We were running through the hills, never knowing what was going to appear before us. It was pitch black, the only way we could see is with our flashlights mounted to our helmets.
"This is our final test, we will know if we pass or if we fail." I was encouraging my team of four including me. "Remember, this test will tell us which squad is the best squad."
We were informed the top five recruits were going to be able to get a special offer, but this offer was deadly.
"I can see the top, we're almost there." I yelled out.
When we reached the top of the mountain, it seemed like we were the first ones there. I looked down the mountain to see if I could locate any other squads. But when I looked I saw no one else.
"Well, well. It seemed like your squad survived, young Arata." Our drill sergeant said. "I wonder if there are anymore out there making there way up here."
Our instructor walked towards the edge of the cliff to look for other squads. After he got to the edge, me and my squad walked towards the edge as well.
"No way." I said. I could see all my squad members faces in shock. "They're all dead."
There was so much blood, so much to where you could smell the blood and taste it in the air. "Out of all 250 recruits that arrived here. We're the only ones remaining?"
"It seems that way." Just based off of the face the instructor was giving, he wasn't surprised that so many died on this final test. "I want all of you to line up in front of the stage."
As we were walking towards the stage, I could see that my other squad members were afraid. Afraid of dying, afraid of being tortured, afraid of the suffering that you will experience while in the military during this time.
My squad lined up in front of the stage as the trainer walked up some stairs on the side of the stage.
"You are the last recruits that have been assigned to me. You are some of the best recruits that have ever come out of this camp. As you know, there is a war going on, we are fighting the whole world. The only allies we have are Japan, Canada, Germany, and Russia. At the moment we are down thousands of troops just after one battle. But with you graduating, you're giving The United Alliance a chance to fight back. You will have two options. You can join the United States Army, or you can join a option that only the top five recruits can join. I can not give you any details on the second option until you decide you want to apply for it."
"Sir, may I ask something?" I asked.
"Affirmative." He replied.
"If we join the second option, will there be any special perks, and is it more dangerous?"
"Yes, you will gain perks. But, I cannot discuss them until you apply. And yes, it is more dangerous." He replied.
"If you would like to join the Army stay where you are. If you want to join the second option, come on stage."
I started walking onto the stage. As I looked back, no one was following behind.
"Recruit Arata, when we get back down to the barracks I'll discuss it more with you. The rest of you will stay in your barracks until I call for you. But for the rest of the day you will be resting in the tents until I say you can leave."
"Yes sir!" All of us yelled.
"Dismissed!"
As we were walking to the tents, one of my squad mates Sakuta came up and hit me on the back.
"What the hell was that for?" I asked in pain.
"You need to toughen up. You're the only one of us who wanted to join that second option. I've been told that you might be working for a secret organization, or something like that."
"Sakuta, did you hit your head?"
"Maybe." He said.
"Well let's get some rest, I have a feeling we both have a long path ahead of us."
"I'm actually going to go train. When we were walking over here, I actually saw a shooting range. So I'm going to practice my aim." I said as I was walking away.
"Alright, just don't get to carried away and stay out all night. If you do the drill sergeant will get mad." Sakuta said as he was climbing into his tent.
I knew that Sakuta wanted what was best for me. We've been friends since we were in junior high. But, when I was talking to him. He seemed scared. Like, he wasn't able to talk to me.
"I need to focus on myself at the moment. If I don't, I could be distracted from my true goal."
The only thing you could hear are gunshots. Multiple gunshots. But, the only person in here is me.
At least, until I heard the door slam open.
"Arata, what the hell are you doing in here! I thought I told you to get some rest." Our instructor said as he was entering.
"Sir, I need to get stronger, better, I must do my best not to get weak and fall behind." I said.
"Kid, your body needs rest. And you're the best recruit I've had in a long time. But the only reason that is... It's that all my past best students, pushed themselves to hard. Destroying their body and soul."
I could tell that he was being honest, he looked directly at me and I could see a tear starting to form in his eyes. "I want you to get some rest, and tomorrow I'll inform you of the option you chose." I started walking away until he called out my name. "Hey Arata, Sakuta has something to tell you."
"Alright." I replied.
As I arrived at the tents I could here my other two squad members, Klien and Maddie talking. "Arata is stupid. Didn't he join to join the army?" Maddie asked Klien.
"Yea, that's at least what he told me." Klien replied. "But for some reason he chose to go with the second option."
"Both of you shut up." I heard Sakuta say. "When Arata comes back I have an announcement to make."
As he said that I walked in. "Klien, Maddie, don't talk bad behind my back."
"Yes sir squad leader." They both replied.
"Sakuta you said you had an announcement?" I asked.
"Yes... I will be going with option two as well." Sakuta stuttered.
"Alright then, We will both go to the drill sergeant tomorrow to get some information about the option."
"I want everyone up bright and early. We will be doing our basic drills as well as our morning briefing. Am I understood?" I said.
"Yes squad leader!" They all replied.
"Then dismissed."
"Rise and shine squad. I'm giving you ten minutes to get ready. Meet me in front of the tent before your time is up." I said.
My squad learned whenever I said rise and shine they better get up or they will be punished. And every time, Sakuta gets punished.
I walked out and saw everyone but Sakuta. "Sir, it's been 20 minutes since you told us to wake up, and Sakuta's not up yep." Klein stated.
"Every time.." I said in misbelief.
I went inside to the tent to see what Sakuta was doing. And he was asleep.
"Sakuta, wake the hell up!" I yelled
"What?" Sakuta said as he was getting up. "Am I late again?" He said as he was yawning.
"Yes. And you have five minutes to get ready. Be even more late and it's an even worst punishment."
"Yes sir." Sakuta said.
As Sakuta left the tent and lined up. Klien and Maddie were glaring at him.
"Today all of you will be punished. If you want someone to blame, blame Sakuta."
They glared at him even harder with a face saying, I'm going to kill you.
"Alright today we will be having our basic routine morning drills, then we will go down the hill, then punishment drills. The the training officer will take over." I announced.
"Am I understood!"
"Yes Sir!" They yelled.
"Then start your drills, let's go." We started running our ten laps, which on the mountain is equivalent to 20 laps on the mountain.
I've always been faster and had more energy. So, I always doubled my drills. "Let's go, I've almost done 30 laps. You should be on you 15th lap!" I yelled.
"Line up!" I commanded. "We will be doing 25 push ups, 25 pull ups, and 25 sit ups. Let's begin."
"What the hell's going on here?" Our drill sergeant asked.
"Sir... We are doing our basic morning drills. We will be doing more then we usually do because Sakuta got up late. After that we were going to do our morning briefing, then we would report to you." I responded.
"Well I need you all down the hill in an hour. Do your extra drills while going down the hill. When you get down do a briefing then report to me."
"Yes sir!" I said while saluting him.
"Your time starts now."
"Move out squad." I commanded.
"Yes mk all responded.
"For your extra drills we will be rushing down the hill." I stated. "Remember, there are still traps on this hill, so be on the lookout."
"Hey Arata. We're being followed." Sakuta stated.
"I'm aware. Squad stop here."
"If you're aware we're being followed then why are we stopping?" Klein asked.
"You'll see." I responded while pulling my pistol out. I aimed my pistol towards the path we just came from and saw a shadow. "I'll give you ten seconds to show yourself or I'll shoot." I demanded.
"Who are you..." The shadow said. "Leave my garden. Leave my mountain... You savage humans." The shadow sounded scared. Like it didn't want us to go towards it.
"I'm moving towards the target." I said as I started walking towards the shadow. "Sir, there's a shadow here... What do we do?" I asked.
"Get out of there now, do not approach the creature." Our instructor said.
"I'm going to kill it." Klein said. "Maddie, you coming with?"
"I guess..." She stuttered.
"Sakuta, stay there." I commanded.
Maddie and Klien ran pass me and in an instant fell to the ground.
"Leave my mountain!"
"Sir, Maddie and Klien disobeyed orders and went towards the shadow. They all of a sudden passed out. What do we do?"
"Stay there, we have reinforcements on the way."
"Why would we need reinforcements?" I asked.
"Well, I can't really discuss it... But, you'll see why in a few minutes."
What reinforcements do we have? Isn't everyone on the front lines? I thought to myself.
But minutes later we heard helicopters flying over us and bushes rumbling. All of a sudden some type of soldiers came rushing out in armor I've never seen.
"Recruit, resume your mission." One of the soldiers said.
We ran as fast as we could down the mountain. But we could here gunshots being fired from behind us.
"Just keep running and don't look back." I said.
"Alright." Sakuta said. "How much time do we have left?"
"We have 5 minutes." I responded. "But we can make it."
With a minute left we were able to make it back to camp. But, our instructor did not look happy.
"Arata, you got two of your men killed. Why's that?"
"They did not follow orders sir."
"So it's what I thought it was." He seemed mad but he tried to hide it. "Both of you get some rest." In three hours I'll be calling you down to my office to discuss the option you chose. Until then dismissed."
Me and Sakuta walked as fast as we could to the barracks. We didn't know what happened on the mountain. But I'll we did know is that we're the last recruits left on this base.
"It's been 5 fucking hours. What's taking the instructor so long?" Sakuta asked.
"He has stuff to do, but just hope we get called down soon."
"Arata, Sakuta, get your asses to my office."
"Did he just call us through the announcements?" Sakuta asked.
"Yep, meaning he's not happy with us." I responded.
As we were walking down the hallway to the instructor's office, I could see Sakuta shaking in his boots.
"Hey Sakuta, we'll be fine, so just calm down."
I opened the door to our instructor's office and he was standing there staring at us.
"Why the hell weren't you here an hour ago?" He asked with a serious tone.
"Sir, you told us to wait for you to come get us. So that's what we did." I responded.
"Alright then. I have called you here to talk about the option you chose. This is your one and only chance to back out. Once I start talking about it you will not be permitted to abandon the option."
"I'm staying in." I said.
"I guess I'm staying as well."
"Alright then. You will be joining a secret organization called the SCP foundation. You will be working as a security guard. Anything that you learn there you are not permitted to tell anyone. That's the only information I'm permitted to say. "That's actually all I know. They won't tell me anything else. Also, I've been told that there training is way tougher then this camps training. So be careful." He looked at us strangely... Like he wasn't telling us the full truth. "Tomorrow you will be graduating from this camp and head to the SCP foundation's guard training facility. So be prepared by mid day."
"Yes sir!" Me and stark yelled.
"Dismissed."
"I'm ready for this." I said to Sakuta. But he doesn't look ready. "Hey Sakuta, calm down. It'll be okay and we'll get through this."
"I know. But am I really cut out for this?"
"You chose to be here, you chose to join the SCP foundation or whatever true hell it's called. I didn't choose that for you, but you still followed me."
"I know that... But you never made friends with anyone but me. You never had anyone you could trust."
"So you pity me?" I asked.
"I used to. But as I got to know you, I actually wanted to be your friend. And I'm glad I did."
"Whatever." I said.
"Same old you."
That night, I had a bad dream, a dream that Sakuta was being brutally murdered by this weird looking creature. Like a statue. It didn't move unless you looked away from it. Everyone around me started to get murdered.
"Ahhh!" I yelled as I woke up from the nightmare. "What the hell was that?" I asked myself.
"Arata, are you okay?" Sakuta asked while looking at me from his bed.
"Ya, just a bad dream." I responded. "Do you know what time it is?"
"Almost time to start getting ready."
"There's no point to going back to bed. I'll just get up and start getting ready now."
"I guess I'll do the same." Sakuta stated.
It took us 8 hours to get ready to be sent to the training facility. We only had 30 minutes to get on the truck before we leave.
"We made it!" Sakuta said in excitement.
"Aren't you happy." I said.
"Well we almost didn't make it. So I'm happy we did."
"Ya true, but..."
"Put your stuff down and line up recruits."
"Yes sir."
We lined up and were waiting for another long speech.
"You have graduated from the camp. Congratulations. I will make this quick, you have passed the recruitment part of basic training. But, since you chose our other option you will be made a cadet for the SCP Security Department. Your truck is over there. Jump in the back and don't worry. They'll take good care of you."
"Yes sir!" We yelled.
"For the last time, dismissed."
We made our way towards the truck and hopped into it. There were no windows and only one door.
"Well, our new journey begins now I guess." Sakuta said.
"Yes it does."