I was looking for something small and deadly. I soon found it. A dagger. It was sheathed in an ornate sheath. The back fit perfectly in the palm of my hand. The blade was curved. I quickly took it to the teacher.
Zacharias
I saw a boomerang right at the head of the table. I didn’t even need to look any more. I knew that was for me.
Angelina
After we all had registered our weapons, the teacher approached us. “What is your team’s name?”
I had a sudden insight. Our names were:
Vincent
Zacharias
Cho
Angelina
I went to the teacher. “Put us down as the ViCArZ please.”
Vincent
The rest of the day seemed more or less free according to our schedule. We were wandering around the school, because even though we had a marvelous room, we weren’t inclined to spend the whole day there.
I spied an open door. Peeking in, I saw the most high tech lab I have ever seen. It seemed empty and unused. I had a sudden insight.
Yanking Sandy’s arm, I whispered in his ear. He enthusiastically agreed with my idea. The girls had decided to go off somewhere as well, holding a tablet and stylus in their hands. We agreed to meet back there at dinnertime.
Cho
When we met again we compared notes. Fizz and I had walked around the school and had made a pretty accurate map of it on the tablet.
We turned eagerly towards the boys. They beckoned us into the lab.
They had taken our weapons and, well, fooled around with them, as they called it.
“Your dagger, ‘Punzel, can cut through anything. Press this button here.”
Zacharias
I explained, “Are you familiar with ink pens? The same way, this dagger has a whole tube full of acid inside it. Pressing this, a tiny drop gets released onto the tip of the blade. That way, you can ‘cut’ through anything.”
I then turned to Fizz, “Yours is quite cool. It’s very simple. Whirl the nunchuck over your head.”
She did so. Tiny blades came out of the handles of the nunchucks and whipped around. Her feet lifted off the floor.
Angelina
“Oh my God!” I screamed.
“Whirl it faster, then it takes you higher,” Snowy advised. “But it won’t take you too high, just a couple of feet.”
I descended lightly. “Have you seen yours?”
“Yes I have,” Snowy answered. He put on some gloves and clenched and opened his fists. Two circles of light, about the size and shape of shields, surrounded his gloves. Sandy picked up a spanner and threw it at his hand. It bounced off the light. “Force Fields,” Snowy explained.
Cho
No explanation was needed. I believe everyone had watched enough science fiction movies to know what that meant. Even I knew it. I turned to Sandy, “What did you do to yours?”
He showed me, “This one is a little complicated. It must have involved a lot of AI or something. Let me show you.”
He whispered some instructions and threw the boomerang. It went to the table and a tiny hook came out of it the hook picked up a nail and it flew back to Sandy.
Zacharias
I said, “The instructions I gave it were to retrieve a nail from the table.”
“That’s pretty cool!” complimented Fizz.
We all whirled around at a sudden noise. Fa C suddenly appeared out of a shadowy corner of the lab. She was wearing a black dress with a white leather belt, stockings and boots.
With one fluid motion, she left the room.