Battle Strong by Elizabeth McCready (the ebook reader txt) 📖

been working at it my entire life. If I can survive my father, I can handle anything out there. Trust me." The door opened again, Beth's mother appeared holding a silver spoon with peanut butter followed by Willow, the family dog.

"Hi, Emylee," She shifted her eyes to Beth, "It's time, peach."

Beth stashed her final items into her bag, and giving Emylee one last smirk, she walked out the door.

*~*

When Beth reached the exam room, her heart began to beat out her chest so fast it was as though she had just been running for hundreds of miles. For so long she'd been buried deep within the boundaries of her comfort zone, and now, on her sixteenth birthday all of that would change. The man guiding her asked her to stand in front of a shiny silver door,

"You will be given only a flashlight, the first part of your exam will be to test you on your instincts and general intelligence in low-stress situations, however there will be no battle. You will need to avoid being caught by a group of watchmen and turn on the power generator once you have successfully located it. Once you activate the generator, you will be delivered back to this location for further instruction. There will be absolutely no violence to avoid capture and no combat in this round. Do you have any questions?"

"No."

"Good luck." The rustic man pressed a button on his tablet and a voice expelling from an overhead intercom counted down from three. When the robotic voice got to one, a sliding plate in the wall opened, displaying a flashlight held in a display made of glass. Taking the flashlight in her hand, Beth quickly shuffled into the room, closing the door behind her to avoid light being let in. In the darkness of the room, she found it difficult to decipher any shapes, however she felt as though using the flashlight wasn't wise. She knelt down and touched the ground. Grass. Aerilde simulation, oh what a pleasant surprise, she smiled through her thoughts. Beth remembered her first Aerilde, she was in her second year of camp, it had forced her to choose between Ander and herself. The Aerilde's system operates to control thoughts and alter one's senses to force them to believe in the circumstances by seeing and feeling them.

She closed her eyes and listened for any footsteps. To her left, she could hear footsteps, silence from all other directions. She sauntered forward cautiously, slightly crouched to prevent being seen. Her eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness, around her were many bushes and trees. They were slightly overgrown which was awfully peculiar, yet realistic. The footsteps grew louder and faster, and she could see a flashlight in the distance. Beth stealthily ran to a nearby tree, leaping to grasp the lowest branch and hoisting herself up with feline grace, from that low branch she climbed high enough to avoid detection. She looked down upon the watchman, whom had stopped to look around, then continued to run in search of her. She hopped down from the tree limb and rolled into a sprint in the direction from which he came.

Once she got to the grove of bushes he had come through, she crouched down and listened for the buzzing of the generator, and heard the faint noise coming from the direction the watchman had come from. She slowly approached the area in which she heard the buzzing. There it was, guarded by a single watchman. She observed him as he surveyed the area. Beth felt the ground around her for debris to use as a distraction. Nothing, not a single stick or stone. She checked her pockets, bingo. She took the flashlight from her pocket and threw it as far as she could from the generator. As planned, the gullible watchman sprinted in the direction of the decoy. Beth ran to the generator and flipped the switch disabling the simulation, leaving revealing a bright grey room.

"Please exit." The intercom repeated three times. Beth moved to the door out of which she had entered to find the same middle-age man accompanied by familiar a woman in business attire.

"Ellyzibeth, dear, you never cease to amaze us." The woman said flashing a smile at Beth.

"Maybe you should upgrade your system instead of stalking me, that was pathetic, Laila." The olive-skinned woman raised an accusing brow to Beth. 

"Maybe you should respect those who are deciding your future, miss."

"As if." Beth scoffed, after all it was her spunk they seemed to admire, "And I told you never to call me Ellyzibeth."

"Now, if you will follow me." The man began to walk and as Beth did, Laila followed. "You're next exam will be to test your fighting capabilities, you will have five minutes to defeat your opponent using only one of the weapons offered to you. The rules, however, state that you may enter empty handed and disarm your opponent which most figure you will do. I, as strongly noted as you may take, do not suggest it."

"No offense, but I don't care for suggestions given to me by people like you."

"Very well, do you have any questions?" He asked.

"Why would I?" she sighed slightly agitated at the repeated question. 

"Good luck." Beth entered the room empty handed, making it a point to do exactly as the man had said not to do. The room was all white and the floor was matted, making it easier on her body to jump. A boy came out, Beth thought him to be about her age, if not older. He bore a long wooden pole, and walked around her in a circle as if she were his prey.

Now, you always want to wait on your opponents first move, see their routine. If not you've given yourself away and you can almost always count on losing. Do not forget your follow through. She heard Ander's voice say in her head. She closed her eyes, gaining her focus to put the best effort possible into this fight. As she opened her eyes, the boy got into a battle position that she could not seem to recognize. He stepped forward swinging his weapon at Beth. She watched his movements, he did this two more times each displaying a different move with the wooden pole. The next step he took, Beth rolled to the left and dodged his strike. He turned to her and lunged forward, a look and sense of confusion fused with anger rushed over him. It was such a strong emotion that she could feel it as if it were radiating off of his body in large beams. She had the notion this boy had not been outsmarted often. Beth, with a taunting glare, used his cocky mentality to her own advantage, she started to mock him with facial expressions and over exaggerated body language.

Might as well make this fun for myself, Beth thought. The boy was outraged by her despicable behavior, she herself was annoyed by her own absurd level of immaturity, but she didn't mind at all if it meant being in the Twelve. Suddenly, he was increasing his fluidity and speed, he went for a wide swing at her head. Being so small she was able to roll between his legs and kicked him in the back, he had finally made his mistake. He spun around, stepping first before he tried to strike her, as the pole barely missed her head he started to prepare for more moves. Beth leaped into the air kicking the stick from his hands.

As the weapon flew, the boy's eyes remained after it, Beth swept his legs out from under him with her own and cracked her right arm across his shoulders, knocking him out. Behind her, the door once again opened, and there stood Laila, clapping as much as possible, like usual. Beth had quit her team at base when she was fourteen, and from that day forward Laila was in an ever to persistent battle to get her back. She hadn't missed a single one of her evaluations since that day. Odd to the world, supportive in her mind. The man stood in front of her, staring at his tablet. Beth walked to them calmly, and the man looked up from his device.

"Well done, your final exam will be simple target practice with throwing knives and a traditional curve bow. No aiming at humans. Any-"

"Still no."

"Good luck." She found it awfully annoying that the end to all of her exchanges with the peculiar man were the same, but in the end she supposed it didn't matter much. Beth made her way into the room which was split into three compartments for three exam sessions to occupy. Each of the compartments were separated by tinted doubled glass. To her left, Beth saw a table that held each of the weapons. She decided to start with the knives, most kids her age had never even held a weapon like this, and she handled them as though they were toys. Beth held and inspected the blades, aiming and throwing at each target, some closer to the bulls-eye than others. After finishing her last throw, Beth took out the bow and quiver of arrows, her usual weapon of choice. With that bow she was allowed a total of 25 arrows and lodged all but three perfectly within the bulls-eye.

"Congratulations, miss Donoway, you have completed all three rounds of exams with a near perfect score. You will be placed in Battle Base A1, eleven of our most experienced students will accompany you and be gifted with the title, until circumstance should change, The Twelve. The Twelve will be the young leaders of all troops. But few, if any, will survive. Be prepared for what you will face, young lady. As we have seen, you have previously viewed this all as a waste of time, these others who will be with you at your camp have been working at this without room for error. Do not get yourself killed, dear. Good luck." The woman said over the intercom. Suddenly a door opened, two men entered and escorted Beth from the room, taking her to a bus. Her belongings were already loaded as if they knew where she would be placed all along.

The bus was cold, dimly lit, and had a musty smell to it. The smell reminded her of moth balls, the ones she'd find hidden in the clothes she had stored in the attic when they went out of season. Although the bus seemed clean from the seat she had chosen, she wasn't about to go searching for the source of the smell. She took a glance of the driver, a middle-aged man wearing a captains hat and suit. His suit had strange decorations setting on the chest and shoulder regions. She was unsure what they meant, probably some indicator of rank and status from whatever bus driving troop he was a part of. Beth looked at the man a long second before deciding that he was likely the source of the smell. The bus started to move beneath her making the most unforgiving noises.

This thing might just fall apart beneath me, I might die before I even go to war.  Beth thought to herself as she wondered how long it had been since this bus had been used last. Beth had always wanted to be apart of the troop, they had extraordinary histories. However, the last group wasn't fated to be. They had been assigned to a mission outside of the country when an enemy team ambushed them and killed them all.

It had been all over the papers and the Quill Santione for weeks, the remaining troops were still trying to figure out the details of what had happened that day. All anyone really knew was that they had died. The Quill had never gotten enough of the children like Beth, the idea of young people leading the nation was the best idea the country had ever