NEW FLESH

CHAPTER FIVE: GOGGLES AND GUNS

SHE could feel the dirt and grime of the days work washing down her body, literal dirt washing off her ankles from when they'd fought earlier, there was dirt sticking to her arms and she quickly realized she would have to use her hand to rub said grime off.

Using the small bit of soap each of them received, she used it to help break away at the dirt that continued to reside along the length of both her arms. When she finished with her shower she grabbed her towel and wrapped it around her.

Once she was dry enough for it to be comfortable she pulled on her undergarments before returning to the main room, she held her set of clothes in one hand setting them down on the bed as she put away the rest of her items. When she finished up she got dressed Josi sitting in front of her waiting to talk.

Most of the boys were taking showers making it quite easy for her to feel comfortable changing in the main room, the few that were left made sure that they looked away or avoided her gaze, Mitch entered the room with only his pants on his hair a wet mess, he quickly turned away at the sight of Margo getting dressed silently cursing his terrible timing.

"Mitch stop acting like a baby, you act as you've never seen a girl getting dressed before" Josi spoke her tone making it sound like she was annoyed, Mitch let out a small sigh before turning around to enter the room, he avoided looking at either of them as he put his belongings away and tugged a shirt on pulling it over his head.

Josi smiled and pointed at his bare chest where a bruise was beginning to form near his abdomen, Margo turned to look the skin slightly red and fading to a light purple, before they could gawk for much longer he'd tugged his shirt completely down so no skin was available for them to look at. Josi mockingly feigned a pout as if she thought he was ashamed that Margo had given him a bruise.

"Can you get your head out from up your ass and maybe stare at someone else?" he suggested, Josi's mouth slightly opened and she shared a look with Margo as she finished pulling her pants on, she stood up taking slow measured steps towards Mitch, "what did you just say to me?" she questioned, Mitch furrowed his eyebrows knowing she'd heard him, "I said, can you get your head-" he was cut off by Josi's fist colliding with his face.

He stumbled backward having been caught off guard by the attack, he gave her a confused look almost asking her why she'd punched him, before he could even think about actually asking her she punched him again, he ducked her next swing before she lunged at him.

The two sprawled out on the floor Josi relentlessly hitting him, Margo watched on it fascination as to how the fight would end, eventually, Mitch ended up punching her back, that was when Josi went off, it was like some switch in her had flipped, like she'd lost any sense of control.

After a few seconds longer Margo quickly realized where the fight was heading, she rushed to the middle of the room quickly grabbing Josi around the waist and dragging her off of him, they toppled onto the floor Stan rushing into the barracks moments later with Eric hot on his tail, he'd disappeared to go get Stan.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN HERE!?" he yelled, Mitch slowly sat up reaching his hand to his face to check for blood, sure enough, there was.

Stan eyed Mitch before glancing to Josi, "she did this?" he questioned, Margo slowly nodded her head knowing that lying would get her into the same boat as Josi, "Eric and I'll take her back to the house" he pointed at Margo before continuing, "help get him cleaned up and make sure everyone's in bed before lights out, you understand me?" she nodded her head releasing her grip on Josi as Stan and Eric took over.

Eric offered her his hand helping pull her to her feet, Mitch was standing now watching as the two of them took her away and out of sight, Margo took a few steps past him gesturing for him to follow her into the bathroom, once they were inside she sat him down on the toilet- the seat closed- and pulled out one of the first aid kits. She spread the contents out in front of her looking for what she needed, she pulled out an alcohol wipe along with a bandage and a few other things like pieces of tissue.

She dabbed at the blood leaking from his nose and the blood running from the cut in his lip, using the alcohol wipe she proceeded to clean the cut on his lip Josi had inflicted before wiping off his cheek and placing the small band-aid over the open flesh.

She threw away the trash and packed the first aid kit back into its bag before she set it back on its rightful shelf, "you should be more careful with the words you use around Josi, if I hadn't stepped in I would bet she'd have killed you right there without a second thought" she spoke trying to ease the tension in the cold room.

Mitch softly nodded his head as if he was only half-listening.

She didn't bother trying to add anything else to her statement and instead turned away from him to begin heading for the door, "thanks, for pulling her off of me" he spoke, his voice sent chills down her spine- she didn't make it obvious- instead of replying she silently left the bathroom heading back into the main room of the barracks to climb into bed, she fumbled through the dark searching for her own before she felt her boots on the floor and knew she had finally found it.

She could tell everyone else was in their beds as well the sound of light and heavy breathing alike filling the air with something she could only describe as calming, moments later, Mitch slipped out of the bathroom and headed to his bed almost tripping over his own feet through the dark.

Margo let her eyes close thinking that maybe tonight would be different, maybe she would get some sleep; she didn't. The next morning they were woken up with the volatile yelling of both instructors both Stan and the other- whose name she'd yet to try and remember- showed no care as to how close they got.

"GET DRESSED NOW!" Stan yelled, a few seconds after Stans yelling had ceased Eric made an appearance.

"Training in ten minutes, we're heading to the facility for this one" he stated, the others exchanged a quick look of what would be identified as confusion in most cases, something they saw almost every day.

Without much hesitation they all climbed out of their beds or stood up from where they'd been conversating and moved to leave, Margo brushed of her hands before following behind a few of the others, Josi filed in beside her with Josh and Mitch taking up the rear with a few others.

Having already been exposed to the bright light of the day from earlier when they'd waken up it didn't entirely leave them groaning at the inability to see for a few moments, they had three SUVs parked outside the house, Margo figured that was what they were being transferred to the facility in. Most of them went quietly and without any arguments in between.

Most.

Josh was the first one to cause an issue his idea of jokes almost earning him a slap across the face from Stan himself before he roughly shooed him into the car. Margo let Josi go ahead of her the girl almost surprised when Mitch handed her a set of keys and pointed to the front seat.

"You're driving them" he spoke, she restrained a smile and nodded her head before going around the side of the car to the driver's seat and slipping inside, the others had already piled into the other two SUVs leaving Margo to enter the slightly crowded vehicle.

She climbed into the back seat immediately noticing Mitch and Josh were seated in the row in front of her, she knew once she started Josh would join in on whatever remarks she made towards Mitch, therefore causing a spiral of somewhat controllable chaos within the vehicle.

As soon as the first vehicle began down the drive they followed behind Stan- he was driving the first vehicle in the small line of three they'd created, Margo let out a sigh, "so, what's the deal with everyone today? Are we just not in a shooting type of mood?" she began, Josh grinning at her question glanced over the top of his seat to meet her gaze, he raised an eyebrow, "I dunno, I'd be down to shoot Rapp", at the mention of his name, Mitch turned his head to look at the younger boy as if he was sizing him up.

He let out a sigh and turned away again to face ahead of him, Josh nudged his shoulder, it was almost as if he had twisted some deep hatred within the man, he leaned towards the boy his presence being the only intimidation he needed to scare him off. Margo let out a highly exaggerated sigh, "well I guess we know how Bitchy Mitchy feels now" she leaned back into her seat watching the green scenery as they drove.

She could feel the tension settling in the atmosphere of the car- unlike the others, she was perfectly fine with it and even enjoyed it at most times due to the fact it left people off guard- she could also smell someones cheap cologne, the scent more than likely belonging to Josh.

It wasn't too long after the entire exchange that they arrived at the facility to begin the training facility. Once Josi had parked and turned the car off they climbed out one by one through the two different doors the majority of them staying silent, Mitch letting out a quiet grumble on his way out with Margo on his tail.

Stan was waiting for them at the entrance to the building already talking to the other recruits and members of the team, "we'll be heading down to the basement for today's exercise, is that understood?" he questioned, plenty of "yes sirs" could be heard from throughout the group before they headed into the building and past the front desk to the elevator, it took two trips for the entire group to arrive in the basement the elevator being a tight fit for both rides.

When they stepped out onto the floor they could see at one end of the spacious room that there was an area set up for where Stan, Eric, and a few others would be seated to monitor their results and the entire exercise, he gestured to the area, "there are two containers of the headsets and guns over there, Josh go grab them", his face paled at the mention of his name before he hesitantly headed over to the computer set up disappearing behind it for a few seconds before he popped back into view with two boxes stacked high in his arms.

Wobbling as he went, he set the boxes down with a loud thud by Stan's feet before he returned to his spot in the middle of the group, Josi's eyes followed him before Stan's voice drew her attention back to the front, "you're each going to put on a pair of the headsets and you're going to grab one of the guns" he stated, one by one they equipped themselves with said materials.

One by one Eric and the two instructors- including Stan- went around suiting them all up in AR sensory shockers, they would soon realize the purpose of said technology.

Margo slid her headset over her eyes Josi following the motion as everyone else seemed to just be holding them in their hands.

Margo and Josi watched as the others slid their headsets, Eric and Stan made their way across the room to the area Josh had retrieved the guns from, they sat down in front of their computers and clicked a few things before the reel of people began to flash before their eyes, Margo stayed silent letting her eyes absorb the images like a sponge, she could hear someone let out a groan as if the flashing was bothering them, she wondered who it was.

"These are your targets. Memorize them. It's your responsibility to be able to identify them. Shoot a combatant, you get a point" he paused, "you miss, you get a shock, you shoot a non-combatant, you get a bigger shock, combatant shoots you... let's just say you're gonna feel it" he explained a grin making its way onto his lips.

It was only thirty seconds before the flashing of images ended "ready?" Stan called out, no one responded, "go" he called out.

They began moving around their headsets somewhat like a VR headset, it projected people in their vision making the whole exercise mind churning. Maneuvering through the people in front of her- real and projected- she looked for any of her targets, coming up behind Josh, she shot the first one almost relieved when no pulse of electricity shocked her.

She could hear a few other shots and some groans as the others realized they'd shot the wrong target, the groans only increased in volume leaving Margo and the few others that had yet to been shocked how much they had actually studied the images.

Droning out the world she focused on eliminating each of her targets one by one, each time making sure that the job was complete and that they wouldn't be getting back up to fight.

Mitch wasn't too far off from her listening as another recruit let out a loud groan and chucked his gun at the floor in frustration, Stan and Eric both watched from their screens as Margo and Mitch cleared through the floor still searching for their targets, Stan's fingers danced across the keyboard as he clicked on Margo's stats, "what are you doing?" Eric asked, Stan, pointed at the screen, "flash Rapps image across her headset, make him her last target", Eric furrowed his eyebrows as if he wanted an explanation.

"Do it, now, that's an order" he spoke his voice stern with authority, Eric simply nodded in response before clicking a few things on his computer screen, he typed in a few words and they watched the screen as Margo slightly paused her movements the image flashing across her headset, she glanced around looking for him, "now put her across his headset" he added, Eric did this and they watched on in curiosity as Mitch looked for her.

Coming from behind she put a single bullet through his head, "shock him, now, turn the voltage up for this one" he spoke, Eric turned the voltage up as he'd been told and sent through the command to shock Mitch, his body went into a seizing motion as he fought to stay standing, Margo pulled her headset off and made her way past Mitch as he continued to attempt to remain standing, she crossed the room sidling up beside Stans computer to return her headset and gun to their rightful boxes.

"Good job" Stan sighed, he watched Mitchs seize like movements on the screen leaning back in his chair as he did so, "why'd you add him to my list?" she asked, he shook his head, "to see if you'd kill him or not" he replied slipping his headset onto his desk.

He gave Eric a nod- telling him to turn off the shock- they watched as Mitch slid off his headset and let out a breathy pant, he was glaring at Margo and Stan, he didn't say anything and instead stood up despite the pain that was eating away at his insides.

NEW FLESH

CHAPTER FIVE: GOGGLES AND GUNS