48 hours after the system tutorial started
Taralyn Lambert was a 22 year old sergeant in the military's psyops unit attached to special operations command. She had been out to eat with her team for her squad leader's birthday when this all started. At first, confusion and disbelief were the competing emotions for her attention, however, it wasn't long until panic and fear tried to dominate her thoughts. But she was trained for this, throughout her whole life she was always in charge and her emotions took a back seat to her goals. At least, until she met Staff Sergeant Konzak, or Eli as he let her call him when there were no officers present. He had this presence about him that drove her hind brain into overdrive, it was like the world around him belonged to him and no one could challenge him.
Sergeant Lambert had not had an easy time at life, a drunk unemployed father and a workaholic nurse mother, she was often alone at home or walking the neighborhood alone. As a teenager she saw other teens going down roads that she didn't think was a good idea, drinking, drugs, older guys. Growing up in a small town in the Appalachian mountains didn't leave teens with a lot of options. She was smart enough even with all those hormones, to realize that if she followed their path, she would end up like her parents with a daughter that she never saw. The military had been her choice as a junior in high school, she signed up and got started on her career and her own life right away. Only a few months out of training she found herself in combat as a radio communications specialist attached to an infantry unit.
Her first combat tour had made her a radio communications star, fixing signal problems and relaying communications with a flare for translating officers orders into workable instructions that her infantry unit could complete. This success had led her to being scouted by psyops, specifically Eli. He had hand picked her to join his team that worked on some of the most insane and high profile secret missions with the CIA and other agencies. At first they did not get along, mainly because she thought she had been picked because the unit did not have a woman and she was one with enough recent accomplishments to round out his team. Over the first 3 months or so, this turned out to not be the case and as she let her guard down around him she started to really notice him.
It was not long until she was in love, completely out of her mind in love with him. More than anyone, even herself, Eli knew how deep her love was for him. She knew he could see it all over her face, she had spent her life putting her goals ahead of any emotional pursuits, always ending relationships before they got too serious. But she wanted him, something in her gut, deep in her soul, told her that he was special, he was someone of significance. That's not why she loved him, but it did make her feel like her emotions were not to be so easily dismissed this time. He never made a move on her, never flirted, never acknowledged her feelings with anything more than his eyes.
When he looked at her, really looked, when their eyes met she could feel his feelings for her. They weren't the same as what she felt and they were buried deep but she could wait until one of them wasn't in the unit anymore so that they could be together. Eli was far too professional to let anything happen while he was her superior. All she did now was pray that he wouldn't let the end of the world stop her chances with him now. And now that she was awake from a small nap where she dreamt of him, Tara was ready to get back at it, this so-called tutorial would not stop him from getting back to him. Her gut feelings had been going haywire since this whole system thing started and she knew this was because of Eli. He didn't ask for it, he probably doesn't want it, but it is because of him, or maybe for him. The feel of magic, its pressure, reminded her of him, like he had it the whole time but just didn't know.
Standing up from her makeshift shelter, Tara walked out to the collective area where others in her tutorial were also living in makeshift camps. Piles of leaves and sticks with branches hanging over them, it wasn't much of a shelter. Most didn't sleep the first night, including Tara, and they were now waking up after just being too tired to not sleep this time. This was the start of the third day and it was probably going to be the same as the previous two days. To leave this phase of the tutorial, the roughly one-thousand people here had to finish a complex obstacle course and then go to the center of the area where an arena sat in the ground like a crater, and defeat the monster there.
Five people have already tried and failed, two of them died and the other three were injured and were going to take another day to recover fully. Everyone got scared after the two deaths and started focusing on learning some of the basic skills at the training stations. This was very basic stuff, the stations had fighting movements, magic, weapons, etc. Some were taking to the change with enthusiasm, it seemed to mostly be those who felt like their old life didn't have much for them or those who wanted a second chance. There were also some who just couldn't cope, they shut down mentally and were borderline catatonic. Tara tried to find a line where she could push herself to, she didn't feel like she could push herself too hard because she was protecting a lot of the younger women.
She had just been a woman who was a little taller and more athletic than most so they just kind of flocked to her without much effort on her part. Being just under six foot tall and having the body of an Olympic athlete with fierce piercing green eyes, they made her the de facto leader. It had only been two days and everyone was still adjusting but her deployments had shown her that even during war in horrible conditions, women were vulnerable. With one thousand people in their walled area, half were women, only 30 or so stayed around Tara, mostly younger and smaller ones. She didn't give them orders or boss them around, but they seemed to take her lead and would do what she did.
Leaving her little area that she claimed, she met up with Stevens closer to the arena. He was someone she trusted having served with him for two years, but her trust had limits and she was being weary.
"Sitrep" Tara said to him with a good morning smile.
"It's split, about a hundred men are working hard to get past this phase. The middle group are trying to learn, but aren't very focused. The bottom of the group just isn't accepting what is happening and think they can ride this out without much effort. As we said earlier, this is a test and the system wants progress. I think you should get your girls to train and get them ready to move on." Stevens said exasperatedly, knowing she wasn't going to do it.
"I'm not going to repeat myself, they are not my girls and I'm not responsible for them. This is scary and they are just clinging to someone they see as strong and safe. What I wanted to know is if you have discovered anything that can help us get past this phase." she said while doing her best to hide her frustration since he knew she didn't like it when he called them her girls.
"Nothing since we talked yesterday, no contact with anyone outside of our one thousand people in our tutorial either. There is a consensus between the hard working men that getting through this phase as fast as possible will be beneficial. We have three things that require leveling and we aren't getting to level any of them here." he said in a sarcastic reporting tone.
They both just looked at each other, she was glaring at him and he was smiling. They both sighed and just tried to stay relaxed, tensions were high and since they didn't know anyone else in this place they both knew they needed each other.
"I'm going to train as much as I can today and go to the arena tomorrow." Tara said. "You can do what you like, you know Konzak is going to be pushing himself hard at this and is probably already pieced together everything and is in the next phase. I will not be left behind!" she said the last part while poking Stevens in the chest with her finger.
"Ok, but I'm not going to be the one to tell him if you die," said Stevens.
"I won't die, I'm going to push through this and be strong enough to…" She trailed off and looked away.
"You are his favorite, we all knew it, don't get yourself killed trying to impress him." he said with some anger in his voice.
"I know I was his favorite, but he is always a closed book, I need something to force him out of his shell." she said while sighing.
"I consider you a friend and I respect Konzak, I do, he is a great leader, but he is a grumpy emotionless asshole. Why are you so stuck on him? Everyone hits on you and tries to get your attention, don't kill yourself trying to get the one guy who can't reciprocate because he doesn't have feelings." exasperation clear on his face and in his voice.
Taralyn Lambert was not a violent person, she was always in control of her emotions and took pride in that most of her life. However, she was stressed and the world had ended, the only thing keeping her from losing her mind was her thoughts of Elias. She glared at him, deep anger in her eyes. She turned her body towards him and grabbed him by the neck and picked him up off the ground by it. He started choking and grabbing her arm but she had more physical stats than he did so it was fruitless.
"I'm only going to say this once so listen, Elias is not what you think. I will become strong and I will find him. Even if I have to burn down the world to get to him, it will happen." Tara said in short choppy words to emphasize all of them. She kept gripping his neck tighter and tighter while talking then let him go.
"There are no rules, there is no law, nothing to stop me. We are done here." she said quietly.
Tara let him go and walked away and started going through the training stations.