I was ready for the next mission. So much in fact I was shaking in absolute fear.
All things besides, I learned the hard way about this job in the first mission, but with the second being random and different each time it is held... was concerning.
They brought horses to us, and I was very confused. Were we going to groom them? Or maybe feed them? Nope. We were going to learn to ride them.
Everyone was on edge and being cautious after Jax got kicked by the horse's hind legs. I laughed, but one of the instructors gave me a glare and I knew that I'd be better off by stopping.
I got along well with my assigned horse. It was fragile and dark. It had a dark coat, with white-ish hair. It seemed to have a amazing pattern, but only in one spot.
It seemed to be "X" on it's back where a saddle would go. Looked like the next part of learning where to put the saddle would be easy for me. I did well on putting the saddle on the horse and calmly climb on. They gave us some time to ride around and get used to manuvering.
I was slowly moving around on the horse, adjusting to make it easier to control the horse when suddenly, and out of nowhere, Kayla appeared in the distance, her horse charging at me. I screamed as she pretty much almost crashed into me, her horse turning quickly at the last second to avoid a collision.
"Hey Cal!" she screamed, crawling off of her horse and awkwardly walking over to me, smiling like she just got married.
"Hey... um... why are you here?" I asked, trying not to sound rude.
"I joined! I got bored of that kitchen job!" she yelled while smiling brightly. This was the last thing she would say to me before Instructor Miko yelled for us to get on our horses and begin toward the gate, which they had opened and we were all riding outside. Our horses didn't even stop as it trampled many Pathogens attempting to attack. It was... powerful.
Jax was riding his horse behind me as if in a race, using me to reduce the wind force on him. I sighed and moved out of the way. He couldn't follow and was forced to go around a tree.
Pika rode up next to me and was petting her horse gently. She was smiling and laughing, ignoring the fact she was killing Pathogens every single second pretty much.
We arrived to a tower, and hitched the horses in a locked barn. We all entered the tower and went to the top. Instructor Miko was using binoculars to look around and it seems we had lost nobody on the way here. Kayla was just observing the distance from the height we were at, Markus was chatting with Kai, and Byul was reading a horse handbook.
He found it to be important to know everything about what they were learning about. Like I probably said before, Byul is a genius.
***
We were finally instructed to leave the tower and begin toward a mansion of sorts. If you were rich enough, you could live outside of the town with a large fence and everything. Pathogen-proof. You could even spend much more money to get a train to connect to and visit your house when you request it. Rich people are weird.
I tried to pay no attention to the mansion as we were now instructed to pass right by it. Once we did, we could see a horde of Pathogens, all piled up against the fence, being relatively quiet, but still pushing on each other, trying to fit through a small gap.
One by one they were picked off by our large group. Some were trampled. Some were burned, some sliced apart. Their bodies were piled into one, lit aflame and left alone. We had still not lost anyone, which of course was good news.
Pika pulled up next to me and asked for my help. I asked what she needed help with, and she explained.
"That outhouse over there... can you walk me there?" She asked, quite embarrassed. I smiled and agreed. I told her that I don't blame her for taking someone along, as it was now dark and we would have to spend time inside of the mansion for the night.
She apologized anyway.
Once she exited she began walking back with me, continually watching her back.
"I'm glad no one was hurt." I exclamined with a smile.
"Yeah, I'm glad you aren't hurt." Pika said, smiling and pulling a small wrapped up burger out of her backpack. It was kinda cold but she began eating it as if we weren't just about go inside the mansion.
Originally I wanted to ask her why she didn't want to use the inside bathrooms, but I just assumed she was too nervous or polite to use someone else's bathroom.
Pika ran inside first, and waited for me before entering the kitchen and using an available plate to grab some food.
There were people all over the house. Mainly from our group we came with, but with the exception of an older couple who must have lived here and their adult daughter who had long blonde hair.
Someone managed to spill a drink on Instructor Miko and he took that as his opportunity to take his shirt off to impress the couple's daughter. Somehow it worked, but on many of the girls who came with the group as well and he was abruptly swarmed and engulfed by people.
"Wow." Pika said sarcastically.
I looked down at her, half expecting her not to be there and heading to Instructor Miko as well.
"Jian even went over there... geez. Who cares about abs or looks, go for personality people." Pika said quietly.
"Yeah. Going for looks is sad. Who knows, they could be like a... hot murderer?" I said, to which Pika actually burst into laughter, which made me laugh as well.
We all ended up going to bed, with all of the boys in two different huge rooms, and the girls all sharing one room, despite having the option for another, all of them except for Pika, who slept by herself in the other room.
Instructor Miko was separated from the blonde lady and was forced to sleep in one of the boys rooms to make sure nobody did anything in the night. Of course he had to pick a spot on the floor next to me, so I couldn't sneak outside or anything now. He snored quite loudly, and even putting a pillow over my ears didn't drown out the loud snoring. My eyes had to have been bloodshot from how tired I was. I wanted to just crawl over and pluck his thick eyebrows right out. Maybe then he'd wake up and leave.
Besides that thought crossing my mind, I also decided to just roll over and sleep on my side, which worked well enough for me apparently as I fell asleep in minutes.