Author's Note: Hey guys! We're finally making it to the tower buuuuut not quite making it to the tower. Haha. I hope you all forgive me for not wanting to rush through things. I'm not trying to speed through my work since I want to make it somewhat professional. Enjoy Chapter 10! Oh, and we will be doing stats according to the poll from chapter 7!

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I woke up once more to a hand gently shaking my shoulder.

“Mmmmmrgh, Pixie leave me be! No more physical training…please-…” I grumbled and attempted to once more fall back into the paradise of sleep.

“Pixie? What kinda shit you dreaming about?” A male voice roused me from my sleep and I yelped, rolling out of bed and crashing onto the floor in a mess of limbs and blankets.

“Yo, man, what the…” Untangling myself from the blanket on the ground, I see Kualin standing on the other side of my bed accompanied by Akito and Milik a little further behind him.

No one else was in the barrack.

“Please…don’t get in my ear like that again.” I clambered over my bed and reached for my strike vest.

Strapping the vest on, I looked up at the three burning to know the answer to just one question. “Who told you guys where I live?”

“We just asked around, bro. A lot of people actually know of you for some reason.” Milik spoke up from behind Kualin.

‘Weird,’ I silently thought.

Shrugging, I reached around for a shirt in my pack and picked out a plain black tee shirt.

“Where’s everyone at?” I asked them.

Akito ended up being the one to answer me.

“Everyone’s already gathering at the base of the tower. We were looking for you at the tower, but didn’t find you. So we just asked around and came here. Alex, we enter the tower in half an hour.”

Hearing the words ‘half an hour,’ I sped up and pulled some long socks on followed quickly by my combat boots.

I looked around the barren barrack again while tying my boots on.

‘How could Sgt. Kesler let something like that happen?’

Thinking back towards last night, Bryce did seem to have some sort of smirk on his face whenever he talked to me.

‘The bastard…he got me good for making those cracks at him yesterday about doing laundry, but did he really have to risk the whole human race to prank me??’

Letting out a snort, I noticed that the three other guys in the room all had packs similar in size to mine. Throwing on my windbreaker, I bent down and reached into the side of my pack pulling out my toothbrush, toothpaste, and deodorant.

“One sec” I told them, quickly running out of the barracks to the nearest bathrooms.

………………..

Ten minutes later we were all walking down a dirt road heading towards the tower.

A shiver ran down my spine just by looking at it. We were about five minutes away from it when I realized I hadn’t called my parents the whole week that I’d been here. They probably thought I’d already made it into the tower and I doubted that the Overlords would be so kind as to provide electricity for us, let alone a signal.

Pulling out my phone, I called my mom’s phone. After four or five rings it went to voicemail. Frowning, I called my dad’s phone and he picked up on the third ring.

“Alex?” My dad’s voice came through the phone.

“Hey, dad. Sorry I haven’t called at all.” I replied to him.

“Are you out of the tower now? What happened?” He frantically asked me.

“Oh. No, dad.” I bitterly told him.

“I’m actually just now about to go in. When I got here, the military had everything in order and kept us all in this sort of camp thing until now. Something about keeping a tally…”

“Oh…” My dad sounded downtrodden.

“What’s wrong, dad?” I quickly asked him.

“I was just hoping it would already be over. It’s just…nerve-wracking.” He responded to me.

I sighed. “Yeah, dad. Me too. Whatever this is…I just don’t think it’ll be all that simple.”

A pause…and then, “Just…take care of yourself, son. I’d give your mom the phone, but she’s out grocery shopping with your brothers.”

“Well…just let everyone know I love them. And dad, don’t forget…I’ll be coming back and I expect there to be hamburgers and fries waiting on me when I do.”

I heard a snort in reply at that and I lightly smiled.

“I gotta go dad. I love you. I’ll try and talk to you later.”

“Alright, Alex. We love you too. Stay safe.” He replied in a concerned voice.

Hanging up the phone, I looked around at Akito, Kualin, and Milik. They each had sad looks in their eyes.

Sighing, I offered my phone in their direction.

“You guys can use it too if you want.” Kualin snatched the phone out of my hand as the words left my mouth and he began dialing what I assumed was the number for one of his parents.

………………..

Reaching the base of the tower, I saw a huge crowd of people milling about a rectangular opening in the tower that definitely wasn’t there last night.

The opening was three times as tall as I was and wide enough for at least six people to go through at once. It was strange because the opening was pure black and it was impossible to see the interior of the tower through the darkness. It looked almost like a portal that you’d see in some sci-fi movie, but there was no high tech around. Just the tower.

I marveled at the mystery of the tower and couldn’t help but wonder what I’d find upon walking in.

Looking at the people closest to the opening, I saw that half of them had cuffs holding their hands behind their backs and some of the soldiers were busy taking off cuffs and throwing the cuffs onto the ground.

I was confused for only a moment before I remembered that Mike, the soldier I first met, had told me about those people that had been forcibly brought into barracks one and two.

Every single one of them were outfitted in regular clothes and a thin jacket. They also were all wearing tan duffle bags which seemed to be filled to the brim with what I could only assume were food, water, clothing, supplies, etc.

Looking back at the three guys I’d came with, I quickly noticed that they were all shouldering the same bags and I was the only one in the entire crowd with their own bag.

Thinking about it, I decided to leave it be since my bag was already super packed and I didn’t think I’d be able to carry two bags while maintaining an effective degree of mobility.

Moving towards the outer edges of the crowd, I was about to see if I could get a closer look at the people from barracks one and two since the soldiers here had kept us strictly separated the whole week, but before I could burrow myself into the crowd, a familiar voice called out my name.

“Alex!” Pixie came running over at high speed and nearly tackled me into the ground with a hug.

Giving myself some space, I gave her a stern look.

“You left me back there in the barrack!”

She started laughing sweetly and my stern look faltered.

“But Alex! It was all Bryce’s idea. He said that you’d asked him to let you sleep in for a long time today since there was no physical training this morning and that you’d set an alarm for yourself!”

She gave me a big smile.

‘Damn, she’s too innocent to be angry with and her reasons are solid. If only Bryce wasn’t so damn persuasive…’

Turning away from her, my eyes started scanning the crowd. “Oh, did he? Well, I’d just love to see him right about now so I can…”

Before I could finish, I was yanked backwards and turned around to see Kualin looking at me with fire in his eyes.

“Dude!” He fervently whispered into my ear. “Who’s that girl? She’s so fine.”

Before responding I pulled away and scowled.

“What did I say about getting in my ear like that?” I hissed back at him.

Taking a moment to compose myself, I gestured from Pixie to the three guys.

“Pixie, this is Kualin, Milik, and Akito.” Making sure to point out each one as I said their name. “Guys, this is Pixie.” I finished gesturing to her. Her cheeks went red as she looked down.

Looking at the three guys helplessly I say, “Don’t worry. She’ll get used to you real quick. You saw how she came running at me.”

Pixie got even redder and was about to say something but a loud voice interrupted her.

“Attention everyone. All eight hundred of you marked ones were accounted for earlier this morning. We will allow you all to enter the tower momentarily. However, we must first send forth those from barracks one and two as they all must be forced to enter due to…” The voice continued speaking.

Tuning him out, I craned my neck over all the people in front of me to get a good look at the people from barracks one and two. They were all facing forward and lined up evenly in six rows of four people each. I was impressed at their orderliness, but then remembered what the loud voice had just said.

‘I hope it’s not a bad thing that they’re going in before everyone else…but then again it could be good since we’ve no idea what kind of dangers, if any, lie behind that portal thing.’

Thinking back a week ago also made me remember what the country soldier had told me at the gate.

His country voice came running through my head once more. ‘Only reason these ones’ve been found so quickly is ‘cuz they was scattered across the nation in various juvenile detention centers or even hardcore jails.’

I couldn’t help but wonder if they’d be more likely to harm the world than attempt to save it in the tower, but even people like them have people they care about, right?

Once I thought this, my eyes set into a dark and cold gaze at the people from barracks one and two.

‘…but if they do end up affecting the fate of our world and my loved ones in a negative way, then I’ll kill them myself.’

Once again dragging my eyes through the crowd searching for Bryce and the rest of my barrack, I quickly concluded that there was just no way I’d be able to find them before we entered the tower.

I looked back up towards the front of the crowd and saw that the people from barracks one and two were preparing to be led into the black rectangular opening, but before they’d even taken five steps, one of the guys in the group with black spiky hair threw a punch at a guard and everything went to hell.

“Fuck you bastards! I’ll never go in there! This whole goddamn world can burn and I’ll happily watch it happen!” He stood there proudly for a moment before a good majority of the group of people from barracks one and two began punching, kicking, and biting at the guards around them.

They were doing everything they could to try and escape from the tower and although I knew they had to go in there, I couldn’t help but feel some pity for them since they were forced into their current situations.

“Take them down!” A stern voice shouted over the clamor of the crowd and scuffle.

Multiple gunshots crisply resounded through the air and all those that had attempted to rebel were sent crashing down onto the ground in pain. The lucky few that hadn’t partaken in the fight were already off to the side on their knees with their hands up; showing that they had no part in what had just took place.

“Cuff those that attacked and throw them into the tower!” That same stern voice angrily spat out and the soldiers at the front of the group began to cuff all the people on the ground who were in pain from the short rebellion.

‘There’s no blood on the ground, so I can only assume they used rubber bullets. Heard you can land yourself a trip to the hospital getting hit with one of those though.’

I shuddered at the thought of the pain they must be experiencing while watching all of them whimper on the ground in defeat…well, all but one.

“I’ll kill you all! I’ll remember all your faces! Your parents, husbands, wives, children…I’ll slaughter every single one of you!” The same black haired guy was crazily screaming out to the whole crowd.

Many of the people, face down on the ground, began shouting in agreement and encouragement until it built up to the point where it was all that could be heard.

“We have to go in there with those crazy ass people.” Milik whispered to Akito and Kualin.

I looked over at them and then at Pixie. Pixie was watching the whole thing in wide-eyed surprise and fright.

Putting my hand on Pixie’s head, I said, “It’s alright. I’ll protect you.”

‘I won’t fail you like I failed Sarah,’ I solemnly swore to myself.

“Yeah, uh, Pixie. We’ll all be there between you and them.” Qua reassured her from my left hand side.

The soldiers began dragging the handcuffed people to the black rectangular opening in the tower. They tossed the first person into the black rectangular opening and the body completely disappeared. One after another, the soldiers tossed those that had rebelled into the darkness and I kept count of them. Once they reached the last person, I had counted all the way up to twenty people.

‘Hmmmm, so at most there’ll be twenty crazies. There were twenty-four of them up there in the first place so that means at least four of them are sensible.’

I kept in mind that sensible, however, did not mean harmless.

Right after the guards finished throwing them in, the other four people, three men and one woman, slowly entered into the darkness at the prodding of the soldiers.

Unsure of what to do after that frightening display, the rest of the crowd just kind of stood there.

After the longest ten seconds of my life, the people up front finally started taking small steps and then larger, normal ones.

People began passing through the dark portal and after about a minute or two I had finally found myself at the front. Akito, Kualin, Milik, Pixie, and I were the last people to make it to the door.

Walking in front of the other four, I spared a glance back and saw the fear in their eyes, but also the resolve to do what needed to be done.

Throwing a reassuring smile at them, I nonchalantly strolled through the rectangular opening into the darkness thinking only of the awakening that I’d been so keen to get to.

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Author's Note: I probably won't post again until thursday or friday. Once we hit chapter 16 or 17 is when things'll slow down to 3-4 days.

Also, any suggestions on the plot of the story? My writing style? The awakening? Leave some comments :)