"No!" I jolted up awake.
My hands were outstretched by pure muscle memories alone.
The room was pure white and the sterile smell reminded me of the hospitals of the past. My arms were bandaged with a clean white cloth.
The incessant buzzing of the fluorescent lights made me feel out of place.
Around me was medical equipment that I hadn't seen in a long time.
I've always hated the sterile medicinal smell. Hospitals and clinics just make me uneasy overall.
I leaped off the bed, and my feet touched the cold white floor tiles. My whole body was covered in scabs that were only starting to heal.
I exited the room, my head filled with confusion.
The corridor was painted white, just like the room I had just come from.
There was a large wolf symbol in the middle with the words "Verdant Canis." underneath it.
"You're out of bed early." A soft voice to my right called out to me.
I slowly turned my head and saw a familiar face. A girl with purple hair tied into a ponytail stood there, pushing a trolley with all sorts of stuff I hardly knew the names of.
"Lila Patel, right?" I muttered, not quite sure of myself.
"That's right." She said as she gave me a small smile. "We meet again, Jake."
"Where am I?"
She smiled again and pointed at the wolf symbol.
"Take a guess."
"Oh right, yeah," I muttered as my cheeks flushed with pink.
Then it hit me.
'Am I in Verdant Canis' headquarters?'
Seeing the look of confusion on my face, Lila then spoke up.
"Mr. Walker told me about what happened. Your team didn't lose since the other team was crazy enough to bring weapons. It was ruled that what they did was foul play so your team won by default. I just wanted to clarify if you were confused."
"Wait, so I passed? I'm now a part of Verdant Canis?" I asked excitedly.
"Yeah, but the initiation is not until the day after tomorrow, so technically you aren't officially one yet, but I think so if that helps," she replied.
After that, we talked a bit more about Verdant Canis and how long she has been here, and she told me that she was raised in the walled city all her life and that she's been helping out since she was little. She then gave me a change of clothes and told me I could go to the cafeteria if I was hungry.
I must have passed by a dozen rooms that all looked the same except for the one, which I assumed belonged to whoever was in charge of this place.
The corridor eventually opened into a huge area with steel tables and chairs all lined up neatly.
There were many familiar faces, like Rain and other recruits.
"Yo, Jake, over here," Noah called out.
Sitting together was Team 5. Robert looked worse than me, but Noah and Will looked unharmed.
I speed walked as fast as I could and pulled up a chair.
"Thank God you guys aren't hurt," I said, breathing out a sigh of relief.
"Stop worrying, man; we all made it safe and sound... except you and Bob, of course. Hehe, sorry about that." Noah said as he ruffled Will's hair. "But hey, this guy is the reason we won."
To which Will smiled a big, toothy idiotic grin.
"You should have seen me, Jake; I ruled out there."
"Yeah, man, you rock Will," Noah added.
Will had opened up more than I imagined. In the short span of a few weeks. Will finally started to come out of his shell. For better or worse, he was becoming more like Noah.
"Right, you mind telling me what happened?" I asked.
"Let me do it," Will said excitedly.
He then proceeded to explain how they found the flag with Noah ad-libbing. Will managed to sneak up behind them and steal the flag without them noticing while I was running away from the slasher maniac in the forest.
"And we won fair and square while the other team cheated," Will said, folding his arms all smug-like.
***
Lunchtime rolled around, and we ate the usual mashed potato and mushroom soup, but with an added egg this time. The cafeteria was now filled with soldiers I'd never seen before.
"So," I said with my face stuffed with mashed potatoes. "What now?" I asked.
Robert remained silent while Will just said that he was going where I was.
Meanwhile, Noah pondered for a moment.
"You know, I kinda miss my parents. I'd like to visit them if I had the chance."
"Right," I said, wolfing down the sunny side egg. "You said you were from the walled city, right? Can't you just go visit them now?"
Noah then looked at me confused and asked.
"What do you mean?"
I swallowed back, washed down the food with a glass of water, and said.
"Aren't we in the city?"
To which Noah facepalmed and said,
"No, Each Walled city has a Verdant Canis built a little ways away. They didn't build a defense force in the city. Although some officers are stationed in the inner walls."
"Oh." I blurted out.
"Do they allow you to leave sometimes or..."
"No, not to my knowledge at least."
Ethan's voice came through the speakers and asked Unit 11 to leave for a supply run in thirty minutes.
The chairs shifted as soldiers got up from their seats. One by one, they started to leave. I managed to catch the attention of one and asked.
"What's a supply run?"
He responded. "Oh, right, you're the unit. The supply run is just as the name suggests. We head back to the city and restock our supplies like food, weapons, and other things." And then added.
"You can come if you want; we're short on manpower, and we could use a helping hand."
Noah and I looked at each other and got up from our seats.
We asked if Will wanted to tag along but he said he wasn't interested. This was weird since he stuck to me like glue before, but I guess he's starting to change, for better or for worse.