The next morning came quickly, the second light hit the encampment Rake was awake, he had barely slept, dreaming of soaring through the sky on wings of his own.

Leaf was already up and about, she was shivering slightly an unsettling expression on her face when she saw Rake.

“Follow me.” Without as much as a good morning the two of them set out to get to the factory. On their way more and more humans joined them, Rake was surprised to see how many were undergoing training to become an Angel. When they reached the building the entire street was filled with them.

“I thought only special soldiers were chosen for this program?” Rake asked Leaf as they waited in line, his voice carried over the silent heads of the surrounding soldiers. When he looked around he saw that there were considerably more women than men.

“There are not as many factories that make Angels, this one is responsible for the entire camp here… the recruits you see here have been chosen from four million… if we are lucky a thousand Angels will be left at the end.” She kept her eyes on the large gates in front of them as she spoke, still shivering.

Rake noticed most people around them had horrendous scars on their arms and shaved heads, he began feeling uneasy as they waited for the factory to open the gates.

A deep rumbling sounded as the large steel doors in front of them opened, the recruits waiting formed an alley as people poured out of the gates. Rake watched as they passed him, most of them were bleeding from freshly bandaged wounds, some had to be carried by comrades.

All in all the people that exited the building looked nothing like a Angel was supposed to, or at least how he imagined them. When they were past them the thousands of new recruits entered the building.

The smell was horrifying, disinfectant and human waste, sweat and fear. The building had multiple floors and Leaf pulled him after her towards a staircase to the left, they climbed a dozen floors before reaching their destination.

The door was a sickly yellow with a black sign painted on the front reading F14, Leaf reached out and pulled a lever, the door opened slowly and the two of them entered. The room they were standing in was as long as the factory, four lines of medical pods extending through it. To their left was a small opening in the wall, a chute lead downwards. Overall about a hundred pods, a doctor in a white robe walked up to them, in his hands was one of the scanners they used to identify soldiers.

“Leaf, you will be staying the night, the second round of limbs are here and we need to get you done as quickly as possible.” The woman paled as the doctor showed her the way to one of the larger pods, another doctor came over to Rake.

She was wearing the usual robe but also a facemask. Her scanner beeped as she got close enough.

“Rake... new recruit… promising adaptability and learning… Right, if you would follow me, we are going to stress test your system for the next ten hours, afterward you can go home again.” Rake blinked, only ten hours? That was the same amount he would have had to train anyway.

He confidently stepped into the next pod, the lead closed behind him as he settled into the restraints.

“So, just try to stay calm, that is the only thing required for you to pass this test.” the voice sounded over the speakers as something was pumped into the chamber.

The next two hours were the worst of Rake’s life, the machine decreased the oxygen level until he felt he was suffocating as electroshocks tensed his muscles and his responses were tested. Mostly by either stabbing him or by giving him enough oxygen to catch his breath before hallucinogens were injected.

After two hours he passed out, the world went black around him. When he came to he was still in the factory, the straps in the pod had caught him.

“Good you are awake, the protocol should resume in a second. You did well, few recruits manage through the first hour at once.” Panic rose in him, he would have to continue? Rake tried to calm himself with deep breaths but the oxygen level was too low for this to work. On the other side of the room he could see Leaf’s pod, metal limbs were being cleaned in front of it as the machinery began its work on the unconscious woman. With horror he watched as it began cutting into her arms and legs, removing skin and muscle until it reached the bone.

His own suffering was forgotten as he watched the bone being dislocated and the entire leg removed, the metal counterpart had been prepared and was now pulled into place iron screws adjusted the position as the remaining skin and flesh around her hip was removed revealing the iron gleam of her hip, a previous operations must have replaced it already. Rake vomited on the floor of the pod, this was not what he had expected, the moment his mind was off the horrors that happened across from him the full force of his own torture hit him again.

Gruesome visions of metal blades cutting into him became his reality as he thrashed in the restraints. Hours later he lost control of his bodily functions, hanging in the restraints suffering in silence as visions of horror plagued him.

All time seemed to become meaningless as the hours dragged on, the lights in front of his pod were relentless, people passing by as more pods were filled and other vacated. Three times people were carried past him and brought somewhere to his side.

When the torture ended Rake just fell to the ground, his soiled clothes sticking to him as two strong arms picked him up.

“By Blackwing what did you do to this guy?” a rough voice sounded from his side, as he was pulled towards the door.

“He was more stable than thought so I did a second lesson on him, orders were to speed up the process and we needed someone to test it on.” The doctor from before sounded, the man carrying him to the back of the room cursed under his breath.

Rake was brought to a cleaning room where he was disinfected and got a new pair of clothes, his head hurt, thoughts thoughts were sluggish and more than once the environment seemed to blur into something new.

The sun was still high up when he finally left the factory, more recruits waited in front of the gates, most avoiding to look at him. Rake’s helper guided him over to a small wall at the edge of the factory and sat him down on it.

“Wait here until you feel better, I have to turn back now.” He put a hand on his shoulder and Rake flinched slightly. Then he heard footsteps as his helper walked away towards the Allfather forsaken place they called the factory.

He waited for the world to stop spinning around him, the gates behind him opened again and to flee the smell that would remind him of the time he had spent there Rake sat on the floor his back against the wall facing away from the building.

He had to get away from this, the idea popped into his head and as he thought about where to go a picture of Raya drifted into his mind, maybe the Ercinee would help get his mind off the terrible place.