The infirmary enveloped them in an eerie stillness, broken only by the sound of their restless breathing. Wide awake, the five recruits perched on their beds, clutching onto fragments of fleeting memories that provided faint clues to their current predicament.
Among them, Tess's mind raced, grappling with the mention of the enigmatic "bandaged one" that Zino had repeated. Did it refer to the tightly wrapped bandages they had adorned their arms with during training?
Emerging from her deep contemplation, she glanced up, a shiver of terror coursing through her veins as she found her comrades' intense gazes fixated upon her. Their furrowed brows created lines of tension between them, a visual manifestation of their collective concern.
"What?" Tess questioned, her voice trembling slightly. The weight of their gazes bore down upon her, their silence amplifying her anxiety.
Zack, the first to avert his gaze, displayed a rare seriousness, his temple muscles tensing as he clenched his lower jaw. Conflicting emotions surged within them all, the new influx of memories entangled with the bewildering sight of Tess alive before them.
"What?" Tess repeated, her voice growing louder. "Why were you all looking at me like that?"
They understood her confusion, as the events had transpired with alarming swiftness. Yet, what puzzled them beyond comprehension was how Tess now stood there, unscathed, despite being the first among them to meet a tragic demise. Unspoken, this realization hung in the air, while Tess remained oblivious to their unspoken contemplations.
Szedra voiced their shared perplexity. "What does this mean? Are we all sharing the same dream?"
Zack shifted, dangling his legs off the side of the bed, sitting with a newfound posture of determination. "We need to piece together our dreams, starting from the beginning to the end, recalling as much as we can. Maybe this is all a coincidence."
"That's it!" Zino exclaimed, her cheerfulness returning. "Maybe we all watched a scary movie together last night, and that's why we're recalling similar things."
Her statement breathed life back into the room, dissolving their stony expressions into relieved smiles. A spark of hope flickered within them, temporarily dispelling the weight of the unknown.
Szedra's initial relief dissolved, giving way to doubt as she questioned the validity of their movie theory. "But we're in the infirmary. What does a movie have to do with our current situation?"
Tess clenched her teeth and folded her arms, a flicker of frustration crossing her features. "Clearly, this is Sensei's doing. Something must have gone terribly wrong during training. Ever since we passed his ridiculous exam, he's been overhauling our training regimen. I'm sure the man is trying to kill us."
Zack nodded in agreement, his expression mirroring Tess's sentiments.
Szedra's brows furrowed deeper as she posed a crucial question. "If that's the case, why is Lanse here?"
Their collective attention shifted towards Lanse, their confusion mingled with a tinge of envy. He had always excelled in training, making his presence in the infirmary a perplexing anomaly that contradicted their newfound logic.
"Somebody might not be as tough as they appear," Tess interjected, a mischievous smile playing upon her lips. There was a certain satisfaction she derived from needling Lanse, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to seize it.
Lanse's nonchalant demeanor remained unchanged as he retorted, "Well, I hope we didn't all stumble off the edge of a mountain to end up here. That would be quite embarrassing." His piercing red eyes shifted towards Tess, a hint of playful mockery laced within his words.
Tess averted her gaze, regret washing over her for provoking Lanse. She should have known better than to expect anything less than a fiery comeback from him.
"Alright," Zack interjected, breaking the momentary tension as he rubbed his palms together. "So, who's going to share their dream first?"
"It was dark," Lanse blurted out, inching closer to the edge of his bed. Placing a hand beneath his chin, he delved into deep thought. "I remember glowing symbols. They shattered into fragments before vanishing completely. Then I snatched the golden rock just as the cave I was in started to fall above my head."
"I remember that too," Szedra chimed in. "I was following a trail of glowing symbols that appeared above my head. Then they started to shatter after leading me straight to the..." Her eyes widened, and her voice wavered with less certainty. "...the fragment."
Zack interjected with astonishment, "You mean that golden rock was the fragment? The very same ones Sensei instructed us to retrieve during our actual missions?"
"That's absurd. I thought we were just recollecting dreams from a movie we watched," Tess interjected, her voice laced with disbelief.
Zino rubbed her left arm, a growing uneasiness evident in her demeanor. She looked up at Lanse, waiting for him to continue.
"It started raining dust and pebbles," Lanse resumed, his tone tinged with recollection.
Tess gasped, sensing the familiarity of the situation. She knew that was when the radiant lights began to rupture through the ceiling above her.
Lanse's hand instinctively clenched the fabric of his shirt, his eyes squinting as he strained to crystallize the distant memory. "It felt as if the ground beneath my feet was rising into the air," he elucidated.
A shiver ran down Tess's spine as she recalled the peculiar sensation she experienced moments before the roof above her began to crack. "It was as if the tunnel I was in had been buried deep beneath the earth," she revealed. "But then, by some unknown force, it started to rise toward the surface. I rushed for the end of the tunnel when everything came crumbling down on top of me."
"But there wasn't a tunnel," Zino countered, her voice tinged with disagreement. "I remember an opening appearing out of thin air after all the glowing symbols vanished."
Lanse's voice carried a hint of urgency as he added, "The rock I had felt like it was being pulled towards the light. That's when I knew I had to run for it."
The next surge of memory flooded Tess's mind with such vividness that she could almost feel herself transported back to that moment. Dust particles tickled the back of her nose, triggering a cough as she struggled to push herself up from the ground.
The clamor of crumbling rocks gradually subsided, and pebbles rolled off her back, creating a discordant symphony. The swirling dust cloud obscured her vision, making it difficult to see clearly.
"Is everyone alright?" she heard Zack's concerned voice pierce through the haze.
Lanse's voice cut through the air, filled with urgency, "Where's the fragment? I had it just a moment ago."
"There it is!" Zino's voice erupted with excitement before turning into a sharp gasp.
Tess blinked rapidly, her gaze sweeping across the infirmary room once again. She could hardly believe it. They were all there, in her dream, and the mention of the fragment sent a ripple of unease through her.
"What if these memories aren't from a dream but from our first mission?" she pondered aloud as the next set of memories surged forward. The recollections were so potent and well-defined in her mind that she didn't need to close her eyes to recount them to the others.
She glanced up from dusting off her legs to behold the rock lying on the ground, some distance away. No longer clenched tightly in Lanse's hand, it was now more visible and distinct.
Its jagged edges hinted at a larger, broken whole, and its golden surface emitted a mesmerizing glow as it caught the sunlight. Deeply engraved lines traced its sides, ceasing the radiance to reveal their profound depths.
As she peered beyond the golden rock, a startling sight jolted her, causing her to instinctively jump back.
"Wait!" Zack's voice shattered her train of thought. "Don't tell me...this is when you saw them," he emphasized the word 'them,' his voice filled with anticipation.
In silent agreement, they nodded, confirming his question.
"We weren't alone," Szedra murmured in a hushed tone.
The ground beneath them was carpeted with shimmering white gravel, reflecting the intense sunlight that bathed the surroundings. The luminosity was almost blinding after being immersed in darkness for so long.
Unbeknownst to them, the ground continued to ascend, inch by inch, until it reached the same level as the elevated terrain adorned with towering trees. Entranced by the mysterious figures a few feet away, they had momentarily overlooked the shifting ground beneath their feet.
Three figures, cloaked in black, stood before them, an eerie presence in the bright sunlight. One of them, who had been seated with legs folded on the ground, rose to his feet.
Tess's eyes widened in astonishment as she took in the sight of his shockingly light hair, resembling her own. Adding to the unsettling image, his skin had an unnatural gray hue, and his eyes were devoid of color, filled only with deep darkness, with a minuscule white dot in place of the pupil.
No longer feeling like the only freak-show around, Tess couldn't help but find the similarity in their hairstyles even more disturbing. The neatly styled bob cut, falling at a length similar to hers, intensified the uncanny resemblance. Its bright glow from reflecting the sunlight made her wonder if wearing sunglasses would make it easier to gaze upon that disconcerting hair.
The frozen expression etched upon the person's face made it abundantly clear that he was male. His face mirrored the sheer disappointment her math tutor would display when confronted with woeful test results, a look so unimpressed that he might as well have taken a bullet to the head to end it all.
As a black creature perched on the person's left shoulder stirred, Tess couldn't help but feel a shiver of unease creep down her spine. It resembled a bird, with four blood-red eyes that stared ominously, its darkness blending seamlessly with their dark attire. She averted her gaze, only to fixate on the second figure.
This one possessed a head of black hair, neatly cut in a similar bob style that partially obscured the face. Behind the dark strands, she caught a glimpse of something black where the eyes should be, peering out. With the same pallid gray skin, she assumed this figure to be male as well, joining the disconcerting lineup.
The tallest among them stood like a shadowy statue, towering at the height of a door. The hood over his head concealed his face in complete darkness, an oddity in the bright sunlight. Not even the faintest hint of a nose could be discerned. Tess recalled looking down to notice his shadow cast ominously behind him, sending a shiver cascading down her spine, just as it did at that very moment.
The trio of mysterious figures fixated their gaze from a tantalizing distance. Clad in identical black garments that shimmered with an enigmatic sheen, their attire extended the full length of their arms.
Flowing like ethereal dresses, the fabric cascaded down, revealing a long slit at the center of their waist. As the ends of their clothing stirred with the faintest movement, an impenetrable darkness seemed to lurk behind.
Sensing the urgency to escape, Zack proposed their hasty departure, the gravity of the situation weighing heavily upon them.
However, Lanse, determined to retrieve the fragment, made his way towards it with unwavering resolve. "Not without the fragment."
In a mere instant, the hooded figure vanished from his distant vantage point, reappearing with uncanny swiftness behind the golden rock. The sheer speed and otherworldly nature of his movement sent a chill down Lanse's spine, halting him in his tracks, well clear of the mysterious artifact.
A chorus of thousands of deep voices, resonating in eerie unison, emanated from beneath the figure's hood. The sheer force of their words sent shivers rippling through the bodies of Zack, Tess, Szedra, and Zino, causing their brows to furrow with unease and apprehension.
"We merely seek to have a bit of fun with them," the collective voices intoned, their tones reminiscent of an amplified, rusty, haunting engine. "It will all be over before they know it."
The unsettling words hung in the air, leaving an ominous foreboding in their wake, as if plucked straight from the depths of a chilling horror movie.