White.
As far as the eye could register, the world in-front of me was stark white. White uniforms, white walls, a white floor, everything was bathed in the same shade that brought such a sense of placidity. It was still nauseating in a sense because the air of this space was rather dank and smelly, pungent to a fault.
I looked around at the people speaking to one another, the noise that blared through my ears being sourced from the white-skinned people and their white clothes. I closed my ears, for but a moment, because it was all too much; they were drowning my thoughts with their incessant conversations.
I wondered, had any of these people experienced loss? Had their loved ones died in their very presence while unable to do a thing? Did these people know how to feel anymore?
'Ahem' I snapped back to reality at the sound of a cough. It was that same man from before.
Tall, with that strange looking physique and abnormal facial features. I honestly believed he had some genetic condition affecting his muscle structure as the man was built weird. Almost like someone tried to sculpt the image of the average person from a picture, but ruined it when they smacked the model. The results of such an attempt at perfection made it look like a shitty Picasso that no sane human would hang on a wall.
"Well, how's it for ya in here?" He spoke, his words seemingly running a hundred miles an hour, and his lips moving even faster than that, "Is the pace of the facility treating you well? Or are ya feeling like leaving? The choice is yours, Dofro. But if you really want that revenge..."
His snarky tone had me clench a fist. It felt as if he was mocking my need for closure. As if the tragedy that happened had absolutely no importance, whatsoever, in his life, or in anybody's else's, for that matter.
I breathed deeply, a shaky breath being released as I shook my head at the tall man and placed an arm across my chest, "It's good. It's good. Just that there's a little too much noise around me, don't think I can concentrate on my thoughts," I started, unsure as to why exactly I felt the need to speak about anything when he clearly didn't give a damn. He only cared about me staying for some reason, why?
"I see! That does tend to happen to the newbies around here. At the ADF headquarters here, we have hundreds of other soldiers just like you, all new recruits." He did something odd: his expression was blank, there wasn't much to pick apart. That's all to say the only reaction he gave me, the most sincere of reactions I'll probably get in all this time.
His deep and gravely voice carried on. "It's the rule here, you will work among many people in close-proximity. Regardless if it'll cause you issues later or not, we won't stop until every single Amalgamate out there has been snuffed, I assume you know this already."
I nodded my head as he kept speaking, his words made sense enough and I would most likely have no reason not to obey them.
"I, ahem..." he trailed off, then spoke with the voice of a madman, his voice fluctuating wildly, and it sent a shiver down my spine. "There is not an absolute way in the history of humans, as to the proper process of training and strengthening... There is might! In the history of humans, there is no death! We live on!"
His loud and crazed outburst caused some other people to give him a look, one of judgement. But as if they were already adjusted to his behavior, they got back to whatever they were doing and paid us no more attention.
That made me curious. But I couldn't speak about anything due to his fast and loud movement.
"Now, Dofro! Follow me! The great colonel Poe has seen potential in you! He could not have possibly been more correct than now!"
Talking about himself in the third person, hm? He was quite eccentric, and that sort of behavior usually has me weary, not this time though. The guy was practically begging me to join him and, I wouldn't lie, it sounded more promising by the second.
Perhaps a taste of some freedom? No more stale coffee, no more hotpot. Something to distract me, the ability to purge the world from that vile monstrosity, the chance at retribution for me and Alice.
After following him through corridors that burnt the increasingly nasty sight of pure, white walls into the forefront of my brain, he walked us both into a room — one that was outfitted in an even nastier shade of white, an odder shade. He pulled the metal, gray doors and let it roll away on its rail.
He walked and stood in the middle of the white-walled room that didn't even have a carpet. It felt weird, unnatural, and unsanitary.
"Welcome, new recruits, to our facility for the freshly birthed. Congratulations, you will never age, never be harmed, and will not feel. Pain, that is. Haha!" His words sounded bizarre, confusing to an extent, but also promising in a sense. Should I feel this way about such claims?
In the room was a different individual with a bald head and golden eyebrows, the bald man's eyes gave off an odd sort of glow, as did his teeth, but at least that wasn't something disturbing.
That... Doesn't mean the other traits on this individual didn't scare the ever-living hell out of me.
He opened his mouth to speak; and I noticed that his tongue was a bloody crimson red that looked wet with blood. Kind of disgusting, not the grossest thing though... Not by a long shot. "Fresh faces. You must've had the choice in the recent past, but I see that you all come with justice. Justice, unlike the others who live a life of lies. Wastes. Leftovers."
Leftovers?! Does this bald, bloody, ugly bastard, think of himself as greater than anyone else? Just what exactly is the matter with this guy?
"You don't want to be an idle civilian, afraid for your life in the presence of the mighty beings? Hm? Then you have no reason not to eat the bullets and claws of this war. Now, do not be afraid. Not anymore. We at the ADF seek to deliver you, the fearful and terrified, an opportunity to flourish, as men and women. Do not be fearful. The amalgamates are our enemy! And to crush them under the might of the soldiers is our goal. Do not be terrified. We will turn your fear into fury. Your cowardice, into courage!" His speech seemed to bring hope to others in this small room, a place whose white and dull walls only seemed to grow even more irritating by the second. "When I see the terror of death, I take from it the scent of life."
That... Was not the line, right? It was in his words that I was somehow drawn and I did not fully understand what sort of powers could grant this man his strong voice. But, perhaps listening now... was best. Right, Dofro, do not have doubts this early on!
The bald and bloody-tongued man kept talking. "There will come a point in your training that you will question what you believe you know, not that it is important, mind you. But remember this! Above all else. You are now one of us, and our will, shall forever, be your command."
...
My 'journey'... One without Alice, a life where I have to be complacent without a beautiful soul like hers... It is only inevitable that I will slowly break into pieces, left to a lifetime of nothing more than a lingering agony... Not the agony that has the impact of a hammer... But a simple, aggravating touch that softly and steadily burns all it comes into contact with.
Even though my soul is wet with tears, my eyes, no longer are a salted water-way. Instead, a dry-warm heat and numbness seem to creep itself through my every vein...
I lived on without the need for air... And now my breath has been replaced by an oxygen machine.
Perhaps this was the life I deserved to lead.
Perhaps the darkness I sowed inside of me, has finally grown itself.
...
After a while of some more scripted and patriotic speeches by the bloody-mouthed fellow and the blonde-haired black man, we were told that we were dismissed and went out to the courtyard for a run.
We were fitted with white coats and jogged, to say it simply. For almost two hours straight.
Not a single moment passed without my vision being blinded by the whiteness around me. The skies too at this moment, were just as white, with a light shining directly on all the white and grayish clothing that we were wearing.
It felt as if this was all to keep us here, that we'd never be able to find an exit, that we were prisoners in a white room, destined to repeat the same tasks and processes every-single-day, each task a carbon copy of the last.
Well... That would've been fine for me. As long as in my heart, I get to turn this seeping bitterness, and sorrow, into pure, and unwavering, vindication.
If my journey will give me a path to the killer of Alice, then so-be-it. This is what I want. This is what I deserve.
As I was thinking about it all, I hadn't noticed the expression I wore on my face until...
"Heya! You have quite the nasty look going on over here! And your sweat stinks more than a pig in the sun, dude! Were you a drunkard before coming here?"
Oh... Someone wanted to talk to me.
I looked over to the side as we were all jogging across this 500 meter area of land and saw a pale white female, her hair was an odd color... Light blue with air vents on the top.
I shook my head at her comments. "You do realize you're also covered in your own sweat, right?" I responded with a slightly, if not really forced humorous tone.
"Watch your mouth, rookie! That's not one way to talk to a woman! So, don't you dare try to use this tone with me! Okay?! That clear?!" I couldn't tell if she was being serious or just joking about the whole thing, but... Her eyes. They were strangely dilated. Perhaps she took whatever she said more seriously than what her tone of speech would lead anyone to believe. "You wouldn't talk to your wife like that! Not like a drunkard like you would even have one, anyways. Ahahahaha!"
She laughed so innocently at something that stung a very fresh wound that I couldn't believe anyone would be this dense, and blatantly so.
How insensitive could one even get?!
Whatever, clear the mind, clear the soul, Dofro.
Clear the pain.
"Say, what's your name? I'm Ootaea! Nice to meet you, new guy!"
The fact that she didn't even notice that her insult struck a nerve had to be because she simply didn't care.
Though, she wouldn't really know, would she?
"Dofro... Stero. The name's Dofro," I told her while taking the deepest breaths of my life; it feels like the very weight upon my soul was dragging my heart down as well. Damn this two hour run!
"Okay! Good luck in this place, new guy. If you don't make it past this run... Well, I will say goodbyeeeeeeeeee! Farewell!" Her taunts only annoyed me at this point. After the interaction, she sped up and ran past me to whoever else seemed like a rookie in here. I suppose a little friendly interaction can serve to improve morale, I guess...
...
Hours passed after that; a whole day's worth. Nothing of note happened.
The run ended and some people were scolded and got 30 extra minutes of running for having stopped halfway through, or something. It didn't affect me but the screams coming from the outside really did tell me that this place was no picnic.
I didn't see Ootaea for a while afterward, and honestly, I was happy for that. I would hate to be bothered twice in the same day by an overly cheerful blue-headed fellow.
And now I was following the blonde haired, blue-eyed black man through another corridor as I could hear several people talking in the rooms that passed by.
"So, Dofro. This will be your designated room with 3 other people. You will all share this one bathroom and sleeping space until you are deemed stable enough to progress into the next level, got it?"
"Yes Sir." Oh to be formal in a military base... Frankly, it felt kind of awesome saying that.
"This will be your pass-key to enter your room. Never lose it, or else you'll find yourself kicked out without the ability to ever come back here." He gave me a keycard that appeared to have the shape of a hologram inside a thin and translucent frame. "And finally," He passed me some files of a very old, yet clearly clean set of white clothing. "This is yours to wear from now on."
After having everything given to me, I was in slightly high hopes, eager almost. To start my life of training and hopefully move on from here.
I passed the keycard over a scanning system that glowed yellow upon the input and opened, revealing inside a... white room.
And...
Ootaea...
God damn it.