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After lunch the Elite guards herded my troop towards the train cars, before boarding us on the lavishly decorated train.  Once the guards and the troops settled in the cars, the train lurched forward, before starting in a charging pace toward the Barracks camp, leaving the recruiting station far behind us in the horizon.

Sickness overcame me.  Tears welled as I watched the snow covered countryside dwindle behind me, leaving the old Sora behind. 

Leaving my old home behind me.

Places and local Gather Folk I've grown to love over the span of my lifetime were left in the trading village.  My sisters and their laughter on cold mornings and Nesta's bickering with Denae were merely echoes in the past.  I leave behind things that have shaped me, and am left with a new soul.

The new Sora became a familiar stranger in the last few hours; my features different, my clothes new and flashy, but my soul still contained the same, yet new, cold ice and barbed wire as before.  I wonder how much I will have to kill the old Sora in order to please the Elite bastards.

I try not to think of all the spilled blood.

I instead, focused on tuning out the loud, annoying jabbering of the surrounding men.

While waiting for the train to arrive at our dreaded destination, the cliques of men collaborated around some more wine and succulent foods.  The men told stories, wives tales told throughout the centuries, speaking or rumors they have heard over the past few years about the battlefield and barracks.  Some say they have a whore house located on the outskirts of the camp there for any brave enough to venture out.  I wonder if there are any men there for me now that I have joined the army.  Not that I'm idiotic enough to find out.

After all, I'm trying to just mind my own damn business.  

I do not sit on the soft pillows made of silky material, or touch the luxurious carpets.  I do not associate with any of the hormone driven men that chatter on.  Instead I sit on a small chair, next to a window.  I watch the landscape pass, changing form muddy fields to mountains and dense forest.  How far away from home are the Elite taking me?

Home.  My heart yearns to feel my rickety straw bed beneath my body and to hear my sisters reckless noise.  If only I knew how my sisters are holding up, and if Denae is safe.  Tears gather in the corners of my eyes, and I choke back a sob.  I hope Denae isn't dead.  I hope Nesta is strong enough to carry the family on.  Without her they will surely starve, or worse.

I couldn't think about this, not now.  Instead I focused on the trees zooming by, wishing I could disappear behind this place like the trees do.

*

After enduring about four hours of a boring train ride, the train car finally lurched to a stop.  After agonizingly anticipating our arrival, I felt as if everyone shared the same common spout of regret.  Maybe spending a ride in silence, thinking about our past lives would have been a better way to spend the four hours.  Maybe we should have prayed to the Gods for the sake of our family, or at least for the sake of ourselves.  

Maybe I should have been praying for the Gods to show me the way out of this nightmare.  Not that I would have received an answer.  

If anything about our future certain it is this:  our last regrets would surely haunt us over the next few months.  

It seemed as if every soul on board held their breath, not daring to utter a word.  The Beefy Man from the recruiting station caught my gaze, eyes wide.  Even he, the arrogant want-to-be leader frightened by what the Bastards could do. 

This is how they get their leverage against the human race.  

One.  Two.  Three.  Four.

Four boots crunching, walking around the train car.  No talking echoed in the air.  No other sounds were heard except the ones of menacing boots crunching, circling around our heard.

I stiffen, clutching the cool, slick handle of a dagger.

The boots stopped.  Sweat trailed down my back, making my shirt stuck.  I could hear the world breathing around me.

"Open up!"

The door to the train car slid open, seeming to take a thousand years.  A tall man walked through, wearing nothing nothing but black.  His blonde hair made his red beady eyes creepier.

"Ah, what do we have here boys?" He gestured to the men and boys all around him. "Such fine young men He has chosen!"  He seemed all-too giddy for this solemn meeting.

Red eyes land on me.

His gaze sends a cold chill over my body. His eyes hold questions that I do not obtain answers to; he seems as puzzled as the rest. Red beads of dark crimson hold a predatory menace, and a hint of something darker.

My skin crawls, coated with imaginary bugs and lice. Bile rises in my throat. "And women. Or, would it be more appropriate to say, woman?"

I do not dare respond.

"You are in for a real treat, my dear. He did not choose you for nothing." Red Eyes smiles, rubbing his hands together. "You will be of great use to me." His eyes penetrate me, as if he were searching my cracked and rotting soul for some sort of sign.  The look that rests upon his face makes me want to cringe; as if I were his, and only his.  The way her presents himself shows that he is arrogant and stuck on himself.  Clearly by his styled hair he is sinful and vain.  

He looks at me as if I am a fatty doe and he is a famished wolf, on the prowl for a decent meal. I resist my urge to throw a dagger at his nose.

The temperature in the room seems to rise with each breath I take. My blood boils from rage. How dare he even as much as look at me like I am a toy rather than a person. I will detach every finger from his knuckles if he as much as touches me. He must notice my anger; he laughs, stalking back toward the train door. He gives me a wink, before descending the steps not giving another backwards glance.

He throws two words that seem to shimmer and materialize in the air before they are fully comprehended.

"Fire boys."

Bullets tear through the air. Chaos erupts through the crowd like lava slipping down the trunk of a volcano. The ferocity of panic is enough to shake the train car. Men are diving for cover, betraying brothers and using them as shields. All around me men are dying, bullets ripping through flesh and lodging deep in bones. Blood. Slick, wet, sticky crimson pools on the lavish carpets that cover the floor, staining the patters and embroidered symbols. A pool forms around my boots.

I am too shocked to move.

A familiar voice rings in my ear, making me relive another nightmare. "Oh, but I do love a good scream."

They are all monsters.

A man, wide-eyed and shaking stumbled forward, yelling at me, spraying my face with spit. He shakes my shoulder, yelling so loud a vein pops out in his temple. I cannot understand a single word.

"Run! Run! You're our only hope Sora!"

I cannot move, paralyzed from fear.

A bullet cracks off from a gun, spiraling down the barrel and finding its home in the back of the man's head. Wet, hot, liquid sprays me, going into my mouth and eyes.  My tongue is coated in a coppery skin, and my eyes sting from the contact.  I spit out what blood I could.  The man's eyes bulge out of their sockets, his mouth hanging in a gape from the forgotten words he almost screamed. His body, large and tall, sags forward, falling in a slow collapse until finally resting on me. I lose my balance, stumbling back until my own head connects with a blunt object.

The last thing I see is the smoking barrel of a gun aimed directly at me.

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Posted on January 30, 2017.
Slightly Edited on February 3, 2017, sorry for the errors!

Soooo guys, leave your feedback please! Thank you for reading!! Keep up the good work!! I should edit this sometime tomorrow during class!

1427 words.