Dawn's POV

I smiled at how confident Karla was. There were a lot more men here than there were women.

"Nice to meet you Karla. I'm Dawn Duplain," I greeted her.

She nodded and walked back over to the table and picked up her sniper rifle. "So how are you liking it here so far Dawn?" she asked while picking up a small rag.

I walked over and joined her at the table, sitting down in one of the chairs. I thought about everything so far, and I smiled. "It's pretty awesome here," I said truthfully.

She smiled and nodded while she inspected her rifle. I took a moment to take in my surroundings. The room was lit by candles, and on the two sides of the room there were two sets of bunk beds. There were also two doors on the very back wall, which I assumed were closets. Above the closet doors, there were two small windows that were the only source of light for the room, except for the candles.

I looked around a bit more, and saw that there were already people living in this room by the way the beds were slightly messy.

Karla suddenly dropped her rifle on the table causing me to jump. She silently cursed and set the rag down. She turned to me and smiled, and I could see that she was pretty, and she knew it.

Her flame colored hair was slightly curly as it cascaded over her shoulders and stopped at about her chest. Her green eyes looked almost like emeralds, and her cheeks even had a rosy tint to them. I knew that she had to be seventeen like me, or at least close to it.

I smiled back at her, even though I felt self conscious at the moment, I couldn't remember the last time I had looked in a mirror. I bet my straight brown hair was frizzy and my blueish green eyes probably looked dull. Not to mention my features weren't anywhere as defined as hers were.

"Alright," Karla started. "As you may or may not know, Kaiden gave me the job to instruct you on your new life here, and to get you ready for your next two tests."

I smiled at the thought of being busy and having something to do. I couldn't tell you how many days I sat around bored out of my mind in the old apartment.

"So lets start off with the rules," Karla said with a smirk. "First thing tomorrow, you will put on your new clothes and discard of the ones you have on through the garbage shoots. Your new ones are in the closet."

I looked down at my clothes and shrugged. When my eyes came to my locket though, I gave Karla a worried look.

Her eyes came back up from the locket to my own, and she nodded. "You may keep the locket, but you cannot wear it during the next few weeks of training. You'll know when the time is right."

I nodded and sat up straighter in the chair. My stomach was doing flips and twirls in nervousness and excitement.

"What about my knives and gun?" I questioned. I wanted to keep them somehow, they had been through so much with me.

Karla sat still for a moment, thinking. "You may keep them, but they must stay locked up in you're closet at all times. No carrying them around headquarters unless you're told otherwise, and no using them on the other trainees." she finished sternly.

I nodded my head in understanding. I was walking on thin ice here until I proved my loyalty and worth to the gang.

"Secondly, you will be sharing this dorm with three other trainees. You will meet them tomorrow morning. They are doing their first test that you will not be required to do, seeing that you sort of had one of your own. They are all your age, two boys and another girl. I think you have enough common sense to know what is acceptable behavior and what is not." she explained with her eyebrows raised.

I chuckled a little. "Yes, I believe I do."

"Good," she stated as her eyebrows went down. "Thirdly, do you know how your training will work?" she asked.

"No, I was not informed." I replied curious as to how everything was run.

She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. "You will be training for your next two tests. There will be a week of training between each test." she explained. "At the end of the two weeks, counting that you passed your first exam, you will have three days to prepare for your final Exam, which will combine what you learned from the two weeks."

I nodded as I was understanding what she was saying. Two weeks didn't seem like a long time to be training though? Unless it was just for choosing who had what it took to be in the gang.

"There will be several people overseeing your training. Jake, Max, myself, and occasionally Kaiden will show up to a training session to see how things are coming along." she explained. I could see the passion she held for training, it burned in her eyes.

"Your first test will be physical. We will push you to prepare you for that test." she explained with a smirk. "That means your first two weeks of training will be all things, speed, agility, and strength related."

I nodded with a nervous smile. I didn't know what I was capable of, and that frightened me a little. Knowing that what I could do might not be enough.

"If you pass your first test, you will be notified about you next test, and find out what sort of training you will be doing to prepare for it." she explained.

I nodded in understanding and leaned back into my chair to let all this information sink in.

Karla had a thoughtful look on her face as she stared at the door. "What else?.... Oh yeah!" She said as she turned to look at me again. "For trainees, curfew is 1 am, and wake up call is at 6 am."

I raised my eyebrows at that piece of information. Only five hours of sleep every night?

Karla laughed. "Your training starts at 7:30 am on the dot and ends at 7:30 pm with a break for lunch at noon for a half and hour. Once training is over, you are free to do what you please inside headquarters. But all trainees must be in their dorms by 1 am."

I silently smiled not knowing yet if I was going to be the one in bed early, or the one that stays out and almost breaks curfew.

"Along with that, you may not leave headquarters without permission. If you choose to ignore this rule, you will face punishment." Karla said with a serious face.

I frowned and nodded, wondering how often it happened.

Karla smiled as she stood up from her chair. "The bathrooms are down the hall to you right, and between 6 am and 7 am, you have to opportunity to take showers."

My mouth dropped. "Showers? As in you have running water?"

Since the plague there hadn't been anything. No running water, no electricity. I didn't understand how they could have showers or a working bathroom.

Karla starting laughing. "Yes! It's wonderful isn't it? We have huge solar panels up on the roof of the Crater, and we figured out how to use them with some pipes that run to a nearby lake. We use showers between 6 and 7 am, because we want to use the remainder of the energy stored from the day before, so the panels can fully recharge again." She then added. "Kaiden says that once we find more solar panels, we are going to start getting lights working in here!"

I smiled widely and got excited. I couldn't remember the last time I took a shower. I mean, we always found water and hauled buckets up to the apartment to bathe and everything, but a shower is just a whole different story. Then eventually having lights? That's just a miracle.

Karla picked up her rifle and gathered her stuff together. That reminded me of how she saved my skin the other day.

"Karla, I never got to say thanks for shooting that Keaton guy the other day, so thanks." I said with a smile.

She finished gathering up her stuff and smiled at me. "Your welcome, just don't tell anyone else about it."

I nodded knowing exactly what she was talking about. I'd heard that sentence about twenty times today.

Karla turned and started walking towards the door, but stopped and leaned her sniper rifle against the door frame. "I think that's all you need to know for now. You will learn more as you go through your training." She said before taking a pause. "You should get some sleep, It's already around one and your room mates will be back soon. Is there anything else you need right now?" she asked me.

"How do you know what time it is?" I asked as I got up from my chair.

You never knew what time it was unless you could watch the sun or moon in the sky, and there wasn't a clear view of either from most of headquarters.

She smiled as she walked over to the candle that was sitting on the table, as it lit up the room. I don't know how I didn't see it sitting there.

She carefully picked it up and brought it up to eye level. I walked over to get a better look.

"See the nail in the side of the candle?" She asked as she pointed to it.

"Yeah, what about it?" I asked as I studied the nail sticking out the side of the candle.

She set the candle back down on the table and explained. "Every time the candle burns down to a nail an hour goes by and the nail falls out," she gestured to the other five nails on the table. "The candles are lit at seven each night when it gets dark and burn until one, when your curfew is."

My mouth droppedas I thought about how genius the idea was.

"The candle will be replaced each day when you are at training." she explained with a smile.

"That's awesome!" I exclaimed. but then I thought about how many candles they must need.

"Where do all the candles and nails come from?" I questioned as Karla walked back over to the door.

She turned to look at me with a smile. "The Crater was a candle factory, and Ground Zero was a nail distributing factory."

I laughed at how well that worked out.

She slid something into her pocket and smiled at me. "Alright, well I should go now. The bottom bunk on the right side of the room is yours."

I looked at it, and it seemed clean and deprived of use.

"Oh and Dawn," Karla called.

I brought my attention back on her.

"I know about Jake, and what he asked you to do," she said with a knowing look.

My eyes widened as I listened to what she was saying.

"So if it ever becomes stressful, I'm here for you if you need a girl to talk to about it." she finished.

"Thank you Karla," I said with a smile.

She smirked. "Consider me your second friend in The Midnight Mafia."

I gave her a confused look as to how she knew I already had a first one.

She laughed as she picked up her rifle off the floor. "Corvo told me he was your first friend."

I laughed, but I wondered how she knew so quickly. I should've beaten her down here if she was all the way up by Kaiden's office.

She smirked and answered my question as if she could read my mind. "There's more than one way to get around here Dawn. You'll learn soon enough."

With that she opened the door and disappeared into the hall as the door shut behind her, leaving me alone to my dorm and the reality that I was starting my new life in a gang.

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Hi everyone! Things are slowly falling into place for Dawn.

Thank you for reading! I hope you're still enjoying the story!

Please consider giving this chapter a vote if you enjoyed it! and feel free to leave thoughts or feedback in the comments for me!

-Delaney :)