[Erick Sanders]

I’m not sure if it was by luck, or an intense level of vigilance, but an even twenty of us remained. With the amount of blood soaking our clothes and covering our faces, if we weren’t still standing it would be impossible to tell the living from the dead. The Grey Scarred company had thought of this too. The translucent woman tapped her scanner and it started to rain.

I had to double check that we were in fact still inside. Through squinted eyes I saw the sprinklers, spilling litres of water onto us, it drenched our clothes and washed the blood clean from our bodies. This place was designed to be a blood bath, I wondered how many people had fought to the death in this very room.

I trudged over the bodies to Jack. He was wiping off a shallow cut on his shoulder while Keg dabbed at a bullet wound. Apparently, he had tried to block the shot with the palm of his hand and succeeded.

“You two all good?” I said over the roar of the water.

“A little scratched. Nothing we can’t handle. Though next time, before you go cutting people to pieces, a little warning would be nice.” Jack said. The water stopped and a man I hadn’t noticed, stepped from behind the woman. He waved his metallic hands and steam began to rise from out now clean clothes. I had seen Cam do something similar, though he could only ever manage it on himself or one other, never a room of twenty people. When we were dry the woman addressed us again.

“Now that you’re all clean” She paused “Clean enough, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. I am Alaria. While you move through the rest of the trial and vetting process, I will be your Section leader. Whether you pass or fail will reflect on my team and our selection process.” She gazed out at us as if to install the point that if we make her look bad, there would be consequences. “You are one of ten sections from earth. The others will be from different continents, though all will be competing for the fifty spaces in our company.” Alaria nodded and led us from the room.

The ship was not dissimilar to a shopping centre or a hotel. We carried our bags and marched back into the massive loading bay and then down a corridor so wide it would fit two loaded trucks side by side. Jack walked beside me, still rubbing his shoulder, I pulled a small vial of spray-on bandage from my pocket, handing it to him “It’s my last one, try not to get cut again” I said.

“Not like I’m planning on it” Jack grumbled, He applied the spray and tucked the bottle away. “I got word from my CO before we lost comms” I looked down at my scanner, it showed a line across the top [No Network].

“We’re not that far from Earth, how have we lost connection?” I asked, looking over at Jack, and past him to Keg.

“They will have blocked it, Standard practice” A man behind us piped up, I looked back him, He was stocky, his red hair shaved to stubble on his head.

Jack nodded, “It’s pretty standard? They did the same thing during our first rotation.”

The man started forward, walking beside me, “You didn’t go through basic?” The man smirked. I resisted the urge to speak, ignoring him to speak to Jack.

“What did your C.O say?”

“He sent two guys out for Rose and the others, they’re on base, waiting for a pickup from your other friends” he said. I nodded in appreciation. They would forgive me, I reminded myself that I would call them once we had comms restored. They would understand.

At various stages along the ships central corridor were branching hallways leading to the ship's departments, we passed illuminated signs for [Engineering] and [Storage] until we came to a section for [Training]. Alaria explained that everything we need would be within this section of the ship and that we weren’t to leave without permission from a registered member of the company. As we walked behind her, I stretched out my sense again, touching at the edge of Alaria’s deafening aura. I couldn’t describe it as anything other than an Aura, the amount of electromagnetic radiation pouring from her. I pulled back, wincing.

She led us down a looping hallway to a wide, bright green door. “This will be your living quarters. We will be in transit for three and a half days, I expect most of you will need to ‘rest’ in that time” She said, putting emphasis on rest. “There are panels on the walls by every door, if assistance is required, use them to contact either myself or the maintenance staff. Try not to kill each other.”

She spun on her heels and retreated down the hallway, the two men with her sweeping along behind.

Everyone stared at the door “Think it’s safe?” An unseen voice asked from the group. I tried to extend my sense through the wall, though it only picked up the wiring running through it. I nudged Jack, “go on.” I said.

He grumbled and pushed the door aside. It slid silently into the wall, revealing a room without any immediate dangers. I think everyone in the hallway sighed. We hadn’t been expecting the bloodbath, and no one was willing to risk losing their spot due to carelessly walking into rooms.

I followed the two Filipino girls through the door, Keg coming in behind me. The room looked like a university common room. Sets of plush couches were set around a wide screen on the wall. Two rows of tables separated a wall length kitchen. To the left was a bunk room with twenty pristinely made beds. I checked the real-world time on my scanner [05:45]. Not long until I would be awoken by my squealing alarm. I dropped my Pack into a box at the end of a bed and tapped my scanner against it. The box clicked as it locked. I walked through the common room to one of the two doors.

On the other side was a steaming room, a deep warm pool was inset into the stone floor, a ring of shower heads against the wall surrounding it. Not, a lot of privacy I thought to myself. Stacks of towels sat in shelving on the far side from the bath. Walking out I entered the last unchecked room and was staggered by the size. It was the size of a football field with the ceiling sitting fifteen feet over our heads, the floor and walls were made from the same tough rubber. Beside the door was a panel. An athletic and muscled woman was tapping on the screen. As she stepped away, the floor under my feet shifted and rolled. The rubber rising and stretching, forming shapes. When the room settled, we were standing on the edge of a forest, a track of hard packed dirt under our feet. I followed the track with my eyes as it snaked away, roughly following the now stone walls around the outside of the trees. “There is one of these in the Ares. They used it for combat training, but I always thought it would be prefect to make a place to run” She smiled, tying her dark hair into a ponytail before taking off down the track. I watched her go before stepping off the trail between two pine trees.

Walking through the forest I would have sworn it was real. The air blew under the canopy, and the leaves twisted and twirled. Though when I reached out to pull a leaf from a hanging branch my fingers passed through. I experimentally kicked at the trunk and my foot met solid resistance. It’s a mix of the rubber and a holographic image, I realised.

I followed my feet through over the moss and fallen logs until I found a small clearing. A small holographic image bent and snapped under me as I sat, my back against a tree.

Enjoying the quiet tranquillity, I pulled a small coin from my pocket and flipped it off my thumb into the air. As it reached the apex of its flight, I twisted the dial and watched it fall slowly back to my hand.

I was jerked from my concentrated moment by the crack of a snapping twig behind me, I twisted time back to normal and stretched out my Sense. The woman passed four meters behind me as she followed the track. As she followed the newly made forest path, I stretch my sense out to track her, the area I could feel stretched in her direction like pushing on the inside of a balloon, pulling back on the far side. I will need to work on that. I though, Currently I could only encompass a fifteen-meter radius, or thirty meters in one direction. I shook my head, pulling the sense back. My mind was becoming numb. I knew that my alarm would be blaring beside my head. I pulled myself up and crossed through the forest, then the common room, few people were still lounging around on the couches, most already filled the bed of the bunk room. Awake in the real world. I dropped into a bed and a moment later I opened my eyes in my normal bedroom.

“Two weeks? I guess we can accommodate” Kimberley say, looking around the office. I followed her gaze from my spot next to her desk. The office was only half full. She sighed.

“People have been taking more and more days off. Lawrence has retired early, But I can’t blame you, you were here the day after The Dream started. If you need a couple weeks off, you take it. Can I ask why?” She rubbed her eyes and looked up at me.

“Just need more sleep I guess” I said, she chucked darkly. “Tell you what, you give me this, I’ll try do a bit of work from home during the days” I finished.

I had felt worse and worse for Kimbo since The Dream started, she was trying to manage a company, while people’s minds were elsewhere and enthusiasm for work was at an all-time low. But with the trial for The Grey Scarred Company, I didn’t need the restriction of waking up by six am every morning.

“Thanks Erick. Appreciate it I really do” She nodded in thanks as I strolled back to my desk and began finishing the last of my reports.

Halfway through the morning, my phone vibrated against the desk. Looking down I saw a call from Rose. She hadn’t call me since I had found them in The Dream, I had explained that I needed space in the real world if we were going to be seeing each other while dreaming. I picked up the phone. “Hello,” I said, lowering my tone to match the quiet office.

“What the fuck man! You can’t go sneaking off in the middle of the night!”

I pulled the phone away from my head before rubbing my ear. I could still hear her even though she wasn’t on speaker. “You could have woken us! We could have come with you?!”

“They only take Rank 95 and above, I wanted to be there as soon as they started seeing people” I explained.

“Why the fuck do you need to join a Guild, or Company, or whatever they call themselves!”

“Rose stop,” I said, struggling to keep my voice down, “Trevor was right, they went after me, I have Carlton's rings, I took his implant. The last thing we need is for the rest of you to get grabbed by a pack of rabid slavers to be imprisoned on Scaratous, This was the easiest choice”

“We can look after ourselves!” She declared.

“It’s not worth the risk, I won’t be gone long. Jack and I will get through these trials, get contacts and more importantly, protection from the Guild. Then we will be back.”

“Well, what the fuck are we meant to do!”

“You don’t need me to hold your hand” I said through gritted teeth, “Call Jasper, go explore the stars, just keep your heads low and stay as far away from the Lords Fangs as you can”

“But…” Rose started before I cut her off.

“I have to go. I have a meeting in five” I lied, “I’ll call you guys when we get comms back” I hung up before she could speak again and muted my phone.

When I entered the dream later that night, I was started to realise I wasn’t in my bed. I was lying on the floor of the bathroom, my back soaking from the wet tiles.

“What the fuck!” I said, looking around and realising that Jack was sitting in the tub, cracked blood on his forearms and elbows.

“Oh, good you’re awake” He said, scrubbing at the blood.

“Again. What the Fuck man?” I said, sitting up and rubbing my aching back “Why am I on the bathroom floor?”

“Someone decided killing people while they were sleeping would lower the competition” He splashed water on his face, “I think it worked. Someone took the bed from the room, left the body lying on the floor. Keg and I just got done dumping it in the trash shoot” He stepped out of the tub and I averted my gaze while throwing him a towel.

“So why the fuck am I in here while you’re bathing?”

“Who knows what would happen while you were out! If they are counting a death as being out of the trial. I need you with me on this” He said, pulling on a pair of fatigues.

“Where are my swords” I muttered, looking around and spotted them leaning on the wall beside the cupboards. I picked them up and clipped them into their place on my back. It felt good having them close by.

“Who did they kill?” I asked. Waiting for Jack as he slid his pistol into its holster and picked up his rifle from a rack on the wall.

“One of the guys from Australia. I’ve met him through work in the real world. He is going to be pissed” He said, checking his rifled. So, he would be Australian military, likely S.A.S.

“So, do we know who the killer is?” I asked.

Jack shook his head, “We were all in the real world, but let’s keep our eyes and ear and anything else you have open. Speaking of, we need to coordinate shifts, between you, me and Keg. I want one of us in The Dream throughout the day. So, go buy some sleeping pills” Jack said, pulling the door open and leading the way into the common room.

I followed, grabbing a nutrition bar from an open box on the table. Stuffing it into my mouth. I took note of the fifteen people in the room with my Sense, probably best not to turn it off again. I thought as I bit down into the bar.