We Are Experiment Chapter 1

Chapter One

The clapping sound of sprinting echoed around the gym. Each foot quickly slapped the wooden floor then went soaring through the air. Heavy puffs of breath came from her lungs. Her eyes were set on the ground, as if at any moment she would trip. Her thick black bike pants and black singlet hugged her body as she ran around the gym.

Opposite her was a teenage boy, he sipped at his water bottle and then raised it above his head before poring it over himself. He wet his brown hair. It dripped down his face over his green eyes and lips until it dampened the bleachers he was sitting on. He ran his hand over the black carpet that starched over the bleachers. He was sitting on first bleacher, and watched the girl with a smile.

The gym was full of what most gyms had. Treadmills, weights, and other assorted equipment filled one half of the gym. The other half was empty for other use.

The girl came to a halt as she neared the boy.

“Looking hot, Lee.” Lee gave a grin, tucking a loose clump of hair behind her ear.

“You too Dice.” She was right; both of them were toned and muscled, unlike a lot of normal teenagers.

Dice stood to greet her, handing his water bottle to her. She sculled the rest down in one go. “So, Lee, you’re so hot that you get a reward.” He grabbed her toned arms and closed his eyes, perking out his lips. She shoved his bottle into his mouth and walked towards the exit.

“You wish,” she said as she confidently strode off. Dice pulled out the water bottle from his lips.

“Aww come on!” Dice whined. Lee gave him a sweet smile before walking out the door.

****

Lee and Dice, and the other kids, had been summoned to a new room, D6. Previously, they had been wary of the restrictions from the room, and now that they were to enter, it was evident that a new type of training had begun. For three months they had been working on speed, fitness, body building and agility in an ordinary gym, D6 supplied something new and exciting.

This was no gym, this was an arena. The floor was as if it were made from a blue glass. Through the glass was pitch black. The West wall was also a see through blue glass, and through it the valley of trees calmly swayed in the wind. Through the glass it was apparent that the facility was built of a large hill that slanted to the West. Before the bleaches was yet another wall that appeared to be blue glass.

To the east of the arena were the bleaches, each a metre wide and high. The group sat on them, each restless with anticipation. Lee and Dice came through a door to the left of the bleaches, their eyes widened with surprise. This was a new training ground. They hurried to their seats.

Before the group, their coach leaned against the blue protective wall, his arms were crossed as he waited for them all to be seated. When they were, he hopped off the wall, removed his black glasses, tucked them in his collar and put his hands the pockets of his black cargo pants. Though he was wearing a white T-shirt, his abs and biceps stood out as if he was were covered in round mountains. Though he was harsh and strict, it was apparent that Lee was quite fond of him, and wanted nothing more than to make him proud. Very proud.

“Are you ready?” Coach asked. His voice was young, calm, unlike what you would expect. It was slightly unsettling in a way. In response, the group gave a nervous nod, their bright green eyes bobbing up and down in unison. “Good, then we shall begin.” Coach knelt down on one knee, he flicked open the latches of a black case, and fumbled with something inside. Dice lent forward with interest, while Lee lent back into the bleacher, her arms crossed and watching with patience.

When Coach brought out a gun, a smile swept across Lee’s face. Though their bodies were a physical weapon, it was time to bring out the big guns. The serious training had begun.

“We hope to perfect your skills in weaponry and there’s only one way to do that; to dive right in.” Coach gestured behind him. Through the floors raised various training grounds. “Section one, you will learn to use a gun, how to load it up, how to fire.” Section one consisted of a board with a diagram of a simple pistol. And on the table there were ten unbuilt pistols.

In section two there was protection gear on a table. In section 3 there were grenades and section 4 there were targets. When they stopped rising out of the ground they jolted, and then stood still. “You will split up into four groups. The first group will go to section 1. Numbers one to ten, you are group one. I’m sure you can figure out the rest.”

Lee turned to Dice as she sprang to her feet, “group one, that’s us.”

Coach stood at section 1, his group being group one. Three other coaches had come to assist in the lesson, helping out the other groups like usual.

Coach stood out the front by the whiteboard. He held a pistol of his own in his hand. He smiled at his lot of little soldiers. “On the battlefield, there is no guarantee that your ammo will last you, and without any fire, you can be pretty much classified as dead meat.” He paused, letting the thoughts sink in. “That’s when a pistol can come in handy. On this table, there are ten pistols, one each. They are unassembled at the moment. The chances of your pistol being in pieces on the battlefield are very unlikely, though I still want you to know the basics of a pistol, or any weapon, inside out. On this board is a diagram of a pistol’s parts. You are to make your own pistol. And for your safety, you won’t be putting any bullets in them. Understand?”

As always, the group responded in sync, “yes coach.”

Dice nudged Lee in the rib, “three months of using your body, ready to use that brain?”

“I hope yours isn’t sleeping.”

“Ha!” Dice grinned, “First one finished has the bigger brain.”

“Oh you are so toast.” They grabbed their pistol parts and went to their own section on the floor, just like the others. Lee spread out the parts and studied each individually. She glanced over at Smarts, a twelve year old who had the intelligence of a computer. He was already way into building the pistol, his green eyes hardly ever blinked as his hands frantically picked up parts and screwed them in.

Dice scratched his head, and tried to force to different parts together. In response, Lee shook her head, she would win for sure. There were the recognizable parts, such as the outside of the pistol, and there were the other parts. The diagram pretty summed up how to build the pistol, just by labelling certain parts, and before ten minutes were up Lee had a fully functional gun.

“I win,” she said, grinning in triumph.

“Yeah well, you were always the smarter one.” Dice took one last look at the diagram, and he let out an “oh” as he realised what had to go where. In another three minutes he was beginning to get the general idea of how the pistol was put together.

Smarts had already built his and was waiting patiently for the others to finish. He sure didn’t look nerdy, he didn’t need glasses and he was one of the smallest.

When Dice had finally completed the task, he sighed and looked over his handy work, “that was far too complex for my liking.” Lee rolled her eyes.

Section three and two weren’t overly exciting, as the classes just taught about the use of grenades and protection gear. Section four, however, was brilliant.

Her eye was on the target, the green middle circle that was surrounded by a ring of blue, and that a ring of green. The pistol was firm in her grip, and after holding it inches from her face, she stretched her arm away from her and stood with her head turned towards the target, and her body facing ninety degrees to the left of the target. She cocked, and her finger lingered over the trigger. With a bang, the target had a hole struck right in the centre. The hologram of the target flickered before fading, and the same happened to the hologram of the pistol.

Coach came and stood behind her, “well done.”

“I aim to please,” Lee replied, lowering the gun. She turned to Coach, “besides, what use would I be if I could not hit my target?”

Coach just smiled.