Chapter 009 | 10 years in 1 week

Graham gave me the order to quickly run to the shaft. But he didn't opened the shaft as I normally thought. By simply lifting it. No, he took a piece of paper out of his coat and wrote his name on it. He then left this note on the shaft. After only a few seconds the shaft opened as if by magic. "Type 2 productions Ristic" said Graham, confirming my assumption.

A long ladder could be seen, which ended in what appeared to be nothing. Graham went in first and I followed him straight away. We climbed in the dark for a few moments until I saw warm light below me and softly heard instruments being played. When I got down from the ladder, I couldn't believe my eyes. In front of me was a long stony tunnel, filled with warm light. To my left and right were all kinds of shops and businesses. Families were there, children played catch. Pompous trumpets filled the room with mood. It was a melody of happiness and security.

Graham pulled me out of my fascination as he grabbed my arm and tried to guide me through the crowd.

He pulled me to a man who was standing in front of a large entrance. Practice area B.

This man approached Graham

"Hi, my big one!" He greeted Graham sardonically. I suspect that Graham is of the same rank or even lower rank than him. Because he wouldn't call him that, if they weren't on even ground

"Is training place B free?" Asked Graham him.

,,Yes of course! I and Amy already trained yesterday. Right now, I am only supposed to keep the bookkeeping for the use of this room ''

"Well then, write us in," replied Graham while he was already dragging me through the entrance.

We entered a large room. The ground was hard sand and there was a lot of scaffolding and dummies around us.

"You need to know, Paul, your entry into the recruiting is very late. As you know, it starts next week. Others were already here months ago.

And I should know for a fact, that many of them have also been trained in combat from an early age. You have a disadvantage of about 10 years of combat experience.

But don't worry, I'll teach you the best I can. But you will have to prepare yourself for the most strenuous week of your life, you will reach your limits several times mentally and physically over the next 7 days.

We will make up 10 years of training into 1 week.

Are you ready?''

"Yes!" I said .....

"I'm sorry about what" he replied

"YES!" I said louder .....

He didn't respond. Now I got angry.

"YEEEEESS!" I yelled out of my throat

"Good," said Graham, in the next moment he opened his cloak and broke one of his test tubes on the floor. Without really being able to react, a homunculus formed in a fraction of a second, where the right hand of the artificial human was supposed to be, was instead the edge of a blade.

Without hesitation, the homunculi attacked me. It was a blow from above aimed at my head. I dodged as quickly as I could, still shocked by this attack, I looked in Graham's direction. He just looked flat at me and said:

"Your training starts now"