The heavy campus doors groaned as they opened. They saw sunlight spilling across cracked pavement and the silence of a ruined world.
The stench of dried blood and rotting flesh still lingered and carried by the wind and it all smelt thicker in the air now.
Beyond the gate faint growls echoed in the distance. The mutated humans and beasts prowling between the broken cars and overgrown pathways.
Myles turned to the group and spoke in a firm voice. "We will pair up. Each of you stick to one of us. You must start to fight and kill or you die. No exceptions."
He pointed quickly, making the matchups at random.
"Nadine, take the boy. Kade, you're with the woman holding the spear. Victor you take the guy with the crowbar. Ryan, the machete guy and I'll take the other girl."
The new recruits looked uneasy while gripping their makeshift weapons tightly.
Some of them looked trembling and the others stared at the ground as if considering their life choice again.
But under Myles's sharp gaze none of them dared to step back even when they felt like regretting it.
They didn't need to wait long because a low snarl carried across the street as a hunched figure crawled from behind a car. Its skin was gray, ribs pushing out, and jaw unhinged wider than human.
A mutated human was coming while its claws dripped black liquid. Behind it more also came.
"Start now," Myles ordered.
The training began.
Victor pushes the man with the crowbar forward gently when the monsters start getting close.
"Don't freeze and control your mind then swing hard or you'll die. I'm serious."
His words snapped the man into action.
He raised the crowbar awkwardly, missed the first strike, and nearly stumbled.
Victor said to him to move again, grabbed his shoulders, and forced his stance to be firm.
Then together they attack. The man's crowbar caved the monster's temple while Victor's knife drove into its chest.
The man gagged at the sight but Victor smirked. "Good. That's how you fight these monsters."
Nadine knelt beside the teenage boy who clutched the baseball bat so tightly his knuckles went white.
His body shook as the beast staggered toward them.
"Listen," she said sharply. "Eyes on me. Swing when I say and no hesitation. Okay?"
She then darted forward slashing a new knife that she scavenged at the creature's knee.
"Now!"
It staggered and the boy screamed as he swung the bat with all his strength.
The crunch echoed as the skull split, blood splattering across his clothes. His eyes widened, horrified. But Nadine only nodded.
"See? You can kill. Remember that and just keep doing that and you'll be fine."
Kade fought beside the woman with the makeshift spear. Her first thrust trembled and missed the target entirely, almost hitting him instead.
He snapped at her to stop shaking then showed her how to grip the weapon properly and demonstrated with a clean stab through a smaller beast's chest before forcing her forward.
The woman screamed as she thrust again. This time piercing another monster's throat.
She was gasping but her hands steadied and Kade gave a short approving nod.
Ryan trained with the man wielding a rusted machete. His movements eerily calm and detached from the chaos around him.
When a beast lunged he blocked it with his dagger and ordered the man to strike harder.
The man hesitated until Ryan's cold stare forced him forward. With a desperate cry, the machete finally carved into the monster's head, sending blood spraying.
Ryan didn't flinch, only stepping aside and demanding the man do it again.
Myles guided the last of the group, a young woman clinging to her improvised spear like it was the only thing keeping her alive.
Fear locked her legs when a snarling mutated dog crept toward them.
Myles barked at her to move and held her arm and guided her forward. Tears streaked down her face but his unrelenting voice gave her no room to retreat.
If he did not go hard on them they would not become strong fast enough and he was not about to waste time.
With a terrified scream she plunged the spear into the beast's chest.
It thrashed, its jaws snapping inches from her arm before collapsing on the grorund.
Myles pulled the weapon free and forced it back into her grip. He reminded her that her fear may never vanished, but it had to be fought through.
One by one, the monsters were killed. The new recruits stood pale and trembling with bloodied weapons in hand.
Heavy breaths and shaking bodies betrayed their fear, but none of them had turned to flee.
Myles cleaned his black blade and scanned them with sharp eyes. He said to them again and warned that hesitation meant death. They only need to make one mistake for that to happen.
At this point another five of them in the group had awakened their system.
The group pressed forward through the ruins. Myles ordered his other companions to hold the outer perimeter and keep more creatures from overwhelming them while the newly awakened continued their bloody fighting in the middle.
The young man who had once trembled with fear now grinned faintly between gasps. His bat was filled with gore.
The system notification that flickered before his eyes fed the rush inside him.
"This just feels like a game... like leveling up in real time!" But he shoved the thought down, unwilling to say it aloud.
They pushed deeper into the city, past shattered buildings and streets.
This was an unexplored zone for them after the apocalypse and though the danger should have risen Myles noticed something strange.
The monsters grew fewer. His frown deepened.
"Are they being hunted by another group or something else happened...?"
Suddenly a ripple of energy clawed at his perception.
He froze and turned sharply. His eyes locked on a crumbling subway station just a few meters away but its entrance was still open.
A pressure bled out from the shadows. It wasn't the same aura that came from monsters.
Myles narrowed his eyes. "What is that? This energy doesn't feel right."
Without waiting for the others he stepped forward.
The air thickened as he descended the first cracked steps.
At the base where the tunnel stretched, there was a vortex. Black and green energy swirling violently, warping the air around it.
The hairs on his arms rose. His hand instinctively gripped the hilt of his short black blade as he stared at the anomaly.
Something was waiting beyond that vortex.
—