Dawn's POV

-3 Days Later-

It was the hardest day of special training yet.

Jake had been giving me some of the most improbable situations the past two days, those had many possible answers. But today he was doing scenarios with cause and effect.

"Alright Dawn," Jake said while scribbling on his second almost full page of paper. "You and your team have made it past the initial lookouts. You're all hiding in an alleyway with limited cover and you see a sniper above you on the rooftops. Do you try and sneak around him? Or do you climb up on the roof and take him out?" He questioned me.

I was actually sweating. These were such high intensity situations, and I felt like I was actually leading a squad of people through it. If any of them or myself died, I felt like I would completely fail this cause and effect scenario.

"Uh... I'd tell my squad to hide the best they could in the limited cover, using the shadows as well," I said trying to figure everything out. "I'd then look for the quietest and fastest way up onto the roof and take them out. Then i'd use the roof as my advantage point and look around and scout the area."

Jake nodded at me writing down even more things. "I see," was all that he said.

Rubbing my forehead, I placed my hands on the metal table. The cold feeling really good against my skin. I could feel the sweat start to condense on my back against the backing of the chair I was sitting on. It was intense training today.

"Well the good news Dawn, is that because you climbed onto the roof you saw a scout part coming in from the east. This would've given you and your team an advantage which is good," he said while putting his pencil down and looking at me. "But I think you've been thinking hard enough for the past two hours, we're done for the day."

I nodded thankfully at him. My brain was going to be reduced to mush before I even got to take my final exam.

Standing up from my chair, I walked over to the door and opened it. As I was walking out into the hallway, I heard Jake calling from behind me.

"Oh and very nice job today Dawn," he said with a slight smirk on his face. "You did really well."

Smiling at him I nodded. "Thank you sir!" I said happily.

At least making my brain go into mental overdrive was being appreciated by him.

Letting the door close behind me, I walked down the hall happy that I had the rest of the day off. Opening the door at the end of the hall, I stepped onto the platform in the Crater, and almost ran right into Xavier.

He took a step to the side before giving me a small smile and walking behind me into the hallway. The door slammed shut behind him, and I sighed as I started walking around the platform to the stairs.

The sad look on his face reminded me about the talk we had about Alyson when he got back from training a few days ago. I shook my head as I started walking down the stairs.

Xavier had told me she'd been acting weird, always sad or down on herself instead of the usual cockiness. That she'd told him about weird violent thoughts she'd been having, only to be thinking about something a little happier the next minute.

I stepped down on the ground floor of the Crater and I shook my head again. Why did I care so much? I should be completely against everything that involved Alyson. Maybe it had to do with the fact that Xavier was my friend? Or maybe because I was just too good of a person to hold anything against her.

Walking across the Crater, I walked down into Ground Zero. Xavier had also expressed his concerns about her being suicidal. Hearing that made my stomach drop at the time, and maybe that was the reason I cared. I definitely didn't have anything against her big enough to where I wished her death.

Walking down a hallway I frowned at the ground. If there was a possibility of Alyson being suicidal then i'd surely do what I could to help. I couldn't handle the sadness that was reflecting through Xavier's eyes. It made me sad, and the blue colors all around me look even sadder.

Speaking of blue colors, I stopped walking as I realized the walls around me were painted blue. Looking up, the ceiling wasn't made completely of glass. There were only square patches of it every ten feet or so, with light also coming from candles on the walls.

Looking behind me, I realized I had walked around a curve, and I was in an unknown hallway. Looking ahead of me, I could see a dead end another fifty feet ahead of me. Before the dead end though, I could see four other hallways that broke off of the main one I was currently standing in.

How did I manage to walk down the wrong hallway? I was just trying to head back to my dorm.

Realizing I must've gotten really distracted by my thoughts of Alyson, I looked behind me before looking ahead of me again. I shrugged to myself deciding that I might as well take a look at the four hallways while I was down here.

Who knew if I was supposed to be down here anyways? Or if I was ever going to get another chance to come down it again?

I walked past the first hall to my left, looking down to see that it was pretty short and had two doors opposite each other. I continued walking and peeked around the corner at the second hall that was on my right. It went down some ways, and had one very big black metal door at the end. Not wanting to know what was behind it, I continued walking.

As I continued to walk down the hall, I could smell something burning. It didn't smell like smoke, but It had a weird scent to it. I started to become a little worried, considering it could be a fire and no one else was around to help if that was the case.

I decided that it'd be interesting to find out what the smell was, so I tried to track it down to the source. I followed it down the third hall on to my left, where the smell got increasingly stronger.

I had walked around the corner into that third hall, and I froze almost immediately, scared at what I saw.

Three men were leaning up against the two walls of the hall, conversing about something. I watched as one of the men gave the other two something small and brown from his hand.

Deciding it best not to get caught up in anything, I tried to slowly back up without them noticing.

Unluckily, I managed to step on my other shoe and fall into the wall next to me. One of the men turned towards the noise and gave me a wicked smile once he saw me. The other two looked at me after that giving me the same smile.The one nearest to me then pushed off the wall and started walking towards me, the other two close behind.

I wanted to run away from them, but my senses were somewhat clouded by fear. The cloudiness getting stronger every step they took closer to me.

What had I just walked myself into?

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Hi Everyone! I'm so sorry it's been such a long wait for this chapter. School has taken over the majority of my time, with volleyball taking up all the rest. Yes, I know this chapter is shorter, but the next one will be up in the next day or two. That's a promise! Thank you for waiting so patiently for the update and sticking with this book and still wanting to read it! It's truly amazing.

Thank you so much again for reading! It's amazing that I still have people reading my story this far into it! You guys really are amazing!!

If you enjoyed the chapter please consider giving it a vote! I'd love the motivation to keep on pushing towards the end.

Also don't forget that you can leave me your thoughts or even feedback in the comments! I'd love to get some of that good stuff too!

- Delaney :)