“Recruit Hunter. Welcome to your major selection. Today, we will evaluate which major you will be assigned to. The conclusion we come to today will decide the specialization of your future training.”

Caity stood tall in the center of a room in the facility. She was dressed in all black for this special situation alone. The difference between her now and her two weeks ago was day and night. Instead of laziness, there was fierceness in her eyes. Rather than weakness, there was strength.

Five individuals dressed in black sat behind a long table in a line. Four of them were her instructors, but the one that spoke wasn’t any of them. It was a man in his fifties whose name tag read ‘General Kennedy’.

General Kennedy. Head of Section X and director of Project Phasewalker.

Honestly, Caity was a bit surprised her major selection warranted the presence of someone as high-leveled as General Kennedy, but she kept her doubts to herself.

“First, the instructors will describe your skills in each category. Begin.”

“Recruit Hunter’s hand-to-hand combat skills is top-notch. The progress she has made in a week is significant, and she has been able to defeat multiple armed male hostiles in the recent incident. I think she is fully ready to be a combatant.”

Caity couldn’t help but find a grin on her cheeks. It was glad to see the countless hours she spent getting beaten up by the instructors was paying off. Honestly speaking, if she didn't have the peak medical attention in the nation, she would’ve maimed herself long ago through the practices.

“Technical wise, her ability with firearms is at the same level as currently deployed Army soldiers. Give her some more time and she can be at Special Forces level.”

Of course, whenever there were things she did really well, there were categories where she was questionable in.

“Recruit Hunter’s tactical knowledge is average. I will not suggest putting her in a commanding position for the moment.”

“Recruit Hunter needs more work to ensure that her physical strength is sufficient of combat.”

The last two comments caused Caity to bite her lips. It wasn’t her fault that two weeks, actually, a little more than one week, wasn’t enough to make her a brilliant tactician. Unlike things like hand to hand combat or firearms that required skills, physical strength wasn’t something that could be gained in mere days, no matter how much resource she had.

Plus, it was a well known fact that females were naturally weaker than males physically. No to be sexist or anything. It was just facts.

As all the instructors were finished, General Kennedy turned to Caity.

“Recruit Hunter, do you have any objection to those statements?”

“No, sir.”

“Very well,” Kennedy leaned forward. “there is just one more step before you can choose your major.” He snapped to the firearm instructor and nodded. The firearm instructor stood up, walked to Caity, and guided her into a room to the side. It took just moments before he walked out again, alone.

The tactical instructor sighed. He glanced at the stack of files in front of him. On the top of Caity’s personal information. Her family background. Her physical status. More importantly, her age.

“She’s just 16,” The man suddenly said. “she’s no more older than my daughters, and what we are doing here...we are not turning them into soldiers. We are turning them into warriors. No. Killers.”

“We have no choice.” General Kennedy closed his eyes and spoke in the calmest voice he could manage. “All experiments to send older, more experienced soldiers through the Portal have failed. No matter what we do, we just can’t get them through. These...these kids are the only ones who can cross.”

“But why are we even crossing?” The tactical instructor suddenly snapped. “We are sacrificing hundreds of civilians! Children! For what? To explore a new world? Why are we not spending more resources trying to close the Portal?”

“Because even if we can close this one, we can’t close every other portal that may appear in our world in the future. Eventually, someone will come across. Chances are, that someone will be an invading army.” Kennedy replied coldly. “If we close the Portal, we blind ourselves to whatever potential threats that may be out there. Hiding is never the solution. Our only choice now, is forward.”

Usually, whenever General Kennedy spoke in this tone, it was obvious whoever was arguing with him should shut up right now, but the tactical instructor was determined.

“But at what cost? We lure these kids in with promise of money and power, only to send them into a world we know nothing about!”

“We know something. We know the world on the other side is inhabitable, and we know we will prepare and equip these soldiers the best we can so they can hopefully live to come back.” Kennedy’s voice was stern. “Instructor Johnson, your defeat mentality means you are no longer fit for service. You are fired.”

The instructors couldn’t believe their ears, but as they turned to General Kennedy, they knew he was dead serious. Instructor Johnson knew that as well. He opened his mouth, about to say something, but the general tapped a key on his desk. Two fully armed men in uniforms walked in.

“Escort Instructor Johnson off this property directly. His person belongings will be delivered to him in three business days.”

The tactical instructor’s mouth hang open in shock, but the two guards didn't care what he thought. They quickly took him out of the room. As they were gone, Kennedy picked up a phone.

“Inform the technical department to keep an eye on all communication made by Instructor Johnson and his family. If he tries to expose us, have him and everyone involved arrested for high treason.”

“Yes sir.”

Finally, the general turned back to the other three instructors, who were stealing glances at him. Their inner thoughts were mysteries, but the general knew for sure it wasn’t anything good.

“Gentlemen,”

General Kennedy finally declared. His voice as quiet as ever.

“what we are doing here may ultimately decide the survival or destruction of not just our nation, but our entire planet. I know I am asking you to do things you not only wouldn’t do before, but you looked down upon, but we have no choice.”

“The recruits that we are working with, the Phasewalkers, will be facing hostiles none of us know anything about. Under such circumstances, weakness cannot be tolerated. Hesitance and doubt cannot be tolerated. We must be willing to do whatever we must to achieve victory.”

The other instructors? Dead silent.

Suddenly, a gunshot rang out from the other room. Seconds later, Caity walked out. Her expression ice cold. The firearm instructor walked into the room. When he became back out again, he gave Kennedy a slight nod.

Caity wasn’t paying attention to any of that. She merely stared at General Kennedy.

“I want to be Special Forces major.”

General Kennedy nodded.

“You are accepted.”

General Kennedy gave Caity the rest of the day off, and Caity knew exactly why.

After all, she just killed a man. She deserved some time off.

When Caity was led into the room, she saw a man tied to a chair. The firearm instructor told her this man was a criminal sentenced to death. He was a serial murderer who had five victims under his belt. Caity’s job? Her job was to kill him.

Caity could still remember the look in the man’s eyes. It was the look of a beast. The entire time, the man was struggling against his restraints. There was no doubt that if he was allowed free, he would rip open Caity’s throat and feast on her flesh.

The instructor handed Caity a handgun. The girl recognized it the moment she touched it. M18. Standard issue handgun to the U.S. military. She quietly checked the magazine and the chamber.

There was a single bullet in the chamber.

The instructor walked out of the room, leaving just her with the dead-man-walking.

Caity remembered herself going through her mind, looking for any reason, any reason, to not do what she knew she had to do. She has killed before, but something felt off with this one. When she killed the robbers, they were a threat. They were fighting back and Caity didn't have the luxury of defeating them with less lethal methods.

Now? The man was tied to a chair. He looked beaten up and exhausted. Caity was the one with the weapon. If she walked away, no innocent lives would be hurt.

But at the end of the day, the truth became painfully clear to Caity: she didn't care. She was only hesitating because, since she was a child, she was taught that killing was wrong. Killing was only the last resort. But this was no longer the case for the Phasewalkers. Not if they wanted to win.

Maybe the man was really innocent. Maybe he had a son or daughter to take care of. Maybe...but she knew none of that would matter. Even if Section X somehow made a mistake, Carly had no choice but to pull the trigger...unless she was willing to satisfy with non-combat roles.

Perhaps that was fine with her a few weeks ago, but after everything that happened, a non-combat role would be like the death sentence.

That was the purpose of this entire thing: to make sure every combatant had some blood on his or her hand so when the time came, they could really take away lives.

And pull the trigger she did.

Even now, Caity didn't know why she went through with it. Was it because she learned from Ryan that Special Forces major earned twice as much as infantry? Was it because she simply had no choice? Maybe she was just a killer deep down? Or did she really believe in the cause of Section X and the necessity of this? All of them? Some of them?

All she knew was she just killed someone. He was tied down in front of her, restrained and unarmed, and she looked into his eyes and took his life in an execution-style.

What would her parents say if they could see her like this?

She should be disgusted or sick, but she wasn’t. In fact, her head was perfectly cool. Double the salary, cool. More flexing right? Nice. One less scumbag in the world? She wasn’t complaining!

She went straight to the shooting range and started wasting her time on a good stock pile of rifle magazines.

Another week passed. The Special Forces training were so much more rigorous than the standard practices before, and she was introduced to a list of other courses. She learned how to rig explosives and do scouting missions. She even learned how to interrogate prisoners, which was something she didn't quite enjoy.

In most cases in modern warfare, torture was a questionable choice for a variety of reasons, but according to Section X estimations, the Phasewalkers would be walking into scenarios where methods like bribing or exchanging information might not work. If they really needed to know something and all other means were lost, then cutting someone open might not be the worst idea on the list.

Every day, a prisoner would be brought to Caity to either torture or kill. Slowly, the girl was more and more comfortable with ending the lives of others, and the time it took for her to pull the trigger became shorter and shorter. If there was one thing she kept from her first kill, it was that she made sure to know what crimes the prisoners committed before she ended their lives.

Just like General Kennedy said, they weren’t only forging soldiers here. They were forging killers.

That was when everything changed.

Caity glanced at the other recruits waiting outside of the door to the conference room. There were 13 of them. She knew a number of them. Hemley. Christian. Jack. A guy whose last name was Fox. A combat medic named Ava whose pretty look Caity used to adore. Caity wondered why the instructors specifically called them out and told them to come to this room.

The door was pushed open from the inside. The recruits walked into the conference room where General Kennedy was standing at the very front. Fifteen chairs lined up in the room. Only one of them was filled.

Caity rose her eyebrows. Before anyone else could react, Caity cut past several other recruits in front of her and sat down beside Ryan.

“Where have you been?” She asked. “I missed you!”

Ryan has been gone for the past two days. Caity didn't know where he went or what he was doing, and she knew she wouldn’t get an answer to the question from the instructors. Ryan turned to her, and he let out a small smile that was usually only reserved for her.

“Hey Caity! How’s it going?”

As the two exchanged brief words, the other recruits started to sit down in the other empty seats. When they were done, General Kennedy spoke up.

“Recruits, I will go straight to the point. You are the best in your respective fields in the project. This is why you have been chosen for a specific project.”

He scanned across every single recruit and watched as either excitement or fear climbed onto their faces.

“The President has approved an exploratory mission into the world on the other side of the Portal, code-named World Alpha. It’s a mission that you will carry out.”

Caity felt the smile on her cheeks disappear. So, this was finally happening. Section X was sending them across the Portal. Well, fair enough. She shouldn’t be surprised. This has always been a matter of time.

“The exploration squad will include all 15 of you, with Recruit Hemley being the captain of the squad. You will take with you three Humvees.”

High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle. Humvees might not have the best firepower, but they were much more mobile and could function in most terrain. If the expedition forces brought a tank and the battlefield turned out to be a city or a soft field, then things would be really messy.

“Section X has already deployed certain recruits to test the Portal. It has been confirmed that World Alpha is inhabitable. In fact, as far as those recruits could see, World Alpha seemed to be no different from Earth, with oxygen, a sun, and a moon.”

“Your task is to explore World Alpha in more detail and report back. Avoid any unnecessary firefights. You are not authorized to start a war, but if you need to defend yourselves with force, then so be it. After you first go across the Portal. You must report back in 12 hours, otherwise the entire task force will be assumed to be terminated and further actions will be taken.”

“Unfortunately, we are on a timer. The expedition force moves out in 24 hours. You are free until that time to do whatever you want. Section X will pay for all your expenses in the meantime.”

Caity sighed. All expenses paid for, right? Section X had all the budget it needed to burn, but in a sense, this was like the meal they give prisoners before the prisoners get executed. Was it a good meal? Sure! But most wouldn’t quite enjoy it, and almost all wouldn’t want it.

“One last thing,”

Before he finished, General Kennedy suddenly reminded the recruits.

“This is what you signed up for, recruits, and you have greatly benefited from the compensations paid for by Section X. This is not the time to back out. If you do, that’s treason, and I will personally make sure every single traitor in the program spends the rest of his, or her, days in a prison cell.”

“Dismissed.”