The Wastelands

Present Day.

Lilia shifted a little under the old tree beside the courtyard. Lillie was sleeping. Well trying to sleep, an annoyance nearby kept interrupting her. Not with that blowhard on the microphone. No, she wasn't talking about Statson. It was someone much, more…tiring.

Sighing, giving up on sleep. This might be entertaining to watch. Lilia opened her cyan eyes to see a man gathering students for something.

Captain Terrance, he was a big, barrow c.h.e.s.ted mountain of a man. And very hard to ignore. He was also in charge of the Red Sash fraction. He assigned the teams and their missions. Since she was a member of the Blue Sashes, it had nothing to do with her.

'He was more boisterous than usual through.'

'WAIT!! Why is he coming over here? And that look in his eyes. With a sudden jerk of awareness. She was on her feet. Dammit! I am such an idiot, letting 'THAT' slip my mind,' Lilia cursed.

Already knew why it never crossed her mind. Despite how it looked, these days, Lilia was extremely busy. In the past couple of months, she and the other Lumeye were training their butts off under Statson's instructions. Her body ached just thinking about it. Here even made a rule that she couldn't skip classes anymore, so her sleeping schedule reduced by half. What was life coming too?

Quite frankly, her afternoon nap was the only time in ages where she could just relax.

And then there was Rachel, Lilia still didn't how to deal with that. Her being close by brought back memories some good some bad. Avoiding it sounds like a good idea.

'No! No! No!' Lilia shook her head. She can't think about that anything else but the problem in front of her. She needed to get out of sight before he…

"Miss. Spencer, where do you think you're going?" boomed an earth-shattering voice, pain shot threw her very s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e eardrums.

Cursing silently to herself. Lilia looked up to see the captain looking down on her, dwarfing her five foot six height."You know what today is, do you?"

She stayed silent. It was no point in answering, the answer was clear. Captain Terrance's mind was gloating. *Ha, I finally caught her.*

"Today is the start of Initiation Trails, and you're long overdue."

Lillie sighed.

Initiation Trails was a day held once every six months, where newly turned fourteen-year-olds or new students who were fourteen or older had the opportunity to go on a supervised trip into the Wastelands to test their basic survival skills. Students were evaluated to determine if they were going to be placed into the Red Sashes, being assigned to an active-duty team, and working at jobs like scavaging, hunting, and guard-duty. The alternative was the Blue Slashes, which consist of support and specialized occupation. Students had three chances to pass before being absorbed into the Blue Sashes.

Typically, Lillie had been placed in the specialized category. She was a great tracker because of her high musical intelligence but had authority issues. The reason why Lilia hadn't taken the test yet was simple. Due to her telepathic abilities, Lilia had a hard time being near people, so Lilia ditched. Then later, when she had better control, ditching became a habit.

Eventually, by default, Lilia was placed in Blue Slashes, and that was that. If it weren't for one thing, Captain Terrence. For years, he was dogging her every step, saying that the Initiation Trails was mandatory. Making her want to dig her heels even more.

She still didn't want to go. Being close courters with a lot of teenagers wasn't her idea of fun. Lilia shuttered, teenagers had only one thing on their mind, and she didn't want that kind of drama.

Also, there was Captain Terrance, Lillie didn't need to read minds to know that he was going to make this trip very difficult for her.

She was going to make a move; otherwise, he wasn't going to let her out of his sight. She held her hands out in surrender, backing up slowly, trying to get some distance. "You win, I just going to be really quick and get some stuff together. Well than…See you." Turned around to make her escape.

Feeling a hand grabbing onto her shoulder, jarring her to a stop. For a human, the man was frigging strong. "That won't be necessary. Your sister has already packed your things, and already loaded onto the truck." Keeping a hold of her, he began to drag her towards the crowd of students. "Come on, we don't want to be late."

That bastard was enjoying this.

'Damn you, Stella!'

***

Bryson checked in the mirror to make sure not a hair was out of place. He sneered in frustration. "Damn idiot, look what that man did to my hair."

Druid looked up from reading from her tablet, lounging on the bed. "It looks perfectly fine to me."

"Perfectly fine?" he turned towards Druid in outrage, put at his hair. "It's an inch shorter. An inch!"

Druid rolled her eyes. "You're the one who fell in that trap. Your lucky it was just your hair."

"Why would there be a trap there, anyways?" Bryson closed his eyes and visualized the course. Then from memory, he picked up his tablet and drew it down, showing Druid the results. "There were two primary entry points and three secondaries." He pointed from one point to the next. Then he marked a spot and tapped it. "Putting a trap here, nowhere near any of the entry points, is statistically unsound. What was Sergeant Statson thinking?"

Druid studied the drawing for a minute before answering. "Maybe that's actually why he placed it there."

"Nonsense," Bryson huffed out, crossing his arms.

"Your way of thinking is not bad," Druid stated. "But no matter how much you plan for every scenario, you can't predict the unexpected," Druid shrugged her shoulders. "All we can do is adapt."

"Like Lilia?" Bryson replied in disbelief. "That lazy good for nothing. Not to mention reckless."

Druid nodded in agreement. "She's all those things and more, but she knows how to step up and gets things done when it counts."

"Like with Shadow." Bryson gritted his teeth. How he was the first to be taken out was still a sour spot for him. Not to mention that Lilia was the one who saved him and the one who stopped Shadow.

And he did nothing.

Druid studied him a bit before replying. "Yes, like with Shadow." She got up from the bed and grabbed his gloved hand and kissed the back. "But I genuinely believe that our team has the chance to move forward with you and Lilia at the reins,"

He pulled her close. "I rather have you."

"And you do, but I know my limitation, I am best at being the meditator, someone who works behind the scenes." Druid pulled back to look up into Bryson's eyes. "I am a little too much like Shadow to be healthy."

"That's not…"

Druid put up her finger in silence. "To go to any means to get what I want, I have that, just like Shadow." Druid looked away before returning to Bryson's face. "Believe me, if Lilia had the chance to grow up a little, she will be a force to reckon with."

Sighing, Bryson moved away. "I know there's no use arguing about it." Bryson paused his thoughts on Lilia. Something was bothering him. "About Lilia…"

"What about Lilia?" Druid asked.

"Do you think she isn't moving like she used to." Bryson wondered.

Druid stared at him in wonder. "So, you do care."

"No, no, I certainly do not." Bryson denied. "If her performance isn't up to par, then our team suffers."

"Yeah, yeah, keep telling yourself that." Druid teased a little, then she paused, her head turned to the door. "Wait." Knocking resonated.

Druid moved to open the door to find Miss. Andres's stoic face. "The Headmistress would like to see you both in her office."