It had been 28 days since we were taken into the custody of the military. Powers were treated like garbage by everyone on all levels. The other normal soldiers shunned us and the higher ranking officers gave us the hardest time in training. We were given the worst barracks and the worst food. We had to train for combat and weren’t even given the option at other positions. They just wanted us as weapons of destruction and they were trying to break us.

I obeyed my orders and had to bite my tongue a lot. I couldn’t risk talking back because of the consequence. A man that was captured with us had insulted Captain Beaumont our first day of training and the Captain didn’t even hesitate in pulling out his gun and shooting the poor guy in the eye. I remember that day clearly. We were all standing in a formation and I had glanced back at where Ash was standing. She looked at the scene in horror and had a clear view of what had transpired. Captain Beaumont had noticed I had moved and came over to punch me in the gut for breaking formation. I took everything inside me to restraint myself from attacking the man. I knew it wasn’t worth the risk.

The worst was when the trainers targeted Ash. There were a couple of times Seth held me back before I went off on one of them. Ash took it all without complaint and I was proud of her, but she also didn’t deserve their ridicule. Since she was one of only 10 women out of the 50 trainees, the trainers would also say sexist things to her because they thought it was hilarious. I could see Seth struggling to not say anything as well when it would happen to Ash.

The only part that I looked forward to in the day was an hour before lights out and we got free time in our barracks. Our barrack was basically a giant warehouse filled with bunk beds for 50 of us although we had started with over 70 of us in here. Over time people had either been killed or taken away and never seen again for one reason or another. There was a small section where all the female soldiers were placed in the corner. It’s not like it mattered much though since there any dividers and we all slept in this big open room. Some of the girls even gave up on changing in the bathrooms and would change by their bunk since it saved time. In the beginning that caused some controversy among the dumb men who couldn’t mind their own business. They’d cat call or make comments every time, but eventually it got old and they got tired of it since the girls would ignore it. Those men always pissed me off and I was glad when it had finally stopped.

The communal bathrooms were attached along the western wall and that at least gave us somewhere to have privacy when needed. Everything was gender neutral and there were stalls with toilets in them upon entry. On the opposite wall were the sinks and mirrors were. Then further in were showers and those had even less privacy since the dividers were short and the curtains were almost see through. The women had to get up extra early to shower first since it would definitely be a dangerous situation for them to have to shower with all these men around.

In our free hour I would always go to Ash’s bunk and spend time with her. She had a nice bottom bunk against the south wall and the girl in her top bunk left us alone to chat most of the time so that offered some privacy. Seth would join us as well, but not every night. Everyone knew that Ash, Seth and I were friends which was nice because then Ash was left alone a lot of the time by the other guys. We spent every moment we could together and I would try to help Ash train if it was possible. It seemed like whenever we were forced to be separated that’s when the trainers would berate Ash the most, so I tried to be around her to avoid that.

After setting my bathroom stuff at my bunk I went to Ash’s bunk as I had every night. She was sitting on her bed as usual in the military issued sleepwear we were allowed. I sat across from her cross legged and she smiled at me. I reached out and grabbed her hand wishing we could do more than just hold hands. I was given a stern warning by one of the trainers that public displays of affection were not allowed and any sexual contact was off limits. This was the extent of what we could do, not that I wanted to go much further in a room full of people. It would just be nice to lay down with her and hold her again.

“I have a surprise for you,” Ash smiled to me.

“Oh yeah?” I raised a brow at her as she reached under her pillow and pulled out a snack size bag of mini Oreos. “Oh my god. Where did you get these?”

“Emily talked a trainer into sneaking some snacks in for her and she doesn’t like Oreos so she gave these to me. But you can’t tell anyone,” she said and then discreetly opened them.

I could hardly wait to taste these. We hadn’t had sugar that wasn’t in fruit since coming here. “We really should share with Seth too,” I commented.

Ash took one and then brought it up to my lips. I grabbed her wrist to hold her hand steady so I could eat the Oreo between her fingers. The familiar taste flooded my mouth and I don’t think I had tasted anything more sweet. I let go of her wrist and she ate one herself. She let out a moan in pleasure.

“This is perfect. I’m so glad I waited until I had a PMS craving,” she laughed.

“You’re ridiculous,” I laughed with her.

“I’m sad we only have two days left to do this,” she sighed putting the Oreos down.

“You’re really sad that we are finally leaving this hell hole?” I said sarcastically.

“I’m worried I won’t be in the same squad as you. You excel at everything you do so you’ll probably get placed in a specialized squad within the Scouts.”

“I already arranged to have you in my squad. Seth on the other hand they didn’t want to promise. Remember, I’m the notorious former Contractor?” I was referring to my reputation around here. Over the last month tons of rumors spread about me because I was pulled out of training for several ‘evaluations’. Now, these were not evaluations by any means. I was basically taken to a room where I was tortured for two days until I basically promised to be their loyal dog and take down the Contractors after the national threat of the Reapers got under control. My body shuddered at the memory.

*Flashback*

I had just gotten done with our usual five mile morning run when two soldiers I had never seen before were by one of the trainers at the next station of training I was heading to. They asked me to go with them and I complied, thinking that they were just going to have me do the normal evaluations I heard other people had been going through. It had only been a week since we had started training so they still had a few people to go through. I followed them to another building and into a small room that only had a chair in it with one light.

Panic instantly filled me when I realized what was about to happen. I turned to see if I could escape, but one of the soldiers that had brought me here had his handgun aimed at my head. He ordered me to have a seat and I listened knowing there wasn’t much I could do at this point. Even if I could get out of this situation, the chances of being able to get Seth and Ash out of here were slim and there was no way I could leave them behind.

Once I was in the seat the other soldier tied my wrists and legs to the chair. I couldn’t move and I had no idea why this would be happening to me. I hadn’t made any trouble since getting here.

“Can I ask why I’m being tied up?” I questioned the soldiers.

“We’re just following orders.” That was the whole reply and I could tell I wasn’t going to get any more out of them. I figured they didn’t even know the answer.

The door opened and Captain Beaumont entered the room. I narrowed my eyes at him. He was a heartless man that killed whomever he pleased for the smallest reason. He smirked in a sadistic manner as he approached me. He didn’t say anything at first, opting to greet me with by connected his fist to jaw in a right hook. Pain erupted on the side of my face and I tasted blood in my mouth. I turned to glare at him once again.

“My General wants to make you a deal. If you stay with us and help fight against the Contractors after this mess with these aliens is cleaned up, then we will offer to protect you,” Captain Beaumont stated.

“Protect me from what?” I inquired not understanding. He was the person that was hurting me so what the hell was he talking about the military offering me protection?

“Your Contractor friends want you dead. They know you are here and have put a bounty on your head. It’s only a matter of time before they find you, but if you stick with us we will give you the resources and the men you need to take down the whole organization.”

“I’m not interested in fighting the Contractors,” I snapped. That was the wrong answer. The Captain wasted no time and used his left fist to strike me in the gut. I slumped forward, coughing as the wind rushed out of me. I wasn’t given the chance to talk as the assault continued. Beaumont took pleasure in hitting me over and over again. It wasn’t until my right eye was swollen shut and blood was gushing out of my nose that he offered me the deal again.

“I want Ash and Seth in my squad then. I’ll do whatever you want if that condition can be met,” I groaned out. I was in so much pain and it had been so long since I had been in this type of situation that I had forgotten how painful getting hit by a grown man was. I leaned over and spit out some blood, wincing as pain shot up my side. I would be sore for days after this kind of beating. How would I explain this to Ash?

“I’ll get your answer to that tomorrow. For now enjoy your time here.” He turned to the two soldiers that were still in the room. “Give him only water and no food. We don’t want a former Contractor thinking this is a Hilton Hotel.”

*End Flashback*

The next day I had been released back into the training barrack and I remember Ash being so upset when she saw what had happened to me. I didn’t tell her anything about the deal or why I was taken away and beat up. I didn’t want her to know so I said it was just a random thing that I got picked for to set an example. She seemed to buy that and it took me almost two weeks to heal completely. She sat across from me now, giving me a look of worry.

“How long do you think we will last against the Reapers?” She asked me.

The Reapers were the monsters that appeared a month ago that started killing humans and caused the fall of the border city, Fairview, which was the city we had lived in. The military was able to hold them off for now, but they were only waiting for us to deploy after our one month training program. At least we got a little bit of training considering some of these people never had to be in this kind of situation before. I was thankful for the training because my muscles had gotten slightly weaker from not having to fight to survive for the last year and a half.

“I guess we will see. But I think we have a pretty good chance considering we’ve survived in harsh circumstances before,” I replied. I wanted to give her hope, but in all reality I wasn’t sure how we would fair in this type of war. We were being treated like disposable people so they were planning on sending us to the meteor to investigate where the Reapers were coming from. I don’t think anyone care if we survived or not as long as we could be useful to them they were going to make us their pawns.

“I guess it’ll be alright. Maybe my power will work on them and I can send them loving feeling until I tame them,” she giggled trying to lighten the mood. I wanted nothing more than to hold her in this moment. I could tell she was scared even though she was trying to hide it. I wanted to comfort her and let her know that I planned to protect her with my life.

Instead I gave her my signature goofy grin and said, “If you end up taming one I want to be the first to ride it.”