Promised to the Alien King

6

This time, I was alone. I could choose to not run at all, but I knew I had to in order to pass those challenges.

After a few minutes of a slow jog, I was tired, but I decided to pick up my pace. I wanted to get to the other side without stopping, just switching between walking and running.

I managed to get halfway with often walk periods, and I felt like I was about to die.

But I kept going, only this time a bit slower. By the time I reached the other side, I was panting heavily. I collapsed onto the ground. I was running for at least 20 minutes now.

“Now, Sane, just get back and you’re done.” I told myself, pausing after each word to take a breath. I rested for another minute before standing up, getting ready to run. I decided to go a bit faster this time, and really run to my limits. It took me five minutes to switch o walking, which was better than last time, since I was running faster now. Still slower than any other people I know, but hey, I was making progress.

I reached the other said in around the same amount of time, since I was already tired from running the second time. Instead of collapsing next to my backpack, I calmed my heavy breathing and picked it up. I decided to go to my dormitory, shower and only then rest.

I walked up the stairs, completely drained of energy. A digital clock on the wall showed that it was 7:09 pm. The others were supposed to arrive around 10pm, so I still had three hours to be all alone.

I found the exit easily, but it led onto the landing area, which wasn’t connected to the other buildings. So I kept walking in search of an exit that would take me into the insides of the walls. I didn’t have to walk far to notice a huge doorway. The doors opened automatically, and I left.

There was a stone path leading to an even bigger stone path, that then branched off into two smaller stone paths. One of them led into a grey building that had a huge sign that read ‘STORAGE’, and the other one was probably the dorms.

It was pretty close, compared to the size of the gym I was in seconds ago. I swiped my bracelet and the door opened. The hallway resembled the one in the common building, but it was a lot more spacious and wider. I saw twenty doors, which led to twenty dormitories. I was in dorm one.

I didn’t have to look to know that dorm one was the first door. The door opened without me needing to swipe, and I entered. I was greeted by a huge living room sort of space. It had countless chairs, some tables and many couches. It was covered with a soft rug. There was a huge screen on one wall, and a round staircase at the side, probably leading to sleeping areas.

I decided to check what the mysterious screen had to offer, and I tapped it once to activate it.

“Welcome to dormitory one! The smart board is currently inactive, please contact the dormitory one supervisors for further instructions!” a robotic voice said as an error message was displayed on the screen, but with no additional information. I guessed something like this would happen, since nobody was expected to be here so early.

I went to the stairs next, and climbed up until I reached another area. It was a small hallway with two doorways- one led to the girls’ dorm, and one led to the boys’ one. I entered the girls’ dorm. There were 75 beds, or at least it said so on the info board at the door. It opened when I got close, and stepped inside.

It was a giant room full of beds. There was about 1,5 metres of space between each one. I instinctively went for a bed in a corner closest to the bathroom door. In the corner, nobody would get in my way and I wouldn’t have as many neighbours. The bathroom door was 4 beds away from the bed I chose. I walked towards it and saw some grey clothes on it. There was a small electronic note, as well, and I picked it up.

‘Welcome to the girls’ dorm one! On the bed, you have two uniforms that you will wear at all times, except for the physical education class and combat class. For that, you were provided with two pairs of training clothes. After you used a pair, wash it in the laundry room located in the bathroom. For any additional information, contact the dormitory supervisors!’, the note read. There weren’t any sleeping clothes provided, so I would have to sleep either in these, or in training clothes. I picked up the uniform- it was a white short-sleeved t-shirt, a light grey formal jacket and lose grey pants. I decided to put it on to test its comfortability.

After a few minutes of wrestling with clothes, they were on me. I put my backpack on the bed and relocated the tiny gun into a pocket of my uniform. There was probably a mirror in the bathroom, so I went there.

There was a whole wall that was just a huge mirror with sinks. Next to the fifteen sinks were soap dispensers, but also toothbrush and paste dispensers. I was glad, since I forgot to bring anything of that sort. But I brought a hair brush! There were two more doors, left and right. The right one lead to the laundry room, and the left one lead to stalls and showers. I entered the laundry room first.

It had several modern washing machines, and I noticed that the longest programme was a 5-minute wash. There was even a 10-second one! The one we had at home needed at least 30 minutes to complete. At the side, there was an underwear dispenser! I was suddenly very glad, since I forgot to bring spare underwear. I walked to it and selected my panties and bra size. I also got a tank top, which was good since there was going to be a lot of physical activity.

I decided it was time for a shower, so I grabbed my new undies and went for the showers.

There were fifteen showers and twenty bathroom stalls. The shower doors were lockable, and I entered one. As I expected, there was a compartment where you put dry clothes in that you could close so it doesn’t get wet. There were also disposable fresh towels. This place was amazing! I wondered how they got the funds for it-but it was obvious. We were going to be the only humans left soon enough.

After finishing an enjoyable shower, I was putting on the uniform jacket. While putting it on, I realised that there was a small pocket at the edge of my sleeve. It was big enough to fit my gun, so I relocated it. This way I could pull it out a lot easier and be a lot more unpredictable. I smiled. This was going well for me so far.

Then I remembered that I should call my parents, so I went back to my bed and took my com. device. No signal. I had a feeling that they either blocked the signal on purpose so we can’t find out our location, or the huge ships above us were disrupting it.

I sighed as I put it down. I tapped my bracelet to see if anything new popped up.

There was my picture, my name and birth date, weight, height and other main characteristics. I tried tapping on things, and when I tapped on the letters ‘qualified’ that were still displayed, a new window popped up.

‘Intelligence and general knowledge: 94%

Instinctive aim: 180%

Sword ability and reflexes: 87%’

Those were the stats displayed, and I was amazed. I did incredibly well on the first test! And my result in aim was truly unbelievable. I was also better than expected at the dodging part.

I checked the time to see that it’s already 8:03 pm, and I was hungry. The captain said that dinner starts at 7:30 pm, so I decided to go get some food.

I ate the same thing I tried eating before. It was really good now that I had an appetite, and I took my time eating. It was 8:30 pm by the time I finished. I was already bored.

I was admiring myself in the bathroom earlier, and I looked pretty good in a uniform. Kind of sexy to be honest, but I really didn’t have a certain boy that I wanted to attract since I was all alone. I looked goofy, yet serious. The uniform brought out my lean body type, making me look stronger and more athletic than I actually was.

I didn’t know what to do anymore, so I decided to shoot targets, and maybe explore other neuran guns. I was excited at the idea. I was doing something I wasn’t supposed to, something that could get me killed- but I didn’t stop.

I reached the gym in a few minutes, and I entered only to see another person there. It was a woman in her twenties, and she seemed to be practising some form of martial arts. She was wearing a grey shirt and grey shorts, but her shirt had a sliver line around her waist, unlike the training clothes I got.

She turned around to face me once she saw me.

“You must be Sane Watson! The incredible marksman, killed seven people on her first day. Well done.” she said. Once she said the sentence involving me killing people, the memories came flooding back once more. Me, completely empty, killing those people. Instead of simply disabling their bikes, I killed them. And I didn’t even give it a second chance.

The woman must have noticed my unease, so she spoke.

“Ah, darling, don’t fret about it! Those people were trying to kill you and captain Michell! He is the leader of this whole thing, and it would all fail if he died! Those people that you killed were the part of a terrorist organization called ‘Stay on Earth’. They were responsible for deaths of hundreds of innocent people. One of the people you killed was high ranking in their organization, and was guilty of leading an attack that resulted in deaths of ten people. They were bad men, cadet Watson.” she said. That unexpectedly made me feel better. She was right- I performed an honourable service by protecting the life of the one-and-only captain of this mission, and I also took down notorious criminals. The weight at my chest lifted, and I could breathe easier, although I still felt a small pang of regret.

“Thank you-“ I said, not knowing how to call this person. She smiled, moving her blonde hair away from her green eyes.

“I am dorm one girls’ combat and physical education instructor, Melanie Jason. You can call me instructor Mel.” she said with a wide smile. I smiled back her- she seemed nice. 

“You probably came here to shoot, didn’t you? I’ll get you a gun, and I’d like to see your abilities.” she said, moving towards the compartments near the ‘Neuran weapons’ one. But she opened a different one, and she pulled out a gun that looked same as the one the captain gave me.

“You need to return it after you finish, and you can only use it if an instructor is around- but there’s always an instructor here, since you are all expected to exercise after class, so don’t worry about that.” she said, throwing me the gun that I barely managed to catch.

She moved towards the same wall that I left a mark in and typed something on the screen. Suddenly, one of the walls moved.