Returning home was a godsend, shaking the snow off of his hoodie was something that in the past would be considered such a normal thing but in the past few years many people never got the chance to return home and shake the snow off of their clothing. Although in many places life went on somewhat normally or to correct that statement who could even say what normal was now with the others running loose. Gray hung his hoodie behind the door and took off his boots. A sigh of relief escaped his lips as he headed over to the table and sat down a small bag of food. With the others randomly making appearances, mostly at night it was never safe to go outside, even in the day you could run into one. luckily tonight Gray hadn't seen one, of course Fortress did their best to keep the others in check and keep people safe but there were only so many of them.
blocking the heavy door behind him Gray went over and turned on the lights which revealed a somewhat messy small apartment. Windows covered with newspaper, the lights fairly subdued, this was a normal home for someone who lived so close to an incident site. all of these precautions where to make sure that if one of the others were to wonder too close to your home they may assume no one was there.
Retrieving the items from his food bag Gray sat and began to eat the bread and drink that he had acquired. Saving up energy for tomorrow would be a must, he was going to attempt to join Fortress and would need every drop of energy he could get to do so. taking a large bite of his bread he walked over to his table and grab a brochure or at least something very close to it. the paper showed Fortress emblem on the front it went on to say something about how they were the few strong enough to protect the many. Fortress was the military group which defending normal people from the others and also tries to keep others from leaving any incident site. Gray smirked knowing that sometime tomorrow he would be a member of Fortress. He flopped down on his bean bag chair which was held together with tape in more than a few places. Thinking back on it, how many people have they lost to the others already in the few years that have passed since the initial incident, he knew he had lost too much to the others but if he has lost so much how much as a whole has Humanity lost. Fortress was going to change that, no, he was going to change that. a seemingly far-off dream that he reach towards but I'm not saying no he could taste it it was so close it was only a few hours away. at some point he finally fell asleep in his famous bean bag chair.
Waking up the next morning, he was excited jumping up as if it was Christmas Day, this must have been Christmas, at least in some way since the incident change so much things. Days like this had to be taken as a gift even if it was only a test day. Gray jumped up out of his bean bag chair hiss short hair extra messy today almost as if it was excited as well. He went about his normal morning routine before grabbing his boots and hoodie. Even though he wasn't very large physically he was pretty confident in himself, his dark brown eyes shined with an extruding confidence, his smirk pulled on the right side of his mouth just below his mole. Opening his door he set out towards the headquarters of Fortress. Walking down the Fairly unkempt streets showed just how much disarray had taken place, but life went on and there was some attempt to keep order but as any city that bordered an incident site, most things were kept low profile, people's homes, shops, they were mostly all done as inconspicuous as possible so the streets normally looked somewhat abandoned. Although during the day people were always out and about albeit in lower number than any normal city. Gray stuffed his hands in his hoodie pockets and kept his head held a bit low. Most would say why not just move away from the incident sites and live in the other cities, well as it turns out living in a safe area can be pretty expensive and most people nowadays couldn't afford to live inside the walled cities. Besides that Gray didn't want to leave, he wanted to change things and the first step to do that would be to join Fortress.
Once gray had arrived at Fortress he looked at the large building which was made to look intimidating and definitely made to withstand an attack from the others. He saw that there were a few people around excluding The Fortress agents which were on patrol around the building and some were stationed in front of it. This was definitely meant to protect the building from thieves, thugs and the others. All of their uniforms were sand colored and reminded him somewhat of the older style military outfits except lighter, they didn't carry much here besides their weapon, they had very few things on their vests. It would seem that most only had maybe a flashlight and some type of radio on their chests. he walked past the guards in front and enter the building where he saw many people waiting, Gray was sure that most of the people here were only around to take the exam or at least that's what he thought. A few signs on the walls pointed to the exam area and he headed there immediately. Most of the people gathered in the exam area were around his age with a few exceptions of middle-aged and younger people. It seemed that there was still a bit of time before they actually started some most people were waiting around talking. somehow he didn't really feel like he felt in here and no one approached him look so looking he definitely didn't know anyone here he made a sour face and simply waited strong-willed and determined he wasn't going to put yourself out there and look like a fool or maybe he look like a fool for not putting himself out there and simply standing in the corner.
It didn't take long for the Proctor to arrive and he stood in front of the group of people that now turned their attention to him. The obviously older male seemed to have seen his fair share of battles, having a scar on his cheek and arm that showed extremely easily.The man began to speak to the group in an authoritative voice which he used to explain the situation at hand.
"So I'm sure you're all here for the exam and you know more or less what's going on but some of you will be ignorant and will die because of that so to lower the number of you ignorant folk I'm going to explain a few things to right here and right now you'd do well to listen up. This facility is where we will train you and teach you how to fight and kill others efficiently. As many of you know and had realized we do not use Conventional Weapons here, guns, tanks, missiles, most of it is highly ineffective against the others and simply causes extreme damage to the area around while leaving the other standing. Here we use what are known as 'GEARS' to fight the others. These gears are mostly fashioned after old style weapons like swords, gauntlets, axes, and things of that nature. That means you'll be getting very up close and very personal with the others that your the fight at some point. Be warned the others are stronger and likely faster than you also more experience than you and probably more adept at fighting. This is why you'll be trained and sent out in groups only! So that you may patrol the cities and make sure people are safe so we'll put you through the wringer and see if you have what it takes to join us. Once you prove that you do have what it takes you'll be sat down and given much more information to study and test to see where you fall. lucky for you guys we have more than enough room for all you new recruits, that's if you pass. we'll have you guys stand in single file line and enter the testing rooms individually. Be advised that you will start your fighting here and now so if you don't feel up to it now it's the last chance you'll have to back out. Even if this is simple training people can get hurt here and so we wish to advise everyone to think wisely before stepping into the examination room. So now if you're ready step forward." The man was blunt and his explanation short but it was to be expected. You see anyone who was here should know these things already and if they didn't ...well they probably weren't going to survive their first day even if they pass the test.
After some time past eventually it was Gray's turn to take his test. As he entered he noticed instantly that the room was large and there was only a small desk near the entrance. Maybe this room was used for something else normally? The Proctor sitting at the small table near the entrance of the room looked up at Gray before riding a few things down and yelling to someone else his description "Gray Alexandra, about 5'10, black hair short hair, brownish black eyes, about 160-180 lbs, Slim athletic…" taking a pause in writing a few things down Gray stood there bewildered. before he could say anything or explore the room further the Proctor looked at him and began speaking to him instead of some unseen person. " are you ready?" is all the person said looking at him with a Stern expression it was apparent not much was expected of him.
Gray wasn't the biggest fan of doubt but he would show them anyway. "Yeah, I'm ready." he said with total confidence at first but realised that he hadn't given it much thought before exclaiming how prepared he was for this. In this moment it had hit him that he had no idea what he was supposed to do or get ready for. Taking notice to some movement on the opposite end of the room there was another person here but why? The Proctor got up from his desk and directed Gray towards the other person, and in that moment he got it, this wasn't a solo exam despite what they had said before hand. This was a combat exam and he was going to have to fight. He wasn't sure what the purpose of fighting another human would be but if that was what needed to be done he would do it, hesitantly. He stepped forward slowly before stopping a fair distance from the center of the room.
The air in the room drew stale as a standoff of sorts began to take form between this mysterious person and Gray. The person smirked which threw Gray off, he couldn't believe person was this confident that they would simply smile in the face of adversity. Almost getting infuriated Gray was snapped back to reality once the person begin to rush him. The man was incredibly fast closing the distance between the two without giving Gray much time to react. Attempting to backpedal was futile as the man's berserker style Rush simply overwhelmed Gray. A quick left jab was blocked by the obviously experienced man who instantly grabbed hold of Gray. "TSK!" Gray was flabbergasted he could be out of classed this easily. Gray had no formal fight training but this was ridiculous. The man slammed Gray to the floor without bias, burying his elbow in the back of Gray's neck. The man demanded that Gray surrender. "It's over, say you give up!"
Gray struggled against the man's grip on him, he was desperately trying to find a way to get back up to his feet. Gray was not about to give up here now. Not after getting this far. It seemed that there was really no way Gray was going to escape this. It's time to use what little brains he had and think his way out of this. He didn't know if giving up was even actually a way out... come to think of it, no rules had ever been explained to him about this test. Also now that he noticed he never saw this man come in he was already in the back of the room. None of it made any sense unless of course, no way, was this fight between an actual Fortress agent and a recruit!? If that was the actual case it was unfair from the start and there was probably no way Gray could actually win. So he just relaxed for a moment on the floor not fighting back anymore. Unbenounced to him the man had seen this all too many times where to recruit finally understood they were simply not going to win. Gray's voice came out so as he spoke now "okay okay, I give--" before finishing his statement Gray suddenly fought back with all of his might, freeing himself from the man. "You aren't going to stop me from becoming a member of Fortress!" Gray announced to the man.
Surprised by the sudden escape all the man could do was let out of hearty laugh as he stood. " Well I'll tell you one thing, there are very few of you dupes actually get away from me and none of them did it like that. okay okay I say ya pass." looking back to the proctor the man gave a thumbs-up and the Proctor wrote down something than gestured to Gray to go to the door at the far side of the room.
"Ahhhh, wait did I really just pass?" Gray was openly confused by the sudden turn of events. Was this actually the test that allowed people to join Fortress?
"Yup my boy you did just fine. You see anyone who comes here is unprepared for what lies ahead that's why we are going to train you. this test is mainly to see if you're capable mentally of handling the load. people die all too often because someone in their squad gave up, we need our people to be willing to fight no matter how one winnable situation seems. you weren't told anything, you had no idea of how to pass nor how to fail, and yet you give it your own you wouldn't even say I quit. in the field going up against the others there are many times where you won't know much if anything at all you will be overpowered and probably under equipped but if you have the heart more often than not he will come through without a problem. this is Mankind's best way to fight back, sure GEARs help but a weapon is nothing without someone behind it someone with heart. So go on, go to the next room."
Gray was overjoyed and the man's explanation made sense once he heard it. Wearing a goofy smile he quickly should his face making them more calm and collected smile. giving a simple nod to the man who had just fought against he made his way to the second room with a newfound determination. he grabbed the handle on the metal door and slowly opened it entering the second room. Strange room was indeed much smaller than the first room. Here there was only a white bed and a lady standing next to supply cabinet, her long black hair ordered her face nicely, her thin black frame glasses made her seem the nurse type.
The new woman Smiles at Gray "So you passed I see well now is the part where I make sure you are healthy enough for this." the woman was disarming enough that Gray didn't give a second thought to letting the woman give him a physical. Once his physical was done he was again sent to another room, which seemed to be a repeating theme. The day dragged on with test and room one after another. Eventually everything was straightened out and Gray was officially a member Fortress and it would seem that his training was due to begin right away.